Poor People's Movements
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| Author | Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Social Movements |
| Publisher | Pantheon Books, Random House (second edition) |
Publication date | 1977 (2nd Edition: 1979) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 382 |
| ISBN | 0-394-72697-9 |
Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail (1977; second edition 1979) is a book about social movements by the American academics and political activists Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward. The book advanced Piven and Cloward's theories about the possibilities and limits of social change through protest. The book uses four case studies: the Unemployed Workers' Movement of the Great Depression, the Industrial Workers' Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Welfare Rights Movement, particularly the activity of the National Welfare Rights Organization.[1]
History
Synopsis
General Argument: The Structuring of Protest
Formal Organizations
In each of movements examined, activists and organizers concentrated on building formally structured mass-membership organizations of poor and working-class people, with the hope that these organizations would win concessions from elites that would allow the organizations to grow or at least maintain membership. In the US, mass-membership opposition organizations cannot be sustained over time.[2]
The Unemployed Workers' Movement
The Industrial Workers' Movement
The Civil Rights Movement
The Welfare Rights Movement
Increasing Eligibility
Welfare rights lawyers, most prominently Edward Sparer worked to challenge other policies that kept families from eligibility for welfare. "Man-in-the-house rules, residence laws, employable mother rules, and a host of other statutes, policies, and regulations which kept people off the roles were eventually struck down."[3]
Reception
In a review for The Nation magazine, Jack Beatty said the book was "bound to have a wide and various influence" and called it "disturbing." While praising the analysis of the industrial workers' movement, Beatty criticized the Piven-Cloward plan for backfiring, noting that in the urban politics of the late 1960s, one "could not talk to a cabdriver or a counterman, a waitress or a barber without hearing a bitter diatribe against the welfare poor." Beatty argued that the backlash to increased use of the welfare system led to working class support for Republican candidates like Richard Nixon.[4]
Influence
See Also
Cloward-Piven Strategy George Wiley
References
- ^ Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward. Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Vintage Books (Random House), 1979.
- ^ Poor People's Movements (1979) page xx.
- ^ Poor People's Movements, page 272.
- ^ Beatty, Jack (October 8, 1977). "The Language of the Unheard". The Nation. New York: Nation Company, L.P.