Preserving labor history in the present, for the future
Labor activists take steps to preserve the documents and strategies they use today, so future organizers will have a practical guide.
social movements
Unions have been down before, history shows how they can come back
Two ways we can honor unions at this time of trial are to ask others to join union picket lines and to learn from their innovations and successes for whatever campaigns we are committed to today.
How ideology can help (or hurt) movements trying to build power
We need something else that can speak to working-class people across race and region. The Democrats aren’t going to do it. We need to be out there trying to win people over, not to win the left over.
Poverty amid plenty: A world fragmented by inequality
The right analysis alone, however, won’t end poverty. That will only happen through a movement or movements transforming the hurt and pain of millions into, as King once put it, a “new and unsettling force” carrying this nation to higher and more stable ground.
Making a movement of movements to restore the common good
That is the place of a movement of movements, to move beyond single-issue politics, to pull together the various aspirations for a better society into an understandable, coherent whole, and to unify our forces to make our aspirations reality.
What determines the success of movements today?
Building on the recommendations of other movement strategists, new research from the Social Change Lab offers key insights into the factors that lead to protest wins.
Martin Luther King’s multiple lanes to multiracial democracy
May we continue to embrace King’s powerful advice that we pursue multiple, connected lanes in order to achieve racial justice and multiracial democracy.
Why movements need to start singing again
Social movements are stronger when they sing. That’s a lesson that has been amply demonstrated throughout history, and it’s one that I have learned personally in working to develop trainings for activists over the past decade and a half.
What’s the problem with taking state power?
Should we maintain independence and function as a critical force outside of mainstream politics, or should we attempt to take hold of the levers of institutional power in order to create change?
Movements are vying for political power — is ‘co-governance’ the answer?
Those promoting co-governance describe it as a new relationship between social movements and the candidates they help win office — a partnership in which activists and elected officials work to maintain a long-term relationship, closely coordinate strategy and advance grassroots priorities.
The Uncertain Activist: more thoughts on uncertainty
I have taken to heart the insight that possibly, the way we respond to the crisis is part of the crisis; that we see this thing we call ‘the climate’ through a window whose frame is itself the product of our toxic culture.
The Rebellion Hypothesis: Extinction Rebellion and Civil Disobedience (Part VII of Eco Civilisation)
Can civil disobedience ever be justified in a democracy? How does Extinction Rebellion relate to other social movements in history that have also practiced civil disobedience to advance social progress?
