Two Articles on NGOs & Social Movements

This article notes that in South Africa the relationship between grassroots organisations and NGOs has often been fractious – to the point that there have been a number of rebellions against NGOs on the part of grassroots organisations. It also notes that NGOs have sometimes reacted in a plainly authoritarian manner to grassroots critiques. And, more positively, it also notes that some NGOs have developed positive and valued relationships with grassroots organisations. However it cautions that an NGO’s position on economic questions i.e. whether it is broadly liberal or socialist – offers no a priori indication of its approach to praxis. The article argues that praxis, in the sense of thinking through and working out how NGOs can relate to grassroots organisations in an enabling manner, needs to be taken seriously and that constructive discussion in this regard should be encouraged rather than suppressed.
– Richard Pithouse

Practitioners involved with or working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) usually believe their activities are supplementary to those developed by social movement activists. Some of them even regard their organisation as somehow being part of a specific movement. In contrast to this position, activists belonging to emancipatory social movements have often (and increasingly) made criticisms against NGOs and what seems to be the ‘structural role’ of NGOs under contemporary capitalism and governmentality.
– Marcelo Lopes de Souza