Recently, while working with a group trying to make a community organizing plan for Memphis, I spent a couple of days at the Highlander Center not far from Knoxville, Tennessee. On a table near their classic circle of rocking chairs, they had some free items they were trying to clear from their library, including to my bittersweet pleasure some old copies of Social Policy from more than fifteen years aMy favorite was the 25th-anniversary issue entitled “Twenty-five Years of Mapping Movements,” not least of all because it reprinted a segment of an old piece I had written for them, which was humbling in the company of so many outstanding authors, academics, and commentators. On the back cover the first sentence of the 1970 Mission Statement in the “Why Social Policy” section began, “Social Policy is a new magazine born out of the critical demand of today’s movements for fundamental social change.” It seems to me that I could still describe Social Policy in exactly that way, even though I would have to take out the word “new” since our magazine is now pushing past 41 years now.
And that is especially true for this issue!
We lead the issue with a piece by well-known labor journalist and activist, Steve Early, that reprises almost the span of our history by connecting the historic labor-movement campaigns of the Miners for Democracy to the ongoing struggles of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union and other reform groups today. Running some of the classic shots by the famous labor photographer, Earl Dotter, from that period seems even more poignant. No small amount of the hope for labor—from those times right before the sun seems to have begun setting—was dissipated in the wake of President Reagan’s strike busting of PATCO. Interestingly, in an excerpt from his new book, Collision Course, historian and old friend Joe McCartin argues convincingly that this was a watershed in accelerating the decline of the labor movement and even some of the current attacks on public sector workers that seem everywhere around us.
The fair trade movement is more modern, and it is with sadness that Melanie Craxton and I take a hard look at how far that movement seems to be going off the rails as well, in a piece adapted from a recent report done on Fairtrade International by ACORN International. More encouragingly, in an interesting article by Donata Secondo and Josh Lerner, we see that the seeds which were sown for participatory budgeting from the Brazilian Workers’ Party are now beginning to sprout in New York City and elsewhere. Fully accepting the historic charge for Social Policy, we feature two special sections in this issue reporting on the development of the Occupy movement and the Egyptian revolution.
Spencer Woodman, Hannah Armstrong, and David Bacon cross the country from Miami to New York to Seattle and Oakland to look deeply at the development, tensions, and potential for the movement. Our columnists, Phil Mattera and Noorin Ladhani, as well as myself, also jump in with additional takes on the impacts this movement has on the youth and social networking, and the global and intellectual origins of the movement. Our new columnist, John Anderson, reports from the Pacific Northwest, how politics is changing throughout the area. This year, the Organizers’ Forum annual report on their international dialogue covers the recent return of the delegation two months ago in the wake of the very much unfinished Egyptian Revolution that go, several of which I had never seen. I hated that our friends at Highlander didn’t value Social Policy enough to keep the old issues, as hard as it undoubtedly is for them to find the space, but I loved getting a look at the old issues.
sprang forward on January 25th of this year and continues to captivate that country, the entire Middle East, and much of the rest of the world. Drummond Pike gives some flavor of how important and unfinished this is, right down to the dramatic, well-reported interruption of our meeting with one of the top Presidential candidates. Mehrdad Azemun draws some of the overall “lessons” for organizers from the events in Egypt. Fred Brooks and Tatiana Jaunzems look at why one of the most critical changes may be at the grassroots level from the fundamental community organization. Mary Rowles and Kenneth Stretcher report clearly from the Organizers’ Forum on the critical, yet still somehow unsung role that labor has played in making these social changes come to the forefront. James Cavalluzzo documents the important role played in culture in creating the revolution, while Mike Gaworecki dissects the real value of the social networking undergirding the communication system for the revolutionaries. Much has been written about the Coptic minority in Cairo and the tensions there, and we were fortunate to visit the largest community and the innovative recycling operation they manage which I document in a short description with pictures. And finally Costanza La Mantia, our invaluable guide from Palermo, provides an important understanding of what the revolution may mean for the future informal settlements (or slums) and their place in the coming planning, through the lens of the iconic City of the Dead in Cairo. It is a gift to be able to share the experience this issue for the entire delegation.
Looking at this issue and then flipping pages through the lead editorial in the 25th-Anniversary issue, I found myself reading the last two paragraphs again by David Dyssegaard Kallick:
“Myles Horton talked about the cyclical development of movements and organizing periods, when people rush to the streets and when they go home and build the structures that ultimately support movement work. Movements of the 90s will build on the organizing of the 70s and 80s. More than ever, Social Policy remains committed to the importance of movements and the critical role they play in American politics.”
We may have a different job, some other angles, voices, and perspectives that the years have molded in other shapes and sizes, but in reading this issue, you will also see that we still carry the flame for movements that matter and are proud to do so.
