Mark Schmitt, the executive editor of the American Prospect, has a column in the August 18th issue about “Big Picture Power," in which he talks about the Three Faces of Power. His column offers a good summary of the three faces and how progressives can benefit from a multidimensional approach to power. Mark notes that historically, many progressive organizations operated from a theory of power that “was limited to the idea that when there was a public decision to be made -- an election, a ballot initiative, a piece of legislation -- someone should mobilize to affect the decision.” He also notes evidence that this narrow conception of power is starting to expand.

GPP has worked with grassroots organizations for 10 years using the framework of the Three Faces of Power. During this time, we have seen groups rethink their approaches to power, much as Mark suggests in his column, and we would like to believe that our own trainings and tools using the Three Faces of Power have made some difference. What is most exciting to us is the evidence that, today, around the country, organizations that may never have encountered the Three Faces analysis are beginning to think in these terms. For example, at the National Peoples Action conference in Washington DC last April, they had a plenary session on “The Battle of the Big Ideas.” The hundreds of grassroots members there enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to get clear about what they are for, what their big agenda is. They continue to refine their beliefs and to fight on the terrain of big ideas – both in terms of setting the agenda (2nd Face) and changing the ideological climate (3rd Face).

Here’s another current example: the Right to the City Alliance formed a year and a half ago. It is an alliance of low-income, anti-gentrification, and other groups, coming together under the frame of “the right to the city.” They don’t think or talk about the second and third faces of power, but that is the terrain they are moving on, alongside their direct action and organizing. Parts of the Gamaliel network, some SEIU locals, and hundreds of other organizations are testing out these ideas, using their own terms and concepts for what they are doing.

So something is changing in the progressive movement. People have been talking about “organizing for power” for decades, yet it seems to us that it has not added up to what Mark calls “big-picture power.” Lots of great victories, absolutely, but at the end of the day, the Right has been winning the war while we have focused on specific battles. The Three Faces of Power analysis is an attempt to look at power at the level of the big picture, of what we call governing power.

Right now most progressives are hoping, and, in some cases, actively working, for an Obama victory. But, Obama could win, and, even with the best of intentions, he might not be able to carry out a serious progressive agenda. We don’t have a mass base that is committed to a serious progressive agenda––around labor law reform and tax reform, guaranteed jobs, real sustainability, affordable housing, good education, etc. Progressives have not carried out a mass ideological or worldview struggle to promote such an agenda. An Obama victory can open the door, but it can’t do much more than that. Progressive organizations have to be clear about a strategy that is informed by all three faces of power, however they think of it, and make that big-picture power for progressives a reality.

--Richard Healey