Dispatch 10/07/24: Reimagining Leftist Coalitions, Alliances, and Economy

At just nearly 8pm this past Sunday night, the tens of thousands of Parisians gathered outdoors at Republique let out a cry of pure astonished joy – and relief. Republique has historically been France’s gathering point for Republican political activity – from protesting against the bourgeois elite in the 18th century to anarchist organizing in the 19th century to the most recent waves of demonstrations against institutional racism in France and President Macron’s latest policy to roll back the age for pensioners. The iconic statue was covered with young Parisians of all colors and backgrounds who had climbed it, waving Palestinian flags and antifascist signs, and proudly displayed banners that read “France is made up of migrations” and “Love will triumph”.

The New Popular Left (NFP), a hastily cobbled together leftist alliance, had just won 188 seats in Parliament in a stunning surprise victory, dashing millions of people’s fear that the far right National Rally (RN) would take the majority, after polling at more than 30% last month. This was the upset that nobody had realized could happen, but also an incredible contrast to the far right polling that had taken place in the first round of elections. Simply put, everyone from the French communists to the business friendly centrists (read: neoliberals) put aside their differences in the span of a week to consolidate candidacies and delivered a crushing blow to the extreme right.

While the leftist alliance of four political parties may have been a practical solution to swaying centrists and center-left voters, they do have a concrete economic plan and certain messages that are resonating with people. Through this, we can glean together concrete strategies, narrative, and tactics that may be inspiring for growing people power for a progressive, inclusive, and just future for people and the planet around the world. 

The detailed NFP economic manifesto was launched last month with great detail, and credibly addresses how to finance a strategy of inclusive investment and its vision for cutting emissions and investing in people. The NFP is campaigning based on a substantial increase in the minimum wage, wages indexed to prices and free school lunches. Most importantly the NFP wants to prioritize investment in the future by increasing public spending on infrastructure, health, education and research. Their main strategy for how to finance their vision is through taxation on the ultra-wealthy, and they are pushing a narrative that tax can be a tool for a just and fair society, as well as a healthy planet. 

Giovanna Alvarez Negretti, Global Executive Director of OPEN (Online Progressive Engagement Network) asked their member organization in France, le mouvement, to share some of their key learnings from this most recent political mobilization. Their lessons are extremely valuable, with an emphasis on building unity in the Left, but also pushing values-driven campaigning and organizing. Le mouvement also shared that while they collaborated with electoral organizations who have specific experience in elections-based campaigning, an overall loss of trust in political parties meant that incredible civil society mobilization and mobilizing key individuals and organizations were extremely important. Several MPs and and former ministers have stated that they have never seen such a high level of civil society engagement in France and indeed, this recent election was France’s most challenging one in at least a century. 

What the New Popular Front has achieved in such a short amount of time is remarkable, and they will certainly have political challenges ahead, not even having fully secured majority representation in Parliament yet and having extremely divergent thinking within its four political parties. But what they have tried to do is what many progressive organizations and leftist political parties have failed to achieve: inspire hope, unite the left, and propose concrete plans and policies that address the real economic concerns of ordinary people.

Their message is one of a multiracial democracy that stands firmly against fascists and together with migrants. Their vision is of an economy that works for the people, while at the same time preserving the planet. And they have managed to sway the center. That is the leftist alliance and vision that we can all work towards – campaigners, teachers, students, politicians, public sector workers, shopkeepers, and more. Build a bold Left movement that offers an alternative of inclusion and hope. That is how you defeat the far right, and this is our key challenge right now in the 21st century. 

–  Ani Hao, on behalf of MobLab Collective 

Campaigning, Organizational Culture, and Strategy

• Regenerative activism and how to reimagine power in the human rights field: Lucia Nader has written this thoughtful piece on the existential challenges human rights organizations are failing to meet and how we must change power relations within our organizations, on an ecosystem-wide level, and finally build power together. She writes, “To revitalize human rights organizations in the face of external threats, internal work must be done to transform power relations and support activist strength and creativity.” [Open Global Rights] 
• CoorDown launched an international awareness campaign titled ‘Assume That I Can’ for World Down Syndrome Day on March 21, aiming to combat prejudice and recognize the potential of individuals with Down syndrome. The campaign features Canadian actor Madison Tevlin narrating personal experiences of being prejudged, including doubts about her ability to perform simple tasks and achieve significant life milestones. Created by the agency SMALL for World Down Syndrome Day, this campaign addresses the chronically misunderstood condition. Luca Lorenzini, co-founder of SMALL, shares his lessons from why the campaign went viral, made the news, was even nominated for a Cannes Lion prize, and resonated with people around the entire world.   [SMALL]
• Urgent Action Fund Asia Pacific penned an important piece on how to create a feminist organizational culture. [UAF-AP] 
• As the UK wakes up to a new Labour government, these are some thoughts from Tom Baker for campaigners on how to prepare for the first Labour administration in 14 years. [Thoughtful Campaigner]
• June’s Organizing to Win newsletter is a must read, including tips for canvassers on how to deal with police. [Organizing to Win]
• Use Mindworks Lab’s Anger Monitor, meant to help us identify and categorize the rising waves of anger around the world. The Anger Monitor will help us to harness and redirect anger for positive impact. Particularly useful to us was distinguishing between “Toxic Anger” and “Constructive Anger” that responds to hope and solutions. [Mindworks Lab]
• How To Make Activist Friends – and Push for Intersectionality in the Climate Movement: This blog post from We Are Open was borne out of a reflection from a storytelling retreat in Turkey and began to think about how we might address loneliness in activist movements by telling stories that help people who feel like they belong to one group (e.g. environmentalists) to understand their connection to other groups. Ultimately, this is a guide to making activist friends and building intersectionality within movements naturally. [We Are Open]
• The latest Campaigns & Elections column looks at how AI search could hurt advocacy and campaign websites, particularly those that have depended on search traffic in the past.  [Campaigns & Elections]

• MobLab member Jon Cornejo is part of Charity So White, a UK based collective highlighting institutional racism within the UK charity sector. They most recently published this piece on the continuing silence of the charity sector on the genocide in Palestine and its connection to organizational racism. Their survey has shown that nearly 50% of surveyed charities have remained silent on the ongoing genocide, while 81.4% of UK charity staff have been disappointed in how their organizations have responded to this humanitarian crisis, while a significant percentage of staff have been personally affected by the genocide, and POC staff have felt unsafe pushing for action. This piece makes clear the parallels between organizations that have made commitments to anti-racism and their hypocritical lack of response to the genocide in Palestine. “I’ve been working on [this research] for such a long time and I’m glad it’s out there. It was really tough to write because of how emotional I would get whilst writing it, and how angry I would get reading people’s responses to the survey. Please do share far and wide!”, said Jon. 

• The Sunrise Project is welcoming MobLab member Jandira Queiroz to their permanent staff. “I’m glad to join a team that is dedicated to find creative and innovative ways to phase out fossil fuels and contribute to tackling the climate crisis”, Jandira said. “It is a great opportunity to build people-centered strategies and share all the learnings I got from MobLab Collective colleagues and partners during the last few years”. We wish Jandira and The Sunrise Project all the luck and big impact in this journey!

• The most recent ChangeMakers Podcast is a talk with MobLab member Rathana Chea, the founder and CEO of the Multicultural Leadership Initiative, about how he has come to be working on making the climate movement in Australia more diverse. In this conversation Rathana Chea shares how he has learnt how to value the power of difference and connection across his time in making social change, sharing insights from social movements while he was in school, to community organizing, to working with Greenpeace International and now working to create the Multicultural Leadership Initiative as part of the Australian climate movement. This conversation cuts through the platitudes that often dominate “diversity talk”, responding to the language of awkward politeness with a practice of kindness and clarity about how to create space where people of color can lead and thrive because they are driving movements that speak to their own needs and interests. [ChangeMakers Podcast]