Dauphine Island All community organizers chafe at the flood of aspersions on our craft these days. I see all of these town halls as fair game for protest, but the conservatives have lost tactical control so are coming off thug-like and then blaming folks like ourselves who have spent lifetimes getting it right for their bad behavior. Makes me think we need a licensing board or something.
Rick Casey has been an astute, if not always supportive, observer of organizing from his perch as a columnist with the Houston Chronicle. His recent column reminds me of some of the stories I told about Citibank and H&R Block in Citizen Wealth. Regardless, it’s worth a look, so I’ve copied it below in full:
Protesters need more Saul Alinsky
By RICK CASEY Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 11, 2009, 10:49PM
I went to U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's "town hall meeting" on health care Tuesday expecting to see rude behavior.
I did.
And some of it was from strident opponents of the health care plan under construction in Congress.
But my "takeaway lesson" from the event was this: If you're an elected official who begins her town hall meeting by insisting you are here to listen to people's concerns, don't talk on your cell phone while a lady is telling hers.
Jackson Lee explained that she wasn't being rude. In Washington, she said, you had to be able to "multi-task" in order to be effective.
Maybe so, but back home in Texas it is still rude for a hostess to answer her cell without apology while someone is addressing her.
Other than that, the meeting wasn't bad. A dozen or so people who bitterly oppose government health care reform made their points, sometimes with considerable volume. Others among the 150 or so present voiced their support or their concerns.
But the meeting wasn't what some conservative leaders are saying it was.
Proud of the irony, men such as Adam Brandon are describing the uprisings as the application of the techniques of the late Saul Alinsky, sometimes called the father of community organizing and author of a book called Rules for Radicals.
Brandon is vice president for communications for FreedomWorks, an organization headed by former Texas congressman and now Washington super-lobbyist Dick Armey. The group has skillfully used the Internet to arm protesters with town meeting schedules, talking points and tactics for putting representatives on the defensive.
Knowing when to be rude
The meetings, it is suggested, are a version of "accountability sessions" famously employed by Alinsky-style community organizations.
These conservatives understand one thing about Alinsky: His tactics could be rude. But they differed from the current outbreaks in two ways.
First, they were much more creative than just yelling at politicians.
Second, organizations in the Alinsky network got truly rude only when it was the only way to get to the table.
Alinsky, a long-time union organizer, understood that rich people had only to ask quietly. Working-class people had to be more creative.
How to get a meeting
The first Alinsky organization in Texas was San Antonio's Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS). When they couldn't get powerful banker Tom Frost to meet with them back in the mid-1970s, they formed long lines to change dollars into change, then returned to the lines to turn the change back into dollars.
They got their meeting.
It's been some time since Texas members of Alinsky's coalition, the Industrial Area Foundation, have had to be rude to get to the table.
"I've been with the organization over 10 years, and I've never seen us do anything like this," said Father Kevin Collins, pastor at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and a leader of Houston's The Metropolitan Organization.
Alinsky's mission was to teach powerless people how to win at politics.
With the help of a trained organizer, members of TMO hold hundreds of house meetings to hear concerns of their members. They decide what issues can be addressed with political action. Then they come up with proposals, sometimes with expert help.
Then they meet with business and political leaders to build support for the plan.
By the time they have an "accountability session" in which hundreds of their members face a stage full of elected officials, most of the officials are usually on board.
When to polarize
At Jackson Lee's town hall meeting, one of the protesters shouted, "Government can't do anything right!"
But Alinsky organizations are not so cynical. They know that government will do right by those who exercise power. If the people don't, the money will.
One of Alinsky's mottos was "No permanent allies, no permanent enemies. Only permanent interests."
"We will teach people that sometimes it is necessary to polarize," said one veteran organizer. "But you have to de-polarize."
Remember San Antonio banker Tom Frost? He is now honorary chairman of the board of Project Quest, a tax-funded job training program won by COPS with his assistance.
rick.casey@chron.com