In the previous part of our series on political activism, we acknowledged how difficult it can be to persuade your colleagues to leave your comfort zone. This is perhaps the most difficult stage. You may have people who are prepared to write to their MPs or join a march in London, but that’s going to be well within most people’s comfort zone. Confronting a local MP or councillor directly can be much more challenging for some.
One way to try and get round any reluctance is to focus on what your group’s individual strengths are. So instead of aiming at this monstrous and threatening project with all that influence and all those resources behind it, you are asking your team to use the things they know they are good at and are confident in using.
He’s the MP, you’re the voter. You outrank them
In particular, don’t forget one crucial point in your favour – often overlooked and rarely utilised. They’re the politician, you’re the voter: you outrank them. Don’t ever let them forget that. They lose their job if you and people like you vote them out. They’re only complacent because they don’t think you will. Prove them wrong.
Look to your other strengths too. What are your colleagues good at? If your cause can half fill a village hall then you already have a number of people who will have valuable skills of their own – in IT, writing, researching, organising, knowing the right people. Empower them: that’s the way you’ll get a dynamic organisation. Instead of seeing the task as to take on the power of the local MP, see it as a way of working together for your group to outflank them, digging out all the dirt (or at least the smudges) via social media, google, local gossip, whatever you can find.
Set your groups to work
Don’t forget (from the last riveting episode) that, if you’re not embarrassing your opponent, then you’re probably looking for information that will cause them/the company extra work. Lots of it.
Look at all the different skills and approaches you’ll need to carry out your chosen activities, and set up little sub-groups of two or three – more if you have enough people – to concentrate on their own area of expertise. Then you’ll need them to report back to the cunning strategists who will pull everything together. People often don’t realise what political skills they have.
How to stop a bypass: ironically, with a steamroller
Take using the web, for instance. A couple of years ago a plan for an Ipswich northern bypass was overthrown. It started with the backing of county and all district councils and had a budget of hundreds of millions of pounds. But it would have driven through a particularly pretty part of Suffolk and the citizens weren’t having it.
So they overwhelmed the local authorities. The protest group had several sub groups, including one for online research which alone had 22 members! Imagine, 22! The county council at best had one and a half people working on this, part-time, and every time they published something it was pulled apart, analysed, criticised, rejected, mocked in the local press. They were, what you might call, steamrollered.
So a huge and apparently unstoppable multi-million pound road project through beautiful countryside was stopped and abandoned amid internecine squabbling among the councils and MPs involved. The people triumphed, through organisation and determination. Be assured: your opponents won’t be half as organised and informed as you think they are. You can win.
