AASD 411 Black Resistance Movements

Study Questions for Shepard and Hayduk, eds.

From ACT-UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization


Contents:

September 9-11, PART ONE, pp 1-51

September 16-18, PART FIVE, pp  326-388

September 23 and 25, PART ONE, pp 41-102

October 7-14, PART TWO

November 25, PART FOUR

For readings assigned for Sept. 9-11, PART ONE, pp 1-51, Addressing Problems and Issues

Shepard & Hayduk, pp 1-9
1.    What was ACT-UP?
2.    What did ACT-UP bring to the new direct action movement?  
3.    What 4 factors have transformed the landscape in which movements operate? Are there other factors besides these? Which ones, why?
4.    What “glocalism”?
5.    What is monoculture?

Shepard, pp 11-16
6.    How did ACT-UP force Vice President Gore the change the U.S. position on AIDS drugs for Africa?
7.    How did they choose Gore as a target? What was the strategy?
8.    Who was the secondary target?
9.    What is the current (Oct. 2003) US policy for AIDS drugs in South Africa?

Introduction, Part One
11.    What is meant by praxis over debate? Of action over words?
12.    How has the labor movement found new power? How has the labor movement changed the frame of its message, to recognize new demographics of the country?

Wood & Moore, pp 21-34
13.    What were the WTO/Seattle 1999 protests?
14.    How and why did the WTO become a target for local protest?
15.    What is community activism?
16.    In the past, community activism focused on local power brokers such as the mayor or locally-owned bank president or other community institution. Now local activists attack international corporations. What are three reasons for this?
17.    Why is the locus of power obscured?
18.    How do resources constrain or enhance or determine the direction of protest?
19.    What are the three main types of resources on which movements rely?
20.    Give an example of how local political traditions or political streams determine the choice of targets?
21.    Why is no longer important to choose targets based on the likelihood of affecting legal or official public policy, according to the authors? Do you agree or disagree and why?
22.    How does the choice of multiple targets affect protest practices? Be prepared to discuss one of the examples described in the essay.
23.    What grounds of common agreement are needed for coalitions to work effectively?
24.    What are the three features of the (so-called) new direct action movements? Define each feature.
25.    According to Wood & Moore, what are three shared characteristics of modern community movements? Are these characteristics similar to those used by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee during the sit-ins in 1960? Why or why not?
26.    What is “success”?
 
Kauffman, pp 35-40
27.    What is the radical renewal of social protest, according to Kauffman? Who – or what groups brought it on?
28.    What four elements or practices did these groups contribute to the transformation of activism?
29.    What are affinity groups? What is a spokescouncil?
30.    What was ACT-UP’s basic strategy?
31.    What does the slogan “Think globally, act locally” mean to you? To African Americans? To movement building?

Kaplan, pp 41-51
32.    Outline the strategy for “A25” in NYC in 1995.
33.    How does the slogan “If you’re attacked globally, you’d better act globally” also explain the organizing of A25?
34.    How did A25 organizers balance unite and autonomy? What specific practices promoted this goal?
35.    What are the three types of bases – along why political lines – on which most activist organizations are built? How might these separate bases for organizing keep some people out?
36.    What was the structure of the A25 planning coalition? Who were members selected?
37.    How did A25 integrate the political concerns of African Americans and other people of color into their organizing?
38.    How did this differ from organizing for the Seattle WTO protests in 1999, according to Bettina Martinez?
39.    Why do you think African American organizations were unwilling to commit to CD? Do you agree with Perez’s assessment? Why or why not?
40.    How did Nguyen prevent CD from becoming a liability to the organizers?
41.    Was secrecy necessary? How was it maintained?
42.    What is jail solidarity?
43.    How much does CD rely on the predictability of the police?
44.    What were the two targets for A25?
45.    What is democratic about the statement “This city is ours”?
 
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For readings assigned Sept. 16-18, PART FIVE, Race Poverty and World Making

Keil, pp 326-333
1.    What are the “usual” reasons given for the cause of the Rodney King riots?
2.    Why do some media and powerbrokers frame the LA riot in same way as the 1965 Watts riot? What do they gain from it?
3.    According to Keil, why was the ‘92 riot different from the ’65 riot?
4.    What does Keil mean by the globalization of Los Angeles? What other cities are becoming globalized? Are Baltimore or Washington DC included? Why or why not?
5.    What is counterhegemonic discourse? How does it challenge – even when fragmented – analytical unidimensionality?
6.    How did the national media (news media and popular culture) depict Los Angeles (and South Central) in the early 1990s? How does framing of a negative image support unidimensionality?
7.    How did the environmental justice movement help contextualize environmental issues for people of color.
8.    What is the Bus Riders Union?
9.    How did union activists broaden their message to organize Latino workers?
10.    How does ridicule work as a tactic of resistance?
11.    What is “the forced ethnicity of the world city”? How does it differ from earlier frameworks used to explain urban ethnic relations?
12.    What six conditions constitute the formation of a world city? Are these conditions also present in DC or Baltimore or NYC?

Fletcher, pp 334-341
13.    Is it contradictory for a black trade unionist to organize a local initiative to support black-owned businesses? Why or why not?
14.    What is black radicalism? Is it different in 2003 than in was in 1973?
15.    What is “the system”>
16.    What is meant by “the interconnection of ‘the masses – struggle – defiance – transformation’”? (Is this a strategy?)
17.    Do the metaphors of “house Negro” and “field Negro” still apply?
18.    Who is the petit bourgeoisie?
19.    What is dogmatism?
20.    According to Fletcher, what two elements are at the core of a black radical working-class project? How do living wage campaigns, organizing former welfare recipients, and trade union organizing reflect these two elements?
21.    How does the framing of “civil rights” issues prevent discussion and organizing on black unemployed and underemployed?
22.    Why does baiscaly Black radicalism on economic justice issues permit the rearticulation – or framing – of Black freedom?

Luce, pp 342-350
23.    What is a living wage?
24.    In what city did the campaign for a living wage begin?
25.    List at least six tactics used by the living wage campaign.
26.    What was SAAEJ’s strategy for its campaign?
27.    What was the goal?
28.    Who were the primary targets? Who were secondary targets?
29.    After the original campaign, what did the Tucson organization work on?
30.    Was the campaign a “success”?
31.    What resources did the Workers’ Rights Board provide for the campaign?
32.    What new campaigns did the Living Wage Campaign give rise to?
33.    What are the political limits of the Tucson campaign, according to the author?

Cyler interview, pp 351-359
34.     What is Housing Works? Who does it serve?
35.    How does activism create a “safe harbor” for people?
36.    What does Cyler experiences with CD tell you about the efficacy – or appropriateness – of this tactic? (Compare to A25 actions)
37.    What were (three) systemic or structural problems (political, economic, social) that created the need for Housing Works?
38.    What is the meaning of Cyler’s observation “You cannot last forever on anger”?
39.    What skills (resources) did the four founders of Housing Works bring to the project?
40.    Who was in AIDA? What does AIDA tell you about coalitions?

Greg and Kershnar, pp 361-369
41.    What is harm reduction or harm prevention?
42.    Who is most likely to die from AIDS in Roxbury (Boston, Mass.)?
43.    Name three tactics harm reduction activists used,
44.    What federal and state laws did harm reduction activists break by their actions?
45.    Why is harm reduction an “outlaw practice”?
46.    Should such outlaw practices be viewed as CD?
47.    Who did President Nixon “frame” drugs and drug users? How this framing create the idea that individuals are responsible for use of drugs?
48.    Devise a challenger frame for drug use.
49.    Research the NAACP’s stand on needle exchange programs (NEPs)
50.    What the NAACP’s stand tell us about the way they frame “civil rights” issues?
51.    How do grassroots think tanks such as HRWG enhance organizing efforts?
52.    What do the ongoing controversies over NEPs  tell you about the ability of powerbrokers (of Congress) to divide and conquer through race-baiting and gay-bashing?
53.    Is training new leadership a tactic?
 
Groarke and Moss, pp 370-377
54.    Do you think demonstrating in front of the Upper East Side apartment building of Sen. D’Amato’s girlfriend is a good tactic? Explain why or why not.
55.    What is “Community Organizing” according to Groarke and Moss?
56.    Discuss how the NWBCCC escalated the pressure to hasten construction of new public schools in their district.
57.    What interests does the NWBCCC have in globalization? What does globalization mean to the Northwest Bronx? Give two examples.
 
Stoeker, pp 378-388
58.    What is community development?
59.    How does community development differ from community organizing? How is it the same?
60.    What is project-based community development? What are its limits?
61.    What is power-based community development? What are its limits?
62.    Briefly, describe the functionalist model of how political change is achieved.
63.    Briefly, describe the conflict model for achieving political change.
64.    How does Stoeker’s “community building” model build on the advantages of community organizing to overcome the limits of project-based community development?
65.    How is mutual responsibility built into the process?
66.    How would you describe the structure and workings of the NWBCCC using Stoeker’s model?

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For readings assigned for Sept. 23 and 25: Developing Strategies: Small “d” Democracy & Consumer Activism, Shepard & Hayduk, pp 41-102

Starhawk, pp 52-56
1.    What is the Direct Action Network?
2.    According to Starhawk, the Seattle police could have easily learned all of the strategic plans and protest tactics of the organizers of the WTO protests, and thus police could have avoided using violence against the protestors. Thus, one might conclude that the Seattle police (over) reacted because they had no idea what was going to happen. This raises two important strategic questions:
a.    Should the organizers have met with the police prior to the protests to inform them of their plans? Why or why not?
b.    Would informing the police ahead of time have compromised the spontaneity of the protestors? Why or why not?
3.    What is consensus decision-making?
4.    How did the affinity group model (of tactical deployment) allow everyone to participate in her or his own way in the protests?
5.    How did protest organizers encourage creativity?
6.    Starhawk observes that protest organizers used a decentralized decision-making model – one that allowed affinity groups to make their own decisions regarding the amount of risk to which they exposed themselves. This organizational model, she contends, confused and possibly angered the police because it did not follow a hierarchical model of decision-making (i.e., with a police commander giving orders obediently followed by his “troops”). If you were organizing the protests, which model would you have recommended and why?
7.    In several ways, her analysis reminds us of the conflicts between SNCC and SCLC in the early 1960s. Ella Baker encouraged SNCC to develop group-oriented leadership in which all members participated in deciding the group’s actions. Martin Luther King’s SCLC used a hierarchical model (based on ministers as leaders of the church). Further, MLK sought to control SNCC by making it the “youth wing” of the movement. If you were at Shaw University during the Easter 1960 founding conference, which position would you have supported and why?

Ness, pp 57-73
8.    Who is “Super Barrio Man”?
9.    How were boycott lines an effective tactic?
10.    How did community groups assist union organizing?
11.    Give three reasons why the CLC initially targeted restaurants.
12.    Why were restaurants a poor target?
13.    How as CLC’s campaign more effective because of its protactive rather than its reactive strategy?
14.    How did one success lead to more? (ripple effect)
15.    How did CLC use government to exert its power on the CLC’s behalf?
16.    How did CLC use the AFL-CIO to exert its power on the CLC’s behalf?
 
Lefkowitz, pp 74-80
17.    How is SAS like the CLC?
18.    What are the four stages of protest movements, according to the outline the author provides of Piven and Cloward’s theory?
19.    Why did SAS highlight the conditions under which women worked? (i.e., What could have been their strategy for doing this?)

Mauldin, pp 81-87
20.    Who is Maxine Waters?
21.    According to UNICEF, how many children die every day because of the loan debts their governments owe to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank?
22.    What are the causes of death for these children? Are their deaths preventable?
23.    What is structural adjustment?
24.    Who is Hanna Petros and the organization, Ustawi?
25.    How would debt cancellation help to stem the AIDS pandemic?

Sawyer, pp 88-102
26.    What can ACT-UP teach people about movement organizing? Name six lessons to be drawn from Sawyer’s analysis.
27.    How did the anti-apartheid movement influence ACT-UP? List specific tactics used by both movements.
28.    What is the Health GAP Coalition? What is the goal of Health GAP?
29.    How did targeting Vice President Albert Gore bring media attention to ACT-UP?
 

FROM PART TWO

Feinberg, pp 121-125
30.    Why do funerals provide an opportunity for collective political action?
31.    Under what circumstances are mock funerals are a useful tactic?

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FROM PART FOUR

Key terms: 
"Zapatismo"
DIVA TV
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM)
Black August
Raptivism (from http://www.bsos.umd.edu/aasp/chateauvert/raptivism.htm )

1.  What evidence does Naomi Klein give to proved the D.C. and Seattle WTO protests were in fact "organized?"

2.  How did the "hubs and spokes" model benefit protesters in their actions against World Bank, IMF and other international bodies?

3.  Why is "electronic civil disobedience” significant according to Ricardo Dominguez?

4.  List and discuss three specific reasons why AIDS crisis of the 1980's helped to mobilize activists. (Think of broadly about the social, political, and/or economic conditions that cause people to protest.)

5.  Compare the deployment of media as an organizing tactic as used by the Zapatista community, the Indymedia Revolution, and the alternative A.I.D.S. video movement.

6.  How might you adapt the media tactics used by these movements to an issue of concern to you? Develop two effective applications.

7.  Many argue that leadership in the black community has dwindled since the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Is hip-hop culture and activism a suitable replacement for leadership, as Sofia Quintero argues?

8.  Do you consider hip-hop activism or raptivism as a form of group-centered leadership or does it rely more on a charismatic leadership style?

9.  What was "J12"? What is significance of “J12” to the tactical uses of the media for activism?

10.  Why do some consider Starbucks an enemy of social activism?

uploaded 10/20/03
revised 11/25/03


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