It is pretty rare that a freshman member of the U.S. House leads a successful fight to make a tangible difference in the lives of his or her constituents after only three months in office.
It is equally rare that progressive grassroots activism is adopted by a member of Congress, and then quickly translated into a successful, governing victory.
Last week, freshman Representative Eric Massa, who I have been pretty hard on in the past, achieved both at the same time. In so doing, Representative Massa demonstrated that his election to the U.S. House was an important step toward "closing the rootsgap"; that is, the gap between the progressive grassroots and the Democratic leadership. That is big news, both in terms of the open media victory Massa helped secure, and in terms of proving a successful model for grassroots activism to turn into governing policy.
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Overall the last two weeks, Representative Eric Massa played a key role in a coalition of progressive activists, progressive advocacy organizations, and members of Congress to successfully prevent Time Warner Cable from imposing excessive fees on Internet users in four mid-sized cities (Austin, San Antonio, Greensboro, and Rochester). This victory may seem small, but the precedent it set against future telecom robbery attempts, and the action model that led to the victory, are both extremely important.
First, here is why stopping Time Warner's plan was important:
The scheme would have forced consumers to pay up to $150 a month for full access to the Internet - an inflated pay-per-byte rate that the company hoped would dampen popular enthusiasm for online video watching, and stem the migration of viewers from cable television to online video sites like Hulu.com.(...)
Other cable Internet providers have been paying close attention to Time Warner's market tests with a mind to impose similar pricing penalties on their subscribers and effectively smother Internet video in the cradle.
Companies like Comcast, AT&T and Cox Communications were eager to see Time Warner's metering trials to go well. They didn't.
$150 / month for full access to the Internet would have been crippling to the future development of the medium, and to popular access to that medium. Simply put, Time Warner was looking to stifle the growth of advanced Internet usage amongst its customers. Further, other telecom companies were eager to pounce if Time Warner had been successful, and this practice could have quickly spread nationwide. However, they were stopped by a quickly assembled coalition of progressive grassroots activism, progressive advocacy organizations, and members of Congress:
The company buckled under a withering barrage of negative press and consumer complaints.
Free Press activists sent more than 16,000 letters urging Congress to investigate Time Warner Cable. One grassroots group, www.StoptheCap.com, served as a clearing house for outraged customers.
Rep. Eric Massa of New York last week promised legislation to curb such ill-considered metering. And on Thursday, New York Sen. Charles Schumer came to Rochester, one of Time Warner's test markets, in support of local opposition to the plan.
Schumer told Time Warner Cable that he didn't want his constituents to be used as their Internet guinea pigs. By the end of his visit, the chastened cable execs announced their intention to scrap the trials.
Democratic members of Congress rarely adopt causes that bubble up from the grassroots. When Matt Stoller moved from Open Left to Representative Alan Grayson's office, he called this problem "the rootsgap," meaning that the leaders of the Democratic Party were dramatically out of step with the progressive grassroots nationwide.
This story was a case when there was no rootsgap, and outrage among the grassroots quickly turned into progressive governing policy. In only about two weeks, the story quickly moved from the media, to grassroots outrage, to grassroots activism, to coordinated advocacy group activism, to leadership from the local member of the U.S. House, to leadership from a top-ranking member of the Senate, and finally to victory.
This is exactly the activist coalition model we need in order to achieve progressive victories both now and in the future. Progressive grassroots activism needs to connect to progressive advocacy organizations, and then it needs validating, powerful leadership from Democratic members of Congress. As hard as we can push at the grassroots level, we simply will not have many victories unless we can keep securing leadership on our fights from within both Congress and advocacy organizations. Members of Congress, staffers and advocacy orgs / lobbyists are where governing policies are forged. Without partners in those groups, our pressure will ultimately not be successful.
Thank you, Representative Massa. This is excellent work, and you deserve real accolades for it. |
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