Sep/Oct 1998
Issue #101
The articles in this issue show by example and opinion a range of work collectively known as organizing. While we by no means discuss the complete organizing universe, we explore many different types of organizing – from confrontational to consensus and from issue-based to identity-based. Each of these articles sheds light, we hope, on the how of organizing – its accomplishments, pitfalls, and potentials. Perhaps less obviously, most of the articles also grapple with the questions "why do we do it?" and "how can we do it better?
Organizing Today: Ten Reasons to Cheer!
1. There’s lots of it going on In a recent survey, Heather West of Grassroots Leadership of Lorain, OH, found 120 groups directly or somewhat involved in community organizing in […]
Building a Force for the Common Good
The empty space at the center of American democracy is defined ultimately by its failed political institutions. At the highest level of politics, there is no one who now reliably […]
Organizing Renaissance
When the executive director and board of the Twin Cities CDC (TCCDC) in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, decided to hire an organizer in 1997, they didn’t know what they were getting themselves […]
Community-Labor Coalitions
In 1986, when over 800 UAW Local 376 members went on strike at Colt Firearms in Hartford and West Hartford, Connecticut, union leaders knew they faced a long and bitter […]
Fair Housing Drives New Party Growth in Little Rock
Two years ago, as part of its Campaign ’96 issue, Shelterforce reported on the early successes of the Little Rock New Party – a fledgling municipal political party in Arkansas’s […]
Hearts and Crafts: Powering the Movement—Organizing’s Past, Present, and Future, Part 1
Organizing has long played an important role as a catalyst in bringing together disenfranchised communities. The following is one of three essays representing different approaches to organizing and serving as […]
Reclaiming Our Birthright—Organizing’s Past, Present, and Future Part 2
Organizing has long played an important role as a catalyst in bringing together disenfranchised communities. The following is one of three essays representing different approaches to organizing and serving as […]
Consensus Organizing—Organizing’s Past, Present, and Future, Part 3
Organizing has long played an important role as a catalyst in bringing together disenfranchised communities. The following is one of three essays representing different approaches to organizing and serving as […]
Pablo Eisenberg
In 1960-1963, a young United States Information Agency (USIA) officer, Pablo Eisenberg, went to a Russian variety troupe performing in Senegal. While the quality of the performance was mediocre compared […]
Organizing, Power, & Public Policy
Community organizing teaches the poor to organize themselves for power and politics…to restore dignity and integrity, and rebuild community, as well as the civic culture. It comes as no great […]
Training Directory
Where do you go when you want to put organizing ideas into practice? Whether you are starting out, branching out, or burning out, the following organizations are there to help […]
Activists in Action
Justice in the Workplace Although there has always been a core of religious allies focused on labor issues, during the ’70s and ’80s they were disconnected, isolated, and disorganized. In […]
Organizing
The articles in this issue show by example and opinion a range of work collectively known as organizing. While we by no means discuss the complete organizing universe, we explore […]
Shelter Shorts
Section 8: More to Come Still Not Enough After a three-year drought, Congress has approved new Section 8 vouchers – 50,000 for FY ’99. And in September, the Housing Authority […]
HUD Budget Approved
After years of wrangling, Congress hastily passed a public housing reform bill in the last days before its October adjournment. Attached as Title V of the FY 1999 HUD/VA appropriations […]