GEOG 5380

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GEOG 5380 Campaigning for Social
Change Introduction Session
Dr Paul Chatterton
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4c. Campaigning for social change

• Researching context, rationale, issues
• Aims/goals, demands, targets, objectives
• Action strategy ideas and tactics
• Resourcing and reaching out
• Communications and engaging with the media
• Sustaining and evaluating organising and
  assessing risks and problems (Legal and security
  issues)

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Campaign cycle
Analysing the issue, researching
Developing strategy, aims, goals, objectives
Sustaining, Evaluation
Implementation/action
Planning, reaching out, resourcing communicating
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From Minieri and Getsos, 2008)
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1a. Researching your context

• What are the main issues in this area and the
  main problems?
• Identifying the right issues to work on
  (meetings, phone, conversations)
• PEST analysis. What is the
• Political context (main political players,
  policy, potential change)
• Economic context (what is it, will it change, how
  will affect you?)
• Social context (public opinion, role of media,
  celebrities)
• Technical context (scientific evidence, changing
  tech. developments)
• Powermapping, landscaping, target analysis (who
  is out there, whose side are they on, who are
  allies/enemies, what and who is your target)
• Where will you get good information from
  (capacity, sources, quality, bias, ethics,
  access, resourcing)

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1b. Researching your context

• Why are you doing this campaign?
• To announce. To bring to light some scandal or
  shocking event
• To reinforce. People can be aware of something,
  reinforcing is reminding them of something that
  they know already.
• To punctuate. There might be an event that needs
  remembering, or to remind people that an issue
  has not gone away
• To escalate there might be a need to raise the
  stakes on an issue that is getting more pressing
• To increase morale a group might be ebbing low
  and needs a boast through taking action.
• (Rukus Society)

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1c. Researching your context

• The problem and solution tree
• Problems goes on trunk, consequences on leaves,
  causes on the roots
• Then
• For problem, think of an alternative vision and
  stick over it
• For each cause think of a solution and place over
  it.
• For each consequence, think of a positive outcome
  and stick over it

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1d. Researching your context
What are the main PROBLEMS and for each what is
the solution
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2a. Aims/goals, demands, targets, objectives

• What is your overall AIM or GOAL this is the
  overall vision which gives campaign a clear focus
• What are your DEMANDS? and to who? (be precise,
  specific can be more than one) this is the
  actual policies or programmes you want to change
  or influence. It is concrete, measurable and
  requires a yes/no answer.
• What is your TARGET? Who can meet your demands
  (primary and secondary)
• What are your OBJECTIVES (the steps you will take
  to get you to your aims/goals need to be
  deliverable and evaluated)

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2b. Aims/goals, demands, targets, objectives

• Evaluating and assessing your aims/goals.
• S.M.A.R.T. Goals. Are your aims/goals
• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Timely
• Organisational assessment Remember to assess
  your organisations capacity to meet its aims!
  (legitimacy, resources, prepardness)
• Use a timeline to plan your campaign but be
  flexible

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3a. Action strategies

• Actions should be appropriate to your
  organisation your target and your demand
• Dont act too early, and be prepared
• Different types of strategies (Minieri and
  Getsos, 2008)
• Direct action (100!)
• Low level disruption (pickets, meetings etc)
• Legislative (getting bills, policies passed or
  modified)
• Advocacy (working on behalf of others to achieve
  change)
• Alliance building (short or long term to meet
  certain goals)
• Media and public education (using these to get
  change, not just publicity)
• Legal structures (appeals, lawsuits, judicial
  reviews)
• Remember they can be combined

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3b. Action strategies

• Issues to consider for action planning
• Timing
• Legal support and briefings, police liaison
• Publicity on the day
• Food and water
• Communications and decision making
• Transport (there and back)
• Health and wellbeing

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3c. Action strategies
100 ways to resist (from Trapese, 2007) Refusal
of assembly to disperse. Sit down Bodily
interjections. Bodily obstruction. Trespass.
Airborne invasion. Occupations. Inviting
arrest/imprisonment. Sit-in. Stand-in. Ride-in.
Pray-in. Return of waste products. Heckling.
Guerrilla theatre. Protest strip. Graffiti.
Subvertising. Refusal to collaborate. Declining
government awards/appointments. Boycott of
elections Hunger strike. Ghosting Publicising
individuals activities. Social boycott.
Ostracism. Denial of sexual relations.
Excommunication. Boycott of meetings, events or
lectures. Group silence. Walk-out. Picketing.
Breaking social taboo. Harbouring fugitives.
Sanctuary. Peoples public hearings and courts.
Consumers boycott. Withholding of rent. Refusal
to pay tax. Refusal to pay debts or charges.
Withdrawal of bank deposits. Blacking of goods by
suppliers. Blacking of raw materials by workers.
Demonstration strike. Go-slow. Work-to-rule.
Bumper strike. Wildcat or lightning strike.
Lock-up or stay-in strike. Reverse strike.
Personal strike. General strike. Overloading
facilities or services. Overloading
administrative systems. Stalling by customers.
Breaking bad laws on principle Publishing secret
material. Disclosing secret identities. Tracking.
Forgery of letters. Breaking official blockades.
Refusal to recognise appointed officials.
Non-cooperation with police. Removal of street
signs, door numbers. Closure of roads.
Infiltration of institutions with spies.
Electronic picketing. Spoiling or contamination
of goods. Monkey-wrenching. Liberating animals.
Failure to pass on information. Deliberate
inefficiency. Industrial sabotage.
Non-retaliation. Entryism. Alternative radio /
newspapers. Alternative schools Selective
patronage. Alternative economies. Selective
refusal of entry. Alternative community with
independent sovereign government.
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3e. Action strategies

• Smart Meme Points of intervention
• Point of Production
• Factory, Crop lands. The realm of Strikes,
  picket lines, crop-sits etc.
• Point of Destruction
• Resource extraction, Point of toxic discharge,
  road blockades, tree-sits etc.
• Point of Consumption
• Chain stores, supermarkets. Consumer boycotts
  and markets campaigns.
• Point of Decision
• Corporate HQ. Location of targeted decision
  maker.
• Point of Potential
• Future scenarios, actualizing alternatives,
  transforming an empty lot etc.
• Point of Assumption
• Challenging underlying beliefs/control
  mythologies and hijacking
• spectacles and using popular culture

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3f. Action strategies
Alinskys Rules for tactics Rule 1 Power is
not only what you have, but what an opponent
thinks you have. Rule 2 Never go outside the
experience of your people. Rule 3 Whenever
possible, go outside the experience of an
opponent. Rule 4 Make opponents live up to
their own book of rules. Rule 5 Ridicule is
mans most potent weapon. Rule 6 A good tactic
is one your people enjoy. Rule 7 A tactic that
drags on for too long becomes a drag. Rule 8
Keep the pressure on. Rule 9 The threat is more
terrifying than the thing itself. Rule 10 The
price of a successful attack is a constructive
alternative. Rule 11 Pick the target, freeze
it, personalize it, polarize it.
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4a. Resourcing and reaching out

• What resources do you need?
• People, money, contacts, fundraising, publicity,
  visibility, profile
• Ways to get people involved
• film screenings/concerts DVDs/CDs/video
• fly posting/stickers/leaflets media coverage
• banners in street/windows community events
• Benefit gigs public meetings
• educational workshops/talks websites
• publicity stunts street stalls
• email lists/SMS/texting Merchandise

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4b. Resourcing and reaching out
How will you reach out? Harts Ladder of
participation What is your criteria for
participation/involvement? It should be
transparent and vary according to level of
involvement
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5a. Media and communications

• Need a clear campaign message a few sentences
  that states problem, solution and
  implementation/ACTIONS
• Know your audience, test and review message, have
  good messengers!
• Its not one size fits all Fit your message to
  different audiences
• Settlers (21 of pop) Driven by security.
  Largely closed to change
• Prospectors (44 of pop) Fashion conscious. Open
  to change but wont lead
• Pioneers (35 of pop) Drivers of change. Dont
  need affirmation of others.
• (Sun, Guardian, Mail readers how would you
  target them differently?)
• People arent rational and tend not to act on
  info or intellectual argument
• Groups matter attitudes and behaviour are as
  much social as individual.

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5a. Media and communications

• Most journalists are very busy so its good to
  communicate succintly
• The 32 word press release
• For a campaign you know of or are involved in
  write a press release in only 32 words. Include
• What, why, where, when, how, who

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5b. Media and communications

• Be aware of media saturation
• In the UK, the average person is exposed to up to
  4000 messages every day (2001)
• but can recall only 1 of the advertising without
  prompting
• Traveling to work 150
• Supermarkets 1600
• 80 of decisions made by shoppers in stores are
  subconscious
• Be creative - assess what campaigns do and do not
  capture attention

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5. Media and numbers

• Activation points vary by issue. Its a numbers
  game
• 1 soldiers moms needed to galvanize the public
  to start questioning Bush about the war
• 9 Number of parents who successfully petitioned a
  school board in California,for abstinence-only
  education
• 10 Number of families that pressed for the 9/11
  Commission
• 200 Number of chefs who came together with SeaWeb
  to turn sustainable seafood into a hot commodity
• 218 Number of members of Congress needed to move
  for stem-cell legislation
• 100,000s Number of immigrants throughout the
  United States calling out for immigration
  reform. . . . .

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10 tips for sustainability communications www.fut
erra.co.uk
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5. Media exercise

• You work for a PR firm and have been contracted
  by a local group to write their PR strategy. The
  group is based in a village with high
  unemployment and it has just found out that an
  open cast coal mine will be built next to the
  village.
• The aim of the group is to promote a green image
  and green activity for the village, in spite of
  the open cast coal mine.
• Your task as a PR firm is to develop a media
  strategy for the group.
• As part of your strategy, , develop ideas for the
  following
• A news feature aimed at the Mail newspaper
  readership
• A news feature aimed at the Sun readership
• A strategy for a local public event to promote
  the group

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6a. Sustaining and evaluating campaigns

• How will you organise your campaign as it
  evolves?
• Meetings, records, files, facilitation, decision
  making, structure, flow, updates, training,
  review
• Need for clear Roles and responsibilities,
  negotiation, focus of message
• How to deal with hierarchies - conflict
  resolution and mediation

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6b. Sustaining and evaluating

• Alinskys take on the qualities of an organiser
• Curiosity
• Irreverence
• Imagination
• Sense of humour
• Vision of a better world
• Organised personality
• Well integrated schizoid!
• Ego
• Free and open mind

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6c. Sustaining and evaluating

• Legal and security issues often overlooked
• We will cover this in a later session But
  briefly
• Risk assessments for all actions/events
• Dealing with repression
• Personal safety and security
• Surveillance
• Know the law and your limits
• Trust and working in affinity groups
• Burnout and depression

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6d. Sustaining and evaluating

• So what is success?
• Inputs (resources)
• Activities (what gets done)
• Outputs (what happens as a result of your
  activities - measurable)
• Outcomes (changes that result from outputs)
• IMPACT (real change in peoples lives)!!!!
• You need to be able to monitor and evaluate all
  these
• Remember why you are doing this. To create
  change, not just generate activity/outputs

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• QUESTIONS THROUGHOUT MODULE
• How do you identify issues to campaign on?
• how do we set our aims, objectives and make sure
  we achieve them
• what are we trying to achieve in our campaigning
• What tools do you use for campaigning?
• What has been most and least successful aspects
  of your campaigning?
• How do you reach out and got your message across
  successfully?
• What is the biggest block to effective
  campaigning in your area?
• Have you encountered any legal, ethical
  problems/dilemmas?
• How have you approached fundraising and have you
  been successful?
• What would a victory or success be?
• Do you evaluate your work and if so how, and do
  you follow up on it?
• How do we deal with failure/defeats/demoralisation
  ?
• How do we connect with other and often competing
  groups
• and those of other political pursuasions who
  work on the same issues?