The digital left

Those who own the country, run it. There is no way this can continue. Such has been the analysis, and the message, of the democratic left in Canada, and elsewhere.

Control over the means of communication has given those who own the means of production and finance, ownership of Canadian government as well. This has happened through the electoral process, not entirely openly. The democratic creed suggests it can only be reversed through political action. In the digital era, with the advent of the Internet and Web 2.0, democratic politics is being re-invented. Encouraging the emergence of a digital left becomes central to the historic task of putting political power in the hands of the people who make the country what it is through their work at home and on the job.

In a world where interactive communication can replace passive reception of corporate cultural symbols, and messaging, politics can engage individuals as never before. The successful Obama campaign owed much to Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook. Officially titled "the on-line organizing guru" he designed MyBarackObama.com which spurred a digital uprising of the young, and helped build an Internet army of activists and supporters, often new to politics, and looking for change.

Traditionally, left politics is about how to mobilize the working class. Obviously — though unfortunately not to all — building a political party to speak for the interests of workers and their families is a key component of any left strategy to confront the big money of investor interests. Similarly, creating links between social movements working in diverse sectors is an important way to instill momentum for political change. In recent times, bringing the party and the social movements together has been the biggest challenge of all facing the Canadian democratic left. It has yet to be met successfully.

New Democratic Parties have won office provincially. The NDP influenced Liberal governments in Ottawa decisively in minority situations from 1963 to 1968, and 1972 to 1974. But being a New Democratic means being in a minority among the smallish number Canadians who are political party members; and, painfully, only a minority of even unionized workers vote NDP. Social movements with irreconcilable differences on some issues, such as left Catholics and feminists on a woman's right to choose, have come together willingly in struggles over unjust trade deals, and regressive taxes.

For social movements, coalition politics has not proven sustainable, let alone able to reverse the balance of power in Canada, but this does not mean coalition building can be neglected. Indeed in one reading democratic politics is about building one big coalition, strong enough not just to win office, but to take power. Democratic politics has gone through the struggle for the universal franchise, and there are still important fights to be won over the electoral map. In Canada, surprisingly, a series of important, and under appreciated changes to party financing laws federally, have ended up favouring the populist right, the Reform Party and now the Harper Conservatives, not the New Democratic Party.

Figuring out how to grow Netroots, Obama fashion, is what all political parties are currently trying to do. Netizens make the Internet. Top down messaging is not Internet friendly, and directive e-mails are deleted. In Canada, a constitutional monarchy, citizens responded historically to calls to defend Queen and country, but were mostly passive observers of politics. With the adoption of the Charter, citizenship looked to take on a more active dimension than doing one's patriotic duty. However political party activity has been generally restricted to seeking donors, and running TV advertising campaigns featuring the leader at election time. Only the NDP has tried to engage its members in development of policies, and these are usually thrown overboard following focus group testing, and probe polling, by the time campaigning starts in earnest.

Making appeals for donors is not the same things as engaging the citizenry in debate. Seeking out other others as equals in dialogue and discussion is what digital politics is about. Facilitating spontaneous action to mobilize against cuts to federal funding for artists, or outrageous telecommunications billing is the sort of task that can lead a political party to be a real force for electoral mobilization.

Canada has yet to become a thorough-going democracy, where citizenship is prized and understood as conferring political power. The emergence of a digital left has the potential to even out the balance of power between government and the populace, as Netizens talk to other Netizens, and counter-movements to power form more swiftly than ever before. The extension of communications networks outside corporate control to include ever wider digital participants holds out promise for fostering a more open political process where the left can make its case for democratic renewal, where party and movement can listen together to more people than ever, and where action in the common good becomes not only desirable, but feasible.

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