Grassroots movements are the foundation of social change. Grassroots Movements have been around forever, and have enacted some of the most powerful social change in history. The American Revolution started as a Grassroots Movements as did Labor Unions, The American Civil Rights Movement, the German Peace Movement, Israel Love Iran and even the NoH8 Campaign. Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, said in a 2017 interview, “The most effective way to make changes is by organizing, especially at the grassroots level.”
Grassroots Movements start when people get together and want to enact change. They then start networking through campaigns usually gaining followers by word of mouth, flyers and literature, and canvassing. Canvassing used to be accomplished by going door to door. Now canvassing is done through social media and social networking.
Social media helps Grassroots Movements gain momentum by reaching more people in an exponential manner. Whereas before awareness could take months or even years, now it can take hours or days. The Labor Union Movement is often said to have started in New York in 1768 and it wasn’t until 1794 that the first union was created in Philadelphia. It took until 1852 for local unions to be organized together on a national level. This slow movement was due to the lack of easy and fast communication and the isolation of local labor unions to others across the country. In contrast, the #MeToo movement once it launched on Twitter in 2017, went global in hours. The hashtag #MeToo was used 10,000 times in 20 minutes and by more than 4.7 million people in 12 million posts during the first 24 hours according to Twitter and Facebook as reported by CNN in the article, “An activist, a little girl and the heartbreaking origin of ‘Me too.’”
Just as with the national organization of unions in 1852, the #MeToo movement connected local grassroots organizations together. By eliminating the isolation of local movements, the impact of all of them together is more powerful. Social media can be an impactful tool by Grassroots Organizations and what better way to use it then to create social change and make the world better.