What is a Campaign?
2 Minute Read
by Ken Barrios
In organizing circles, the word "campaign" is used a lot. Folks might be talking about collecting signatures for a referendum, a candidate running for a government office, or building grassroots pressure to pass or block legislation.
But what exactly is a campaign, and what can its origins teach us about the nature of politics?
Origin and Definition
The term originates with the Latin "campus" for "field". According to Etymonline, it then transformed into Late Latin's "campania", then further transformations through Italian and French into the word we use today.
According to Merriam-Webster, "campaign" became an English military term in the 1600s, meaning "to take the field". As in, leaving the castle or fortress and taking the field for battle. By the mid-1700s, it also became a political term.
To paraphrase 350, the most common and contemporary definition is "organized and sustained efforts towards a common goal."
Movements and Campaigns
The terms "movements" and "campaigns" are sometimes used interchangeably, but it is important to distinguish between them.
Movements tend to spontaneously erupt out of a deeply felt injustice or crisis. Typically, they involve larger and longer-term ideological struggle. Think of the Occupy movement against the Great Recession, and Black Lives Matter against the racist murder of Trayvon Martin, and the Cease Fire movement against the genocide in Gaza.
As a response to an injustice, movements have inherently open-ended timeframes. They are over when:
- The root causes of the injustice are resolved
- They have run out of steam
- Or when the state crushes them
In contrast, a campaign tends to focus on a tangible goal, usually requiring specific steps to achieve. For example, pressuring politicians to pass a bill by collecting enough signatures to turn the bill into a referendum. Then, canvassing enough voters to vote in favor during an election. These concrete, organized, and time-sensitive efforts constitute a campaign that fits into a given movement.
The relationship between movements and campaigns is important to understand because, without campaigns, movements have nothing immediate and concrete to work toward. This leaves them vulnerable to becoming mere "talk shops" and running out of steam.
Conversely, without movements, campaigns have no long-term vision to inspire and guide them, leaving them vulnerable to a perpetual "whack-a-mole" approach to politics and no long-term plan for revolution.
Organization
Organizations are built around concrete activity. Just as religious groups mobilize followers around regular ceremonies, neighborhood sports clubs regularly play games, so too does a political organization need regular activity to keep members engaged.
Campaigns, because they are concrete and fit within a fixed timeline, can give newly politicized, as well as veteran activists, something to mobilize around. As the campaign attracts new volunteers, they can be trained on canvassing, canvass planning, or any other number of functions. When the campaign is over, these volunteers can be kept together by either founding or joining an organization.
In this way, a temporary campaign around a referendum, candidate, or reform can be leveraged to build a lasting organization rooted in a shared politics.
Conclusion
Whether "taking the field" for military or political strategy, both are about mobilizing people for an achievable outcome against an opponent. As we launch or join campaigns, we should always keep in mind:
- What are the concrete goals?
- What are the concrete steps?
- How are we plugging people into various aspects of "the war effort"?
- How does this campaign fit into a larger social movement?
- How is it advancing the development of organizations that can outlast the campaigns and movements?
- How is this building toward social revolution and human liberation?