To bring down an entrenched target — like a CEO in their corporate castle, or a mayor surrounded by business lobby supporters — we’ve got to pull down the pillars of support holding them up. As we cross the 100-day mark of the new administration, and take stock of the thousands of protests and marches, we think it’s time to evolve our strategies particularly against corporate and institutional targets (like universities) to focus on creating a crisis for key decision-makers. 

Campaigns that have won against the most “hardened” targets, insulated from grassroots protests, have almost always targeted multiple pillars of support in order to force decision-makers to rethink their policies. These include the Justice for Janitors campaign that forced some of the largest Fortune 500 companies to negotiate with service workers making minimum wage, and the campus anti-apartheid and anti-sweatshop campaigns that had Columbia, other universities, and even state legislatures taking action to penalize large public companies.

In this training offered by The Organizing Center and Training for Change, we’ll explore a few examples of going beyond protests, targeting the pillars of support holding up the status quo, and principles we can use for stronger local campaigning.

Length: 2 hours, online