The Next Move: We Will Win with Jess Morales Rocketto
Season 2, Episode 3
Signs are everywhere that we are simply not in relationship with enough people to advance the level of change that is required. So, what to do?
I spoke with someone who is applying tried and true organizing fundamentals to the challenge of organizing at scale. Jess Morales Rocketto is the Civic Engagement Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Executive Director of Care in Action, where she spearheads advocacy and electoral campaigns for the 2.5 million domestic workers in this country. She is Co-Chair of Families Belong Together, the campaign to end family separation and detention. She was also one of the leaders of the nationwide protests of the Trump Administration’s Muslim ban.
Some of my favorite and inspiring takeaways from Jess:
What The Church Can Teach About Organizing
“The Evangelical Church is the best organizing in this country, bar none. No one can beat them. Not one person, no organization, no progressive organization, no politician, nothing, no movement. They are providing you a surround sound lifestyle, so that every single thing you're doing is about your faith and the church and what you're trying to do together. So that idea to me of how can we create a progressive lifestyle?”
Organizing That Is Accountable To Its Members
“When you feel accountable to actual human beings, when you know their names, when you know where they live, we know what they care about... it feels like just a sacred honor to be able to do that with people; to take them into leadership, and, and then to win things, like, winning things is the best fucking shit that there is.”
The Power of Winning
“There's nothing like winning, nothing. And if you've been organizing for the last 20 years, 30 years, maybe you haven't won a lot. And so you've forgotten what that feeling is like. I hold on to that feeling every single moment of the day, because it's so awesome to win. It's so so good. And it fuels you, it creates momentum into itself. Because once you know that it's possible, it's like, Oh, well, it could happen again.”
Scale
“I believe in scale so much, because what I’ve seen is the act of scale can, in and of itself, be a transformative experience for people. That idea that they are part of literally millions of people being involved is transformational for them.”
Digital vs. Community Organizing
“I never thought of myself as a digital organizer. I've always thought of myself as a community organizer. The way we have communities is different than it was [back then]. I go back to people who sort of grew up in that Alinsky model. They didn't have a Facebook group to get into formation, you know what I mean? So, you had to have the meeting at seven o'clock on Wednesday night; you had to ask people to come every Sunday 11 o'clock at Wednesday night; because you couldn't instantly talk to thousands of people all in one neighborhood at one time. Well, now you can!”
What Would You Teach New Organizers?
“The first one is that organizing is about power. If you're not contending with power, if you're not tangling with power, you're not organizing. The second one is that you are trying to make a material difference in people's lives. If you don't understand what that material difference is, if you can't explain that material difference to people, and if they can't feel that material difference, you got to re-chart your course. And the third one is that everybody has a role to play. And in fact, the more we can give people that role and that invitation, the more sophisticated our movements will be, and I think the more that we'll win.”
Jess’ choice of “I believe that we will win” as a favorite organizing axiom rings of faith - in this case in the craft of organizing. I believe good organizing requires listening. And as Jess shows, we can listen in many ways.
In the creation of Families Belong Together I hear listening at scale - taking full advantage of all the ways we have today to understand what people are thinking and feeling. I hear how the fundamentals of organizing can be applied to many mediums. Jess tells a story of doing an abbreviated one-on-one with someone over twitter by asking the person on the other end why they felt moved to act. Jess demonstrated curiosity about the other person, and sought to understand their interests - not over coffee at the diner, but a thousand miles away through social media.
I also hear a call for whole-person organizations that create “next level affinity.” Whether through mutual aid, or through ritual that connects us at an emotional level to the organization - all creating a feeling of being part of something larger.
You can learn more about the work that Jess is doing with the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Care in Action, at peoplesaction.org/nextmove.
Jess can definitely be found on Twitter - you will find her at @JessLivMo.
Join the conversation and listen to this great episode with Jess Morales Rocketto in its entirety here, or click here for a copy of the full transcript!