Back in February of this year (eons ago in blog time - LOL), Al Giordano at The Field made a prescient prediction.
I think there's a realignment of forces going on right now in the progressive blogosphere and I think the differences will likely grow greater and clearer, and reasonably should.
I suspect that the causes of that realignment are many and complex. The one Giordano was pointing to in his post, however, is that we have not yet learned the difference between organizing and activism.
Lately I've been thinking alot about what he said and think Al is on to something. I've learned alot about organizing from reading his posts. And coupled with a fascination with how the Obama campaign utilized community organizing, I've come to see the differences with activism a bit more clearly.
Let me give you an example that is totally outside of the realm of national politics.
I'm the director of a non-profit agency where we provide programming to youth in an urban area who are starting to get in trouble at home, at school or with the law. That means we are serving youth who are getting arrested, being suspended from school, running away from home, etc. They are on the brink of involvement with the juvenile justice system.
For over 35 years we have been serving youth and their families in this capacity. But in the past year, we've decided that its not only the youth who need to change, the community needs to change as well. So next year we are going to take on an initiative to dismantle the school to prison pipeline in our community.
If we were purporting to be activists in this effort, we would likely start lobbying elected officials, law enforcement, and the school district with a list of policies/legislation designed to dismantle the pipeline. And we would probably ask our clients, board members, and donors to help us do that.
But instead, we have decided to take a community organizing approach to this issue. Our exact strategies for doing that are still under development. But we know that we have to get out beyond our natural constituency and engage people in a dialogue about the problem to both develop solutions and motivate them to work for those solutions.
In this process, we will draw heavily on the work of Marshall Ganz, who teaches community organizing at the Harvard Kennedy School. Ganz has an online course on organizing that should be required reading for anyone trying to fight for social change...in my opinion.
So, in the end, our efforts will be to go out to the community rather than (or before) we go up to the powers that be. The obvious reason for this is that the more voices we can engage in the process, the more likely we are to succeed. But it goes deeper than that. We're not just interested in changing a few policies or laws. We're interested in changing how children/youth (especially those of color) are seen and treated in schools and in the community. To do that, we need to get out there and talk to people - hear what they have to say about the issue - have an exchange of thoughts and ideas - share information. That means we have less control of the outcome...but its likely to be something that changes people, not just laws/policies and is therefore sustainable in the long run.
What does all of this have to do with the "realignment of forces in the progressive blogosphere", you might ask. Well, I think that many people came to the blogosphere thinking it would be a great tool for activism. And in some ways, that has proven true. But the reality is that I think most of us have found that its impact is limited at best. So instead, we find ourselves either preaching to the choir or forming a circular firing squad against our allies.
In light of that, I begin to ask questions about whether or not activism is enough...or do we need to start organizing? And if so, what would that mean? There are those (including Giordano in the post I linked above) that think organizing cannot be done on the internet. Perhaps he's right, but I'm not ready to give up asking the question yet. And if, in the end, organizing can't be DONE of the blogs, I wonder how the blogs can help us be better organizers.
The problem is...I don't have the answers. What do you think? Is it enough to continue to try activism? Or is there a way to incorporate organizing online? In other words, will we ever see truly progressive legislation/policies enacted if we don't get out into the community and try to change the conversation? Is it enough for the few of us to simply "yell louder" - or do we need more voices to join us? In my mind, the former has somewhat limited impact on the "now" and the later holds the possibility for long-term lasting change.