Sara Horowitz & Maya Enista | Mobilizing for Change in the 21st Century
Sara Horowitz and Maya Enista • May 31st, 2011 • Democracy, Engagement, General
This post, the second of two parts, is a guest column from Sara Horowitz of Freelancers Union and Maya Enista of Mobilize.org on mobilizing public support for change. In the previous post, Gigi Georges discussed the tools of a mayor or other chief executive role to influence the landscape for innovation within a system for solving social problems. To us the two posts together represent distinct but equally important approaches to driving innovation in a democratic society. You might also call the tension top-down versus bottom-up, or even supply versus demand.
As organizers, we believe that the principles behind mobilizing citizens present substantial opportunities for social innovators.
Historically, large scale social movements in the U. S. have hinged on the ability to pressure policymakers to change government policies and programs. But mobilizing also helps innovators—government and nonprofit alike—to build the constituencies behind their reform efforts critical to overcoming incumbent opposition.
Early 20th century pioneers like Sidney Hillman were organizers whose innovations often became models for government programs (public unemployment insurance system in Hillman’s case). But what do social movements look like today? Surely Hillman’s approach to organizing—which he envisioned before the time of mobile phones and the devolution of information—must be outdated, right? Not so much.
Sara Horowitz founded the Freelancers Union 15 years ago in recognition that the employer-based safety net simply doesn’t fit the way many people are working today. This system, evolving from New Deal programs, was built around an industrial labor model, where workers were long-term employees of a single company that provided health insurance, pensions, training, a career ladder, the right to unionize, and more. Today’s economy is characterized by multiple careers, short-term employment and a flexible workforce.
With 140,000 members nationally, Freelancers Union is a member-driven network offering new means of delivering services and benefits—health, dental, life, disability insurance, and more—outside of corporate and governmental structures. Freelancers Union has also tapped into a politically active constituency to successfully repeal unfair tax laws, introduce legislation to protect freelancers from unpaid wages, and elect candidates that support the freelancer agenda.
Like few others, the Millennial generation has embraced this spirit of mutual aid and cooperation. In 2002, a group of 10 students founded Mobilize.org on the campus of UC Berkeley to organize against increases in student tuition. From the success of that effort, the organization now empowers Millennials to create the democracy they want to inherit. Through the savvy use of digital media and investing in Millennial-driven solutions to our society’s most pressing problems, CEO Maya Enista leads Mobilize.org in igniting civic activism among tens of thousands of Millennials around the country.
The organization’s flagship Democracy 2.0 Summits have engaged 1,500 people directly and over 10,000 virtually on issues such as civic engagement among Millennial veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and financial literacy. Through a network of civic and institutional partners, Mobilize.org provides Democracy 2.0 participants resources to help them activate and organize communities of change, on and offline.
With our combined experience, what have we learned about mobilizing for change in the modern era? The more things change, one might say, the more they stay the same.
First, what is new?
Digital tools. Mobilize.org uses information technologies like keypad voting, webcasting and online social networking platforms to engage its networks and participants during Democracy 2.0 Summits. Digital information technologies are cost-efficient in reaching exponentially more people, promote transparent and inclusive dialogue, and allow for authentic, user-created content.
Changing demographics. Citizens who organize are no longer just the white male workers of the past. Today they are equally likely to be women, immigrants, and temporary workers. They are also likely to be Millenials, whom Mobilize.org describes as the 80 million people born between the years 1976–1996. Millennials share a technological savvy, a more relaxed work-ethic, greater diversity as well as cultural/racial tolerance.
Social compact in flux. The problem-solving capacity of government is increasingly dwarfed in comparison to today’s social needs. More groups are mobilizing their own constituencies to provide collective benefits and resources, and to advocate for change on behalf of their members. One might say we are moving beyond our decades old, government-dominated social policy and institutional regime toward a new mutualism. This shift is fueled in part by the new space left by gaps in existing social protections and a renewed interest in leveraging social networks to generate powerful resources and collaborative actions.
What stays the same?
Nature of organizing. At its core, mobilizing is about bringing people together to solve their own problems. Freelancers Union was created to address the shared problems of a growing segment of the workforce left out of employer-based social protections. Mobilize.org asks Millennials to identify the problems most important to them, and then encourages them to act by giving them the resources they need to get started. The steps involved in movement building are still the same: person to person networking based on common interest; providing a needed service; finding opportunities for members to engage; and unleashing the combined political power of the group.
Member-driven. It is still important for organizers to ensure that power stays in the hands of the membership. The most effective social movements have done this well. Many of today’s national advocacy organizations rely heavily on lobbying and fundraising but have weak memberships. Each organization is different, but somehow must reach people and listen to them, act iteratively with member input, and find new ways for members to lead and participate.
Building community. Organizing still reflects narrowly defined communities of shared interest—either place-based or interest-based. People are more likely to self identify with several communities, both online and offline, but it remains a challenge to maintain unity across geographic distance, across generations, and across cultures and interests. Diffused across various occupations, Freelancers Union works to build a platform from which our members can support one another through the exchange of knowledge, networks, and encouragement. Millennials, generally speaking, believe they can make an impact but don’t want to go at it alone. For both organizations, digital media complements traditional methods of bringing people together—house parties, mixers, and larger conferences or summits.
While the economy, technologies, demographics and norms change rapidly, our belief in the democratic values of equal representation, access to opportunity, and personal liberty stays the same. Organizers also share a deeply-held belief in self-determination, innovation, and concern for the common good with entrepreneurial leaders from the government, business and nonprofit sectors. Put another way, we share a universal goal to bring people together to solve their own problems.