[COMM-ORG] Building the Obama and community organizing collection

Sat Jan 24 17:16:53 CST 2009

[ed: thanks to Karen for the reference, Mike for the excerpt, and Andrea 
for George's reflection]

From: "Gray, Karen A." <karen.gray at ou.edu>

Chris Valley has a published piece (2008) "Alinsky at 100" in the 
Journal of Community Practice, 16, 4, 527-532.
KG

************************

From: mikeotc at aol.com

1/21/09

Randy Stoecker:

You might find this of interest (from my forthcoming--Heyday Books--A 
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER'S TALE: PEOPLE AND POWER IN SAN FRANCISCO):

We now have a new national climate with the election of Barack Obama as 
President. Obama, with the strategic assistance of Marshall Ganz—an old 
SNCC and farmworkers’ union organizer—developed very sophisticated 
mobilizing approaches to build a new kind of electoral machine. It was 
central to his election. But as he has noted many times, “change comes 
from below.”

Obama will be responsive to the kind of agenda that was expressed in 
MCO. [My book is about the Mission Coalition Organization--MCO.] It is 
the responsibility of people on the ground to put that agenda 
front-and-center before the new administration and before countless 
municipalities, counties, sp ecial districts, school boards, state 
governments, congress, corporations and major nonprofit organizations. 
That will require something different from the electoral mobilization 
organization that played such a large role in electing Obama. And Obama 
understands this. Asked during the primary whether Martin Luther King 
would support him or Clinton, he responded, “He wouldn’t support either 
of us. He’d be out in the streets building an independent social justice 
movement.” What Obama does with the electoral organization put together 
for his campaign is separate from what people who want a small “d” 
democratic agenda in the country 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 others in 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.

For more, see http://mikemilleroncommunityorganizing.blogspot.com/

********************

From: "Andrea Frye" <andrea at ntic-us.org>

This is a reflection written by our director, George Goehl, on the 
moment, community organizing and how we move forward. It was sent out on 
Wednesday, January 21. Please consider posting. Thank you! Andrea

Andrea N Frye

Communications Director

National Training and Information Center

National People's Action

810 N Milwaukee Avenue

Chicago, Illinois 60642-4103

312-676-2818

www.ntic-us.org

From: National Training and Information Center 
[mailto:ntic at nationaltraining.org]
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 11:05 AM
To: Andrea Frye
Subject: Honoring the Moment by Demanding More

What an incredible moment in our history. In November we elected the 
first African-American president in U.S. history. Yesterday Barack H. 
Obama took the oath of office and has assumed the presidency of the 
United States of America. It is a moment that many Americans did not 
believe would be seen in their lifetime.

President Barack Obama’s victory is a victory for centuries of 
organizers and community leaders who blazed the trail that we walk today.

His election is a testament to the known and completely unknown social 
justice warriors who made incredible sacrifices in order to pave the way 
for this powerful moment. These were people who, like you and me, 
possess the drive to create a more just and equitable society. People 
who have stood up for change every day in the face of incredible odds.

This moment may not have come to pass if not for:

The courage of Harriet Tubman, who made more than a dozen courageous 
trips along the Underground Railroad to free slaves. She recruited men 
for John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, and put her life on the line as 
she worked as a spy for the Union Army.

The vision of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott who launched what 
became a 72 year fight to win the right to vote for women in the United 
States.

The strength of Delores Huerta of the United Farm Workers, who was 
jailed over twenty times as she organized and fought for farm workers, 
organizing the first winning labor negotiations with the agricultural 
industry. She was so severely beaten when she protested the policies of 
George H.W. Bush that her spleen had to be removed.

Bayard Rustin, an adviser to Martin Luther King and the organizer of the 
March on Washington, who endured hateful prejudice not only because he 
was African-American, but also because he was a gay man fighting for 
racial justice in America.

The organizers and community leaders of the National People’s Action 
family – social justice warriors who have organized during some of the 
toughest and most conservative times in this country’s history. Warriors 
who have fought to keep hope alive during some of the bleakest of times 
- times in which people had every right to lose hope.

Now, the legacy of this moment could simply be that the United States 
elected its first African-American president. This alone is incredible. 
But we – the people – have the power to turn this into an even bigger 
moment. We owe it to the organizers who came before us, to ourselves and 
to those who follow us. This is a period of time to honor the dignity of 
ALL people.

Let us take this moment to rise up together and achieve:

* The right to organize should be protected and expanded - whether it is 
a labor union, a public housing tenant association or a people’s 
organization.
* The passage of Community Reinvestment Act 2.0 to ensure racial and 
economic justice as a central component of our housing and banking policy.
* A new investment in public and subsidized housing and a Housing First 
policy that ensures all people in this country have safe, affordable 
housing.
* Comprehensive Immigration Reform that honors the dignity of workers 
and migrants.
* A new investment in public education that results in equal education, 
new and modernized schools and a closing of the achievement gap.
* A federal health care policy that includes all people in this country 
having quality and affordable health insurance.
* An incredible investment in a green and sustainable economy, creating 
millions of high-paying, unionized jobs in our cities and towns.

These kinds of changes would result in real changes in real people’s 
lives. This is the kind of change that would stand as a powerful 
testament to not only Barack Obama’s presidency but importantly to the 
hard work of all who sacrificed in order for us to reach this moment.

If we know anything from our 36 years as a national organizing Network, 
we know that President Obama cannot do this himself. He needs us to be 
out on the streets and in the Halls of Congress, pushing our beliefs and 
big ideas in a way that is too powerful to be denied. We owe him, our 
predecessors and ourselves nothing less.

In Solidarity,

George Goehl

National Training and Information Center

National People’s Action

www.ntic-us.org

National People’s Action
810 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60642-4103

Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
> --------
> This is a COMM-ORG 'colist' message.
> All replies to this message come to COMM-ORG only.
> --------
>  
> Hi COMM-ORG,
>
> I am still trying to overcome my speechlessness at the momentous events 
> of yesterday, even after having had two months to get used to the idea 
> of an African American first family.  It is a time, at the very least, 
> for all of us to recommit ourselves to a sense of possibility and 
> imagination.  It is also a time to reflect with an urgency like never 
> before.  Somehow, tens of millions of people got mobilized to make 
> history.  How did that happen?  How can we keep it happening?  What 
> stands in the way of it continuing to happen? 
>
> This is not just a transition of color in the White House.  It is also a 
> transition of generation, of technology, and of strategy, in the 
> organizing world.  Charles Tilly, a sociologist, once wrote a book where 
> he talked about historical epochs characterized by changes in the 
> "repertoire of collective action."  We can understand history, he 
> argued, by looking for changes in how people organize and mobilize.  Is 
> this one of those periods?  Or is it a sign that what we've always done 
> works?
>
> What this profound election has done for me, perhaps more than anything, 
> is re-inspired my curiosity.  I know of no one who was more skeptical 
> than I that Obama could ever ascend to the presidency.  Now that I have 
> been proven wrong, wrong, wrong, I want to know why.  And in learning 
> why, I want to learn what to do next.
>
> One of ways you can help me pursue my curiosity is to keep sending stuff 
> you are reading and, if you are willing, writing about community 
> organizing in the wake of the Obama campaign.  You may recall that some 
> of you have already been sending those things.  I hope to keep them 
> coming, and will put together a page of links to stuff already out 
> there, and add to the papers collection with the new stuff.
>
> And thanks, as always, for all your participation and continuing 
> contributions.
>
> Randy Stoecker
> moderator/editor, COMM-ORG
> rstoecker at wisc.edu
>
>
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