This is my first diary, so be gentle. I just wanted to share something with the DailyKos community that comes from someone who has been working on progressive issues for four decades.
David Cohen has been working for social justice for most of his life. He has been a consistent voice for civil rights, anti-poverty and reforming U.S. political processes by eliminating abuses of power and the corrupting influence of money on American politics. He served as president of Common Cause from 1975-81 and is now Co-Chair of the Advocacy Institute Board and one of its two founders.
David recently gave an online talk about the lessons that he has learned in his years as a social justice advocate and there are some great takeaways for advancing the progressive cause.
Here is the link for his talks
I just wanted to share some highlights of his important insights. More after the flip.
David really makes a great comparison between progressive and conservative strategies.
Question: Conservative foundations have strategically and successfully funded right-wing movement building for decades. How can the social justice movement mobilize progressive foundations to do the same - or should we look to other resources to help support our movement?
The conservative foundations have had a 40-year agenda. They have been very disciplined, but more importantly, they have been strategic that in order to change attitudes and policy, it requires a long-term effort. They had a simple idea that government is the problem and not the solution, and that libertarian and laissez-faire economics would appeal to people's greed and bring about social Darwinism in the U.S. in which only the fittest survive.
Progressive foundations will be mobilized only if they hear clear voices from people who are organized and organizing, as they did in the Civil Rights days. So we shouldn't depend on foundations, but recognize that it is possible to take steps without foundation support, but to take those steps in ways that gain the recognition of elected and appointed officials and create tremendous demands inside our political and policy systems. The foundations will follow when these demands begin to be created as they have in the protests in Seattle on globalization, as they have in the Living Wage campaigns, as they have by students who are opposed to sweatshops, as they have when they've challenged universities on their inappropriate investment policies in South Africa. These are all examples of putting demands into the system.
What foundations need to recognize is, it is important to have a long attention span and not a short one. Foundations need to have as much stamina and persistence as the people who are who are organizing in the grass roots. Foundations also need to recognize that there is a lot of value in enabling people to spend time together, to talk things out, and not look for immediate payoffs. That's providing the respect necessary to do the public work that is needed to begin to make our own union in the United States a more perfect one.