The key to activist success, according to the author, is in the balance between the importance of your cause and the battles you can win. This chapter draws the lessons from four such examples of world-renowned successes.
| This post is part of a reading series on Blueprint for Revolution, by Srdja Popovic. To quickly access all chapters, open the book title tab on the Authors & Books page. Disclaimer: This chapter summary is personal work and an invitation to read the book itself for a detailed view of all the authors’ ideas. |
In June 2011, Itzik Alrov, an Israeli ultra-orthodox insurance salesman, decided to take on the government about the cost of living. Instead of going against the prime minister and asking for a change in economic policies, a virtually impossible task for him, he did something entirely different. After the government had removed subsidies on the production and distribution of cottage cheese, which most Israelis eat daily, the price doubled quickly. Itzik Alrov created a Facebook page that said: “Cottage cheese is such a basic product and now it costs nearly 8 shekels. We won’t buy it for one month!!!”, adding, “if we don’t overcome our desire to buy cottage cheese, we will never succeed in making it affordable again.”
“Before too long,” says Srdja Popovic, “Alrov’s page had a hundred thousand followers, which in a country of only seven million people is a lot. Alrov had found an easy fight to pick, and since everybody wants to join a winning team, his following continued to grow.” Most importantly, talking about cottage cheese was a cover for Israelis to discuss the economy, injustice, and national priorities. As the major dairy company, Tnuva, sternly said it wouldn’t lower prices, the cottage cheese protest got exactly what it needed: a villain. Enraged by its arrogance, Israelis decided to punish the behemoth by abstaining from all other dairy products. “It was the world’s first case of politically motivated lactose intolerance,” quips the author.
It worked. Tnuva’s CEO promised not to raise the price of cottage cheese again until the end of the year. At that news, Alrov and his followers realized that they could win and pressed on. Five days later, the company announced that it was reducing the price to just under six shekels, but for the protesters, it was five shekels or bust. A few days later, all dairy companies issued separate statements pledging to keep prices low. Tnuva’s CEO resigned.