Mark Engler
Mark Engler is a writer based in Philadelphia and an editorial board member at Dissent. He is the co-author, along with Paul Engler, of the new book on the craft of mass mobilization, "This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century" (2015). He can be reached via the website www.thisisanuprising.org.
Articles by this author
 |
Views Friday, March 26, 2021 Can Social Movements Realign America's Political Parties to Implement Big Change? In the second week of November 2018, the Sunrise Movement made a sharp transition. Throughout the prior year, the youth-based climate organization had clocked long hours working in support of Democratic candidates in an array of selected districts—walking miles to knock on doors, identifying... Read more |
 |
Views Saturday, February 13, 2021 It's a Myth That Presidents Welcome Movement Pressure—and Biden Is No Different In early 2009, as Barack Obama prepared to move into the White House, a particular historical anecdote rapidly gained in popularity, repeated in dozens of talks and articles as a parable for how supporters should respond to the new president taking office. The story related a New Deal-era encounter... Read more |
 |
Views Tuesday, December 18, 2018 Jeff Bezos Has Enough! It’s Time for a Maximum Wage For Republican members of Congress and cable news pundits, a cap on the earnings of the super rich might sound like a dystopian nightmare. Yet, as author Sam Pizzigati argues in his new book, The Case for A Maximum Wage , those who are not ardent free marketeers should give the idea some serious... Read more |
 |
Views Wednesday, January 18, 2017 When Women Revolted Fifty years ago, feminist organizing in the United States entered a vibrant new phase of activity. While pinning down an exact starting date is a controversial endeavor, several major events in the late 1960s heralded the birth of what is often called second-wave feminism. The year 1966 saw the... Read more |
 |
Views Wednesday, November 23, 2016 Why Targeting Corporate Democrats Is Part of the Fight Against Trump On November 14, six days after the election of Donald Trump, some 40 young people walked into the office of New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, calling on the senior lawmaker to step aside in his bid to be Senate minority leader. Carrying a banner that read “Wall St. Democrats Failed Us,” they argued that... Read more |
 |
Views Monday, March 07, 2016 The Transformative Power of Democratic Uprisings Bernie Sanders's insurgent presidential campaign has opened up a debate about how social change happens in our society. The official version of how progress is won -- currently voiced by mainstream pundits and members of a spooked Democratic Party establishment -- goes something like this: politics... Read more |
 |
Views Thursday, December 11, 2014 What Makes Nonviolent Movements Explode? Why are some protests ignored and forgotten while others explode, dominating the news cycle for weeks and becoming touchstones in political life? For all of those seeking to promote change, this is a critical question. And it was a particularly pressing concern after the financial meltdown of 2008... Read more |
 |
Views Sunday, November 09, 2014 From the Berlin Wall to Today — Lessons for Harnessing the Moment of the Whirlwind On November 9, 1989 — 25 years ago — huge crowds of East Germans descended on the Berlin Wall. The restless citizens were responding to an announcement by authorities suggesting that the government would loosen travel restrictions. In truth, those in charge intended to make only limited alterations... Read more |
 |
Views Thursday, October 09, 2014 How Did Gandhi Win? Lessons from the Salt March for Today's Social Movements History remembers Mohandas Gandhi’s Salt March as one of the great episodes of resistance in the past century and as a campaign which struck a decisive blow against British imperialism. In the early morning of March 12, 1930, Gandhi and a trained cadre of 78 followers from his ashram began a march... Read more |
 |
Views Thursday, September 04, 2014 Surviving the Ups and Downs of Social Movements Those who get involved in social movements share a common experience: Sometimes, when an issue captures the public eye or an unexpected event triggers a wave of mass protest, there can be periods of intense activity, when new members rush to join the cause and movement energy swells. But these... Read more |