RADICAL ACTIVISM

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SAUL ALINSKI - THE BACKGROUND

Saul Alinski was a teacher and a doer. I learned from him and did. My copies of his books were filled with noted pages and underlines. Those contents were practiced. They worked. They still will.

Some further comments by Saul Alinski are at this link.

Saul Alinski wrote the book on American radicalism - two books, in fact - a 1945 best-seller, "Reveille for Radicals" and "Rules for Radicals" in 1971. The “Reveille" title page quotes Thomas Paine ...

"Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul."

Alinski, the master political agitator, tactical planner and social organizer didn't mince words ...

"Liberals in their meetings utter bold works; they strut, grimace belligerently, and then issue a weasel-worded statement 'which has tremendous implications, but only if read between the lines.' They sit calmly, dispassionately, studying the issue; judging both sides; they sit and still sit. There is a saying that the Liberal is one who walks out of the room when the argument turns into a fight.

“The Radical does not sit frozen by cold objectivity. He sees injustice and strikes at it with hot passion. He is a man of decision and action. Society has good reason to fear the Radical. Every shaking advance of mankind toward equality and justice has come from the Radical. He hits, he hurts, he is dangerous.

“Conservative interests know that while Liberals are most adept at breaking their own necks with their tongues, Radicals are most adept at breaking the necks of Conservatives.

“Radicals precipitate the social crisis by action - by using power. Liberals may then timidly follow along or else, as in most cases, be swept forward along the course set by Radicals, but all because of forces unloosed by Radical action. They are forced to positive action only in spite of their desires ...

* The American Radical will fight privilege and power whether it be inherited or acquired by any small group, whether it be political or financial or organized creed.

* He curses a caste system which he recognizes despite all patriotic denials.

* He will fight conservatives whether they are business or labor leaders.

* He will fight any concentration of power hostile to a broad, popular democracy, whether he finds it in financial circles or in politics.

* The Radical recognizes that constant dissension and conflict is and has been the fire under the boiler of democracy.

He firmly believes in that brave saying of a brave people, "Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!"

* The Radical may resort to the sword but when he does he is not filled with hatred against those individuals whom he attacks. He hates these individuals not as persons but as symbols representing ideas or interests which he believes to be inimical to the welfare of the people. That is the reason why Radicals, although frequently embarking upon revolutions, have rarely resorted to personal terrorism."

“Alinski practiced what he preached. He said ... "Tactics means doing what you can with what you have ... tactics is the art of how to take and how to give." He uses eyes, ears and nose for examples ...

“Eyes -"If you have a vast organization, parade it before the enemy, openly show your power."

“Ears - "If your organization is small, do what Gideon did: conceal the members in the dark but raise a clamor that will make the listener believe that your organization numbers many more that it does."

“Nose -"If your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the place."

Alinski devised and proved thirteen tactical rules for use against opponents vastly superior in power and wealth ...

1. Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

2. Never go outside the experience of your people.

3. Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy.

4. Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.

6. A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.

8. Keep the pressure on.

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

10. Major premise for tactics is development of operations that will maintain constant pressure upon the opposition.

11. If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.

12. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.

13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

The real action is in the enemy's reaction. The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.

Tactics, like life, require that you move with the action."

“Alinski was hated and defamed by powerful enemies, proof that his tactics worked. His simple formula for success ...

"Agitate + Antagonize + Educate + Organize".

ORGANIZING FOR RADICAL ACTIVISM IS EASY. YOU CAN DO IT. HERE'S HOW

Radical activism is characterized most by what it leaves aside. That is analysis and rhetorical positioning. It is neither about political, social or moral beliefs, bearing witness, nor convincing anyone of the rightness of anything. Rather, it deals with uniting people so they may strike at the causes of their concerns by utilizing power as they see fit.

Such activism is usually misconstrued by liberals, who oppose a war, object to world wide globalism, promote conserving the environment, and desire this or that form of government. From the safety of their debating forums, they tend to view radical activism, of which they are little experienced first hand, in terms of their own thinking in such large designs. They make the same mistake as do their conservative enemies, whose uninformed grand view tendency causes them to imagine a great sinister ism or ist malevolently guiding the activists.

To the contrary, radical activists who work for meaningful change know that all effective organizing is local. They've learned the battles will be about small goals which immediately effect those involved. They strive for neighborhood control of a school program in order that their children are better educated. They protest to shut down a bank with discriminatory lending practices. They sit in an office in order to bring a campus to a halt because their teacher was unjustly fired. They picket and organize boycotts to decrease profit of a businesss harming their community. They jam and disrupt a government meeting to prevent passage of an injurious law. In sum, they apply power as necessary to gain, preserve, or take back what they believe is inherently theirs.

People did not suffer blows marching over the Edmund Pettus bridge in order to cause passage of a national right to vote law. They did it to bring normal operation of the small town of Selma, Alabama to a stand still and so force it to register black people to vote. To exactly the same ends but geographically removed, 1000 participants in SNCC and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party filled the jails of Jackson, Mississippi. They succeeded because local garbage collection was stopped and the city budget drained. The trucks had to be used instead for hauling demonstrators who then had to be fed with funds otherwise available for normal operation.

The social changes that liberals desire take place when enough activists bring a halt to enough sectors of society which are then no longer able to continue operation in their previous modes. The changes occur because of the establishment's attempt to maintain power by mollifying and coopting the impetus for continued collective activism. In trying to halt the activism, the establishment is itself changed. And, the liberals, who, analyzed, postulated, and talked but did little, gather credit for the emergence of their ideas. That they do is of little concern to the activists, who go on to organize further.

Anyone can be a radical activist. It is easy. There is no need for profound social or political insight and analysis. Such is not only not required but discouraged, for it only gets in the way. The following simple steps will allow anyone to start a local movement. I have personally used them to initiate formation of effective civil rights, anti-war, and antipoverty groups. The technique worked every time.

1. Identify about six persons who do not particularly know each other but share somewhat similar views to your own. Note letters to the editor. Start water cooler and/or after church discussions. Make statements in a class, club, or bar, and note responses. Don't discuss tactics, strategies, or solutions. Don't preach. Listen. Focus on those with intense feelings but avoid know-it-alls. Try to pick persons of divergent community status in so far as possible. Note how to contact them.

2. Meet separately, privately, and one time only with each of those you've identified. Invite them to your home or visit theirs. Go out to lunch or for drinks together. This time discuss your concerns in depth. Most importantly, listen to their views. Don't bring up organizing for action.

3. Arrange a meeting with the entire group together. Shut up. Let them talk. You will hear your own views presented to you as theirs. Agree with and reinforce those ideas, but don't expand them. Let them enjoy the shared feelings among new found friends. Keep things going until someone besides yourself suggests and the group agrees to meet again. Someone will, and they will. Have a place and time ready.

4. At the next meeting encourage the group to initiate some kind of visible public action that will attract more participants. It should be fun and not risky. Don't try to lead but just be one of the new movement. Enjoy!

As the group enlarges and engages in actions, it will take directions depending on the inclinations and experience of the members. Be one of them. If they don't go your way, or even if they do, go start another. Then bring them together. Repeat. That's what radical organizing and therefore real democracy is all about.

BY FAR THE BEST BOOKS ON ORGANIZING

Experience is more than a collection of memories about participation in events. Rather, it is the set of feelings developed by reflecting on all those events from common perspective. Only through that can participation in a particular event become fully understood, felt, and thus experienced.

In the field of action there is never time for that sort of thought. There, decisions are quickly and instinctively based on previous experiential feelings. A detailed record of events and observations, such as the book described here, can aid the necessary reflections and further build one's base of experience.

Immediately away from and after every meeting, discussion, demonstration, and action, I added to a diary which was specific to names, statements, actions, and my thoughts regarding them. The notes were written in paragraph form and kept in a loose leaf notebook small enough to fit in a pocket. It was organized by date with cross references.

Those notes were never allowed to the view of others, even fellow participants. They were carried nowhere that could present a chance at loosing them. The hand writing was purposefully so small it could be understood by no one but myself. There was no mention to anyone of either my practice or the existence of those notes.

The pages eventually filled several notebooks and were well worn, for they were regularly read and reread by myself, especially before each next event. The written references to details of persons and occurrences were very useful in approaching and guiding my directions in what would yet unfold.

Neither old companions nor opponents need concern over this revelation. The books were destroyed when I backed away from the field of battle and my presence in the efforts they detail was clearly finished. Now I have no more than the memories. Perhaps they are the ones better burned in place by writing those books.

I learned more about organizing and activism from those notes than any other source. The practice is recommended to anyone desirous of seriously devoting themselves to participation in the political and social activism of today.