How do we engage people who've been sitting on the political sidelines? An organizer breaks it down

Ever wondered how, precisely, social movements lead to change? Ever wonder, for example, if a local march, rally, or movement can really change the way insider politics function? Can organizing really impact our laws and governance? Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party and a key leader in the Movement for Black Lives (the global network behind Black Lives Matter), broke down exactly why—and how—social movements can and do lead to tremendous change in politics. 

“What social movements do when they're at their best,” Mitchell explained to Daily Kos in an interview behind the scenes at Netroots Nation, the country’s largest conference for progressives, “is that they render the invisible visible, and they render the impossible possible.” One big example in the United States? The Black Lives Matter movement and the exposure it’s brought to police violence and, in particular, the violence against black men and black transgender women. It’s no surprise, then, that police violence is the issue that “transformed” Mitchell the most as an organizer.

“One of our classmates was killed by an undercover police officer, and it mobilized and politicized many of my fellow classmates, and it certainly politicized me,” Mitchell recalled in reference to his college days. Since then, he said, “I've been committing all of my energy, all of my time, all of my passion to making sure that young people just like him won't also share his fate; that other black, brown and poor men and women could actually thrive in this country.”

“It's a lot deeper than shoving somebody into a poll and getting them to pull a lever for a particular candidate,” Mitchell stressed. “It's about acquainting somebody with their innate power and acquainting them with the amazing transformational ability of collective power to change the world.”

Feeling motivated yet? Check out Mitchell’s full interview below, where he talks to Daily Kos about how to mobilize potential voters, how the far right uses cynicism to their advantage, and how to inspire people to reach their own power.

x x YouTube Video

Question 1: What was the issue that first motivated you to become an organizer?

I've been organizing since I was a young person, but I think the issue that really transformed me the most was police violence. When I was still a very young person in college, one of our classmates was killed by an undercover police officer, and it mobilized and politicized many of my fellow classmates, and it certainly politicized me, and I began to organize direct actions.

We held a huge, more than a thousand person direct action. We were in D.C., and we went to the Department of Justice, and after that particular organizing moment, I never looked back. And I've been committing all of my energy, all of my time, all of my passion to making sure that young people just like him won't also share his fate; that other black, brown and poor men and women could actually thrive in this country.

Question 2: How can we mobilize people who have previously been unengaged in politics? How do we meet potential voters where they are?

We meet voters where they are by respecting with them, by being in conversation and relationship with them. I'm an organizer, so fundamentally I always look through the prism of relationships, right, and I think what has happened over time with our electoral politics is that it's become very corporate, very metrics-based, very sort of consultant-driven, right, and we've lost the heart and soul of our politics.

Politics are ultimately about people, and politics is about some of the most intimate things in our lives … how our children are educated, whether or not I have meaningful health care, whether or not I live in a community where I can breathe fresh air. That's what politics are ultimately about. And so rooting it in those intimate conversations and relationships, and then presenting a vision that meets the scale of the problems that everyday working people are feeling. There's a reason why people have dropped out of our politics, because it doesn't align with their values, and it doesn't resonate with them.

And also the conversation is happening in the air, outside of them, and so coming back to the basics of organizing is going to be key to mobilizing all of those folks that have dropped out of our politics but we desperately need not just to vote, but to be organized. And this is why that I as an organizer—like organizing is my religion, but why I put a primacy on organizing because organizing gets the goods every day, right?

When you bring people together, and they're able to surface their own power and they're able to connect with one another, they're transformed by that work. And once they're transformed, just like me and my transformational experience as a young person, as a college student, once you're transformed by the work, you're forever transformed, right.

So it's a lot deeper than shoving somebody into a poll and getting them to pull a lever for a particular candidate. It's about acquainting somebody with their innate power and acquainting them with the amazing transformational ability of collective power to change the world.

Question 3: How can we use outside pressure to influence insider politics?

I came from movement building and the Movement for Black Lives. And one of the things that I learned from that experience is that the power of social movements could really change the world. And what social movements do when they're at their best is that they render the invisible visible, and they render the impossible possible.

So what do I mean by that? So social movements, let's take the Movement for Black Lives, render a reality that has been invisible in our society, the police killing of black folks and state violence against black people. It happens every day. It's been happening for centuries, and it's been invisible to far too many people in our society. That movement made it visible so that we could consider it and address it. And also it's a big problem. But that movement created an appetite for the impossible to actually change this entrenched problem.

So, we need social movements to do that and to shift the conversation radically. So, we're talking about police violence in ways that we never did before. We're talking about universal health care in ways that we never did before. We're talking about immigration in ways that we never did before. We're talking about the economy and radically changing the structure of the economy because of social movements, Occupy, the Women's March, the Immigrant Rights Movement.

Right, so when we align movements with the electoral power to govern, that is a combination that could take us to where we need to go, right? The movements shift the conversation, and then the ability to elect people, that's how we're able to secure the gains, right? It's a two-step and both of those things are essential.

I think for far too long, social movements have been siloed in one particular place, and the ability to elect folks have been siloed in another place and largely governed by corporate interests. And so what we need to do is attach social movements with electoral movements, and that's the work that I'm doing with the Working Families Party.

Bonus Question: If you could give advice to your teenage self, what would it be?

Wow, that's a really great question. I would, if I could give advice to my teenage self, okay, if I could give advice to my teenage self, I would say… The most transformative thing that you could focus on ultimately and the thing that has always really changed the world is a focus on love and solidarity, right? And it sounds hokey, right, but love and solidarity is what fights cynicism. Cynicism is an elaborate project of the right. The far right needs us to be cynical. They're relying on everyday people to drop out, and so I would focus on that.

And I think as a young person, at times maybe I took myself too seriously. At times I focused on the sense of doing great things or being great, but it's the love that we share between one another. It's the solidarity that we build as movements that ultimately, I think historically, have transformed the world. And I think a focus on that and a good sense of humor and some humility will go pretty far, so I would probably tell my younger self that, and not to wear those pants.

Inspired to think more about activism movements? Don’t miss our Making Progress interviews with Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and gain insight on how to be an ally to Native American communities from Prairie Rose Seminole. You can check out more Making Progress interviews at the Daily Kos YouTube page.

from Daily Kos https://ift.tt/2qXsLEP