Any organizer worth their weight knows that you have to be prepared to fight on multiple fronts, and as soon as you develop any clout, you will face the wrath of the power structure.
Any time you are threatening the establishment’s power, be prepared for them to strike back hard. I am not talking about a clandestine conspiracy. I am referring to the alignment of bureaucrats, nonprofits with governmental ties, elected officials, corporate media, etc. The reality is that they don’t need to conspire in order to block you. At first, they will exclude you with the hope that they will shut off your oxygen. If you have enough of a base to thrive without their cooperation, then they attack.
Larry Summers, former president of Harvard and a treasury secretary, offered the following advice to Bill Moyers, “I could be an insider, or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People—powerful people—listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticize other insiders.”
If you are outspoken and independent, you are iced out. That’s just how the power structure works. On the other hand, if you want radical change, being silenced won’t get you there. In the rare instances when outsiders have a large, effective base that can be mobilized, they have an independent source of power. The Bernie Sanders movement is a classic example. Despite running and losing twice for president, Bernie has had an outsized role in setting the agenda for the Democratic Party.
My organization, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, is another such example. We definitely are outspoken outsiders. And we have a large base that cannot be ignored. We are able to mobilize thousands of people, have very high favorability ratings in polling, put initiatives on the ballot, and sway public opinion. That is enough to make us dangerous to the establishment. But even scarier to the powers that be is our ability to get between them and their obscene profits.
Whether the industry in question in Pharma or Big Real Estate, the stakes get very high. Currently, Big Real Estate is campaigning to pass Proposition 34 to strip AHF of its tax-exempt status, take away all of our licenses, prohibit our leaders from working in the healthcare industry, and destroy the safety net we have built for our patients over 36 years.
You have to be brave and well organized to withstand these threats. The establishment is not just interested in eliminating AHF as a threat. They seek the chilling effect that such a victory would bring to any other community organization that even is considering speaking out against them.
The tentacles of the real estate power structure are almost unlimited. They are the largest advertiser in many newspapers. They contribute mountains of money to politicians. And all of their vendors are more than willing to help. Whoever isn’t already a natural ally in their greed can be purchased—often rather cheaply. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and outgunned. But consider every successful movement started the same way—as a grassroots uprising.
To succeed, there are two essential formulas: look at the big picture and take the long view. The big picture starts with recognizing the necessity of change. How can we make it happen? Seeing the long view means understanding corrupt systems are unstable and eventually can fall, but they need to be challenged.
And while devising the right strategy is, itself, a challenge, the freedom of thought and action being an outsider provides is a great gift and, ultimately, invaluable.