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Title: Gathering Power : The Future of Progressive Politics in America by Paul Osterman ISBN: 0-8070-4338-9 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 20 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Sweat Equity as the key to political power
Comment: I picked up "Gathering Power" in the hope that it might be a prescription and prediction for progressives on how to take command of the country again, something like an update of Kevin Phillip's "The Emerging Republican Majority", only for the good guys. What Osterman lays on the table is something quite different.
Specifically, it's a handbook on how to do effective local political organizing, in the mode that was pioneered seven decades back by Saul Alinsky, and has continued ever since. It's kept the same basic shape but acquired a few bells and whistles (such as respect for women as leaders) along the way. Sticking to "write what you know", Osterman draws all the book's examples from his experiences with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in the American southwest, especially in the Rio Grande valley.
The principles behind this style of organizing are simple, hard headed, sometimes a little surprising. And the book makes a convincing case that they really do work. But there would seem to be two caveats.
The first is that it takes an awful lot of really hard work from an awful lot of people. And most of that hard work consists of trolling for and recruiting "leaders" (the volunteers who are the public face of the movement) and "organizers" (the paid staffers who provide training and continuity for the leaders). It feels a bit like those charities that end up spending 80% of their effort on fundraising. But (sigh!) no one's discovered a more efficient way to get to IAF's results - improved streets and schools on the unimproved side of the tracks, living wage laws and branch libraries. So we might as well grit our teeth and roll up our sleeves.
The second problem is that, cheerful as Osterman tries to be about it, it doesn't appear as if his model scales up any further than (at most) the state level. For one thing, the techniques have been around for a lifetime, and haven't hit the big leagues yet. In which case, all this work would have only a secondary effect at the national level: namely, the demonstrable fact that people who've been touched by local organizing get turned into voters.
Why no scale-up? As Osterman justly observes, the only sources of political power are "organized money" and "organized people". Organized money works from the top down, and exercises its influence through capitol lobbying and mass media. In the IAF system, organized people work from the bottom up, and exercise all their influence in face to face meetings - first with each other (with agenda items percolating from house meetings up through quarterly caucuses of the entire local membership), and secondly with politicians (who are supported if they commit to agenda items, then carefully tracked, and who lose support if they don't follow through.) It's unclear how agenda formation could add the needed couple of layers, and remain both coherent and genuinely bottom-up. And it's unclear how a membership too large to fit in a room and too dispersed to confront the politicos face to face could hold "responsibility sessions."
Still, there's indispensable wisdom here for anyone wanting to extend political power to the disenfranchised on local and regional levels, and plenty of food for thought if you're wondering how to re-engage the swollen ranks of nonvoters so as to gain some progressive traction on national issues.
Rating: 5
Summary: Important book for progressives
Comment: Osterman's book makes an important contribution to developing a political base in the U.S. for more progressive economic policies. The book argues that such a political base must be developed locally. More importantly, the book then shows how such a local political base is being developed by a network of local community organizations, the Industrial Areas Foundation. In addition to describing IAF, Osterman goes beyond the organization's rhetoric and does some critical analysis of what makes the organization successful. The IAF and similar networks are succeeding by: building coalitions of local institutions, particularly churches; patiently engaging in conversations and meetings to find out what local residents want and develop local leaders, before engaging in political action; holding political leaders accountable for fulfilling the platform of these local coalitions; developing and presenting political positions that are compatible with American values, particularly values associated with religion; focusing on bread-and-butter issues of adequate public services for all neighborhoods, living wages, and access to training and jobs. The book will be of interest to anyone concerned with issues of economic justice, and seeking to get involved in local actions to promote economic justice.
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Title: Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice by Edward T. Chambers, Michael A. Cowan, Studs Terkel ISBN: 0826414990 Publisher: Continuum Pub Group Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Going Public : An Inside Story of Disrupting Politics as Usual by Michael Gecan ISBN: 0807043370 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 14 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America (Morality and Society.) by Richard L. Wood, University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226905969 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Better Together : Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam, Lewis Feldstein, Robert Putnam ISBN: 0743235460 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing by Dennis A. Jacobsen ISBN: 0800632443 Publisher: Fortress Press Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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