The organisation I help run – Compass Youth held a highly successful workshop and debate at the Progressive London Conference. Over fifty people took part and the results of the ‘progressive future’ ideas and campaigns will be announced shortly.

Compass Youth Obama Campaign Workshop

Obama won the Democratic nomination and then the American Presidency on the back of inspiring and innovative campaigning. Not only did he offer a refreshingly optimistic and hopeful message, but he harnassed technology in new ways to communicate with and mobilise his supporters.

There is much the progressive left can learn from his campaigning techniques, and with that in mind Compass Youth has organised a campaign workshop with three excellent speakers:

Matthew McGregor worked for internet strategy company Blue State Digital for three months during the Obama campaign, and has now set up Blue State Digital’s London office. He also ran Jon Cruddas’ deputy leadership campaign, winner of Channel 4′s ‘Political Campaign of the Year’ award. He will talk about what set the Obama campaign apart, and what we can learn from it in the UK.

Tom Miller from Compass Youth has blogged for a number of years, now doing so on several platforms, including his own; newerlabour, and LabourList, the newly launched website which aims to provide a space for Labour-based debate. He will discuss the current use of technology in British politics and where things are heading.

Max Freedman is a Parliamentary researcher and the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Kingston and Surbiton. He helped canvass in Ohio during the Obama campaign, and will about how the field campaign operated so effectivly.

For more information or to book a place please contact youthchair@compassonline.org.uk or join the facebook event here.

“The crisis changes nothing”

The crisis of global capital and the lefts reaction to globalisation; a Compass Youth think-piece - Adrian Bua-Roberts:

“…if the left reverts to the comfort zone it naturally finds within statist discourse it is surrendering its chance to influence the reformation of the transnational state structures within which capital is continually entrenching its dominance.

It is of crucial importance that progressives and the left realise this. Organized labour, acting within the nation state framework, has proved structurally incapable of combating the increased transnational coordination of capital. Improvements in communication and technology have enabled capital to tap into reserve armies of poverty stricken workers around the world, pitching their governments against each other to become more “competitive” in what amounts to a regulatory race to the bottom. In the West, this has began to dissolve the myriad of rights gained through centuries of class struggles and has created a huge downward pressure of wages. Stagnating wages led to increased debt, feeding the capitalist systems’ fetish for consumption, laying much of the groundwork for the present crisis.”

Read the full article on the compass website.

Finally a word from our friends:

President Bush backed US ‘Missile Defence’ since he was elected in 2000, including unilaterally withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia in 2001. Designed to give the US military ‘full spectrum dominance,’ it is destabilising relations with Russia and causing concern across Europe.

President Barack Obama has not yet given his full support to the system – join us in sending him a clear message of opposition in his first days as President.

Speakers include the Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee, Michael Connarty MP, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, and Green MEP Jean Lambert, who will be joined by parliamentarians and campaigners from Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.

The conference will be held on Saturday 31st January from 10am-5pm at SOAS, University of London. See the Europe Against US Missile Defence Conference page for full details.

To register email campaigns@cnduk.org or phone 0207 700 2393 and click here to download a leaflet. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

It looks increasingly as though Iceland is going to apply to join the European Union, with this fascinating report that they expect to do so within the next couple of months with a view to membership in 2011. Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has even gone as far as suggesting that Croatia and Iceland could join the EU at the same time.Following the collapse of Iceland’s ruling conservative

Yesterday I attended an event with the title “Obama – the Tech President?”
We got a report on how Barack Obama used the internet to mobilise support, funding and votes in the election campaign and how he continues to use it now that he in the White House. We discussed similarities and differences between the EU and the US in the democratic structures and challenges. We mentioned the upcoming European Parliament election and noted that 1 minute(!) after the President being  sworn in,  his new media director posted the first White House blog., He also promised that all the President’s executive orders and proclamations would be put online for everyone to review and also committed himself and his Government to communication, transparency and participation.

Here are my opening remarks at the event.

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Let me mention something that might have passed unnoticed today but is a matter of life or death to thousands of people (and an issue that I have engaged in since a long time) : an agreement  – in the shape of a Memorandum of Understanding- between China and the EU about improving the safety of mine workers. Thousands of  people die every year in China, Ukraine and elsewhere and many, many more are hurt in accidents. Europe can contribute to better conditions by sharing knowledge, experienceand technology on how to prevent accidents and improve safety in these workplaces. My collegues Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Vladimir Spidla deserve praise for having prepared this issue and successfully achieved a deal with the Chinese authorities !

Yesterday I took part in a panel organised by ‘Think About It’ on blogging, bringing together nearly 100 people who blog on European matters. I was invited as I was the first ever MEP to start a blog. Here is the link to their new blogging portal which connects over 280 blogs on EU politics. Enjoy! www.bloggingportal.eu