This last weekend I was asked to do a training on class for a group of Occupy activists in upstate New York. I was delighted, thrilled — and then terribly nervous. Why? Well, I love the 99% framework. But when it comes to getting deeper in class, it’s a little … uhm… conflating. I worried people would refuse to break apart that 99% framework, keeping class as a simplistic two-dimensional dynamic.
The 99% Gets A Break Down
Thursday, March 15th, 2012Tags: Occupy Movement, social movements
Posted in #Occupy, Poverty, Race and Class | No Comments »
No-degree social movement thinkers
Saturday, February 18th, 2012Who do you think of when you think of a social movement theorist? A professor? Two of the authors who have taught me the most about social movement strategy have only high school degrees: Linda Stout and the late Bill Moyer. I very rarely see either of them cited in the social movement literature. I suspect that their books haven’t reached all their potential audiences in part because of the authors’ lack of college credentials.
Tags: community organizing, poverty, social movements
Posted in Class in Higher Education, Classism in Progressive Movement Groups | No Comments »
What about those hand signals?
Friday, November 25th, 2011The same week that Steven Colbert pretended to mock Occupy Wall Street’s hand signals, I saw them used at an Occupy Boston General Assembly, and my Social Movements class studied the pitfalls of too much and too little “movement culture” – quite a serendipity!
Tags: class cultures, social movements
Posted in #Occupy, Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Poverty | 1 Comment »
Diversity & isms in #Occupy
Monday, November 14th, 2011The various “Occupy” developments around the country have opened the long-neglected and marginalized question of economic equality, and the power of concentrated income and wealth over the nation’s nominally “democratic” political system. Nothing could be more welcome. At the same time, the historic struggles of various “identity groups” for their place in the sun is off-stage in this new conversation, though there is growing acknowledgment by various Occupy groups of the need to “diversify.”
Tags: racism, social movements
Posted in #Occupy, Race and Class | No Comments »
Occupiers’ Demands and Working-Class Activist Traditions
Saturday, October 15th, 2011Thanks to Occupy Wall Street and its spin-offs, a national conversation has broken out over the purpose of protesting. I understand why defenders of the Occupy encampments say that it’s OK to put forward only general issues; it’s true that just being there spotlights the problems with the economy. But last Sunday’s New York Times editorial declared, “It is not the job of the protestors to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders.” What kind of elitist baloney is that?
Tags: social movements, speaking up
Posted in #Occupy, Class in the Media, Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Labor movement | 1 Comment »
Wall Street occupation for the 99%
Monday, October 3rd, 2011The first thing I felt when I arrived at Liberty Park in New York City this past Saturday was the energy. It brought me back to the late ‘60s when I was a graduate student in Wisconsin.
Tags: corporate welfare, recession unemployment, social movements, tax the rich
Posted in #Occupy, Class in The News, Classism in the Economy | 1 Comment »
Building Solidarity and Dealing with Racism
Sunday, August 21st, 2011In 1971, when I was “lead organizer” for what became the All Peoples’ Coalition (APC), I learned a different approach to dealing with some racism I encountered among working-class whites.
Tags: community organizing, racism, social movements, working class
Posted in Classism in Diversity Work, Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Race and Class | 1 Comment »
US Social Forum: A Sour Taste of Classism
Friday, July 30th, 2010A month has gone by since I experienced my first-ever social justice conference, the US Social Forum (USSF) in Detroit, and I’ve been trying to erase my memory of that time ever since. The lack of logistical planning we experienced had a classist effect that seemed antithetical to the forum’s message, and I was left with such a bad taste in my mouth for the progressive left that I will carefully reconsider attending any conference in the future.
Tags: detroit, grassroots, social movements, us social forum, ussf
Posted in Classism in Progressive Movement Groups, Classism on the Road | 2 Comments »
