Hiding in Plain Sight: Front Groups as a Strategy for Covert Political Action

• In Event: 2483 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 11. Radical Movements and Covert Tactics

Abstract

Covert political conflict is a vital means by which subordinate groups express grievances that are typically directed at an institutionalized power. Most studies of covert organizing focus on the external conditions that require activists to avoid detection. Research on the strategies used in covert political action, however, is limited. This paper argues that it is in many ways analogous to strategies used by corporations and special purpose groups to engage in work that would otherwise harm the parent organization. Using the case of the Mattachine Society, one of the first and arguably most influential homosexual organizations in the United States, this paper explains how organizations utilize loosely coupled systems, and create what can be conceptualized as front groups, to engage in covert political action. Additionally, this study will show that the strategies used to function covertly also enable organizational founders to segment their work and control who has access to knowledge about specific aspects of the organization. By highlighting the characteristics that the Mattachine has in common with parachurches, special purpose entities, and grassroots lobbying firms, this paper will emphasize the way that organizations engage in strategic work that would otherwise harm them.

Author

• Molly S. Jacobs, University of California-Los Angeles