Marquis: “The new movements appear to understand one pillar of the coalition’s success – real and sustainable change can be driven, designed and implemented from inside the communities most affected.”
In her unique style – a style perhaps best described as a marriage of the engineer’s love for astute systems analysis with the advocate’s heartfelt empathy for those facing uphill battles for long-overdue social change – Susan Marquis, Dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School and author of the definitive history of the CIW’s decades-long struggle for fundamental human rights in the fields, has written a powerful op/ed that draws lessons from the CIW’s history for two of the most compelling movements for social change today, the #MeToo movement and the fight to end gun violence led by the remarkable students from Parkland.
The op/ed, titled “From Florida’s farm fields, lessons for #MeToo and other movements,” was published by United Press International, and is well worth a close reading for the many insights it provides on the keys to successful social change. We have excerpted some of the highlights here below, but be sure to real the piece in its entirety, which you can find here:
June 15 (UPI) – Issues that have been with us for a very long time are suddenly hashtag movements: #MeToo and #TimesUp. #MarchforOurLives. The movements behind these viral hashtags are taking on persistent and complex problems with which society has long struggled, such as the fear or simple reality of sexual harassment and violence in the workplace, or gun violence and the balancing of individual and societal rights. These national movements share a common thread – they call attention to the problem in a very public way and hold out the possibility of finding new solutions.
Potential solutions are coming from what might be considered unexpected places: restaurant kitchens, Hollywood production lots, high schools and corporate offices. Present-day organizers who want to bring about social change would do well to look to Florida farmworkers who took on the low wages, physical abuse and vulnerability that have long characterized agricultural labor in the United States – and won, changing the culture for the better…
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