State of the Single-Payer Movement & Movement Action Planning May 2, 2015

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Centrally coordinated Multiple organizations & communities with different priorities & strategies. Limited timeline, beginning & end. Generational timeline, multiple stages. Chosen for outcomes/ “deliverables” Fought from necessity, different goals at different stages.

Where Is the Single-Payer Movement At? Is It Progressing? 1.How do we interpret recent events in the movement for healthcare justice? (The Affordable Care Act, state-level developments: Vermont, California, Hawaii.) 2.How do you compare the single-payer movement with other contemporary social movements?

Movement Action Planning (MAP) Developed by Bill Moyer Lays out normal stages of successful social movements Different strategies, tactics, programs effective & appropriate at each stage Describes 4 different “activist roles” in an effective social movement Overcome feeling that movement is failing at stages with less public visibility

8 Stages of Social Movements 1. Normal Times 2. Prove the Failure of Official Institutions 3. Ripening Conditions 4. Take Off 5. (Perception of Failure) 6. Majority Public Opinion 7. Success 8. Continuing the Struggle

8 Stages of Social Movements

The “Take Off” Stage Trigger event(s) leads to an action campaign: rallies, marches, civil disobedience. Successful tactics repeated around the country. Dramatically exposes the problem to the general public, undermines belief that existing policy is in accordance with societal norms.

The “Perception of Failure” Stage Common mistake: seeing movement as only “take off” times, and decline of public, mass actions as failure of the movement. Take off stage transformative for public awareness of the problem and capacity of the movement, but rarely leads to success. Majority support stage brings to the front different leadership roles, organizational forms.

“Majority Public Opinion” Stage Long-term grassroots struggle leads to slow, imperceptible process of social transformation. “The key to Stage Six success is ultimately the ongoing, day-in and day-out basic organizing efforts of local activists, which include constant outreach and involvement of the local citizenry. This can only be done by a wide variety of organizations with relatively few paid staff but a large number of volunteers.”

Stage 6 Crisis Management 1.Powerholders change strategy – movement counters each new strategy. 2.Each new strategy more difficult to sustain, undermining long-term viability. 3.MIDDLE of Stage 6, powerholders co-opt movement’s goals, ideas, rhetoric. 4.Try to co-opt movement groups on the right end of the spectrum.

Stage 6 Majority Support 5.Movement wins majority support for proposed alternative. 6.Movement shifts towards mainstream political and legal structures. 7.Powerholders make dramatic shifts in their positions to avoid defeat.

The “Success” Stage Endgame Process 1.Dramatic Showdown 2.Quiet Showdown 3.Attrition

Comparable Movements Anti-Globalization Movement The “Occupy” Movement The #BlackLivesMatter Movement

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