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Summary of How

Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement

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Summary of

Fredrik deBoer’s book

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Summary of How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement by Fredrik DeBoer

By GP SUMMARY© 2023, GP SUMMARY.

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NOTE TO READERS

This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Fredrik deBoer’s “How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement” designed to enrich your reading experience.

 

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INTRODUCTION

The author, a part-time organizer, has been involved in activism since becoming politically conscious as a teenager. Over the years, they have witnessed the same dynamics play out again and again, with dedicated organizers falling into the same sad patterns that obstruct progress. One example is the University of Rhode Island (URI) student activists who committed to a political action in 2010 when there was no real LGBTQ+ center for students on campus. They occupied a section of URI's library for eight days, refusing to surrender the space until their demands were heard. After several rounds of negotiation with the school's brass, the activists declared victory, including the creation of a new LGBTQ+ center.

The author has also been a young activist once, helping organize around gay rights issues in high school. When he got to Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) in 2002, he organized against the Iraq invasion and joined the organization Connecticut United for Peace (CutUP). By 2004, he was punching the clock every week, organizing against the war. One particular march through Hartford seemed to take an almost impossible amount of time and effort to pull off. The city government in Hartford made it harder for the activists, as they had to pay Hartford cops at overtime rates to provide "security." Eventually, a lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) made inquiries into the constitutionality of the city's requirements, which led to the city dropping their absurd requirements and giving the activists permits. The author was delighted to have their name appear on the permit, and the march ended with several hundred people demanding an end to a senseless war.

The author reflects on the failures of the anti-Iraq war movement, which focused on a domestic conflict instead of the brutal one on the other side of the world. They experienced factionalization, accusations of racism and bigotry, attempts by fringe groups to control events, and bitter disputes about goals and tactics. The author believes that protest is necessary and righteous even when it achieves nothing tangible, but they saw failure everywhere.

The author moved to Chicago after three years of antiwar activism, feeling emotionally spent and despondent. They found themselves in the recession after the 2008 financial meltdown and went to grad school, where they found themselves on campus during the URI student occupation of the library. The author admired the actions of young activists, but was disappointed when they asked about their next goal, the Four Loko ban.

In 2020, the American progressive movement drifted from the essential to the inconsequential, material to the illusory. The Covid-19 pandemic exploded out from China and across the globe, rocking the world economy and sending people into a micro-depression. The presidential election year further fueled this sentiment, with Donald Trump facing an emboldened progressive movement and dissent within his party and political ideology.

On May 25, the simmering tensions were brought to a boil when George Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin and his fellow officers. Protests demanded justice and a total remaking of society's relationship to race, leading to riots and widespread support for Black Lives Matter.

In response to the demand for change, America's institutions, including universities, foundations, and nonprots, implemented programs to support racial justice and diversify their workforces and student bodies. An army of young activists were hired into academia, public service, and the nonprot sector, and grandiose plans for total reconstruction of society were devised. However, very little happened. No major federal legislation resulted from the upheaval of 2020, and some cities and states enacted modest criminal-justice reforms, but many were later quietly rolled back. The change demanded was largely from the upwardly mobile professional and managerial classes, and cultural institutions relentlessly looked to reward people from marginalized groups. The calls from establishment politicians for justice were simply folded into business as usual.

Political change is hard, and progressive political change is even harder. The inertia of established systems is remarkable, and activists should never be overly critical of activists for failing to achieve change. The default state of progressive social movements is failure, and the default state of such movements is the latest in a long string of failures for progressive social movements. The default state of such movements is due to elite capture, where the people who talk about politics professionally are in large majorities the people who face the least material depravation.

The decline of the American labor movement is a result of the left's failure to remain true to its roots as a movement of the working class, poor, marginalized, and dispossessed. In the first half of the twentieth century, labor unions and workers' parties won victories such as the weekend, eight-hour workdays, workplace health and safety protections, and collective bargaining rights due to the active participation and leadership of common workingmen. However, today, left-activist spaces are dominated by the college-educated, who have never worked a day at a physically or emotionally demanding job. This has led to frustration among leftist thinkers and a self-fulfilling prophecy, as left activists refuse to engage with the complexity of lower-wage citizens.

Cultural issues are dominant in many left spaces because culture is all the left feels it controls. The right has political power and craves cultural power, while the left has cultural power and craves political power. However, the left doesn't have power, and many leftists focus on cultural and social issues to the detriment of economic and political power.

The current failure lies in the wealthy and corporations' despotic control over the country's economy and political system, giving them big targets. To revive the longslumbering American workers' movement, a class-focused approach is appropriate for winning economic victories and organizing around identity issues. Practicality, resilience, and a plan are needed to engage in convincing others of the need for change.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO 2020?

In the summer of 2020, the Trump presidency led to widespread unrest and a sense of crisis, with the Covid-19 pandemic causing widespread fear and public anger. The #MeToo movement and the Bernie Sanders movement also fueled this anger. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020, has become one of the most discussed events in human history.

However, the 2020 political unrest has led to a current of amnesia, with the heady, emotional, and radical atmosphere that predominated disappearing. This is due to the political and cultural history that led us to what we now see. The Obama administration, on the other hand, was characterized by composure and coolness, standing in relief against George W. Bush's predecessors. However, Obama's reign seemed to represent a return to something like normal, but it was based on hope and change.

During the 2008 campaign, a demand for change was in the air, as the Great Recession and financial crisis were fresh on the minds of Americans, particularly young Americans. The Great Recession was unique in its product of elite malfeasance, with rich bankers being blamed for the economic crisis. However, no accountability was forthcoming for the architects of the deepest recession since

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 10.09.2023
ISBN: 978-3-7554-5250-8

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Widmung:
In 2020, the US faced political discontent following George Floyd's murder and the Black Lives Matter movement. DeBoer's book suggests that winners can contribute to social justice without elites' influence, and organizing around class can change minds and drive policy.