Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group

(Redirected from MASSPIRG) Organization

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG) is a non-profit organization that is one of the largest of the state PIRG organizations. It works on a variety of political activities, including textbook trading on college campuses. They also provide internships and work study jobs for students on Massachusetts college campuses. Along with the Massachusetts Service Alliance, MASSPIRG helped to create Massachusetts Community Water Watch, an organization that works specifically on environmental politics. Student funding of MASSPIRG has been criticized at several schools where students wish to see MASSPIRG funding cut, citing that the mandatory fees do not effectively contribute directly to any cause on campus, and are a complication to students forced to pay "already tedious" tuition fees.

History

The Public Interest Research Groups emerged at the behest of Ralph Nader who, during a college speaking tour, called on students to form political groups.

Criticism and rebuttal

The book Activism, Inc: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America by Columbia University sociologist Dana Fisher, is based on an ethnographic study she did in a stratified random sample of fund canvass offices during the summer of 2003. Fisher charges the corporatized fundraising model (of which the Fund is an example) with mistreating idealistic young people by using them as interchangeable parts and providing them with insufficient training. Fisher also states that the outsourcing of grassroots organizing by groups like the Sierra Club and Greenpeace to organizations like the Fund has led to the decay of grassroots infrastructure and opportunities for involvement on the left. The Fund has created a website, canvassingworks.org, to respond to a few of the criticisms raised by the book. The site includes testimony by former Fund staff who have moved into leading roles in other progressive organizations and other progressive leaders, including U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (IL), Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, Dr. Woody Holton (Associate Professor of American history at the University of Richmond), and Randy Hayes of the Rainforest Action Network.

Notable members

Joyce Elaine Roop

Affiliate organizations

References

"MassPIRG manipulates UMass students". Massachusetts Daily Collegian. September 7, 2003.
Activism, Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America

v t e Public Interest Research Groups
People	Phil Radford Ralph Nader Donald Kemp Ross Gene Karpinski Ted Halstead Arshad Hasan Joyce Elaine Roop Gene Russianoff Jim Jontz Pamela Gilbert Anthony Pollina Celeste Thorson James Love Tom Hucker Joanna Guy
Related organizations	Fund for the Public Interest Environmental Action Environment America Green Corps Alaska PIRG Arizona PIRG California PIRG Colorado PIRG Connecticut PIRG Georgia PIRG Illinois PIRG Iowa PIRG Maryland PIRG Massachusetts PIRG Minnesota PIRG Missouri PIRG New Jersey PIRG New Mexico PIRG New York PIRG North Carolina PIRG Ohio PIRG Ontario PIRG Pennsylvania PIRG Michigan PIRG Rhode Island PIRG Vermont PIRG Washington PIRG Wisconsin PIRG

Public Interest Research Groups

People

Related organizations

v t e Consumer protection
Organizations	ANEC Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now BEUC CableHell Center for Auto Safety Chamber for Workers and Employees Choice Citizens Advice Citizens Advice Edinburgh Citizens Advice International Citizens Advice Scotland Citizens Advice outside the United Kingdom Connecticut Citizen Action Group Consumentenbond ConsumerLab.com Consumer Alert Consumer Council of Fiji Consumer Direct Consumer Federation of California Consumer NZ Consumer organization Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan Consumer Rights Directive 2011 Consumers Council of Canada Consumers' Association Consumers' Federation of Australia Consumers International Consumers' Coalition Consumers' Research Consumers Union CU Japan Consumer Watchdog Consumer Watchdog (Botswana) Konsumentenbund Euroconsumers Foodwatch Franchisees and Dealers ICRT Labdoor Open Food Facts Option consommateurs Stiftung Warentest StopBadware Swedish Consumers' Association Swiss Alliance of Consumer Organisations Test Achats Truth in Advertising UFC-Que Choisir
Magazines	Akher Saa Beobachter Choice Consumer Reports Consumers' Checkbook dTest Ethical Consumer Finanztest Guter Rat Pirkka Spendere Meglio Stiftung Warentest Which?
Television	The Checkout Don't Get Done, Get Dom Fair Go Fake Britain Fight Back! with David Horowitz Food Inspectors Gruen The Investigators JE Joe Lycett's Got Your Back Marketplace Rip Off Britain Rogue Traders Short Change Street Cents Target That's Life! Watchdog
Lists	List of consumer organizations ICRT Members Consumer organization
Issues	Airline complaints Anti-competitive practices Antitrust Better Business Bureau Class action Competition regulator Consumer complaint Consumer organization Cooling-off period Credit and debt Extended warranty Fair trade Federal Trade Commission Food safety List of food labeling regulations Mandatory labelling Ombudsman Planned obsolescence Product recall Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 Transparency (market)
People	Pamela Gilbert Joanna Guy Ted Halstead Arshad Hasan Tom Hucker Jim Jontz Gene Karpinski Florence Kelley James Love Ralph Nader Anthony Pollina Phil Radford Joyce Elaine Roop Donald Kemp Ross Gene Russianoff Celeste Thorson Michael Vernon
Governmental entities	Banking Standards Board Bureau of Consumer Protection Consumer Financial Protection Bureau European Consumer Centres Network Financial Consumer Agency of Canada Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety INDEPABIS National Homelessness Advice Service Office of Fair Trading Office for Fair Trading (Malta) Office for Fair Trading (Isle of Man) Pension Wise Water Industry Commission for Scotland Witness Service
Current competition regulators	Administrative Council for Economic Defense Anti-Monopoly Committee Australian Competition & Consumer Commission Autoridade da Concorrência Autorité de la concurrence Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia Commerce Commission Competition and Consumer Protection Commission Competition and Markets Authority Competition Appeal Tribunal Competition Bureau Competition Commission Competition Commission Competition Commission Competition and Consumer Commission Directorate-General for Competition Fair Trade Commission Fair Trade Commission Fair Trade Commission Federal Antimonopoly Service Federal Cartel Office Federal Trade Commission Financial Markets Authority International Competition Network International Financial Services Commission Italian Competition Authority Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China Netherlands Competition Authority Norwegian Competition Authority Philippine Competition Commission Queensland Competition Authority Superintendency of Industry and Commerce United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division
Historic competition regulators	Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities Industrial Commission National Board for Prices and Incomes Securities Commission of New Zealand
Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)	Alaska PIRG Arizona PIRG California PIRG Colorado PIRG Connecticut PIRG Georgia PIRG Illinois PIRG Iowa PIRG Maryland PIRG Massachusetts PIRG Minnesota PIRG Missouri PIRG New Jersey PIRG New Mexico PIRG New York PIRG North Carolina PIRG Ohio PIRG Ontario PIRG Pennsylvania PIRG Michigan PIRG Rhode Island PIRG Vermont PIRG Washington PIRG Wisconsin PIRG
Environmental	Bioscience Resource Project Environmental Action League of Conservation Voters Green Corps Environment America

Categories: