Movement-Wide and Organizational Infighting

Infighting is a problem on the level of the movement as a whole and on the organizational level (within organizations).

Infighting on the movement-wide level

On the movement-wide level, infighting is often manifested through arguments about how to interpret the movement’s ideology and which outreach methods to use.

Arguments about ideology tend to focus on the question of how the ideology should be understood and practiced. For example, is someone really a vegan if they wear used leather?

Arguments about outreach tend to focus on the question of how the ideology should be advocated. For example, should anti-prostitution advocates promote full and immediate legislative change—a ban on prostitution—or incremental change, reforming existing legislation?

Infighting on the movement-wide level can also be seen among groups that compete rather than cooperate with one another. The focus of the fighting ranges from the groups’ different theories of change and messaging to competition for resources and recognition.

Organizational infighting

On the organizational level, infighting is often manifested in problems like toxic work cultures, unproductive teams, and high staff turnover.

Organizational infighting not only drives skilled professionals, including leaders, away from an organization, but it can also drive them out of the movement altogether, as they seek out less emotionally taxing work environments.

Of course, infighting on each level reinforces infighting on the other. For example, normalized toxic communication within an organization increases the chances that an individual from that group will communicate toward advocates outside that organization in a similar way, contributing to infighting in the movement at large.