Immigrant Farmworker Advocacy: The Dynamics of Organizing

Power of Paradox: Grassroots Organizations’ Legitimacy Strategies Over Time

“…We explore GROs as a focal point for social and environmental problems that influence the lives of local people where business plays a central role (Cole & Foster, 2001). At the emergence stage, an issue arises due to grievances among local people who are affected by a firm’s or government’s activities (Cho, Martens, Kim, & Rodrigue, 2011; Gray & Hertel, 2009). Such grievances develop over time or are provoked by a more sudden decision taken by powerful actors (Norris & Cable, 1994).…”

“…Keck and Sikkink (1998) argue that issue-based networks (where multiple GROs participate) that develop their campaigns on short, clear causal chains and stimulate support for their cause by perpetuating images of damage, especially to vulnerable members of the population, are likely to succeed in their agenda. Accordingly, the GROs frame the issue through the individualization of a problem, as a local individual becomes a representative for the collective, especially if members of a group perceive that a GRO representative has a compelling story to tell (Gray & Hertel, 2009). For example, in the case of MOSOP, Ken Saro-Wiwa addressed the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva and came to personify the plight of the Ogoni people (Rowell, Kretzmann, Lowenstein Nigeria Project, & Yale Law School, 1996).…”

“…This activity contributes to the identity building of the GRO (Polletta & Jasper, 2001). Moreover, while the focal GRO fortifies its identity, it also decides how to organize internal activities (Gray & Hertel, 2009). For example, the initial choices of governance, leadership, roles, and tasks of the GRO develop as the issue progresses.…”

“…Unless larger NGOs perceive that a problem must be addressed urgently, or unless an issue becomes a national or global problem with potential media visibility, they are less willing to divert their resources to make the issue salient (King, 2008; Laasonen, Fougère & Kourula, 2012). Nonetheless, if an issue raised by a GRO seems appealing to international NGOs, they are likely to become part of a coalition and support the GRO in its concerns (Gray & Hertel, 2009; Tanaka, 2011). When the complexity of an issue increases, issue selling becomes an opportunity—or a threat—for a concerned organization, and struggles occur over the framing process (McCormick, 2006).…”

Transnational Advocates and Labor Rights Enforcement in the North American Free Trade Agreement

“…These intergroup dynamics have sometimes led local groups to develop resistance mechanisms to counteract the strategies chosen by their transnational partners (Hertel 2006a, b;Gray and Hertel 2009;Seidman 2007). Such conflicts can keep groups from maintaining long-term partnerships, and thus mitigate the potential for achieving the stronger labor rights protection predicted by transnational advocacy models.…”