One thing has already changed since I started working at Change.org, when the platform still didn’t exist in Spain: today, people know they can change things, that their campaigns can achieve changes. We have done surveys of Spanish citizens, and 81% say they would start a petition if they had a problem. That is a major change. Because it means that a huge majority of the population knows that it has the power to change things and that it is empowered to do it. 

“Today, people know they can change things”

But that’s not all: of the platform’s 12 million users in Spain, half, 6 million, have signed a petition that has achieved its goal. In other words, they know, because they have received a victory e-mail, that signing petitions helps to change things. That is incredibly powerful. Because it has created the idea that change is possible. In the face of injustice, we need not stand idly by. That is extremely important to strengthen our democracy. 

Nowhere in the world are there as many users as in Spain: 12 million, more than 33% of Internet users. There are many reasons for this, but some in particular stand out. First, it is important to understand that Change.org came to Spain on the heels of the spectacular growth of Actuable, the petition platform founded by the Change.org director in Spain, Francisco Polo. And it did so in the context of the crisis that led to the 15-M anti-austerity movement, the crisis that drove a lot of people to take action. Moreover, Change.org made it easy to do, from your phone. That shows that Spaniards want to participate and change their society. But the official tools, such as the right to petition Parliament or popular legislative initiatives (ILPs from the Spanish) don’t work. They don’t work because they are designed so that nothing changes. Change.org has been a real revolution. And, finally, because Spaniards’ mindset has changed. They are more active. They know they can achieve changes and they see themselves reflected in what other users achieve.

"Official tools, such as the right to petition Parliament or popular legislative initiatives, do not work because they are designed so that nothing changes"

It’s very difficult. And therein lies the key to its success. Change.org conveys emotions, the most powerful tool in communication. It does this by bringing users’ stories to the table.

That’s how I understand corporate communication. People don’t want to hear you talk about yourself and only yourself. People want to hear stories about people like them. That’s how Change.org communicates. It’s the stories that manage to change the world. 

“Change.org conveys emotions, the most powerful tool in communication”

Totally. The Internet has accelerated and created a new virtuous circle of social change. First, it has substantially lowered the barriers to leadership. Anyone can become the leader of a movement to change things. Second, it has made it possible for anyone to defend a cause and it has changed the strategy for solving the great problems of humanity: today we are seeing how people manage to change specific aspects of major problems, until the roots of these problems dry up. And, third, they are able to quickly achieve changes that inspire other people to start new petitions, which ensures the circle does not stop. 

"The Internet has accelerated and created a new virtuous circle of social change"

We’re protesting. That’s what matters. Technology lets us do things differently. But do them nonetheless. There is a false debate about so-called armchair activism. The only thing we know for sure is that politics is armchair politics. That’s what they want. For people to get up out of their armchairs only once every four years to go out to vote. A lot of things can be achieved with a mobile phone. But also, people who are active online are more influential amongst their networks of friends and more likely to act in other ways, too, from showing up in person to joining a party or even voting. That’s what studies from prestigious universities such as George Washington University tell us. 

"There is a false debate about so-called armchair activism. The only thing we know for sure is that politics is armchair politics"

My reasons were threefold. First, the chance for a woman to reach the White House was extremely important for equality. When I left for New York, I was thinking about all the things my grandmothers, my mother or my sister would have been able to do if the most powerful office in the world had already been held by a woman. The glass ceiling that could have been shattered before. I thought we needed to achieve that to continue on the path to equality. Second, on 24 June 2016, I woke up to the news of Brexit, and I couldn’t get out of bed. I think that the European project, despite the many changes it needs, is a vital tool and that, especially for my generation and those now studying at UPF, it defines us. It defines us because we see and live in a world without borders. The UK exit due to populism together with the idea of a man like Trump in the White House made me want to go to try to prevent a blow to the Union, like we’re seeing now. And, third, I did it for personal reasons. I had been at Change.org for five years. The company turned ten last year. So I’d been there for half its life! I needed to broaden my horizons. 

"We were Hillary Clinton’s voice in Spanish"

I worked on the digital content team, a real machine. And within that team, I worked on the Spanish part. We were Hillary Clinton’s voice in Spanish. It was the first time a presidential campaign made such a strong and organized effort to reach out to Latino voters. 

We have spent too many years talking about a paradigm shift, convincing the old guard that a new world was being born. But along the way, we failed to make any big changes in how we do things. And that world has already been born. All the newspapers except two (the one owned by the man behind Eurovegas and the KKK’s) endorsed Hillary. The political communication experts didn’t believe that it was possible for someone who went against tradition to win... and yet, he did. The use of media has already changed. The Internet is not some second-tier outlet or just the redoubt of young people and freaks. It is a reality. And if we have media that are no longer influential, a society that still suffers from the crisis and a demagogue who uses new media without the traditional media understanding what it’s all about, we’ve got an explosive mix that explains what happened with Trump and, before him, Brexit. And we are also seeing how, little by little, in other crucial elections, candidates are beginning to understand that the world has already changed and that they have to act accordingly.

"The political communication experts did not believe that it was possible for someone who went against tradition to win" 

I was class delegate the last year of my degree programme. And not much else. I didn’t belong to any associations, student groups or unions. Really, I kept my nose in the books. 

It was very traditional, as I recall. The different groups held their meetings and everything was organized via posters, strikes, demonstrations... Social media didn’t exist yet! Blogs still weren’t influential enough, and I would go so far as to say they weren’t necessary either, for that kind of participation. 

I have quite a few, to be honest. What people always say about how university is the best time of your life is completely true. Recently acquired freedom, access to new thoughts, training in critical thinking... and new friendships and experiences. It’s an explosive mix. I think my best memory is of an optional subject, Spanish Foreign Policy, in which we had to negotiate the Gibraltar conflict. I was the Spanish Foreign Minister. I remember a final meeting with the British Foreign Minister at the café on Roger de Llúria, to finish drawing up an international treaty amongst all the noise and the smell of fried food. Or the classes with Vicenç Navarro, which I think is what spontaneously comes up when you meet other Political Science students from other classes when you travel around the world. 

"What people always say about how university is the best time of your life is completely true" 

But mainly I took away the knowledge. For me those were crucial years. I learned a lot and I learned to be critical. I finished figuring out what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I did it in a good environment, with good facilities, and a good teaching staff. There are always things that can be improved, like everywhere. Some don’t depend on the university itself, but on the university system or the country where we live. But the result was more than satisfactory. 

To take advantage of time. Don’t let the apathy of other students or certain teachers, because some teachers are like that too, dampen your desire to do big things. The ambition to turn your time at university into something big has to come from inside, too. Talk to everyone and check your prejudices at the door; mingle with people from far away. Be an Erasmus student. Pursue what you like best. Don’t be at the faculty just to be there. Rebel when things aren’t right. But do it constructively, adding not subtracting. Live these years fully, because they won’t come again, and they are critical in our lives. Have fun. Fall in love, fall out of love, and fall in love again. Come out of the closet if you are still in it... Live in a new world, which is incredible. And cultivate alliances that will last a lifetime. 

It’s a difficult time, but not an impossible one. I would tell them to try to see the glass half full, not the glass half empty. To understand that their degree alone will take them nowhere. Now they need to give it personality, focus on what they really want to do. And build their candidacy on that. To differentiate themselves from the rest of the candidates. And to understand that their university education is the first step in the rest of the training that will make them good professionals. 

"They have to understand that university education is the first step in the rest of the training that will make them good professionals"