Posted on Jul\u00a01,\u00a02013<\/h4>\n\n<\/p>\nBy Emily Wilson<\/p>\n
Sometimes online activists, who spend a lot of their time in front of screens, get worn down and long for some face-to-face contact with colleagues they may know only through tweets, timelines on Facebook and photos on Instagram. Netroots Nation, the annual conference for progressive activists, provides that connection, says Raven Brooks, Netroots\u2019 executive director. <\/p>\n
\u201cDoing this as a passion or professionally can be a grind,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of hard work, and it\u2019s important to recharge and meet some people and get ready to take it up to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s conference, the eighth, was held June 20-23 in San Jose, Calif. There were training sessions on \u201cHow to Leverage Video for Your Cause\u201d and \u201cIntro to Legislative Advocacy,\u201d panels on topics such as \u201cThe Future of Organizing\u201d and keynotes addressing immigration and gun violence. The numbers of attendees has grown every year, and this time there were around 3,000.<\/p>\n
Brooks volunteered at the first conference, held in Las Vegas in 2006. About 800 participants came to what was then called the Yearly Kos, inspired by Markos Moulitsas\u2019 influential political blog Daily Kos. <\/p>\n
Brooks sees Netroots as a place to offer training by experts and connect people and issues that otherwise wouldn\u2019t come together. <\/p>\n
\u201cA real passion of ours is the immigration issue,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cWe\u2019ve played a role in elevating people like the DREAM activists, so everyone at the conference is hearing their stories, and now you have multi-issue groups, including some that totally avoided immigration, talking about it. We\u2019ve created panels with different groups of people and different interests to force them to be in a room together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Online activism is just part of the fabric of political communication now, Brooks said, used for recruiting, fundraising and organizing, but there was some tension at Netroots between streets and screens. <\/p>\n
Brian Smith, a campaign manager with Earthjustice who has worked in the field for 15 years, says he feels ambivalent about organizing online.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike everyone else, I\u2019m concerned about slacktivism and whether likes on a Facebook page mean anyone is changing the world,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat was once called activism was getting out in the street to make change, and for the new generation activism is what happens online. I\u2019m not convinced that\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Becker, managing editor of The Bilerico Project, which bills itself as the Web\u2019s largest LGBTQ group blog, says social media can help get people out in the streets to make change. <\/p>\n
Becker said he saw that with people coming to demonstrations against Proposition 8, the California initiative that banned same-sex marriage. Becker helped start an online petition that got venues to cancel tour dates for Michelle Shocked after the singer made what some people interpreted as anti-gay remarks in San Francisco in March.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy generation, millennials, are the most digitally plugged in and engaged in social media,\u201d Becker said. \u201cIt is absolutely invaluable in terms of keeping momentum sustained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregory Cendana, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO, says to make it work, it\u2019s important to use social media creatively.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell people, remember ACT,\u201d Cendana said. \u201cThat\u2019s art, culture and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how the Dancers\u2019 Alliance, working with SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild?American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), was able to get music videos unionized. The Dancers\u2019 Alliance chair, Galen Hooks, who was on the Netroots panel \u201cThe Rise of Alt-Labor: Organizing Outside Traditional Unions\u201d with Cendana, talked about using flash mobs and YouTube videos featuring dancers\u2019 voices in a campaign to get the record companies\u2019 attention. Hooks wanted her initiative to work for dancers\u2019 lifestyles, so instead of union meetings she had parties at clubs or happy hours. She needed to be creative to get people to connect with the campaign, Hooks said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to get the tastemakers to care,\u201d she noted. \u201cIt\u2019s like high school\u2013there are people who are the cool people and the natural leaders. They help get the ball rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith says he feels encouraged by the conversation at the conference about online organizing. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are starting to realize the number of eyeballs doesn\u2019t really measure anything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about whether you\u2019re changing the public dialogue. It\u2019s a good evolution\u2013we\u2019re getting into the quality of conversation rather than just the number of eyeballs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Netroots is known for drawing heavy hitters in the Democratic Party such as former President Bill Clinton and Sens. Harry Reid and Elizabeth Warren. One of this year\u2019s speakers, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, was another source of some tension at the conference. After an introduction from California Sen. Barbara Boxer, Pelosi answered questions submitted on Twitter and Facebook. She talked about fighting violence against women, quoted the Miami Heat\u2019s LeBron James on not paying attention to negative things said about you, was booed when she said National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden had broken the law (a heckler yelled at her and was escorted out), and then cheered when she said the real problem was outsourcing national security. <\/p>\n
Her remarks about Snowden had some people muttering that Pelosi wasn\u2019t progressive enough for the conference. Paul Hogarth, an associate campaign director at Daily Kos, says Pelosi may not be perfect, but she\u2019s helped pass some of the country\u2019s most liberal legislation. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople need to understand Netroots is progressive, but it\u2019s not Code Pink,\u201d he said, referring to the activist group whose co-founder, Medea Benjamin, repeatedly interrupted President Obama during a counterterrorism speech in May. \u201cI don\u2019t have a lot of sympathy for people who decide to heckle a Democratic congresswoman. It\u2019s one of the challenges Netroots faces. We try and elect Democrats because they\u2019re better than Republicans, and then some people on the left say they\u2019re sellouts. When someone like Nancy Pelosi is fighting John Boehner, we want to support her and then we want to challenge her if she\u2019s doing something we don\u2019t like, and we can do both those things.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.truthdig.com\/images\/eartothegrounduploads\/9109520601_05b5145bbb_o-netroots-nation-250.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Photo by Photologue_NP<\/a> (CC-BY)<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
By Emily Wilson<\/p>\n
Sometimes online activists, who spend a lot of their time in front of screens, get worn down and long for some face-to-face contact with colleagues they may know only through tweets, timelines on Facebook and photos on Instagram. Netroots Nation, the annual conference for progressive activists, provides that connection, says Raven Brooks, Netroots\u2019 executive director. <\/p>\n
\u201cDoing this as a passion or professionally can be a grind,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of hard work, and it\u2019s important to recharge and meet some people and get ready to take it up to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s conference, the eighth, was held June 20-23 in San Jose, Calif. There were training sessions on \u201cHow to Leverage Video for Your Cause\u201d and \u201cIntro to Legislative Advocacy,\u201d panels on topics such as \u201cThe Future of Organizing\u201d and keynotes addressing immigration and gun violence. The numbers of attendees has grown every year, and this time there were around 3,000.<\/p>\n
Brooks volunteered at the first conference, held in Las Vegas in 2006. About 800 participants came to what was then called the Yearly Kos, inspired by Markos Moulitsas\u2019 influential political blog Daily Kos. <\/p>\n
Brooks sees Netroots as a place to offer training by experts and connect people and issues that otherwise wouldn\u2019t come together. <\/p>\n
\u201cA real passion of ours is the immigration issue,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cWe\u2019ve played a role in elevating people like the DREAM activists, so everyone at the conference is hearing their stories, and now you have multi-issue groups, including some that totally avoided immigration, talking about it. We\u2019ve created panels with different groups of people and different interests to force them to be in a room together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Online activism is just part of the fabric of political communication now, Brooks said, used for recruiting, fundraising and organizing, but there was some tension at Netroots between streets and screens. <\/p>\n
Brian Smith, a campaign manager with Earthjustice who has worked in the field for 15 years, says he feels ambivalent about organizing online.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike everyone else, I\u2019m concerned about slacktivism and whether likes on a Facebook page mean anyone is changing the world,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat was once called activism was getting out in the street to make change, and for the new generation activism is what happens online. I\u2019m not convinced that\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Becker, managing editor of The Bilerico Project, which bills itself as the Web\u2019s largest LGBTQ group blog, says social media can help get people out in the streets to make change. <\/p>\n
Becker said he saw that with people coming to demonstrations against Proposition 8, the California initiative that banned same-sex marriage. Becker helped start an online petition that got venues to cancel tour dates for Michelle Shocked after the singer made what some people interpreted as anti-gay remarks in San Francisco in March.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy generation, millennials, are the most digitally plugged in and engaged in social media,\u201d Becker said. \u201cIt is absolutely invaluable in terms of keeping momentum sustained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregory Cendana, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO, says to make it work, it\u2019s important to use social media creatively.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell people, remember ACT,\u201d Cendana said. \u201cThat\u2019s art, culture and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how the Dancers\u2019 Alliance, working with SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild?American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), was able to get music videos unionized. The Dancers\u2019 Alliance chair, Galen Hooks, who was on the Netroots panel \u201cThe Rise of Alt-Labor: Organizing Outside Traditional Unions\u201d with Cendana, talked about using flash mobs and YouTube videos featuring dancers\u2019 voices in a campaign to get the record companies\u2019 attention. Hooks wanted her initiative to work for dancers\u2019 lifestyles, so instead of union meetings she had parties at clubs or happy hours. She needed to be creative to get people to connect with the campaign, Hooks said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to get the tastemakers to care,\u201d she noted. \u201cIt\u2019s like high school\u2013there are people who are the cool people and the natural leaders. They help get the ball rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith says he feels encouraged by the conversation at the conference about online organizing. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are starting to realize the number of eyeballs doesn\u2019t really measure anything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about whether you\u2019re changing the public dialogue. It\u2019s a good evolution\u2013we\u2019re getting into the quality of conversation rather than just the number of eyeballs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Netroots is known for drawing heavy hitters in the Democratic Party such as former President Bill Clinton and Sens. Harry Reid and Elizabeth Warren. One of this year\u2019s speakers, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, was another source of some tension at the conference. After an introduction from California Sen. Barbara Boxer, Pelosi answered questions submitted on Twitter and Facebook. She talked about fighting violence against women, quoted the Miami Heat\u2019s LeBron James on not paying attention to negative things said about you, was booed when she said National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden had broken the law (a heckler yelled at her and was escorted out), and then cheered when she said the real problem was outsourcing national security. <\/p>\n
Her remarks about Snowden had some people muttering that Pelosi wasn\u2019t progressive enough for the conference. Paul Hogarth, an associate campaign director at Daily Kos, says Pelosi may not be perfect, but she\u2019s helped pass some of the country\u2019s most liberal legislation. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople need to understand Netroots is progressive, but it\u2019s not Code Pink,\u201d he said, referring to the activist group whose co-founder, Medea Benjamin, repeatedly interrupted President Obama during a counterterrorism speech in May. \u201cI don\u2019t have a lot of sympathy for people who decide to heckle a Democratic congresswoman. It\u2019s one of the challenges Netroots faces. We try and elect Democrats because they\u2019re better than Republicans, and then some people on the left say they\u2019re sellouts. When someone like Nancy Pelosi is fighting John Boehner, we want to support her and then we want to challenge her if she\u2019s doing something we don\u2019t like, and we can do both those things.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
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Photo by Photologue_NP<\/a> (CC-BY)<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/span>\n<\/div>\n