David S. Meyer
I'm a professor of sociology and political science at the University of California, Irvine. I've been thinking, and writing about, protest politics for almost ever. This site offers comments on contemporary events, informed (I hope) by knowing something about history and about the academic study of social movements.
Monthly Archives: July 2011
Crime, punishment, and protest
Tim DeChristopher has been sentenced to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine. About 2 1/2 years ago, after Barack Obama had been elected president, partly by promising to protect the environment more aggressively than President George W. Bush … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged and Mary, Brevik, civil disobedience, climate change, courts, environmentalism, law, necessity defense, Paul, Peter, protest
5 Comments
Will parents protest education cutbacks?: The organizational deficit
Sandy Banks, is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the parent of two daughters studying in the California State University system. She’s frustrated that it’s costing her so much more to help her kids out, and angry that … Continue reading
Is there still a Tea Party movement?
If a political movement doesn’t mobilize, is it still a movement? Although the term “Tea Party” is thrown about a lot these days, particularly in reference to the hard-line anti-debt faction of Republicans in the House, it’s not clear that … Continue reading
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Tagged Americans for Prosperity, debt, tea party, Tea Party Nation, Tea Party Patriots
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The debt debate: Can the Republican Party sell out the Tea Party?
Political parties have to sell out the movements that support them. First, they exploit the energy, incorporate new activists and ideas, and then find some watered down way to soften the rough edges. Parties that can’t tame the movements that … Continue reading
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Tagged debt, FreedomWorks, michele bachmann, parties, tea party, Tea Party Patriots
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Prisoners continue to fast, apparently
News about the ongoing hunger strike in Pelican Bay’s “supermax” prison is leaking out slowly and unreliably. (We’ve covered the hunger strike a few days ago, as well as the hunger strike as a tactic more generally.) While there’s little … Continue reading
Who’s to blame for increased California university tuition?
Tuition at the public universities in California, including the University of California, Irvine, which pays my salary, continues to skyrocket, even as operating budgets in the University of California and California State Universities erode. The president of the University of … Continue reading
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Tagged protest, student, targets, tuition, Univerrsity of California
8 Comments
Unemployment politics and the organizational deficit
Slid into the Business section of Sunday’s NY Times, Catherine Rampell notes that the number of unemployed in the United States has climbed over 14 million, but that the unemployed are politically invisible: In some ways, this boils down to … Continue reading
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Tagged deficit, labor, organization, protest, unemployment, unions
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Prisoners protest by fasting
What are we to make of the hunger strikes spreading through California’s prison population? Starting in Pelican Bay, a “supermax” prison for inmates convicted of the worst of crimes, it has reportedly spread to thirteen prisons; at least 6,600 prisoners … Continue reading
The end of nuclear power in Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government announced late last month that it would phase out nuclear power by the end of 2021. The last few months had seen several shifts in policy, as well as a great deal of public outcry. … Continue reading
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Tagged Angela Merkel, Germany, Japan, movement outcomes, nuclear power, Seabrook, Wyhl
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Breaking up the Tea Party: Raising the debt ceiling.
The unfolding debt ceiling standoff is exacerbating divisions within the Tea Party movement that have been visible from the outset. (Confession: I started writing about this end of the Tea Party on election day, 2010.) The United States has to … Continue reading
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Tagged Americans for Prosperity, deficit, FreedomWorks, Tea Parrty Express, tea party, Tea Party Patriots
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