> 20,000 * 12 hours is 240,000 person hours of outreach. Assume that you
> talk to only four people each hour. That one action would reach 1
> million people directly
-That's very compelling math. Have there been any large-scale outreach
-campaigns like this, that weren't narrowly focused on winning elections or
-strikes, but rather on changing the political climate on issues? On the
-left, I mean.
Sure-- a whole series of campaigns out of the 70s went door-to-door and were even able to raise funds to sustain themselves, setting up the first major nationwide canvasses largely out of groups that became the Citizen Action network. My first major political experience was with MASSPIRG, which along with having chapters on every campus in the state, ran a door-to-door canvass that basically knocked on every door in the state and raised a few million dollars each year through that door-to-door work. I think PIRGs ended up too focused on the fundraising aspect of the whole endeavor but there is no question that having a nice fresh-faced college student knock on every door in the state talking about toxic waste had a major effect on policy.
Other groups like Neighbor-to-neighbor did major grassroots operations against intervention in Central America. They combined door-knocking with other outreach tools like house parties -- sort of tupperware parties for revolution :)
But the key to any such outreach orientation is having people who are active spend most of their time talking to people who are not. And of course union organizing when it is effective is based on the same principle. The best organizing drives mobilize members to do outreach to other members.
Rallies are useful to demonstrate strength, but they are not very useful in building it, since they often inspire as much backlash and counter-organizing. And the small pro forma rallies that will happen on April 20th will be read for exactly what they are-- the small circle of left true believers desperately talking on one another but unable to mobilize much of anyone else.
The failure of the antiwar left is to systemically undertake that broader outreach, preferring rallies and demos which are more fun and mean they don't have to figure out how to talk to people who don't currently agree with them or, more importantly, are sitting on the fence.
-- Nathan Newman