Resisting Social Movements

After looking through the several issues or hot topics that the ONE campaign advocates for, I noticed that their 'Fighting Corruption' campaign could be an example of institutions resisting social change and social movements. Stewart, Smith, and Denton describe the strategy of evasion that many institutions use when resisting social movements. The following description can be compared to what many US and European governments are doing to prevent the needed resources and funds from natural resources in Africa get into the hands of the citizens that really need them. "[Institutions] may pretend that a social movement does not exist, see it as unworthy of institutional response, or feel it would be dangerous to their status of to society to grant the movement any official recognition." The 'Fighting Corruption' campaign is ONE's effort to fight for laws from US and European governments that would allow for a transparency of all the payments from oil, gas, and mining companies and to break down the different projects implemented by these companies to show how they are helping communities. Institutions, like the government and these different companies, have been accused of making "secret payments" and "dodgy deals" that prevents people living in these abundant natural resource areas from seeing any of the funds or wealth that is coming from projects in their area. These institutions are ignoring the fact that so much need and poverty surrounds them and by making secret payments, the money is going to selfish leaders instead of the needy. As the site states, "These secret payments allow unscrupulous leaders to pocket some of the profits instead of investing in vital services like schools, roads and health clinics that would benefit all citizens." Granting recognition to the work that the ONE campaign is doing would require these institutions to not only recognize the need that surrounds them as part of their company and project requirements but also take money away from these leaders and company owners, which could possibly endanger their status. It is obvious that these companies see the needs of these third world countries as unworthy because they continue to ignore them instead of breaking the "resource curse" that has some of the  "poorest people in the world living next to some of the most valuable resources." 

As long as these different institutions are resisting the social change that is needed, these people will continue to suffer from the "resource curse" and from poverty that has a chance to be alleviated. The ONE campaign is making a strong effort to be recognized and begin a social movement for this needed social change.