I liked the quote - it’s not a perfect essay. There’s no laboratory for testing these things. Real life outcomes are overdetermined. But, if you take enough before then after diffs, you can establish a kind of cultural epidemiology imo.

The essay describes a sequence of events or correlation, but doesn't even try to establish causality. Maybe it's just a difficult problem, and Chavez tried different things when they hit walls?

Scroogey

Are we the oak tree or are we the mistle­toe? Do we want to feed off of a strong and solid industry, like the mistletoe that grows on the oak? Do we want to set our limits around negotiating contracts? Or do we want to build a self-sustaining movement through our own institutions?

, was turned away from a mission of self-determination, mutual-aid institutions, and coop­erative work/living for farmworkers when he started a nonprofit and was redirected by private donors to support mere unionization.

Stacker Saloon

saloon

> Are we the oak tree or are we the mistle­toe? Do we want to feed off of a strong and solid industry, like the mistletoe that grows on the oak? Do we want to set our limits around negotiating contracts? Or do we want to build a self-sustaining movement through our own institutions?

Cesar Chavez, according [to this essay](https://histphil.org/2015/08/28/can-social-movements-tackle-inequality-with-foundation-funding-the-case-of-the-farmworker-movement/), was turned away from a mission of self-determination, mutual-aid institutions, and coop­erative work/living for farmworkers when he started a nonprofit and was redirected by private donors to support mere unionization.