Why local activism?

The local community is more accessible.

It’s a lot easier to hold meetings, conferences, trainings, establish groups, and contact people.

When we spread awareness about local issues, its effects are twofold:
- First, it makes the threat more immediate in the local community. A good example would be fracking or pipelines. Most people do not care until these things are in their metaphorical backyard. Spreading awareness of new developments helps to involve those people.
- Second, spreading awareness locally makes large problems (e.g. climate change) small and accessible for local people (e.g. standing against pipeline development). This inevitably leads to a deeper understanding of the larger issue even if the local issue is only loosely related. It also helps to demonstrate the interconnectedness of these issues and makes it apparent how involved all local communities must be when fighting these issues.

Local activism provides activists with the best shot at actually changing things.
- We have access to local government, political groups, citizen leaders, and other people with power. While it’s almost impossible to change Obama and Congress’ mind on something, it’s relatively easy to change your local city council member’s mind. Our words are more likely to carry farther and be more influential.
- Local activism is predicated on the idea that real, effective cultural and political change is made by everyday people speaking up in their everyday lives. Big protests and demonstrations are necessary for us to experience our power as a group, but it’s the small conversations in the home and workplace that actually change community norms. We are also presented with fare more opportunities to participate and create change when we our activism is in our daily lives in our own communities

People are a lot more likely to participate in a community meeting, film screening, or other event that’s developing community interdependence and support than they are in a protest with no visible changes for them or others. Every person we bring into the conversation locally also helps to create the critical mass of people needed to change things on a broader scale, something that large-scale activism isn’t particularly good at.

Finally, the most important aspect of local activism and the strongest reason to participate in and encourage it is making connections with other community members and creating trust and support between groups and individuals. We’re a lot more likely to solve racism by having regular supportive, honest, and challenging conversations with a diverse group of the community then we are by donating to the ACLU or showing up to a couple large demonstrations a year.

(Lastly, we'll be going over what is necessary for local activism; e.g. a strategy, a purpose, who/what/when/where/how, etc.)