I'm greatly encouraged by this approach - I think it keeps politicians on their toes by thinking people far more than anything previously.
Here's an email I've just received:
The Olympics is now properly underway. 38 Degrees members can watch the games unfold knowing that together, we made sure that companies like McDonald's didn't get away with tax-dodging on their Olympic profits. And lots of members have said how proud they were to see our NHS celebrated at the opening ceremony last Friday night.
Can you help decide what we should be focusing on next once the games are over? Do you think we should carry on focussing on tax dodging, or perhaps looking more at climate change or the NHS? It only takes 2 minutes to take our poll and help set the directon for 38 Degrees: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/poll-july-2012
The email from last week:
McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Adidas, VISA... In the last couple of weeks we’ve taken on some of the most powerful companies in the world - and won! Together, we’ve forced them to pay their fair share of tax during the Olympics. All of the companies we targeted have now said they won’t be using the tax break open to Olympic sponsors. [1]
This campaign was something new. 38 Degrees members are used to taking on the government. But this was the first time we’ve targeted big global companies. We knocked them over one by one, gaining strength with each fresh victory.
This win is more proof that when we work together, we get results. That’s why as 38 Degrees members we choose what we campaign on together. Member polls are an important part of deciding what we should focus on next. Should we concentrate on protecting the NHS and the environment? Should we be cracking down on bankers? Perhaps you have an idea of your own?
Can you take the two minute survey and help set the direction of 38 Degrees?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/poll-july-2012
When 38 Degrees members first saw the tax breaks for Olympic sponsors, exposed in a piece by the magazine Ethical Consumer, it may have seemed unlikely that these heavyweight multinationals could be forced to back down. [2] But we were successful because we used our power as customers.
The sponsors were hoping to get a big boost from their involvement with the Games. But our huge petition and the flood of activity on Facebook and Twitter had them worried. They could see it was safer to back down on the tax break than to risk a PR disaster with the very people who buy their products.
Fixing this particular tax dodge is a step in the right direction and a glimpse of what we can do - but there’s so much more to do. Recent reports suggest that the UK could be losing trillions of pounds in dodged tax every year. [3] Should we follow up our Olympic success by keeping the focus on tax-dodging or should we be prioritising other campaigns? Perhaps we should be concentrating on tackling climate change, stopping the privatisation of the police, or protecting the BBC. Or is there something else you’d like to suggest?
Take the quick survey and help decide what we should work on next together:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/poll-july-2012
Thanks for being involved,
David T, Robin, Belinda, Marie, James, and the 38 Degrees team
PS: Part of what scared the sponsors most was being targeted on Facebook. Protecting their public image turned out to be worth more than a tax break! Can you help make 38 Degrees even stronger by liking us on Facebook? http://facebook.com/peoplepowerchange
NOTES
[1] We'll work with tax experts from the Tax Justice Network to check these statements and to make sure these companies keep their word.
38 Degrees: Olympic sponsor statements https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/index.php/pages/296/
[2] Ethical Consumer: The Great Olympic Tax Swindle http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/commentanalysis/corporatewatch/thegreatolympictaxswindle.aspx
[3] The Guardian: £13tn hoard hidden from taxman by global elite http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/21/global-elite-tax-offshore-economy
11 comments:
I am bored sitting in an airport hotel.
I would like to visit 38 Degrees home planet,I feel they would make me a Lentil Omelet cooked without using fossil fuels.
Is it me or is it like anti war people deciding to shoot Generals in a quest for peace.
They talk of their noble(sic) campaign against corporate dross and at the same time they are using Facebook to disseminate how wonderful they are.
Facebook is an insipid corp.
To quote the good Doctor.
"Its Life Jim But Not As We Know It"
I need that lentil omelet.
Lentils Dr Dellow that's where it is at.
Sad that you're bored - it's a state that I don't experience these days. Kind you find a good book to read - or try sketching those around you or even talking to the person next to you - there are hundreds of activities.
I used to tell my students that they were the boring ones when they commented "Sir, this is dead boooring."
Come on Rosa - Get a life! Find something to be positive about for a change.
Apparently they used Facebook because they found it to effective as it reaches the very kind of people that you refer to. The kind of people that are influenced by the big advertisers. Seemed to me to be good tactical thinking.
I am sure they mean well.
Just a terrible waste of money so kids can play at being revolutionaries.
Lets see if they could knock up a Lentil Omelet whilst taking fire in Sarajevo.
Rosa, Could you suggest an alternative way that people can work together to express there beliefs with politicians?
For me this method of campaigning is far more satisfying thatn any other I have used in the past - and a seasoned campaigner - One to one with your MP rates higher if you think he has been persuaded to listen to you. However too often the MP will at the best,just nod, say how terrible things are and then frustratingly do something totally ineffectual rather than take the complaint seriously.
No for me Click Campaigning has a lot to be said for it.
I look forward to your thoughts on effective alternatives.
I looked at their website and I see they spent 300k in on ads in essence asking Cameron to be nice.
That will never happen the man is self obsessed all the posters in the world will not make him "nice"
if you had 300k to give away why give it to a charity why not use that 300k and give it direct to the people you care about.
I am not having a go at them they mean well as I meant well standing on street corners in SE1 selling copies of Socialist Worker.
I looked at their website and they come across as well meaning 20 somethings that know nothing about the real world.
I just noticed a farrier shoeing a horse wonderful.
I expect his father taught him the trade and no doubt he will teach his son.
Real World people.
I wish those 38 degree people well and no doubt they are happy but it seems a terrible waste of money that is all I am saying.
Don't you think there are all sorts of 'real word' people? Am I not one because I'm using the internet at the age of 77?(typing with one hand because I've badly sprained my wrist).
Posters influence the way people think - I payed for them - in part. I also give to other charities. Having a fairer world is a top priority for me.
Those people are lucky for example to over simplify they could wake up and say "I will fix Milton Keynes Today"
Milton Keynes,The UK,The Planet cannot be fixed.
I would also like a fairer world,however it will never happen it is an Ivory Tower utopian goal.
look at www.msn.com and weep at the drivel that people are reading.
When I was young I was happier as I believed in selling my copies of Socialist Worker,I believed in a fairer society I now know that society will never be.
The human race is systemically flawed with greed.
I do not know about you but I would rather break bread with that Farrier than David Cameron.
You are a lucky man as at 77 you still believe you can make the world a better place.
I hope you are right and I am wrong.
I agree fairness is an impossible goal. I agree that we are all basically selfish -including myself - I also KNOW that I am making the world a better place in a small way. This is the driving force behind my selfishness - it makes me feel good - and I like it - and I enjoy the contact with others who feel and ACT in a similar way. It's not what you believe that is important - it's the way you LIVE.
I don't believe in 'luck': things are as they are.
Good Luck to you Geoff.
I am back to growing things in the morning.
I will close with an Aesop like tale.
4 or 5 years ago I noticed a swan that was injured and the other swans were all around the injured swan helping that swan get to the other side of the river.
If only the human race could emulate those swans.
My experience is that the behaviour of humans is very varied.
Some will go far beyond the behaviour of the swans some do the opposite. I have found that you can build up relationships with a selection of people who can be very supportive to each other and when this happens it's great to be part of that group. The characteristic of these kind of these kind of people appears to be that they have experienced a fair bit of life (forty to sixty) and have developed considerable emotion security in that they have been through bad times and come off the better for it - they've developed a self belief. These are people who you can trust to act for the benefit of others as well as themselves. There seem to be very few of them around with the kind of emotional reserves that I'm talking about - perhaps people themselves aren't coping with hardships and have no reserves to deal with their own problems never mind the hardships of others.
As time goes by less and less people that care about anything but themselves.
I knew a German Doctor once that risked his life to help others.
I see the world becoming colder and people becoming more self obsessed.
I watched a Dutch movie called Black Book last week.
People like that in real life the same in France.
The world no longer makes such people.
I walk past a shop every week and I see this large cardboard cutout of a mean looking guy with a gun in one hand and a knife in another.
For a video game,I am not suggesting censorship that is shades of Lady Chatterley or Joyce's drunken drivel but I cannot understand why people want to play a video game about killing enough real killing in this world.
Last night I got an email from this awful man in The USA his father who is no longer with us was a well known writer a man with a unique voice as a writer.
However his son forwarded me an email about somebody in pain and thinks the pain is funny.
I know nothing about anything expect I just want to grow things and I will always be nice to people that are nice to me.
On that note my cabbages need me.
I expect it sounds silly to you but to myself the majesty of Mother Earth growing things is special.
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