Organising Abroad

[Chris Stewart]

Hi All,

I was reading Al's blog during the election season, I'm an Australian citizen who works for the Australian Labor Party, a progressive (ish) social democratic party.

I'm really interested in the mechanics of the Obama campaign, because we have a similar task of organisation in Australia, and the base of the Australian political ground game is getting older and more apathetic.

Anyway, thought I'd say hi to try and start a conversation about how some of the Obama techniques could translate to a different political context.

Cheers,

Chris

[Nancy in B.C.]

Hi Chris,
Chris, I've also been reading the FIeld since January, and I'm having the same kind of thoughts about politics here in Canada (see my comment in today's November 6 post, "the Field is a bit quiet...").
If this whole election were just about the Obama movement in the US it would be interesting and thrilling to watch--and it has been--but not relevant to our experiences in other grassroots-involvement-challenged democracies like Canada and, it sounds like, Australia. I don't work for any political party at present, though I was active within the Green Party of BC in the 80s. The Left/Liberal political spectrum in Canada consists of several parties which typically take up to two thirds of the vote but in recent years have tended to split it and let the right-wing party come up the middle to win the elections. So there seems little realistic choice about successfully challenging the Right until we change our system to some sort of proportional voting system, except in Municipal/City races where parties don't exist.
Some sort of forum to discuss strategies and goals here would be terrific, and I'd love to help create one. I figure I'll start by telling some politically-minded people I know about the Field's organizing initiative of tonight. The example set by the Obama campaign in using the Internet and organizing from the ground up is one that needs to be followed beyond the United States.