Features » June 11, 2007

When College Ends, So Does Activism (cont’d)

Young, smart, progressive, and pretty much forced to sellout

Politically, young folks trend well to the left of older generations. According to a February study by the New Politics Institute, “Millennials,” generally people born between 1978 and 1998, “are more likely than any others to hold opinions considered to be ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive’ across virtually all issue clusters: economic intervention, environmental protection, security, crime, education, and social issues.” This includes a full 60 percent who believe invading Iraq was a mistake.

There are a lot of them, too; new graduates are part of the biggest birth influx in 40 years, an encouraging statistic for those concerned with filling the void soon to be created by retiring Baby Boomers. And unencumbered by family restrictions and interested in a little adventure, many young progressives will relocate and log long hours, as long as they can avoid financial destruction and psychological burnout while doing so.

Matching the infrastructure of the right is crucial. Lefties face an uphill battle competing with young conservatives, who are groomed through a variety of comprehensive youth development programs. One example—among many—is the National Journalism Center (NJC), founded 30 years ago by conservative journalist M. Stanton Evans. The NJC runs six-to-12 week training sessions where budding reporters learn technical skills as well as the intricacies of substantive policies issues. But the love doesn’t end there. After the training period, attendees are funneled into competitive internship programs—in conservative or mainstream media outlets—and then added to an NJC job bank, where staffers help place graduates in permanent media positions. According to its website, “Over 1,400 students have now graduated from the NJC’s 12-week training sessions … and we estimate some 900 of these have gone on to media and media-related positions.”

Building for the future

One remedy for this crisis is the professionalization of progressive politics. If legislators won’t find ways to ease the financial burden hampering young folks, politically engaged graduates, eager to work full-time for social change, should be given the opportunity to provide for their economic needs in the same way as their colleagues in the private sector. To do so, a two-pronged approach could be enacted.

First, some existing entry-level options in political work are actually valuable and progressives must identify and continue to support these programs. A good example is the AFL-CIO’s Union Summer, a 10-week summer program in which prospective organizers are paid a weekly stipend to learn the ropes of the union movement, including building coalitions, canvassing neighborhoods, visiting members’ homes and organizing direct actions and public events. After the summer, union leaders assist those that succeed in finding full-time jobs.

Securing funding is the other key to the puzzle. While some progressive organizations have received a needed cash infusion from the likes of George Soros and his allies in the Democracy Alliance, innovative forms of philanthropy focused explicitly on youth development need to be fostered. One of the most promising alternatives is the rise of the Cool Rich Kids Movement.

Originally coined by author and activist Billy Wimsatt, it’s typified by Resource Generation (RG), a national organization that works with wealthy young progressives—most of whom inherited their wealth—to bring about social change through the inventive and responsible use of their own resources. By holding local dinners, a national workshop series and an annual conference, young people of wealth break down stigmas attached to class and teach each other the best ways to support valuable causes.

“We’re not telling people where they should put their money,” says Elspeth Gilmore, the RG program coordinator. “We’re trying to provide a framework and an analysis to be able to support young people who do have wealth and access to participate in the conversations about how we can create more sustainable organizations.” To date, 1,000 young people have worked with RG. Building that movement could infuse much-needed life into social justice philanthropy and youth employment development.

But until progressive veterans realize the necessity of this support, organizers like Nelson will be left with a choice: sell-out or squeak by. It’s one that committed young people like her should not be forced to make.

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• Reader Comments

  Thanks so much to you writers at In These Times for focusing on an issue as relevant and interesting as the lack of career opportunites for young liberals.  What makes this article even better is that I found this magazine through a Fast Web listing of available jobs, so you guys don’t just complain about young liberals not having enough opportunites to be politically involved, but you actually provide them.  Thank you so much for putting your money where your mouths are; you guys are awesome!!!

  Posted by JenniferS on Jun 11, 2007 at 10:27 PM

  Despite the paragraph about class and race diversity, the whining class-based bias of this article is appalling in tone and content. The punch line of this article: for the progressive movement to survive middle-class college educated progressive young people need to coddled with cushy professional salaried jobs (even unions—obstensibly organizations for and by workers. Ugh, why not organize people not as fortunate to go to college to take charge of their own institutions, instead?

  Posted by alexandrafuller on Jun 27, 2007 at 4:21 PM

  I’m with Alexandra on the tone of this article.

  Obviously, meaningful activism has to be made available to people who never have the opportunity to go to college.

  And while an effective liberal counter to the right-wing activist grooming machinery might be nice, putting people in paid lobbying or pundit positions is never going to move us toward the radical solutions we need.  (Hint: 15 to 20 percent annual increases in wealth given away to investors would end, one way or another, and that would not go well with the only people capable of funding such an initiative.)

  At the same time, the need to sustain ourselves while organizing for collective action and more power for all people over their own lives is very real and crucial to solve if we’re going to have any hope of building a big enough movement to really change things.

  I quit my day job and helped start the Agaric Design Collective to do web development and ideally time for activism, money to sponsor others, and most importantly the creation of online tools to aid massive organizing.  (As for gainful work for progressives, we’d be happy to talk to hard-working radicals open to the joys of open source code…)

  Back on topic, we do need to sustain proven organizers.  Starting with limited resources, as a matter of biggest bang for the buck it makes sense not to look at college students per se but at workers.

  Imagine what kind of labor activism we might see if workers doing the most organizing could be guaranteed replacement income to become full time organizers if the company fires them in a union-busting effort?

  Posted by Benjamin Melançon on Jul 25, 2007 at 1:08 AM

  An interesting article.  True, there need to be more job options for progressives.  However, radical organizers in the 3rd world have dealt with far worse and over come it. 

  Maybe these young progressives should stop trying to escape the working class, by finding professional ‘activist’ jobs and instead join the working class, organize with it, build it into a powerful movement for social justice.

  Posted by Matt Muchowski on Jun 10, 2009 at 3:49 AM

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