The Coronavirus Is Changing How Activists Fight

Any time several people think about activism, they’re likely envisioning its most visible component: People emerging from the comfort of their homes to physically gather with each other and make their voices heard.


Those protests and rallies have customary themselves as indelible moments in history on their own: the Million Man March, the Stonewall Riot, the Women’s March on Washington. Nevertheless with COVID-19 spreading across the world at dangerous rates, entire countries are being encouraged to stay inside. As a result, activists have shifted their methods so that they can still bring efficient change for LGBTQ+ rights, the climate crisis, and online privacy in a time once going outdoor in large groups of people is frowned upon at best and deadly at worst.


“The work that I do and that so several other people do in the movement is about bringing people together,” Katie Eder, the executive director of the Future Coalition, a youth-led climate crisis company, told MTV News. “My personalized theory of change is that by coming with each other, by uniting, by reaching across contradictions and networking with, that's how we can create real change. Although we can't physically convene people [right now]. It's very challenging and provides barriers that you truly never could have imagined.”


The employees of the Future Coalition has habitually worked remotely, yet they as much as anyone else know the power of coming with each other. In 2019, they helped lead record-breaking protest movements to draw attention to the modern climate crisis. They were planning another strike on Earth Day this year, for which they expected to be able to see “millions of people out on the streets” on April 22. Right now, that entire strike is going to be virtual, and the sort is being forced to “reimagine what a social movement can look like in the digital age.”


To pull that off, the team is looking to the activists who laid the groundwork for their current movement — which is exactly how they put in the work before social distancing became the new common. “We look at the civil rights movement, the LGBTQ+ revolution, [and] other large social shifts that have happened in this nation as historical context and inspiration for the work that we do now,” Eder explained. “Our movements actually just be looking very, very similar to what they looked like several decades ago, although the times have changed so much. And I think one of the reasons is because social movements haven't however figured out how we can make use of text and digital equipment to the fullest extent to bring that change.”


The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights company, is also transitioning their activism, which is rooted in over 40 years of on-the-ground work, along with hundreds of employees and volunteers whose skills right now have to pivot for the digital age.


“Traditionally, the [HRC] has worked with campaign organizers in various states to engage with voters and potential voters on the election,” Alphonso David, the president of the HRC, told MTV News. “That means everything from phone banking, to knocking on doors, to working directly with potential candidates or actual candidates for office and helping them in their operations, making sure that they're successful. A lot of that work involved [door-to-door] or hand-to-hand contact”


So the HRC began creating new equipment for their hundreds of volunteers to continue to push for change while social distancing. They’ve created an advocacy app called TEAM, which accommodates volunteers directly engage their own personalized contacts by way of the text, email, and social media to mobilize them to vote. “In short, text messages, Facebook messenger, and Instagram and Twitter direct messages are the new door knocks,” HRC mentioned in a press release about the app. The company also created weekly Tuesday Textbanks outreach events with their Swing State Squad, in which HRC personnel and volunteers call voters in swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The nonprofit also offers virtual training to make sure activists are still doing the work while they’re socially distancing, and they’ve created resources to transition in-person volunteer possibilities to virtual or remote events.


“This crisis is going to have an impact on how people interact together, not only for purposes of political organizing and the elections, however generally,” David mentioned. “And so we are pivoting to create ensure that we do have the capacity, we do have the technological support, and we've done the training. We are staffing our volunteers so that we can maximize impact in November.”


Yet there really are some activists who have routinely done their work remotely: Fight for the Future is one of the most online organizations out there. Not only do their entire employees and volunteer force work on the world wide web, nevertheless their nonprofit has worked to contributor for digital rights and internet privacy since 2011.


“In a weird way, not a lot has changed in terms of our day to day work,” Deputy Director Evan Greer told MTV News, adding that Fight for the Future’s global team “already are used to communicating and meeting largely online.”


As a result, their shift has been more in the focus of Fight for the Future’s activism than in how its teams create that work. “The supply area that we work in of protecting people's generic rights in the digital age and ensuring that technology is used as a force for good rather than a force for greed and charity has routinely been important,” Greer mentioned. “But it just became exponentially more important” with more and more people logging on. Since the coronavirus outbreak, the numbers of people using the internet in their daily lives continue to increase: They’re working on the internet, conducting video calls, watching press conferences, and playing video games to let off steam and pass the time.


“This moment just clearly shows how important access to a complimentary and open internet is, where people can get access to real and good data, and where people can debate and discuss ideas and measures that we should be taking to address this crisis.”


That messaging shift is one that the Future Coalition has had to imagine, also. “We talk about climate change because the hugest existential threat that is facing humanity,” Eder mentioned. “But because of COVID-19, that arguably isn't true. Now, the hugest threat facing humanity and our safety and wellbeing is COVID-19.”


As these activists and businesses pivot their fight to virtual activism, they’re learning insights and tricks of the trade. For HRC, that insinuates more targeted activism and encouraging volunteers to reach out to their companions and family member directly.


“We have an obligation to prepare ensure that we are protecting all disadvantaged and marginalized groups,” David mentioned. “And one of the routes to doing that is shifting to digital organizing to prepare ensure that we can get the word out, we can get the messages out, and we can keep people engaged.”


Greer agreed, adding: “Just because you can't gather people in person does not mean that you can't organize. And does not mean that you can't put real, direct pressure on your target.” She recommends organizing online protests, call-in days, petition efforts, and live streams alternatively opposed to rallies.


“There's so several ways that we can still gather and exert collective power and exert collective requires on powerful people and institutions without having to meet up in person,” Greer mentioned. “It's not like we have to reinvent the wheel.”


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