Organizing for Power
The content of this website is based on the notes I use for training and split into “building blocks for change,” each with analysis, tools, and resources to help you apply these concepts to your organizing work. They reflect lessons from over 30 years of organizing with the student, environmental, labor, immigrant, anti-war and global justice grassroots...
Power
What is Power? How does it work? Power is the ability to act. Power is not good or bad. It is how you use it and toward what end. Power unchecked or unaccountable can corrupt – it can also reveal… Power is not a zero sum game – there is not a limited amount. Power is not set, it is relational. People power has the ability to alter the relationship. Exercising our power consciously can manifest the outcomes we desire. There are different kinds of power: Power Over – that’s what the boss or state use Power With – horizontal organizing, that what we need to model and build Power Within – every single one of us has power to act. For some this is also spirit – a willingness to be fully alive, present and participating as an agent of change. Power Under – when we give up...
Liberation
“I have come to see that violence against other living things is oppression, just as I have come to see that oppression is violence”. Oppression Oppression is when anyone regardless of their race, gender, class, age etc imposes their will against another through acts that are harmful–physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. This also plays out at a societal level where institutions use their power to exploit, deceive, enslave or imprison. To me all of these are an abuse of power. Recognizing our own oppressive behaviors and the oppressive behaviors in our community institutions is an important first step in developing into healthy, freer individuals and communities. Developing practices that liberate can build strong and powerful communities. Working toward the greater good, having a generosity of spirit and using timely and clear communication while restraining those parts of ourselves that want to act out or behave badly is key. It means...
Interest
Interest is something that benefits a person or group or institution or community. Self-interest is a way to cross boundaries. Not everyone has the same interests and our interests change over time We need to identify our interests and our opponent’s interests. Our problems are usually a result of our opponents’, interests. The process of achieving a solution to our problems is by making our problems their problems, or said another way, making our interests their interests. To do this we need to build an organization that has the power to act. In the workplace or community we have a problem that is not being addressed… Problem Solution They don’tknow about our problems Inform Them Bad/IncompetentManagers/Leaders Change managers/trainthem It’s in the companies/govinterest to have these problems Change their interests Their Interests We Can Our Interests Money Cost Money Higher Wages Image Tarnish/Destroy Image Respect Doing Business Disrupt Business Job...
Strategy & Campaigns...
Strategy is your plan to win. Strategy is choosing the ground on which to engage the enemy Strategy means: Looking at the big picture Knowing who has the power to make the decision. Concentrating the right resources in the right place(s) at the right time(s) In Ancient Greece… Strategos = General Tacticas = Foot Soldiers Strategic campaigns are an important part of building a movement. They focus our energy on the forces that need to be changed, and can often result in some victory (big or small) or mitigation of damage. These efforts require participation and creativity. As we build power through campaigns, we model what can happen when we work together inspiring others and igniting imaginations that feed more and more organizing. The momentum of success attracts people who in general want to be aligned with those they believe have power. When we organize campaigns we build momentum...
Organizing
The process of change has two fundamental strategies. One is dismantling structures of oppression while the second is creating structures of liberation. If we don’t have something to replace what we take down, we will lose the confidence of those we are trying to wake up. This process of waking up and engaging in consciously liberating action is when we feel most alive and inspired and connected. Whatever issue is a person’s point of entry, anyone who takes on a struggle and organizes goes through a transformative process in which the world is never the same again. It is the experience of accessing one’s own power and the power of our collective actions. It is the understanding and experience that you don’t have to just obey or believe in that external authority – be it parent, teacher, priest, cop, coach etc; – that you can trust yourself and your...
Action
The Art & Science of Actions: Shutting Things Down to Open Things Up Change is about transformation – personal and political – at an individual, group, community, institutional, national, or international level. I have chosen direct action as my primary strategy for change because it is more effective that any other strategy I have used. It is a rapidly and radically transforming process that has had proven success over the ages. So much of organizing has to do with SPACE — physical, emotional, mental and spiritual space. We can reclaim it, transform it, occupy it, liberate it, shut it down, open it up, shift it or just be present in it. It is the art of knowing when and where to take it, to move into it or through it, then acting without hesitation, in that moment, because you know that if you do not do it now, the...
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Resources
This website is full of resources for organizers, activists, students, journalists, or anyone trying to learn about creating positive social change. The resources are broken up into section corresponding with the Building Blocks of Change, along with some others. Action Planning Resources: tools and resources for planning actions, including tactics, affinity groups, legal support, health, media, communications, direct action manuals, and training agendas Action Planning Template: a template for planning effective actions Anti-Oppression Resources: articles, exercises, tools, and links to trainers groups Campaign Planning: overview of how to plan a direct action campaign Campaign Planning Tools: a variety of power maps for strategizing Campaign Planning Worksheet: use this to plan...
RECENT FROM History
Movement History
This section contains historical documents from past campaigns and mobilizations, as well as pages with stories and resources from various campaigns I’ve been part of, including pages dedicated to Abbie Hoffman, Common Ground, and Camp Casey. You will find action agreements, direct action manuals, pictures, articles, reflections, and more; some organized by topic, some by mobilization, and some in multiple places where it makes sense. The ability to evolve is necessary to the work of any social movement, and this ability rests both in paying attention in the present and in knowing our history. Each generation has a chance to make things different, better, more just. But this has never happened without struggle. ...
RECENT FROM Media
Media
A compilation of select writings, articles, videos, photos, and slideshows by or about Lisa Fithian and the campaigns and mobilizations she’s worked on. Writings by Lisa Writings About Lisa Photos Videos Slideshows Lisa’s Right Wing Fan Club Steal This Book – by Abbie Hoffman with an introduction by Lisa What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, And The State Of The Nation – with chapter author by Sue Hilderbrand, Scott Crow and Lisa Fithian. Sexism, Ego’s and Lies: Sometimes you Wake Up and Things Aren’t Different by Lisa Fithian on FBI information Lessons from a Summit Hopper, an open letter to the direct action community in advance of the Miami FTAA...
Shut It Down, Stories from a Fierce Loving Resistance...
I am so excited that after seven long years, my book Shut It Down, Stories of a Fierce Loving Resistance is out into the world. Chelsea Green Publishing release it on September 3, 2019. I’ve been on tour since then doing book events and a new training called Escalating Resistance: Mass Rebellion Training. I am so grateful to everyone who has bought the book, given me such positive feedback, organized these events and made them such a success. Now in 2020, the world is changing and many of my upcoming events are being cancelled or organized virtually. When a new world emerges I would still like to come to your community. If you find yourself holed up and...
TARG! Disaster Recovery Work
On Halloween of 2013, there was a devastating flood in Austin, TX. It was not huge ongoing news around the country and many people in Austin never registered it was going on. It was like a mini-lower 9th ward. Fast and furious flood waters coming in during the early morning hours. Six people were killed, 1000 homes affected, almost 700 were majorly damaged. People had to escape onto their roofs, some were airlifted by helicopter or taken out by boat. Lots of animals were lost, 22 horse killed – you get the picture, it was bad. Because I had a connection with someone who lived in the flood zone several of us were able to get in...
Undoing Racism Austin
For the past year I have been involved in a local organizing effort to address racial disparity and disproportionality in Austin. Some people say Austin is the most anti-Black city they know and I have no reason to doubt it. Across the board African Americans are at the bottom of every system in our community. There is plenty of data to back that up. Our primary strategy has been to organize Undoing Racism trainings to build a stronger base of organizers and leaders who speak the same language and who have a common analysis and then organizing a network and projects that will build community power. We are working with the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond. ...
The Tar Sands Blockade
Back in the summer of 2011, I met with a group of organizers who were thinking about a prolonged action to block the Keystone XL Pipeline in eastern Texas. It was a good conversation and the bold young group kicked off what became the Tar Sands Blockade. They sat in the trees for over a month, forcing the pipeline to find a new route and launching a new chapter in the history of environmental resistance. They also offered a current alternative to the popular model of orchestrated civil disobediences rooted in cooperation with the state. The Tar Sands Blockade captured the imagination and hearts of many young people and more who traveled to Texas, Nebraska and other state...
Preventing War with Syria
posted on: Sep 11, 2013 | author: organizingforpower
Just when you think there is some room to breathe, some political space for calm, it’s amazing how a possible war can quickly creep in. While the conflict in Syria has been ongoing, with deadly serious consequences, it was the use of chemical weapons that ignited the possibility of the use of military force by the United States. We all mobilized, convened strategy conversations and made a plan to stop another war. This work was able to mobilize majority opposition to military action in about a month. The US Government threat of possible weapons of mass destruction was too reminiscent of the horrors of the Bush Administration and we were not prepared to go down that road again. There was a quick and effective global response and a new way opened to destroy those weapons. The process is still moving forward...
Marching for Jobs, Justice, and Freedom
posted on: Sep 1, 2013 | author: organizingforpower
This August, I was happy to attend the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington that marked Dr, Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. There was a synergy about it. I had served on the National Steering Committee for the 25th Anniversary of the March when I was the Coordinator of the Washington Peace Center. Now at the 50th Anniversary I was serving as the National Convener for United for Peace and Justice, a national network of local and national peace groups. We mobilized a small contingent to bring our bright message to this Anniversary. We gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where we laid a wreath, shared a few words and then with the support of the NY Light Brigade held a procession to the Lincoln Memorial and then on to the King Monument. The sad and perverse thing about the night is that at the King Monument...
Rise Up Texas
posted on: Jul 31, 2013 | author: organizingforpower
On June 25th, Wendy Davis engaged in a filibuster to stop the ALEC-backed Republican drive to strip the people of Texas of their access to abortion and other reproductive health care. I was in the Capitol Extension when the Republican’s third attempt to shut her down succeeded and women spread throughout the building surged toward the Senate Chambers. We began to roar. Over the next few minutes, history was made. The proceedings struggled to continue, stymied by the noise. Though a vote was finally taken, it was after midnight and the session was technically over. Confusion arose, so the Republicans changed the clock to say the vote was complete by midnight and the Second Special Session was closed. This is how it goes down in Texas. Luckily, some trusty photographers had photos of the vote and the clock and were able to prove that David Dewhurst was lying. So the Republicans were forced...
Young Transit Workers Build Their Power
posted on: Jun 20, 2013 | author: organizingforpower
I had the privilege of offering training at the Transit Workers Union Young Workers Summit in New York City. It was April 30th, a day before their May Day in mid-town Manhattan. The action went beautifully, with everyone having a strong feeling of empowerment. We were successful at achieving all of the goals – including getting into every lobby we intended in order to deliver their message. This new experience will go a long way I think in empowering the young workers to build a powerful union – in the buses, subway and in the streets. Check out this TWU May Day Action here ...