SAS

Community Organizing

September 28, 1999

History of Community Organizing

(History provides a framework for community organizing)

1) Organizing is "as American as apple pie" Action. Challenging power structures. Alinsky’s model organized organizations while prior models organized individuals. (Alinsky modified some Marxists thought).

3rd Phase of Community Organizing

Conservative Movement involved maintaining status quo. Organizing was about keeping things the same.

Urban Renewal - social welfare ideas - create happier buildings(projects). Tearing down and building up and dividing individuals.

Suburban Communities Develop

Not In My Back Yard (NIMBYism)

History of Community Organizing

(History provides a framework for community organizing)

1) Organizing is "as American as apple pie"

America began as an organizing project i.e. the American Revolution.

Problems occurred because of communication. Only the elite were able to read. The first organizing efforts were elite based.

2) Americans have a propensity to organize

America has an association of citizens to get things done unlike the Europeans who look to the government and the elite to get things done.

Pre-Community Organizing was not rooted in the neighborhood.

I The American Revolution

II The Civil War

III 1895-1920 The Industrial Revolution

Community organizing begins. There are fundamental changes in cities and neighborhoods. There is a problem of overcrowding. People were moving from rural to urban areas. Cities are growing at a rapid rate. There were new immigrants and cities become more diverse. Cities were suddenly dangerous places. The crime rate increases (an upsurge in criminal violence). Cities became places from which wealth is accumulated (economic and social forces).

* Previously, cities were walking cities. As it grew there was a separation by class. The wealthy moved out.

* It was a time of Social Welfare Organizing

Community Organizing is based on assimilation

The 1st stage was to advocate and pull together services in order to educate people in the community. Community organizers were "urban missionaries", they were professional service providers that were going out into the neighborhood. They tried to get people to help themselves. They worked through the communities block by block.

Social Welfare Organizers thought of the neighborhood as a social organism. They believed that neighborhoods were made up of people with needs. Coordination was needed for the community’s needs and services. Building a sense of community through pulling together services and identifying services that were needed. (Advocacy and

Services)

Role of the Community Organizer

1) To enable the community to find its voice and to build new immigrants capacity. To find the services to allow them to survive.

2) To create capacity. The beginning of advocacy. If a gap was found they would find services for those communities.

3) The Organizer knows beat. Professional Social Workers going into the neighborhoods.

1895-1920

1) Service based approach to organizing. Most organizers were educated wealthy women. Settlement Houses - used to connect the neighborhood. Organizers lived in the neighborhood.

Community organizing action was used to overcome social disorder. The movement was non-political. It was about self help. They de-emphasized the political aspect of community organizing because the time was filled with corruption (the Machine). It was socially oriented. It was successful at drawing attention to the social issues.

e.g. Poverty and the lack of services. (Cincinnati Social Plan)

2nd Phase of Community Organizing

Radical Organizing Phase (1930-1940s)

The US depression. Political and Economic based organizing begins. Trade unions organize around labor issues. Economic Equality.

Saul Alinsky - the 1st Replaceable model for organizers.

1. Power in America is unequal and it has to change.
2. Suggested that the best way to make changes was through conflict. (Militant Confrontation).
3. The people in the community should define and decide the issues. It is not for the organizer to do.
4. Leadership should be indigenous. Organizers need to be invited by the community. They should not impose on the community. They should be catalysts for existing leaders. They should not stay, they must only educate and empower.
5. Nothing is achievable without a fight. Conflict yields the greatest change.
6. Small victories are more easily won and it pulls the community together. (Concrete Victories)
7. Meet power with power. This implies that the problem is the political system.
8. Emphasis on the non-ideological. It is more flexible to achieve change. Ideology tends to divide people.

Alinsky’s model was conflict based. Change can only occur if you shock the system. His model is political, it is about associations, block associations - exclusion not inclusion. Stopped urban renewal from going into suburban neighborhoods. (Sustaining rather then changing).

4th Phase

1960s-1980 Radical Time Period

1) Civil Rights Movement

2) SNCC

3) Free Speech

Organizations used different models. There is no specific model exclusive to the period. Organizations are rooted in the neighborhood.

5th Phase

1980s -present Conservative Time Period

Organizing around identity issues. Issue based organizing. Identity spans neighborhoods.

Delgado

- We have begun to look at models in terms of time periods

Assimilation Vs Change

History is important because lessons can be learned e.g. Alinsky formed the foundation of other models

Zinn

- Low voter turnout

- Unreported resistance across America. People may not vote but they may protest in other ways.

- Organizing based on identity must be conscious of technology.

It grew there was a separation by class.