One of my favourite stories to make its way round blogs yesterday was the news that:
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, lost a ballot initiative in Los Angeles County to build a retail complex after local officials said the development would decimate small businesses.
(from Bloomberg.com’s coverage, picked up from Hugo’s blog)
The news came a day after I had spent some time reading various articles about Wal-Mart as Kari and I put together a list of local amenities for those invited to our wedding, a list which also includes a couple of warnings. We decided that we’d link our recommendation that guests avoid Wal-Mart to Alternet’s article.
In another victory for local campaighers, last Tuesday Grand Rapids City Commission became the 278th such body to pass a resolution opposing the USA Patriot Act.
As national leaders have become more remote, larger and larger bodies of people have gathered to voice their opposition to a variety of policies. But when it comes to raising public profile, these sorts of local acts are likely to be much more effective.
For media presence too, local campaigning can work wonders. In Britain, readership of local or regional newspapers vastly outstrips readership of national newspapers ( according to BMRB/TGI in 2003 84.5% of all British adults read a regional newspaper, while 70.5% read a national newspaper) and in the USA, where very few newspapers have national coverage, and most national media is owned by a small number of giant corporations, local coverage is still more important.
The implications of national and international agreements such as the USA Patriot Act, as well as the World Trade Organisation’s GATS agreement (which Reading Borough Council passed a resolution on a couple of years ago),weigh heavy on local government. The effects of both are felt by local services and local government will, as a result, often be required to deal with their repercussions.
Certainly campaigns appear to have more clout when they achieve national and international profile, rather than simply an often un-co-ordinated regional profile. But when the effects of issues are local, and the best way to reach the most people is through local press, should we be focussing more attention on lobbying local government? ‘Think Global, Act Local’ has long been a favourite slogan, but it holds a lot of truth.