198 Converting Resources to the Cause table 6.3. Yemeni groups and organizations created for revolution and relief during the 2011 Arab Spring, as reported by respondents Diaspora Group/Organization Name Exclusively a Charity/Service Org? USA Popular Support Committee to the Youth Revolution in Yemen Yemeni American Coalition for Change Yemeni Youth Abroad for Change Yemeni Youth for Change in California No No No No Britain Change Point Liverpool Independent Yemen Group Liverpool Yemeni Youth Movement Yemen Revolution Support Group Yemeni British Coalition to Support the Yemeni Revolution No No No No No prior experience organizing for other minority rights campaigns in the United States, exclaimed, It was a whole new ballgame because I realized I wasn’t working within an organization. I haven’t had any experience working with loosely affiliated groups, so I wasn’t quite sure how the democratic process was working. People were like, don’t tell so-and-so about this meeting! It’s like, what is going on here? [laughs] But it mirrored what was going on in Yemen, all of the fractured things that were happening and how people were losing sight of the larger picture. How do you keep their morale up, and keep things really organized and clear, and not leave people out? Because people were coming from different places, and get really offended by little things. It’s hard to deal with it when this isn’t people’s full-time job and coming to the table with a variety of skills. Really, we should have just had one person manage that full-time, but it was just different people. Many respondents additionally attested that strategies to maintain the integrity of the diaspora movement by keeping it informal exacerbated the literal costs of movement participation. This was due to the fact that a significant proportion of the Yemeni diaspora community in the United States and Britain was working class to begin with. New York–based organizers also reported difficulties in sustaining protests because many of their supporters worked day and night running small businesses like bodegas and were preoccupied with child care. Morooj likewise attested that their Washington, DC-based movement lacked the resources to continue bringing attention to the Yemeni crisis in an effective way. There was this sense of urgency, and that always is problematic because how do you build something that’s long-term while still addressing the urgency of the situation? Does https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009272148 Published online by Cambridge University Press

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