This week, I talk with @astra.bsky.social and Leah Hunt-Hendrix about solidarity, divide and conquer tactics, and why outside agitators are good, actually. As I say here, "Every iteration of the outside agitator trope is grounded in the maintenance of our alienation."
0 replies
26 reposts
57 likes
Reposted by Astra Taylor
you don't have to be a moral philosopher to wade through the complexities of these issues. but I happen to be one, so for whatever that's worth: the question of where to stand on genocide is life pitching at you underhand. moral life will never be easier than this.
www.newyorker.com/news/essay/s...
12 replies
161 reposts
520 likes
Here’s our full-throated defense of outside agitators.
The presence of community members and experienced activists in campus protests is nothing to be ashamed of.
We need to connect with and learn from others to build a better world.
jacobin.com/2024/05/outs...
0 replies
5 reposts
16 likes
Supposed to say a *thread*🧵about…
0 replies
0 reposts
6 likes
If you want more, check out the book (ideally from your local library!)
bookshop.org/p/books/soli...
0 replies
2 reposts
2 likes
In the end, MLK said it best:
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea."
1 replies
7 reposts
15 likes
“Participating in disruptive action requires seeing oneself as different than one was. And that is difficult to do, perhaps most difficult to do, in our closest relationships,” Polletta explains.
1 replies
0 reposts
1 likes
Outsiders have attributes that make them effective cultivators of solidarity.
Being removed from the social and familial commitments and petty conflicts and rivalries that characterize daily life can help activists open space for people to see themselves and engage in new ways.
1 replies
0 reposts
2 likes
Linked to the broader movement, locals were emboldened and empowered.
Their “we” widened.
1 replies
1 reposts
2 likes
As sociologist Francesca Polletta argues, outsiders were invaluable to the civil rights movement.
In addition to courage and organizing commitment and know-how, they brought a sense of connection to the wider world that punctured locals’ sense of isolation and vulnerability.
1 replies
1 reposts
2 likes
The presence of Communists was undeniable as well, and though Wallace and his ilk made it seem unthinkable, homegrown Communists, born and raised in the American South, had been some of the boldest anti-racist organizers since the 1930s.
1 replies
0 reposts
3 likes
And yet, the reality is that plenty of civil rights activists were outsiders.
The presence of non-Alabamans and non-Southerners spoke to the ways the movement had built effective, and powerful, solidarity.
1 replies
0 reposts
1 likes
James Baldwin put it bluntly in 1961: “When the South has trouble with its Negroes—when the Negroes refuse to remain in their ‘place’—it blames ‘outside agitators’ and ‘Northern interference.’ When the nation has trouble with the Northern Negro, it blames the Kremlin."
1 replies
0 reposts
4 likes
As though Black people could not fight for liberation and equality without external prompts.
1 replies
0 reposts
1 likes
The notorious Alabama governor George Wallace signed a resolution calling on loyal residents of every “race, color, and creed” to stay home and not participate in “continued agitation and demonstrations, led and directed by outsiders” aiming to “foment local disorder and strife among our citizens."
1 replies
0 reposts
2 likes
In every instance, the powerful have insisted that, without such meddling by strangers, local people would have remained complacent and content.
1 replies
1 reposts
3 likes
"Wobblies” hopped freight trains, lending a hand to working people in remote regions and banding them together into one big union.
Freedom Riders rode buses across state lines, visiting towns across the South to encourage people to challenge Jim Crow and register to vote.
1 replies
1 reposts
5 likes
In Britain in the 19th century, itinerant activists promoted Chartist principles, building a national movement that demanded basic democratic rights.
Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass traveled far and wide promoting a vision of a multiracial society to all who would listen.
1 replies
2 reposts
6 likes
Committed outsiders have long played a crucial role advancing the cause of transformative solidarity.
Roaming visionaries and organizers have served as bridges, uniting far-flung individuals and communities.
1 replies
1 reposts
6 likes