Over the years, I’ve worked, interned and volunteered in the activist community. As a student and resident in San Francisco, it wasn’t difficult to find a highly-active grassroots network of organizations and individuals fighting against war, poverty and environmental degradation. The progressive culture here is an inspiring and passionate bubble that creates a thirst for knowledge in the political and social sphere.
That progressive culture has led me to where I am today, a campaign organizer working on climate policy at a non-profit based out of SF. When I first came to Future 500, it took me a while to fully understand the model. The organization simultaneously works with both the activist community and (gasp) the corporate sector, searching for common ground opportunities.
The interesting set of bedfellows we engage brings, not surprisingly, skepticism from both sectors, and elicits eye-opening reactions.
Coming from a very anti-corporate knowledge base, I was also skeptical at first of Future 500’s corporate engagement. I had always viewed the corporate world as a system of insatiable greed with a disregard for people. When first de-briefed about some of the companies we engage, I was shocked to hear that they were actually listening to what the environmental community said. They weren’t only listening but actually trying to find ways to make their products and facilities more environmentally sound.
Initially I thought, “Why aren’t people aware that these companies are interested in these issues?” I had always assumed they were apathetic to activists’ concerns, unless it came in the form of a lawsuit or protest at their facility gates. But the reality according one recent survey is that “There is a disconnect between what companies are actually doing and what they are perceived to be doing.” In fact, 65% of Americans can’t identify a mainstream company that is taking a significant stance against climate change.
I think that this gap comes from the way in which companies and activists have boxed themselves in to an “us and them” type culture. Similar to what we see with Democrats and Republicans, environmentalists and the business world are unwilling to admit that, yes, we can agree in some areas even though our approach may differ.
The relationship between these groups is one of fear and mistrust in which there is only negative communication between parties. Sadly, this leads to missed opportunities to really help decrease humanity’s negative impact on the environment.
This is not to say that there are not companies that deserve negative campaigning. I think that the activist community must pressure our most egregious environmental polluters; however, this should not be the only approach.
Companies are not as monolithic as I initially assumed. Rather, they are comprised of individual people, some of whom really do want to do the right thing but need outside help. If NGOs could identify these people and establish a more personal relationship, then it could begin to dismantle the frame of dehumanization and gridlock.
The model used at Future 500 has led me to be more open minded about how we approach conflict-resolution and realize that there is so much more grey in our world than black and white.
Here are a few integrative solutions for overcoming partisanship in the political realm that are just as applicable to corporate/NGO engagement:
- We are not quite right. But we are not entirely wrong, either.
- We have friends and allies on “the other side.” They know that we bring part of the solution. They want to help us convey our truth to “their” side. When we distrust and demonize them, and fail to engage them, we dismiss our most important allies. And we fail to detect the truth that is missing on our side.
- The enemy is not actually evil. Most of our adversaries are fundamentally good. The few who are not have their counterparts on our side too. Yes, politics sometimes demands that we pretend our enemies are evil. But never forget: demonization is a tactic, not a truth.
- By demonizing our adversaries, we defeat ourselves. When we demonize our other half, we too become caricatures. We undermine our own principles, fail in our objectives, and grow self-satisfied in the futility of our “just” cause
