Obama's winning web team help mail fight

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by René Lavanchy

THE online campaigning team behind Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaign has been recruited by the Communication Workers’ Union to help it fight the partial sell-off of Royal Mail.

Blue State Digital, the company which oversaw mass emailing and the use of virtual phone banks in the Obama campaign, has launched a petition and plans to harvest large numbers of e-mail addresses.

CWU head of communications Kevin Slocombe said that the petition has already yielded over 56,000 addresses, and that around 4,000 people sign up every week.

He added: “In the first week of the electronic campaign, 670 people wrote to their MP and we will be continuing with our campaign to sign up more supporters and encourage more people to take direct action.”

Matthew McGregor, director of BSD’s London office, said: “We’ve added campaign elements of our powerful tool set that will build support for a strong publicly owned service.

“Over the coming weeks BSD will help the CWU amplify the voices of the campaign’s supporters across Britain”.

Signatories to the petition will also receive updates from Labour left pressure group Compass, which is also campaigning on Royal Mail and published a report this week arguing that the case for part-privatisation had not been made.

BSD claims credit for gathering some 13 million e-mail addresses through its Obama campaign website, and helping raise $30 million (£21 million) in individual donations online.

The company has strong trade union links, having previously worked for the CWU’s American equivalent, the Communication Workers of America, while Mr McGregor was formerly communications officer at the Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation.