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.
Tag Archives: organization
Occupy Sandy and mutual aid
Piotr Kropotkin was an anarchist because he believed that absent government, people would help each other. Born a Russian noble, Kropotkin renounced his title and spent his life as an activist and theorist, and proclaimed his allegiance to poor. He … Continue reading
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Tagged 350.org, advocacy, anarchism, climate change, Kropotkin, mutual aid, Occupy Sandy, Occupy Wall Street, organization, professionalization, service
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Is Occupy one?
I mean: is Occupy now one year old? Is it still around? Is it unified? A year ago on September 17, the Occupation of Zuccotti Park began, with a beautiful poster and far less participation and promise than it soon … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 99 percent, democracy, elections, horizontal, influence, Occupy, Occupy Wall Street, organization, politics, tea party, Zuccotti Park
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Leaving the Tea Party (Patriots)?
Mark Meckler has just resigned from the leadership of the Tea Party Patriots, an organization he and Jenny Beth Martin, started in 2009. Because Meckler was the most visible exponent of a fundamentalist grassroots orientation to political activism within the … Continue reading
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Tagged democracy, grassroots, Jenny Beth Martin, Jonathan Rauch, Mark Meckler, organization, Rick Santelli, Tea Party Patriots
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Occupy at the Rose Bowl
A march looks a lot like a parade with demands. Occupy the Rose Parade will present a presence–with floats–at the 123rd Tournament of Roses Parade on Monday morning in Pasadena. The parade, patriotic and explicitly non-political, allows cause groups to … Continue reading
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Tagged culture, demonstration, institutionalization, Occupy, organization, parade, Rose Bowl, tea party, tolerance
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Occupy Wall Street versus the Tea Party (I)
Perhaps predictably, the comments section of the Washington Post in response to my op-ed has provided a space for typists to rail against me in making their own political points. The notion that I would dare to compare the Occupiers … Continue reading
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Tagged Amy Kremer, funding, law, Moveon.org, Occupy, organization, Saul Alinsky, tea party, Tea Party Express, Wall Street
2 Comments
Roseanne takes it to Wall Street
Roseanne, the comedian, actress, producer, and a sort of populist progressive, dropped in on the Wall Street occupation, and delivered brief prepared remarks, then improvised. I got the link from someone on Facebook, because her appearance didn’t make much of … Continue reading
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
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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Authenticity at the Town Hall Meetings?
Republican members of Congress who supported Paul Ryan’s budget plan (almost all of them) are having to defend their votes against hostile crowds at town meetings. (Note that there is a lot to get angry about in this budget plan. … Continue reading
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Tagged budget, FreedomWorks, health care, organization, protest, town hall, uninons
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