Issue: Principles & Processes

Integrated, year-round community organizing is necessary to create people-powered political representation in the Midwest. Midwestern state economies have destabilized, and this has caused shifting politics, such as formerly Democratic or swing states now voting mostly for Republicans. This report dispels multiple myths about Midwestern politics, such as: some states swung irreversibly to the right; Midwest states can be won either by engaging only people of color, or by frantically chasing white Obama/Trump voters; retail politics can work in the Midwest by “treating” white voters with messages about the economy and Black voters with messages about race, while ignoring Native, Latino, AAPI, and other voters; and we can win Presidential, US Senate, or Gubernatorial races by dumping billions of dollars into paid advertisements each cycle, rather than building the human capacity to lead and govern. This report argues for intentionally, consistently organizing people into membership organizations, unions, and community institutions in order to move constituencies of people into political action and create political homes. Overall, this report argues for “state ecosystems” of democratically accountable movement groups to engage in electoral politics.

Our understanding of social movements is shaped by the images we see of them, and there are some key ways to create the images we need to win. A cohesive visual strategy translates disconnected technical skills from visual storytelling crafts into a plan to meet our movements goals. It brings together graphic design, printmaking, illustration, puppetry, theater, photography, set design, digital content, and more. A successful visual strategy does three specific things: contests public and media assumptions about who you are and what is possible; creates unity in your base though increasing access, commitment, resiliency, wellbeing; and maximizes your threat to power by swaying how much power your targets think you have. This resource includes one 90-minute recorded presentation and accompanying PDF slides of the presentation. These also include practical how-to exercises for movements building visual strategies, from what specific visual tools to use, how and when to employ them, and more.

Environmental justice activists that work across a diverse set of issues rank climate justice among their highest priority issues. They overwhelmingly rely on base building, coalitions, and organizing strategies to do their work. In reflecting on the movement’s contemporary approaches, activists articulate the importance of shared frameworks such as climate justice to shift popular narratives and action on climate change. The climate justice frame reflects a critical, intersectional, and reconstructive conceptualization of the climate crisis that requires disrupting the status quo approaches to climate change. This study points to some of the challenges and opportunities ahead for realizing such a contentious and transformative climate justice vision led by EJ activists in a moment of expanding political opportunity and risk.

When I joined the climate movement in 2013, fossil fuel divestment campaigns were surging across the country on college and university campuses. At the time, I was a student and compelled by the narrative of stigmatizing the fossil fuel industry and taking away its social license to operate. The vision that captured my imagination of what is possible centered on people and building a world where everyone can live a dignified life.
The foundation of this vision embodies roots from the environmental justice movement. From Native people’s resistance of colonization to Latinx farmworkers’ determination for safe workplace conditions to Black and brown communities demands for basic human rights: clean air and water; organizing for what people deserve has always been the pathway for how we win.
So what does it take to do the necessary and bold work of multiracial, cross-class organizing in the climate movement?
The Lab recently engaged in dialogue on this question at Celebrating Our Community Power. Over 80 members joined in and learned from one another. Below, we highlight the most relevant insights that came out of the discussion and recommendations for how you can apply them to your work.

Learning to attune to the cycles of our own leadership can help movements know when to do the right thing at the right time. Winters are a time to be internally focused and are defined as periods of time for regeneration and re-evaluation. Spring is about opening up, taking on new personal responsibilities and experimenting. The summer is externally focused and is primarily about giving as much as we can to fulfill our different missions. Lastly there is fall, which is the season of harvesting the fruits from work during the summer and also starting to slow and break down certain elements to prepare for the winter. This metaphor framework can help give language to experiences that we know leaders face as they develop and traverse through many cycles in social change work.             

Establishing shared values between communicator and audience is essential for persuasive climate communication. When communicating about climate change, for any communicator, it’s essential to communicate that you have a shared goal as the audience—and to communicate that we (humans) still have agency in mitigating the problem. In addition, ideally describe some concrete actions that people can take. Too much past climate science communication has been purely dire and makes people feel hopeless and not efficacious to act. For businesses, proclaiming commitment to sustainability can be key for being more competitive—although greenwashing is always a concern when evaluating the intentions of corporations. This resource describes some competing climate communication frames, and the benefits and costs to each: “information deficit approach,” “motivation by fear approach,” “scientific framing approach,” and “media-based mobilization.”

As 2021 came to an end, I took some time to reflect on the year. I had many experiences from starting my new job as Training Manager to celebrating my best friend’s wedding. I would say one thing I have brought to this position is a lot of curiosity about what more is possible.
Prior to the Lab, I worked as an organizer at 350.org where I ran a number of trainings. One of these training programs focused on BIPOC climate organizers at the intersection of racial justice, affectionately known as The Climate League. My co-facilitator and I wanted to dig deeper with a small group of people over an extended period of time to evaluate what would be different about their organizing. Why is this important? That experience made me think deeper about what skills and capacities I believe are necessary to win. So in my new role at the Lab, I said to myself “Can this be done here at the Lab according to the specific time and conditions we are in?” to which my Capricorn brain said, “Absolutely! Anything is possible.” That seed of curiosity transformed into the Training for Impact 2021 Cohort.