The activism industry is composed of organizations and individuals who make a living from activism, involvement in action to bring about change. The number of organizations who employ people to perform this work is sufficiently large that Activism is now a job classification.
Many organizations whose primary activity is activism are defined as being nonprofit organizations. Some are non-governmental organizations. Most activism businesses do no manufacturing of goods.
The specific activism of persuading politicians and creating laws is called lobbying. Many industries have staff assigned to do lobbying. A U.S. organization which is officially created only to do lobbying is called a political action committee.
Fields in the activism industry include:
- Anarchism
- Animal rights organizations
- Anti-globalization movement
- Capitalism
- Civil rights movement
- Demonstrations
- Ecology activism
- Ecology movement
- Environmental movement
- Environmental organizations
- Green movement
- Organizations based upon Green economics
- Gun rights
- Human rights organizations
- Labor movement organizations
- Libertarianism
- Senior Citizens
- Peace movement
Freedom and capitalist activism
In free societies which are based on capitalism, money is involved in activism employment. Volunteer activists have other means of support and their time investment may result in tax benefits. Freedom is needed so individuals can choose what purposes to support with their own money and time.In societies whose individuals are not free, individuals can be forced to support things of which they might not approve. In the context of activism being a support of change, such force has resulted in distortion of methods which are used in activism.
- Forced attendance to rallies where the size of the crowd reflects support of policies or actions.
- Voting systems which discourage change.
- Suppression of dissenting views.
- Forced contribution to organizations which take actions that are against the desires of the contributor.
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