McReynolds on A20 controversies

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Apr 9 09:07:57 PDT 2002


Nathan Newman wrote:


>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Michael Pollak" <mpollak at panix.com>
>
>> 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.

Why is this some either-or choice? A rally is a one-day event, that, if large enough, has the potential to scare the ruling class. But before and after the event, activists no doubt work to persuade, lobby, hector, inform, etc. It'd be good if this could be institutionalized. But I don't see why the large demo is obsolete. Or is that not what you're arguing, Nathan?

Doug



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