Social Networking In Western Ontario

By Gil Warren

Social Networking is a new phrase for a very old concept. It has also been called community or grassroots organizing or, simply, working with the neighbours.

The basic principles are always the same. 1. Everything is connected. 2. Some things are even more connected at the local level than at the elite level. 3. The technology changes over time but it is all about moving information around and mobilizing people.

In the 21st century, thanks to computers and the Internet, we have a totally jumped up version of the old strategy. Now we have protests in a repressive country and citizen journalists are reporting instantly via cell phone cameras and solidarity protests erupt around the world.

This article will focus on London and the surrounding communities and is from the perspective of social networking for progressive left wing causes.

The first place to start is your neighbourhood.

If you live in an apartment or townhouse, do you have a tenants’ union? Do you live in a co-op or a condominium with a board of directors?

If you live in a house, is there a community association like Woodfield or Old South? All of these organizations have annual meetings, elections of officers and social events. The community organizations in London are organized into a citywide group called the Urban League.

The next social networking structure is your ward. Composed of a number of neighbourhoods, your ward (1-14) has an elected city councillor with elections every four years. The next city election is one year from now.

City Hall is the next level. A tremendous amount of community networking is done there with the city councillors and the city staff. There are often public consultations about new developments in the city. Small groups of people with a clear vision of what they want can often make dramatic changes in which alternative way the city develops.

Even the annual budget of London is a big deal at $1,000 million or $1 billion a year. Grass roots organizers can have input into how that money is spent and taxed.

At the city level we also have a number of special interest groups like the Chamber of Commerce, The Labour Council, developers, landlords, union locals, environmental groups and service clubs.

Another part of the social network is the non-profits or the non-governmental organizations (ngo’s). The Unity Project is a not for profit charity that runs a homeless shelter in East London. It has 15 employees and a board of community leaders. There is a citywide group for many non-profits called The United Way.

Religious organizations also play a key role in our community. They are involved in the food banks, social housing, education and social justice.

Social networking at a local level can also take on a provincial, national or international character. An example is the political riding associations.

There are four riding associations in London for each level of government. Each riding has an association for each of the three major parties. They provide feedback and money for each party and local campaign during elections.

An international example of local networking would be Amnesty International or Oxfam Canada working on prisoners of conscience or world poverty.

The London Coalition For Social Justice has links with Social Justice groups in Chatham, Woodstock and the Waterloo Region. These groups are also linked with a provincial organization called the Ontario Coalition For Social Justice (OCSJ) The OCSJ lobbies provincial and federal governments. The labour movement has a similar structure with the Ontario Federation of Labour.

No tour of local networking would be complete without a look at London’s original artistic and cultural scene. Many of the hundreds of volunteers at The Home County Folk Festival and Sunfest are community organizers during the rest of the year. Home County shows its cooperative spirit in loaning equipment to the Dragon Boat Races.

We also have year round venues like The Music Club, The Aeolian Hall, The Palace and Grand Theatres and The Arts Project which are all linked to each other.

Another part of networking is the community food movement. This includes organic and local food vendors at farm markets like the Western Fair and Covent Garden. There is also a mushrooming Community Garden or City Farming movement where people grow their own food in parks and open areas around the city.

The final piece of the community organizing is the communications part. There is a hierarchy of network communication. The most effective will always be personal contact in real time and space. It is much harder to say “no” to some one standing in front of you than it is to one of two hundred e-mails that are days old.

We should also be wary of getting side tracked by the flashing lights of high tech. What is the point of putting weeks and months of work into a web site seen only by a handful of people? The logical thing to do is simply phone or visit .

All too often community organizers ignore the existing tools of mass communication like letters to the editor or talk radio. Create a protest, invite your friends and the TV station and get on the news.

Here is one final observation about e-mailing and web sites. There seems to be an iron law of communications. The easier it is to communicate, the lower the value of the message. That being said, a couple of good tools in London are the London Activist Network (via e-mail) and The London Commons Web Site.

So, there you have it-a brief tour and critique of social networking in Western Ontario. Put it to good use by creating more social justice, equality and democracy.