(One in a series of posts on Mark & Paul Engler’s 2016 book, This Is An Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping The Twenty-First Century.)
The Englers end by stepping back and putting momentum-driving organizing in a broader and deeper context of creating and sustaining change over the long haul. They summarize the three main elements of a healthy and powerful culture of change in this way:
- “mass mobilizations alter the terms of political debate and create new possibilities for progress;”
- “structure-based organizing helps take advantage of this potential and protects against efforts to roll back advances;”
- “countercultural communities preserve progressive values, nurturing dissidents who go on to initiate the next waves of revolt.” (pp. 253-54, emphasis added)
They hold up Gandhi as an exemplar of a practitioner and theorist who, in the course of his long career, drew upon and (in his word) experimented with all three approaches in his quest to achieve Indian independence.
“In Gandhi’s method, the Salt March and other campaigns of satyagraha in India produced defining whirlwinds for the cause of independence. Meanwhile, the Indian National Congress, in which Gandhi played important leadership roles, became a critical structure-based mechanism for institutionalization; indeed, it would become the country’s ruling party after the end of the British Raj. Finally, with his prefigurative ‘constructive program,’ Gandhi advocated for a distinctive vision of self-reliant village life, through which he believed Indians could experience true independence and communal unity. He modeled this program by residing communally with others in a succession of ashrams, or intentional communities that melded religion and politics.” (p. 277)
The point is not to live as Gandhi lived. The point is to recognize what he did: that a vibrant, liberating, democratic culture requires a multiplicity of modes and roles.
Crossposted at: https:/masscommons.wordpress.com