On-line campaigning: Some opinions

I have referred to on-line campaigning before except it discussed the downsides of such activity. See previous posting for more details.

Today I'd just like to comment on a survey done by LabourStart, which looks at what the organization has to learn from a series of successful on-line campaigns. For example, LabourStart has campaigned against the brutal treatment of union activist all around the world and had a high degree of success.

According to LabourStart, a survey of 1,441 respondents revealed the following attitudes to on-line campaigning:

* Unions are not doing a good enough job with online campaigning.

* Fewer than 20 per cent of you told us that you're being asked to participate in such campaigns "too frequently".

* Over 80 per cent of you showed a true internationalist spirit by answering "false" to this question: "I am more likely to respond to a campaign if it focuses on workers in my country." Global corporations - take note. As far as worker's rights go, there are no borders.

* And over 91 per cent of you are encouraged to take part in campaigns when we report on victories -- something which should be noted by every campaigning organization and every union.


Now this needn't be read off as being a blog about union activity. In other words, if a movement that struggles to gain the recognition that it deserves can influence big businesses and even governments, then on-line campaigning needs to be taken very seriously by any political group with serious intentions. Having said that, there is a sense that having a strong basis for co-ordinating campaigns is a must and not all organizations could manage that.

Details of the survey can be found here if the story interests you.

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