So, 1,054,811 good citizens of London voted for Boris Johnson in the end. Over a million people, choosing to tug their forelocks to a multi-millionaire Old Etonian Tory aristocrat while ordinary Londoners struggle to stay afloat in one of the most expensive cities in the world, where the hyper-rich 1% are stealing all our money, decimating our city, and are disappearing over the horizon such is the yawning wealth gap between the two.
It should have been an obvious choice in London. During his first term in office, Johnson oversaw a massive increase in both road-traffic congestion and murderous air quality, a disastrous accommodation crisis, campaigned for the abolition of the 50p tax rate, and castigated London’s young, dispossessed and disaffected as the national Government laid waste to the entire generation.
By removing the western Congestion Charge extension he made poor people pay massively inflated public transport fares so that rich people could drive 4x4s around Chelsea and Kensington, and drastically altered the capital’s road ‘traffic flow’, favouring cars and vehicles at the fatal expense of cyclists and pedestrians
As Dave Hill pointed out in the Guardian just before May 3rd,
“Far from being an autonomous defender of Londoners’ interests, the mayoralty is now effectively an instrument of central government policy. Johnson is already compliant with Westminster-imposed damage to employment, housing and welfare in concert with aggressive, Tory-run boroughs.”
London is naturally a Labour-voting city, so what on earth went wrong?
‘Boris is a legernd LOL’ is what happened. This was a mythology diligently constructed by the media and widely believed. And of course it was designed to have a chilling effect on opposition to him; if you thought you were in a minority, you would be less likely to raise your voice in opposition and you may not even bother to vote. ‘Boris is a legernd, ha ha, look at his crazy hair LOL.’
And there’s the rub.
We at Common People decided that that wasn’t quite on. For the 2012 London elections, we thought that Londoners deserved an alternative view to the LOL hype.
We started the Sack Boris campaign in Spring 2011, designed specifically to quietly but succinctly undermine the glossy, impenetrable PR awesomeness of the worst London Mayor since Thomas Bloodworth, and then build the anti-Tory momentum in London in time to get him thrown out of City Hall on May 3rd.
Supported by the TSSA transport union, our message focused on the massive, above-inflation public transport fares increase imposed by Johnson; a simple message emblazoned across 170,000 colourful SACK BORIS Oyster wallets handed out during rush hour at over 250 inner-city stations in the run up to May 2012, each stuffed with information about how much more expensive public transport is under Johnson.
Coupled to that was a concerted online effort – viral videos, twitter, and a Facebook advertising campaign that reached over 2 million Londoners. Facebook users were key in recruiting volunteers, making our messages go viral, and pushing back against the right-wing online onslaught.
After cracking open Johnson’s PR armour, we then had to get him out of office.
In 2008, inner-city areas voted against the Tories, but the turnout was massively depressed compared to the outer-London Tory stronghold areas.
The Tories, it seemed, could get their vote out in 2008, but even then still only won by 140,000 votes out of over 2 million. It was all to play for.
We produced two comparable voting heat maps, showing simply how increasing the progressive (Labour, Greens, Lib Dem) vote in places like Hackney, Islington, Brixton, Waltham Forest, Lambeth, Lewisham and Newham was going to be crucial if we were to kick Johnson out.
Read our fuller strategy piece on Left Foot Forward from the Chair of Common People, Gary Dunion.
The response was frankly amazing. Hundreds of Oyster wallet orders were taken from work places, charities, NGO’s, sixth form students, public sector and private sector workers keen to distribute them in their workplaces. They became quite the cult accessory for London’s discerning progressives.
Whereas the Johnson campaign was backed to the hilt by the wealthiest 1 percent, over 1000 individual donations flooded in to our billboard campaign from ordinary Londoners. We erected huge billboards in ten areas where the London riots exploded, paid for by people from the very communities affected by them, and reminding them that when London was going up in flames, the London Mayor instead stayed on holiday.
We also conducted lies, and highlighting how sexist and out of touch he is.
And then finally, on the eve of election-day, we produced and handed out at over 70 core stations a bold and colourful guide on how to use the voting system to eject Johnson from office.
Working with the TSSA’s Community Organising Unit (the only one of any UK Trade Union) was key in mobilising community volunteers and non-aligned activists. At any one Sack Boris actions handing out our Oyster wallets there would be people from the Greens, Labour and Respect, union activists, UK Uncut and student activists, and independents who simply know how destructive Johnson is for London, and want him out.
Sack Boris was a fantastically positive unifying campaign. Progressive people in London should be proud; we fought a City-funded and organised Tory machine, and also daily opposition from the disgraceful Evening Standard newspaper, and even fought opposition from shameful members of the Labour Party. And yet we helped reduced Johnson’s winning margin from 140,000 to just 62,000, and increased Labour representation on the London Assembly at the expense of the Tories, so the Conservatives won’t have London all to themselves anymore.
Although the result didn’t go our way, we showed that the progressive British left can unite under one banner. If we put aside our cosmetic differences and campaign with wit, honesty and integrity, we can inspire ALL people to fight for a better world.
And that means a lot.
- Common People is a group of committed citizens working together to strengthen and promote the progressive values shared by the majority of people in the UK. We are a radical, green, left-leaning group that will not hesitate to take on any issue or campaign that needs action. We aim to be at the leading edge of campaigning in Britain, working on the central issues of social change and politics. And, unlike most groups, we will take an active part in influencing elections at all levels. We will act together online, in print, on the streets and in election campaigns to unite and empower the progressive majority that exists in the UK. We will force our leaders to listen to that majority and help create a society of which we can all be proud. Join us and help make a difference.
By Matt Hanley (@MattHanley)