Transcript UAEM National Conference

UAEM National Conference
CAMPUS ACTIVISM
TRAINING
November 14-15, 2009
Sarah Frazer, Americans for Informed Democracy
Objective of workshop
Develop a strategic framework for
successful direct action campaigns.
Familiarize ourselves with the range of
tactics at our disposal, when, why and
how to use them.
Four Ways to Solve
Social Problems
Direct Service
Mobilization
Advocacy
Organizing
-Marshall Ganz, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
1. Direct Service
Improves the lives of
people by directly linking
them to resources that
stabilize daily life. Direct
service alleviates
immediate crises by but
often leaves the root
causes of problems
untouched.
2. Advocacy
Interprets institutional
processes for the poor and
disadvantaged. It does not
address nor change the
basic power relationships
between people and the
institutions that control
their lives.
3. Mobilization
Engages people in short-term, direct
action to create immediate results
4. Organizing
Is people working together to get things done.
It serves as a tool, a weapon, and a means of
getting people to learn, to think, to act and to
reflect about theirs lives in a new way. By
doing so, the poor and disadvantaged are
able to reclaim their
strengths, roots and
heritage.
3 Principles of Direct Action
Organizing
Win concrete improvements in people’s
lives
Give people a sense of their own power
Alter the relations of power
-Midwest Academy
Strategic Campaign Planning
Campaign:
– Strategic series of coordinated and escalating
activities designed to achieve a specific goal
Strategy:
– A plan to organize your Folks and your
Friends to force the Man to give you the
Goods.
-Ruckus Society
6 Stages of a Campaign
Investigate/gather information
Educate
Increase motivation and personal
commitment for the struggle ahead
Negotiate with target
Direct action
Create new relationship with opponent that
reflects new power reality
-Ruckus Society, derived from MLK’s essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
What is Direct Action?
People organizing ourselves to make
the changes we want to see in the world
3 Arguments Against Direct Action
It’s ineffective
It’s un-American
It’s illegal
“We who engage in nonviolent direct action
are not the creators of tension. We merely
bring to the surface the hidden tension that is
already alive.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Good NVDA Can:
Be fun!
Alert folks to a problem, issue or idea.
Assert or defend a human or ecological right.
Directly stop bad things from happening.
Amplify our voices, magnify our visibility.
Create & envision solutions.
Inspire, recruit and energize.
Lead us to the achievement of our goals.
Types of NVDA
Protest
– Registering your dissent
Non-cooperation
– Withdrawing something from the system
Intervention
– Directly intervening in the functioning of the system
Creative solutions
– Developing alternative, community-based solutions
Points of Intervention
Point of production
Point of destruction
Point of consumption
Point of decision
Point of assumption
Point of Production
Point of Destruction
Point of Consumption
Point of Decision
Point of Assumption
Georgetown Living Wage Coalition
Hunger Strike
UVA Living Wage Campaign
Sit-in
MIT STAND Divestment Campaign
Die-in
MIT STAND Divestment Campaign
Demonstration
United Students Against Sweatshops
Banner drop
Let’s Talk Tactics
What other tactics have you seen, heard
or or participated in that have successfully
escalated or won a campaign?
Break Out Session!
Move quickly to your letter
15-20 minutes to complete scenario
Consider your tactics carefully
Appoint someone to report back
6 Stages of a Campaign
Investigate/gather information
Educate
Increase motivation and personal
commitment for the struggle ahead
Negotiate with target
Direct action
Create new relationship with opponent that
reflects new power reality
-Ruckus Society, derived from MLK’s essay “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
The Tactic Star
Action Development
Develop a Sense of Timing
Be Creative
KISS Rule
What Kind of Power We Got?
End of formal slavery
Outlawed child labor/The right to go to school
Voting rights for women, youth (over 18), African
Americans
The 40 hour work week (and weekends)
Civil Rights
Maternity leave
The rights of people with disabilities to hold jobs and
access businesses
People POWER
Food for Thought
“Power concedes nothing without demand [...] The limits of tyranny are
prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
–
Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist and women’s suffragist
“Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward
justice.”
–
Martin Luther King, Jr., Americans civil rights leader
“Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk.”
–
Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers of America co-founder and organizer
"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the
poor have no food, they call me a Communist.”
–
Dom Helder Camara, Brazilian Archbishop and liberation theologist
If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.
Super Hero Shout Out
Sarah Frazer, Americans for Informed
Democracy
– [email protected]
– www.aidemocracy.org
US Social Forum
– June 22-26, 2010, Detroit, MI
– www.ussf2010.org
Workshop Evaluation
Rate the workshop1-5 (5 = highest; 1 =
lowest)
What you liked or befitted from the
most?
What you liked the least and could
stand to be improved?