Fusion Politics: Reimaging Diversity in Social Movement Coalitions

• In Event: Social Movements and Race in the US

Abstract

Diversity poses grave risks to emerging social movements, particularly when relationships are shaped by power asymmetries and mistrust. Histories of coalition-building among women, labor groups, and civil rights advocates point to the promise and risks of organizing across differences of race, gender, class, and so on (Frymer 2008, Breines 2006, Ture and Hamilton 1997). In fact, recent challenges confronted by the post-Trump Women’s March over claims of anti-Semitism on the one hand, and white and class privilege on the other speak to the harm that can come to movements organized around antiquated notions of unity or shared interests (Brice-Saddler 2019, Rohr 2018, Stockman 2018). Based on an original case study of a decade-old racially-, ideologically-, and issue- diverse movement out of North Carolina, this paper presents an alternative model for building and sustaining diverse coalitions in social movements.
Led by an enterprising statewide NAACP president and preacher from North Carolina, the Forward Together movement gained national recognition in 2014 following a massive “Moral Mondays” protest that drew a reported 80,000 people to the streets outside the North Carolina legislature (Newkirk II, 2016). Organized around two central principles— 1) fusion politics, and 2) a common opposition— Moral Mondays presents a new model for organizing diverse coalitions that can withstand the pitfalls of a generalized demand for unity by instead focusing on “knitting together a movement.” My research on the North Carolina Moral Mondays protests shows that organizing around a common opposition and being deliberate about bringing together people from diverse backgrounds, across issues, and ideological differences can work when trust is built in narrow pathways, diversity is encouraged, and learning from others, rather than unity, is expected. This case study of an emerging social movement demonstrates the efficacy of reimaging coalition building in a context of broad and deep diversity.

Author

• Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, Purdue University