Beware of sleazy "progressive" McActivism sweatshops that chew up young progressives... [View all]

[backscatter712]

I had a bad job experience. I lasted two weeks. Then I got fired. As did the vast majority of the people who worked there. If you're not a superstar at raking in contact information and donations, you don't make quota, and you're out.

The management calls themselves progressive, but they treat their employees like shit. And I'm fucking pissed.

The rate at which this place chews up and spits out aspiring activists, I wondered if it was really run by James O'Keefe-style Republicans scheming to burn out progressive activists, alienate them from the public and keep them from doing genuinely useful stuff.

How do these places work? Go to any college campus, and see the ads posted all over "MAKE MONEY SERVING A GOOD CAUSE!!! GREENPEACE!!! ACLU!!! MAKE $12/HR!!!" The ads are all over Craigslist.

Most of us have seen these people - they're the folks with the clipboards who are accosting people at college campuses, busy town centers and going door-to-door trying to get donations or contact information from you.

In my case, the cause I was hired to canvass for was Fair Share Alliance.

You'd think that a well-run progressive activism outlet would provide opportunities to network progressives together, build connections, foster community.

You'd think that they'd, well, organize.

Nope. None of that here. They put you on the street knocking on doors either taking contact information from people, or taking donations. It's all about the donor lists, and the money. They don't care about community-building.

And they have you working under less-than-ideal conditions. When I worked political campaigns as a volunteer, safety was the big rule. Don't go out after dark was the biggest rule. Here at Fair Share, noooooooo. The law says you can canvass until 9:00 at night, so they make you canvass until 9:00 at night. Dealing with big dogs. One of my coworkers had a gun pulled on her because she knocked on his door after dark. Thankfully, she just left the property, and she's OK. But absolutely fucking scary. And when you complain, to the managers, they question your commitment to the cause.

Oh, and there's the quotas. I was taking pledge cards. You had to get 15 of them a day. If you didn't get that number consistently, you're "on review". Spend more than a couple days "on review" and you're fired. How do you make quota? Either you get lucky and get put in a nice neighborhood where there are some fellow progressives who don't mind signing pledges. Or you use super-pushy used-car-salesman tactics. "NEVER TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!" As I'm not a pushy guy, and I don't do guilt-trips and false-urgency, I didn't make quota.

So I got fired. As did a bunch of my coworkers. They chew people up and spit them out. They don't give a fuck about their safety, and insinuate that you're a shitty activist if you're not ultra-pushy.

Lest you think that my experience is unique, or that I'm just bitter and have a bad attitude and I'm a bad worker and a bad progressive, here's another story.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/gyrobase/hello-wanna-give-to-a-good-cause/Content?oid=2172030&showFullText=true

...If you've ever been approached on the street by an Oxfam representative seeking funds to end poverty in Africa, or had a guy from the Democratic National Convention knocking at your door at dinnertime crusading to keep Washington under Democratic control, chances are they were hired, trained, and paid by Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. The for-profit canvass outsourcing firm grosses untold millions from its fund-raising commissions, and has recruiting offices in more than twenty cities nationwide. Each year, Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. employs armies of eager young adults to canvass on the streets or, in Badami's case, manage those canvassers.

Though most people don't know it, the canvassers hired by Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. work under conditions that would likely make the organizations they're championing cringe. Workers face tight fund-raising quotas and notoriously high turnover rates; the average canvasser lasts less than a month. But the constant pool of new applicants, often churned out by liberal academic institutions, coupled with the bum economy, has allowed Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. to continue to work its young employees very hard seemingly without much repercussion. In fact, they're currently hiring.

...

Yet as it grew, so too did a litany of employee complaints, allegations of labor violations, and, eventually, a series of class-action lawsuits. In recent years, a multitude of blogs by ex-employees has sprouted across the web, portraying wretched work experiences of near-Dickensian scope.

Columbia University Sociology Professor Dana Fisher describes The Fund in-depth in her suggestively titled book Activism, Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America, published in 2006. A former canvasser herself, she notes the efficiency of the outsourcing model, but also the heavy toll on those in the trenches, many of who start out as impassioned, potential leaders in the movement and become quickly disillusioned and alienated. The modern Republican political organizing approach, she argues, has been far more effective in creating stronger, lasting relationships with both its employees and political base.

I'd say getting fired from these shit-flingers is actually a blessing, because now I can say what I really think.

FUCK YOU FAIR SHARE ALLIANCE!

FUCK YOU FOR TREATING YOUR WORKERS AND ACTIVISTS LIKE SHIT!

FUCK YOU FOR SOILING PROGRESSIVE CAUSES!

FUCK YOU FOR RECKLESSLY ENDANGERING YOUR WORKERS TO MAKE A QUICK BUCK!

I'm going to broadcast my grievances loudly, and see what I can do to damage their reputation. Progressives and progressive causes deserve far better.

And I'm gonna switch to some other form of activism, and some other job. At a place that doesn't treat employees like used toilet paper.