Category: Uncategorized
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“Spontaneity” and social change | reflections on Gramsci pt.1
I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of hegemony, and reading Antonio Gramsci. I’ll be posting a few reflections as I go. Years ago, I remember growing wary of tendencies (within activist groups I was part of) to exaggerate and glorify supposedly “spontaneous” elements of activism and protest. Some group members often recounted protests…
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Building a Successful Antiwar Movement
Four years ago today (January 27, 2007), United for Peace & Justice organized a mass protest in Washington DC to end the Iraq War. In the three weeks leading up to the event we were rushing to get our first publication—Building a Successful Antiwar Movement—to the printer in time to distribute at the rally. Jonathan…
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Activating Popular Participation | Building a Successful Antiwar Movement (Role3: Facilitation)
This is the fourth and final installment in a series written by Jonathan Matthew Smucker in collaboration with Madeline Gardner, originally published in 2007. Click here to read the previous essay, Articulating a Strategy Kinetic and Potential There is a tendency among people active in social movements (like the antiwar movement) to look at ourselves…
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Hooks & messages | grassroots communications tips pt.2
If you’re reaching out to the news media as part of your grassroots social justice campaign, it’s important to know the difference between your hook and your message. Your news hook is whatever you use to get reporters to show up in the first place (e.g. hanging a banner on Mount Rushmore). A campaign message…
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Articulating a Strategy | Building a Successful Antiwar Movement (Role 2: Instructive)
This is the third installment in a four-part series written by Jonathan Matthew Smucker in collaboration with Madeline Gardner, originally published in 2007. Click here to read the previous essay, Speak the Truth, Tell a Story Context is the ground we build on. The second primary role of an antiwar core that we will discuss…
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How to pitch reporters | grassroots communications tips pt.1
Part one in a series. To “pitch” a reporter or assignment editor on a news-worthy story is to call them up-typically after sending them a news release-and attempt to persuade them that they should come out (or send a reporter) and cover whatever you want them to cover (probably an upcoming event that you’re planning).…
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Speak the Truth, Tell a Story | Building a Successful Antiwar Movement (Role 1: Interpretive)
This is the second installment in a four-part series written by Jonathan Matthew Smucker in collaboration with Madeline Gardner, originally published in 2007. Click here to read the previous essay, Three Roles of an Antiwar Core Interpretation The first primary role of an antiwar core that we will discuss is to attach meaning to unfolding…
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Three Roles of an Antiwar Core | Building a Successful Antiwar Movement (intro)
This is the first installment in a four-part series written by Jonathan Matthew Smucker in collaboration with Madeline Gardner, originally published in 2007. They won’t do it. It’s up to all of us to stop the war. It’s 2007, and the war continues. It is even escalating with Bush’s maddening “surge.” Equally maddening is the…
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The Political Identity Paradox | Evolutionary logic of collective action pt.III
Why do grassroots political organizations sometimes implode right at the peak of their success? This post examines the double-edged sword of highly cohesive political group identities and explores how to build vibrant campaigns while avoiding going (too) crazy… natural born people pleasers Imagine yourself a gazelle in a herd of gazelles. Aw snap, here comes…
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War, xenophobia and other downsides to group selection | Evolutionary logic pt.II
“the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly” If anyone managed to come away from Part I: Humans: not just selfish with an overly sentimental view of human nature, this post will rob you of that delusion. Yes, we humans have a remarkably developed faculty for cooperation and group-oriented behavior, in comparison to most…
Jonathan Matthew Smucker 