Activism, Change, and Organizing

What I have learned over the last year about creating systemic change and how I can use those lessons to make the world I want to see.

In June, I was forced out of a public volunteer position due to antisemitism and out of fear for my safety. Over the last few months, I’ve been researching activism, the origins of radical ideas, and what it genuinely means to make the world a better place. I had a lot of questions:

  1. Performative Activism: What is performative activism, and does performance have a place in change-making?
  2. Violent Resistance: What does violent resistance vs peaceful change do, and can you make change with one and not the other? What is the long-term impact of glorifying the violent resistance of oppressed people? What’s the difference between resistance and terrorism?
  3. Effectiveness of Activst Tactics: What are effective organizing tactics, and how are they used? Can you build a movement by alienating folks who might be persuadable? What do litmus tests do for the health of a movement?
  4. Creating Lasting Social Change: What does lasting social change look like? How do we build a coalition of people who believe in the power of organizing, believe that every human life is precious, and want to make real, tangible change? 

I want to look at each set of questions based on my observations from Instagram (where much of today’s anti-Israel activism is playing out) and four books that I’ve read this year:

  • The Deviants War by Eric Cervini – A historical recollection of the pre-Stonewall LGBTQ activism of the 50s and 60s, what the movement did well, what the faults were, and the different tactics of leaders that led to the LGBTQ rights of today.
  • The Stonewall Reader by Jason Baumann – A collection of essays from an extensive range of Stonewall-period activists featuring interviews, fiction, and personal accounts.
  • The Quiet Before by Gal Beckerman – Stories and examples of how radical ideas were born and became mainstream thoughts (e.g., the African colonial revolutions, Riot Grrrl zines, and Black Lives Matter protests), including when they went wrong and how to ensure a movement does not have the same faults.
  • Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky – A short how-to for activists and organizers about the necessary tools for revolutionizing new ideas, the essential lessons from successful and failed movements, and how to apply what you know across different movements.

By observing anti-Zionist activists on social media, I have gathered some of the most common themes of their anti-Israel arguments, the gaps in their organizing tactics, and where there is a real opportunity to create a new type of peace movement. 

I believe that collectively, those in the Jewish community who want this war to end without any more bloodshed and who want to advocate for that without antisemitism can work together to use the lessons from these earlier movements to make effective change. These lessons can also be applied to widespread social justice and equity movements across communities and countries. In the next few weeks, I will go into these different buckets of questions and share the insights I’ve gathered.