Paperwork and Protests

Wonkblog has an interesting article today by Rich Yeselson, a research coordinator at Change to Win, outlining some of the common habits that successful social movements employ. It's a very worthwhile read.

One of the points that Yeselson emphasized was the fact that successful social movements are boring. That's not to say that their message or their cause is boring, but rather that the legwork associated with the movement is. That means creating fliers, making phone calls, writing letters, gathering signatures, that sort of thing. Sure, it's a lot more fun and empowering to go march downtown, or participate in a protest, but those aren't necessarily the most important aspects of a social movement. Behind any large or successful protests are volunteers participating in countless meetings, making phone calls, writing e-mails ... the boring stuff.

At the CPJC I mostly do the legwork. I create fliers, I answer phones, I send out e-mails, I update the database. None of it is terribly exciting for most people (I do, however, enjoy it), but according to Rich Yeselson, what I have been doing is terribly important.