Manipulating Activism Case Study

The purpose of this piece is to draw awareness to the many contradictions relating environmental justice movements and to create a society more conscious of decisions by considering consequences.

By the 2000s, Bayview-Hunters Point had spoken up for itself loudly in the form of community activism. In his journal article “No More Power Plants”, Joshua Arce (2009) reports on the recent, successful activism of Ms. Espanola Jackson, a well-known community activist who lived in Bayview-Hunters Point since 1948. In 2006, Ms. Jackson called for the closure of the coal-burning Hunters Point Power Plant which caused adverse health effects to district residents. Through Ms. Jackson’s consistent pressure and support from environmentalists and other activists, the plant was eventually closed down in 2006. All along, Ms. Jackson was fighting for the rights of the low-income communities of color who had, for a long time, been politically segregated from the rest of the city.

How do you get over 28,000 people squeezed together in a park on a Sunday to the tune of an endless sea of cheers and chants? Well, if you’re presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, nothing but the promise to see you discuss the largest problem you see facing the United States; income inequality. Possibly even more impressive, Bernie Sanders, in spite of an often touted campaign contribution of $27 and no direct involvement with Super PACs, has raised around a staggering $210 million over the course of his quest to become the Democratic Primary candidate, raising more than well-known rival Hilary Clinton in February and March.

This class has taught me how to engage in strategic lifelong activism. Activism is an umbrella term referring to the promoting or campaigning of policy or social change on the cultural, structural, or national level. Activism has been developed and practiced throughout history by people like Jesus Buddha, Thoreau, and Dr. Martin Luther King (MLK). Thanks to these people over the years activism has developed a clear and effective structure which has proven effective in history and a number of cultures. In order to engage in effective lifelong activist one must be able to conceptualize social justice, understand how oppression affects the motivation of individuals, know the barriers to different activists, and develop and activism cycle, make

Throughout environmental policy, there will always be some issue that needs resolving otherwise environmental policy would be obsolete. However, in some cases, environmental policy is worse than obsolete. It is purposefully made to not be effective when environmental justice involves corporations and politicians to whom the environmental consequences of their own actions mean nothing. This is certainly the case within the video, “The Last Mountain”, where both an environment and a community surrounded by the coal industry were suffering adverse effects that were being paid for at a cost of health and long-term environmental issues with no benefit to the community itself. Therefore, this video exemplifies several terms that environmental

In fact, the institutionalization of environmental movements is well documented (Rootes 2004). Potentially, the ballot initiative was not a reaction to technocracy but an attempt to bring the EIA into existing frameworks of decision making. As ballot initiatives have been available to Washington’s voters since 1912 (Matsusaka 2005). In fact, direct democracy is so well established that during the general election of 1998 $400 million was spent nationally on ballot initiatives (Matsusaka 2005). While in comparison only $326 million was spent during the entire 2000 presidential election, primaries and general, including all parties (Matsusaka 2005).

A good and successful activist reform would result in the long-term value creation for the target company, which would benefit both the shareholders and the bondholders. The activist reform would motivate management to achieve operating efficiencies, which would improve cash flows and generate better returns for both the shareholders and bondholders. In conclusion, I find the objections to the strategies of activists raised by the managers of Commonwealth REIT and other companies in the article vague. However, the managers need to distinguish between the activists looking for short-term profits and the activists looking for a long-term value creation. The former might destroy some value in the process so the managers need to fend off those attacks.

First, I must said that my college represents me and it is a degree of social activism and how well I respect my peers and others in the campus community because Education is a basic right for all and not just for the priviledged ones. Therefore, to my sense of reasoning about my purpose of going to college is to acquire skills and knowledge, gaining access to core components in order to foster my critical thinking, communication skills, and commitment to lifelong learning. According to the Unversity of the people, it is of their believes that access to higher education is a key ingredient in the promotion of world peace and global economic development. (P. 13). The Uopeople sees and views higher education as a basic right, and believes that

LCV has a major role in addressing the challenge of engaging young people through grassroots activism and collective action. First of all, LCV must continue moving forward with its trend of making the fight for environmental priorities a people-centric campaign. Working families, immigrant laborers, urban city dwellers, and kids running in their school’s playground are at the center of this fight, and their stories as well as their involvement will be the message that turns new campaigns into a grassroots victories.

Environmentalism in the 20th century largely materialized from NGOs and activists that bypassed mainstream news and communicate with the public dangers and threats to the environment via alternative media (Anderson, 1997; Corbett, 2006; DeLuca & Delicath, 2003; Lester, 2010). This was in response to traditional news that overlooked or sensationalized much of what they did so environmental groups became more political savvy and sophisticated using media. Despite anti-environmental policy, public awareness grew, as did membership in environmental groups. By the 1990s, however, the news turned hostile toward these groups as a result public interest waned and many groups faced a decline in donations from large corporations. As we saw in Chapter

The student activism literature finds differences in the occurrence of campus activism based on institutional characteristics (Kane 2013; Van Dyke 1998; Reyes 2015; Soule 1997). For example, one study found that religious institutions were far less likely to have campus LGBT groups than non-religious institutions (Kane 2013). In contrast, more selective institutions and institutions with larger endowments were more likely to have LGBT student groups (Kane 2013). In addition, larger schools seem to have more student activism (Van Dyke 1998). Institutions with a greater percentage students living in the dorm seems to have more student activism (Van Dyke 1998). During the 1980s,

Even though there have been greatly public concerns about environmental issues since 1960s, practical action as the solution seems to be useless due to the limitation of state and pressure from the corporation. Moreover, the function of international organizations has also faced with difficulties in terms of enforcement and regulation; therefore, there has been wide gap between actors responding to the environmental issues. Environmental NGOs have adequately fulfilled this gap - owned multiple instruments to reach their goals, for example, conducting the environmental-concerned researches, lobbying in both domestic government and global governance and also TNCs, and more importantly raising public awareness and collective action from below (McCormick 2005: 92). Environmental NGOs, ‘agent of change’ works in all both levels; political sphere and civil society (Ford 2011:27). At political level, environmental NGOs act as a pressure group and lobbyist to government and TNCs. Another level is civil society in which environmental NGOs acts in domestic levels - within the nation boundaries, and also in global level, consequently there is part of possibility of global civil society in which people are not limited by nation boundary, but can share common value and perform collective action as a global citizen (McCormick 2005: 93). In doing so, environmental NGOs always politicize the issues by shaping global

‘Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and advocates have become a significant part of political landscape in a growing number of countries’ (Donnelly, 1998:15). The number of NGOs has increased dramatically in the past 20-30 years and these organisations are increasingly participating in global environmental politics (Betsill and Corell, 2001; Andresen and Gulbrandsen, 2003; Stafford et al, 2000). An environmental NGO is an organisation that is non-governmental and non-profitmaking and engaged with an environmental problem or problems. An NGO is an organisation in the sense that it has at least several full-time people involved, some sort of hierarchy, a budget, and an office (Potter, 1996). Holsti (1998; 141) defines power as the

How can contemporary society address “the complex interaction of environmental, social, and economic force that factors and currently limiting the sustainability of business enterprises around the world, a clear gap created among the “words” and “action”, according to the latest global information? How can federal and state agencies break down silos and work together to pursue sustainability? What is the preferred model for business-government collaboration and engagement with civil society and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)? We raise these questions because in the 21st century all sectors of society must confront the challenge of sustaining economic development while protecting critical environmental resources (Gutierrez, 2014).

It cannot be denied the important role of non-state actors in order to tackle environmental issues. Firstly, the propaganda tools and persuasions are an effective method of non-state actors in almost case for influencing people and businesses about the importance of protecting the environment. According to D’Estries (2015), environmental NGOs such as: WWF or Greenpeace recognized the attraction of social media, especially Facebook, hence, they used this as a tool to present their environmental campaigns and get a lot of ‘like’ button. This button is an evidence of the concern of a large of population about the environmental issues and it can influence their idea of protecting the environment. In the article “environmental activism, environmental politics and representation: the framing of the British environmental activist movement”, Newlands (2013)