(Thank you, fellow and sister Kossacks, for indulging this organizing memo, crossposted from The Field.)
The map above, made by Field Hands in Madison, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois, is of family homes being foreclosed upon by banks and lending institutions, with an eye on building community organizing campaigns to stop the foreclosures.
These are the first two regions to tackle this crisis anew, post-election, from the bottom up. And it gives me some satisfaction that they happen to be the two cities in the United States where I held public conversations in 2008 (on October 23 in Madison and on November 6 in Chicago).
To that end, today we're announcing my Spring 2009 speaking and listening tour in the United States. Where will we go? That's up to you...
From time to time (I did this back in 2007 in the Northeastern United States - Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont and across the border into Montreal) I venture back to the homeland, speak at universities and for other organizations, and the honoraria and fees they pay go to The Fund for Authentic Journalism, to continue the work of Narco News and, now, The Field.
Community organizers aren't interested in speaking for the sake of the applause. We want results. And this map means the world to me and tells that the "test drive" of the conversation titled "The Organizing of the President" succeeded in the two places where we did it, and so we'll do more.
For students, professors and employees at colleges and universities, this is the end of the Fall semester: the perfect moment to propose - in writing, via email, or both - to a department in your school (of journalism, communications, law, Latin American studies and others) or a campus organization (student lecture fund, student senate, African-American and Latino student organizations, drug policy and human rights groups are some examples of those that have sponsored or co-sponsored these talks before) to host one of these events. By putting the written or email proposal in now, even if the sponsoring department or organization doesn't act on it before the year-end break, the proposal is then closer to the top of the agenda once school reconvenes in 2009.
And so if you think this is a good idea for your area, write to Chris Fee, our newsroom coordinator and also managing the Spring Tour, at bazarov3@gmail.com and he'll help you to organize to make it happen.
The talks I'll be offering in 2009 include:
"The Organizing of the President"
"Mexico's Human Rights Crisis"
and,
"First Amendment Law on the Internet"
You can read more about each of them here.
And by the way, if you have a different concept or idea for a talk or an event, we certainly don't limit it to those three options. Propose your different idea!
Once a school or other institution in a given city or town sponsors such an event, I typically do other events and workshops, free of charge, for local grassroots organizations, including one titled, "Authentic Journalism 101."
And of course I break my normal shyness about media interviews to promote all scheduled public events.
But the real reason I'm willing to tear myself out of my "somewhere in América" paradise to do these events can be found on that map above.
We're batting two for two so far in 2008 on a talk leading to more community organizing once it's over. There is an effervescence in America at this moment in history. People are "fired up and ready to go" to do something other than sit back as spectators waiting for a tail called Washington to wag the dog for us. The dream is to set democracy back to its proper chain of command: from the bottom, up.
I have zero doubt, for example, that if and when these community organizing efforts in Madison and Chicago reach the critical mass to be able to mobilize entire neighborhoods to block a home foreclosure - through nonviolent civil disobedience if need be - it will force Washington's hand and provoke policy to reflect the will of the people.
It may be that, in your community, that's not issue or the only issue you're ready to strike upon while the iron is hot. I'm not coming to your town or city to tell you what you should do or what issues you must act on. Rather, I'm coming to provoke you and your neighbors to speak, to facilitate that conversation, to listen and take notes, and help you in whatever way you seek to organize or make authentic media from below.
If you've never done anything like this before, it's really easier than it might seem, and doesn't require any prior experience at all. We'll walk you through the steps. And if you're an experienced pro at community organizing - and so many thousands more of you are today than there were a year ago - well, then we especially hope you'll take on the task of making one or more of these events happen in your town, city or campus.
The point is: to make it happen in the Spring of 2009, December of 2008 is the right moment to begin. We might light up the entire national map with organizing projects like these. Or, alternately, the effort will just stay in Madison and Chicago. That's really up to each of you. But it seems like we're off to a great start.
And for those of you that get the ball rolling, I look forward to visiting you on your turf in the Spring, and then maybe, like the Field Hand that put this together in Madison, you'll be this glad you did:
"We invited Al Giordano to Madison to talk about social activism in a digital age -- how do we think about coordinating online and offline channels to effect social change? As an award-winning journalist and renowned community organizer with a track record for real change, Al has unique insights on what's happening right now with the Obama movement, netroots activists, and new media technologies.
"What we got from Al was a lot more. Al's talk brought together students, scholars, activists, and journalists from across the community, on and off campus. Al's generosity with his time before and after the talk enabled like-minded people who otherwise may never have met to gather and discuss the future of our community. We've immediately put these community organizing ideas to work and launched a grassroots campaign to stop home foreclosures in our community as a result of Al's visit. If you want more than a speaker, more than a chance to learn about community organizing in the abstract, but a real chance to learn about how to make change by doing it, I wholeheartedly encourage you to bring Al to your university or organization. You'll be glad you did."
- Kurt Squire, Associate Professor
Educational Communications Technology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
(You can see and share some videos from the Madison and Wisconsin events at this YouTube page.)
Interested? Think this might be helpful to you and your community's efforts in organizing or making authentic media? Please do peruse our Spring 2009 tour announcement page for details, and write to Chris Fee at bazarov3@gmail.com to get the ball rolling. Spring in America is just around the corner.