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Snippet view - 1977 - 381 pages - Business & Economics |
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ReviewsEditorial Review - Kirkus Reviews Copyright (c) VNU Business Media, Inc. A book with a truly radical hypothesis. Piven and Cloward (Regulating the Poor, 1971) argue that disruption and insurgency--the specter of strikes and riots in the street--represent the only means by which poor people can exert leverage on the political system. By their sights, working-class ""organizations""--including trade unions--are, or quickly turn into, part of the problem. Off the street, the leaders of civil rights or labor agitations inevitably become ensnared in building coalitions and creating grievance procedures: bureaucracy sets in at the cost of an internal ""transvaluation,"" and spontaneous confrontation tactics are discarded or downplayed in favor of more ""sophisticated"" negotiations. At that point the battle is lost. The theory, which owes not a little to Rosa Luxemburg, is developed via the social dislocations of the Thirties and the Sixties; the authors examine by turns the Unemployed Workers Movement, the birth of industrial unionism in the Roosevelt era, and the civil rights and welfare rights struggles of the past decade. That a reshuffling of the political and economic deck begins with a groundswell of popular turbulence seems self-evident; that any attempt to channel the spontaneity of popular defiance inevitably leads to the co-option of leaders, moribund organizations, and disaffected masses is much more dubious. Even Piven and Cloward must concede that in the case of industrial unions ""the victory was worth winning""--whether or not, as they assert, the unions subsequently acted to ""depoliticize worker discontent."" The inescapable conclusion of the authors' thesis is that ""strategies must be pursued that escalate the momentum and impact of disruptive protest at each stage of its emergence and evolution."" It is a conclusion which, to say the least, takes no account of the tendency of people to want participation in ""the system""and a speedy return to normalcy once the riots have ceased. Withal, the authors manage to convey an acute sense of the ebb and flow of activist movements in highly provocative fashion. Common terms and phrasesaction activists Administration alliance American auto became began Bernstein bill black poor campaign Chicago civil rights movement Committee Communists concessions Congress courts craft unions crisis Deal defiance delegates demand Democratic Party demonstrations depression desegregation disruptive economic election electoral elites employers families federal government force freedom rides ghettos Governor grievances groups income institutional issue Keeran Kennedy labor large numbers leadership legislation Lewis lobbying major March mass massive resistance membership ment militancy million mobilized Negro nomic northern NWRO NWRO's percent period policies political leaders poor president presidential Press programs protest recipient leaders reform relief Republican result riot role rolls Roosevelt Senate sit-down sit-ins SNCC social South southern special grant steel strategy strike strikers structure struggle tactics tion unem Unemployed Councils unemployment union urban violence vote voter wages Wagner Act Welfare Rights Organization York City References from web pagesTHE PRAXIS OF POOR PEOPLE'S MOVEMENTS: THE POLITICS OF SURVIVAL ... Crossing the Ocean and Back Again with Piven and Cloward David Walls - Sonoma State University - Poor People's Movements JSTOR: Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail Response Piven and Poor People's Movements and farm labor insurgency The New Press - "The War at Home" by Frances Fox Piven POWER & PARTICIPATION Poor People's Movements ISBN 9780394726977 P Sc 3403, Interest Groups and Social Movements Places mentioned in this book Maps KML
References to this bookFrom Google ScholarPsychological empowerment: Issues and illustrationsMarc A Zimmerman - 1995 - American Journal of Community Psychology Acquiring Organizational Legitimacy through Illegitimate Actions ...Kimberly D Elsbach, Robert I Sutton - 1992 - Academy of Management Journal Oppressed group behavior: implications for nursing.Susan Jo Roberts - 1983 - Advances in Nursing Science States and Social PoliciesTheda Skocpol, Edwin Amenta - 1986 - Annual Review of Sociology Other editions
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