Labor-Community Unity: Author Looks At Coalition Building Efforts

http://www.laborradio.org/node/14107

Submitted by Doug Cunningham on September 1, 2010 - 2:26pm
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As Jesse Russell reports Community and labor organizations have a greater need now to work together on a variety of issues.

Community and labor organizations are finding greater need to work together and form coalitions as they battle against increased corporate and political power. Amanda Tattersall recently released “Power in Coaltion: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change.” The book looks at coalition building around the world with specific studies of movements in Sydney, Toronto and Chicago. Tattersall says she was surprised to learn as she did her research that bigger wasn’t always better.

: The longer the list of organizations involved in the coalition it must equal more power and more ability to achieve social change…and that was exactly what I didn’t find.

Something else Tattersall learned is that coalitions don’t always function best when they have a single issue. She learned this in Chicago while studying the Grassroots Collaborative:

They needed to be multi issue. They couldn’t work on a single issue, they need to be willing to work on multiple issues over the time they work together.