Upsurges Are Coming

We urgently need to find ways for structure-based organizing and mass protest moments to coexist.

Upsurges are all about motion. And motion is an imperfect actuality. These moments can be messy. But dissent — mass protest, noncooperation, disruption — can hurl us forward, side to side, and maybe even backwards, toward winning. We need to hold the fury and to nurture solidarity, in order to explore upsurges’ power-building potential. 

There’s debate about whether dissent is a power-building strategy in and of itself. Some say that unless people are absorbed into membership of an organization, they remain unorganized. However, they also say that not only are our organizations ill equipped to absorb people, many do not want to take on folks who don’t already fit squarely into their membership. Mass protest can and does facilitate people coming into something – belonging to something. Which is why we need to get serious about its ineffable pull and its political purpose even when dissent does not always result in material gains.