15/12/2025
SV - Sosialistisk Venstreparti (SV) secured 9 mandates in Stortinget with 5,5% of the votes in the Norweigan election in September.
SV uses Zetkin to organize and has played a great role in developing Zetkin’s email and canvassing functionalities, strengthening our community of left-wing organizers across Europe.
We asked Nils-Erik Flatø, Organizational Advisor for local branches, about their organizing during the election campaign.
📢 What methods have SV used to engage and activate members and volunteers in the election campaign?
“We have been canvassing, in addition to more traditional ways of campaigning. The canvassing effort managed to grow quickly: we went from 1248 conversations to 7382 in three weeks.
Talking directly to people about the issues that mattered to them reignited a passion for politics for a lot of our members, who have felt that politics has become something almost abstract. Organizing doesn´t happen in a TikTok; it happens when you speak to people in your local community.”
📢 What role do you think local branches and grassroots activism have in reaching voters, compared to central campaign coordination?
“Local branches are essential in reaching voters. Their knowledge about the people we want to connect with is golden. We learn so much that makes us better at creating policies.
The central campaign apparatus is still important to create structure so volunteers can focus on talking to people.”
📢 Do you have a message you’d like to share with your fellow left-wing organizers?
“Don´t wait! Get started. Learn from parties who have done this before you. But please don´t think you are going to workshop your way to the perfect plan, and spend 6 months in internal meetings before anything real happens.
Adapt to your local circumstances, and get out there talking to people. Challenges will present themselves, and you can ask a comrade for help in solving them (Ask SV!) - Start tomorrow.”
✊Thank you, Nils-Erik Flatø!
We love learning from organizers, so we can develop better software and create a world “For de mange – ikke for de få”.
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