Pushing protest outdoors in Tennessee

Posted on April 6, 2023 by David S. Meyer

Tennessee state representatives Tennessee State Representatives Justin Pearson, Justin Jones, and Gloria Johnson (l-r above) broke the rules. In the wake of the most a recent mass shooting at a Christian school in Nashville, protesters filled the chamber’s galleries and surrounded the state capitol. Unarmed and nonviolent, they were nonetheless vigorous, demanding legislative action on gun safety, and yelling at the legislators who were determined not to give them what they wanted. The Tennessee 3 amplified the protesters, moving to the well of the chamber and chanting through a megaphone. They didn’t wait to be recognized.

The protesters outdoors included many young people, students from local high schools and universities, and they were well aware that a large majority of the House was far more likely to make it easier for Tennesseans to get guns rather than impose any restrictions. Just two years ago, Tennessee passed a law allowing anyone over 21 to carry a handgun (openly or concealed) without a license; the legislators are due to consider a reform that would lower the age of permitless carry to 18, and include more weapons.

The protesters said they were scared, but they looked angry.

The Tennessee 3 weren’t in the well for very long before the House leadership gaveled in a recess, ending the session. The Republican Speaker of the state house first blamed the protesters, comparing them to the January 6 insurgents at the US Capitol. Some of the Republicans said they were scared–but they looked angry.

They were particularly angry at their three Democratic colleagues who, absolutely, violated rules of procedure and decorum. Members of the Republican majority were determined to respond to protect their vision of the legislature. It’s important to remember that the Republicans enjoy a huge advantage in the House, with 75 Republicans and 23 Democrats. The majority in any legislative body has many options for punishing members who offend:

Individuals can talk with their colleagues privately, and express their opinions.

A majority can pass a resolution of disapproval or censure and formally rebuke a member.

The House leadership can strip a member of committee membership, staff, or office space.

Or the majority can kick a member out, although it’s difficult. It takes a 2/3 majority to expel a member, and it doesn’t happen much. The New York Times reports:

“Six lawmakers were expelled from the Tennessee House in 1866, immediately after the Civil War, for seeking to prevent the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people. Since then, the House of Representatives in Tennessee has voted only twice to oust a lawmaker. Both votes were bipartisan: in 1980, after a sitting lawmaker was convicted of soliciting a bribe, and in 2016, after the House majority whip faced allegations of sexual misconduct while in office.”

On April 6, after a long and contentious debate, the majority voted to expel Reps. Pearson and Jones, but came one vote short of kicking Rep. Johnson out. It is lost on absolutely no one that, unlike Johnson, Pearson and Jones are young Black men.

I don’t know if the Republican majority meant to send a message, but they surely did. If they didn’t realize it at the time, they will certainly be schooled and reminded–again and again.

All of this matters, not just for school safety or gun regulation or racial politics in America. Democracy depends upon the losers continuing to participate in the system, albeit not necessarily happily or with optimism, and certainly not politely. But they must stay engaged. The system depends upon minorities keeping faith that they might someday win.

Reps. Pearson and Jones may well be back in the legislature soon, appointed by county committees or reelected by constituents who value the passion and commitment they displayed.

Or they, or some of their supporters, may decide that the institutions of their state government are so inaccessible and unresponsive that stronger measures must be taken.

That’s what the January 6 insurgents thought.

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Protests against Trump’s indictment?

Posted on April 3, 2023 by David S. Meyer

New Yorkers laughed at Donald Trump when he came to vote in 2016. (Okay, some booed.) Trump had the next laugh, who gets the last one is still up in the air.

The next episode is Trump’s return to New York City, this time to surrender himself to police for arraignment. He has repeatedly proclaimed that criminal charges against him are a plot to destroy America, and has called on his supporters to protest. And he’s warned of violence and general mayhem if prosecution proceeds. Someone will listen and respond, but just who, how many, and how will matter a great deal.

Social movement power comes from connections with the political mainstream. Organizers and activists can get played and exploited by regular politicians, but sometimes they can win significant victories. This is a common American story. Ambitious politicians calling on their supporters to take to the streets is a far less common story in American politics–but it’s certainly not the first time.

So, along with national media, Trump supporters have recorded the long trek from Palm Beach to Manhattan–a 1,200 mile perp walk. Trumpians frame the shots to emphasize their passionate supporters. But wider angle shots show sparse attendance.

Larger sustained protests take organization, not just an appeal from leaders, and organization is not Trump’s strong suit. But, as with January 6, others may be organizing to create disruption and make local and federal prosecutors pay for doing their jobs.

Mainstream media will cover the minutia of Trump’s arraignment in excruciating details. Expect a report detailing modern fingerprinting techniques that don’t leave ink on those tiny hands.

And the next day, Trump has promised to deliver a speech that frames his prosecution as persecution that somehow translates to an existential threat to *real* Americans. It’s worked so far largely because only a smattering of institutional Republicans have been willing to stand up against it–against Trump and now, for the rule of law.

At some point, maybe soon, someone will realize the mileage to be gained out of actually speaking to the material concerns of those Trump claims to represent.

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Israeli protest continues, along with challenges to democracy

Posted on April 2, 2023 by David S. Meyer

The massive extended protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued, even as protesters claimed credit for a victory. Netanyahu postponed consideration a plan to severely limit the independence of the judiciary, frustrating hard right allies within his coalition and, for the moment at least, emboldening the opposition, as seen above in the streets of Tel-Aviv.

Why the protesters in the street won at all, when large persistent protests elsewhere (for example, France–against raising the retirement age; Kentucky–against a bill criminalizing gender affirming care; Tennessee–for modest gun safety measures) have yet to make an impact on policy, is the first issue. Why the protests continue after an apparent win is the second.

The size and number of protests matters, of course, but it’s not enough. In any kind of democratic system, protesters need allies in government willing to listen to them. Protesting Israelis had to mount a political threat to the Netanyahu government, which means signaling the capacity to disrupt the governing coalition. On the surface, this shouldn’t have been so difficult: Netanyahu’s far-right government was supported by 64 of 120 members of the Knesset–oddly, the largest majority a government had enjoyed in years. But the people protesting didn’t appear to include anyone the governing parties needed.

Netanyahu’s proposed reform would have allowed the government to appoint judges and to ignore their rulings–an essential demand for some of the far right and religious parties–and a massive provocation to their opponents, who viewed it as a threat to democratic governance altogether. The scope of this threat, coupled with longstanding antipathy to Netanyahu, helped sustain large protests.

But there was more: Military service in Israel is extremely common, if not quite universal, with exemptions for Arabs and ultra-orthodox Israelis. Broad conscription means that the Israeli Defense Force includes men and women from across the political spectrum who are prepared to participate in campaigns they might oppose as matters of policy (for example, harsh policing of Palestinians; relocating resistant religious settlers). For better and worse, democratic legitimacy makes this possible.

As the campaign against the government grew, it touched the military. Hundreds of reservists who served in exclusive units, including special forces and intelligence, announced that they would not show up for service. Fighter pilots demanded an end to the reform, threatening to refuse calls to service as well. And the tremendous disruption within Israel gave US President Joe Biden the incentive and political space to weigh in as well, announcing that decades of US military and political support was a response to Israel’s commitment to democracy.

Netanyahu was prepared to push ahead regardless, but his Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, was not. Netanyahu fired Gallant immediately, but furtive negotiations within his coalition suggested that Gallant was not the only one prepared to leave the government to preserve an independent judiciary. Remember the narrow margins–it would take just a few defectors to bring the government down. Political unrest within the government made the street protests possible, and the prime minister announced that he would return to judicial reform later.

Stalling on judicial reform, while making additional concessions to the far right he disappointed, allowed Netanyahu to survive the moment, but he’d announced a postponement, not an end. Netanyahu plans to bring it back when, he hopes, political circumstances will be more favorable. The opposition’s victory could be short-lived. It wouldn’t be the first time. Surely, some protesters remembered that Hong Kong’s leadership suspended an unpopular law to stop a protest movement in 2019, only to institute far harsher reforms months later.

So, thus far, the protests continue, as a broad opposition evaluates broader goals, perhaps ousting Netanyahu, or adopting some kind of Constitution. It’s not over.

Meanwhile, on the outside, activists want to take inspiration from the successes of the moment. But we need to remember that the opposition didn’t succeed because they waved Israeli flags at the demonstrations, nor just because of their numbers, the tactics, or commitment. Tunnel vision on the actions in the streets leads to missing the importance of connecting protest to politics.

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Cesar Chavez Day, 2023

Posted on March 31, 2023 by David S. Meyer

Commemoration of Cesar Chavez Day is an annual ritual in California–and in Politics Outdoors.

The day is a chance to reflect on Chavez, the movement he led, which continues, and the issues he and that movement addressed. (It also seems to be a good opportunity to return to writing here, with the chance to repost, reconsider, and update writing from past years.

Image result for edna chavez speech, stephon clark

In 2018, less than a week after Edna Chavez, the charismatic then-seventeen year old high schooler from South Los Angeles, electrified a national crowd with a demand to end gun violence, Californians celebrated the legacy of another Chavez.

On my campus, we commemorated Cesar Chavez Day today, rather than March 31 (his birthday), by closing.  (This year, of course, the campus is barren. Once a week, I walk in to collect mail and remember that I have an office, routinely seeing just a couple of people in passing. It looks like it’s always closed.) The state established the holiday in 2000, and six other states have followed suit.  In California, the legislature calls upon public schools to develop appropriate curricula to teach about the farm labor movement in the United States, and particularly Chavez’s role in it.

A campaign to establish a national holiday has stalled so far (The Cesar Chavez National holiday website seems to have last been updated in 2008), but last year President Obama issued a proclamation announcing a day of commemoration, and calling upon all Americans “to observe this day with appropriate service, community, and education programs to honor Cesar Chavez’s enduring legacy.”

Political figures have many reasons for creating holidays, including remembering the past; identifying heroic models for the future; recognizing and cultivating a political constituency; and providing an occasion to appreciate a set of values. Regardless of the original meaning, the holidays take on new meanings over time.  Columbus Day, for example, is celebrated as an occasion for pride in Italian Americans (e.g.), and commemorated and mourned as a symbol of genocide  and empire (e.g.).

Cesar Chavez’s life and work is well worth remembering and considering, particularly now.  His career as a crusader was far longer than that of Martin Luther King discussed (here and here) and he was far more of an organizer than Fred Korematsu (discussed here). Chavez’s Medal of Freedom was awarded shortly after his death in 1993, by President Clinton, but many of his accomplishments were apparent well before then.

Dolores Huerta, 2009

As a young man, Chavez was an agricultural worker; by his mid-twenties, he became a civil rights organizer, working for the Community Service Organization in California.  With Dolores Huerta, in 1962 Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers.  Focusing on poor, mostly Mexican-American workers, Chavez’s vision for activism was right at the cornerstone of racial and economic justice.  Establishing an organization, however, is a long way from winning recognition and bargaining rights as a union.

Chavez was a tactician, a public figure, a charismatic, and something of a mystic.  Modeling his efforts after Gandhi’s successful campaigns, Chavez was an emphatic practitioner of active nonviolence.  He employed boycotts, strikes, long fasts, demonstrations, long marches, and religious rhetoric in the service of his cause.  He also registered voters, lobbied, and worked in political campaigns.  He was a tireless and very effective organizer for most of his life.

But holidays are best celebrated with an eye to the future, rather than the past.

On Cesar Chavez Day this year, we can think about the large and growing Latino community in the United States.  The 2010 Census reports that Latinos now comprise roughly 1/6 of the American population, and more than 1/3 of the population in California. Of course, this number grew: The 2020 Census reports that Latinos now comprise 18.7% of the population nationally. This is the youngest and fastest-growing population in America today, and they are severely underrepresented in the top levels of politics, education, and the economy.  The civil rights map is at least as complicated as at any time in American history, but not less important or urgent.  (The struggle about the DREAM Act is reminiscent of the debate about Voting Rights 45 years ago. And the DREAM Act is still not done. This, of course, has yet to change years later.)  The future of American Latinos is very much the future of America.

[2020: Through ill-advised, provocative, and racist policies, Donald Trump has done a great deal to make it easier to mobilize Latinos, and to forge a broader unity among the whole range of minority groups (racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, etc.). This organizing IS happening.]

[2021: The protests against racialized violence, particularly from police, which took off last summer, offered a promise of political unity among a vast range of Americans. But common cause among Asian Americans, Blacks, and Latinx people and allies require constant work.]

And Chavez saw the civil rights struggle as a labor issue.  When Chavez and Huerta started

The Crusades of Cesar Chavez,' by Miriam Pawel - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/books/review/the-crusades-of-cesar-chavez-by-miriam-pawel.html

their campaign, nearly one third of Americans were represented by unions.  The percentage now is now just about 10 percent, and less in the private sector.

And public sector workers, even if represented by unions aren’t doing so well.  The ongoing conflict in Wisconsin is all about weakening unions that are already making very large concessions on wages and pensions.  The campaign in Wisconsin is part of a larger national effort, which is playing out in Indiana, Ohio, Florida, and elsewhere.  Even in states where anti-union forces are weaker, state employees face lay-offs, wage cuts, and increased health and pension costs.

[The previous Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, was largely effective at hobbling organized labor in his state. Aided by an extensive organizing effort and backlash to many Walker policies, Tony Evers eked out a narrow victory in 2018. Wisconsin may now be a highly contested true swing state, but one without many swing voters.]

[2023: Wisconsin’s political polarization and possibilities are again in the news; next week’s election for a swing seat on the state’s supreme court figures to determine access to abortion and the vote, as well as the future of its heavily gerrymandered legislative districts.]

This year, the Supreme Court will rule in Janus vs. AFSCME, and court watchers expect the Wisconsin model to be immediately exported across the country. [The wildcat teachers strikes in West Virginia, and now Kentucky, with credible threats in Oklahoma and Arizona, offer the hint of a new resurgent labor… more later.]

[Janus turned out exactly as union organizers fear, and continues to haunt the national landscape. But in 2023, labor organizers have found reason for optimism in ongoing unionization campaigns in the service sector, most notably at Starbucks and Amazon.]

[The longer term fallout from organized teachers demanding better salaries and treatment hasn’t hit yet. The conflicts about opening schools safely and vaccinating teachers have opened all kinds of political rifts, and there’s some evidence more teachers are leaving the field–while states have yet to step up and make the job more attractive.]

But, we need to remember that you can’t attack teachers, nurses, police officers, and firefighters without hurting the people they serve: us.

Or should I say, US?

We commemorate the past to help guide the future. Edna Chavez, working in an urban setting far from Cesar Chavez’s organizing, carries the legacy forward, and adds more.

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Martin Luther King Day, 2023

Posted on January 15, 2023 by David S. Meyer

January 16, Martin Luther King Day, falls the day after what would have been King’s 95th birthday, a reminder of how young he was during his ministry. It’s really not that long ago.

The holiday offers a good chance for politicians across the political spectrum to misquote or misinterpret King. Advocates have unsuccessfully tried to use the Federal holiday to drum up support for protecting Voting Rights–a strong commitment for King during his life. Others push for a day of service, really because it’s much harder to create a consensual feel-good moment out of a commitment to racial and economic justice and opposition to war–both severe challenges in the current moment.

And I’d bet that when the Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action in two cases brought by the front group, Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina–argued late last year, that patches of King’s most famous speeches will dot the final opinion.

King is constantly reinterpreted and appropriated for a range of causes. For a much fuller consideration, keep an eye out for Hajar Yazdiha’s forthcoming book (May!), The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement.

Here I repost a slightly edited version of an older post on the holiday.

Statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a light snow-covering

On the eve of the Martin Luther King Day holiday not long ago, the president of the United States announced, emphatically, that you can’t find anyone less racist than he is. If you’re suspicious of such proclamations, perhaps it’s just that you’ve learned to distrust people who laud their own honesty, their color-blindness, their respect for women, or concern for the poor. Like the salesman who claims the nickname, “Honest,” Donald Trump never succeeded in fooling most people, just enough to sell the next condo or secure the next loan. Then some large number of elected officials and voters who knew better chose to look the other way, and Trump won the 2016 election.https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery-item.htm?id=b0488081-61a1-446e-b300-80362bc38f5d&gid=108379A9-3701-4049-ABB5-0F178044536F

The office of the presidency, however, starts with obligations to all Americans, and it doesn’t end there. Trump is hardly the first US president to harbor racist thoughts or sentiments, but he’s displayed less worry about revealing them to large audiences, often through words, and consistently through deeds.

We now have a new president, and an African-American vice-president, but white supremacy has hardly disappeared into a Florida estate without its most visible champion.

It’s worth considering the resources and possibilities Martin Luther King’s memory gives us in combating those who would restore what he fought against.

One of the hard-won achievements of the civil rights movement was the establishment of King holiday. This means that Americans expect any president to pay respects to the man, and even more, to the movement. Tradition really is powerful, and activists are wise to attend to establishing new ones.

If Donald Trump displayed less appreciation or enthusiasm for the King holiday than, say, pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys, that’s no mystery or surprise.

Each holiday event is a moment, unlikely to capture much attention in the White House during the rest of the year.

For the rest of us, however, the King Day reminder is an alert. Martin Luther King, Jr., and many many others, put work behind their words on social justice, often facing great risks and paying serious penalties. Their heirs continue today.

Martin Luther King died young enough and dramatically enough to be turned into an American hero, but it was neither his youth nor his death that made him heroic.

To Build a Mature Society: The Lasting Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s “Beyond Vietnam” Speech — The Gotham Center for New York City History

In his rather brief public life, beginning in Montgomery at 26, and ending with his assassination at 39, King consistently displayed rhetorical brilliance (on the podium and the page), strategic acumen, and exceptional moral and physical courage.

The effort to honor Martin Luther King with a holiday commemorating his birthday started at the King Center, in Atlanta, in the year after his assassination.  States began to follow suit, and by 1983, more than half celebrated King’s life with a day. That year, Ronald Reagan signed a bill making Martin Luther King day a national holiday, while expressing ambivalence, acknowledging that it was costly, and that King may have been a Communist.

The King holiday was about Martin Luther King, to be sure, but it was meant to represent far more than the man.  King stands in for the civil rights movement and for African-American history more generally.  I often wonder if the eloquence of the 1963 “I have a dream” speech winds up obscuring not only a man with broader goals, but a much more contested–and ambitious–movement.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr._Memorial

The man and the movement are ossified into an iconic image, like a statue, which locks King and the movement into the politics of 1963-1965.  We accept King’s dream, that little children will play together, and that people will be judged by “the content of their character” (a favorite phrase on the right).

The image, like a statue, is available for appropriation to advocates of all political stripes, and the establishment of the holiday itself represents an achievement of the civil rights movement, winning the holiday if not broader economic and social equality.

Before the transformation of the man into an icon, King transformed himself from a pastor into an activist, a peripatetic crusader for justice.

But the pastor didn’t disappear; rather this role grew into something larger, as King himself transformed himself from a minister into a an Old Testament prophet, one whose primary concern was always the people on the margins, the widows and orphans, the poor and hungry. In standing with those on the margins, King courageously used–and risked–the advantages of his privilege, pedigree, and education.  He also knew that he risked his safety and his life.

In his writing, King used his education and his vocation to support his political goals.  In the critically important “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he cited both the Constitution and the Bible in support of Federal intervention in local politics to support desegregation and human rights.  (We know that other activists now use the same sources to justify pushing the Federal government out of local politics.)

King explained that he was in jail in Birmingham, Alabama, because he had nonviolently defied local authorities in the service of higher laws, the Constitution and the Gospel.  This was not like making a provocative statement on one’s own [profitable] radio or television show.  There were real costs and severe risks.

King was never less than controversial during his life, under FBI surveillance during his political career, and vigorously criticized by opponents (for demanding too much and too strongly) and allies (for not demanding more, more vigorously).

When he was assassinated outside a Memphis motel in 1968, he was standing with sanitation workers on strike, straying from a simpler civil rights agenda.  He had also alienated some civil rights supporters by coming out, strongly, against the war in Vietnam.  And Black Power activists saw their own efforts as overtaking King’s politics and rhetoric.  By the time he was killed, Martin Luther King’s popular support had been waning for some time.

Posterity has rescued an image of Martin Luther King, at the expense of the man’s own broader political vision.

Ironically, in elevating an insurgent to a position in America’s pantheon of historic heroes, we risk editing out the insurgency.

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Repression, Policing, and Punishment for the Oath Keepers

Posted on October 4, 2022 by David S. Meyer

The Sedition trial of five Oath Keepers is just underway in Washington, DC. The government charges the leaders of the far right group with mobilizing and organized armed members to stop Congress from counting electoral votes to prevent Joe Biden from taking office.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2021/02/12/well-jan-6-insurrection-oath-keepers-trafficked-violence-and-conspiracy-theories

Stewart Rhodes, the group’s leader, says they were counting on Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. Trump didn’t, and months after the Capitol insurrection, some were arrested. A federal judge found that Rhodes was a “clear and continuing danger,” and denied bail. Rhodes has been in jail since his arrest in January.

Conspiring to overthrow the government is a felony, and the defendants are at risk of prison sentences of twenty years or more. Arresting, trying and punishing criminals is a function of government, a means to keep social order.

But the line between crime and dissent can get fuzzy.

Right now, in Iran and in Russia, protesters are being arrested and jailed, with (maybe) some kind of trial in the future. The state strategy is not just to get them off the streets and out of the public eye, but to warn off others from joining them. The possibility of harsh punishment–maybe underscored with a beating in the streets–can be a powerful deterrent.

Repression works by separating out dissenters from broader political support. Punishment is one tool for isolating and stigmatizing criminals/reformers/patriots/activists from everyone else. But punishment that’s overly harsh or capricious can have exactly the opposite effect, garnering public sympathy. Governments try to punish criminals without creating public martyrs.

The Oath Keepers are only the most recent of the Capitol insurrectionists to face trial. (Even the label, “insurrectionists,” reflects a political judgment.) Since January 2020, more than 900 protesters have been arrested and charged with various crimes, and nearly 400 have entered guilty pleas. A few have gone to trial and been convicted, and are now serving time. Others are detained awaiting trial. (Here’s the long list from the US Attorney’s Office.)

Rhodes and his co-defendants are mounting a vigorous defense, claiming their conduct was lawful and their cause righteous, but three of his allies have already entered guilty pleas and are likely to be called to testify. In addition to the testimony of co-conspirators, the government will deploy videos, phone records, testimony from police and informants, and the defendants’ statements. The evidence that Rhodes and the rest were trying to overturn the election seems pretty overwhelming.

What happens in the courtroom is important, but what happens outside in response is even more important. Thus far, the Capitol protesters, including the Oath Keepers, have received (astonishing!) support from a few Republican politicians in office. Donald Trump has promised more, pledging to issue blanket pardons–plus apologies–if he is returned to the presidency.

So, the stakes are high, and the path forward is more difficult than it might initially seem. The government needs to convince a jury that the defendants broke serious laws. The prosecutor and judge must also show a much broader public that these Oath Keepers deserve what they’re getting, and certainly not the support of anyone who claims to be a patriot.

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Protest resumes in Iran

Posted on September 27, 2022 by David S. Meyer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/23/amini-hijab-morality-police-iran/

The death of Mahsa Amini–in custody–became a focal point for opposition to Iran’s theocracy. A twenty-two year old Kurdish woman, Amini was arrested for the offense of not wearing her hijab properly. It’s still not quite clear what happened to her in detention, but that’s where her life ended. Protests erupted across Iran.

It’s a common, easy, and inaccurate story to report that the incident awakened dormant dissatisfaction with the state, leading to an unanticipated round of street protests.

In fact, protests against the Iranian government are persistent, if limited, sometimes reaching the attention of Western media. The government has faced protests about the imposition of harsh restrictions on public and private life, to be sure, but also to corruption, repression and poor economic performance, resulting in high prices for food. American sanctions are part of this story, a reaction to Iran’s foreign policies and an apparent project to develop nuclear weapons.

A Green Movement erupted in Iran in 2009–before the wave of protests across the Middle East that defined the Arab Spring. In the last few years, M. Ali Kadivar notes at the Washington Post‘s Monkey Cage, protests on a variety of issues have increased across the country, and faced harsh repression.

Police repress in the streets, beating, teargassing, and shooting demonstrators. And arrested protesters can face not only long prison sentences, but brutality in custody. As the protests increased, the repression has become more severe.

Repression often works, Kadivar notes, deterring public dissent. But sometimes, branded as state misconduct, repression becomes another grievance that builds broader alliances among dissenters. The current wave of protests, he argues, unites a range of ethnic groups, students and businesses, and has drawn visible support from cultural elites like athletes and artists. Dissidents upset with corruption or economic failures are now supporting women protesters mistreated by the state–for the first time, Kadivar says, since the successful revolutionary movement of 1979 which toppled the Shah.

It takes more than a grievance to get most people to protest. They need to believe that regular politics won’t deliver the reforms they want, and that their efforts, including participation in protest might help. More action and more allies feed a sense of possibility, encouraging more activism.

Will state repression succeed in shutting down enough of those protests to stifle hope and activism? It usually does, but sometimes it intensifies grievances and commitment. It’s important to recognize this wave of dissent in Iran builds upon years of less visible efforts. And the key thing to watch is the nature of emergent alliances.

The same issues are attendant to disruptive challenges to governments elsewhere–like the antiwar/antidraft protesters in Russia–and also right wing racist movements across the West.

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Protests and Repression in Russia

Posted on September 22, 2022 by David S. Meyer

The Russian army needs more soldiers for its war in Ukraine than its leaders promised at the outset, to fight a war that has already gone longer than they expected. Vladimir Putin has announced enhanced

“mobilization,” which means drafting young Russians.

Young Russians–and their families and friends–are understandably less than enthusiastic about getting sucked out of their lives, mustered into uniform, and sent to battles that aren’t going so well. Some are protesting.

More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested, removed to the public square and sent to prison for an uncertain fate.

Protesting against war–and especially against conscription–is at least as old as war and conscription. And it’s not new in Russia. In March, when Putin started this war, thousands of Russians staged protests in major cities, leading to harsh policing and mass arrests, and disruption faded. It’s hard to keep turning out when harsh punishments are likely and the prospects for influence seem weak. Repression can work.

Is this time different? It’s not just a war now, but a war that’s not going well that’s provoked political isolation and economic pressure–plus conscription. A run on flights out of Russia also followed Putin’s announcement.

Leaving–and certainly staying to protest–are both tougher in Russia today than across Western democracies. The first reaction must be to appreciate the bravery, commitment, and frustration that drives these people out to this streets.

Will any of this matter?

One round of protests, even if massive and disruptive, won’t end the war–or Putin’s rule. But they represent a signal to others: to people watching from their apartment windows; to police wielding clubs and carting away demonstrators; to military and business leaders who might even get close to Putin; to leaders–and dissidents–in neighboring states that somehow support Russia. The signal is about limits to Putin’s support, and the possibilities for something or someone else to follow. And just that wisp of an alternative can be enough to encourage those others to take action with more direct influence.

Putin also sees the same signal, and can think twice or a third time about his strategies for escalation, and certainly about the reliability of his allies. He’s likely to pause before ordering another round of conscription–and certainly before sampling homemade baked goods or a very special wine.

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Froze and Reversed the Arms Race, June 12 anniversary

Posted on June 12, 2022 by David S. Meyer

I’m reposting this reminder about the massive nuclear freeze march, part of an important campaign in the 1980s. Of course, nuclear weapons are not the most salient story today, when a war rages in Ukraine and hundreds of thousands of Americans march against gun violence. Just for starters.

But there are lots of lessons in the freeze campaign. Not the least of these is that movements (sometimes) matter, and don’t get credit for their efforts unless organizers claim it. The June 12 demonstration made international news in 1982, but is generally edited out of popular histories of the Cold War or the Reagan era. (See if you can find anniversary remembrances in your media feed today, and tell me if I’m wrong.)

bulletin of atomic scientists 2020 doomsday clock 100 seconds to midnight

The threat of nuclear war isn’t gone, and more than a few developments in the Trump era have made it more pronounced: The United States abandoned an arms control treaty with Iran that was working, while pursuing a kind of detente with North Korea that hasn’t worked. The United States also announced that it would no longer abide by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, negotiated in the mid-1980s, and announced that it was withdrawing from an “Open Skies” verification accord first proposed by Dwight Eisenhower, and in force for decades. Bilateral and multilateral negotiations on nuclear arms control have largely stalled.

It’s an urgent moment.

The Federation of Atomic Scientists, an expert group that has promoted nuclear safety and arms control since the end of the second World War, maintains a “Doomsday Clock,” signaling its perception of the nuclear danger. In 1981, when Ronald Reagan took office and the freeze campaign took off, the clock was set at 4 minutes to midnight. In 2012, when I first wrote the appreciation below, the Clock was set at 5 minutes to midnight. 

Today, the Doomsday Clock is still set to 100 seconds to midnight, the closest to apocalypse that it’s ever been.

Today’s debate is about the promise that members of the Senate have negotiated an agreement on a very modest set of gun safety reforms that might grab the needed sixty votes to pass the chamber. Activists and observers are all sorts are ranting about whether this is enough. The freeze story offers some clear lessons on the benefits of partial victories, gracelessly accepted, and the impermanence of any gains. You can skip to the end to see.

So:

Thirty (nine) years ago today, one million people marched in the streets of New York City to protest the nuclear arms race in general and the policies of Ronald Reagan in particular.

  Organized around a “nuclear freeze” proposal, the demonstration was a watershed for a movement that seemed to come out of nowhere, not just in the United States, but throughout what was then called Western Europe.

Of course, movements have deeper roots.  Relatively small groups of people have been protesting against nuclear weapons since the idea of nuclear bombs first appeared.  On occasion, they’re able to spread their concerns beyond the few to a larger public.  Such was the case in 1982, when Europeans rallied against new intermediate range missiles planned for West Europe, and when Americans protested against the extraordinary military build-up/ spend-up of Ronald Reagan’s first term in office.

The freeze proposal, imagined by Randall Forsberg as a reasonable first step in reversing the arms race, was the core of organizing efforts in the United States, which included out-of-power arms control advocates and radical pacifists.  Local governments passed resolutions supporting the freeze, while several states passed referenda.  People demonstrated and held vigils, while community groups in churches and neighborhoods organized freeze groups to discuss–and advocate–on the nuclear arms race.

The freeze figured in large Democratic gains in the 1982 election, and Ronald Reagan ran for reelection as a born-again arms controller.  Most activists didn’t buy it, but after Reagan won in a landslide, to the horror of his advisers and many of his supporters, he negotiated large reductions in the nuclear arsenals of the United States and what used to be called the Soviet Union.

The arms control agreements created the space in the East for reforms, reforms that spun out of control and eventually unraveled the cold war and the Eastern bloc.

US/ Russia nuclear warheads

The world changed.

It was both less and more than what most activists imagined possible.

Do you want to call it a victory?

Update:

The nuclear freeze movement was the subject of my doctoral dissertation and my first book

The issues in it remain relevant.

The story shows the long and complicated trajectory through which social movements affect influence. That’s the topic of my newest book.

There are a few simple lessons that merit repeating today:

https://www.amazon.com/How-Social-Movements-Sometimes-Matter/dp/0745696848
  1. It’s never one event, action, demonstration, statement, or lawsuit that makes the difference; rather, it’s an accumulation of efforts.

2. All victories take forever.

3. And they’re never enough, and certainly not necessarily permanent.

The work is important, and it must continue in order to be effective.

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March for Our Lives is Still Marching

Posted on June 11, 2022 by David S. Meyer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/11/march-for-our-lives-dc-protests/

They’re back.

Teens in Parkland, Florida, who had survived the horrific Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting in 2018, initially organized around the slogan, “Never Again.” They vowed to make sure no other kids would have to live with the loss and with the fear that had been forced upon them. They turned out to be resilient and effective organizers, supported by their parents and their community. They staged a demonstration in Parkland, then a lobbying trip to Tallahassee, and then another to Washington, DC. They followed with a much larger national rally in Washington, DC, a nation-wide school walk-out, then a national bus tour to register and motivate young people to vote. They even made it out here to Irvine.

They can claim credit for pressing the gun safety issue effectively, winning (modest) reforms at the state level (e.g., expanded background checks, age limits for purchasing some weapons), generating tons of publicity for the cause, raising a lot of money and establishing a powerful professional organization to support the cause, and inspiring countless other young people to take up the cause–and other causes. Swedish teen Greta Thunberg was one of them.

Never Again? Not quite. Or Not Yet. The young organizers picked a new name, March for our Lives, partly because anti-genocide activists had long been working Never Again. And the recent shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo–and, alas, countless others, including at schools, suggest that the end to the fear and the danger is a way off. (The activists against genocide still have work to do as well.)

So, after Buffalo and Uvalde, they’re back. March for Our Lives organized a large demonstration in Washington, DC, and hundreds of allied demonstrations across the country. (I pulled the map below off the group’s website, showing the location of planned actions.)

https://secure.everyaction.com/p/4X6lOpXbV0e3Ba9SGz3dvw2

And a lot of the no-longer-kids are back. Some have stayed consistently involved in the issue and maintained political visibility, while others took a step back. It’s hard to think that many high school students have any sense of just how much sustained effort it takes for a movement to effect change in American politics. It’s far easier to think that once you discover an issue and a solution and demonstrate a willingness to work hard, you’ll see impressive results quickly. (James Madison giggles in his grave.)

But these young organizers are a little older, some with college degrees, and they understand both the personal costs of political visibility (harassment and threats, to start), and the very long haul ahead to make the country a little safer.

Collectively, at least, they also understand the mix of messages needed to inspire and sustain a powerful social movement. Compare, for example, Jaclyn Corin’s appearance on the Tonight Show with X Gonzalez’s interview in the Atlantic Monthly.

Sitting on the celebrity couch, Corin emphasized hope, claiming credit for state law reform, and emphasizing how one person can make a difference through activism, organizing, lobbying, and elections.

In an interview with Elaine Godfrey, Gonzalez shows her anger and disappointment with Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, and the need to do more. They claim not to have hope, but explain that they’re writing a speech to deliver at the DC rally. “Anything is better than nothing.”*

It will take a mix of anger and some optimism to sustain this movement long enough to effect large changes. I don’t know that Corin and Gonzalez negotiated a balance in advance, but it seems like, together, they’re hitting that mix.

Note: I’m glad to have had the chance to write something a little longer about the prospects for longer term change. See “What the gun control movement can learn from the antiabortion movement,” at the Washington Post.

* Revised to reflect Gonzalez’s preferred pronouns.

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