What works, what doesn't

To: FightBigMoney warriors

I don't know what works and what doesn't work.

This entry provides information that you may consider in thinking about the question for yourself.

A. Democracy Spring

Following its civil disobedience action in Washington DC in April, Democracy Spring is seeking to mobilize its supporters to undertake "outreach" to force Congressional representatives and candidates (and also state and local officeholders and candidates) "to choose a side: are they with the People or the plutocrats?" http://www.democracyspring.org/evfa.

This is being done by means of an Equal Voice for All Declaration, which Democracy Spring supporters are being asked to get their representatives and candidates to sign.

Democracy Spring promulgated a Forcing A Choice Toolkit to help supporters call, email, visit, tweet at, and put pressure on candidates/incumbents to sign the declaration. Tools for Log contact and log signatures are provided to enable Democracy Spring to coordinate the collective effort.

While the "outreach" may be made to candidates for state and local office, Democracy Spring's express  goal is to get Congress to act.

Weekly discussions on Slack have been set to be held on Thursdays at 8:30 pm. 

There was a first discussion on Slack last Thursday, but it does not appear there was a discussion yesterday.

There was, however, this below email that was sent out by Democracy Spring yesterday.

From: KC Martel, Democracy Spring <hello@democracyspring.org>
Date: Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 6:39 PM
Subject: Join Us in Chicago
To: Rob Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>

Rob -- All across the country Americans are mobilizing at a historic scale, demanding an end to the systemic injustices that plague our country and it’s people. From Black Lives Matter to the Divestment Movement, from Democracy Awakening to Democracy Spring: grassroots movements are building power like no other time in recent history. As the primary season comes to an end and the party conventions begin, The People’s Summit is bringing together activists from around the country on June 17-19. We’ll gather in Chicago with to build relationships and discuss what comes next for the democracy movement, and the movement of millions inspired by the Bernie Sanders campaign call to a political revolution. The convening seeks “to bring together activists committed to a different kind of agenda: a People’s Agenda that can enhance and expand issue campaigns and hold all elected officials accountable to popular demands for justice, equality and freedom.” At a time of tremendous opportunity, Democracy Spring can be a key part of winning that agenda. It's time to mobilize. Register now to join us at the People’s Summit! The People’s Summit is an opportunity for us to share our vision and strategy with a growing movement - and push the general election towards a referendum on the twin issues of voting rights and money in politics. We’ll also get facetime with candidates and incumbents - an awesome opportunity to gather more signatures for the Equal Voice for All Declaration. Join us. If you are interested in joining Democracy Spring’s delegation register for the Summit by tomorrow Friday June 10th AND let us know you’re in! Financial support is available - so, don’t let finances be a barrier to your attendance! Over the next week we’ll help prepare you for the Summit with messaging resources, housing & transportation tools, and ways to plan to reunite with fellow Democracy Spring activists while in Chicago. Sign up here to join the delegation and get ready for the summit. With hope, KC & the DS Team

It is hard to know what to make of Democracy Spring's sudden scheduling of the foregoing People's Summit on a short one week notice for people to travel to Chicago.

One can speculate that Democracy Spring has second thoughts about how well the detailed "outreach" plan set out in the Forcing A Choice Toolkit will work.

Only time will tell about this.

In the meantime, important time is passing for fulfilling Democracy Spring's object to "make the 2016 election a referendum on whether we will have a democracy that serves the people or a plutocracy that panders to the 1%."

B. Whowillfightbigmoney.org

Simultaneously with Democracy Spring's outreach, there is a recently formed Whowillfightbigmoney.org organization, which is a coalition of ten leading reform groups. that has an agenda of "asking every candidate for Congress to tell us where they stand on our 13-point Fighting Big Money agenda, the plan to restore balance to our democracy and put We The People back in charge."

This agenda, and the tactics and strategy being deployed by the new organization (see the organization's Who Will Fight Big Money and EmpowerEveryday People? toolkit), seem cut from the same cloth as the agenda, tactics and strategy Democracy Spring is currently pursuing (described in Democracy Spring's Forcing a Choice Toolkit).

In the first Democracy Spring Slack discussion, inquiry was made about Whowillfightbigmoney.org.

An answer was given that WhoWillFightBigMoney is a campaign backed by MayDay and several other orgs that had a degree of overlap with MayDay's own existing wok on targeting incumbents, and that could be the reason why MayDay has removed the Congressional focus from their own site, to avoid work duplication. As to the similarity of WhoWillFightBigMoney, it was said there were a few key differences between the approaches that make them distinct and worth simultaneous pursuit, to wit, MayDay (and now WWFBM's) process targets **incumbents** exclusively whereas DemSpring targets candidate. Additionally, FightBigMoney questionnaire with checkboxes, which is be filled out by incumbents, has a different bar for participation than DemSpring's simpler sign-on declaration. Also, though MayDay is a member of DemSpring steering committee and supports the nonviolent direct action approach of Democracy Spring, the MayDay/WWFBM's approach doesn't include a mechanism to hold their incumbent supporters accountable, which DemSpring does (i.e., nonviolent direct action.)

At the moment, it is hard for an outsider to have a sense of what Whowillfightbigmoney.org thinks will be the effectiveness of its "outreach" program.

C. MAYDAY

Today, MAYDAY posted on the Democracy Spring Slack discussion page this:

MAYDAY.US’s reason for removing the directory of members of Congress from our website is because we have looked at past successful US social movements and have decided to learn from that success. We are no longer focused on Congress, so that page was sending the wrong message. A new, more strategic page is launching soon.
We support candidates for local, state, and Congressional office who are committed to enacting small-donor elections.
In US social movements, national policy—either through Congress or SCOTUS—changes after a critical mass of states pass reform. National voting rights for POC, marriage equality, etc. did not change until states led the way.
Congress doest not lead, it follows. So we determined that the quickest—and only—way to pass reform at the national level is also to pass reform at local and state levels, where it’s desperately needed.
Whether it’s affordable housing policy being set at the local level, renewable energy standards at the state level, or tax policy at the federal level, we will only fix it all if we start at local and state levels and then pull national policy in the right direction.
The money in politics movement is making a fundamental error if we stay focused on trying to get Congress to pass effective reform before leading the way at local and state levels. And of courseMAYDAY.US was one of the groups making this error. We have expanded our focus and have decided to pursue the most strategic avenue possible.
This decision has nothing to do with WhoWillFightBigMoney—while we are endorsers of that campaign, we are not actively working on it. They are not active in primaries, which is also a strategic problem considering the gerrymandering of most districts.
If we want to win, effective tactics—like non-violent direct action including GOTV—must be in service of an effective strategy. The Kochs and ALEC and other big money interests are focused on local and state levels for a reason—that’s where policy changes are led, and that’s where they get a return on their investment.
Will we be as smart as the Kochs, ALEC, and big money political machines? Or will we let them keep winning?

D. Is anything going to work?

The above could make FightBigMoney warriors wonder what, if anything, is going to work, and further whether the organizations have much confidence in their respective agendas and efforts.

Other information can be adduced here, in the form of things that have been presented to the organizations and that they have not taken up.

One thing which has been presented that the organizations have declined to take up is the tool of tweeting banks. (A template for tweeting banks is set out at Template for Congressional districts.)

A second thing that the organizations have been unresponsive to is a strategy of trying to tap into the energy, enthusiasm and high profile of the Sanders Presidential campaign. I have been pushing that idea for a year (which can be tracked through many blog entries, including Proposed messaging re: Congress; A campaign statement for Sen. Sanders; and To Berniecrats). The organizations have registered no interest.

Possible explanations for the foregoing are that the organizations do not believe the tool or strategy would be effective, or that the organizations do not have the resources to pursue the same. Either explanation would be relevant for FightBigMoney warriors who are wondering what, if anything, will work for advancing their agenda.

The time frame for the question of "what will work" is especially problematic. My effort seeks to accomplish something by November 8th of this year. Democracy Spring and Whowillfightbigmoney.org seem to be eyeing a new Congress acting in 2017. MAYDAY's time frame currently is at least two or three years, and probably much longer.

To undertake and keep up their fight, FightBigMoney warriors need confidence that what they are doing will have effectiveness. This blog entry suggests that confidence is hard to come by. I solicit statements of confidence from others.