Social Movements - Thesis Example

Subsequently, the paper will identify and evaluate the features that enhanced the effectiveness of social movement organizations while at the same time considering the successes and failures of these movements and what factors led to their decline. The AIDS movement’s success is attributed to the influence of health consumers that has increased over the past three decades. The AIDS community with unique cultural elements and a rich array of both formal and informal networks has been formed through the AIDS movement.

This community was composed of friends, lovers, and families, those infected and affected by the AIDS pandemic. They developed ideas and formed organisations to react and cope with their illness, to help in scientific research and also to prevent infection. This effort involved collaboration with health and social service professionals. The civil rights movement had its broader struggle revitalized in 1960. The period from 1960- 1965 was featured by high levels of sustained activity, a succession of innovative tactics, and functional division of labor force that involved the ‘Big 5’ civil rights organisations.

The two oldest organizations; the Urban League and NAACP, brought institutional connections, funds and legal expertise (McAdam 65). All these combined propelled the movement to its success. Another factor for the movement’s effective operation is the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) that infused the movement with tactics and an increasing radical view of the racism issue. A string of stunning legislative and legal victories that effectively and efficiently dismantled the legal segregation in the south also accompanied this, leading to efficiency in the running of the movement (McAdam 69) A notable success of the AIDS movement is the creation of a community that includes numerous informal support efforts.

This is where friends and families join