Activist discovers work is hard

[Kimberly]

McActivism Sweatshop Link

Sun Apr 15, 2012, 05:19 AM
 backscatter712 (14,964 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore


 Beware of sleazy "progressive" McActivism sweatshops that chew up young progressives...
Last edited Sun Apr 15, 2012, 05:43 AM USA/ET - Edit history (2)

I had a bad job experience. I lasted two weeks. Then I got fired. As did the vast majority of the people who worked there. If you're not a superstar at raking in contact information and donations, you don't make quota, and you're out.

The management calls themselves progressive, but they treat their employees like shit. And I'm ****ing pissed.

The rate at which this place chews up and spits out aspiring activists, I wondered if it was really run by James O'Keefe-style Republicans scheming to burn out progressive activists, alienate them from the public and keep them from doing genuinely useful stuff.
 
How do these places work? Go to any college campus, and see the ads posted all over "MAKE MONEY SERVING A GOOD CAUSE!!! GREENPEACE!!! ACLU!!! MAKE $12/HR!!!" The ads are all over Craigslist.

Most of us have seen these people - they're the folks with the clipboards who are accosting people at college campuses, busy town centers and going door-to-door trying to get donations or contact information from you.

In my case, the cause I was hired to canvass for was Fair Share Alliance.

You'd think that a well-run progressive activism outlet would provide opportunities to network progressives together, build connections, foster community.

You'd think that they'd, well, organize.

Nope. None of that here. They put you on the street knocking on doors either taking contact information from people, or taking donations. It's all about the donor lists, and the money. They don't care about community-building.

And they have you working under less-than-ideal conditions. When I worked political campaigns as a volunteer, safety was the big rule. Don't go out after dark was the biggest rule. Here at Fair Share, noooooooo. The law says you can canvass until 9:00 at night, so they make you canvass until 9:00 at night. Dealing with big dogs. One of my coworkers had a gun pulled on her because she knocked on his door after dark. Thankfully, she just left the property, and she's OK. But absolutely ****ing scary. And when you complain, to the managers, they question your commitment to the cause.

Oh, and there's the quotas. I was taking pledge cards. You had to get 15 of them a day. If you didn't get that number consistently, you're "on review". Spend more than a couple days "on review" and you're fired. How do you make quota? Either you get lucky and get put in a nice neighborhood where there are some fellow progressives who don't mind signing pledges. Or you use super-pushy used-car-salesman tactics. "NEVER TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!" As I'm not a pushy guy, and I don't do guilt-trips and false-urgency, I didn't make quota.

So I got fired. As did a bunch of my coworkers. They chew people up and spit them out. They don't give a **** about their safety, and insinuate that you're a shitty activist if you're not ultra-pushy.

Lest you think that my experience is unique, or that I'm just bitter and have a bad attitude and I'm a bad worker and a bad progressive, here's another story.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/gyrobase/hello-wanna-give-to-a-good-cause/Content?oid=2172030&showFullText=true


...If you've ever been approached on the street by an Oxfam representative seeking funds to end poverty in Africa, or had a guy from the Democratic National Convention knocking at your door at dinnertime crusading to keep Washington under Democratic control, chances are they were hired, trained, and paid by Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. The for-profit canvass outsourcing firm grosses untold millions from its fund-raising commissions, and has recruiting offices in more than twenty cities nationwide. Each year, Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. employs armies of eager young adults to canvass on the streets or, in Badami's case, manage those canvassers.

Though most people don't know it, the canvassers hired by Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. work under conditions that would likely make the organizations they're championing cringe. Workers face tight fund-raising quotas and notoriously high turnover rates; the average canvasser lasts less than a month. But the constant pool of new applicants, often churned out by liberal academic institutions, coupled with the bum economy, has allowed Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. to continue to work its young employees very hard seemingly without much repercussion. In fact, they're currently hiring.

...

Yet as it grew, so too did a litany of employee complaints, allegations of labor violations, and, eventually, a series of class-action lawsuits. In recent years, a multitude of blogs by ex-employees has sprouted across the web, portraying wretched work experiences of near-Dickensian scope.

Columbia University Sociology Professor Dana Fisher describes The Fund in-depth in her suggestively titled book Activism, Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America, published in 2006. A former canvasser herself, she notes the efficiency of the outsourcing model, but also the heavy toll on those in the trenches, many of who start out as impassioned, potential leaders in the movement and become quickly disillusioned and alienated. The modern Republican political organizing approach, she argues, has been far more effective in creating stronger, lasting relationships with both its employees and political base.


I'd say getting fired from these shit-flingers is actually a blessing, because now I can say what I really think.

**** YOU FAIR SHARE ALLIANCE!

**** YOU FOR TREATING YOUR WORKERS AND ACTIVISTS LIKE SHIT!

**** YOU FOR SOILING PROGRESSIVE CAUSES!

**** YOU FOR RECKLESSLY ENDANGERING YOUR WORKERS TO MAKE A QUICK BUCK!

I'm going to broadcast my grievances loudly, and see what I can do to damage their reputation. Progressives and progressive causes deserve far better.

And I'm gonna switch to some other form of activism, and some other job. At a place that doesn't treat employees like used toilet paper.

[tanstaafl]

DUAC! DUAC!

I'm going to broadcast my grievances loudly, and see what I can do to damage their reputation. Progressives and progressive causes deserve far better.

And I'm gonna switch to some other form of activism, and some other job. At a place that doesn't treat employees like used toilet paper.

I think this disillusioned DUmmie needs to plant himself in front of the Fair Share Alliance offices with signs and a loudspeaker until he (or she) gets its way.

[Ballygrl]

Leftists treat their people horribly, all you have to do is look at Hollywood and people like Barbara Streisand (yes, that's the actual spelling of her name), and the class divide at Occupy Wall Street:

http://www.newser.com/story/133571/daily-show-samantha-bee-reveal-occupy-wall-streets-class-divisions.html

[longview]

I will agree with "backscatter."  It's a surprise, and disappointing, when you discover the organization most prominantly promoting a cause you believe in is mostly about the money.  A lot goes in, little goes out. 

It's a good lesson in real life, though.  At least for me it was.  Tempered my enthusiasm for causes and made me more discerning when donating to this or that. 

[jukin]

Leftists treat their people horribly, all you have to do is look at Hollywood and people like Barbara Streisand (yes, that's the actual spelling of her name), and the class divide at Occupy Wall Street:

http://www.newser.com/story/133571/daily-show-samantha-bee-reveal-occupy-wall-streets-class-divisions.html

When people were put in the gulags they would ask "Does Stalin know of this?"

When the Autobahn was being built by more or less slave manual labor (but people were working) they would ask "Does Hitler know of this?"

There have been ad always will be Useful Idiots. Skins just managed to have the highest concentration of them in our history.

[Mr Mannn]

Leftists treat their people horribly, all you have to do is look at Hollywood and people like Barbara Streisand (yes, that's the actual spelling of her name), and the class divide at Occupy Wall Street:

http://www.newser.com/story/133571/daily-show-samantha-bee-reveal-occupy-wall-streets-class-divisions.html

Hi 5. That is a universal truth. Leftist run groups are always top down totalitarian organizations.

The key is the elitist core philosophy. Those at the top are above all law and their word is law. This is why you see common abuses with democrat congressional aides being used as sex objects. Barney Frank's gay prostitution ring run from his own home is just one example. When an elected democrat is questioned or held up in any way...they fly into a rage.

The elite know better than us. We are merely here to obey, our input in other matters is not required.

[miskie]

Many young activists are filled to the brim with doe-eyed innocence, and really don't understand that the 'feel good' policies they support are controlled by some of the most ruthless bastards alive.

Sadly, when many young activists learn this, they deny it to themselves - by constructing a conspiracy fantasy that absolves their heroes' parts in it all.

It usually starts with " somebody must have 'got to him/her' " and it spirals downward from there.

The activists smart enough to see through the crap become conservatives or libertarians.

[obumazombie]

Maybe our young idealistic lib, by getting mugged, will see the advantages of conservatism. I hope they aren't disillusioned into thinking conservatism won't be hard work.