Moving Beyond Defense
Two key elements for building a better future
It won't surprise anyone reading this that I'm not thrilled with the outcome of the presidential election. While I am not in a panic over it, I do expect certain groups and democratic institutions to come under increasing attack and we need to be prepared to defend them.
I also believe that, if all we do is defend, we will probably fail.
There are two things I take from this election. One is obviously that we have a wannabe autocrat back in the White House.
But the other is a very clear message coming from a very large portion of this country that the status quo is not working for them. I disagree with the solution many of them picked, but that doesn't change the fact that they are not wrong: our current system cheats too many people out of the benefits of our collective endeavors. If we don't address that, defense will never be enough.
In How We Win George Lakey wrote about the "defensive retreat of the left" in the face of the conservative offensive under Ronald Reagan, noting that "organized labor went on the defensive, and so did other movements: women’s rights, civil rights, school reform, environmental. The goals of those movements changed: to hang on to previously achieved gains …" What followed was a decades-long retreat on almost every front.
The one exception was the LGBTQ movement, which stayed on the offensive and which made steady gains over the next few decades. I wrote about it shortly after Trump's last win. I think the lesson applies here as well: we have to go beyond defending existing systems and institutions and actively work to build better ones.
It turns out those two goals involve some of the same actions. A friend recently shared a 2022 Harvard Kennedy School working paper on protecting against autocracy in the U.S. I won't go into all of it (though it's definitely worth a read), but I do want to highlight one of the four key strategies that they discuss: building community power through alternative institutions.
Particularly striking, given what we've just been through here in western NC, was the authors' focus on mutual aid and communities of care and the ways that they "can serve as powerful points of entry for convening across ideological lines or in fragmented neighborhoods, providing alternative sources of belonging toward democratic nation re-building.”
We have seen that in action in the past few weeks. It's more than just creating a sense of belonging and meeting basic needs. The strategic goal is to build community power by creating alternative governance structures, "to gradually yet decisively build alternative institutions–such as economic cooperatives, fresh food provision, public health institutions, mutual aid, community safety, strike funds, and other forms of cooperation–that dramatically reduce the reach, impact, and legitimacy of the authoritarian state."
Such alternative institutions (which can and should incorporate or engage with existing local government and other institutions that remain independent) both serve immediate needs and provide a foundation for building something better.
I have been thinking together with some of my friends about what it takes to make that happen.
Two Elements
One critical element is community organizing.
We've seen that happening in the response to the pandemic and, as I noted in my last newsletter, we have certainly seen the benefits that accrue when communities are already organized. The question is how to move beyond just celebrating the communities that have organized and actually equip more of them to become organized for the long term. That obviously includes fostering conditions that encourage it, as I wrote last time, but we also need to actually get people out in the community who know how to proactively identify, build up, and support local community leaders. That will require resources.
I think there is a second critical element.
The purpose of organizing is to build community power to act. But the ability to act effectively requires that people have information about what is happening and how it impacts them, what decisions have been or are being made, and where there are opportunities to take advantage of resources or influence decision-making. Importantly, that information should include not just what is happening at a given moment, but also track decisions and impacts over time.
Our current information ecosystem does not serve that purpose well for most people in the community. First, despite Asheville's relatively robust local media ecosystem, it falls off quickly once you move outside the city. Many other communities in our region have it much worse. In addition, the existing system everywhere advantages those with adequate time, resources, and greater familiarity with how things work.
In many ways the gaps parallel those in the County's and City's distribution efforts following the storm: even when resources are made available, there is often a mismatch between the way they are provided and the way that many communities could take advantage of them. For example, local governments provide enormous amounts of information about what's happening, but the timing and the sheer volume make it effectively impossible for most people to make good use of it.
A different mismatch plagues information flows in the other direction as well: policy decisions need to be informed by people with direct experience of the issues being addressed, but effective community engagement remains an unsolved challenge for local governments and other institutions, even when they are sincere about wanting it.
These two elements, local community organizing and an improved information ecosystem, are deeply linked. Obviously communities need good information in order to advocate and act effectively. But organized communities would also be much better partners for local governments and other institutions looking for input on critical decisions.
So what next?
Although I am excited about community building and organizing, I'm also clear that I'm not the one to lead there - at best I will play a supporting role. Fortunately we have some folks around that are good at it and I look forward to sharing some of their work in the future.
I think my own focus will be on the second element.
There are some pieces in place already. Local media are healthier here than in most small U.S. cities. And we have plenty of folks in local government who would like to see more robust community engagement and who are willing to share information with the community. In addition, we have innovative initiatives like the Government Accountability Project (GAP AVL) which is an interesting hybrid between community organizing and journalism, a model that might be applied more broadly. There are probably others and, if you know of any, I would love to hear about them.
But there are still more gaps than pieces and a lot of work to be done. I'll explore that more next time.
In the meantime, I hope the coming holiday season will bring all of you some rest, connection with loved ones, and a chance to gather strength for the next stage of the journey.
Holding all of you in the light ...
Eric
This is the first in a 3-article mini-series:
Moving Beyond Defense: Two key elements for building a better future (this article)
Building the Local Information Ecosystem: Thinking outside-in and inside-out
Accountability From the Inside Out: Creating publics of accountability
Links & Thoughts
Finding your path after the election. This article on 10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won offers some helpful ways to think about how to navigate the coming challenges. I particularly liked the four pathways listed in #5. It's important to do your part, but it's also important to remember that not everything is your part.
Canceling community connection. I can't stop thinking about the City of Asheville's decision to cancel meetings of all advisory boards and commissions until 2025 to allow staff to focus on recovery efforts. Scanning the list of committees, it is striking how many of them should be among the first places we look to understand community needs in recovery. Realistically, given their current representation and process, I'm not even sure it's the wrong decision, but at least it makes clear that our local government advisory boards and commissions are not what they could and should be.
If you want to share thoughts on anything I’ve said here or have ideas about further questions or topics you’d like me to explore, please feel free to reply to the newsletter email or contact me here.