3.1 Internal vs external campaigning
It can be helpful to think of collective campaigning as at times taking place internally within an organisation, as well as externally to achieve change in another organisation. As an example of internal campaigns, you can look to trade unions and political parties.
Internal campaigning
Trade unions: collective campaigning at work
Trade unions campaign in the workplace. These are internal campaigns aimed at winning changes from an employer. They might be around gender pay gaps, working conditions, or workplace policy and use various tactics including petitions, demonstrations, and strikes.
However, it is important to note that trade unions at times also undertake external campaigning, pushing for policy changes from local or national government, for instance where an issue affects members across multiple workplaces.
Factionalism: collective campaigning in a political organisation
In previous sections it was noted that even in membership organisations it is necessary to know your target constituency when you are undertaking a campaign. While it might generally seem reasonable to suggest that all members of, say, a political party should share social and political outlooks or material aims, the reality is much more complicated. Quite often within membership organisations like political parties, so-called factions exist – political/ideological groupings within the organisation. These factions often undertake campaigns internally to attempt to force or influence the party leadership to adopt a certain position on an issue.
For instance, an issue like Brexit saw the two major parties in the UK divided, with both sides of the dispute undertaking campaigns for their party to adopt their favoured position. These included digital campaigns, press and social media campaigning as well as protests and demonstrations.
External campaigning
Pressure groups and social movements
It is most common to think of campaigns as being targeted externally. A pressure group campaigning for public ownership of railways for instance would aim to mobilise a constituency to apply pressure to national government. The pressure group itself might be an organisation or a coalition of organisations aiming to apply pressure to a decision-maker external to them. And it is not always the case that these kinds of externalised campaigns are targeted at public authorities. Sometimes groups target private organisations, as has been the case when climate campaigners target banks with demands to divest from oil production.
In all cases, whether internal or external, collectivised campaigning, rather than being focused on mobilising a constituency behind an individual leader, places the onus on using a constituency’s collective power to achieve change.
Next you will consider more closely how collective campaigning is approached, reflecting on strategy and tactics and how this style of campaigning could offer an approach to your own leadership context.