Does the left lead on online? No – but also yes…

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

This afternoon I’m speaking in a session at the Ken Livinsgtone organised “Progressive London Conference” in a session entitled – “Does the left lead online?”.

The short answer to that questions is no – at least not in terms of readership and influence which are the traditional markers of success. On that score we’re still lagging behind. Yet there certainly seems to have been a step change in recent months that suggests that the left is in the ascendency.

The right wing blogospere is an online representative of the reality of conservative thought. By its very nature its much more unified and monolithic than the left, and in online terms it’s much established.

The left is never going to be as united as the right – but in reality that’s a strength that we can harness. Sites like Liberal Conspiracy, Left Foot Forward and Left Futures (as well as LabourList) all provide places where different strands of thought within the left can debate plan and prepare for the fights that we face at the moment and prepare for the battle to come. We shouldn’t be disheartened that on many levels we’re still behind the right, because this is a battle that will take years – it really is, to be awfully cliched, a marathon not a sprint.

There’s a real role for the left in both holding the government to account and developing the set of policies that can overturn the real and potentially permanent damage that the government is doing to society and capturing the imagination of the British people at large. The online left is a movement. It’s disparate and its divided and its often riven with internal strife. But it’s a movement all the same.

Labour is of course the only party that can bring about a change of government and begin the process of forging the better society that the left wants to see – but there’s a role for the left as a whole to put pressure upon the Labour Party and challenge its beliefs and assertions.

Outside of blogging though, is where the left is really coming into its own. Online activism (sometimes disparigingly referred to as “clictivism”) is an area in which the left in general (and organisations such as 38 degrees and False Economy in particular) have excelled. Organising through social networking allows newly established but nimble campaigning groups to spread their message without the need for a mainstream media filter. And within the Labour Party too, inventive campaighning such as “mob monday” can bring activists across the contry together to acheive something tangible and productive.

This is where the left is beginning to lead. Blogs provide a space for ideas to be kicked around, policies to be formulated and disagreements to be had. That’s all incredibly important for the internal politics of the left, and there’s a role for that. But blogs won’t get rid of this government, and they won’t win the next election for Labour.

Online activism in the broader sense is where the left has the potential to excel. And that might just be decisive over the next five years.