Rules for radicals

I just finished reading a really good book and I thought I would share. Rules for Radicals is a rare gem—a book about radical politics and community organizing written not by academics who have studied these but by someone who lived and breathed organizing for decades. Wikipedia says briefly:

In the 1930s, Alinsky organized the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago (made famous by Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle on the horrific working conditions in the Union Stock Yards). He went on to found the Industrial Areas Foundation while organizing the Woodlawn neighborhood, which trained leftist organizers and assisted in the founding of community organizations around the country.

The book is written for the rebels of the 60s and some of the simple points are driven in hard page after page. The prologue sets the tone for the rest of the book:

These rules make the difference between being a realistic radical and being a rhetorical one who uses the tired old words and slogans, calls the police “pig” or “white fascist racist” or “futher mukkers” and has so stereotyped himself that others react by saying, “Oh, he’s one of those,” and then promptly turn off.

This failure of many of your younger activists to understand the art of communication has been disastrous. Even the most elementary grasp of the fundamental idea that one communicates within the experience of his audience – and gives full respect to the other’s values – would have ruled out attacks on the American flag. The responsible organizer would have known that it is the establishment that has betrayed the flag while the flag, itself, remains the glorious symbol of America’s hopes and aspirations, and he would have conveyed this message to his audience. On another level of communication, humor is essential, for through humor much is accepted that would have been rejected if presented seriously. This is a sad and lonely generation. It laughs too little, and this, too is tragic.

For the real radical, doing “his thing” is to do the social thing, for and with people. In a world where everything is so interrelated that one fells helpless to know where or how to grab hold and act, defeat sets in’ for years there have been people who’ve found society too overwhelming and have withdrawn, concentrated on “doing their own thing.” Generally we have put them into mental hospitals and diagnosed them as schizophrenics. If the real radical finds that having long hair sets up psychological barriers to communication and organization, he cuts his hair. If I were organizing in a orthodox Jewish community I would not walk in there eating a ham sandwich, unless I wanted to be rejected so I could have an excuse to cop out. My “thing,” if I want to organize, is solid communication with the people in the community. Lacking communication I am in reality silent; throughout history silence has been regarded as assent – in this case assent to the system.

As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be – it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be. That means working in the system.

A chapter is also devoted to what could now be called diversity of tactics, although going through this book the word diversity is truely emphasized in the stories that come up. From using proxy votes from company stocks to ruckous protests to fart-ins, any tactic that will achieve the desired results is fair game.

What are Alinsky’s desired results?  He gives no political description of himself.  Not Anarchist nor Socialist nor Democrat.  He desires simply that power be more democratically distributed and that the people who now wield power be personally equipped to deal with that. All actions and ideas described in this book are geared towards achieving one or both of those.

A website about PR advises businesses to read the Rules to get a better grasp of what community groups are up to and why they are successful.  Noting “Some of these rules are ruthless, but they work” the page lists the basic rules given by Alinsky.

I got this book from Exile’s new lending library.  It’s available there and I believe also at Ottawa’s public library for anyone who wants it.