ORGANIZING: Different Types of Campaigns

HIC

There are different methods of organizing or ways of making social change, and all have their uses. Before launching a campaign it is important to know if you are doing a direct action, media, education or some other type of campaign. The point is not that one approach is better than the others. In fact, often many kinds of organizing are needed and often these campaigns happen in unison. Knowing which type you are doing and what your primary goal is, is critical.



Direct Action Organizing is based on the power of the people to take collective action on their own behalf. Suppose an organizer encountered a situation in which there were a large number of homeless people in the community. Here are different campaign approaches s/he could use:



Service

If the organizer went out and started convincing neighborhood religious institutions to put cots in their basements for the homeless, that would be a service approach. The organizer, and the congregations would be doing a direct service for people.



Education

If the organizer started doing studies about the causes of homelessness and how it was dealt with in other cities, and then distributed the information, that is an education approach. There are many groups that exist mainly to educate people about some social issue.



Self-Help

If the organizer began to hold workshops for homeless people about how to find a house or a job, that would be a self-help approach. The idea is that people can solve their problem by improving themselves or their knowledge of themselves, and that they can often do it better in groups.



Advocacy

If the organizer went down to City Hall to lobby to get the city to open shelters and food programs, that would be an advocacy approach. The people without homes would not necessarily be involved or even know that the organizer was doing it.



Direct Action

If the organizer started talking to homeless people and organized a large number of them to first decide on the solutions that they wanted, and then to pressure the city to win those solutions, that would be a direct action approach. The people directly affected by the problem, what ever it is, take action to win a solution.



Again, each type of campaign has its own value for the work you may be doing. Each can be used to further the mission of your organization. The one element to keep in mind is that using direct action organizing as the main approach ensures that the work your organization does will be focused on altering the relations of power so that the people most affected by social and economical problems can change their situation.



Also see: Fundamental Principle of Direct Action Organizing, Anatomy of Direct Action Campaign and other resources.



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