In the reading, “Are the Cops in
Our Heads and Hearts?”, Rojas discusses how even non-profits fall into the trap
of internalized capitalism due to the sponsorship/funding that these
organizations receive in order to pay the community organizers that do this as
their profession.
Rojas notes that this internalized
capitalism still shows up even in movements that aim to abolish said systems due
to the simple fact that we currently live in a capitalist society that is
driven solely by money and labor for profit. She then goes on to talk about how
this in turn leads to corporate interests dictating the stances that social
movements and NGO’s will have on any given issue and the way they end up
organizing around that specific topic. Rojas further stresses this point through
a quote from her father who stated in response to how organizers are paid by foundations
via the corporate funds they receive, “Clearly they are paying you to keep you
from really challenging the system, to make sure that you are accounted for”. Her
father’s statement goes to show how much power corporate interests hold over us
and control even how we fight back against them. For me, this quote really
solidified the realization of how deep in the capitalist state even the most progressive
of movements can unintentionally be because of how necessary money is in order
for us to survive. Corporations also
continue to hold this power over organizations and activists and have them
stick to certain agenda’s because without their funding, their livelihood is at
risk. Rojas brings this up in her discussion of how short-term goals with
little to no real impact and “smoke and mirrors” come into play with
non-profits. She then goes on to discuss the changing of activist tactics to
models that focus heavily on everyday activism and how successful this type of
organizing has been in Latin America.
I really
enjoyed reading Rojas’ discussion of the different types of activism and organizing
that have worked so successfully compared to the typical activist work seen in
the United States. Reading her discussion of how movements can truly divest
from corporate interests and work alongside non-profits rather than through
them, but still actively make a change in their society such as The Zapatistas
work with an NGO to create video teaching community members how to document
their work and abuse that they experience from the state. After this goal has
been achieved, Rojas states how the NGO would then dissolve, therefore having no
direct control over the movement and its goals
While not directly related, the irony
of corporate money funding movements and foundations that are actively trying
to fight against said capitalist system reminded me a lot of the 2016
Democratic primaries. Specifically, it reminded me of the reasons why a large
majority of millennials so actively supported Bernie compared to Hillary. Similar
to foundations and non-profits that are funded via corporate interests, Hillary’s
campaign was largely funded through major donations from corporate interests
and represented the establishment (ex. Super pacs, wallstreet etc.) which
caused people to question whether or not she would actually enact more
progressive policies or stay more centralist in her policies and viewpoints
compared to Bernie’s grassroots campaign that was highly funded by donations and had a long history of progressive ideals.
On page 206/207 Rojas talks about
how SIIS tried to address the issues of internalized capitalism and hierarchies
by removing titles and paying everyone a flat salary. However, they found this
was not equitable because as Rojas stated, “paying a single person with no
dependents, like myself, the same as a single mother made no sense at all.” I’d like to further discuss how issues such as
this could be addressed and possible solutions.
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