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# Philosophy

## Software Is Political

Every tool your movement adopts shapes how you organize. Proprietary platforms reinforce hierarchy — the vendor decides what features you get, what data you can export, and what happens when you stop paying. Community-controlled tools support democratic autonomy because the people using them decide how they work.

If you do politics, who is reading your secrets? Corporate platforms harvest political intelligence systematically. Facebook chat data has been used in criminal prosecutions. Social media platforms are leveraged for political coordination and surveillance. When you organize on corporate infrastructure, you hand your strategies, your voter data, and your movement's internal conversations to entities that may have every reason to work against you.

Changemaker Lite exists because we believe organizational independence requires technological independence.

## The Extractive Model

Most campaign and political software is extractive by design. The pattern is familiar:

1. Free trial hooks you in
2. Paid features gate the tools you actually need
3. Data export becomes difficult or impossible
4. Pricing escalates as you grow and become dependent
5. Your usage patterns are monetized through data partnerships, behavioral analytics, and enterprise contracts

This isn't a side effect — it's the business model. You pay with money and with data. Your voter lists, canvassing outcomes, donor records, and communication patterns become assets on someone else's balance sheet.

Every subscription to corporate software funds the machine you're fighting.

## The Alternative: Grow Power, Don't Rent It

Changemaker asks a different question than most political tech: instead of "how do we extract more data from a community?" we ask "what tools are needed to grow change in a community?"

Growing change means:

- Making real connections between organizers, volunteers, and community members — not just collecting their contact info
- Providing access to the same caliber of tools that well-funded campaigns use — without the price tag or the surveillance
- Deeply understanding the wants and needs of your movement — on infrastructure you control, with data you own

## Distributed Organizing Is The Way Out

Socialist movements will never outspend capital. Progressive organizations cannot compete financially with well-funded conservative movements, and chasing big-donor dollars leads to mission drift and organizational capture — what some call the Political Industrial Complex.

A thousand neighborhood mailing lists has more potential impact than any single organization. When organizing knowledge and digital tools are widely distributed — not gatekept by leadership or locked behind vendor paywalls — movements become genuinely resilient.

The historical pattern is clear: worker victories occurred when organizing knowledge was widely distributed, not concentrated at the top. Changemaker Lite is built on this premise — provide the tools freely, train people to use them, and get out of the way.

Workers, with the right tools, will build the future.

## De-Corp Your Stack

The practical work of digital sovereignty starts with replacing corporate services one at a time:

Corporate Tool | Changemaker Alternative | What You Gain
--- | --- | ---
Mailchimp | Listmonk | Unlimited subscribers, no per-send charges, your data stays local
NationBuilder | Changemaker Lite | Full campaign platform without the $50-500/month ransom
Google Docs | Gitea + Code Server | Version control, collaboration, no algorithmic scanning
Slack | Rocket.Chat | Team chat with SSO, no message limits, no corporate eavesdropping
SurveyMonkey | Response Wall | Supporter voices on your terms, with moderation you control
Google Maps | Self-hosted Leaflet | No API fees, no tracking, offline-capable canvassing

The cost reduction is dramatic. Organizations spending thousands monthly on SaaS tools can replace them with a single self-hosted server running Changemaker Lite for roughly the cost of hosting — often under $50/month.

But the real value isn't cost savings. It's control. No vendor can cut off your access. No acquisition can change your terms. No government can compel a foreign company to hand over your data. Your movement's digital infrastructure belongs to your movement.

## Security Culture Starts With Infrastructure

Security culture isn't just about who knows what — it's about who can know what. When your communications run through corporate servers, you've made a structural decision about who has access before you've even thought about operational security.

Key principles:

- Compartmentalization by design — Self-hosted systems let you control exactly who has access to what, at the infrastructure level
- No third-party access — No corporate subpoenas for your data, no partnership agreements sharing your information
- Audit everything — When you run the servers, you can verify that your security promises are real, not just marketing
- Consent and autonomy — Your community sets its own security boundaries rather than accepting whatever a vendor's privacy policy allows

You wouldn't hold a sensitive strategy meeting in a room wired by someone else. Why would you plan your campaign on someone else's servers?

## Our Principles

Liberation First Technology should center marginalized voices. The tools we build reflect the values we hold, and they shape the movements that use them.

Community Over Profit Changemaker Lite is free and open source software, built by a cooperative — not a startup looking for an exit. There are no shareholders to satisfy, no venture capitalists to answer to. The software serves the community because that's the only thing it's designed to do.

Data Sovereignty Communities should own their complete digital infrastructure. Not just the content — the servers, the databases, the encryption keys, and the ability to pack up and leave at any time.

Radical Accessibility Self-hosted doesn't have to mean self-excluding. Changemaker Lite is designed for organizers, not sysadmins. If you can follow a guide to set up a WordPress site, you can run this platform.

## Further Reading

These articles explore the ideas behind Changemaker Lite in depth:

- If You Do Politics, Who Is Reading Your Secrets? — Why you should de-corp your software stack
- Distributed Digital Organizing Is The Way Out — Why decentralized power structures outperform centralized ones
- How Not To Get Got Making Content — Platform independence for political content creators
- What Is Security Culture? — The foundations of security culture for movements