What works in the rise of social justice movements and grassroots mobilization. Movements start at the local level, driven by people and groups who are directly affected by social injustices and are motivated to bring about change. For technology to be of use to build these out wider, we need to foster the importance of open and decentralized platforms, such as the #openweb and the #fediverse, to allow for free and serendipitous communication. This enables activists to organize, share information, and mobilize support without the bindings of corporate and governmental control. An example project is the #OMN and #indymediaback
Historical Context and Memory: Documenting and preserving the history of social justice movements is vital. The role of historical memory in inspiring to educate future generations of activists. By understanding past struggles, working practices and victories and defeats, current movements learn lessons and build on previous efforts. An example for this is the #makeinghistory project.
Resistance to Co-optation: Many activist groups face the risk of being co-opted by funding sources, which leads to a shift in their agendas and working culture. Maintaining independence and staying true to their mission is essential for the sustained rise of social justice movements. This is a hard path in the current mess, but it has been done before, so can be done again. As a small step, you can support this project here https://opencollective.com/open-media-network
Balanced Approach to Activism: A balanced spiky/fluffy approach that combines direct action with strategic planning and advocacy is important. We need to be pragmatic in activism to addresses immediate needs while also working towards long-term systemic change.
The relationship between social justice movements and capitalist systems is fundamentally antagonistic. Capitalism is a system that disregards historical and social factors “Capitalism disregards the history of socio-economic material conditions, #classwar, #ecocide, debt, slavery, violence, and oppression.” Capitalism as inherently unjust and at odds with #KISS social justice path.
We should likely try socialism (and anarchism) as an alternative to capitalist systems “socio-economic path where the production (factories, mines, machinery, tools, raw materials, land, buildings, means of transport, etc.) are owned and controlled by the public.” As paths to create balanced distribution of wealth and power.
The current capitalist system is self-destructive “We all now know the system we live under is destroying itself. So, what comes next? Fascism or revolution?” Radical change is necessary and inevitable. The individualistic approach promoted by #neoliberal ideologies reinforce capitalist structures. The #stupidIndividualism it has created shapes the #deathcult “common sense” we share with each other.
The importance of grassroots activism and social movements in challenging capitalist mess. We need #KISS approaches such as the potential of hashtags and #openweb native paths to create connections between people, build voices, and mobilize communities for the needed change to build social justice movements as necessary counterforces to capitalist mess.
