COALITION
“Make the fight bigger than the first circle.”
2018
West Virginia teachers’ strike
Who
WV teachers and school workers vs West Virginia legislature
Teachers and school staff walk out statewide over pay and insurance until the capitol moves.
Outcome Pay raise and insurance concessions; wave of teacher strikes elsewhere
Lesson Public workers can still stop a system that can’t warehouse kids without them.
2015
Marriage equality — Obergefell
Who
LGBTQ organizers, plaintiffs, state campaigns vs State bans and federal delay
Decades of organizing and state fights culminate in a Supreme Court decision that ends state bans on same-sex marriage.
Outcome Obergefell (2015) — nationwide right to marry
Lesson Generational coalition plus courts can settle what legislatures refused.
Documentary
The Freedom to MarryDocumentary
For the Bible Tells Me So2001–2010s
Coalition of Immokalee Workers — Fair Food
Who
Florida tomato pickers (CIW) vs Fast-food and retail giants (Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Walmart…)
Tomato pickers can’t squeeze growers alone, so they pressure the brands that buy the tomatoes until Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and others sign binding Fair Food deals.
Outcome Fair Food Program — penny-per-pound, codes, monitoring with major buyers
Lesson Go after who sets the price — the brands — when growers claim they can’t pay.
Documentary
Food Chains — trailers / clips1990
Americans with Disabilities Act
Who
Disability rights coalition vs Congress and industry cost lobbies
Years of organizing — including crawling the Capitol steps — extract a civil-rights statute covering buildings, workplaces, and transit.
Outcome ADA becomes law
Lesson Legislation is usually the end of a mobilization chain, not the start.
1987–1990s
ACT UP — treatment access under crisis
Who
ACT UP chapters and Treatment Action Group vs FDA, NIH, and pharma gatekeeping
ACT UP occupies FDA and Wall Street, stages die-ins, and pressures drug companies until trial rules and access change for people with AIDS.
Outcome Faster approval pathways; AIDS shifted from death sentence toward manageable condition
Lesson When the bureaucracy’s timeline is a death sentence, stop the building until the timeline changes.
Documentary
How to Survive a Plague — clips1978–1980
Love Canal — Lois Gibbs vs the dump
Who
Lois Gibbs and Love Canal homeowners vs Hooker Chemical residue, local and state officials, EPA
A Niagara Falls neighborhood built on buried chemical waste organizes until the government evacuates and buys them out.
Outcome Evacuation and federal buyout; pressure toward Superfund (CERCLA, 1980)
Lesson Neighbors with cameras and persistence can beat industrial waste and a quiet State.
Documentary
Love Canal / Lois Gibbs documentaries1977
Judy Heumann and the 504 sit-in
Who
Judy Heumann and disability rights organizers vs HEW / federal administrative delay
Section 504 already banned disability discrimination in federally funded programs — but the rules sat unsigned. Organizers occupy a federal building until HEW signs.
Outcome 504 regulations signed
Lesson A right on paper is worthless until someone forces the administrative state to implement it.
1965–1970
Delano grape strike and boycott
Who
NFWA / UFW (Chávez, Huerta), Filipino farmworkers vs California growers and supermarket buyers
Central Valley pickers strike the fields, then take the fight to supermarket shelves nationwide until growers sign contracts.
Outcome Contracts with major growers
Lesson If labor alone is replaceable, move the fight to the brand’s customers.
Documentary
Fight in the Fields / UFW grape boycott1965
Selma and the Voting Rights Act
Who
SNCC, SCLC, local Black organizers vs Alabama state power
Organizers force the country to watch Alabama block Black voters with clubs and literacy tests. The marches produce a federal statute the South’s machine had blocked for generations.
Outcome Voting Rights Act of 1965
Lesson Street pressure can rewrite State rules when looking away costs too much.
Documentary
Selma bridge / march archival1955–1956
Montgomery bus boycott
Who
Black Montgomery residents, Rosa Parks, MIA organizers vs Montgomery bus system and Jim Crow city power
After Parks’s arrest, Black Montgomery stops riding the buses for over a year. Carpools and churches keep the city moving while courts and boycott pressure run together.
Outcome Supreme Court ends bus segregation in Montgomery
Lesson Economic noncooperation plus logistics can beat a system built on your fares.
Documentary
Eyes on the Prize — Montgomery clips