People Power

Description

Saul Alinsky, according to Time Magazine in 1970, was a "prophet of power to the people," someone who "has possibly antagonized more people . . . than any other living American." People Power introduces the major organizers who adopted and modified Alinsky's vision across the United States:

--Fred Ross, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and the Community Service Organization and National Farm Workers Association
--Nicholas von Hoffman and the Woodlawn Organization
--Tom Gaudette and the Northwest Community Organization
--Ed Chambers, Richard Harmon, and the Industrial Areas Foundation
--Shel Trapp, Gale Cincotta, and National People's Action
--Heather Booth, Midwest Academy, and Citizen Action
--Wade Rathke and ACORN

Weaving classic texts with interviews and their own context-setting commentaries, the editors of People Power provide the first comprehensive history of Alinsky-based organizing in the tumultuous period from 1955 to 1980, when the key organizing groups in the United States took form. Many of these selections--previously available only on untranscribed audiotapes or in difficult-to-read mimeograph or Xerox formats--appear in print here for the first time.

Sujets

• Political Advocacy
• Political Process
• Human Rights
• Political Science
• Social movement
• History of the United States
• Politics

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 27 avril 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826520432
• Langue: English

Extrait

PEOPLE POWER
PEOPLE POWER

Edited by
Aaron Schutz and Mike Miller
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS Nashville
Copyright for the reprinted selections resides with the author, agent, or original publisher. For more information, see the credit that accompanies each selection.
© 2015 by Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee 37235
All rights reserved
First printing 2015
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file
LC control number 2014012672
LC classification number HN90.C64P46 2014
Dewey class number 303.30973—dc23
ISBN 978-0-8265-2041-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-8265-2042-5 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-8265-2043-2 (ebook)
To my wife, Jessica, and my daughters, Hiwot and Sheta .
—Aaron Schutz
To all those who have invested themselves in the art/craft/science of organizing as a way to fight for social and economic justice and make democracy a living reality. And to the memory of Herb White, organizer extraordinaire .
—Mike Miller
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface: Why Is Alinsky Important Today?
—Mike Miller
Part I: Introduction
1. Editors’ Introduction
—Mike Miller and Aaron Schutz
2. Saul Alinsky and His Core Concepts
—Mike Miller
3. What Is an Organizer? (1973)
—Richard Rothstein
Part II: Alinsky’s Colleagues
Section A: Nicholas von Hoffman: The Woodlawn Organization and the Civil Rights Movement in the North
4. An Introduction to Nicholas von Hoffman
—Aaron Schutz
5. The Woodlawn Organization: Assorted Essays (1961–1969)
—Various Authors
6. Questions and Answers (1959)
—Saul Alinsky, Nicholas von Hoffman, and Lester Hunt
7. Finding and Making Leaders (1963)
—Nicholas von Hoffman
Section B: Fred Ross: Organizing Mexican Americans in the West
8. Fred Ross and the House-Meeting Approach
—Various Authors
9. Cesar Chavez and the Fate of Farmworker Organizing
—Mike Miller
10. Dolores Huerta and Gil Padilla
—Various Authors
Section C: Tom Gaudette and His Legacy
11. Tom Gaudette: An Oral History
—Various Speakers
12. Shel Trapp and Gale Cincotta
—Various Authors
13. What Every Community Organization Should Know about Community Development (1975)
—Stan Holt
14. John Baumann and the PICO National Network
—Interviewed by Mike Miller
Section D: Dick Harmon
15. An Introduction to Dick Harmon
—Various Authors
16. Making an Offer We Can’t Refuse (1973)
—Dick Harmon
Section E: Ed Chambers and the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)
17. Ed Chambers: The IAF Institute and the Post-Alinsky IAF
—Mike Miller
18. Organizing for Family and Congregation (1978)
—Industrial Areas Foundation
19. Relationship and Power: An Interview with Ernesto Cortes Jr. (1993)
—Noëlle McAfee
20. A Call for Organizing, Confrontation, and Community Building (1995)
—Rev. Johnny Ray Youngblood
21. Standing for the Whole (1990)
—Industrial Areas Foundation
Part III: Different Directions
Section A: Heather Booth, Midwest Academy, and Citizen Action
22. An Introduction to Heather Booth, the Midwest Academy, and Citizen Action
—Aaron Schutz, with commentary by Mike Miller
23. Direct Action Organizing: A Handbook for Women: Chapter 1 (1974)
—Heather Booth
Section B: Wade Rathke and Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
24. An Introduction to Wade Rathke and ACORN
—Aaron Schutz
25. ACORN Community Organizing Model (1973)
—Wade Rathke
26. The Story of an ACORN Organizer: Madeline Talbott
—Interviewed by Mike Miller
Part IV: Concluding Commentaries
27. The State of Organizing
—Mike Miller
28. Thinking beyond the Present
—Aaron Schutz
Index
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the following people for reading and commenting on portions of the book, being interviewed by us, and otherwise helping move this book to completion: Frank Bardacke, John Baumann, Heather Booth, Luke Bretherton, Molly Corbett, Don Elmer, Ken Galdston, John Gaudette, Michael Gecan, Arnie Graf, Stephanie Gut, Dick Harmon, Stan Holt, Lester Hunt, Bud Kanitz, Gretchen Laue, Spence Limbocker, Richard March, Craig Merrilees, Mary Ochs, Gilbert Padilla, Bill Pastreich, Gregory Pierce, Frank Pierson, Karen Ramos, Miles Rapoport, Wade Rathke, Fred Ross Jr., Danny Schechter, Ed Shurna, Tom Sinclair, Margery Tabankin, Madeline Talbott, Gabriel Thompson, Nicholas von Hoffman, Michael Westgate, and Herb White. Thank you to all the authors, estates, and owners of the included texts for permission to reprint them, including many of the individuals named above, as well as Noëlle McAfee, Presbyterians Today , Johnny Ray Youngblood, and Kathy Trapp. Without their participation, this book could not have been completed.
In addition to the wonderful University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee interlibrary loan department staff, who went beyond the call of duty in accessing many materials, we would like to thank the archives of the following institutions: the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Chicago History Museum, DePaul University, East Tennessee State University, the Highlander Center, Loyola University-Marymount, the University of Notre Dame, Stanford University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The Farmworker Movement Documentation Project website ( farmworkermovement.com ), put together by LeRoy Chatfield, was invaluable for the Fred Ross section.
We apologize if we have missed anyone who assisted us with this effort.
Aaron would like also to thank his family: his wife, Jessica, who put up with numerous long and loud phone discussions with Mike, and his daughters, Hiwot and Sheta, always annoyed at the time their father spends on his computer.
While thanks are due, the final responsibility for what has been done with these contributions rests with us.
Preface
Why Is Alinsky Important Today?
MIKE MILLER
Millions of people demonstrated in Egypt and toppled a dictator. But the people responsible for that mobilization were unable to elect a government to fill the vacancy. A careful analysis of “people power” in the country would have made the outcome predictable. When the elected president exceeded the military’s definition of what was acceptable, it dumped him. A careful analysis of the power structure of the country would have made this outcome predictable as well. I think the organizers of the liberation struggle in Egypt would benefit from a reading of Saul Alinsky.
Occupy Wall Street lifted up the vast economic inequalities that exist in the country and made them the topic of everyday conversation. Opinion polls agreed: the vast majority of the American people opposed the growing income and wealth gaps. They wanted politicians to do something about it. Nothing has been done, nor is anything likely to be done. I think the organizers of Occupy Wall Street would benefit from a reading of Saul Alinsky.
Barack Obama’s election lifted the hopes of millions that something might fundamentally change in Washington. When he ran, he was attacked as a radical Saul Alinsky community organizer. While he was a community organizer for three years, he abandoned that path to social change and chose an electoral one. Here’s what I wrote elsewhere shortly after his election:
What Obama does with the electoral organization that was put together for his campaign is separate from what people who want a small-d democratic agenda in the country must do. Obama’s agenda is a presidential one. Community organizing’s agenda should be to push the president. There will be plenty of people pushing him from Wall Street, the auto industry, and other elite circles. If there is not a countervailing push, organized independently of Obama, hopefully with his blessing, we will be disappointed in him as a president—and will have ourselves to blame. 1
By his second term, the disappointment with Obama was palpable. But it was also the case that there was no countervailing push, organized independently of him, to make him be better.
In his younger days, in a special issue of Illinois Issues titled “After Alinsky,” Obama wrote:
In theory, community organizing provides a way to merge various strategies for neighborhood empowerment. Organizing begins with the premise that (1) the problems facing inner-city communities do not result from a lack of effective solutions, but from a lack of power to implement these solutions; (2) that the only way for communities to build long-term power is by organizing people and money around a common vision; and (3) that a viable organization can only be achieved if a broadly based indigenous leadership—and not one or two charismatic leaders—can knit together the diverse interests of their local institutions. 2
This means bringing together churches, block clubs, parent groups and any other institutions in a given community to pay dues, hire organizers, conduct research, develop leadership, hold rallies and education campaigns, and begin drawing up plans on a whole range of issues—jobs, education, crime, etc.
Once such a vehicle is formed, it holds the power to m