Articles
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Thirdson Photography and Benedict Pawa Democracy Moves: Youth Activism Through a Global Lens
This series brings together youth organizers from around the world.
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Photo by Colin Lloyd To Tackle Racial Justice, Organizing Must Change
Racial justice is increasingly embraced across our movements, but the strategic work to live up to that vision is still all too lacking.
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Photo by Gage Skidmore for Arizona Education Association Yes, Social Media Can Help With Real-World Organizing
We can’t change the world just by posting on social media. But as the 2018 red state teachers strikes show, if organizers make strategic choices about their online organizing, social media can be used to build mass, militant actions like strikes.
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Photo courtesy of New Virginia Majority Lessons from the Virginia Election
Mat Hanson talks with Alexsis Rodgers, the State Director for Care in Action; David Broder, President of SEIU Virginia 512; Maya Castillo, Political Director for the New Virginia Majority; and Luis Aguilar, State Director for CASA in Action about the lessons they’re drawing from the election.
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Katie Rodriguez The Hard Truth Behind Rigorous Organizing
We must let go of the idea that success in organizing is determined by the amount that we do rather than the power we build and the practices and culture we create in the process.
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Getty Images New York City Taxi Drivers Went on a Hunger Strike — and Won
We sat down with New York State Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani to talk about why he joined the hunger strike, the value of an inside/outside strategy, and what’s next for the taxi drivers.
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Getty Images Building Prisms of Power, Not Sandcastles that Get Washed Away Each Election
What the current debate over Democratic strategy leaves out: why groups that invest in long-term constituency organizing win
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Image courtesy of the author Building Structure Shapes
This report offers a framework and vocabulary that can support movement leaders in deepening their structuring capacity in times of organizational challenge.
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Image courtesy of the author The NY Working Families Party’s “Stool”
This article looks at one shape — the stool — through a case study of the New York Working Families Party.
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Getty Images Being the First
Irene Godínez and Danielle Walker on what it’s like to be the first BIPOC women in their positions, what’s allowed them to succeed, and what supports are still missing.
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Image courtesy of the author Tenants took on the biggest landlord in Minneapolis — and won.
Working together, tenants can offer viable solutions to the housing crisis and a blueprint for collective governance.
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Getty Images How We Won New Taxes on the Rich in New York
We used an inside-outside strategy to shift the balance of power.
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Getty Images The Hidden Powers of Government
Ady Barkan talks with Diane Thompson and Lorelei Salas about regulatory enforcement and implementation — and why progressive organizers should focus on the mechanisms through which laws become practices.
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Getty Images Building Power Through Policy
Connie Razza, Deepak Bhargava, and Jamila Michener on how the right is better at prioritizing a long-term agenda, why the left needs to make policy feedback loops central to our strategic plans, and the most exciting frontiers in this work today.
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Getty Images Can Task Forces Effectively Reimagine Public Safety?
Lessons from Oakland’s Reimagining Public Safety Task Force
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Getty Images “Co-governance doesn’t just mean electing people”
Cindy Chavez and Derecka Mehrens on what they’ve learned about building co-governance models, how COVID has tested these models, and why investing in democratic decision-making processes is so critical for our future.
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Getty Images Building Governing Power in Texas
Organizers and elected officials in Austin talk about the work they’ve done to build governing power — what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what they’ve learned along the way.
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Photo by Colin Lloyd From Organizer to Elected: New Lessons on Co-Governance from those in Power
What does it mean when activists are the ones in office, and how should they and the movements they come from relate to each other? Four organizers turned elected officials talk about how they brought the lessons they learned building movements into the halls of power.
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Getty Images “It takes all of us to push policies forward”
Jessica Byrd talks with three local elected officials — Mike Elliot, Gail Johnson, and Tishuara Jones — about the challenges they’ve faced as they fight to make change in their communities and what co-governance looks like in practice.
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Getty Images Governing Together: Layers and Lessons
The stakes are as high as they have ever been for our people and our planet. We can no longer afford a narrow focus on winning incremental policies, elections, and public opinion.