Articles
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The Power of Pluralism
In order to defeat facism, capitalism, and white supremacy — the forces that are killing and oppressing our communities — we must organize against racism in every single corner of this country.
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Our Movements Beat Trump. Now What?
Movement power saved the country from four more years of Trump, but our anti-majoritarian system still shut us out of true governing power. How do we build enough power within a rigged system to unrig it?
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Who Showed Up in Michigan, and Why It Matters
Our willingness to experiment with new tactics and our insistence on inspiring voters through substantive demands offer a model that the Democratic Party would be wise to follow.
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Of Ducks and Democracy
As we confront a decades-long crisis of democracy, our hopes for victory depend on whether millions of people see our indispensable task clearly: a return to the craft of building durable vehicles for collective power.
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A Radical Take on Voter Turnout in Rural America
Last spring, West Virginia Can’t Wait transformed our gubernatorial campaign’s field operation into a COVID response team. The program ended up outperforming conventional voter turnout programs — forever changing the way our movement will run electoral campaigns.
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Elections Are Not About Elections. They Are About Voters and Their Lives.
This year provided the hard evidence, in the hardest of election environments, that building movements based on the needs and concerns of working people is measurably more effective at winning votes — and doing so in a cost-effective way.
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Winning an election is good. Building the power to run the place is better.
We won, but we still have a lot of work to do to build the breadth and depth of electoral power our movements need to durably govern.
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On Postcards and Superpowers
Restricting volunteers’ understanding of the ways they can make political change to the kind of one-off anonymous voter contacts most easily reported as metrics does a disservice to those volunteers — and to the organizers seeking to build longer term political power.
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For UNITE HERE’s Hospitality Workers, Democracy Is Essential Work
In the year of COVID-19, no one thought that door-to-door canvassing could be done. Union housekeepers, cooks, and casino workers proved them wrong.
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Rural Margins Matter
Rural voters made the difference for Joe Biden in key states this year. And if Democrats hope to control the Senate in 2022 and 2024, the vote in small cities and rural areas will be critical.
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2020 Elections: Taking Stock
Some of the best electoral organizers come together to take stock of the 2020 U.S. elections and chart the path forward.
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Organizing Strategies to Fight Corporate Power
For forty years, corporate consolidation has grown without any significant government intervention to stop it. Organizers must use a diverse set of strategies to upend the prevailing economic orthodoxy and redefine consumer harm.
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How do I engage new members?
Trying to up your digital game during COVID? Our columnists are here to help with all your digital dilemmas.
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Emiliano Bar White Feminism Promotes Mass Incarceration
A review of Aya Graber’s The Feminist War on Crime
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The Ups and Downs of New Voices in the Movement
Ben Chin talks with Nelini Stamp, James Haslam, Arleen Vargas, and Kendall Mackey about the influx of white, upwardly-mobile activists in the movement during the Trump years.
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Keeping Bottom-Up Democracy Strong
Ben Chin talks with Nelini Stamp, James Haslam, Arleen Vargas, and Kendall Mackey about how they're keeping bottom-up democracy strong as their organizations grow in size and power.
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What is Power?
Ben Chin talks with Nelini Stamp, James Haslam, Arleen Vargas, and Kendall Mackey about how their understanding of power has changed since they started organizing and what shifted their perspective.
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Photo by Gabriel Benois In the Time of COVID, Digital Organizing is a Must
Digital and social media are not new to campaigns, but in the time of COVID, they are more important than ever.
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How rural organizers are building community connections and power
A report on racial justice oragnizing in rural America today
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Photo by Walter Sturn Digital Organizing in Rural America
Rural Utah Project organizers discuss the challenges of digital organizing in a rural context, the importance of cultural competency in rural organizing, and how to build on this organizing in 2021.