It’s also notable how justification is provided for these groups. This is literally the entire justification for Cosecha:
Why I recommend it: I’m a big fan of organizing, but I admit that most organizers don’t have a precise explanation of how their methods work and what the impacts are. Carlos Saavedra, who leads Cosecha, stands out as an organizer who is devoted to testing and improving his methods, who has deeply studied the cycles of social movements in the United States and in other countries, and is honed in on strategies and tactics that show evidence of impact. He is a rigorous, skeptical thinker, taking leadership in a space of low predictability and high energy. Based on his approach, and the fact that I think Cosecha can do a lot of good to prevent mass deportations and incarceration, I think his work is a good fit for likely readers of this post.
So basically, Chloe likes organizing, and she likes Carlos.
I would expect significantly more detailed analysis. Why does Chloe like organizing? What type of organizing does she like? What evidence is there it work? What has Cosecha done in the past? How much money did they spend? How strong is the evidence of policy impact? How strong is the evidence for the desirability of the policies? What are the negative effects? What are the relevant counterfactuals?
In fact, this group seems like a very poor fit even for OPP’s stated goal. If you click through to their issue writeup, it’s all about reducing incarceration while not increasing crime. For example,
As a result, we seek to work on both crime and unnecessary incarceration, either in tandem or as separate interventions, with the goal of both building the political will to address unnecessary incarceration and discovering new tools to reduce crime, preferably those that do not involve long prison sentences.
A very reasonable goal, and one with bipartisan support. But somehow this ends up being twisted to support a highly partisan group who aim to use illegal means to support an unrelated goal!
Great post.
It’s also notable how justification is provided for these groups. This is literally the entire justification for Cosecha:
So basically, Chloe likes organizing, and she likes Carlos.
I would expect significantly more detailed analysis. Why does Chloe like organizing? What type of organizing does she like? What evidence is there it work? What has Cosecha done in the past? How much money did they spend? How strong is the evidence of policy impact? How strong is the evidence for the desirability of the policies? What are the negative effects? What are the relevant counterfactuals?
In fact, this group seems like a very poor fit even for OPP’s stated goal. If you click through to their issue writeup, it’s all about reducing incarceration while not increasing crime. For example,
A very reasonable goal, and one with bipartisan support. But somehow this ends up being twisted to support a highly partisan group who aim to use illegal means to support an unrelated goal!