If you're reading this from Australia, you might want to check out GetUp!. It's an internet-based, grassroots progressive movement, essentially an Australian version of MoveOn.org. As with MoveOn, the basic idea is to campaign and mobilise grassroots support on key issues. Their first campaign is to remind federal senators that while the Coalition now has a majority in the Senate, they are still answerable to the electorate, and will be held accountable for the legislation they pass. More will no doubt follow.
Getting visibility and building membership is important, so if you have lefty friends in Australia, please drop them the link.
It would be nice to see something like this here, but I suspect one of the preconditions is having a right-wing government. And I don't really think that's worth it...
[Hat Tip: Myriad's excellent diary on European Tribune]
3 comments:
so importing an American model and trying to influence democracy in Australia - and by implication NZ is perfectly OK if the American model and ideas are left wing?
Well lets hope getup is as successful as moveon has been in the US.
What did moveon achieve anyway - oh thats right, nothing at all.
Posted by gazzadelsud : 8/04/2005 10:50:00 AM
Gazza: this may have escaped you, but this is being done by Australians, in Australia. The organisation model has come from the US, but that is all; the politics and issues are Australian. The contrast with National's plans for a covert propaganda campaign against the New Zealand public funded and run by Americans to serve American interests couldn't be any clearer.
What this is fundamentally about is getting people more involved in their political system. And that is a Good Thing, regardless of which side of the political spectrum you are on.
Posted by Idiot/Savant : 8/04/2005 11:27:00 AM
I for one welcome this initiative - i hope it will be as successful in its transplanted form in Australia as it has been in the USA. Where it squandered millions, and turned "middle america" (heh) against the democrats, and gutted the liberal movement - will probably take them till 2012 to recover (have you HEARD Howard Dean talk recently - propelled to the top by moveon, the guy is a nutjob).
I also note that nothappy.com was the last Australian election campaign's attempt to borrow the moveon script - that was hardly a glorious success either.
You are really losing the plot on national arent you? Why wouldnt it be reasonable to ask the Americans about how we could achieve an FTA? This is a serious question incidentally. When every second rate dictatorship is being signed up for preferential trade access, why isnt NZ on the list. WIll this harm our economy? Does it matter that Australia has an FTA and we do not?
what does being excluded from these arrangements mean for our long-term economic wellbeing?
Whatever you think of Smith - and my views are pretty robust and not favourable - i think it is clear that their questions were ABSOLUTELY directed at serving New Zealand interests - trying to help us succeed.
You can debate whether he was right to do this, or the best way to achieve it, but your allegation that the purpose was to serve US interests does you no service.
These are serious questions - wellbeing is about our standard of living and ability to deliver services to citizens you know - stuff you purport to care about.
You can't eat being the Norway of the bloody South Pacific.
So, despite the delight you have taken in jumping on the partisan attack - try thinking - An FTA with the USA is unarguably in New Zealands interests - so much so that i have heard that Michael Cullen, Jim Sutton and other senior Ministers have asked and discussed exactly the same issue with visiting US Senators and Congressmen. Probably the SAME congressional delegations that talked to Brash and Smith.
Why don't you demand those transcripts too? You might get a nasty surprise.
Posted by gazzadelsud : 8/05/2005 08:55:00 AM
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