The textbooks contain much of the same information and are presented in a similar manner, though Jacoby Brown, who helped found the Jewish Organizing Initiative, emphasizes organizing within communities of faith slightly more than Minieri and Getsos.
While the above books are basically practical manuals, Thompson’s “Calling All Radicals” is more directed at the heart. As a former housing organizer in central Brooklyn, Thompson believes organizers are the key to building democracy and lluminates how they do the grunt work. Thompson presents tenants standing up to slumlords, and politicians reluctant to enact a tough lead paint bill, not as case studies but as part of a social justice story. One chapter uses a photograph from the civil rights era of African-American organizers talking on a porch with a rural African-American family as an illustration of the need to build relationships that motivate people into action.
“Calling All Radicals” also examines Alinsky’s organizing model and asks the provocative question – why do organizers do what they do, and to what end? Although organizing can be tedious, thankless work, the example of Christian Right activists' dogged efforts and their eventual payoff demonstrates its value. They organized around abortion and other bread-and-butter conservative issues for years even while the Republican party turned a deaf ear. But that ideological and issue-based organizing has borne fruit for decades now, with the waging of the so-called "culture wars" and power of the Christian Right in electoral politics.
“Calling All Radicals” stops short of advocating a particular ideological line, but distinguishes itself by advocating a place for political education and ideological orientation in community groups. Thompson notes that Alinsky’s disdain for ideology and political education (Alinsky was an anti-communist) can be organizing’s undoing. There are times when organizers and community groups must combat bigotry within the group and seek to expand the consciousness of community members rather than dismissing such matters as side issues. In one example, an immigration and labor group confronts homophobic members suspected of scrawling on a bathroom wall hate messages targeting an organizer. Instead of ignoring the graffiti, the organization decides to confront the offending members and impart the history of the gay rights movement’s struggle for freedom.
“Calling All Radicals” ends addressing organizer burnout and calls for social change organizations to treat their organizers with respect and provide good pay and benefits. If you are a new organizer or want to learn how to organize for social change, pick up “Tools For Radical Democracy” or “Building Powerful Community Organizations” as a surefire way to move your neighbors or coworkers to action. For those weathered organizers with a few years working in the trenches, “Calling All Radicals” is an inspiration and affirmation that the tedious tasks of organizing do add up to create social justice.
Bennett Baumer is an organizer at Housing Conservation Coordinators, a Hell's Kitchen-based legal services and housing organizing group.
For more information on the books reviewed, click on the titles:
Building Powerful Community Organizations
Calling All Radicals
Tools for Radical Democracy
