As we move forward in our activist pursuits pushing for divestment and increased sustainability in Duke dining facilities, it has been extremely helpful to learn the ropes from some of the pros. We were able to gain insight from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals as well as Robin Kirk’s awesome lecture to our class. From these two sources, we learned from activists of the past and present, and activists. I’m not sure how old Robin is, but I think it’s likely that she could have read Rules for Radicals at its peak; she could have been part of the group that Alinsky continuously refers to as “the present generation” or “our youth” in his book, the passionate young activists of his time who were the target audience for Rules for Radicals.
I think two of the most practical takeaways from Rules for Radicals were 1) change takes time and we cannot be impatient in our activist endeavors, and 2) we must recognize the world for what it is and not what we wish it to be. I think that these two concepts are pretty applicable to the work our divestment team has been doing. I think our goal would be for Duke to see our efforts and immediately acquiesce to our request, but this will likely not happen. We need to recognize that change happens over time and we can improve things in baby steps as we reach our end goal. We also need to recognize that Duke has certain reasons for investing in coal/gas/oil industries, as then-President Broadhead stated in his letter to the last group of divestment activists.
I loved that Robin emphasized local activism and its importance within the realm of activism. This is obviously applicable to our class’s activism projects as both of our teams are working on local issues. I also really loved her emphasis on history. I think it is so important for activists to have a thorough understanding of the history of the issue that they are advocating for. Our group has made researching the history of Duke’s investments and the past divestment activism efforts a critical aspect of our plan. By doing this, we can both build on the great ideas of our elder activist friends and learn from their mistakes.
