People For Economic Survival Records

Background on People For Economic Survival

Based in Northampton, Massachusetts, People For Economic Survival (PES) was formed in October 1974. As a self-proclaimed progressive Socialist group, PES dedicated itself to community organizing in an effort to unite working people in their "struggle for control of social and economic institutions." With the ultimate goal of ending capitalism nationwide, PES focused on local issues that affected the everyday lives of the working class and unemployed. Their first issue, pressuring local banks to sell food stamps, was quickly resolved. As the numbers eligible for receiving food stamps rose in western Massachusetts as a result of the weak national economy, many who qualified discovered that they could not obtain food stamps in Northampton because local banks were slow to offer for them for sale. On November 29th, 1974 about 40 people marched through downtown and into the banks demanding they participate in the food stamp program. The tactic worked, and by the following week, most local banks were selling food stamps. With an established presence in the community, PES sought to continue their work as a community action group focusing on a suite of basic issues in economic justice, ranging from utility rates to childcare and welfare cutbacks.

By the summer of 1975, PES was producing and distributing a twice-monthly newsletter, Take It, providing information about local issues to the community and highlighting the activities both of PES and of other local progressive organizations. Despite their early success with the food stamp campaign, however, many of the issues of interest to the group, such as welfare reform, required an extraordinary commitment and patience to see a long struggle through to its completion, as well as a well-defined philosophy of how to create social change. PES was instead plagued by problems in leadership, membership, and direction. Serious differences of opinion and personality conflicts resulted in a call for a weekend retreat in 1976 aimed at refocusing the group. PES emerged from the retreat with a renewed sense of its mission, and members agreed to be more constructive in their criticism of each other, to integrate study sessions into their regular meetings, and to distribute more evenly the work required to produce Take It on a regular basis. The group members also committed themselves to recruiting new members.

In spite of these efforts, PES decided to disband in 1977. Not wanting to disappear without sharing their lessons -- good and bad -- with other progressive groups in the area, PES assembled a critical self-study report, very much in the tradition of the self-critical analysis practiced by a other groups on the political left. In this report, the PES members analyzed their motivations, successes, and failures to help other local activist groups to negotiate their organizational struggles.