Comments on: The New Organizers, Part 1: Obama’s neighborhood teams and the power of inclusion and respect

By: nogoatee

nogoatee — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:35:45 +0000

I truly don’t want to be a buzzkill, but there are significant differences between this presidential campaign and creating a lasting infrastructure.

Falling in love with your own unique tech and your own unique “principal,” being applied against a flawed, underfunded opponent with fractionalized support and expecting it to transfer to a legislative battle to pass, say, health care reform is misapprehension of a high order.

The amount of sheer marketing power (the speeches, the free media, the paid media) being supported by the infrastructure described here against a hapless McCain operation just doesn’t reflect the reality of what it will be like to fight (keeping with the health care example) a health care industry whose livelihood will be threatened, who won’t be personified by a cranky old guy, and who won’t have accepted public campaign funds.

Please to explain how this infrastructure can meet that challenge?
Health care reform, tax hikes, increased CAFE mileage standards, etc etc etc. In other words, when the opponent is corporate interests, how are we gonna beat them?

By: palepink

palepink — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:49:48 +0000

Maybe this article could become itself an introductory text for orienting and firing up community organizer recruits? I suggest, as a title: “Actual Responsibilities.”

By: KevinHayden

KevinHayden — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:18:42 +0000

It’s about way more than Alinsky. The roots of these strategies goes back at least to the influence of the Harlem Renaissance and the New Deal on people like Ella Baker, whose decentralized leadership strategies obviously had an impact on the young Marshall Ganz.

Keep up the great works, Zack.

By: momaloney39

momaloney39 — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:30:12 +0000

Why don’t you contact the mybarackobama.com site and see if you can find
a contact in the South Miami area…or even greater Miami and see if they
could use you to get a phone bank going down at the school or even for the
area around there. I am sure they would love to have you join them even for a short period of time…at least you could begin the type of group at the school and carry it forward into other campaigns there in Florida.

Good luck and I am sure they will be happy to have you!!

Maureen

By: Phoenix Woman

Phoenix Woman — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:53:24 +0000

This is why I consider Obama a true son of Alinsky — not in terms of ideology, but for the fact that he is a master organizer, something that’s been very rare in progressive circles over the last few decades.

Alinsky stated flat-out in his last book Rules for Radicals that he feared that the lefties and liberals for whom he wrote the book would ignore it, and that it would instead be studied religiously by conservatives. He was right to fear this. If you look at the rise of single-issue politics as a gateway funnelling persons into the conservative fold, especially as pioneered by Ralph Reed, you’ll see that the Cons took a lot from Alinsky.

Now, at long last, we have a group of people involved in electoral politics who know how to organize a lasting movement. No wonder why Obama and Dean get along so well: They have the same goals.

By: Aviva

Aviva — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:38:45 +0000

One of the most important articles I’ve read all year. Thanks!

By: janinsanfran

janinsanfran — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:09:58 +0000

This is beautiful. We tried to build this in 1996 with Californians for Justice, but you can’t do it without enough resources for startup. Having the internet sure helps. Once you do build it, none of us know where it will lead, but it’s gonna be good.

By: DWBartoo

DWBartoo — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:12:55 +0000

Thanks, Zack, an excellent post.

As Southern Dragon says, it would be most beneficial were this effort to continue post election.

Just out of curiosity, Zack, which states are among that dozen?

Ohio, Missouri, … ?

By: Oxford08

Oxford08 — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:56:56 +0000

Ho ho. A most welcome article. I’m a graduate student at the Miami University spoken of. Sadly I wasn’t aware such an activist presence was going on here. It would be good if we could get the Obama volunteers involved in some of the progressive associations we have going on here on campus and throughout the region. For instance, the Students for Peace and Social Justice have been waging a campaign to improve wages for Miami’s staff for years now but have been largely unsuccessful (this is a very Republican area and a highly Republican school).

Cool to read nonetheless.

By: cinnamonape

cinnamonape — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:36:50 +0000

As far as continuity I think that the program that Obama has suggested with the National Volunteer Service would potentially provide a framework for this. If HS students had to perform a certain amount of volunteer work each week that would necessitate a coordinating program to direct the masses of students seeking bona fide projects in the communities. Many might opt to serve with more traditional volunteer agencies or organizations, but many might also choose to work with a new set of programs established via the Obama campaign.

Note that these all would be actual service programs helping unassisted groups in the community…not political wings of the party or Obama. But the political groups could rapidly reform separately from their own membership to assist in initiatives, referenda or campaigns to get individuals elected locally or nationally.