Harry Targ
Theorizing
About Social Movements and Activism
Social movement activism has spread like wildfire
across the entire globe over the last decade. One group of scholars studied
“protest incidents” in over 80 countries from 2006-2013. They found 840
protests in these countries with at least half motivated by demands for
economic changes and democratization. A centerpiece of movements from Greece,
to Chile, to Spain, to Canada to the United States has been outrage against
neoliberal policies (sometimes referred to as “austerity” policies).
Fundamentally these policies involve shifting wealth from the vast majority to
the tiny minority. In the United States, the Occupy Movement introduced an
accurate metaphor for this transformation: the one percent versus the 99
percent. Moral Mondays movements in over a dozen states in the South and
Midwest emerged as one large-scale protest against the imposition of austerity
and the weakening of democratic institutions.
David Harvey, a political theorist, has posited a
“co-revolutionary theory” about social movements. He argues that because there
are so many problems in so many different locations in society political
activism can and must start anywhere. If one is at a university or elsewhere in
the education system struggles over “mental constructs’ matter. If persons are
engaged in or near the electoral arena targeting politicians must be done. Work
in the corporate sector, the media, government institutions are all sites for
the application of political pressure and organizing. What needs to be
remembered however is that all the separate struggles are interconnected and
that activists need to understand how each struggle relates to every other
struggle. Also, victory in one place and time does not mean that the goals of
struggle have been achieved. In the end, Harvey argues that the interconnected
crises relating to class, race, gender, homophobia, and the environment are
intimately connected to the capitalist system.
Further, activists debate the utility of political
engagement around elections and legislation compared to mass movement activity.
Some progressives have proposed as a solution to this dilemma, developing an
“inside/outside” strategy. The inside/outside strategy argues for pursuing
electoral work, electing candidates who might act on the people’s behalf, and lobbying
to secure legislative victories, even if such efforts cannot solve the panoply
of economic, environmental, racial and other problems that are faced. Electoral
and legislative work, however, needs to be supplemented by “street heat;”
building a mass movement that can be mobilized to publicly demonstrate its
outrage and its demands for change. The outside strategy might include creating
a large, disciplined organization with resources that can respond to and lead
the mass movement of people for change. It is through the outside strategy that
politicians can be forced to carry out the will of the people.
Finally, Rev. Barber, through his “fusion politics”
approach incorporates all of the above thinking. Fusion politics emphasizes the
need for progressive groups to work together in coalitions, in partnerships, in
common organizational fronts to bring the energy of all groups together. Ruling
classes or power elites do not respond to change unless masses of organizations
and people come together to make demands. The 99 percent do not have the
material resources- the money, ownership of media outlets, influence over
education and police power-to bring about change. All they have potentially are
their numbers. And the fusion politics model is about mobilizing masses of
people, developing effective and democratic organizations, and applying people
power all across the political and economic map.
Indiana
Moral Mondays
Indiana Moral Mondays began as a conversation among
activists in 2014. Some participants in the discussions had direct experience
with Rev. William Barber and North Carolina’s growing Moral Mondays movement.
During early meetings, IMM formed issue committees to begin work on the
problems Hoosier citizens faced over access to the polls, the criminal justice
system, health care, worker rights, education, and the environment. In
addition, IMM decided to organize a large rally at the Statehouse in
Indianapolis, with Rev. Barber as the keynote speaker. Also a diverse group of
speakers representing the issue areas, the various progressive organizations in
the state, youth, people of color, workers, and environmentalists, would be
asked to speak as well to signify that our new movement would be based upon
fusion politics, diversity, and coalition-building.
Since the September, 2014 mass mobilization issue
groups and partner organizations have worked on legislative lobbying,
organizing marches and rallies around emerging issues, and discussing how to
bring the issues to relevant constituencies around the state. 2015 became a
year of debating, organizing, engaging in outreach, and developing plans of
work for the coming period, one to three years. IMM is passionate, impatient
about the need for change, and yet wise to the fact that organizing for change
is a long and arduous process.
As IMM moves into 2016 the following conversations
need to be held:
1.How do we organize statewide, particularly given
the fact that Indiana is really three states.
2.How do we develop in our literature and public
agenda the view that what we are struggling against is a thirty year program of
austerity, redistributing the wealth and power from the many to the few. And
how can we effectively show that our struggles in Indiana parallel struggles in
other states and countries.
3.How can we effectively link our theoretical
understanding of history, much like Rev. Barber’s provocative discussion of the
three reconstructions, to the concrete campaigns we are engaged in in Indiana.
4.How can we take the general worldview and discuss
around the state
-the
threat to voting rights
-racist
police practices
-the
transformation of a 150 year tradition of public education into for-profit
charter schools
-the
deregulation of environmental controls at the very same time that plants emit
more pollution
-the
rationing of health care and the rising cost of medication
-the
use of state enticements to bring investors who create low wage jobs that
worsen income inequality
-the
use of government to destroy the right of workers to form unions of their
choosing and to honor the work of
those unions to defend worker rights
These are the substantive issues that brought IMM
together. Organizationally these substantive issues and the
historical/theoretical narrative raised in Parts 1 and 2 of this series of essays must
be linked to IMM organization and
structure. IMM needs to discuss:
-the proportion of work devoted to inside and
outside strategies
-statewide efforts at outreach, particularly to
communities in “the three states”
-the relative weight and autonomy to be given to the
state organization and the various hubs or regional centers
-the connections between IMM and the many
organizations who partner with IMM. It may be that IMM could best serve as
network coordinator among partner organizations rather than an initiator of
programs.
-and finally, the relationship between the varying
decision-making bodies, local organizations and issue committees within IMM.
Conclusion
The world is in turmoil. Protests all across the
globe have some common origins, causes, and solutions. While Hoosier problems
have their own characteristics they are not too different from those elsewhere.
IMM, in this regard, should see itself as part of the great twenty-first
century movement for economic and social justice. The ongoing work of IMM will
involve addressing the particular while being cognizant of the general,
building coalitions in Indiana of shared responsibility and respect, organizing
people power from the state house to the streets, and reconstructing
institutions that serve, not oppress the people. The fact that IMM has survived
and grown since its formation nearly two years ago is an extraordinary
achievement. The next steps have been suggested above.
This is the third part of an essay on Indiana in the United States political economy and the politics of resistance. The other two essays can also be found at www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com
