The Activist’s Handbook:
A Primer
Randy Shaw, University of California Press (2001), $19.95 (list)
In an age of escalating human need, The Activist’s Handbook is an invaluable tool. It’s a user-friendly primer to fighting back,
effecting change, and making a difference, written by someone with the
right blend of pragmatism and disgruntlement, someone who’s not afraid
to stand in the front line with a banner and who yet recognizes that
wilier tactics are sometimes needed.
Shaw focuses on “proactive strategic and tactical planning,” an
intellectual process of investigation and groundwork he believes is the
cornerstone of any successful campaign. These tactics include creating
“a fear and loathing” relationship towards politicians to ensure their
accountability, the forging of coalitions, harnessing the media, and
“effectively using sit-ins, ‘die-ins,’ and other forms of direct
action.”
Despite the frequency with which he refers to the civil rights
movement, Shaw flatly rejects the notion that successful social change
activism is a thing of the past. “As hostile to progressive change as
the US political landscape appears
contemporary institutional and
cultural obstacles do not approach the magnitude of the barriers
successfully overcome by the civil rights movement.”
Shaw emphasizes grassroots activism as the most efficient way of
effecting change at the national level. He stresses, moreover, the
ineffectiveness of merely opposing threats or defending past gains.
This is fighting a battle on your opponents’ terms and can come at the
expense of lasting change. And while direct action can be a useful
tool, to use it without focus drains energy better used elsewhere.
Using examples from Shaw’s own colorful career, The Activist’s Handbook is a savvy analysis of the contemporary American political climate.
Useful for both hardened and first-time campaigners alike, its
inherently practical approach could not have come at a better time.
Change Activist: Make Big Things Happen Fast
Carmel McConnell, Perseus Publishing (2001), $20.00 (list)
Aside from sleeping and looking for our keys, we spend most of our
lives working. In an ideal world, we’d all have jobs that fulfill our
souls, make us feel valued, give us a sense of accomplishment and
pride, and allow us to feel we’re making positive contributions to our
planet.
In Change Activist: Make Big Things Happen Fast, British
activist Carmel McConnell puts forth the notion that we can change the
structure of the workplace and make the ideal world a reality. There
are seven critical elements social activists use to orchestrate change,
which McConnell defines as the “activist toolkit.” This toolkit—clarity of objective, motivation and motivational leadership, trust and
care (or emotional intelligence), inclusive ways of working,
communication, sense of self-esteem and worth in the world, and
physical stamina—provides what is necessary to institute personal
change, leading to greater happiness and a more harmonic balance with
the Earth, according to McConnell.
Although the book examines the principles of moving from passivity to
activity, applying them to all aspects of life, it does not achieve its
objectives in a very organized manner. Just as social change requires a
solid methodical approach, so does personal change. Further, the book
seems to suffer an identity crisis, unsure of whether it’s talking to
business managers, or to those further down the ladder (which shouldn’t
exist, right?). It tends to bounce between activating change in the
workplace and in the larger social scheme of things. The last chapter
of the book—“Activism and Peaceful Dissent”—tries hard to make
the link between effective social activism and empowered workers, but
in just 17 pages, fails to make a compelling case.
Change Activist scatters its energies in a variety of
directions, apparently in the hope that if it provides its audience
with an array of interviews, essays, quotes, outlines for strategic
planning, and tables, some information will hit home. That might
possibly be the case: you may find a few odd gems within the pages to
jolt you into action. If you’re desperate for a place to start, this
217-page book won’t take too much time to peruse as you head down the
road to enlightenment. If you’re looking for the keys to your
happiness, however, you probably won’t find them here.
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