The Regressive Progressives
August 5, 2004
Rosa wakes up daily and heads to work. In an average week Rosa will work as many as 60 hours and only get paid for many fewer hours. She will be asked to sacrifice her breaks for the organization. She will get the pay which is equivalent to a student living on income assistance even though her job requires some education. Her many long hours of hard work will go unrecognized by most. Where does Rosa work? No, not a sweatshop -- a progressive organization.
Rosa wants to change the world we live in and improve the lives on millions by accomplishing goal A. Despite goal A's potential, and the good chances of one day improving the lives of millions, Rosa still gets a lack-luster salary that forces her to seek help from her parents or other non-profits. When she could be concentrating on the campaign, or relaxing & re-invigorating herself after a campaign, she is busy worrying about her finances.
Rosa could work at one of the thousands of non-profits in the United States or Canada. In this day and age of non-profit corporate criticism, it is absolutely unacceptably atrocious that Rosa does not earn enough to cover her own expenses. These progressive organizations who are taking on monolithic corporations often take the hypocritical step of mimicking their criticisms. Non-profits will often rely just as much on individual employee assistance for health care and other expenses from government as corporations do. On top of this, many non-profits pay wages that resemble wages are their corporate counter-parts.
This is one place where progressive non-profits are very weak. By failing to take a moral high ground above the corporate agenda, non-profits are not setting an example that is required. They leave themselves open to criticism. On top of that, because there are many corporations that do offer good jobs, the progressive non-profits are failing to attract the same level of talent that corporations can attract to further their cause.
As long as the progressive non-profits cannot compete with the better corporate world of employment for salaries and working conditions, their chances of changing the world are decreased. Can a stressed out poverty-stricken Rosa really change the world when she is up against (a) well-off relaxed equivalent(s) striving to stop her? Most of the time the answer will be no. For this reason, non-profits must changed to increase their levels of success. It may not seem that they can afford to do this, but in reality they cannot afford not to do this! With talented people, their horizons and successes will grow, but in order to attract talented individuals they must first take the step of making this work attractive to them.