Community organizing explained

Community organizing explained
Posted: February 04, 2009
1:00 am Eastern

© 2009

Immediately after the Democratic National Convention in Colorado, the Boston Globe published a letter from L. David Alinsky. He boasted about how Barack Obama had made extremely effective use of his training in the methods of David's late father, the famous Chicago radical, Saul D. Alinsky.

David Alinsky gloated: "I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100th birthday."

What was Saul Alinsky's model that Barack Obama used so successfully to defeat the Clinton machine plus the Republican Party in a dramatic one-two punch never before seen in politics? What is known today as "the Alinsky ideology and Alinsky concepts of mass organization for power" are fully set forth in Alinsky's 1971 book, "Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals."

Alinsky's worldview was that mankind is divided into three parts: "the Haves, the Have-Nots and the Have-a-Little, Want Mores." His purpose was to teach the Have-Nots how to take power and money away from the Haves by creating mass organizations to seize power, and he frankly admitted that "this means revolution."

He wanted a radical change of America's social and economic structure, and he planned to achieve that through creating public discontent and moral confusion. Alinsky developed strategies to achieve power through mass organization, and organizing was his word for revolution.

He wanted to move the United States from capitalism to socialism, where the means of production would be owned by all the people (i.e., the government). A believer in economic determinism, he viewed unemployment, disease, crime and bigotry as byproducts of capitalism.

"Change" was Alinsky's favorite word, used on page after page. "I will argue," he wrote, "that man's hopes lie in the acceptance of the great law of change."

Alinsky used what he called "general concepts of change" to move us toward "a science of revolution." What he called "change" meant massive change in our socio-economic structure, and what he called "organizing" meant pursuing confrontational political tactics.

Alinsky taught the Have-Nots to "hate the establishment of the Haves" because they have "power, money, food, security and luxury." He claimed that "justice, morality, law and order are mere words used by the Haves to justify and secure their status quo."

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