"This idea that contentiousness is somehow alien to democracy? Democracy is a system of contention."
http://vimeo.com/65876217
Marshall Ganz on Making Social Movements Matter
May 10, 2013
Bills guest, veteran activist and organizer Marshall Ganz, joins Bill to discuss the power of social movements to effect meaningful social change. A social movement legend who dropped out of Harvard to volunteer during Mississippis Freedom Summer of 1964, Ganz then joined forces with Cesar Chavez of the United Farmworkers, protecting workers who picked crops for pennies in California. Ganz also had a pivotal role organizing students and volunteers for Barack Obamas historic 2008 presidential campaign. Now 70, hes still organizing across the United States and the Middle East, and back at Harvard, teaching students from around the world about what it takes to beat Goliath.
One of Ganzs themes is the crucial role narrative plays in social movements. I think its particularly important because doing the kind of work that movements do requires risk-taking, uncertainty, going up against the odds. And that takes a lot of hope, Ganz tells Bill. And so where do you go for hopefulness? Where do you go for courage? You go to those moral resources that are found within narratives and within identity work and within traditions.
http://billmoyers.com/segment/marshall-ganz-on-making-social-movements-matter/