Ah yes, grassroots community organizing (my Roman Empire).
So my grad school focus was social work as community organizing and building power at the community level. It’s a tricky business, the powers at be make our life VERY HARD at this level because the niche groups are generally drowned out by shinier and more centrist “non controversial” groups that can make leftist ideals sound like a pipe dream and scare folks from really good community work.
-I live in a mid-size blue collar city
-I do work full time in the intercity as an in home social worker so yeah, I do have a front row seat to the shitshow that is *a society under capitalism*
A few tips for those who want to jump in, especially in a new place, and have it make actual sense for their life.
-Organizing and collective action needs diverse talents and folks who have different tasks. A lot of groups fuck up early on by making EVERYTHING a massive in person protest. Leftist circles can hold some ableist ideals in doing this and it usually leads to flash pan groups. Collective action is just that: a collective of our talents and abilities to create the world towards what we want to see. Things I’ve done that involved sitting at home that helped my fellow organizers includes: researching an issue or individual in power, sitting next to my phone in case I need to bail someone out of jail, giving food to those performing a sit in, creating posters, writing op eds for the local paper to get eyes on a current issue, writing a speech for a press conference, security planning, pretending to be a dullard to distract police, and educational webinar.
-big groups are good to get a handle on issues but truly the more local the better. If you aren’t plugged into your immediate community, quite honestly, what do you think you can accomplish outside of it and why should those folks trust you. I see this more with white saviors, but it’s a folly many get trapped in because the “I feel good about myself” rush comes in. One of the reasons local groups get less attention is they are not nearly as sexy, they usually can’t get as far politically as a group with massive backing BUT they are also the groups that really do the work that changes communities. If what you want is big policy change then sure, go to a big policy change advocacy group, but do expect them to want money more than your talent. Also any group with significant government funding usually isn’t even doing the work anymore as much as assuaging class guilt in a way that seems palatable to the rich. The smaller groups tend to be more adaptable to issues as they arise locally and usually you end up collaborating with other groups that focus on different issues because the overall goal is a more equitable community. Building power at a local level is really key to any major movement. Localized grassroots organizing also can be slow and difficult. You aren’t going to see results right away and sometimes you have to celebrate “wins” that feel like slaps in the face.
-if the group has no mission, focus, or can name an actual *thing* they want done then it’s probably a waste of time and even could be downright unsafe to get involved in. Unfocused and disorganized groups are just ammo for opposing sides to make mockeries of the movement and largely can create safety issues for organizers. For example, I’m part of Showing Up For Racial Justice. The broad issue is racial justice. Our focus is prison abolition and lowering incarceration rates. If a racial justice issue pops up we will support it, but our FOCUS is lowering mass incarceration and ultimately dismantling the entire carceral system. That’s a hefty task, but when you break it down into tangible actions (this election cycle, stopping this jail from opening up, improving prison medical care) you can see the path forward and celebrate wins. Sometimes you put a bandaid on the bigger issue for now to literally save lives in the moment while knowing the greater issue is still looming.
-the online toolkit, my child, my friend. Toolkits are online “guides” for the average person to start doing the work if they haven’t plugged into a group yet. It gives things you can do on your own, groups you can work with, and even sometimes pre written emails and other messaging for politicians. It’s worth noting that conservatives are fucking good at toolkits. I did a little look online and in the UK (since OP is from there) the Evangelical Alliance has a pretty beefed up toolkit on how the average pearl clutching mother can cyberbully politicians into hating trans people. This is an area that needs to be worked on because the conservatives have done a good job of it. In the US the toolkits for how to get books banned and Critical Race Theory are numerous amongst alt right and conservative groups.
-it takes time and it’s BRUTAL. Usually to really get a good grasp of the issues, you need time and relationship building and it is exhausting. Another reason local groups can suffer is people may not live somewhere long enough to even know this issue exists and that they can change it. Since societal structure is isolated and lonely, people don’t talk to each other to gain community and therefore create communal power naturally. Expect to be with a hearty group of 10 people, a big event happens and it skyrockets to 150, and then three weeks later since society didn’t fundamentally change we are down to 15 people. It’s actually the reason local groups need committed folks, they have a limited group to pull from and numbers matter when it comes time to sign bills and create policies. If a politician sees most of his voting constituents want something he’ll do it, not because he cares, but because he has some sort of emotional problem where strangers voting for him are his only source of happiness.
-and lastly, the local arm of the national group. This may be an American thing (we are fucking enormous), but many national advocacy groups have local chapters. It gives a local focus on a bigger issue and works so each group has national support if things heat up. I’m from Buffalo NY and when we had the racially charged mass shooting, our local chapters were first on the scene and then national support came in. However national support is short term and really just give attention to the issue to drum up local support. The local groups are still there two years later. This is another reason local is my favorite: they take the time to really see the change through.
Anyways this is the only non Neil Gaiman post that’s come up on my tumblr in like a month (it’s the ant emoji, I joined a fake ant colony on Facebook and my algorithm is fucked) and it’s actually something I give a shit about, so enjoy you chronically online nerds.
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