How the outsourcing of grassroots campaigns is strangling progressive politics in America

You've seen 'em on every street corner, working in pairs, smiling with clipboards in hand, wearing oversize, colorful t-shirts for the Sierra Club, Human Rights Committee and other good causes. (You'd like to support them, "but just don't have the time" on your way to get a latte.) They're the unsung heart of grassroots fundraising, the youthful and idealistic street canvasser. But did you know most don't actually work for the nonprofits for which they are soliciting? They are often outsourced labor, making less than minimum wage with no job security.

It is truly a thankless work, right up there with phone solicitation (my first job in the field, ugh). So what do you think happens when these workers start to ask for the same kind of rights for which that they are advocating? That's right, employees are let go and offices are shut down. In These Times published today a great expose that I'd like all of you to read on labor organizing and union busting tactics within left-of-center grassroots fundraising.

The article references Dana Fisher, a sociology professor at Columbia University and her new book Activism, Inc.:

"The canvassing experience severely limits the entry points for young people looking for a career in social justice. According to Fisher, the canvass industry yields a remarkably 'small percentage [of canvassers who find] other work in politics after canvassing.' Far more often these young people go to the private sector .... Activism, Inc. suggests that rather than a breeding ground for new generations of grassroots activism, the industry is eating the left's young."

So the next time a team of cheerful of canvassers attempts to tag-team you outside of your neighborhood grocery store, what will be your response? A little solidarity can go along way.