Organizing

Social Change: We Are The Problem We Are Seeking To Solve

April 14, 2014 Michael Johnson, www.truth-out.org Strategize! Mass Movement, Organizing

Developing useful theories for social change is very challenging. Two recent articles in Truthout show us that one major difficulty is to get theory to work from the bottom up. Once it wanders away from the reservation of experience, it's on a wrong path. Let me use an analogy to explain my thinking here. It's not meant to convince you, but to clarify what I want to say in this article. Think of society as a garden, full of a rich diversity of productive plants in beneficial relationships with each other. Think of culture as the soil they are embedded in, from which they draw essential nutrients, and to which they contribute their own stuff for its enrichment. Social change movements, at their best, want to fix a world dominated by exploitive relationships. Most social change theory, in my opinion, is aimed at fixing particular systems, practices, toolkits, etc. Theory that works from the ground up focuses on the soil itself, since this is what creates and sustains the dominant relationships.

New York City Teachers Unite Against Testing

April 5, 2014 Valerie Strauss, www.washingtonpost.com Resist! Education, Organizing

Here is an unusual post about resistance to high-stakes standardized testing in one school, co-written by the entire faculty of P.S. 167 – The Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School. By The Faculty of P.S. 167 Imagine your first day at a new school. You are surrounded by new faces and new teachers and are navigating a new building. What are you concerned about? Making new friends? Liking your new teachers? When they enter our school each fall, our sixth-graders write about their hopes and fears for middle school. This year, 35 percent said their greatest fear was failing the state tests. At one of the most socially difficult times of their lives, over a third of our children have more anxiety about standardized tests than any other issue.

Would Saul Alinsky Break His Own Rules?

April 5, 2014 Mark Engler & Paul Engler, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Nonviolence, Organizing

Although Saul Alinsky, the founding father of modern community organizing in the United States, passed away in 1972, he is still invoked by the right as a dangerous harbinger of looming insurrection. And although his landmark book, Rules for Radicals, is now nearly 45 years old, the principles that emerged from Alinsky’s work have influenced every generation of community organizers that has come since. The most lasting of Alinsky’s prescriptions are not his well-known tactical guidelines — “ridicule is man’s most potent weapon” or “power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Rather, they are embedded in a set of organizational practices and predispositions, a defined approach to building power at the level of local communities. Hang around social movements for a while and you will no doubt be exposed to the laws of Chicago-style community organizing: “Don’t talk ideology, just issues. No electoral politics. Build organizations, not movements… Focus on neighborhoods and on concrete, winnable goals.”

Homeland Security Study Praises Occupy Sandy…

April 3, 2014 Thomas Hintze, www.truth-out.org Create! Homeland Security, Occupy, Organizing

A new study titled "The Resilient Social Network" praises Occupy Sandy, the fluid, grass-roots relief network that emerged following the devastation of Superstorm Sandy. The report offers comprehensive analysis of Occupy Sandy's "Success Drivers" and juxtaposes its findings with the "Limitations of Traditional Relief Efforts," characterizing the work of conventional responders like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and The Red Cross, and providing recommendations for the way these organizations can improve their efforts in the future. Sounds great, right? There's just one problem: the study was conducted for the Department of Homeland Security. The late journalist Michael Hastings covered the involvement of Homeland Security in monitoring Occupy Wall Street, a Rolling Stone story that he broke in conjunction with Wikileaks in February 2012.

In Bolivia, Being Journalist And Organizer Go Together

April 3, 2014 Marta Molina, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Bolivia, Journalism, Organizing, Women's Rights

Susana Pacara, one of the founders of Radio Lachiwana in Cochabamba, Bolivia, believes that communication work is a key part of the defense of territory. She doesn’t mean this in an abstract way. Over the years, Pacara has fought the privatization of water, the construction of mega highways and the attacks on the rights of coca growers. She’s braved tear gas and repression with such bravery that she’s earned the title “Mamá Susana.”And now she’s fulfilled her dream of transmitting these stories of resistance and defense at the national level. In Quechua, “lachiwana” refers to a little bee that makes its hive in the most secret of places. The word could almost just as easily describe Pacara herself. At 49 years old, she has a small build, which she says helps her get to all sorts of places, and a curious expression.

Labor Movements: How To Fan The Sparks

April 2, 2014 Alexandra Bradbury & Jane Slaughter, www.labornotes.org Strategize! Labor, Mass Movement, Organizing

We troublemakers keep hoping for the spark that will set a wildfire of workers in motion. The worse our situation gets—economically, politically, ecologically—the more we yearn for a vast movement to erupt and transform the landscape. It’s not impossible. Look at 1937, when workplace occupations spread everywhere, from auto factories to Woolworth’s. The 1930s wave of militancy forced Congress to aid union organizing with new laws and to enact Social Security and unemployment insurance. Industrial unions formed during that upsurge continue to this day. So why not here and now? In our lifetimes, we’ve seen sparks—but we haven’t seen them spread like that. In some ways we’re more connected than ever before, able to watch each other’s struggles in real time on our phones. Yet mostly, the sparks haven’t leapt from one workplace or one Capitol rotunda to another. The Occupy movement is the shining exception.

Postal Unions Unite to Fight Staples

March 14, 2014 APWU Web News, www.apwu.org Organize! Labor, Organizing, Post Office, Unions

Declaring that “the U.S. Postal Service is under unprecedented attack,” the presidents of the four postal unions have formed a historic alliance to fight back. “A congressionally-manufactured financial crisis drains the USPS of vital resources,” the union presidents write in a proclamation [PDF] signed over the last several days. “Six-day delivery is under constant threat of elimination. The reduction of service standards and the elimination of half of the nation’s mail processing centers has slowed service and wiped out tens of thousands of good jobs. Post offices in cities and small towns are being sold or closed or having their hours cut back.

Tenants Form Union to Fight Gentrification

March 13, 2014 Ian Marsh, www.bkbureau.org Organize! Gentrification, Organizing, Tenants

In the struggle to hold on to their places in a neighborhood where rents are rising rapidly, a group in Crown Heights is hoping there’s strength in numbers. The newly formed Crown Heights Tenant Union held a rally outside a building on Union Street to protest a wave of displacement in the wake of rapid gentrification in their neighborhood.

Organizing By Having Dinners At Your Apartment

February 26, 2014 Laura Gottesdiener www.wagingnonviolence.org Organize! Organizing

I soon learned that, out of nearly 40 participants, my sketch was perhaps the most unimaginative one of all. People drew rooftop gardens and community centers anddomestic violence programs. There were solar-panels studded roofs and elevators for the subway station and free language classes. The neighborhood had a local newspaper and a low-frequency radio station. The library sprouted multiple floors and extra computers. There was beach access, a luxury that — although our neighborhood bordered the water — I’d never really considered. One woman had drawn a large apartment building and in each one of the windows hung a small sign reading, “Huelga de Baja Renta” or Low Rent Strike.

How To Organize A Moral Monday

February 17, 2014 Staff, www.naacpnc.org Strategize! Moral Mondays, Organizing

Is Your Community Ready for Moral Monday? Yes, if there is a core group of people in your community committed to social justice, willing and ready to work and plan a Moral Monday Rally and committed to continuing to work together after the Moral Monday Rally is over. Build a Coalition: Bring together a diverse social justice coalition - faith, civil rights, labor - committed to planning and implementing Moral Monday and also committed to be involved in the coalition after the rally. Be sure your local NAACP Branch is included. Reach into all parts of the community to ensure inclusion and diversity by gender, race/ethnicity, religious denominations, and age. They will be needed to do voter registration, build a local HKonJ People’s Assembly, mobilize for the HKonJ Mass People’s Assembly in February, and to sustain this movement for the long term. Almost 1,000 people across North Carolina have done civil disobedience; make sure those in your community are invited to be part of the coalition. WOW there is a lot to be done! Lots of people will be needed.

Occupy and Community Organizing

November 30, 2013 Bob Crego, www.PopularResistance.org Organize! Occupy, Organizing

There is a new Occupy initiative called Occupy - Grassroots (OCGR). Occupy and specifically Occupy Grassroots (OCGR) is part of an organic movement of "people of good will" uniting to impact our culture through organizing, direct action, education, and facilitated communication. The mission is to awaken the hearts and minds of citizens, to create sustainable communities, and to face the critical issues of our day such as climate change and the corporatization of democracy. The ultimate authority in our democracy rests with "We the People". OCGR organizes to awaken our fellow citizens to this reality. OCGR meets via a free conference call the first and third Tuesday of each month at 9:00 pm eastern - 6:00 pm Pacific. . If you would like to join us, please sign-up at the following link: http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/YRIC5KXIZZCW6XV8 Our goal is to empower people through local group organizing and strategic action. This is achieved by developing a relationship between the Occupy Movement and the local community organizing model developed by the Wisconsin Grassroots Network (WGN).

Naomi Wolf: When Protest is Effective and When it is Not

November 7, 2013 Naomi Wolf, www.PopularResistance.org Strategize! Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Organizing

A portion of a presentation by Naomi Wolf about her research on protests -- when they are effective and when they are not. She describes how we have to stop the normal course of business or as she says "stop traffic." She also points out how protest is being regulated to ineffectiveness. The permit process, the First Amendment Zones and the police regulating where protest is allowed. Wolf points out it is important to violate those rules, break the law and expand our rights to Freedom of Speech, Right to Association and right to petition the government for grievances. Looking at history in the U.S. and around the world, protest that works does not obey the limits of the law or allow police to regulate them. The express their human right to speak out and assemble whether or not they operate within the law. They go out and stop traffic by blockading buildings, pipeline builders or frackers seeking to drill, they sit-in as part of a strike or take over the office of a president of a university, or they go into the street to march, whether or not allowed or use so many other tactics that stop business as usual.

November 8-10, Global: Aaron Swartz Memorial Hackathon Events

November 6, 2013 Staff, www.nyc.aaronswartzhackathon.org Resist! Aaron Swartz, Organizing, Transparency

Inspired by the work he did and the people he touched, we are organizing recurring hackathons at locations all over the world in memory of Aaron Swartz. The next set will be synchronized on the weekend of November 8-10, 2013. The event will bring together the varied communities that Aaron touched to figure out how the important problems of the world connect, and to share the load of working on those problems. Within weeks of Aaron's death in January, 20 hackerspaces, schools, and libraries organized Aaron Swartz Memorial Hackathon events all over the world. In our collective shock and grief, we came together to console ourselves, remember Aaron, and, in his memory, to work on important problems ranging all the way from open access advocacy to a web.py database refactor. Half a year later, we still feel an immense shock and loss, and after many conversations with people who attended one of the initial events, still think that we need to be there for each other and focus on the things that are important.

Anonymous Prepares For ‘Million Mask March’ Protests Around The World

November 4, 2013 Staff, www.rt.com Resist! Anonymous, Organizing

Rallies are expected to soon occur around the globe as protesters aligned with the hacktivist movement Anonymous prepare for mass demonstrations scheduled for Tuesday in hundreds of cities from Sydney to Seattle. Tuesday’s happening will coincide with Guy Fawkes Day, an annual celebration that started centuries ago in Britain upon an unsuccessful attempt by the date’s namesake to blow up the British Parliament as part of the Gunpowder Treason Plot on November 5, 1605. And though there are no plans in the mix to annihilate any federal office buildings this time around, activists involved with the Anonymousmovement — an international legion of likeminded individuals who’ve adopted a representation of Fawkes as an emblem of sorts — are staging a series of protests near political institutions around the world this year.

A Different Kind of Shutdown

November 4, 2013 Bhaskar Sunkara, inthesetimes.com Strategize! Organizing, Worker Rights and Jobs

Workers never got anything by asking nicely. They got it by striking, picketing, and yes, occasionally dynamiting their employers. But in an era of declining industrial action, when few are inculcated in the traditions of union solidarity and the strike, those memories have faded. Obama wants to see them completely forgotten. During the height of New Deal-era militancy, nearly all of General Motors’ 150,000 production workers were involved in a workplace shutdown or factory occupation. “Every time a dispute came up,” one UAW member remembered, “the fellows would have a tendency to sit down and just stop working.” This wasn’t the same kind of inchoate indignation that fuels the Tea Party politicians whom Obama was rebuking—it was a response from the victims of wage cuts, unemployment, police batons and poverty. Both upsurges, however, are testament to what force and organization can accomplish.

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