Amanda Tattersall explores how community organisations and unions can work together: “Although we understand that most battles can’t be won by one organisation acting alone, we are missing a clear understanding of what makes coalitions successful and what makes them fail…”
Visit LinkPosts Tagged: coalitions-and-alliances - (20 found)

Coalitions of the willing [blog]
Amanda Tattersall explores how community organisations and unions can work together:
“Coalitions between unions and community organisations can be a powerful means for achieving social change and reinvigorating civil society. But not all coalitions are made equal. There are strategies that are likely to lead to more successful coalition practice.
“While many coalitions come together to resist particular policy changes, collaboration will be more powerful if a coalition commits to building a specific, winnable shared agenda. And while many coalitions undertake mass action such as rallies, multi-scaled coalitions that can sustain their activity are more likely to build long-term political influence.”
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Can NGOs and social movements be authentic allies? [blog]
coalitions and alliances community organising social movements
[Michael Silberman writes] Many NGO staff rightly have an overwhelming fear of causing harm to movements by acting in ways that are (or appear to be) self-serving or co-opting. They also fear causing harm to their own organization through legal risks or supporter attrition. That said, inaction during a ‘movement moment’ also risks an organisation’s relevance and impact…
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Blueprints for Change Progressive Organizing and Campaigning Manual
coalitions and alliances community organising digital campaigning workshop resources
This 180+ page volume offers progressive organizers 14 vitally important how-to guides containing the strategic and tactical wisdom of over 100 progressive campaigners. These guides focus on in-demand topics (see below) and include strategies and tactics that are field-proven and in-demand throughout the global progressive movement.
The guides cover online and offline campaign methods and tactics, including networked coalitions and distributed organising, digital organising tools and digital security. Highly recommended.
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An Australian civil society success story | Joan Staples
Late 2017, Joan Staples first wrote of threats to democratic advocacy from three foreign interference Bills. Then in November 2018, the final most controversial Bill, the Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform Bill, was passed with the support of civil society. The story of this transformation from horrified opposition to support for the Bill is a story of Australian civil society working together to influence legislation in a way rarely seen. It opens the way for future collaboration to proactively promote the strengthening of our democracy. [Joan Staples coordinates the mentoring program in the Change Agency’s Community Organising Fellowship]
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Embracing the Network: How to Build a Powerfully Collaborative Campaign
coalitions and alliances community organising movement building strategy
“Embracing Networks” in campaigns can lead to powerful results. Many of the largest campaigns in the world, mobilizing millions of people, use the power of networks. It’s easier than ever to embrace networked campaigning thanks to new technologies that have come on-stream in recent years. This free download is available for progressive campaigners and organizations who want to learn more about embracing networks to drive powerful results. A report produced by New/Mode and NationBuilder.
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10 Things You Need to Build Clever Coalitions [Gemma Mortensen]
There are many ingredients that make up clever coalitions, and it is only in rare, heady moments that they all coexist perfectly together. The process requires stamina and patience on behalf of all involved. In my work at Crisis Action, an organization that builds coalitions to secure the protection of civilians in armed conflict, I learned the value and power of this approach, and the principles that underpin successful efforts.
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Networked change | How progressive campaigns are won in the 21st century
What makes some of today’s most successful advocacy campaigns work, while so many others fail to make an impact?
The Networked Change Report maps out the strategies and practices that made 47 of today’s most successful advocacy campaigns work. These campaigns achieved success because of their ability to open up to the new cultural forces which favor openness and grassroots power, but also because they framed and strategically directed this power towards concrete policy outcomes. In short, these “directed network campaigns” married old power with new.
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A Radical Alliance of Black and Green Could Save the World
civil disobedience civil rights coalitions and alliances movement building social movements strategy
But first the two movements will have to rediscover their shared roots in a fundamental critique of an economy and a society that value things more than lives. As in the environmental world, many in the black community are seeing limits to traditional advocacy… a number of black leaders, from grassroots organizers (such as those involved with Black Lives Matter and the Moral Mondays movement) to scholars, are calling for a rediscovery and revitalization of the civil-rights movement’s radical roots to address the deeper structural issues that America confronts.
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The New Bottom Line: Building Alignment and Scale to Confront the Economic Crisis
The New Bottom Line effort was a daring experiment that grew out of a moment of crisis and a shared understanding that organizing in traditional modes as disparate networks would not be enough to win against the banks that had crashed the economy. The four organizing networks that formed NBL came together on their own initiative. They launched campaigns that opened up important space to consider new economic ideas. And they pioneered new ways of working across organizational lines. The New Bottom Line represents a significant innovation for the organizing field, and the NBL model will serve as an important touchstone for the future of organizing and movement-building for economic and racial justice.
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