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| Saul Alinsky |
Mark Engler and Paul Engler, TruthOut
Although Saul Alinsky, the founding father of modern
community organizing in the United States, passed away in 1972, he is still
invoked by the right as a dangerous harbinger of looming insurrection. And
although his landmark book, Rules for Radicals, is now nearly 45 years old, the
principles that emerged from Alinsky's work have influenced every generation of
community organizers that has come since.
The most lasting of Alinsky's prescriptions are not his
well-known tactical guidelines — "ridicule is man's most potent
weapon" or "power is not only what you have, but what the enemy
thinks you have." Rather, they are embedded in a set of organizational
practices and predispositions, a defined approach to building power at the
level of local communities. Hang around social movements for a while and you
will no doubt be exposed to the laws of Chicago-style community organizing:
"Don't talk ideology, just issues. No electoral politics. Build
organizations, not movements... Focus on neighborhoods and on concrete,
winnable goals."
