Left Blogs and Left Blogging

I received an invite for last Wednesday's Blogging Nation event organised by Sunny Hundal of Liberal Conspiracy and in association with The Graun. Unfortunately neither of your humble writers could make it down (why must these things always be in London?) but it did sound like an interesting evening that saw some pertinent blogging issues getting an airing. I wouldn't mind adding my two pennies to some of the discussions it initiated, and seeing as it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to, I may as well do it here. There are two matters that interest me: the absence of women from left blogging and the lack of linkage between feminist and left bloggers, and what's the point of left wingers pouring their opinions into cyberspace.

Starting with women, feminism and blogging, every time I look at the AVPS counter-hegemonic blogroll the comparative lack of blogging women leap out from the list. This lack may reflect the gender imbalance in the labour movement, but this is not a very good excuse. Where there are imbalances and inequalities the left should try and seek to address it. But putting my own house in order is quite difficult when I don't know any left blogs by women beyond those listed, nor many feminist blogs based in Britain and Ireland. If anyone could point me in the direction of some that would be great.

But this lack of awareness is symptomatic of the distance between left and feminist blogs. I think Jess McCabe of The F Word sums it up best:

My assessment is that most (but not all) left-wingish blogs in the UK ignore gender and feminism, and thus feminist bloggers ignore them in return. Or, if not exactly ignore, the networking bloggers do of exchanging links, comments and emails doesn’t happen, because if we do read those blogs, we’re not inspired to link them up because they’re not relevant.

Here's the rub. I'm certain left blogging men are committed to gender equality and would argue (albeit with a (very!) varying range of sophistication) that the struggle for socialism and women's liberation are intertwined. But few regularly comment on issues of interest to feminists. I try to, Jim and Splinty do, but that's about it. If more left men did then we might just be able to get a blogging dialogue going with feminists. But dialogue is a two way street, we have to know why left bloggers feel ill-equipped to engage in feminist debates on feminist blogs. And why are "feminist issues" irrelevant to their primary areas of concern? Is there anything feminists can also do to make a cross pollination of views more than just a nice idea?

Turning now to the second question, does leftist blogging have a point? Well, I might be biased but the answer is a bloody obvious "hell yeah!" Because the right and bourgeois "common sense" dominate the media the left needs to seek out every opportunity of getting our ideas across and attacking establishment views. And in blogland there is more of a level playing field. Iain Dale and Guido may think they rule the blogging roost but even they are sometimes forced to answer critics to their left. And if you take their media-fuelled popularity out of the equation readership is fairly evenly distributed. Audiences cluster around the political centre and tending to thin out toward the fringes. Dale's belief that the right have got blogging all sewn up is just a myth. After all don't forget most Tory bloggers can only dream of the kinds of figures Dave's Part, Lenin's Tomb and Socialist Unity pull down everyday.

And there's more to left blogging than this. There is "self-improvement", or, if you're feeling uncharitable, vanity. I can only really speak for myself but blogging has given me a desire to write regularly about an eclectic bunch of issues, from Africa to zombies and everything in between. I get to write reflexively about my experiences as a Socialist Party activist and sermonise about my sociology hobby horse, which might just take some interesting ideas out of the seminar room and introduce them to a slightly wider audience.

There is also the potential for left blogging to become something of an ideas factory. I know this was once said of discussion lists, but blogging is different from the good old UKLN and friends. You can indulge endless rounds of sectariana if you wish, but you can write more sophisticated pieces too. There are more opportunities to properly engage with the thoughts of other activists, which generally doesn't lend itself too well to the discussion list format. I know I never would have submitted a lot of AVPS material to the UKLN.

But what I think is really important are the relationships blogging can build up (and sometimes destroy!) between comrades. The UKLN may have not have been the most comradely of environments in the past but it did establish a series of weak ties between a pretty disparate bunch of socialists. Blogging takes this to another level. For instance, without the relationships built up through Socialist Unity and Liam MacUaid's blog it would have been more difficult for Respect to have come out from beneath the SWP's shadow. The network of Labour Left blogs certainly helped raise the profile of John McDonnell among the labour movement. And now blogs are helping build for September's Convention of the Left. I'm sure the ties of mutual interest, comradeship and, ahem, robust debate will bare more fruits for the left in future. What this means for the existing left groups, seeing as only a very small number of active left bloggers are drawn from this layer remains to be seen, though any speculation is welcome.

Anyway, coming back to Liberal Conspiracy's Blog Nation event, I hope it won't be too long before something similar is organised again. Perhaps a bit of blog-related introversion will make a good session for the Convention in Manchester?