the web savviest political movements in finland
TRANSCRIPT
The Wing and The SpringThe web-savviest political movements in Finland
Hub Helsinki Oct 4, 2011
• Have managed to lift their issues from obscurity to the big parties’ and/or national media’s agenda
Who are they?• The anti-immigration
wing of The Finns orThe True Finn
• The Helsinki Spring
Here they come:
• The Finns’ wing…
• Estimated 4 percentturnout, if campaignedas an independentparty (Channel 4 news poll 23.9.2011)
• Levareges its power as an anti-immigrationmovement within the populist True Finnsparty
• The Helsinki Spring…
• A movementencompassing probablyup to thousands of university students
• Aims to boost the economy with a entrepreneurial ”startuprevolution”
Web-savvy, but different toolsThe Wing…- Closed events- Discussion forums, media website commentarychains and blogs- Anonymity
The Spring…- Open events- Twitter, YouTube, blogs
The Internet runs on love?
Criticism and hatred
• ”En vähäisimmässäkään määrin halua riskeerata tilannetta, jossa joutuisin maksamaan jollekin Afrikan sarven ihmissaastalle vahingonkorvauksia "kivusta ja särystä”.
• (Jussi Halla-Aho, MP TrueFinns on ”the humanscum of the Horn of Africa”.)
”Awesomeness”
A political party?
The Wing…
A ”party within a party”
Conscious of its’ ideology and methods
Already experienced in working w/ the politicalsystem and the media
The Spring…
Does not see itself as a political movement?
Unconscious of its’ distinctideology
Ready to align with anybodyfrom Sdp to Coalition party
Scope of action
Local Glocal
Origins of ideology
European counter-jihadism Libertarianism
Ideology
Nationalism
Anti-immigrant
Anti-EU
Protectionism?
Wealth distribution based on ethnicity
Globalism
Entrepreneurial capitalism
Free marketeer
Entrepreneurial immigration
Wealth distrubution based on merit
Political achievements
7-10 MP’s within True Finnsparliamentary group
Legislative initiatives & modest risingsupport in Sdp and Coalition Party
Conclusions and Q’s
• No political ideas grow without digitalcultivation
• ”Is web2.0 relevant to politics” is not the question – that has been answered severalyears ago
• But the interesting things on the Web aredone by others than the established politicalplayers
• Like in business, in politics, too, this is an era of disruption
• The Internet is used to gain new markets. Old ”Nokia’s” fall.
• ”Old parties” live of adopting ideas from the Webosphere
• ”Old parties’”ideological development has driedout along with their incapability to adopt to the new communication environment
Cause for concern?The Wing and The Spring have developed into
(almost) fullgrown political movements in opposite ends of the Internet with little or no
common ground or contact.
• The Internet does not, for now, provide a platform for negotiation and deliberationbetween extremes
• Does the Parliament remain as the only suchfunctioning institution?
• Does the Internet as it now is actually worktowards a shattered society where decisionmaking is increasingly difficult?
• If so, should we make every effort to buildtools and develop practices for decision
making on the internet?
Thank you
Kiitos
http://avajaopen.fi/