CAMPAIGNS: AFL-CIO Takin' It To 'The Street'

March 31 the AFL-CIO is organizing marches and rallies in more than 70 cities at the offices of Charles Schwab, Wachovia, and other Wall Street firms to urge them to withdraw support for Bush's Social Security privatization plan. Go AFL-CIO!!

The secret to campaign success is all about gaining leverage over your foe. Too often activist organizations get stuck playing political pong with faxes and emails to Reps offices. These days it takes serious volume to get a member of Congress quaking at the site of emails or faxes from an issue group. And a campaign organized around emailing or faxing your Rep just doesn't have the viral/harvesting sex appeal it once did. Maybe it's time to take a new look at the breadth of your issue and take stock of all the players. If there is an opportunity to target a specific brand or business it could be an attractive proposition for your activists and it could generate a lot of buzz around your effort. For the business world negative attention can be like kryptonite and the leverage battle can be a much easier ride. NRDC's BioGems campaign has proven that once the fax machine starts humming at corporate headquarters businesses get more nervous than Keanu Reeves at a Shakespeare festival. Get ready for some seriously shaky blue suits when the activists and the cameras show up outside Schwab offices this Thursday.