Grass-Roots Activism in the United States: Global Implications? *

Abstract

Interviews/dialogues with some 35 grassroots activists in the United States sought answers to these questions: (1) Why do globalists and localists who are active on similar issues work in isolation from each other? (2) Do they have common concerns? (3) Would they have more influence on centers of economic and political power if they worked together? (4) If they wished to work together, how might this be done? The authors, specialists on international/global affairs, conducted the interviews/dialogues to learn about the perspectives and activities of local activists. Five main approaches to social transformation were encountered: the ideological and political left; community-organizing, neighborhood empowerment groups; life-style change; interpersonal transformation, including feminism, relations with children and sexual preferences; and spiritual transformation. Among the findings are the following: (1) A strong emphasis on decentralization; (2) A possible basis for collaboration between localists and globalists in their shared antistatism; (3) Networks created by local activists tend not to extend beyond the state (“nation”) boundary, although many have a vague identity with and concern for humankind; (4) Local activists tend not to be activating, or even informing, local people about suffering on a global basis; (5) The more “spiritual” and life-style elements of local activism contrast with the more technocratic globalists; (6) The localists rarely have visions of the future, compared to the global future tradition of the globalists; (7) The highly significant discovery of a small number of local/global activists who incorporate in an integrated fashion the five approaches of social transformation. They should be further studied for insights on how the local-global gap can be bridged.