Expands the meaning and practice of "democracy" by involving those closest
to economic problems in determining their solutions.
Because conservative social
change involves making significant changes on a systemic level, conflict with
those who hold power is often inevitable. The power that conservative social
change organizations bring to the table is their ability to organize, to educate
and to mobilize.
Conservative social change is a profoundly democratic undertaking. At its best,
people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, abilities and ages join
together in developing and implementing creative solutions to economic
problems. Organizing amplifies the voices of those whose interests are too
often overlooked.
Money alone does not bring about change; nor do individuals
but they are igniters to change. But when people band together and form
organizations to focus their collective power, conservative social change can
happen. When a large number of organizations work together toward a common
goal, that's a movement. Movements make change.
On the surface, conservative social change movements appear to be spontaneous
bursts of energy, a sweep of people, energized, rising forth to influence some
form of change. But in truth, social change movements flow from careful
organizing, massive public education, sustained determination, and, at times,
inspired collaboration across the divides of race, gender and class. These
movements are driven by human energy, intelligence, courage -- as well as money.
1. “Organizing people must be a priority. In order to counter effectively the power of major corporations we understood that we had to be able to demonstrate the support of hundreds of thousands of people. As Alinksy wrote: ‘Change comes from power, and power comes from organization. In order to act, people must get together.’”
2. “Understand where people stand on your issue. Once we were clear that we needed to drum up the support of people, we needed to understand what people knew about our issues. As Alinksy wrote, ‘if people feel they don’t have the power to change a bad situation, then they do not think about it.’”
3. “Connect with groups that have already organized the community. Our means of reaching local communities was through existing national organizations. We reached out to groups that had large constituencies and articulated our message by identifying how our goals fit their core interests.”
4. “The strategy must have an inside and an outside game. For media reform, this means we needed to embrace the necessity of operating both in and outside Washington [D.C.].”
5. “Don’t wait for events to unfold on their own. Pressure, pressure, pressure. If we wanted events to work in a direction that would benefit us, we knew we needed to push. We needed to apply pressure and to direct that pressure not at the government, but through the government at our true opposition – the broadcasters. Alinsky again: ‘The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain constant pressure upon the opposition.’”
6. “Communications is a priority. Again drawing from Alinksy, we understood that ‘one can lack any of the qualities of an organizer – with one exception – and still be effective. That exception is the art of communication.’ It is not just a matter of getting media to cover your campaign. That is, undoubtedly, a part of it, but it is also about getting the sort of attention you want, so the public and your opposition see you and your issues the way you want to be seen.”
7. “Research is key. We took not only message and public opinion research seriously, we took seriously our obligation to research the activity of our opposition. Our research entailed not only public opinion polling, but academic papers presenting economic and social analysis, legal research…and grassroots research involving the inspections of dozens of televisions station’s public files.”
8. “Establish a broad base of funding and never stop raising money. Alinksy is right that people are a source of power, but without adequate funds organizing people effectively cannot be accomplished.”
9. “Find allies in power.
Comments? Suggestions?
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