Religious Protest and Economic Conflict: Possibilities and Constraints on Religious Resource Mobilization and Coalitions in Detroit's Newspaper Strike

Abstract

Previous research demonstrates the role of religious beliefs, practices, and people in a wide variety of social movement struggles. In most cases, religious resource mobilization seems to occur in a relatively straightforward, uncomplicated manner and with positive outcomes for the movement in question. Little attention has been paid to the challenges that exist to mobilizing religious resources and building coalitions with religious supporters. This essay examines the problematic nature of religious resource mobilization as part of union strategies to win a strike/lockout against Detroit's two newspapers, the News and the Free Press, between 1995-2000. Intensive interviews with strikers, union spokespersons, and religious activists, illustrate how religious resources contributed to union strength during the strike. However, these contributions were limited by the internal dynamics in the relationship between the unions and religious supporters as well as by the power disparities between these local coalitions and the multinational corporations they struggled against.