Occupy Development!

Social Movements and Future Directions for Development

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Overview

Personal Background The Occupy

Movement Freire, Alinsky and

Social Movements Dimensions of

learning for NGOs Slum Dwellers

International Further Reading

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Personal Background Thirty years in local & international development

Seven years in Timor-Leste & Zambia

Confronted by “How change does or doesn’t happen”

Re-invigorated by Paulo Freire, Saul Alinsky & others who

sought bottom-up, grassroots, people-led change

Currently: PhD (Deakin) focusing on change led by people

in informal settlements in Zambia & South Africa

Occupy Movement Linked to Arab Spring as well as protests in Spain & Portugal Spread to 95 global cities & 600 US communities, from mid July

to mid October, 2011 “Occupy” as the 2011 Word of the Year The 99% and the 1%:

In 30 years, pre-tax income of bottom 90% decreased by $900, top 1% increased by over $700,000

Movement was vague on specific goals, strong participatory ethic, “horizontal” leadership focus

Images of movement coloured by mainstream media Initial official sympathy, but eventually forceful evictions

Social Movements

Hard to define! Charles Tilly: “consist of a sustained challenge to power holders ... by means of the repeated display of that population’s worthiness, unity, numbers and commitment”

Dispersed control, decision making processes, authorities Four characteristics (Diani and Della Porta):

informal interaction networks; shared beliefs and solidarity; collective action focusing on conflict; use of protest

Empirically: power & potential to trigger wider change: eg Occupy, Civil Rights Movement, International Campaign to Ban Landmines

Paulo Freire and Social Movements Analysed link between colonisation

and “banking method of education” Proposed alternative of

“conscientisation”, critical literacy and “problem posing education”

Ideas reflected in Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil

Linked to Robert Chambers, Amartya Sen, ActionAid’s REFLECT and to others concerned about poor people’s participation in development

Philosopher of Education, Catholic, Marxist

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Freire and Social Movements (2)

In agreement with Occupy’s key issues: challenge corporations’ power, broaden democracy, participatory democracy

Belief in important role of teachers/leaders Action on its own insufficient: revolutionary

praxis as “constant process of action and reflection”

Contrast between focus of Landless People’s Movement and broad approach of Occupy

Saul Alinsky and Social Movements Reveille for Radicals (1946) & Rules for

Radicals (1971) Organised neighbourhood, civil rights and

union campaigns across the USA Influenced Barack Obama (First job),

Hillary Clinton (Honours thesis) & Bill McKibben (350.org)

Model of local leadership, organisation of organisations, facilitated by outside organisers

Winnable fights, use of conflict, highly targeted& well organised campaigns

Tactician, pragmatist, small “d” democrat

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Alinsky and Social Movements (2)

Would agree with key issues behind Occupy protest

Emphasise need to focus on a few key messages Turn around power of ridicule Target specific individuals Match power of money with people power Broaden support base (communicate out) Tactics, tactics, tactics – protest marches not

enough

Social Movements and (I)NGOs INGO focus is more:

Good governance, accountability, community development, civil society strengthening

Communities to be, enlisted, organised, herded

Partnering with governments as organisational consequence of rights based approach

Participation is usually about participating in (our) NGO programmes

NGOs uncomfortable with language and consequences of:

Dissent, defiance, conflict, “challenge to power”

Amorphous locus of power associated with social movements

Usually an asymmetry of power in NGO-community relationships

(I)NGOs often speak on behalf of “poor people” but basis of this “voice” not so

clear

What Might We Do Differently?

Look for & befriend social movements, particularly poor people’s movements,

community groups, emerging leaders

Give away power and control

Spend more time reading and sharing ideas of Freire, Alinsky and others

“Serve” movement priorities rather than organising or conscripting

Understand, learn and use tactics in support of movement goals

Recognise necessity of dissent, opposition and conflict

Recognise what’s at stake for us (eg potential irrelevance in times of massive

change)

Acknowledge change is like innovation, sometimes requires marginal

improvements, other times disruptive change/paradigm shift (which we find

difficult).

From A Ladder of Participation, Sherry Arnstein

From A Ladder of Participation, Sherry Arnstein

Slum Dwellers International

Across 33 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America (18 in Africa) Movement owned by people living in informal settlements

(750,000 members in India) Technical and other supported provided by local, independent

NGO (eg SPARC, CORC) “Rights” work (eg land tenure, upgrades) linked to community

savings, health and sanitation

Typically, NGOs have been established by middle-class people whose vision of the world reflects their own social and economic backgrounds; as such, they are poorly placed to determine priorities for a movement of the urban poor.

- Shelia Patel, SPARC

Further Reading www.sdinet.org/ www.pedagogy4radicals.wordpress.com/ www.reflect-action.org/ Alinsky, S. D. (1969). Reveille for Radicals. Vintage Books. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Penguin Books. Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A Ladder Of Citizen Participation. Journal

of the American Institute of Planners. Giugni, M., McAdam, D., & Tilly, C. (1999). How social

movements matter. University of Minnesota Press. Piven, F. F., & Cloward, R. A. (1977). Poor people’s movements:

Why they succeed, how they fail. Random House.