The last time progressives in the United States faced this degree of danger was when Ronald Reagan became president. One of Reagan's first acts was to fire the air traffic controllers when they went on strike, putting into question national air safety. Strategically, he chose "shock and awe," and it worked -- most of the U.S. movements for change went on the defensive.
Gandhi and military generals agree: No one wins anything of consequence on the defensive. I define "defensive" as trying to maintain previous gains. U.S. movements in 1980 made many gains in the previous two decades. Understandably, they tried to defend them. As Gandhi and generals would predict, the movements instead lost ground to the "Reagan Revolution" and, for the most part, have lost ground ever since.
One exception stands out: the LGBT movement. Instead of defending, for example, local gains in city human relations commissions, LGBT people escalated in the 1980s with ACT-UP leading the way. They followed up with the campaign for equal marriage and escalated again with the demand for equality in the military.
LBGT people proved that Gandhi and the generals are right: The best defense is an offense.
I hear many American progressives unconsciously talking about Trump defensively, preparing to make precisely the same mistake as an older generation did with Reagan. The LGBT's lesson is obvious: heighten nonviolent direct action campaigns and start new ones. Instead of defending Obamacare, let's push for an even more comprehensive health solution, like Medicare for all.
A direct action campaign is defined by a pressing issue, a clear demand, and a target that can yield that demand. Powerful social movements, even those that overthrew military dictatorships, have often been built in exactly this way.
These days, campaign design needs to take account of the recent impact of social media. Because many people have allowed social media to draw them into an isolating bubble, activists need to design campaigns that deliberately increase their base through building relationships "beyond the choir." Increased use of training may be necessary to maximize impact.
4. Link campaigns to build movements.
Standing Rock is a current example of the synergistic and expanding effect of linking campaigns. Pipeline fights, indigenous rights, and even the role of Veterans for Peace -- in raising questions about the U.S. empire -- were all amplified through linking to the ongoing campaign in North Dakota.
The classic American example of campaign linkage grew from the simple act of four college students in North Carolina on Feb. 1, 1960, starting their campaign to desegregate a lunch counter. Students in other towns followed the example, and the wave of sit-ins became a movement. The movement helped grow existing organizations -- for example, the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, which then started a new kind of campaign, the Freedom Rides. Multiple freedom rides were linked and further built the strength of the civil rights movement.
These campaigns did not have the American majority on their side, nor did they win all their demands, but their cumulative value forced major changes and eventually changed public opinion as well. The civil rights movement illustrates the crucial difference in mode of operation between direct action campaigns and political parties' campaigns.
Democrats, for example, are hugely about polls and focus groups. Their power rests on current public opinion and its manipulation through electioneering and political maneuver. Even for progressive-inclined Democrats, the ability to act is tightly limited by the narrow range of current opinion (not to mention by what the economic elite is willing to allow).
Social movements, by contrast, can take stands that go beyond current opinion and wage campaigns that have transformative impact, such as women's right to vote, gay rights and stopping pipelines. This difference helps explain why progressive Democrats habitually fight defensively, while movements are free to stay on the offensive and win. Bernie Sanders, for example, is now defensively fighting to save Medicare. By contrast, a social movement is free to launch a fight for single-payer health care. Such a struggle could threaten to split off part of Trump's working class base and -- even if it failed to fully achieve its goal -- save more of Medicare.
5. Link movements to create a movement of movements.
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