Moving Forwards: September Community Update
Welcome to the first in a new series of community updates!
Although it’s important to fight Reform at the ballot box, we also need to fight their misinformation. Here are how some friends of the Movement Forward are fighting back in various ways:
Challenging the Reform narrative: convos on the streets
Our friends at West Country Voices carried out some fantastic work with the South Devon Primary where they managed to successfully unite voters behind one progressive candidate to defeat the Tories.
They wanted to carry on talking to people on the streets and to steadily dismantle often unthinking support for Reform by showing people that division is being manufactured by the far-right. They invite people to share what they think about various topical issues.
We spoke to Anthea who told us more:
“The questions are simplifications of the issues BUT they trigger great conversations and are an excellent opportunity for quietly de-bunking lies and disinformation, as people ponder where to place their dots.
We go out once a week with this ‘democracy-meter’, focusing on Reform strongholds/targets. We’ve had some genuinely moving interactions – the anxious young woman who felt proud to discover that she did in fact have opinions and knew a great deal more than she imagined; the angry man who berated us for failing to understand that ‘millions’ of illegal immigrants were arriving every year, scoffed at our facts but then actually came back forty minutes later to apologise and acknowledge that we were correct. He shook hands and thanked us.”
They plan to keep doing this right up to the next election, morphing the democracy-meter into a decision tree which will demonstrate to people that their concerns and values are not, in fact, aligned with the far-right agenda.
If you want to replicate this in your area, or simply learn more, please contact the team at [email protected]
Check out more democracy meters in action on the media tab of West Country Voice’s Bluesky:
New “How to Stop Funding Hate” guide just launched
Stop Funding Hate has just launched a new “how to” blog series, sharing some of the key lessons of the campaign so far.
The goal is to enable anyone to start their own Stop Funding Hate-style campaign, challenging media that push hate and misinformation by engaging with advertisers.
The rise of online advertising has made it easier than ever for bad actors to profit from hate and lies – and we’re seeing the results every day on our streets.
But Stop Funding Hate supporters have shown that it’s possible to push back by urging the companies they shop with to avoid advertising with toxic media. GB News has now lost over £100 million as big advertisers continue to steer clear, and even Nigel Farage has admitted that these tactics work.
Stop Funding Hate believes the key to bringing about long-term change is to enable as many people as possible to understand this campaigning model and apply it for themselves. You can help by reading and sharing the first instalments of the new guide – and by letting Stop Funding Hate know about other things you’d like to see included as the blog series develops.
Book Launch – Manufactured Fear
Author Alex Kerr has just released Manufactured Fear, a timely and hard-hitting book that exposes how politicians and media figures manipulate fear to gain power. From Salem witch trials to Farage’s rhetoric and current culture-war tactics, Kerr pulls apart the strategies that keep people divided and anxious and shows how we can fight back.
Both analytical and beautifully written, Manufactured Fear is already gaining praise from early readers and contributors including Jane Elliott, Zoe Gardner, and Mathilda Mathilson.
Our Newsletter
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We’re using our newsletters to amplify awareness of activity from friends who are also fighting for a better, fairer, more just Britain.
Each time we’ll send a brief rundown of things you can do or share. This is part of how we can effect positive, progressive change between elections!
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