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India Walton--the progressive, working class, 39-year-old, Black mother-of-four who stunned Buffalo's Democratic establishment with her June 2021 upset win in the Mayoral Primary Election--appears to have lost her bid to become the city's Chief Executive. As of this writing, she's received 41% of the General Election vote, with unnamed write-in candidates (but, presumably, Primary loser and 16-year-incumbent, Byron Brown) winning the remaining 59% of ballots cast.
Some observers, including Brown, have been quick to characterize Walton's loss as a "rebuke" of her leftist brand of politics, stating that her General Election performance should serve as a "warning" to Democrats that leftward movement will cost the party at the ballot box. To paraphrase the celebratory words of New York State's Republican Committee Chairperson on election night, Brown did not simply beat Walton--he defeated a socialist movement in Buffalo.
Funny thing about movements, though: they're not won or lost in an election. Rather, movements progress through phases of an iterative, nonlinear process. Engineer-turned-activist Bill Moyer, who's frequently credited with steering the Chicago Freedom Movement toward its focus on fair housing in the 1960s, labeled this process the Movement Action Plan (MAP)--a concept he originated, developed, experienced, and refined through a lifetime of organizing.
In brief, MAP proposes that successful social movements pass through eight phases:
The champions of the status quo sounding the death knell on Buffalo's progressive movement either aren't thinking at the MAP temporal scale; or, more likely, they're intentionally holding up Walton's election loss as evidence that progressive politics aren't capable of taking root in the existing political-economic system, thereby attempting to accelerate attrition from the Buffalo-based movement that Walton's come to represent.
Don't fall for it.
Walton's campaign pulled back the curtain on Buffalo's "resurgence" narrative, highlighting how the city's pro-growth economic agenda has exacerbated inequality, creating wealth and benefits for affluent developers and property owners while making life more precarious for the disempowered masses. She helped elevate systemic problems like housing insecurity, food deserts, and care deficits to the public agenda. And, perhaps most importantly, she advanced alternative policies and institutions--public-community partnerships to develop networked community land trusts, participatory budgeting, a public bank, and more--that have the potential to address those problems at a structural level.
Not long ago, these proposals--which her opponents breathlessly call "radical socialist"--might not have won much favor in a "moderate, business friendly" city like Buffalo. But Walton just captured over 41% of the general electorate, while bringing scores of people (especially young people) into progressive politics. Her campaign was a trigger event that helped the movement reach "take off" (stage four). Her loss will be perceived by some as a failure (stage five). But, in truth, it's a turning point.
The speed and ease with which establishment Democrats and Republicans joined forces to drag Brown over the finish line as a write-in candidate laid bare the real fight. It's not about shifting power from one political party to another--but from the opulent minority to the working-class majority. With the Mayoral election in the rearview mirror, and the fact that Walton seemingly won over Buffalo's working-class communities, the progressive movement in Buffalo looks poised to drive headstrong into MAP stage six: institution building.
By working outside of elected office--for now--to continue building the prefigurative, people-centered organizations that Walton's campaign envisioned for Buffalo, progressives in the city can institutionalize their recent gains. That way, when the next "re-trigger event" calls Buffalo's collective attention to the city's worsening inequality, concentrated poverty, housing insecurity, or related problems--and such an event will inevitably occur, given the choice to keep a developer-friendly strategy in place--the movement will have ready-made infrastructure on which to greet the general public, whose eventual rejection of business-as-usual will come with a demand for transformative alternatives (stage seven).
India Walton might have lost an election. But she also ostensibly helped Buffalo progress more than halfway through the stages of a winning social movement. Now isn't the time for despair, but for sustained building and organizing: "success" is arguably just a stage (or two) away.
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India Walton--the progressive, working class, 39-year-old, Black mother-of-four who stunned Buffalo's Democratic establishment with her June 2021 upset win in the Mayoral Primary Election--appears to have lost her bid to become the city's Chief Executive. As of this writing, she's received 41% of the General Election vote, with unnamed write-in candidates (but, presumably, Primary loser and 16-year-incumbent, Byron Brown) winning the remaining 59% of ballots cast.
Some observers, including Brown, have been quick to characterize Walton's loss as a "rebuke" of her leftist brand of politics, stating that her General Election performance should serve as a "warning" to Democrats that leftward movement will cost the party at the ballot box. To paraphrase the celebratory words of New York State's Republican Committee Chairperson on election night, Brown did not simply beat Walton--he defeated a socialist movement in Buffalo.
Funny thing about movements, though: they're not won or lost in an election. Rather, movements progress through phases of an iterative, nonlinear process. Engineer-turned-activist Bill Moyer, who's frequently credited with steering the Chicago Freedom Movement toward its focus on fair housing in the 1960s, labeled this process the Movement Action Plan (MAP)--a concept he originated, developed, experienced, and refined through a lifetime of organizing.
In brief, MAP proposes that successful social movements pass through eight phases:
The champions of the status quo sounding the death knell on Buffalo's progressive movement either aren't thinking at the MAP temporal scale; or, more likely, they're intentionally holding up Walton's election loss as evidence that progressive politics aren't capable of taking root in the existing political-economic system, thereby attempting to accelerate attrition from the Buffalo-based movement that Walton's come to represent.
Don't fall for it.
Walton's campaign pulled back the curtain on Buffalo's "resurgence" narrative, highlighting how the city's pro-growth economic agenda has exacerbated inequality, creating wealth and benefits for affluent developers and property owners while making life more precarious for the disempowered masses. She helped elevate systemic problems like housing insecurity, food deserts, and care deficits to the public agenda. And, perhaps most importantly, she advanced alternative policies and institutions--public-community partnerships to develop networked community land trusts, participatory budgeting, a public bank, and more--that have the potential to address those problems at a structural level.
Not long ago, these proposals--which her opponents breathlessly call "radical socialist"--might not have won much favor in a "moderate, business friendly" city like Buffalo. But Walton just captured over 41% of the general electorate, while bringing scores of people (especially young people) into progressive politics. Her campaign was a trigger event that helped the movement reach "take off" (stage four). Her loss will be perceived by some as a failure (stage five). But, in truth, it's a turning point.
The speed and ease with which establishment Democrats and Republicans joined forces to drag Brown over the finish line as a write-in candidate laid bare the real fight. It's not about shifting power from one political party to another--but from the opulent minority to the working-class majority. With the Mayoral election in the rearview mirror, and the fact that Walton seemingly won over Buffalo's working-class communities, the progressive movement in Buffalo looks poised to drive headstrong into MAP stage six: institution building.
By working outside of elected office--for now--to continue building the prefigurative, people-centered organizations that Walton's campaign envisioned for Buffalo, progressives in the city can institutionalize their recent gains. That way, when the next "re-trigger event" calls Buffalo's collective attention to the city's worsening inequality, concentrated poverty, housing insecurity, or related problems--and such an event will inevitably occur, given the choice to keep a developer-friendly strategy in place--the movement will have ready-made infrastructure on which to greet the general public, whose eventual rejection of business-as-usual will come with a demand for transformative alternatives (stage seven).
India Walton might have lost an election. But she also ostensibly helped Buffalo progress more than halfway through the stages of a winning social movement. Now isn't the time for despair, but for sustained building and organizing: "success" is arguably just a stage (or two) away.
India Walton--the progressive, working class, 39-year-old, Black mother-of-four who stunned Buffalo's Democratic establishment with her June 2021 upset win in the Mayoral Primary Election--appears to have lost her bid to become the city's Chief Executive. As of this writing, she's received 41% of the General Election vote, with unnamed write-in candidates (but, presumably, Primary loser and 16-year-incumbent, Byron Brown) winning the remaining 59% of ballots cast.
Some observers, including Brown, have been quick to characterize Walton's loss as a "rebuke" of her leftist brand of politics, stating that her General Election performance should serve as a "warning" to Democrats that leftward movement will cost the party at the ballot box. To paraphrase the celebratory words of New York State's Republican Committee Chairperson on election night, Brown did not simply beat Walton--he defeated a socialist movement in Buffalo.
Funny thing about movements, though: they're not won or lost in an election. Rather, movements progress through phases of an iterative, nonlinear process. Engineer-turned-activist Bill Moyer, who's frequently credited with steering the Chicago Freedom Movement toward its focus on fair housing in the 1960s, labeled this process the Movement Action Plan (MAP)--a concept he originated, developed, experienced, and refined through a lifetime of organizing.
In brief, MAP proposes that successful social movements pass through eight phases:
The champions of the status quo sounding the death knell on Buffalo's progressive movement either aren't thinking at the MAP temporal scale; or, more likely, they're intentionally holding up Walton's election loss as evidence that progressive politics aren't capable of taking root in the existing political-economic system, thereby attempting to accelerate attrition from the Buffalo-based movement that Walton's come to represent.
Don't fall for it.
Walton's campaign pulled back the curtain on Buffalo's "resurgence" narrative, highlighting how the city's pro-growth economic agenda has exacerbated inequality, creating wealth and benefits for affluent developers and property owners while making life more precarious for the disempowered masses. She helped elevate systemic problems like housing insecurity, food deserts, and care deficits to the public agenda. And, perhaps most importantly, she advanced alternative policies and institutions--public-community partnerships to develop networked community land trusts, participatory budgeting, a public bank, and more--that have the potential to address those problems at a structural level.
Not long ago, these proposals--which her opponents breathlessly call "radical socialist"--might not have won much favor in a "moderate, business friendly" city like Buffalo. But Walton just captured over 41% of the general electorate, while bringing scores of people (especially young people) into progressive politics. Her campaign was a trigger event that helped the movement reach "take off" (stage four). Her loss will be perceived by some as a failure (stage five). But, in truth, it's a turning point.
The speed and ease with which establishment Democrats and Republicans joined forces to drag Brown over the finish line as a write-in candidate laid bare the real fight. It's not about shifting power from one political party to another--but from the opulent minority to the working-class majority. With the Mayoral election in the rearview mirror, and the fact that Walton seemingly won over Buffalo's working-class communities, the progressive movement in Buffalo looks poised to drive headstrong into MAP stage six: institution building.
By working outside of elected office--for now--to continue building the prefigurative, people-centered organizations that Walton's campaign envisioned for Buffalo, progressives in the city can institutionalize their recent gains. That way, when the next "re-trigger event" calls Buffalo's collective attention to the city's worsening inequality, concentrated poverty, housing insecurity, or related problems--and such an event will inevitably occur, given the choice to keep a developer-friendly strategy in place--the movement will have ready-made infrastructure on which to greet the general public, whose eventual rejection of business-as-usual will come with a demand for transformative alternatives (stage seven).
India Walton might have lost an election. But she also ostensibly helped Buffalo progress more than halfway through the stages of a winning social movement. Now isn't the time for despair, but for sustained building and organizing: "success" is arguably just a stage (or two) away.