Freedom Is An Endless Meeting Summary

“Freedom Is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements,” by Francesca Polletta focuses mainly on the strategies, methods, and tactics of three groups from the 1960s. The aim of the book was to exemplify the participatory democratic decision making in social movements. The first movement studied by Polletta was the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, which was a network of both black and white youths, many of which became the main organizers of the Mississippi Freedom Struggle. The second movement studied were the Students for a Democratic Society, who tried to emulate Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee’s organizing approach in seven cities in the northern United States. After the group participated in protesting the Vietnam War, the Students for a Democratic Society became a movement with a membership level in the tens of thousands. The last movement analyzed by Polletta was the Women’s Liberation Movement, where various groups within the movement were looked upon. All of the information on the various movements within the book were compiled from archival and oral history/testimony. Within the first chapter of the text, Polletta briefly

The group’s main agenda is to get their voices heard by providing resistance during town hall meeting, applying opposition during open public events, visiting their representative local offices and demanding that meeting be held to discuss opposition to each representatives voting record and the group also coordinate calls to their representatives in order to inundate them with opposition to specific voting issues. As one can see by coordinating with others in the opposition movement to act at the same time causes an impact which their representative cannot