On 16 April, a prime time news program on Australian TV broke the story on the country’s oldest university cancelling a talk by the Dalai Lama. Within a week, the University of Sydney backtracked and released a hasty statement welcoming His Holiness on campus in June.

It was the first time in over two years of working in the Tibet movement that I have been part of such a tangible campaign win. The swiftness and the significance of this victory have prompted me to share the lessons learned from the frontline of this campaign.

1. Be fast and nimble

In the world of campaigning, we have to be always prepared to take action. When a crisis erupts, we have to seize the moment and turn that crisis into an opportunity. At a talk in Sydney by a visiting campaign strategist with Team Obama, I was introduced to the concept of crisi-tunity. Fans of Homer Simpson would be familiar with this word, interestingly with its origin in the Chinese language.

The faster we are at it, the more leverage we have in taking ownership of the issue.

On the evening of the breaking story, the small ATC team huddled together. The next morning, we had an online petition up and running. Within a couple of hours, hundreds and hundreds of people were signing and sharing the petition.

2. Build alliance with various powerful actors

I am always amazed by the cumulative effect of skills that each one of us can bring to the table.

Soon after making a head start, we were in contact with the various actors with the power to bring a positive change in this issue. Building alliances early helps not only in drawing on each other’s strengths but also developing a shared ownership.

With the help of our friends in the global Tibet movement – Students for a Free Tibet, International Tibet Network and International Campaign for Tibet – and our allies at the university including both students and staff, within 36 hours, a well-coordinated international campaign to push the university to make the right choice was in full swing.

3. Use people power

Do I need to say anything more on this?

When individuals pull together and take coordinated action, we become a significant force for change. We are all witnesses to this enduring reality of our society everywhere.

For instance, when the ATC team goes to lobby politicians in Canberra or initiates a petition to the Vice-Chancellor of University of Sydney, our real clout comes from the thousands of ATC members we speak for, Australian people who support Tibet.

We need to have faith in the power of the public and bring them along our journey to find the desired solution for Tibet. As one of the key figures at the University of Sydney confided to me on the day of our victory, it was “undoubtedly” the public outcry that brought the change.

4. Embrace the online technology

There are a number of online platforms out there, all designed to help us create a momentum for the change we want to see. They are user-friendly, effective and free. Harness their full potential.

Launching our petition on Change.org enabled us to reach out to a much wider audience in Australia and around the world.

5. Be realistic, be bold

Striking a balance between the two is perhaps the key to success in campaigning. It’s easier said than done especially to those who’ve been working on the seemingly intractable Tibet issue for many years. Luckily with this campaign, we got it right.

We were determined to force the university to welcome the Dalai Lama on campus. But we were also aware of the challenge in forcing a retreat on a decision that was already made. So we identified a scenario in which we could have a few other positive outcomes from this saga.

Reading this, you might think it was a smooth path to the victory we achieved. I wouldn’t be doing justice to this campaign if I were to leave you with such a rosy picture.

When the university did announce that it is going to host the Dalai Lama’s talk, we should have been elated and patting each other on the back. Instead, there were a few anxious hours during which we feared being outmanoeuvred by the university and were frantically chasing further details. Their PR machinery had managed to control the media and run their side of the story for a good few days without facing any opposition. In the end, they made the announcement at a time that suited their version of events, making our protest the next day almost redundant. But we soon found out that there was genuine cause to celebrate and that the movement had pulled off a historic win.

With the dust now settling, the big question still remains. Was the Chinese government directly involved in blocking the Dalai Lama’s message to Australia’s bright and young minds? We have every reason to think so. However having been in the thick of this campaign, what was also revealing was the institutional fear of China. Academic institutions and governments in the free world often take a default position of avoiding offending China regardless of its direct or indirect interference. The Chinese government is adept at using fear to silence Tibetans and its own citizens. It is now increasingly exporting this fear of real or imagined consequences into free societies, thereby making institutions and governments distance themselves from the Dalai Lama. And this is what we in the Tibet movement need to challenge in the years ahead.

This month’s campaign win involving an Australian university reminds me of another sweet victory on an American campus in March when a Chinese propaganda exhibition was directly challenged by an alternate exhibition put up by the Tibetans.

These wins may seem small but are significant steps on the path to achieving our ultimate victory for truth and freedom over state censorship and oppression.

About the author

Kyinzom Dhongdue is the Communications & Government Relations Manager with Australia Tibet Council, an organisation that campaigns for Tibetan freedom and human rights. Kyinzom was born in Bylakuppe, the settlement for Tibetan refugees in south India, and was schooled at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala. After studying English literature and journalism at University, Kyinzom worked as a journalist for the Times of India and The Asian Age for over 3 years in New Delhi. She has lived in Australia since 2006.

Want to hear about more campaign wins? Come along to Celebrating Success, the next Melbourne Campaigners’ Network event, Thursday 30 May at Ross House. 

This article was first published on the Australia Tibet Council website. Photos: 1) Vi Phat, Honi Soit 2) Australia Tibet Council.

Plan to Thrive is a multi-author blog featuring articles, interviews, reviews and tips from contributors around the world.

The first content on the blog is a taste of what’s to come:

• An interview with Shasha Ali, women’s rights activist, advocate for communities of colour, and punk musician based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Shasha shares her insights on staying healthy while fighting for social change.

• Organizations Like Bamboo, a comprehensive article which discusses psicosocial healing practices in Colombian human rights defense work. The article is written by Andrew Willis Garcés, a Texas based activist educator and mental health counsellor who has accompanied Colombian social movements for several year.

• Demystifying Panic, practical tips from blog co-convenor Helen Cox on managing panic attacks.

• Our Hearts in Transition, a review by blog co-convenor Holly Hammond (me!) of Rob Hopkin’s Transition Handbook. The book has some great insights about emotional and psychological adjustment to the challenges of climate change and peak oil – which are relevant for campaigners broadly.

Think this project is an excellent idea? Want to be part of it? You can:

• Visit the blog regularly for updates
• Follow @PlanToThrive on Twitter – and put your hand up to be one of our guest Tweeters
• Write for Plan to Thrive – all sorts of contributions are welcome! We’re especially keen to share personal stories and interviews
• Promote Plan to Thrive and start conversations about health and wellbeing in your organisation and communities
• Contact us to discuss options

Big appreciation to my collaborator Helen Cox for helping get this off the ground and Tim Norton for endless IT support setting up the blog. Thanks!

For our end-of-May event we’ll be focussing on all the good stuff – it’s the perfect pre-election morale boost! 

We’ll share stories of recent Australian campaign wins and significant wins from social movement history. We’ll be looking at how campaigners can use stories and experiences of success to build momentum, maintain morale, attract active supporters, and motivate people to take action.

Come along with successes we can celebrate (big or small, recent or distant) or share what makes you feel hopeful about the future (when you do).

More details coming soon.

This is a Melbourne Campaigner’s Network event. MCN holds regular gatherings for campaigners, activists, and organisers to discuss ideas, exchange resources and discover new approaches to social change.

Location:  Ross House, Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Time:  6pm til 8pm.
Date:  Thursday 30 May
Further info:  Holly Hammond – call 0421 508 446 or via the Contact page.

As Nicola commented on the CounterAct blog:

The financial media will all report that this was a commercial decision. Yes, in large part, of course it was – but to ignore the significant disruption, the investor uncertainty, the lack of social license and the risk, challenges and increased costs faced by the Joint Venture Partners by the consistent and varied resistance to this project is to ignore a political and economic reality faced by many contested projects these days. The community can rightly claim a stake in the ‘win’ of this project being deferred, delayed or cancelled. And a well fought one at that.

We didn’t know that news when we gathered for Lessons from the Frontline, April’s Melbourne Campaigners’ Network featuring a report-back from Nicola Paris.

Nicola shared inspiring stories from the campaign, some of which are included in her article The Heart of the Kimberley. Peter Robertson also offers some useful insights in How We Stopped James Price Point Gas Hub.

Nicola also encouraged us to consider the role nonviolent direct action can play in campaigns. In small groups we reflected on our experiences and shared what makes NVDA either effective or ineffective. Here’s a summary of what folks came up with.

Characteristics of Effective NVDA

• Well organised coherent and logical actions with clear roles
• Clarity about group commitments and guidelines, or a code of conduct that participants abide by
• Clarity about the target and audience with actions designed to communicate with them
• Actions run on your own terms, not just reacting to the other side
• Visual impact and good aesthetics, with film and photos taken for immediacy and personal connection
• Good communication – but not necessarily always transparent, to allow for planning of actions ‘under the radar’
• Support and involvement by different groups
• Group cohesion and a strong culture of trust between participants and in organisers
• Engaging people who aren’t the ‘usual suspects’ such as older non-subcultural folks (like the No Gas Hub ‘nanna action’)
• NVDA training to prepare people well and ensure a shared understanding of what is occurring
• Debriefs to support people and learn lessons from actions
• Empowering actions where people feel they have control for example over whether they will be arrested or not
• Use of humour to deal with fear, release tension and ridicule opponents
• Looking out for each other and offering support to those who are struggling

Characteristics of Ineffective NVDA

• Losing track of objectives, running actions which aren’t strategic or effective in reaching campaign goals
• Unapproachable ‘cliquey’ groups which are not welcoming to new members
• Horizontal hostility ie in-fighting, anger directed at each other rather than opponents
• Poor communication and exclusion of people from decisions which affect them
• Diversity of tactics – peaceful actions being undermined by the choice of some participants to use violent means or step outside the agreed guidelines
• Failing to follow through for example running an action but not pursuing media coverage or communicating to other supporters
• Going in to an action unprepared for conflict
• Allowing participants to feel isolated and unsupported
• Being overly local or niche and failing to tell an engaging story to a broader audience
• Disempowering actions which leave people feeling overwhelmed and hopeless

This is what we discussed on the night but of course there are many other factors which can render NVDA effective or ineffective. Learn from past experiences via these resources.

The No Gas campaign applies the following criteria to any NVDA actions that they undertake:

• Stop or delay work
• Bring people to the cause – through inclusive and inspiring actions
• Highlight the issues and educate people through the media

What kind of criteria have you come across for assessing potential tactics? Please share in the comments below. New Tactics in Human Rights has collated a range of resources for developing campaign strategy, including tactics assessment, here.

Many thanks to Nicola Paris for sharing what she learnt during six months supporting the No Gas campaign in the Kimberley. Keep in touch with Nicola’s exciting new project CounterAct, and check out her soon-to-be-released report on what motivates people to take arrestable action.

Next Melbourne Campaigners’ Network we’ll be Celebrating Success – just like the Broome community has been doing! We’ll share stories of recent Australian campaign wins and significant wins from social movement history. We’ll be looking at how campaigners can use stories and experiences of success to build momentum, maintain morale, attract active supporters, and motivate people to take action. Come along: 6pm, Thursday 30 May at Ross House.

She’ll be sharing her observations and insights at our next Melbourne Campaigners’ Network event: ‘Lessons from the frontline’, this Thursday 12 April at the Wheeler Centre.

Nicola introduces the campaign in this article – come along to MCN to hear more.

——————————————–

It is hard to describe the campaign and the people that make up this strange and diverse group who coalesce to defend the red dirt heartland of the Kimberley. They are larger than life, and wild… like the country itself… the campaign is a glorious jumble of occasional discipline, absolute dedication, with a black humour and stubborn grit that runs underneath it all.

The short story: Woodside, their joint venture partners and the State government are continuing to move ahead with their proposed gas hub, set to destroy ancient Aboriginal culture and burial grounds, the world’s largest humpback whale nursery, rare and endangered species, dinosaur trackways… the list goes on… It is a corrupt and heart wrenching process – being pushed by Colin Barnett with his dream of opening up the Kimberley for resource exploitation, no matter the cost.

But the real story is the people. From small business owners, to construction workers, to traditional custodians, to teachers, to retirees. We have seen the most inspiring civil disobedience and resistance – in a campaign that is set to become the next chapter in a proud history of nonviolent direct action from The Franklin dam, to Jabiluka and everything in between and since.

“Before my arrest, I had never even had so much as a parking fine, yet I would certainly do this again for the Kimberley, she is worth the fight and deserves the attention.”

Some of the diverse actions of the campaign have included:

• Halloween flash mobs;
• Hundreds of people facing off with riot police;
• Nana’s locking onto a van stopping machinery;
• People handing out ‘Groove-On’ notices at the local community festival;
• Traditional Owners holding their ground reading from the UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights; and
• An action that saw hundreds of flowers being presented to police on Mother’s Day…

… the resistance is creative, and fun, and determined.

Despite the trauma the community went through on ‘Black Tuesday’ in July 2011 when 150 riot police were flown into Broome to break the blockade, people have continued to resist – with locals and supporters from all over Australia, and the world, being arrested in defence of country and culture.

“The way the government and corporation worked to smash the community is something I will never forget and never forgive. They both certainly have a great deal to answer for on that day and the days that followed. Unbelievable that events like this can take place, at this time, in this country.”

“I found it shocking. I was bruised. I learned a lot about police tactics and our democracy. It made me more determined.”

Their strength and commitment has highlighted the issue in national and international media, has delayed work substantially, scared investors away and brought people and organisations to their cause.

And their resistance will continue to be tested – Woodside is preparing an incursion within weeks onto the sand dunes – sacred sites and burial grounds the Traditional Owners have a responsibility to protect. People from all over the country are preparing to join them. The next part of the story will soon be told.

——————————————–

For information and updates on the campaign check here, and read the camp booklet here for a great overview.

The quotes are from interviews Nicola Paris conducted with community members regarding their experiences of participation in Nonviolent Direct Action as part of this campaign. The report will be released soon on the CounterAct site.

Photos: (1) Julia Rau (2) Perth Now.

About the author

Nicola Paris has over a decade of activist experience with a range of organisations and grassroots groups across Australia. Nicola has supported, organised or facilitated workshops, nonviolent direct action training and capacity building for a diverse range of community campaigns around Australia.

In 2012 Nicola founded CounterAct which seeks to support communities working for environmental and social justice with training. She is a co-convenor of the Melbourne Campaigners’ Network.

There’s a lot of talk about the importance of ‘narrative’ these days.

But what does that really mean, and how can we harness the power of story-telling to make our campaigns more effective?

This new full-day workshop includes:

• Making story central to your campaign strategy. Learn creative tools from the Center for Story-Based Strategy to bring your campaign to life with drama, characters and imagery.

• Understanding framing and meme creation. Communicate your values and the central conflict your campaign addresses to engage your audience and reclaim the agenda.

• Using your personal story to engage and motivate others to action. Drawing on Marshall Ganz’ ground-breaking approach, best known for its application in ‘Obama-style organising’.

The workshop will include practical and participatory activities applied to real-life campaigning.

“Thank you for the story-based strategy workshop you ran for MADGE. I’ve found it really useful. These ideas work everywhere in energising and uniting people around all sorts of issues. Story based strategy allows issues to be understood and helps people take effective action. I’ve suggested use of this strategic approach to four separate groups working on environmental and social issues this year.”

Fran Murrell, MADGE

 

“The story-based strategy workshop Plan to Win ran for 100% Renewables was a valuable experience. While stories are a fundamental part of our organising program we hadn’t made the step to incorporating stories in our external communications and messaging. Holly’s carefully-prepared and well-executed workshop helped us take that step. We now routinely use a number of the tools in our planning we learned about in the workshop.”

Andrew Bray, formerly of 100% Renewables

When? 10am – 5pm, Saturday 13 April

Where? Brunswick, Melbourne – venue details upon registration.

Presenter: Holly Hammond, Director of Plan to Win. Holly is an experienced social movement trainer and facilitator who has completed Advanced Story-Based Strategy Practitioner Training in the US. See the People page for more information.

Cost: $50 – $100 depending on means. If money is a barrier to attending please contact us to discuss.

Register: Complete this short survey to secure your place in the workshop.

Queries? Contact Holly Hammond on 0421 508 446 or via the Contact page.

NB: Numbers are limited to a maximum of sixteen. Priority will be given to participants currently working on campaigns for social or ecological justice. Registration fee includes a copy of the Re:Imagining Change book (introduction to story-based strategy), handouts and further resources, plus refreshments. BYO lunch or buy it nearby.

What we can learn from the struggle for Country and community in the Kimberley.

Nicola Paris has just returned from six months in Broome supporting the community campaign against Woodside’s proposed gas hub.

She’ll be sharing her observations and insights including:

• The role nonviolent direct action has played in delaying work, increasing pressure on the companies involved and bringing international attention over the last two years.

• Findings from interviews with Broome community members about how they came to be arrested for the first time for something they believe in.

• What we can learn from the creative resistance of a small town fighting some of the biggest multinationals in the world – including ideas and tactics to apply in other campaigns.

This is a Melbourne Campaigner’s Network event. MCN holds regular gatherings for campaigners, activists, and organisers to discuss ideas, exchange resources and discover new approaches to social change.

Location:  The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St
Time:  6pm til 8pm.
Date:  Thursday 11 April
Further info:  Holly Hammond – call 0421 508 446 or via the Contact page.

So, yes to effective field organising and no to a political system corrupted by colossal amounts of money. Yes to message discipline but a maybe to ethically blurry data collection.

Some of us opt for the super-sized meal while others settle for the chopped salad… so to speak.

This is part of what made our latest Melbourne Campaigners’ Network event so interesting. The US Election Report-back on Thursday 28 February attracted around 30 folks from a range of social movements to hear stories from three Melbourne campaigners who worked in the US during the election.

In our discussion we grappled with the different approaches to politics and campaigning in the US and Australia, and how we can translate US innovations to our own context. We also had a valuable view from the other side, with a community organiser from New York in attendance.

Here’s some ‘take home messages’ from each of our presenters.

Lucy Manne is Co-director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC). She worked as the New Media Director for the New Hampshire Democratic Congressional candidate, Annie Kuster, in a highly competitive race. Lucy was responsible for list growth, grassroots fundraising, social media, online volunteer recruitment and more on the campaign – which won!

Lucy’s key lessons from the Kuster campaign:

• Share knowledge and infrastructure. Different Democrat campaigns, as well as allied organisations, shared campaign intelligence, data, skills and resources. This meant that time and energy that would otherwise be spent ‘reinventing the wheel’ went directly into winning votes.

• Know your audiences. Be clear about who you need to communicate with and what they need to hear from you. Gather data to fill out the picture and ensure targeted communications.

• Keep integrated and updated data. Data was very important to the campaign with real-time updating and access to the data. Every campaign interaction was logged in the database to inform future communications.

• Build relationships online and offline. This was crucial to fundraising and building the volunteer base. The Kuster campaign did a good job of building a strong connection between the candidate, supporters and potential voters.

Victoria McKenzie-McHarg is the Safe Climate Campaign Manager at Environment Victoria. Victoria spent three months working with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, focused on grassroots organising structures, movement cohesion and the role of health based communication in coal campaigns. Victoria gained an insider’s view into the relationship between political and NGO organising throughout the US election period.

Victoria’s observations and lessons:

• Short term election campaigning vs long term community organising. Election campaigns can be quite disempowering for volunteers as they have limited autonomy – they need to do specific tasks and stay on message. Community organising is about deeper relationships and developing power over time. If you want long term wins you need to build a committed culture of volunteering and organising. The Sierra Club has done that over decades.

• The centrality of personal relationships. Organising in the US involves very deliberate and positive networking. Sharing personal stories is integral to how they campaign. This builds trust between organisers and organisations.

• Cooperation between organisations. Victoria experienced a culture of sharing and generosity both from individual campaigners or organisers, and from organisations. Australian environment organisations struggle to work as successfully in alliances, and at times have been overwhelmed by ‘brand protection’ and competition.

Environment Victoria will be hosting another report-back from Victoria in March – details soon.

Alex White is an advisor working in the labour movement who also blogs on communications, politics and campaigning. He spent 3 months working as an Organizing Fellow for Obama for America Massachusetts. Alex coordinated a team of volunteers, organised neighbourhood team training and managed a get-out-the-vote call-centre in the final week of the election.

Key insights from Alex:

• Goal focus. Nothing was done in the Obama for America (OFA) campaign unless it contributed to the goal of 270 (the number of electoral college votes needed to win). When campaign managers woke up each morning they checked how many phone calls had been made and how many doors knocked on.

• Message discipline. Messages were decided on and repeated consistently – Obama was still saying ‘Forward’ at his acceptance speech. This flowed on to all aspects of the campaign including field volunteers. For example in GOTV (get out to vote) conversations volunteers used a tested script including: “you seem like a voter”, “everyone’s doing it”, “lets make a plan” and then Commitment.

• Campaign structure. OFA used the ‘snowflake model‘ for neighbourhood teams, ‘a system in which members of the team have shared responsibility for a common goal but work independently toward achieving their own components.’ The model operated at a number of scales in the campaign. For example a neighbourhood team leader would coordinate a team including a phone bank coordinator and canvass coordinator; these coordinators would be in the centre of their own ‘snowflake’, coordinating a team; while neighbourhood team leaders were coordinated by regional team leaders, who were coordinated by state team leaders, each in their own ‘snowflake’ team.

Download Alex White’s slides from the night and see the Obama 2012 posts on his blog.

Many thanks to our clever and generous presenters, everyone who participated in the discussion, all the helpers, and Gareth Beyers for excellent live-tweeting.

For more on this topic see also Lessons from the US Election.

Our next Melbourne Campaigners’ Network event is on Nonviolent Direct Action, 6pm-8pm, Thursday 11 April at the Wheeler Centre.

What were your ‘take-aways’ from the night? What questions remain? What about suggestions for future sessions? Chime in below.

“Humour is essential to a successful tactician, for the most potent weapons known to mankind are satire and ridicule.”

Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals

In January I was asked by New Tactics in Human Rights to be a conversation leader in their international online dialogue ‘Using Humour to Expose the Ridiculous’.

Many excellent tactics and stories were shared from around the world. Thanks to everyone who participated, including those who shared examples via Facebook.

New Tactics has just posted a summary of the conversation so I thought I’d share one of my comments… sorry it’s not funny.

Humour and Power

What role can humour play in building community power and undermining the power of targets like politicians or corporate bosses? People power can take many forms – there are different ways we can work towards getting what we want. For example:

• Electoral power – the ability to vote leaders out
• Economic power – as consumers or as workers/producers
• Cultural power – the ability to communicate meaning and have those beliefs/values/ideas adopted.

It stands to reason that if opportunities to exercise some types of power are limited, others become more valuable.

Cultural tactics can include undermining the public standing or reputation of power-holders. The consent theory of power is useful to consider here. This assumes that the functioning of a society, and the place of elites, depends on our consent. We agree to follow the rules, play our part as workers, consumers, voters etc, and generally go about things in an orderly way. If we withdraw consent through nonviolent direct action the system can be undermined and potentially topple over.

One aspect of consent is recognising the authority of elected leaders, public institutions, the police etc. Put simply, we take them seriously. Humour can play a very useful role in disrupting this. Humour, like political scandal, can cut through the veneer of public relations with an ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ effect.

For more information about consent theory of power see The Role of Power in Nonviolent Struggle by Gene Sharp, and Brian Martin’s summary of Sharp’s approach.

————————————————————————

Check out the rest of the conversation, and these great stories by Nicola Paris about the Fremantle Anti Nuclear Group.

Photo: This is from one of my all time favourite tactics. Russian activists painted the faces of politicians around large potholes in order to directly pressure them to fix the roads. This excellent youtube explains the successful action.

In Brisbane? You should definitely get along to the Humour and Political Activism workshop featuring Majken Jul Sørensen this Thursday 28 February. If you’re in Melbourne don’t fly to Brisbane for the workshop because you’ll miss the US Election Report-back!

The US is also a rich source of social movement innovation. As an activist educator many of the resources I draw on in my work come from US organisers and theorists.

As we settle in for a federal election year many of us are looking to the recent US election for campaign insights.

Here’s a selection of interesting links to get you thinking in the lead-up to the Melbourne Campaigners’ US Election Report-back on Thursday 28 February.

Election Analysis

• How Obama won a second term (Rolling Stone)
• How Obama won four more years (Slate magazine)
• The 2012 Election: What Happened, What Changed, What it Means

Field Organising

• How the ground game trumped super PAC millions
• Marshall Ganz – Designer of the grassroots organising model and training for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, further built on in the 2012 campaign. See in particular Organizing as a campaign strategy and the online Organizing curriculum
• New Organizing Institute – Training in engagement organising (‘Obama-style organising’). See especially the Organizer’s Toolbox and resources
• What Role for Obama’s Organizers in a Second Term?
• Obama for America to morph into Organizing for Action

Digital Campaigning & Data

• In the 2012 election, big data-driven analysis and campaigns were the big winners
  
• With The Help of Digital Infrastructure, Obama Wins Re-election
• For Romney’s Digital Campaign, a Second-Place Finish
• Built to win: Deep inside Obama’s campaign tech
• Obama Wins: How Chicago’s Data-Driven Campaign Triumphed
• The Parser – NOI’s tech blog
• Dream team of behavioural scientists advised Obama campaign

Ongoing US Political News & Analysis

• Daily Kos, Think Progress, Mother Jones and Talking Points Memo – Progressive blogs
• Real Clear Politics – Aggregation of US political stories
• Five Thirty Eight – The famous Nate Silver

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Want more?

Come along to the US Election Report-back. We’ll be hearing from three Melbourne campaigners who worked on campaigns during the US election: Victoria McKenzie-McHarg (Environment Victoria), Alex White (Union communications specialist) and Lucy Manne (AYCC). More information here and invite your friends via the Facebook event.

Photos: Three US Election highlights – Romney vs Big Bird, Clint Eastwood vs an empty chair, and #bindersfullofwomen

Many thanks to Simon Copland for research and assistance putting this post together.