State of Resistance by Manuel Pastor

Author:Manuel Pastor
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620973301
Publisher: The New Press
Published: 2018-03-05T05:00:00+00:00

Let’s Get Real

Nudging California in a more progressive direction involved many things, but at its core was a conception of how to understand, build, and wield power. This analysis of power not only aided understanding of the terrain on which policies would be won—it reinforced the need to put small differences aside and gather on the progressive side of the equation new and broader coalitions.65 It also implied the need to develop a geographic strategy, one that could build from areas of urban strength but also influence the great “fishhook” of California—stretching down from Orange County through San Diego and looping up through the Inland Empire and the Central Valley—that had been the residential power base of the right-wing rebellion.66 And finally, it made clear that the only way to make change was exactly through the ballots that had battered vulnerable constituencies through the 1990s: progressives needed to take the potential of the state’s changing demographics and transform it into the actual strength of a changing electorate.

Indeed, the losing battles over retrograde propositions in the 1990s convinced many movement activists that they needed to shift from fighting against initiatives to offering proposals that could themselves make their way to the ballot. As Taj James, founder and co-director of the Movement Strategy Center, puts it, “The only time I’d see the progressive coalition assembled was when we were threatened by propositions. That was the only time I’d seen all the capacity assembled at one table and across issues. But that just generated a question: Do we have a proactive vision of what we want? And at that time, there really wasn’t a statewide agenda, something that was reflective of the state of the left in both California and the nation. And so the need was there to articulate a proactive vision.”67

With relatively modest victories for municipal living wages, local environmental justice policies, and other concerns under their belts, a group of social justice organizations from across the state came together in the early 2000s to discuss how to truly transform the state. The effort was led by Anthony Thigpenn, founder of SCOPE, a racial and economic justice organization based in South Los Angeles that had been influential in moving L.A. politics and policy after the 1992 unrest. It was an ambitious undertaking: a multiyear series of convening sought to explore the possibility of joint campaigns and eventually the creation of a statewide alliance. There was no quick agreement on joint campaigns—not surprising given that the groups at the table were coming with different concerns around a variety of environmental, education, and economic issues.68 But it was from this set of conversations, for example, that the California Environmental Justice Alliance was formed. And perhaps more important was the way in which these conversations created a shared interest in “integrated voter engagement.”

Integrated voter engagement (IVE) does involve getting out the vote for elections—but it is targeted at new and occasional voters. It was these voters—who are far more likely to be younger and

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