Activism industry

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The activism industry consists of organizations and individuals engaged in activism, defined as involvement in action for the purposes of bringing about change on a funded or contract basis. Activism is often undertaken in a "full-time" capacity, whereby organizations and individuals formally classify the activity as "core business". The number of organizations who employ people to perform this work is sufficiently large that "activism" is now a job classification.^[1] Movements across the political spectrum can be described as activist in nature.

Many organizations whose primary activity is activism may be defined as being nonprofit organizations or non-governmental organizations. Most activist organizations do no manufacturing of goods.^{[citation needed]}

The term "activism industry" has often been used to refer to the practice of outsourcing canvassing fundraising operations. However, activist organizations engage in other activities as well.^[2] Lobbying, or the influencing of decisions made by government, is another activist tactic. Many groups have designated staff assigned specifically for lobbying purposes. In the United States, lobbying is regulated by the federal government.^[3]

Activism in capitalist societies

In capitalist societies, when civil liberties are present, full-time activists can be employed on wages.^[4][5] Additionally, volunteer activists may support themselves by working full-time or part-time. Most governments encourage public support of non-profit organizations by granting some form of tax relief for donations to charitable organizations, sometimes including donations of time as well as money. Governments may attempt to deny these benefits to activists by restricting the political activity of tax-exempt organizations. This can be controversial, because the borderline between political activity and educational or religious activity is not always clear.

Free societies rarely have explicit restrictions on political activism, although many forms of activism involve committing other crimes such as aggravated trespassing.

Forced activism

Reports have emerged regarding powerful organizations, such as government bureaucracies and large corporations, and a history of organized activism for the promotion of their own interests; further to these claims is a belief that, on occasion, employees of the organizations, as well as others, have been coerced participants.^{[citation needed]}

Techniques

A number of alleged techniques for coercion are:^{[citation needed]}

• Paid or obligatory attendance, on work time, at demonstrations, where the size of the crowd is often used as a gauge for the level of support behind a policy or set of policies.
• Promotion or continued employment dependent upon voluntary attendance at certain functions or demonstrations.
• Requests by government officials or corporate managers that a body of people support a public letter of support for a particular cause.
• Calling public meetings for the sole purpose of criticizing an individual (who may also be present at the meeting) who is believed to hold views that are unacceptable to the organization that he/she is an employee or member of (this technique was commonly used in the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution).^{[citation needed]}
• Compulsory, or strongly encouraged, financial or time contributions to causes or organizations ("peace loans" in Warsaw Pact countries during the 1950s operated on this basis).^{[citation needed]}

Fields in the activism industry

• Anarchism
• Animal rights organizations
• Anti-globalization movement
• Anti-Capitalism
• Civil rights movement
• Demonstrations
• Environmental activism
  • Environmentalism
  • Alternative Transportation Movement
  • Ecology movement
  • Environmental movement
  • Environmental organizations
  • Green movement
  • Organizations based upon Green economics
• Fund raising
  • United Way of America organization
  • Fund for the Public Interest
• Gun politics organizations
• Human rights organizations
• Labor movement organizations
• Libertarianism
• Nationalist activism
• Peace movement
• Racist and anti-racist movements
• Religious activism
  • Evangelicalism - Promoting religious views, hoping others will be interested.
  • Proselytism - Attempting to convert religious or other views.
  • Some religions encourage their adherents to take part in other forms of activism
    • Alms
    • Christian left
    • Christian right
    • Social Gospel
    • Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• Senior Citizens
• Social work
• Welfare state

See also

• Advocacy group

References

External links

• LobbyWatch - The Center for Public Integrity - How Private Interests Influence Public Policy
• FORTUNE Releases Annual Survey of Most Powerful Lobbying Organizations
• Fat Activism P's and Q's - Common types of activism