On this day, July 3nd, 2008, the news brings to our attention a generation of community organizer aspirants, the Chinese finding their way around the Great Firewall, backlash against Rogers, the Canadian iPhone provider, and much, much more.

• Ukrainians are becoming “increasingly involved in grassroots activism.”
• A short profile of Carrotmob and the Carrotmobsters who make it work.
• Canadian iPhone customers going about their outrage the wrong way?
• Living and dying by social networks.
• Chinese finding a way around the firewall.
• And finally, I want to be an organizer when I grow up.

-Filed in News

“Saul Alinsky is referred to in this piece. He’s Hillary’s spiritual leader in terms of creating her own chaos.”

Rush Limbaugh, April 9, 2008

“This sort of clever manipulation was at the heart of Alinsky-style ‘community organizing’ in the interest of revolutionary change. He taught, through his books and seminars for radical acolytes, how to convince the common folks that the organizer was merely their tool, willingly offering his own time and service so that they could succeed in throwing off the yoke of their masters.”

www.patdollard.com, “Hussein, the Money Wizard,” June 9, 2007

Media and blog coverage of Barack Obama, his field program, and his campaign’s ascent has been especially interesting in its overall confused treatment of legendary community organizer Saul Alinsky (Hillary Clinton, as detailed above, has suffered the same kind of muckraking). The memory of Alinsky (now dead 26 years), who popularized and largely put into motion the organizational styling that have been credited for Sen Obama’s most recent successes, has been handled in some circles similarly to the way in which the Reverend Jeremiah Wright (and Sen. Obama’s middle name, for that matter) was; as if he were an erratic, anti-American aggitater whose influence should cast an air of doubt onto that of the candidate.

A leftist who so openly identified with the term “radical” might not so much mind these associations.

However, considering how much Alinsky influenced the tactics of the American left and right, this pot-stirring is simply inaccurate. Alinsky pushed for a people-powered revolution. He might not have fully understood the scope of how his tactics would by systemized and used by folks on all sides of the spectrum, but used by social justice groups for more than a decade, the ascent of his techniques is not just limited to radical leftists. They would become the tools of an increasingly-organizer-oriented mainstream Democratic Party, especially within the context of Howard Dean’s 50 State Strategy. The GOP would nearly perfect the art of the GOTV push thanks to the very same tactics. We would see his rules used to popularize the issues and image of mainstream political candidates. Reaching even further across the spectrum, John Altevgot, a former Christian radio host and conservative political activist, has called Alinsky his hero.

While it might politically sexy for partisans to attribute a sense of “anti-American” guilt unto Sen. Obama by association with Alinsky, this is a deceitful, inaccurate attack. Alinsky’s methods, while rooted in a partisan divide, came to transcend them and have been used by those on all sides of the spectrum. Alinsky was the grandfather of the way that we all — right or left, pre or post partisan— organize, and his actions have influenced how we all perpetuate our respective causes. Right, Left, Center, mainstream or fringe, the honest thing for all of us to do would be to celebrate and civilly discuss the tools that Alinsky brought to our table.

-Filed in People

Once you organize people, they’ll keep advancing from issue to issue toward the ultimate objective: people power. We’ll not only give them a cause, we’ll make life goddamn exciting for them again — life instead of existence. We’ll turn them on.

Saul Alinsky, Playboy Magazine, 1972

-Filed in People

“All life is warfare, and it’s the continuing fight against the status quo that revitalizes society, stimulates new values and gives man renewed hope of eventual progress.”

-Saul Alinsky

Since Thursday marks the anniversary of Saul Alinsky’s passing, we’ll be focusing a bit on the grandfather of modern political organization. While it has been 26 years since Alinsky passed, he maintains relevance by being featured in the news nearly once a day. This is especially true in the context of this election, where two of the most talked about candidates worked to exemplify Alinsky’s teachings, and Ron Paul’s campaign is still alive thanks in part to modern applications of Alinsky’s methods.

In addition to pointing out cool, web-based odds and ends online, posting videos, and putting together Alinsky-centered podcasts, we’ll be talking with David Sirota on Wednesday and we’ll be sure to ask him Alinsky-relevant questions in focusing on the modern applications of his teachings. If you have anything you’d like to see go up, please be in touch.

Alinsky:

• Wikipedia entry
• 1970 Time Magazine profile
• Biographical overview
• “The American Radical”
• Comprehensive interview

Alinsky and Sen. Obama:

• Obama learns from team-Alinsky
• Obama, Alinsky, and ’self-interest doctrine’
• Obama, (Bobby) Kennedy, and Alinsky

Alinsky and Sen. Clinton

• “Alinsky’s Daughter” and the Super-Secret Saul-Centered Senior Thesis
• More thesis chatter on Hillary Clinton Quarterly
• And even more on The Boston Globe

Alinsky Miscellany:

• Alinsky quoted to suggest that conservatives are more honest than liberals
• Post-Alinsky organizing?
• Taking Alinsky to the inter-webs
• Alinsky’s core rules for radicals
• Lyrics to Sufjan Stevens’ Sufjan Stevens:The Perpetual Self, Or What Would Saul Alinsky Do?

-Filed in People

On this day, May 12th, 2008, the news brings to our attention Chinese organizers 2.0, social media against Obama, a righteous answer to YouTube, hasty (and frightening) repercussions are taken against Egyptian strike organizers and more.

• Feeling otherwise alone, mommies find a friend in online social networking.
• Human Rights watch claims that an activist who used Facebook to organize a general strike in Egypt was beaten and threatened with rape.
• A plan to grab the Olympic torch by way of flash mob was thwarted when the organizer was arrested by the Chinese government.
• Social media leveraged against Sen. Obama.
• Facebook quickly announces its answer to MySpace Data Availability.
• Obama channels Alinsky, who encouraged the importance of getting people invested into an issue by making any contribution possible, no matter how small it might be.
• Chinese dissenters are coordinating general strikes by way of Facebook and SMS.
• Do you find YouTube to be offensive due to its relative godlessness?
• And finally, if you don’t like a candidate, the Internet is a lovely place for a smear campaign (Bonus quiz: Which Democratic candidate refuses to put his hand on the Bible, preferring instead to put it on the Quran?)

-Filed in Uncategorized

…when we:

• Contemplate the importance reciprocity in Internet action with Beth Kanter
• Talk to Justin Massa, founder of MoveSmart.org, about how punk rock led to community development
• Assess the successes and challenges of Meetup organizers with over 10 seasoned players
• Find out what makes The Great Clay Shirky tick
• Take a look at why everyone we interview talks about Saul Alinsky as if he were a deity
• Shoot the shit with Ze Frank
• And much, much more

-Filed in Uncategorized

Ray Rogers‘ name is a legendary one in the world of grassroots organization, and he is especially well-regarded in the world of labor activism. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1967 at the peak of the golden age of modern American organization. In conversation he consistently returns to Saul Alinsky’s seminal work Rules For Radicals, explaining that it has forever been an important resource for him. At present, he is the director of the Stop Killer Coke

In the 70s, Rogers coined the term “corporate campaign.” He is the director of Corporate Campaign Inc. and he has since successfully put the tactic into action against several substantial corporations, including Campbell Soup Co. and J.P. Stevens. He has a background in both social and political organization, the latter of which he cites as a great experience to constructively inform the former. In his early 60s, Rogers is exceedingly energetic and is still very excited to take almost everyone on, from Exxon Mobil to American Airlines (which he campaigned against in the 80s). In the middle of the conversation, he took excused himself to take a call on the other line. When he switched back, he said emphatically, “I’d love to find a way to zap these outfits that send you pre-recorded messages about whatever.”

A corporate campaign is a collective bargaining campaign that focuses on the importance of comprehensive research,coalition building and varying forms of political pressure. According to CCI’s website, a corporate campaign “develops strategies and tactics and structures campaigns in ways that strengthen internal union solidarity, maximize membership and family involvement and generate favorable media coverage.” Rogers ads that it is a lens through which a campaign can be seen as a whole, and where tactics stop being seen as ends and are turned into effective and moving means.

Here, Rogers explains what drove him to go after Coke, what he could be doing better, the steps he takes into consideration when planning action, and how he wishes he were better using the Internet. campaign,which is working to mobilize consumers against the Coca-Cola corporation.

Why Coke? What drove you to go after them with such intensity?

Killer Coke was set up to go after the Coca-Cola company and to hold them accountable. That is the main reason we became involved. I was hearing more and more about cases of systematic torture that were happening to unionists in Columbia and it sounded like a replay of what had happened previously in Guatemala. The issue was one of life and death and people were coming to me, asking what should be done but no one really had any resources to move it forward. Just what I need, right? Another issue and no resources [laughs].

At that point, I had been looking at going after Exxon Mobil, but what I needed was real financing. However, the things that people were telling me about Coke were so horrible. I am not naive and I have been taking on corporations for many years, so I did my own investigation and research. What I found was that the situation in Columbia was as bad, if not worse than it was being reported to me. It was a replay of what was happening with the company in Guatemala in the 80s. So I began to look at how to build a broad case against them that looked at all of their weaknesses. I researched sensitive issues around the company and then I came up with one sentence to describe them:

“The world of Coca-Cola is a world full of lies, deception, immorality, corruption and widespread labor, human rights and environmental abuses.”

I have put that out there as a challenge. I have toured it around. If it’s wrong or misleading, then they can go ahead and sue me.

When putting together a campaign, what are the steps you put together before putting it into action?

There are two basic things that you need to consider if you plan on being successful against a major target or adversary. First, you need to determine where you are coming from conceptually and analytically. You need to be able to lay out a strategy that goes from Point A - the starting point - to Point Z - total defeat. We’re not out to annihilate anyone, but the idea is that you know that as you get closer to point Z, the target will begin to reach a breaking point and there is then a willingness to compromise.

Second, you need to come at it from an organizational level. You must ask, “Can I mobilize the necessary forces to reach my objectives? Can we force these companies and political mechanisms to the breaking point?” I don’t mean that you figure out if you can make them make concessions that look good in the papers? In the case of Coke, real people are dying. Animals are dying. The environment is dying. Spin is no replacement for actual progress. So you need to know if you have the tools necessary to get closer to that breaking point. Can you generate the money? The drive? The person power?

It is important for people to understand the importance of breaking corporate power into manageable units so that you can challenge, attack, divide and conquer accordingly. It is important to be able to identify which tools work best. How do you get votes to the polls? How do you communicate? Is Internet, direct mail, handing out fliers, or other options going to work best? Considering how you will effectively communicate is obviously important. Without it, you don’t exist.

Where do you see some of the biggest failures in this sort of organizing?

Some well-meaning people, organizers and activists are unable to analyze the situation and make appropriate judgments based on their goals and actions. It is important to move forward concisely. There isn’t a lot of room, especially on a small budget, for trial and error. What happens a lot of the time is that people will demonstrate against something. They will organize a protest or a demonstration and then they will wait to see the response. There is no response. Then they organize a bigger one and there is no response and this keeps going. What happens? The plans get bigger but the attendance goes down because nothing is happening. This is because too often, people see demonstration as a strategy and not a tactic. That happens with all elements from time to time.

Sometimes, people don’t know who they’re trying to reach and that can create an opportunity to waste a lot of resources. Working in political organization taught me the importance of targeting. When McGovern was running - I was so wild about him at the time; I would have been likely to go out and flier and canvass an entirely conservative neighborhood because I was so on fire, but it wouldn’t have done any good. It would be like throwing the fliers in the trash, only worse because [the residents] would have been so angry about it that they would probably have been more likely to vote against him. You’ve got to know what resources you have, know where to direct them, and understand how to best put them to work.

How much does PR and negative publicity come into account when you are organizing a campaign like Killer Coke?

I look at publicity like the icing on a cake. If I were to give you a cake without icing, you might say, “This is nice, but where is the icing?” Then I might give you a plate of icing and you would probably say, “I wanted icing, but I really want it with the cake.” They both work together to make up what it is you are looking for.

Negative publicity causes concern for corporations, but they can weather that. In the case of Coke, this is a multi-billion dollar corporation. If the going gets tough, they can just buy good publicity. So you need to come at publicity as a component of something larger. Media relations is just one part of a multi-dimensional strategy.

It is important to have nice, eye catching literature and it’s important to do this so that you can control your message when putting it out there. But if you develop a great overall campaign, you’re in an especially good spot because the media can’t ignore that and they’re forced to tell the truth. There will always be elements in the media that try to undermine you, but if you develop something solid, it makes it hard for them to ignore. You will generate good coverage.

Where does the Killer Coke campaign need to improve?

The whole thing is obviously really time consuming. I spend much of the day and night putting together a case against [Coca-Cola]. I can easily say that over 20 thousand hours of time has gone into this. I have raised lots of money in labor struggles that I have been involved in in the past and we need to start to do that with this. We built this campaign from the ground up and I am doing a lot of organizing and putting together our strategy but we’re not yet in a fund raising mode. I am working day and night on organizing, but we haven’t done an adequate job raising money. We need to figure out how to do that.

In your experience, what are some good ways to move forward with a campaign on a limited budget?

If you don’t have much money but you need to get the message out there, you have to set up a website. Start to develop an organization and a network. You need to be able to find and reach out to those who are sympathetic to your cause or to people who have similar sympathies. Take all of this information and start a database of contacts.

If you need money, reach out to foundations who are willing to back something meaningful and well organized, put together a plan and ask them for help. Coming from a spot where we have very little of it, I can tell you that getting your hands on money is time consuming.

What is your experience with using the Internet for organizing?

Unfortunately, I am pretty ignorant with regard to that. It took me a long time to figure out what a fax machine was. And I finally got it and was floored by how much time and money it saved. Then the Internet comes along and I am learning a whole bunch of new stuff. People would ask me all the time if I had looked up KillerCoke.com, which had already been bought by the company. They bought it all up. And I know that I could be a very rich man if I were to sell them KillerCoke.org. Had I understood this game better, I would have gone in and bought all of it up before they had. I did not really understand how important a tool it is.

We now have a retired New York City school teacher who is doing the work on the site. I have relatives who know what they’re doing who tell me how to use it. The Internet is a powerful weapon. It is a great communication tool and it is critical to modern organizing. The downfall is that people get it into their heads that the Internet is going to stop the demand or need for grassroots, person to person organizing. Getting on the phone, direct mailing, canvassing, and just being out there in general is still very important. You can never replace that. But at the same time, we would never have this global campaign if it weren’t for the Internet. I wouldn’t be getting daily emails from people asking how they can help or giving me all of this information. In the end, it is a phenomenal tool.

And as far as strengthening democracy goes, and holding corporations accountable, the Internet is a powerful tool that will better benefit the underdogs than it will the overlords. If we had the resource to do so, we’d have an entire Internet division.

(Photo Courtesy: Indymedia Ireland)

-Filed in Uncategorized