"What Makes Non-Violent Movements Explode?"

[sabrina 1]

From Bill Moyers' site, in this, imo, good analysis of protest movements, a question that is vital to those trying to get attention for important issues, is asked: 'Why do some such movements fail to get attention while others 'explode' as he calls it, 'dominating the news cycles for weeks at a time'?



What Makes Non-Violent Movements Explode?

By the fall of 2011, three years after the economic downturn had begun, political observers such as Krugman had long wondered when worsening conditions would result in public demonstrations against joblessness and foreclosures. Labor unions and major nonprofit organizations had attempted to build mass movement energy around these very issues. In the fall of 2010, the “One Nation Working Together” march — initiated primarily by the AFL-CIO and the NAACP — drew more than 175,000 people to Washington, DC, with demands to combat runaway inequality. The next year, long-time organizer and charismatic former White House staffer Van Jones launched Rebuild the Dream, a major drive to form a progressive alternative to the tea party.

According to the rules of conventional organizing, these efforts did everything right. They rallied significant resources, they drew on the strength of organizations with robust membership bases, they came up with sophisticated policy demands, and they forged impressive coalitions. And yet, they made little headway. Even their largest mobilizations attracted only modest press attention and quickly faded from popular political memory.

This is so true, remember the anti-War protests, eg? They were huge, well organized but received little attention at all to the point where many people still don't remember them.

What worked was something different. “A group of people started camping out in Zuccotti Park,” Krugman explained just weeks after Occupy burst into the national consciousness, “and all of a sudden the conversation has changed significantly towards being about the right things.”

“It’s kind of a miracle,” he added.

For those who study the use of strategic nonviolent conflict, the abrupt rise of Occupy Wall Street was certainly impressive, but its emergence was not a product of miraculous, otherworldly intervention. Instead, it was an example of two powerful forces working in tandem: namely, disruption and sacrifice.

The article is worth reading in its entirety. But for the most part I think the observations made as to why OWS was such a success (despite the attempts to deny this from the Right) while other even larger and very organized movements that preceded it, failed to get that kind of attention are pretty accurate.

I would add to what the author has to say that it was BECAUSE of the failure to gain attention by the anti-War movement and the others, Van Jones' eg, that OWS decided to use the different strategy they used.

As the article points out, a huge protest in DC for one day, gets little attention. They get their permits, cops get overtime, and everyone goes home and it is quickly forgotten.

All of which had been noted by the organizers of OWS. They did not expect to last longer a week or two at most.

They succeeded beyond even their own predictions. And while the spotlight was on them, they presented a 'lingo' to the world that concisely described the corruption on Wall St that led to the crash and to the loss of jobs, the inequality in the country etc, that is now part of the language.

The most important proof of the huge success of OWS is the absolute hatred directed towards it by the usual suspects. However those 'suspects' had a lot to overcome. At one point in NYC polls showed the over 80% of the public supported their right to do what they were doing.

So can populists use these strategies to get their message across?

Strikes, boycotts what will it take to get the attention of the public enough to gain support for a populist movement?

[RiverLover]

1. This is great! I think it will generate lots of constructive discussion leading to action.

Bookmarking to come back to, after going out to earn a living. Thanks sabrina!!!!

[whereisjustice]

2. ans: arrogance of the rich - they believe they can militarize their own safety

In despotic countries around the world, police states are used to maintain order in the face of institutional corruption and injustice.

It is exactly the environment that sends 100,000s of jobs a year to China, India. These states know how to keep their population in check through the most brutal means possible.

Now, with our Stazi like surveillence state and militarized police and vast network of police and paramilitary agencies, the US has become the same.

Eventually, the arrogance of the political class - i.e. our douchebags in Congress and the White House - become so confident in the police state that they operate, with impunity, 100% solely in their own best interests - literally, yes literally, raping and pillaging the nation they are entrusted to serve.

Police are called heroes for abusing and/or killing thousands of innocent people or those accused of petty crime. Every soldier is now called a hero for nothing more than putting on a uniform. The government pumps up our police state with massive budgets hoping to buy their favor and it is working like a charm. So far.

However, while busy building their own fortunes, the ruling class ignores the growing dissent of the lower classes. Eventually, people have lost so much, they have nothing more to lose. Even death becomes preferable to a lifetime of poverty and injustice at the hands of a cruel and corrupt government.

History has proven, without any contradiction, a massive disparity of wealth and justice, such as we are experiencing right now, will result in violence. Note that a positive outcome from an uprising is far from certain. It could end up making things worse should the ruling class prevail. But at some point, a nation decides it has had enough and when pressed up against an indifferent political class, decides to act on its own.

It is just a matter of when.

TPP could be the tipping point as it will result in the next great recession, saved from a great depression only by the taxes of workers whose jobs will be permanently lost to Asia.

[sabrina 1]

7. I can't disagree with anything you said there.

Police are called heroes for abusing and/or killing thousands of innocent people or those accused of petty crime. Every soldier is now called a hero for nothing more than putting on a uniform. The government pumps up our police state with massive budgets hoping to buy their favor and it is working like a charm. So far.

Yes and no matter what they do, no matter how criminal, they are protected, the police I mean. But that seems to be cracking a bit lately.

OWS put a few cracks in the 'what's good for Wall St is good for America' propaganda.

Both movements have received militarized, brutal crackdowns.

It didn't make sense, but clearly the people finally saying 'enough' and demonstrating they are seeing the reality rather than the propagandized version of the MSM as to how things are, with their own eyes, is terrifying to those trying to keep everything under control.

[Enthusiast]

3. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

TPTB viewed OWS as vile because they told the people the truth about the Wall Street criminals.

"The further a society drifts from Truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." George Orwell

[Cosmic Kitten]

5. TPTB fears public participation, which is what OWS represents

Wall St is frantic to maintain, as long as possible, the final stage of capitalism.
The inevitable shift from unipolar economic control to a mulitpolar economy
is a very a fearsome vision for Wall St.

[niyad]

4. k and r

[Cosmic Kitten]

6. Disruption and sacrifice were necessary to get media attention

Even their largest mobilizations attracted only modest press attention
and quickly faded from popular political memory.

That is how the MSM controls the narrative.

Talking points are repetition of the "approved" narrative.
Denying the opposition a "voice" or portraying the opposition
in a unflattering light are a tactic to suppress opposing views.

what will it take to get the attention of the public enough to gain support for a populist movement?

Populists need to define their values, create frames, and capture the narrative.
Social media is the pipeline, call in talk shows are potential forums.
Use the existing media infrastructure.

Slogans are not in and of themselves enough.
There must be a resonance that is "felt" by the listener.
Repetition of winning frames is essential.
Emotion trumps reason!

[Warpy]

8. I think the word they were looking for is "IMPLODE."

After all, if they'd exploded and started to wreck corporate property and inconvenience bidnessmen, the press might have noticed them at long last.

Movements imploded because of the futility of being the tree falling in the woods where no one was around to witness it.

Oh, large and peaceful demos still have their place since the international press often reports them, something that might be useful in the long run. However, their days of pushing Congress one way or the other are up, especially when it comes to economic policy and useless war.

I think we're coming into a period when the only things that will get their attention are strikes. Nothing makes a plutocrat squeal louder than knowing he can't count on a workforce of peasants making sure his cash flow is positive. That also extends to Congressmen.

[sabrina 1]

9. Strikes and boycotts. What OWS did was extremely successful, for a start, which is what

it was meant to be. Way bigger than they had intended.

The aticipated the media ignoring them, so they created their own media. All over the world.

That was planned, and at first, while media trucks were present at Zuccotti Park, there was no coverage, at least not on the MSM. But there WAS media coverage elsewhere.

And then the NYPD themselves in trying to stamp out these protesters, were the ones to GET coverage in the MSM that no one had expected.

Their own handling of the publicity THEY wanted, was brilliant. Which is why THAT is what the NYPD tried to destroy and eventually did, well sort of.

But now it's on to the next phase, people have been informed about Wall St thanks to OWS. And their influence on this country's government.

I agree that Boycotts and Strikes should be the next phase before the TPP passes and Corps will simply ship in workers from third world countries.

[Warpy]

10. They were successful because they woke people up

The "99%" meme was incredibly successful and a recognition of just how rich that 1% has gotten to the detriment of the rest of us, all of us, political persuasion irrelevant.

Even teabaggers dimly recognized this, although they've been told to blame all the wrong people for it.

OWS was the most successful limited movement that I've ever seen in my lifetime.

[sabrina 1]

11. I agree. They had a great ad company working on the message. We could take a lesson

from the way they did it. The concise phrases they used are now part of the language so if you want to explain something regarding the inequality of wealth distribution, it is easy to do so using their language.

They has some of the best posters and symbolism also.

They were one of the most successful, at getting attention for their message, movements I've ever seen also.

They are still around in every city they were in. Strike Debt eg, is an outcome of OWS.

And groups in major cities are working to stop foreclosures still among other things.

Also some are doing wonderful work with the homeless.

[Warpy]

12. Rolling Jubilee is another branch, buying uncollectable debt

for ten cents (or less) on the dollar from collection agencies and retiring it, much of it medical debt. Oh, yeah, I contributed and anybody with a few bucks DU didn't get should consider it.

When I talked to the people online while it was still going on, I found them to be young, rather naive in a lot of ways and from all over the political, social and religious spectrum. The one thing that glued them together was the realization of what had happened to working people in this country over the last few decades that had finally come down to them, crippling them by tying them to a mountain of school debt while not producing the jobs they should have been able to move into in order to pay it off.

I've considered OWS and the Teabaggers to be symptoms that the rich man's gravy train is about to be derailed. OWS knew what the real problems are and who to blame. The teabaggers are still listening to Beck and talking about commies and welfare queens.

[sabrina 1]

13. The original TP was coopted by the Koch Brothers. The original founder has distanced himself

completely from the current Koch funded TP. Very clever of them to 'buy' what started out much like OWS, anti-Wall St. corruption. They didn't get the same attention OWS finally managed to get, but I remember being thrilled back during the Bush era when that original group protested on Wall St and did get some media coverage.

But that TP is long gone. The Kochs et al I guess decided to buy it, fund it turn it into a political movement to place Wall St friendly Reps in Congress.