The Progressive Youth Movement as a Sociopolitical Movement

This is the introductory article in what will most likely be a large series entitled "Lessons from Sociopolitical Movements" that will run alternatively here and on KevinBondelli.com.

The series will be based on research I have done over the past few years on social and political movements throughout American history.

To start off the series I want to talk about what the Progressive Youth Movement has in common with other sociopolitical movements, as well as its unique differences.

What We Have in Common

All of the social and political movements in American history have operated within the same political, social, and legislative entity: the United States. American social movements have fought battles in the same political and legal system, faced the multiple facets of local, state, and national government, and have sought and/or continue to seek change in those systems.

Movement organizations have largely dealt with similar issues of logistics, management, coordination, organizing, funding, outreach, education, lobbying, and communication.

Most movement organizations tend to represent a particular demographic of people with causes and issues that often overlap with those of other organizations.

In essence, the Progressive Youth Movement faces the same challenges that are inherent to movement-building and advocacy in American society, and it would be a waste to not learn from the history and experiences of the movements and organizations that came before us.

How We Are Different

The most fundamental difference between the Progressive Youth Movement and other social movements is the unavoidable fact that our activists and the young people we represent will eventually "age out" of the movement and the demographic.

This quality is unique to youth movements. Most movements throughout history have been based on racial, sexual, or gender identity; qualities that members retain their entire lives. With senior citizen organizations, one must age into it, but once you do you are there for the rest of your life. Members of the labor movement tend to identify with their union even after retirement. Low-income worker movements technically could have members "wealth out" of the demographic, but it is not as likely as we would hope and not inevitable. Without exception every young person in the country today will cease to be young, whether from getting older or tragically perishing.

This mercurial quality of youth poses unique challenges for youth movements.

1. Leaders age out of the demographic and the movement, making youth organizations more prone to institutional amnesia and can result in leadership vacuums.
2. It is more difficult to get people to identify with the movement, since they are not permanently members of the demographic.
3. Membership has to constantly be refreshed. Youth organizations face an attrition rate drastically higher than other movements.
4. Youth is difficult to define. Some definitions say under 30, some say 35 and younger, and some even go as high as 40.

Another key difference of the Progressive Youth Movement is that it is based on identification with a political ideology. While other social movements have been lopsided toward one ideology or another, it is not a part of the identity. The Progressive Youth Movement is actually the ideological side of a larger, non-partisan youth movement.

Lessons from Sociopolitical Movements

In this upcoming series of articles I will look at these movements and apply the lessons learned from their successes and failures to the Progressive Youth Movement, keeping in mind the similarities and differences of the movements.

In Virtual Equality: The Mainstreaming of Gay & Lesbian Liberation, one of the best books of analysis on the GLBT movement and a frequent source for this series, author Urvashi Vaid states:

“In the gay movement, activists rarely know, much less credit, their predecessors; our movement's history has barely been written. Every generation thinks it is facing things for the first time. In a literal sense, that's true, but in a historical sense, most movement battles are repetitious. In addition, to bolster the urgency of their current work, activists often play down, discredit, or simply ignore efforts that came before.”

Not only should movements learn from their own histories, but from each other as well.