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Coalition Building: Start Here

A guide to Coalition Building resources in the Commons Social Change Library including frameworks, training sessions, podcasts, and case studies.

Indigenous Gurindji win Land Rights in Australia (Wave Hill Walk Off) 1966-1975

The Gurindji of Wave Hill Station (Northern Territory) protested by a walkout against low wages, leading to the land rights movement.

Movement as Network: Connecting People and Organizations in the Environmental Movement

The environmental movement requires new organizational structures and strategies to succeed in this next phase of its evolution. This paper presents a model called “Movement as Network.” This model may have relevance to other social movements and networks, but the focus of this paper is using it to think about new ways of restructuring the environmental movement so it can be more powerful and more effective.

Nuts and Bolts of Building an Alliance

Looking for tips about how to build an alliance? Here is a clear guide about the nuts and bolts of building alliances.

Reset 5: Building Relationships & Power for Transformation

Reset Reading Group resources for A New Economy theme introduced and curated by Godfrey Moase. Includes The Take, a documentary about worker controlled workplaces in Argentina.

Building intersectional resistance alliances during COVID-19

Despite the global challenges presented by coronavirus, activists can use this moment to strengthen solidarity between movements.

Know your allies, your opponents and everyone in between: The Spectrum of Allies

The Spectrum of Allies – a campaign strategy tool developed by George Lakey & Martin Oppenheimer designed to determine allies, opponents and all those in between in a campaign.

Spectrum of Allies

Use a spectrum-of-allies analysis to identify the social groups (students, workers) that are affected by your issue, and locate those groups along a spectrum, from active opposition to active allies, so you can focus your efforts on shifting those groups closer to your position.

How to build networked coalitions

How-to guide on networked coalitions/campaigns. Harness the power of networks to develop more agile, dynamic and distributed campaigning coalitions.

Exploring roles in social change movements

Holly Hammond’s presentation to Progress 2019 on ‘Rebels and Reformers Unite! Exploring roles in social change movements’. Social movements are made up of many individuals and organisations with varied strengths, perspectives and theories of change.

The Four Roles of Social Activism

Four different roles activists and social movements need to play in order to successfully create social change: the citizen, rebel, change agent & reformer.

Networked Change: How progressive campaigns are won in the 21st Century

Directed-network campaigns combine self-organized people power with enough centralized structure to focus on clear political and cultural targets. The Networked Change Report maps out the strategies and practices that made today’s most successful advocacy campaigns work.

Five Principles for Building Powerful Coalitions

Not all coalitions are made equal. While alliances between unions and community organizations are an important and useful strategy for social change, their power and success varies greatly depending on the strategic choices of those involved.

Introduction to ChangeMakers Podcast

The ChangeMakers podcast is short series podcast that tells stories about people who are striving for social change across the world. This post introduces the series and includes the catalogue of episodes.

When planning a coalition, think of a RAINBOW

The RAINBOW framework draws on Amanda Tattersall’s extensive research and experience around building coalitions. Successful coalitions are built on strong relationships and clarity of purpose.

Community organising aims to win back civil society’s rightful place

Community organising is a way of working that trains and builds citizen leaders inside community-based organisations. We need to build strong and vibrant civil society organisations that act for the common good.

Union and Community Coalitions: Stronger Together

This article outlines some of the key elements of successful coalitions. Coalitions can vary, from ad hoc relationships to deeper, long-term, formal coalitions. Coalitions differ according to their common concern, structure, organisational commitment, capacity and culture.

Green Bans

In the 1970s Sydney builders labourers refused to work on projects that were environmentally or socially undesirable. This green bans movement, as it became known, was the first of its type in the world.

Victorian red gum forests: A historic victory

A comprehensive case study of the successful campaign to protect Victorian Red Gum Forests. Includes the history of the Barmah-Millewa Campaign, its goals and results. Given the historic outcomes of the campaign it is worth examining how such an effective green-black alliance emerged in south-eastern Australia.

Coal Seam Gas: The Ongoing Battle

The struggle between the developers of unconventional gas (coal seam, shale and tight gas), farmers and communities has struck a chord with people all over the country and has rightly been referred to by Lock the Gate as ‘the fastest growing social movement in the country’. This short case study shares some of the keys to success of the LTG approach.