How to End Violence Against Women & Children poster

How do we mobilize people to take effective action? Faced with crises such as the war in Iraq, people are frustrated and feel disempowered because we can't find the right tactics to stop the war.

We know that protest isn't enough to make the changes we want. Demonstrations alone don't end a particular war or eliminate an injustice. Faced with an overwhelming task, it's easy to do the nonviolent equivalent of lashing out -- jumping into action without thinking it through. Too often groups go directly from naming a problem to picking a tactic. Or we suffer from a "paralysis of analysis," educating ourselves and others (often by sending lots of email), but never getting to action. We need to understand our collective power and how to organize people to exercise it.

In order to develop effective strategies groups need to go through a process: name and describe the problem or situation, analyze why it exists, create a vision of what we want with clear goals and then develop a strategy to reach those goals. In this article, I will describe some aspects of this process and exercises groups can use to refine our approaches.

Name and Describe the Problem

This may seem too simple of a first step for some, but if it is not shared collectively the group may have different descriptions and different assumptions. We can't move to analysis without clarity on what we are analyzing. The process of a group coming together to do this is important to developing collective action.

Pillars of Power Exercise: All power structures are held up by "pillars of power." This exercise helps a group describe what pillars sustain the power structure. Once we describe those pillars, we can begin to describe how to chip away at them, weakening the system. The facilitator draws a triangle with a horizontal base, supported by a series of columns, and writes the problem in the triangle (i.e. war in Iraq, violence in our community). Through discussion, the group names the pillars of systemic and institutional support of the problem (i.e. corporations, corporate media, military, militarized masculinity, etc). Describe the components in each pillar (i.e. the military includes military industry, recruitment, right-wing veterans groups, etc).

Analyze the Sourcesof the Problem

Without an understanding of the problem and why it exists and how it functions and who potentially supports and opposes it, we cannot successfully eliminate it. Who has the power, who has the power to create change? What are the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats that we face? What theories do we bring to this analysis? For example, as proponents of a theory of power that posits that all power, in the end, is based on consent, how can we utilize nonviolent methods to withdraw cooperation from key institutions?

Pillars Exercise: Choose the pillar your group wants to knock down. Your choice should be based on your group's purpose and your capacity. Draw another set of pillars, with your chosen pillar in the triangle this time. Now analyze what holds up that problem, using the above list of questions.

The Spectrum of Allies Exercise: This exercise, which is described more fully at www.trainingforchange.org, helps us describe who are our allies and our opponents, and where they stand in relationship to us. This analysis helps us understand who we want to move strategically.

This includes building allies and organizing our constituencies. Too often people blame folks for not being involved. Instead, we should be asking ourselves: What are we doing to encourage their involvement? Are we building relationships and creating opportunities for involvement? What are we as organizers doing wrong if folks aren't mobilizing?

Create a Vision with Clear Goals

We usually articulate our vision as long term goals. The challenge is to identify short and medium range goals that are steps toward the long term goals. We have to be careful not to set goals that are too broad and shallow in an attempt to get more people to join, because that will not get us the change we want.

Even though our ultimate goal may be revolutionary, we need to identify limited, but more acceptable, goals that can gain support. Progress happens one step at a time.

If our long-term goal is to stop the war in Iraq, for example, identifying short and medium range goals is a particular challenge. We need to identify local goals, such as:

• Organizing to pass local resolutions or referenda against the war
• Diverting a certain amount of war-tax resisted dollars to alternative funds
• Promoting nonviolent opportunities for youth through counter-recruitment
• Campaigns which discourage youth from joining the military
• Developing participatory economic conversion plans for local military bases and industries
• Ratcheting up the pressure on congresspeople to take the next step towards de-funding the war through concerted, consistent, graduated actions.

What goals do you need to reach to take a chip out of a pillar, to weaken its strength? Remember you do not need to destroy all the pillars to rock the triangle.

Develop a Strategy

Now you are ready to develop a strategy, a plan, based on your analysis and goals. It is a process of decision-making, developing strategies, organizing, mobilizing, and evaluating.

As a nonviolence trainer I have been asked by many groups to facilitate preparation for an action, only to discover they have not developed a plan for what they want to accomplish through this action, or how it fits in with their strategy.

Many years ago I facilitated a session for the CT Gay and Lesbian Alliance, which was working for a Gay Rights bill. It had been defeated year after year, and they had just lost by only a few votes. Angry but determined, they wanted to do an action on the last day of the legislative session. They had a lot of ideas, but not a plan. We used the following tool to help the leadership state their objectives and evaluate the possible approaches.

Matrix Exercise: Make a large grid on the wall.

List the agreed upon objectives down the left side, and the action ideas across the top. Going through each action idea, the group decides if it is positive (mark with a + in the corresponding box in the matrix), negative (-), or will have no effect (0) on reaching the objective of the action.

Their objectives were to:

• Tell the legislators they are angry that they have not passed a gay rights bill, that they are not defeated, they are strong and will be back.
• Show there is solidarity among gays and straights supporting this bill.
• Create a visible sign of strength for the media.
• Have fun!

Their action ideas included:

• Unfold a banner from the balcony during the legislative session.
• Throw pink triangles on the heads of the legislators.
• Sing during the session.

This exercise created a visual portrait of what would be most effective, and what wouldn't be.

To meet their objectives, the organizers decided upon a different course of action. About eight people unfurled a banner and chanted, making it clear to the legislators that they would continue the fight for their rights. A rally was held outside the Capitol, attended by 1,000 who circled the building, holding hands, to show our numbers and our unity. The matrix helped the organizers see that throwing pink triangles would have been fun, but would negate the seriousness of the struggle. So a party was planned after the action to help achieve that goal too! The next year the Gay Rights Bill passed, succeeding after an eight-year campaign.

Evaluate

Evaluation is an important part of this process. We need to evaluate our past actions so we can better understand not only what we have done well, but where we need to do things differently. How can we improve relationships among the participants in our organization? How can we become more inclusive? How can we expand our influence? What winnable objectives and approaches might better excite our existing and desired constituencies into action?

We can't mobilize people unless we have built relationships and developed a collective process that includes listening. And to mobilize people into effective action, we need to promote strategies that appear achievable. People are more likely to act both if they feel affected by a problem, and if they believe they can be effective by acting.

In this political moment, we have an opportunity to mobilize more people than we have in the past. Don't just mourn, organize.

Share an Organizing Tip! [5] Did you ever receive a pearl of social change wisdom? Please pass it on to others. What idea, tactic, approach, strategy, mind-set, or tool do you wish you began to grasp earlier?
Ask for an Organizing Tip! [6] With what organizing issue are you struggling? Maybe you can answer someone else's question.
What organizing resource [7] should be added to Peacework's Organizing Resources [8] list? Please share your ideas.