I love the call to organize the rich - that's powerful and important. But, I do take issue with the piece assuming there's only one way to build power - through electoral or inside-the-system strategies. That's just not been true in any of our movements, and a lot of harm has come from those working within a particular kind of change-making taking the position that those doing the other kinds of work don't count/aren't down for real change. The position articulated here more or less tells funders to give up on other strategies to only support what Nina outlines as the way to build power, inside-the-system and electoral strategies, and if we did actually follow that advice we'd be cutting off essential movement work. I owe Ayni Institute for teaching me about movement ecology, and the ways that the different change components work together to build movements, which are the mechanism by which we build power. (Here's some info on their self-paced course if anybody wants to check them out, they do live courses too, and they're fantastic organizers with a helpful lens for funders trying to sort out what is strategic and what's not, and where they want to put their time. https://aynischool.com/courses/movement-ecology/) We don't all have to do all the things but we should respect the traditions and impact of different kinds of change-making, and be humble about how we can be working together across these different approaches and silos so that we truly can build powerful movements. If we're going to fund to win we have to fund them all.
Ooh. Glad for your push back and engagement on this Cheyenna. Thanks for adding your thoughts.
I've heard great things about Ayni but haven't gone through their courses myself. What are the different change components they articulate?
I agree that there are a variety of strategies needed to build power, and that there are diff types of power...governing, economic and cultural being the three i've been taught about. i know it takes a variety of strategies to achieve power in those areas. i think for a long time winning governing power was under-invested in and looked down upon on the left. as many of us move towards a new found appreciation and focus on that work, im curious what a strategy looks like that brings together an inside and outside strategy, and builds economic, governing and cultural power.
“Organizing people through guilt and shame does not help them develop the deepest possible stakes in a movement.” Hell yeah to this!
Yes! So true. And way too frequently forgotten or ignored.
Love that line
I love the call to organize the rich - that's powerful and important. But, I do take issue with the piece assuming there's only one way to build power - through electoral or inside-the-system strategies. That's just not been true in any of our movements, and a lot of harm has come from those working within a particular kind of change-making taking the position that those doing the other kinds of work don't count/aren't down for real change. The position articulated here more or less tells funders to give up on other strategies to only support what Nina outlines as the way to build power, inside-the-system and electoral strategies, and if we did actually follow that advice we'd be cutting off essential movement work. I owe Ayni Institute for teaching me about movement ecology, and the ways that the different change components work together to build movements, which are the mechanism by which we build power. (Here's some info on their self-paced course if anybody wants to check them out, they do live courses too, and they're fantastic organizers with a helpful lens for funders trying to sort out what is strategic and what's not, and where they want to put their time. https://aynischool.com/courses/movement-ecology/) We don't all have to do all the things but we should respect the traditions and impact of different kinds of change-making, and be humble about how we can be working together across these different approaches and silos so that we truly can build powerful movements. If we're going to fund to win we have to fund them all.
Ooh. Glad for your push back and engagement on this Cheyenna. Thanks for adding your thoughts.
I've heard great things about Ayni but haven't gone through their courses myself. What are the different change components they articulate?
I agree that there are a variety of strategies needed to build power, and that there are diff types of power...governing, economic and cultural being the three i've been taught about. i know it takes a variety of strategies to achieve power in those areas. i think for a long time winning governing power was under-invested in and looked down upon on the left. as many of us move towards a new found appreciation and focus on that work, im curious what a strategy looks like that brings together an inside and outside strategy, and builds economic, governing and cultural power.