38 Degrees

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
38 Degrees
Founded May 2009
Headquarters
  • United Kingdom
Key people David Babbs (executive director), Blanche Jones (campaigns director), Maddy Carroll (campaigns director)
Focus(es) political activism
Method(s) petitions, lobbying MPs, newspaper advertising campaigns, meetings[citation needed]
Members 2,200,000[citation needed]
Website 38degrees.org.uk

38 Degrees is a British not-for-profit political-activism organisation that campaigns on a wide range of issues. It describes itself as "progressive" and claims to "campaign for fairness, defend rights, promote peace, preserve the planet and deepen democracy in the UK".[1] In October 2013, it was reported to claim 1.9 million UK members.[2]

38 Degrees takes its name from the critical angle at which the incidence of a human-triggered avalanche is greatest.[1]

Background

38 Degrees says it was inspired by groups like MoveOn in the United States, GetUp! in Australia and Avaaz globally. These organisations all use the internet to mobilise people and connect them and their governments. 38 Degrees says that an organisation based on a similar model was needed in the UK.[1]

The organisation launched on 26 May 2009.[3] Founders included Gordon Roddick, co-founder of The Body Shop, Henry Tinsley, ex-chairman of Green & Black's chocolate.[4]

Structure

38 Degrees is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. It was previously registered as Progressive Majority.[5] It has a decentralised and informal structure, with management above a flat-line membership structure. 38 degrees also claims its campaigns are selected by its members under its "Campaigns by You".[6]

Personnel

The Executive Director is David Babbs, who signs off some emails, appears in the media and frequently speaks at local 38 Degrees events.[7]

Babbs was formerly Head of Activism at Friends of the Earth where he was responsible for the Big Ask Campaign. Babbs also previously worked at People & Planet. Babbs describes his motivation for campaigning as coming from "a gut feeling that things could be better, politically, socially, and environmentally and that the reason they’re not is largely due to the conscious actions of powerful people rather than due to bad luck or any sort of natural order. Campaigning together is how we work together to challenge that and change things.".[8]

The Chair of the Board is Gordon Roddick, who is best known as co-founder of The Body Shop along with his wife, Anita Roddick. Gordon Roddick is also associated with a number of other causes including the Big Issue.

Methodology

38 Degrees describes itself as a people-powered and multi-issue movement. It aims to empower UK citizens by providing easy ways for them to take action on the issues they care about, e.g., climate change, human rights and poverty. It claims "it’s 38 Degrees members who set priorities and we decide on what we campaign on together". They publish the results of their membership polls on their website.[9]

Campaigning techniques include both online methods, such as mass email, social media, blogs[6] and online petitions, and offline methods, such as calling an MP or visiting a surgery. 38 Degrees has also fundraised from its membership to commission legal advice[10] and to run advertising campaigns.[11]

Offline Methods

38 Degrees have diversified their campaign methods and encouraged members to meet up with each other in different venues around the UK.[12] The NHS CCG campaign,[13] for example, has seen members meet up to discuss and plan local campaign actions with a view to meet Clinical Commissioning Groups representatives.[14]

Local 38 Degrees NHS groups have no formal structure unless members present at the initial meeting decide otherwise. They can choose to work with neighbouring 38 Degrees groups or an external group that is sympathetic to the local campaign. There is no doctrine that binds members to certain roles or campaign tactics. To this end, local 38 Degrees groups work semi-autonomously and communicate with the main organisation to share information or request assistance, though they are not obliged to.

38 Degrees has also started organising public meetings in various locations around the UK, focused on their "stop the gagging law" campaign. The local MP and 38 Degrees director David Babbs usually speak at these meetings alongside local 38 Degrees members. [15]

Campaigns By You

38 Degrees have an experimental platform where campaign ideas are chosen, refined and managed by a particular 38 Degrees member. The member acts as the contact and executor of the campaign. The platform can be used by any member and the prerequisite is a clear idea, which often has a local issue as a focal point. The 38 Degrees member gets to choose the issue and then use Campaigns By You platform (CBY) to collect signatures on a digital petition. CBY was developed to give members an opportunity to kick start a campaign in addition to shaping and participating in a preexisting one.[16]

Criticism

  • 38 Degrees has been criticised for running biased campaigns which amount to little more than spam particularly by Members of Parliament.[17][18][19]
  • Dominic Raab (Conservative MP) criticised 38 Degrees for allowing members to send "clone emails" to MPs via its website.[20] Raab stated he would lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office about 38 Degrees using his parliamentary email address.[21]
  • A number of government politicians strongly criticised 38 Degrees members for their actions campaigning against changes to the NHS. Lord Tyler, described 38 Degrees members as a "rent a mob".[22] In 2011 Transport Minister Simon Burns MP described 38 Degrees members as "almost zombie like" for following 38 degrees without question.[23]
  • Some sources have accused 38 Degrees of being left-wing and of having links to the Labour Party. The website 38 Degrees debunked, which is run by a Conservative councillor states that "Although 38 Degrees professes to be 'not connected with any political parties' it is intensely political as are its campaigns. On first sight its position seems to be a mixture of mainstream Social Democratic and Green".[25] Conservative MP Robert Halfon described 38 Degrees as "a mass database of centrist/floating voters, albeit with a sizeable minority from the centre left..[which is]...controlled by leftists".[26] 38 Degrees has strongly denied these claims.[27]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "About us". 38 Degrees. Retrieved 2 February 2014. 
  2. ↑ http://civilsocietycommission.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/civil-society-commission-report-WEB.pdf
  3. ↑ "A British MoveOn - 38 Degrees - Launches Today". Liberal Conspiracy. Retrieved 14 March 2011. 
  4. ↑ "The team". 38 Degrees website. Retrieved 14 March 2011. 
  5. ↑ "Companies House (company ID 6642193)". Retrieved 19 September 2011. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "38 Degrees (2014)". academia.edu. Retrieved 14 March 2011. 
  7. ↑ "People - The Staff Team". Retrieved 31 January 2014. 
  8. ↑ "Where are they now profile: David Babbs". People & Planet. Retrieved 14 March 2011. 
  9. ↑ "38 Degrees | Blog | Future Campaigns". Blog.38degrees.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  10. ↑ August 30th, 2011 by Johnny Chatterton (2011-08-30). "38 Degrees | Blog | NHS legal review on Duty to Provide & Competition – published today". Blog.38degrees.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  11. ↑ February 28th, 2012 by James Rees (2012-02-28). "38 Degrees | Blog | NHS: huge billboard ads". Blog.38degrees.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  12. ↑ "38 Degrees | Get Together". Secure.38degrees.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  13. ↑ "38 Degrees | Save Your Local NHS". Secure.38degrees.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  14. ↑ "38 Degrees | Meet Your CCG". Secure.38degrees.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  15. ↑ 38 Degrees | Blog | public meetings
  16. ↑ "Campaigns by You". You.38degrees.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  17. ↑ "ecampaigning stop-spam". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 February 2014. 
  18. ↑ "Guy Opperman MP: The falsehood of the 38 Degrees campaign on health". Conservative Home. Retrieved 1 February 2014. 
  19. ↑ "You’d almost think 38 Degress are trying to bias the answers to this survey…". Mark Pack. Retrieved 1 February 2014. 
  20. ↑ John Spence (11 August 2010). "Dominic Raab challenges 38 Degrees over removal of e-mail address". The Vibe website. Retrieved 14 March 2011. 
  21. ↑ "Tory MP in bid to have email address removed from lobbying websites". The Daily Mail (London). 10 August 2010. 
  22. ↑ Paul Tyler. "Response: The Lords are listening, but not to rent-a-mob email campaigns | Comment is free". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  23. ↑ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/24/health_minister_zombies/
  24. ↑ Brake, Tom. "Tom Brake on 38 Degrees and the Transparency and Lobbying Bill". 
  25. ↑ Phil Taylor. "38degreesdebunked". 38degreesdebunked.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  26. ↑ "38 Degrees - the real opposition?". Newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 
  27. ↑ March 26th, 2012 by David (2012-03-26). "38 Degrees | Blog | Why 38 Degrees is independent from political parties". Blog.38degrees.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-01-22. 

    External links

    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.