Activists propel Jones to victory

Alabama elected Doug Jones over Roy Moore on Tuesday, a victory which relied heavily on African American voters in the state – and the impressive turnout from those voters didn’t happen by accident.



Organizers on the ground worked to mobilize people to vote for Jones, while the national Democratic party also used resources to get out the message.

African Americans make up 26% of the population in Alabama, but 29% of those who voted on Tuesday were black, which helped get Jones over the line.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Doug Jones’ grandchild celebrates after Jones won Tuesday. Photograph: Cahn/Zuma Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Woke Vote, an Alabama organization which encourages young people to vote, was working for months in advance of the 12 December special election. Local television station WIAT reported that Woke Vote spent weeks at colleges across Alabama ahead of the election, registering voters ahead of election day.

The Collective Pac, which usually supports African American candidates, donated to Jones, CNN reported, while activists Project South, a collection of southern grassroots organizations, also travelled to Alabama in the days ahead of the vote.

BlackPac, a community organization which engages black communities politically, was among the groups on the ground, the New York Times reported, those organizations knocking “on more than half a million doors” and making “tens of thousands of phone calls”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pastor Arthur Price Jr, from the 16th Street Baptist Church, urged the mostly black congregation to vote in the Alabama’s special election. “There’s too much at stake for us to stay home,” Price said. Photograph: Brynn Anderson/AP

Alongside that, Senate Majority Pac, which aims to get Democrats elected to the Senate, spent $6m on the Alabama race. Some $2m of that money went towards getting out the vote.

Net neutrality

The federal communications commission voted to end net neutrality rules which protect an open internet on Thursday, following months of debate and protest among activists for a free internet.

Net neutrality activists had always expected the FCC to vote to dismantle the rules put in place by the Obama administration. The focus of groups like Save the Internet is to pressure members of Congress to intervene and ultimately overturn the FCC decision, and activists said that focus would continue in the wake of the vote.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Someone placed this little gift outside the FCC headquarters post-vote. Photograph: UPI / Barcroft Images

Save the Internet has put together a package of measures where people can call their elected officials and sign petitions registering their displeasure at the FCC vote.

The word of the year…

… is feminism, according to Merriam-Webster. There was a 70% increase in online searches for the term this year compared to 2016, the dictionary said. Searches spiked around the end of January – following the Women’s March, according to Merriam-Webster.

The dictionary chooses a top ten “words of the year”. Other entries included “complicit” and “dotard”.

Join us for our Making Sense of 2017 event in New York

Note to New Yorkers: join the Guardian to slam the door on 2017 on 19 December. Cocktails, conversation and a chance to hear our writers discuss the biggest stories of the year. Get your tickets to Making Sense of 2017 now.



Sign up for weekly news updates about the protests and activism in the US