Obama Is Wrong About Social Movements and Activists

By Wade Rathke / Chief Organizer

This piece first appeared on Wade Rathke’s blog, Chief Organizer.

President Obama is on his farewell tour. Speaking to a young university audience in London while trying to drum up some support for Britain to stay in the European Union, he offered what has to be seen as totally gratuitous advice to them — and of course all of the rest of us — about what he sees as the proper, underline “proper,” role for social movements and activists. And, not surprisingly, he is totally wrong, but here was what he had to offer:

The value of social movements and activism is to get you at the table, get you in the room, and then to start trying to figure out how is this problem going to be solved. You then have a responsibility to prepare an agenda that is achievable, that can institutionalize the changes you seek, and to engage the other side, and occasionally to take half a loaf that will advance the gains that you seek, understanding that there’s going to be more work to do, but this is what is achievable at this moment.

In the New York Times story about his remarks, they predictably added something that they felt, equally gratuitously, would help give an extra dose of credibility or street cred to the President of the United States, arguably — and temporarily — one of the powerful people in the world. They offered that,

Mr. Obama began his career as a community organizer working on local initiatives in poor neighborhoods in Chicago. Sometimes, he said, solving a problem means accepting a series of partial solutions.

Now, certainly if you are a big whoop, or the biggest whoop of them all you, want the rowdies out there to get the message that if you lean down from your perch and deign to listen to them for a hot minute, they are supposed to understand that they are supposed to behave, thank you, and then go and shut the heck up.

But, as Obama surely must really know, regardless of the claptrap he’s selling right now, the role of social movements, and many activists, is exactly the opposite. The role of social movements in fact is to speak “truth to power,” not to make the deals and settle for the incremental changes, but to chant, “more, more, more,” to keep the heat on that continues to create the pressure, and push to create the space for the deal-makers to do their thing to get closer and closer to the mark and not to stop until the job is done.

Obama knows from his time in Chicago that an organization has to accept “half a loaf” frequently to deliver to its members. Good organizations get more, and weaker organizations get less, but it’s a social movement’s job to continue to raise the banner for truth, justice, and the whole loaf.

There’s a different between seeking power and putting on the pressure. The Alinsky tradition, which Obama shared, was always uncomfortable with social movements because they were too easily appeased by applause, rather than being thankful that social movements enlarged the space to allow organizations to win even greater victories. Sadly, but once again not surprisingly, Obama knew this seven years ago when he challenged activists to push him — and the country — if they wanted more change, but now that he’s more worried about his past legacy, than his future accomplishments, [he’s] sitting too comfortably on the throne.

It’s worth respecting his position, but for the sake of all of us working for change, when it comes to social movements, we need to adamantly decline to follow his advice.

Wade Rathke is founder of ACORN International, where he served as chief organizer for 39 years. He is also founder and chief organizer of the Service Employees International Union Local 100, and publisher and editor of Social Policy, a quarterly magazine for scholars and activists.