The Good, the Bad and the Pretty: Reflections from Pushback Network on the 2010 Midterm Election
For those of us on the front lines of social and economic justice, Election Day was not something to be happy about. However, regardless of the political shifts that occurred at the state and national level, our chosen course to bring about transformation of this country has not shifted. As we survey the new political landscape wrought by the Mid-Terms, a couple of things become clear. Our visions for this country remain the same. The work we do to promote justice remains the same. What this election has successfully accomplished is that it has provided community organizers and progressives a moment of pause and reflection, with some good, some bad and some pretty lessons to bring back to our communities.
PLAN Canvassers
THE GOOD: Despite a ton of money, and a ton of free media, the electoral “tsunami of change” was more of a wave than a tidal wave. The high levels of corporate and anonymous cash resources are never a good thing, but it was matched by the voices of people of color voters in a number of states. In particular, the Latino vote made itself heard in the west and southwest, in ways that can only serve to help fight discrimination and racism against their communities. The voices against racism were loud and clear this year, and they made a difference in the tone and outcomes of the campaigns, regardless of the victor. [Read more]
Pushback Network is fired up about the US Social Forum!
From June 22-26th, over 200 members from the 9 Pushback State Alliances are uniting in Detroit to strengthen our collective efforts and craft visions of liberation and justice.
Seeing as the time has come for us to build collective power in this milieu of massive unemployment, SB 1070, the oil spill, de-funding of public education, foreclosures and the bank bailouts, Pushback has constructed a strong program that highlights the diverse, multi-issue, multi-region, multi-constituency nature of our network.
You can catch us in Detroit sponsoring the following workshops, convention, and party:
On January 27th, Pushback Network conducted our first-ever webinar entitled, “The Geopolitics of an Energy Colony: Case Studies of Kentucky and New Mexico.” We used this webinar to highlight the environmental justice work within the Kentucky and New Mexico State Alliances and connect the ways in which people of color and working class communities are fighting back against environmental racism through the creation of robust, grassroots led organizing campaigns.
Presentations were made from staff and grassroots leaders of SouthWest Organizing Project, Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. In this powerful demonstration of cross state collaboration, each state linked the health and environmental effects in their own communities around uranium and coal extraction to state and federal policies based in racial and economic discrimination. [Read more]
In partnership with Wellstone Action, KFTC organized a Candidate and Campaign training this past weekend in Hindman with 30 participants. The focus was overwhelmingly on running for office in Eastern Kentucky, but some members from other parts of the state came as well.
The goal was to encourage people to run for office or to help their friends run by providing a top-notch campaign training focusing on campaign planning and budgeting, telling your story, grassroots voter contact, fundraising, base-building, stump speeches, developing a winning message and more. [Read more]
Pushback Network (PBN) proudly welcomes accomplished social justice leader Peter Hardie as its new Executive Director.
Emphasizing community organizing and voter engagement strategies to empower underrepresented constituencies, PBN continues to grow as an organization assisting people in defining their mutual interests and working together to improve their lives.
“Peter is ideally poised to help lead the Pushback Network as a facilitator and as a leader in the national and local struggles for justice and democracy,” said PBN Chair Robby Rodriguez. “Currently, PBN is developing and implementing voter engagement and other civic participation strategies in eight states: New York, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, and California. We foster collaborative efforts to increase the effectiveness of groups doing community organizing and non-partisan electoral work on the ground. Peter Hardie is an ideal fit for PBN because his career has combined organizing, advocacy and activism with significant experience and practice in organizational assessment and development. He has worked side by side with coalitions across the country and internationally to build grassroots political power from the bottom up. Peter has coached and advised a diverse range of organizations and knows how to encourage the best outcomes from them.” [Read more]
DO: Approach key local and regional groups before the strategy is set. Tailor efforts to the culture and politics of individual communities. No state is one community. Incoming organizers should seek synergies with existing work.
DON’T: Bait and switch. Be clear and honest with grassroots organizers about intentions and objectives. [Read more]
Follow The Project, PBN’s live, daily, multi-media civic engagement project every day through November 7th. To lead us off, PBN is publishing a few critically important pieces that look at the importance of sound investment in effective civic organizing. Click here for updates.
During the 2006 electoral season, PBN partner Kentuckians for the Commonwealth learned first hand how paratrooper tactics disrupt years’ worth of work in their communities. According to nationally based, numbers-centric guidelines, national groups did a better job targeting the KFTC’s population, and reached more people.
But a closer look shows that while KFTC contacted a third of the people the national paratrooping group reached, they did it for a tenth of the money. KFTC’s numbers, unlike those of the paratroopers, reflected three person-to-person contacts for each individual counted. KFTC’s contacts included civic education and leadership development on a personal level – a crucial benefit that lasts, and one that you can’t get from mailings or robocalls. [Read more]
Follow The Project, PBN’s live, daily, multi-media civic engagement project every day through November 7th. To lead us off, PBN is publishing a few critically important pieces that look at the importance of sound investment in effective civic organizing. Click here for updates.
“Y’all don’t know what you’re doing anyway,” is how Kentuckians for the Commonwealth’s Burt Lauderdale paraphrases the widespread dismissal of Southern leadership. “It’s a total mystery for progressives.”
“I was in a meeting right before the 2006 national election,” said Lauderdale. “The speaker got up and talked about all the really good work that was happening around the country. And then he said, ‘Well, of course the South is lost.’” [Read more]
Follow The Project, Pushback Network’s Election 2008 Multi-Media Project online through your social networks, at our Project Updates Blog, or on Friend Feed and watch history happen with updates all day, every day through Election Week!
We’re going to the battlegrounds of New Mexico and Mississippi November 1-7, 2008, to show what the work our partners are doing to fuse community organizing and voter engagement and mobilize people of color, poor people, and young people looks like — in action and in near-real-time using photos, videos, micro-bloggging and more. Check back each day to see where we are with preparations, and see the organizing work happen through the post-election wind-up November 7th. [Read more]
