Movement Action Planning for Single-

Payer Activists

www.healthcare-now.orgOctober 31, 2015

Theme of the Conference

How Do Social Movements Win?

Centrally coordinated

Multiple organizations & communities -

different priorities & strategies

Limited timeline, beginning & end

Generational timeline, multiple stages

Campaigns vs. Social Movements

Effective Movement Building:Tale of Two States

• Minority support for single payer• Limited social justice infrastructure• Small activist network• Small coalition• Hostile Legislature and Governor

• Strong majority support for single payer• High union density, strong community orgs• Large activist network• Large coalition• Strong Support in Legislature and/or From Governor

Movement Action Planning (MAP)

• Modeling Normal Stages of Successful Social Movements

• Overcoming Perception of Movement Failure Bill Moyer

8 Stages of Social Movements

1. Normal Times2. Prove the Failure of Official Institutions3. Ripening Conditions4. Take Off5. (Perception of Failure)6. Majority Public Opinion7. Success8. Continuing the Struggle

8 Stages of Social Movements

The “Take Off” Stage

• Trigger event(s) leads to an action campaign: rallies, marches, civil disobedience.•Successful tactics repeated around the country.

• Dramatically exposes the problem to the general public, undermines belief that existing policy is in accordance with societal norms.

The “Perception of Failure” Stage

• Common mistake: seeing movement as only “take off” times, and decline of public, mass actions as failure of the movement.

• Take off stage transformative for public awareness of the problem and capacity of the movement, but rarely leads to success.

• Majority support stage brings to the front different leadership roles, organizational forms.

“Majority Public Opinion” Stage

• Long-term grassroots struggle leads to slow, imperceptible process of social transformation.

• “The key to Stage Six success is ultimately the ongoing, day-in and day-out basic organizing efforts of local activists, which include constant outreach and involvement of the local citizenry. This can only be done by a wide variety of organizations with relatively few paid staff but a large number of volunteers.”

Stage 6 Crisis Management

1. Powerholders change strategy – movement counters each new strategy.

2. Each new strategy more difficult to sustain, undermining long-term viability.

3. MIDDLE of Stage 6, powerholders co-opt movement’s goals, ideas, rhetoric.

4. Try to co-opt movement groups on the right end of the spectrum.

Stage 6 Majority Support5. Movement wins majority support for proposed

alternative.6. Movement shifts towards mainstream political

and legal structures.7. Powerholders make dramatic shifts in their

positions to avoid defeat.

The “Success” Stage

Endgame Process1. Dramatic Showdown2. Quiet Showdown3. Attrition

Black Lives Matter“Black males are more likely to go to prison… is it mostly due

to discrimination… or something else”? (Gallup, 2013)

All White Hispanic Black0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

68% 74% 69%

40%

Black Lives MatterDo “blacks have as good a chance as whites… to get any

kind of job for which they are qualified”? (Gallup 2013)

All White Hispanic Black0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

25% 19% 24%

50%

Occupy Movement

1972 20130%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

67%80%

Feel the rich get richer and the poor get poorer

Source: Harris Interactive (cited in AEI Political Report, "Income Inequality: What the Polls Tell Us"

Tax the Rich

The Single Payer Movement

• Almost universal recognition of the crisis• Majority support for the single-payer alternative across much of the country• Active grassroots organizations & coalitions across the country waging “Majority Support” outreach & organizing• Several states have launched/are planning “end game” tactics

Additional Resources!

http://singlepayer2015.wikidot.com

www.healthcare-now.org