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...
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...
“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 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 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...
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...
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...
AFL-CIO Organizers Institute – Teamsters Rhode Island Hospital Campaign
HERE Local 25, Washington DC, 1993-94, won against the lock-out at the Madison Hotel
Justice for Janitors, Washington DC 1994-95, on major street actions including bridge blockades ultimately lead to city-wide agreements for Local 82.
Dignity Campaign, Detroit Michigan, Local 79, successful statewide strike and action campaign
Detroit Newspaper Strike, the political leaders did not rise to the challenge, unsuccessful effort
United Auto Workers – training and support for the RADD – Radical Action Disciple Deployment Teams, Region 1.
Dignity Campaign, successful statewide strike in California 1997- 98 for Local 250
Justice for Janitors in LA and Boston – during several successful contract fights, including a student occupation of the administration building.
Justice for Janitors, Denver – suburban organizing campaign during downtown contract fight that was ultimately successful for Local 105.
HERE Local 11 Campaign against Lowe’s Hotel, great week of action – no contract I think.
UNITE laundry workers strike and action at the National Convention in Las Vegas 1998.
Catholic Healthcare West Statewide Hospital campaign, during the set up and first year. I was the Southern California Coordinator. It was ultimately successful.
Justice for Janitors in Houston, Texas, 2006 winning the best first contract in the history of the union.
Video of Galleria intersection blockade following the “No Share Houston” event
PECAN – Private Equity Creative Action Network, a European based network of civil society groups working in solidarity with labor campaigns on private equity. 2007
Security Guards Strike in San Francisco, California, Fall of 2008 in a successful campaign whose contract and organizing set the pattern for six other cities
Laborers Union fight to make Home Builders accountable to residents and workers during the summer and fall of 2009.
Home Care Workers in California take over the Capitol in June of 2012 saving jobs!
Justice for Janitors Strike in Houston during the summer of 2012 resulted in six significant civil disobedient actions that ultimately won the strike and raised wages by a $1 over the course of the contract
On May 12, 2011 collaboration with the NY Teachers Union that resulted in a 20,000 person march on Wall Street to say Make the Big Banks Pay!
Michigan AFL-CIO/UAW fightback campaign against the ALEC proposed Right to Work legislation which was passed by the State Legislature in December 2012.
Campaigns I have worked on include:
Slideshows