MY COMBINED COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PIECES

MY COMBINED COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PIECES -- WITH MUCH NEW STUFF HUNTER GRAY/JOHN R SALTER, JR [HUNTER BEAR] SEPTEMBER 5 2004 -- WITH NEW INCLUSION: THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER AS PRACTITIONER, TEACHER, WRITER AND STUDENT [HUNTER GRAY -- FEBRUARY 19 2008] ALL OF THIS MUCH REPRINTED - PLUS MANY NEW COMMENTS

Hi John: [from Colia Liddell Lafayette Clark] 9/14/05

Thank you for this beautiful piece on the role and function of the
organizer. We do ever need to be reminded that hard work brings forth great
fruit.

The flood tides are rising and its high time that the organizers get busy
bringing the community the information and tools needed to get to high
ground . We can and must do it, if we are to score a victory against
imperial capitalism world wide.
Colia

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From Colia to her list of colleagues: 9/14/05

Hi Everyone:
I received this note from Hunter Gray Bear (John Salter). Hunter Bear was my
professor at Tougaloo College and one of the sharpest organizers in both the
southern civil rights movement and labor movement in the USA. He agreed to
serve as advisor to a the newly organized Jackson, Ms NAACP North Jackson
Youth Council in 1961. This was no small decision. Under his tutorledge and
guidance and with the oversight of Medgar Wylie Evers, the North Jackson
NAACP Youth Council would produce a mass movement and the most successful
boycott of a downtown district in the deep south. Only, Ida B Wells boycott
of Memphis in the 19th century can compare. Jackson. Ms' downtown folded and
has never reopened with its string of shops and department stores. This was
no easy work and like Medgar and so many others Hunter Bear was targeted for
death. He was seriously wounded by the southern racists in a freak car
accident (point of death), beaten a number of times in demonstrations but
refused to yield even from pressure within the struggle. Those years are
detailed in a book by Hunter Bear (John R Salter) entitled: Jackson,
Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle and Schism. The book is out
of print, but should be in most college libraries. Today, Hunter Bear has
returned to his native land in the West and to his native roots to continue
organizing and building grass roots struggle and a new generation of
youthful organizers.

Hear him for he worthy to be heard.

Colia L. Clark

THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER -- AS PRACTITIONER, TEACHER, WRITER AND STUDENT [HUNTER GRAY/HUNTER BEAR [FEBRUARY 19 2008] -- MY FULL MINI-COURSE FOLLOWS IMMEDIATELY.

I think that Community Organizing can only be effectively done and conveyed, to / with grassroots people or formal students, if the organizer is a genuinely experienced -- experienced -- individual.

Virtually anyone can call himself / herself a "community organizer." There are not, in this particular field, any formal certification requirements or issued licenses. And it also takes a Real One [of which there are fortunately many] to effectively teach and write about it.

To me, a bona fide community organizer is someone who is actively and effectively involved over a substantial period of time in the hard, tedious, and sometimes genuinely dangerous work of getting people together and keeping people together -- for meaningful action. And, as I certainly see it, of course, this has to be within the context of the pursuit of social justice.

This has to involve much more than, simply, a few here-and-there, hit-and-miss local endeavors -- or limited "support" activities from a safe and cloistered setting. It has to involve vastly more than simply being a participant in, say, a march.

I'm talking about someone who plays a signal role in initiating constructive fires [figuratively] and who, systematically, works to carry that through to relative success as yet another stretch of the trail in the Save the World Business. Sometimes it's a pitchy-pine hot and flaring fire, more likely it's the long oak wood burn with an occasional flare.

An organizer can be an altruistic someone who starts as a neophyte and who works with an experienced organizer -- and it can also be someone who arises spontaneously in a social justice crisis and feathers out with dispatch. In both instances, the organizer "learns by doing" and keeps going.

And a genuinely good and effective organizer never stops learning from the grassroots people with whom he / she works.

Without wasting time on false modesty, I've sometimes referred to an "organizing credential" of mine as my graduate degree in militant organizing. Awarded me in 1963 in the heat of our massive Jackson [Mississippi] Movement was a sheaf of papers with myself as the lead name: City of Jackson vs. John R. Salter, Jr et al. Prepared by Mississippi's top anti-civil rights lawyer [Thomas Watkins] who consulted with a bevy of others including the then state AG, it's considered the most sweeping anti-civil rights "order" issued during the general period. It sought to prohibit us from engaging in any kind of demonstration and boycott, "conspiring" to do such, and doing anything to "consummate conspiracies" to demonstrate and boycott. And, to forestall any legal complications from the state's perspective, it set the first hearing date 90 days hence. It was copied by other jurisdictions in the South. The bevy of heavily armed wide-brim hatted Mississippi deputy sheriffs who coldly and formally delivered my copy obviously viewed it as pure Holy Writ. For our part, we simply defied it and kept going. [It's on our website, not hard to find. -- along with a great many accounts and details of my own personal organizing projects.]

But my greatest satisfactions are always based on the positive appraisals of those on whose behalf I'm involved -- in actual social justice campaigns. Those are priceless.

Academia? Taking a class or two? That can offer some valuable approaches and insights -- but only if the teacher is an organizer with substantial experience who can talk in solid fashion, not only about the work of others but, primarily, what he / she has actually done. Organizing is a living art, not simply an erector-set craft and, if it's taught as art, the recipient -- formal student or grassroots person -- will learn some very solid things.

There was a time, briefly, at the end of the 1960s, when several schools of social work issued MSW degrees with a specialization in community organizing. Apparently that proved too difficult for the schools which shifted, fairly quickly, into social policy [ mostly agency administration.] In our organizing work on the South/Southwest side of Chicago, we were fortunate in hiring and retaining two MSW persons, each of whom had their degree with a formal and specific organizing focus -- via University of Michigan and University of Illinois [Circle.] They did, as was the case of our entire staff of two dozen or so, very fine work. But they readily conceded that they were learning far more in the field than they ever had in classrooms.

For my part, I have taught community organizing [while continuing my own organizing on the side] in every one of the far-flung colleges and universities at which I've sojourned. While on some occasions, it's been an added dimension to a course formally on another topic, it's also been, in the main, as its very own course. These have carried both undergraduate and graduate credit depending on the specific student. And, of course, I've also taught it, as a working organizer, to grassroots people and other organizers as well -- in all sorts of workshops and conferences.

And, wherever I've taught community organizing, academic or grassroots or whatever, every single person -- bar none -- has wanted a practical, down to earth approach with as many personally experiential case histories of campaigns that I can provide. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough. [This also includes the personal histories of various protagonists.] And I do have a great many of these personal accounts -- and there are others who do as well. At this juncture, I have several rich decades of them.

But faithfully remember: a really first-rate organizer / teacher always -- always -- learns much from his / her grassroots colleagues and classroom students.

And, although I have my own somewhat eclectic Vision and am not oblivious to theory [I got along nicely and profitably in Sociological Theory], I've never found theory by itself -- and certainly not heavy ideology -- to be especially interesting to those to and with whom I talk. That poses no problem for me. The genuinely radical Southern poet, the late John Beecher, an old friend over many decades, commented approvingly and publicly of me that "he wears no man's collar."

Whenever or wherever I've taught community organizing, I've always used many of my personal case histories. If particular occasion permits, I lace these with much use of primary documents -- everything from field reports to leaflets, media clippings, legal briefs, much more. We do a heavy focus on tactics and strategies, building democracy, ethical questions. [In formal courses, I've often given a key issue and its setting as an essay test question.]

Field practicums aren't offered vis-a-vis a single class. But, for especially interested students, I early on did separate, follow-up Independent Studies -- de facto practicums, complete with appropriate field placements [and for full academic credit, of course.]

I avoid overly detailed, tight syllabi. And I consistently encourage a hell of a lot of discussion. Many people have had, in their own right, grassroots organizing experiences of one kind or another. Workshops [and conferences] always have people who are actually doing good things in the field.

And all of that is super-enriching.

Certain films can be extremely helpful -- e.g., Salt of the Earth, Norma Rae, Shane. And there are many others.

And music, too: well-done civil rights songs; and labor and related stuff from, among others, Pete Seeger and Joe Glazer.

Outside speakers? Certainly an occasional one, very preferably another organizer / grassroots activist -- directly from, as the old Wobblies used to put it, "the point of production."

Written scholarly or quasi-scholarly works on community organizing? Be careful -- very careful. Most of that, at best, has only very limited use. Usually dry and lifeless, this stuff is almost always written or compiled by ivory-towered academics using comparable works by comparable others and offers very little in the way of technique and insight. I place high priority on the accounts of folks who have actually Organized. [This can include people such as the late Saul Alinsky with whose "top down" organizing strategy, I -- with my grassroots-up focus -- strongly disagree. I've used Alinsky's Rules for Radicals on several occasions as a support text.] Occasionally, I've used my own very detailed book -- Jackson, Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle and Schism, 1979 and 1987]. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm

It's been long out of print but is sometimes findable on the Net [under my former name, John R Salter, Jr].

I should also add that there are corollary works from related fields that can be helpful. A faithful member of some of our discussion lists, Sam Friedman, produced -- after long and very careful study, much of it quite direct, Teamster Rank and File: Power, Bureaucracy, and Rebellion at Work and in a Union [1982]. This is first-rate and very readable sociology in the best sense. And there are certainly all kinds of other good works in this genre. Autobiographies and oral histories by organizers and participants can be quite valuable.

But, again, on written works dealing specifically with Community Organizing, Be Very Careful.

My own course in Community Organizing is here, in mini-form:

http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm

And this has much on our organizing in Chicago during a long, sanguinary epoch. It contains, among other things, our practical critique of Alinsky:

http://hunterbear.org/chicago_organizing.htm

As I wrote recently in my Outlaw Trail: The Native As Organizer:

So, if you are an aspiring social justice Organizer -- "bright eyed and bushy-tailed" -- recognize that you can't practice that always critically needed vocation and have the things about which Thorstein Veblen wrote so well and indictingly in this classic attack on conspicuous consumption, The Theory of the Leisure Class.

You'll get your skull cracked, your hide cut, and you'll often get fired.

But I'd rather have Those Memories than Money.

http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm

From the Mountains of Eastern Idaho -

In Solidarity,

Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear]

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na�shdo�i�ba�i�
and Ohkwari

COMMENTS ON THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER -- AND THEN RIGHT ON TO THE MINI-COURSE:

JOYCE LADNER [OF TOUGALOO COLLEGE AND MISSISSIPPI MOVEMENT DAYS:

Great post. You are also a great writer.

______________________________________________

RICHARD MENEC:

There are six copies of your book, including one inscribed to Gus Hall,
here:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=salter&sts=t&tn=Jackson%2C+Mississippi&x=0&y=0

regards,
Richard

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DAWN LOUGH [MESKWAKI, WRITING OF MY UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COURSES:

John: a very fine piece of writing and information on Community Organizing. There are times, in which I occasionally will run into former staff, or retired staff, faculty or students. Recently, I had a very long conversation with Al Seals. He is a retired federal employee. Back in the 70s was an engineer at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids. He also was the academic student advisor to engineer minority students at the U of IA. (He also remains a personal friend of Classie Hoyle). Mr. Seals often comments that he really was informed, made aware of the social justice issues concerning Native Americans when he took your classes. He really respects your teaching style, and commitment to Social Justice Action. Another, is Mike Fong. He was a counseling education grad student who went into law enforcement at the University. After 25 years (plus a heart attack) he has retired. He enjoys telling me all the exciting discussions he had the opportunity to participate in your classes. He also says, no one teaches as you taught. That seminars on campus are very dull. We agree that seminars serve to stimulate, think. Mr. Fong feels that you stirred people to action from the heart. You continue and will always have your students who respect, and are very grateful for your mentoring, professional ethics and taking the time to really teach. There are very few in academia today who have your talent, skills. Please continue to write so that discussion, action will occur. It has been my pleasure to have been a student. Have a great day!
As ever, Dawn Lough

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SAM FRIEDMAN:

Thank you for the kind words about my book. Coming from someone with your experience, they are some of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me, and I will treasure them indee

I want to add a few words about theory, which is an area where Hunter and I sometimes disagree--though never about the imperative for movements to be based on the folks at the bottom.

When I have been engaged in organizing of one kind or another, I often face several kinds of questions that I find hard to answer purely on the basis of my experience.

One of these is the question of the ultimate goals of the movement--what Hunter calls the Vision Thing. Now, I have no way to be sure about this question either, and recognize that the future (if we have one) will be what we make of it. But our ability to create is limited by many things. For example, increasingly, we will be faced with the need to deal with the environmental consequences of capitalism. In a few more years, cities on the coasts will be facing extreme peril like that of New Orleans. We will need to deal with that.

Similarly, this is a world of grotesque inequality in terms of economics, education and much else--all of it shaped by the last 400 years plus of empire, capital running amok, and the creation of new forms of racism and other oppressions. To create a new world, we will have to deal with that--and no matter how successfully "the people" come into power, that will mean struggles among us.

And we have seen movements that base themselves on the subordinated classes--peasants, workers--create horrible forms of mis-rule and of economic exploitation. Anyone trying to answer the question of where we want to go has to take seriously the question of how we can avoid such outcomes.

Another question is that of how and what "we" can hope to win, since the people in any workplace, community, or oppressed category of people have only limited power by themselves. Except in times when the masses of people are in open rebellion, this requires careful and humble exploration and discussion by all of us--but also, a certain kind of theory-guided sense of the times and of what might be moveable if we act in certain ways. No guarantees--but a sense of possibility.

Furthermore, some issues of tactics and strategy in the day to day activity of a movement require some theory-based understanding. This may be even clearer in organizing workers than in organizing in communities. You really need to understand what union leaders are likely to do when faced with company demands, or with demands from the workers themselves, in different circumstances. This, indeed, is a key part of what I explored in the Teamster Rank and File book.

I do not know how much of what I just said--if any--Hunter would disagree with. I look forward to learning.

best
sam

RESPONSE BY HUNTER: [February 22 2008 -- and a bit longer than I initially intended. In any case, the Mini-Course is not far below. Keep going!]

Sam:

Appreciate your response. Mine will be a bit limited -- yesterday had its challenges hereabouts. [I am glad, I might add as a minor aside, that especially having felt a Nevada bump or two, we are damn glad we have earthquake insurance.]

I certainly mean the good words I said about you and your fine work on the Teamsters and more -- and I genuinely appreciate your good words about me. [Yours is attached.] And I also appreciate the fact that you care deeply, and always have, about People and, in that context, certainly qualify as "a long distance runner." We both agree on the inherently predatory nature of capitalism. But, in our discussions, you appear to often fall back primarily on the nature of capitalism as Poisoner and Foe. I have always been, throughout virtually all of my life, quite cognizant of That. But I don't feel that such a recognition precludes in any sense placing the heaviest priority on the tedious work of careful and painstaking grassroots organizing, and sensibly fighting, step by step, to achieve significant gains at all levels for "those of the fewest alternatives". I've climbed, literally, a lot of mountains. And I know that you don't reach summits via words alone. It takes steady, step by step work. My experience, and the experiences recounted to me when I was starting out, by, say, life-long labor organizers, has always indicated that when People Get More, They Want More. I found, in the context of the recent Iowa caucuses, what I and many others have long recognized: that there is a vast number of people, including literal throngs of heretofore not-much-involved youth, who do want something better -- much better. The Obama campaign, which I think you and many others of the older Left, are sometimes inclined to write off a little too quickly as a "snare and a delusion" is, whatever its limitations, stirring the pot and catalyzing activism-- and expectations. And as I've said many times recently, those Forces within and around and above and below the Obama effort, will keep on going -- far beyond the limitations, say, of the campaign and the presidency itself. And I'm quite convinced that, in the matter of young people, as with the greatest majority of humanity, self-determination will always stand as a critical priority, however tough that trail and whatever the occasional pitfalls.

I believe that, in the final analysis, the People will certainly always continue to prevail.

When, in the late '30s, Wyoming-born Federal appellate justice Thurman Arnold, wrote his classic, The Folklore of Capitalism, pointing out that that folklore was deeply ingrained as practice in most of the United States culture and psyche, he hit the Number Ten innermost circle of the Target. If I recall correctly, he didn't quote any European theoreticians. He was a plain-speaking Westerner, called it like it was -- and, essentially, like it still is. [And he made his own positive and tangible contributions to the good fight.] But "We" have gained significant ground on a number of substantive social justice fronts since those days [he wrote when I was three or four years old] -- and one of those has been the fact that the nature of capitalism has become vastly more obvious, at whatever glacial pace, to succeeding American generations [and to those in other global, settings]. Transcending that, and developing an ever-better human society, here and abroad, is, again, a long-term thing. It comes in long, tough pulls -- on a long hard trail. I'm not talking about the oft "drawing room discourses" of the Fabians. And, at least for me, I'm not talking about the intricacies of theory and black-board diagrams. I am talking about hard-headed, principled and often eclectic pragmatism aimed toward More Porkchops -- and then even More.

When I was starting out, it was in an era when, for example, radical editors -- and probably other types as well -- often took the time to hand scribble a few encouraging ink notes on half a sheet of paper to an aspiring and hot-eyed radical youth. [And I have always tried to do the same, I should add.] One, truly a veteran radical and labor organizer, and a fine journalist for sure, wrote me with these words, "To be really radical, you don't have to rant and rave. Describe, as accurately as you can, the injustice you see around you." He went on to encourage a down-to-earth, practical approach -- laced, of course, with some comprehensible sense of the far-off Better World To Come.

And, as we go along -- as we always have -- our rivulets will continue to come together into a mighty stream that will shape various visionary concepts -- which, whatever their respective differences -- will always point Over the Mountain Yonder to good Big Visions and ultimately to the Sun and Light. And, as we reach one summit, there'll be, off yonder, new mountain ranges, and, in due course, new Visions. Always and Forever, the Big Rock Candy Mountain will beckon us forth.

Whatever the nature of this series of Emergences, I do feel that, whatever we build will always have to provide for full measures of liberty and bread-and-butter -- and for those, like myself, who want it, a full measure of spiritual well-being as well. And all of this will have to be built in this country [as in all others] with the pine-wood and oak from our own forests via our own skillet and over our own fires.

Again, Sam, I thank you for your good words. We're on the same side. I should add that my "Community Organizer" post drew a good number of positive comments from various places [and I've put some of them, including yours, on our webpage, My Combined Community Organizing Pieces.] And another very kind one that arrived came from Willa Cofield [Willa Johnson in the old days] the school teacher and a major activist in our extremely hard-fought and successful Northeastern North Carolina Black Belt struggle. As you will note, she -- like a great many of us -- is truly "keeping on, keeping on."

Hi, Hunter -

Thanks for the recent E-mails. I've just read your discussion of community organizing and marveled at your wisdom, as well as the clarity of your ideas and your magic with words. I could almost picture you striding to the front of the auditorium and laying it out 44 (can it be?) years ago.

I'm forwarding a document written by the chairperson of the Anti-war Committee of which I am a member.

All the best,
Willa [Cofield]

And In Solidarity, Hunter [Hunter Bear]

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DAVID MCREYNOLDS:

Good points, Hunter - am passing on to a pacifist list and a socialist one.

David

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ILA MCKAY [OF THE SPIRIT LAKE SIOUX NATION AND MY UND COURSES:

Dr. Salter,

Thank you very much for the information on community organizing. It is very much my cup of tea at this juncture in my life. i serve as a community coordinator for a Native aspirations project of Kauffman and Associates, Inc, out of Spokane Washington. My job is to mobilize communities to implement prevention of violence and bullying and suicide prevention on reserrvations in North and South Dakota. I believe that I am good at community organizing, because I can feel it. I can feel the pain of the people on the reservations, for I come from there, I can feel the hope, I can relate, and I love the people for whom I work . . . . , I LOVE THE COMMUNITY PEOPLE, THE YOUTH, THE FAMILIES, THE ELDERS, the less fortunate, the alcoholics, the down trodden, the abused or neglected. I do love the work i do in community . . .for the faces that I have come to know on the reservations that I serve.

I will write more on this topic later. . .

ila mckay

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SUZANNE DE KUYPER:

Obama's campaign could use some insights from your years of work as well as insights in how to become real after packaging himself a SAVIOR.......nuts and bolts clarity on what he will do, not his wife's vision of his singularity...Elmer Gantry politics take one just so far. Our problems are terminal.

You are well placed to offer them unique insights no-one else will, or, maybe can.

Suzanne

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DUANE CAMPBELL:

Hunter,

Good essay..

May I post it on www.antiracismdsa.blogspot.com ?

Duane Campbell

Hunter Bear's Response:

Please post my Community Organizing piece, Duane. I am pleased and honored.

All best and -- In Solidarity, H

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BARBARA SVEDBERG:

Dear Hunter, Thank you for this. I agree with what you have written and understand that I have never really done that even though the FBI thought I did. Barbara

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MATTHEW MCDANIEL:

Hunter:

A great letter.

Thanks,

Matthew

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Hunter Bear:

Norla Antinoro and Ed Pickersgill post my Community Organizer essay on

We! Magazine.

http://www.mytown.ca/ev.php?URL_ID=122206&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201

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WILLA COFIELD [OF ENFIELD IN THE NORTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA BLACK-BELT MOVEMENT DAYS:

________________________________________________________________

JOHN SOLBACH [A COUSIN, AND A KANSAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADER:

John, I thought of you this morning on the eve of the Mississippi primary. Remember back when. . . your mother sent my mother news clippings of what was happening in Jackson in the early sixties and your activities to make things right. It gives me a great sense of vicarious satisfaction to know you were there facing down what needed to change and now seeing that change grow from seeds you helped sow then on rocky inhospitable terrain. Makes me " proud to be an American, where t least I know I'm free". We visited Jackson some years ago and the civil rights display at the old state house where you are featured.

Facing the draft in the mid60s I joined the Marines for a 397 day combat tour. I still hear from some of the men I served with 40 years ago, and I respond.

John

HERE ARE MY RELATED PIECES ON ORGANIZING.

FIRST, AMONG OTHER INTEGRAL AND RELATED DIMENSIONS, ARE:

1] Invitations to the Organizer from the grassroots -- spontaneous and
wrangled. Some can come to one's own sponsoring organization; some can
come directly to you if you are reasonably well known; or you can arrange
an invitation.

2] Issues: Some are readily apparent, some not always apparent -- e.g.,
economic relationships; some are immediately realistic with work and some
are futuristic; some are frankly unrealistic in the foreseeable future.

3] Planning philosophies: Top Down, vs Basic Grassroots Up [my preference]. Set forth general overall goals, long-range specific, short range specific. Heavy grassroots involvement here is always critical.

4] Credibility of project: Should be made up and led primarily by the
people for whose benefit it is launched: e.g., "those of the fewest
alternatives." Careful delineation and evaluation of active and potential
leaders is obviously critical. And often things start out with a steering
committee of leaders and then, after the organization has grown and more
people are actively involved, elections of regular officers.

5] Some people may want to move too fast and others too slowly. The
Organizer helps develop the group's tempo and assists grassroots leaders
and people in meeting those expectations.

6] Direct action: Always know First Amendment and related rights.
Picketing, sit-ins, boycotts, mass marches are extremely useful. And
there is always a need for careful organization and tactical nonviolence.
Direct action should be accompanied by judicious media coverage.

7] Media use: Has to be used carefully: national wire services; local
television, often with national hookups; local radio; local and regional
press; specialized press; news releases -- who, what, when, where, why and how; press conferences; leaflets with ALL pertinent information;
newsletters; community newspapers; community cable TV; Internet. There is always a need for constantly updated media/contact lists.

8] Lawyers and litigation: Defensive and aggressive legal actions --
"criminal" and civil; local volunteers; paid lawyers; national
organizational attorneys -- e.g., ACLU, Lawyers Guild, Native American
Rights Fund. Some non-in-court matters can be handled very effectively by good law students.

9] Possible allies and political action: National organizations; and
government agencies [be careful]; political -- informal approaches and
quiet contacts; formal approaches and lobbying and direct requests;
electoral [voting]. DON'T GET CO-OPTED.

10] Power structure analysis: Check out Moody's industrials and
Standard and Poor's; and check out lawyers and their big business
connections in Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, and see FindLaw.
Also see firms in U.S. Lawyer's Directory. City Directory will frequently
give the official occupation of people. See corporate profit and not for
profit charters at the state secretary of state's office and check out
annual registration of organizations from state attorney general or sometimes secretary of state. Data on charitable organizations can be found at state attorney general's office and county tax assessor. There are also various national and regional Who's Who and IRS and U.S. Government Organization Manual and Congressional Directory. DON'T NEGLECT HELPFUL NON-OFFICIAL GOSSIP.

11] Coalitions [tend to be long term] and alliances [often shorter term]
are sometimes beneficial and sometimes not. Consider all of this
carefully and try to avoid precipitous marriages.

12] Although no Organizer -- whether from the "outside" or the "inside" --
will ever have full consensus from the community, he or she must avoid the
temptation to be a "Lone Ranger." That role can be temporarily justified
only in cases of extreme grassroots fear or heavy factionalism.
[Hunter Bear]
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JUST WHAT MAKES A DAMN GOOD COMMUNITY ORGANIZER? BASED ON MY 50 YEARS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR] 12/30/03

[Published in the Spring 2004 issue of Independent Politics News And
Published In Oregon Socialist, Winter/Spring 2004 -- and much more.]

I'm an Organizer, a damn good one. I get and keep people together for
social justice action. I've been an Organizer for virtually half a
century -- all over much of what's called the United States. [I've also
been, among other things, a fur trapper, forest fire fighter, soldier,
prospector, metal [development] miner, minority hiring and training
consultant, college/university professor, writer.]

But my vocation is Organizer. I've done it full time for many years indeed.
And then, in conjunction with other jobs, I've always continued to
organize, somewhere and somehow.

What follows here is my essentially outline conception of the
characteristics and qualities of a good and effective Organizer who is
genuinely on the grassroots job. That can be a union local; a temporary
single-issue effort; permanent single-issue; permanent multi-issue;
coalition. It can sometimes be a specialized service center -- which itself
some way grows out of a community organization. A Movement is a transcendent widespread feeling, visionary, fueled by many local organizational efforts -- and it, in turn, inspires many local efforts.

Assembling my scattered notes on the matter a few days ago, I spent some
very early morning hours today [I rise about 3:30 am] sketching this out on
one of my traditional yellow tablets.

____________________________________________________________________________
_______

1] The Organizer should be at least bright -- alert and sparky. And
hopefully, be intelligent in a depthy and lofty sense -- which characterizes
most organizers who really stick with it over the long pull.

2] The Organizer should be relatively "pure" in the moral sense. But not
too pure -- because no one, anywhere, wants a sanctimonious conscience
hovering about. Set a good personal example. Do your recreational thing
away from the project. Wherever you are, avoid all drugs and go easy on
alcohol [if you are even into that sensitivity-dulling stuff.] Remember the
old labor adage: "You can't fight booze and the boss at the same time."
Always a special target, the organizer has to be aware of the consistent
danger of frame-ups.

3] The Organizer has to be a person who is thoroughly ethical and
honorable. Among other things, this means fiscal honesty [as soon as
possible and whenever feasible, a local committee made up of grassroots
people should handle the financial end of things]. And it also means
avoiding any hint of co-optation by the Adversary. The Organizer should
always have at least a representative group of the grassroots people present when meeting with the Other Side -- unless local people clearly approve a unilateral approach.

4] Formal academic training in the higher ed sense can certainly be useful
to any Organizer [or, as far as that goes, for anyone] -- but it isn't
absolutely critical. The Organizer, among other attributes, should be fully
literate [including computer literate], with finely tuned sensitivities,
with one hell of a lot of good sense. And almost anyone can do much
self-teaching.

Race and social class factors are not usually critical for a good
Organizer. [I'm a Native American who has worked comfortably with Indians of many tribes, Chicanos, Southern and Northern Blacks, Puerto Ricans, low-income Anglos. I've also never pretended to have proletarian origins.]

In a word, be sensitive -- but be yourself.

5] The Organizer absolutely has to be a person who can communicate clearly and well. Often, this can mean teaching -- without necessarily appearing to do so [many people really don't like a teacher.]
And communication, of course, involves one - to - one on a face - to - face
basis, e-mail, phone calls, news announcements and press conferences, mass meetings -- and much more indeed. It can also involve an Organizer helping people with their own unique individual/family problems. And that can help not only the person but will strengthen the overall effort.

6] The good Organizer will have some sort of altruistic ideology: couched
as an integrated, cogent set of beliefs embodying goals and tactics. After
that, there are several choices:

A] The Organizer can be passive; and the grassroots people can be
the ones who make the goals and the tactics. Not so hot.

B] The Organizer can impose a specific ideology -- including
goals and tactics. Not so hot, either.

C] The Organizer can convey a general ideological perspective
which the grassroots people can take or not take. They are not going to
want to feel pushed or hammered into things, but they'll usually take it --
especially if it's sensibly and sensitively "sold". They certainly may want
some time -- and should have it -- to think it all over. And, soon enough,
together the organizer and the people can develop solid goals and effective tactics. Remember, the organizer brings gifts and �lan -- and the
grassroots provides at least most of the reality.

7] The Organizer must have a genuinely powerful and enduring commitment. This has to involve a deep belief -- a very real belief -- in the People and the Cause. The Organizer has to be able to recognize potential
leaders -- and to involve all of the people. Virtually everyone has
something of substantial significance to contribute. The organizer gives
ideas -- but it's ultimately up to the people whom the organizer should
never manipulate. Bona fide organizing [not service center stuff] is about
the hardest work there is. A good Organizer is literally wedded to the
campaign all the way through.

8] The Organizer has to have a healthy but controllable ego -- with a
strong sense of destiny.

9] And any really healthy grassroots organizing campaign has to have a
Vision -- one that is two dimensional: Over The Mountain Yonder, and the
Day - To - Day needs. As I have indicated, a movement which, among other
things, is characterized by an idea whose time has come, is a broad-based
cause growing out of local community organizational efforts -- in turn
inspiring and stimulating new community-based thrusts. To become a bona fide movement, there absolutely has to be the two-dimensional ethos and active life. But the purely local effort has to have the same two dimensional
ingredients, whether it's part of a movement or by itself.

[Something with vision only can easily wind up a small, in-grown sect;
and something that's only day - to -day can become a tired service program. And when an organization has lost its way, factionalism is a sure thing along with the withdrawal of the local people.]

A good Organizer's role in all of this vision-building is extremely
critical -- especially at the outset. But it's also critical all the way
through in conjunction with the growing awareness of the grassroots people. The two-dimensional vision -- Over The Mountain and Day - To -Day -- is the shiny idea that makes people part of a crusade and sometimes a truly great one. It all gives meaning to life. And sometimes, if necessary, one will die for it. Each of these two dimensions stimulates and feeds the other. A good and truly effective Organizer absolutely has to show this
interconnection.

10] An Organizer definitely has to be a person with a tough hide -- not
deterred by cruel name-calling, physical beatings, or forced out of the game by injuring bullets or other bloody efforts. The organizer has to be a
person of physical courage. And an Organizer also has to have the courage
to take unpopular stands within the developing grassroots effort.

11] And an Organizer cannot live materially in the pretentious sense.
Solidarity -- and also sacrifice!

Semper Fi -

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR] Micmac/St Francis Abenaki/St Regis Mohawk

In the mountains of Eastern Idaho

www.hunterbear.org

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES -- OR, GETTING PRACTICAL [REVISED DECEMBER 25 2003] BASED ON MY 50 YEARS OF ORGANIZING EXPERIENCE. HUNTER GRAY/JOHN R
SALTER, JR

[PUBLISHED IN OREGON SOCIALIST WINTER/SPRING 2004
WITH NEW MATERIAL 8/25/04]

Missing -- way too often -- in radical and general social justice circles
and related settings is a willingness to get down into the grassroots and
engage systematically in some of the most challenging work there is:
organizing the grassroots into genuinely effective and enduring outfits.
That's Genesis in the Save the World Business. It's often far too easy to
engage in essentially empty "jaw-smithing." Fortunately, there are always
those -- Organizers and grassroots people -- who are willing to do the
really tedious and tough organizing work over the long pull. Those who are
reasonably experienced have their own particular approaches.

Here are my own basic ones:

These 17 essential organizing principles were created formally by me in
early September 1963, after what had already been a number of years of
successful social justice organizing -- and then modified and supplemented
a bit over many decades of grassroots organizing campaigns. Now I've
transcribed them yet again -- with some changes -- on December 25 2003.
They are part of a considerably larger work that I also wrote in September
1963 -- "Organizing the Community for Action." This was initially about six
tightly packed single-spaced legal size pages. I made several dozen
mimeographed copies and sent them around -- and they were well received. I continued to expand and polish up all of this and used "Organizing" and my following 17 component principles many, many dozens of times in organizing campaigns, including -- among other dimensions -- struggles, organizing staff and grassroots training capacities, conferences, and university classes. By this time, my little manual itself had grown to nine tightly packed and single-spaced legal size pages. Copies of all versions of "Organizing the Community for Action" are in my collected [Salter/Gray] papers at State Historical Society of Wisconsin and Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The basically full ones began in March, 1965 and August, 1966. In addition, I have copies of all of these editions of mine right here in Idaho.

I'm presently rewriting parts of "Organizing the Community for Action" --
streamlining and updating -- and we are right now discussing the 17
principles themselves here in the Pocatello region as we get set for some
anti-racist action.

The following applies primarily to organizing staff and broad-based
grassroots community organizations. But they can also apply
substantially -- with only a very few changes -- to other types of outfits:
e.g., local union organizations.

Anyway -

1] The Organizers should insure that the community organization is
significant in size and composed primarily, if not completely, of those
people "with the fewest alternatives".

2] The Organizers should insure that active and potential community
leadership is developed in such a fashion that the organization is led
primarily, if not completely, by those people with the fewest alternatives.

3] The Organizers should insure that the organization functions
democratically, and not in an authoritarian fashion and that, among other
things, formal rules of democratic procedure are established and followed
and that widespread grassroots participation and decision-making in the
affairs of the community organization is a continuing fact; and that there
is ever developing local leadership. The executive and public meetings
should be well attended and organizers must insure that an atmosphere exists in which the individual at the grassroots feels -- as is genuinely the
case --that he/she is an individual; that his/her active participation in
the organization is needed and welcomed; that right from the very beginning, he/she can make their voice and presence felt within the organization; and that, as the group's endeavors advance, winning victories, his/her power and ability to affect those forces out in the problematic/crisis environment and beyond, which have been affecting his/her life, will be steadily and proportionately increased.

4] The Organizers should insure that the youth are involved in the affairs
of the community organization -- either within it and with leadership
participation, or in a parallel and cooperative youth group of their own.

5] The Organizers should insure that the community organization, right from the beginning, is characterized by maximum autonomy.

6] Although the initial formation of the community organization may be
around one paramount and pressing local issue, the Organizers -- not through rigid superimposition but through diplomatic and effective teaching -- should insure that, in the interests of the community organization's longevity and effectiveness, the leaders and membership of the group become aware of all issues directly and indirectly affecting them. The Organizers should insure, therefore, that the community organization functions on a multi-issue basis whenever possible.

7] The Organizers should insure that, prior to reaching a decision on a
particular course of action, the community organization is aware of all
relevant tactical approaches and the various ramifications of each.

8] The Organizers should insure that the leaders of the community
organization can effectively handle the matter of publicity.

9] The Organizers should insure that the community organization can
effectively handle the raising and administration of funds -- including,
when applicable, the preparation of funding proposals, the negotiation of
such, and the effective administration of the money received.

10] The Organizers should insure that the community organization becomes
connected with various relevant public and private agencies and is able to
negotiate and secure the necessary services from those agencies without
surrendering its autonomy or compromising its basic principles.

11] The Organizers should insure that the community organization is able
to function politically in a realistic and sophisticated fashion without
surrendering its autonomy or compromising its basic principles.
12] The organizers should insure that the community organization can
utilize the services of professionals without becoming dominated by such.

13] The Organizers should insure that the community organization is able
to enter into functional alliances with other groups without surrendering
its autonomy or compromising its basic principles.

14] The Organizers should insure that the community organization is aware
of the use of effective and rational protest demonstrations and, further,
that it is fully cognizant of the merits of tactical nonviolence.

15] The Organizers should insure that the community organization is aware
of the effective use of legal action approaches and is aware of public and
private legal resources.

16] The Organizers should build a sense of the oft-visionary and just
world of a full measure of bread-and butter and a full measure of
freedom -- and how all of this relates to the shorter term steps.

17] The Organizers, who at the outset may well play a very key role in the
function and affairs of the community organization, must, on a step-by-step
and essentially pragmatic basis, shift increasing responsibility to the
leaders and membership of the group, to eventually:

A] First, insure that the community organization can function effectively
with only occasional involvement by Organizers.

B] And then, that the community organization can function effectively
with no involvement by Organizers to the point that, in addition to
conducting its regular affairs, the group can "organize on its
own" --bringing in new constituents and/or assisting other grassroots people in adjoining areas in setting up and conducting their own community organizations.

I'm an Organizer -- a working social justice agitator. I've been one since
the mid-1950s and I'll always be one. In many respects, it's one of the
toughest trails anyone could ever blaze.

An effective Organizer seeks to get grassroots people together -- and does;
develops on-going and genuinely democratic local leadership; deals
effectively with grievances and individual/family concerns; works with the
people to achieve basic organizational goals and develop new ones; and
builds a sense of the New World To Come Over The Mountains Yonder -- and how all of that relates to the shorter term steps.

An effective Organizer has to be a person of integrity, courage, commitment.
And a person of solidarity and sacrifice.

The satisfactions are enormous.

ADDED MATERIAL FROM HUNTER BEAR 8/25/04

These are a couple of thoughts apropos of coalitions:

First, I make a distinction between "alliances" and "coalitions." The
former is loose, flexible, and explicitly pragmatic, sometimes relatively
short lived, and definitely observes all of the autonomy and "identity
integrity" of the partners. [It can sometimes be mercurial.] Those
qualities should essentially apply, of course, to "coalitions" -- but I am
inclined to see coalitions as much more formal and cohesive and generally
characterized by substantive direction and longevity.

Each model is frequently quite useful in our necessarily pragmatic and
statistically limited existence -- whoever "our" is. And nothing human can
be an erector set. But neither has to be viewed by its components as
permanently institutionalized.

Each model has to be grounded within a bona fide mutual respect.

Each model has to be based on "enlightened self interest" of an explicitly
mutual nature.

Each model, maintaining an effective focus on the here-and-now in the
context of Vision "over the mountains yonder," has to avoid "ideological
primacy."

Each model has to avoid cannibalism.

Each model has to avoid inter-meddling in the internal affairs of the
respective components.
Trite as it sounds, "continual communication" -- preferably face to face --
is critical in any alliance or coalition.

And, of course, in the last analysis there is no substitute for fresh,
grassroots, democratic and direct face to face community organization! As I
have said -- sometimes to the point of redundancy -- that's the hardest work in the Cosmos. And, if that organizing is genuinely effective in the
"radical" sense, it is never "respectable" in the eyes of the Big Mules.

Anything organizational [or union contract-wise] is only as good and
effective as its members wish to make it.

Fraternally / In Solidarity -

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR]

Late December 2003 and August 25 2004

And all of this posted widely in early September 2004 and again on November 4 2004

____________________________________________________________________________________

AND MORE ON ORGANIZING, WITH A FOCUS ON RACE AND ETHNICITY, SEE:

http://hunterbear.org/GRASSROOTS%20ORGANIZING__RACE%20AND%20ETHNCITY.htm

_____________________________________________________________________________________

SOME QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:

From Hunter: 11/10/04

Tongue in cheek, Theresa: Asking a Native person about "time" can
sometimes -- I say sometimes -- be a little like asking a Highland Scot
about etiquette and protocol in the Court of St James. A traditional tribal
view is to see social change and the collateral dimension of time in a
circlic/cyclic sense [change, but often slow time-wise and deliberate],
rather than from a linear -- faster moving, straight line -- perspective.
A long, long time ago while still very much a kid, I learned that in the
broader world, you had to often be linear -- to a substantial extent. And
that now includes, of course, not only "American culture" with all of its
interdependent components, but increasingly the tribal cultures and others
of gemeinschaft as well. Often I pragmatically mix the two -- cyclic and
linear -- traveling back and forth from one trail to the other but always
conscious of the common goal/Vision.

One more purely personal note: Eldri will attest to the fact that I and our
offspring [if genuinely interested and "into something"] can be insufferable
work-aholics -- while she, as always, maintains a sensible laid back, "hound
dog" balance. I trace this zeal to my mother's basically Scottish father.
He of spartan habits and a short daily nap, made 98 despite temper
outbursts. His business was money. But my Native father's was fine art.

Our business, of course, is Saving the World. And that can take -- and will
always take -- a long, long time. But it'll take even longer if we don't
hit it hard. Good and effective organizing is, in my opinion, very much an
Art. It is not an erector set -- despite the fact that there are common
components each project should contain. Back in the 1970s or so, Texas
Instruments "pioneered" a formulatic approach ["zero based budgeting" which professed to serve all sorts of general "goals and objectives" -- all of
these terms were its lingo, which I am sure you encountered]. Setting up a
G & O framework, it opened the door to programs -- both new and mature and their sometimes ivory towered administrators -- trying to herd people into this preconceived and very time-oriented structure. People don't like to be herded and they generally balked, sometimes openly and sometimes in slow-down fashion. Texas Instruments -- using its own panacea -- went
bankrupt at that point.

There are campaigns -- such as the Jackson Movement and that in the
Northeastern North Carolina Black Belt -- that were virtually "wars" in the
most intensive sense. In those settings, I was privileged to be one of the
key organizers. The momentum of History -- the "idea whose time has come" -- carried all of the protagonists along relentlessly, like the fast moving and rapid-filled River of No Return [not far from us right here, btw]. Often one ate on the run, slept while one could. But on the South/Southwest Side of Chicago, a vast area full of ground-down but ultimately very, very vigorously activist grassroots people whose myriad of challenges stretched as far as the seemingly endless city blocks which we sought to organize [300 or so multi-issue block clubs and several large umbrella groups in four years], it was -- despite hurry-up crisis periods -- like climbing one really tough mountain range after another. We had time, and almost enough money, and fine staff [about 24] both "professional" and grassroots local. Step by step, day by day, crisis by crisis -- but always steady on: that was the key. [As well as being an organizer, I was the project's director.]

As Director of the Office of Human Development in the 12 county Rochester
[ New York] Diocese, I faced some heavy and unique organizing challenges -- in addition to the conventional, often class adversaries. Once again, I had a staff of about 24 from varying Church and lay backgrounds and our own set of offices in an old convent away from Church "headquarters". Despite the fact I had been brought there to get a moribund program moving, Church bureaucrats were increasingly frightened and part of the staff were hardly loyal to our organizing projects but instead "reported" to the bureaucrats. It was necessary for those of us who were interested in and committed to getting "something done" to move fast on those fronts -- before I was shot down by the Pastoral Center. We did accomplish a number of very good things in the going-on two years before the Bishop fired me for "insubordination" [later changed to a "breakdown in communication."] There was a massive grassroots protest, well covered by the very friendly National Catholic Reporter. My committed staff were protected and the Bishop then took early retirement, with his hatchetman -- who was initially slated as his eventual successor -- being passed over by Rome and relegated to a rural parish. I was never, however, reinstated and my family and I went back to the always congenial Navajo Nation.

[These and some of our other campaigns and lessons are on, of course, our
now huge Lair of Hunterbear website: www.hunterbear.org ]

So there are, as you well know as a very experienced hand, Theresa, many
variables in this organizing thing. But in the end, Organizing is an Art in
method and outcome and like all literary and fine art, it is a tough
taskmaster, usually relentlessly and ruthlessly drawing one's blood and
energy. The goal, arrived at via linear and/or circlic-cyclic means, should
always be, despite the chaotic and even messy periods, the finest possible
job. [Believe it or not, and our good fellow list member, Jay Weinstein
[Sociology], who was in an adjoining building, can attest to this, I even
taught full time for several years in the Graduate Program in Urban and
Regional Planning at University of Iowa. I was also an adjunct as well in
Social Work and Hospital and Health Administration and the Advisor to the
Native students.]

Your associated query is complex with its own factors -- but frequently
related in various ways to my immediately foregoing little treatise.
Personally, I believe in always meeting deadlines -- sometimes well in
advance. But I do know that project people, whether paid staff or volunteer,
have to be treated with courtesy and dignity. Recognition and praise are
damn important -- for everybody on Our Side. It is critical that we all
understand -- as you so rightly suggest -- the worth of the Endeavor: its
totality as well as their always special role -- no matter how seemingly
mundane it may sometimes be. As a project director, I often found it very
helpful to pair -- whenever possible -- two people closely together for
on-the-scene mutual encouragement and general support. Face to face
association is always great, but mutual closeness can be accomplished by
e-mail if people know something of one another and share a common Vision.

An old and thoroughly experienced and battle scarred administrator of a
widespread organizing [and educational] program once told me, always the hot eyed kid, "Take all the time you need, John. Just do a damn good job."

Appreciated that, always, and have tried to live up to that.

Your questions are excellent, Theresa. Enjoyed this. It is now about 5:30
am Mountain Time. Cloudy is restless and wants me to abandon the computer for awhile. If I don't oblige her, she'll scratch but gently. She has me very well organized.

Take care. H

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR] Micmac /St. Francis Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
www.hunterbear.org
Protected by Na�shdo�i�ba�i�
and Ohkwari'

A BASIC QUESTION: June 5 2005

Hi Mr. Gray

My name is T. T. and I am a University Student, with the intent on becoming a community organizer. I come from large reserve with much poverty and alcoholism. I find on my reserve that organizations do not work together for one bigger purpose. There is much distrust and territorialism, with people hovering their programs. Since you are a experienced organizer, how did you overcome these issues.

Hunter Bear Response:

Certainly good to hear from you, T. You have asked a question both deep and high!

Here are a few keynote thoughts:

It's critical that any community organizer have bona fide [earned] credibility with the people with whom he or she is interacting. That takes time and selfless effort in the context of step by step involvement. This is true both in one's home area and "new" settings as well. So one has to get started and keep going. At all points, the work requires a great deal of listening -- truly an art.

In working with people -- grassroots, different groups and programs, etc -- one has to initially stress the altruistic dimension: the beneficial service payoff to the community [i.e., "the save the world business" -- but that phrase may not always be the best term to use since it can sound a little preachy.]

And then one can go on to the practical benefits of interpersonal and inter-program/inter-organizational Solidarity. By coming together and sticking together, everyone and every program benefits. "We all come up -- rise and advance -- together."

And then one can return to the purely altruistic piece of it: "It's the good and right thing to do."

Whatever the particular nature of the arrangement into which the specific groups/programs enter, it

is critical to provide assurance that the basic autonomy of each will be respected and preserved. Some arrangements are loose alliances and some are quite cohesive coalitions -- but no member group or program wants to court undue involvement from the outside.

My Hunterbear website has much on it regarding organizing and related dimensions. Here are a few of the many links:

http://www.hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm This extensive piece of mine deals with the desirable qualities of a community organizer, community organizing principles, and much more. It's all fairly generalized and you can obviously pick out that which fits your needs.

http://www.hunterbear.org/workshop.htm These are the notes that I have put together and used with specific reference to Native situations.

http://www.hunterbear.org/training%20center.htm This is the link to a successful program that we all developed in Chicago -- in the context of many tribes, two dozen Native organizations, and high factionalism. The pictures take a few moments to come on but scroll down for the explanatory text. That takes only a few moments to read.

I hope this is useful and I wish you very well indeed. Please don't hesitate to get back to me any time you wish.

All best to you -- Hunter Bear

WILL YOU COME AT 3 A.M.? 1/22/05

NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR [January 22 2005] Foggy in Idaho -- like Seattle
where on January 1 1955, I was baptized into the Red Radical Faith. See my
now ancient I.W.W. card [#323147] on Lair of Hunterbear.

This isn't an explicitly religious thing, so don't panic and run away. But
I do have a hypothetical question that I occasionally ask regarding say,our
Roman Catholic priests [and other clergypersons]: If I were to call Him [or,
in certain other denominations, Her] at 3 am, would he/she come quickly?
The answer is Almost Always -- and always Yes in the case of mainline
denominations [RCs, Episcopalians, Lutherans, LDS et al.]. And this holds
true for Medicine Men, as well as the Ethical Humanists [of which I am a
member, though they are regrettably scarce in Idaho] and it holds true for
Me. If there is any way, human or superhuman, that I personally can come
when called by a mangled soul, I always come. Doesn't mean I am any Angel,
just that I was through enough long, long ago -- and since as well -- to
have heavy empathy. And I know plenty of others, believers and otherwise,
who do the same.

[About a year ago, I called -- not, however, at 3 am -- for a priest who
could give me Healing and Last Rites and I received those pronto. Had it
been 3 am, I know he would have come.]

But when it comes to some Radicals and some Liberals -- and even some
Organizers -- not all will come into Crisis Stuff. Some will -- and some
won't. [Some even won't answer a letter, a phone call, or e mail.] Those
who won't would rather Jaw Smith -- talk -- than act. [I am not referring
to outbursts of genuinely angry indignation given the current national [and
global] mess. But of course we do ultimately need more than just blarney.]

And others who won't come or act, may not have much to really offer. A
basic question I have for some radicals and some liberals and some activist
organizers, do they [we] have something, a Program or a Vision, for which we
might die -- or for which we would even get fired from a job?

I belong to several radical and labor outfits. Some, frankly, are more
satisfying than others. I have no problem at all with the concept that
socialism and related dimensions and democracy are inseparable -- as
intertwined and intermeshed as fused copper wires. I have always held
strongly to that. Socialism -- and its anarcho syndicalist kin -- are
Radical.

But, it really is personally hard for me to get at all excited about the
Democratic Party. I may on occasion vote for it, but I don't really see my
historical niche in that -- even in its ostensible "left wing." I don't see
my role as assisting in its reformation. All of that is, in the last
analysis, an arid box canyon.

Frankly, if I were to call the Democratic Party at 3 am, I really don't
think it would come.

Here, now, are some thoughts of mine on all of this that some have seen and
others may not have.

COMMENT BY HUNTER BEAR [November 4 2004]

Well, it's been a "cold Monday morning" for sure -- but the River flows on.
For my part, here in pervasively Republican Idaho, I wrote in Walt Brown for
President and Mary Herbert for Vice President [Socialist Party USA] and,
with one local exception , voted a straight Demo ticket after that. More on
Idaho politics.

Lots of talk now about organizing and fight-back. [Joe Hill's genuinely
immortal line is being quoted to the Four Directions.] All well and good --
IF people are really willing to work and work hard. And especially
to do so over the long, long haul of many years, many rivers, many mountain
ranges.

I've polished this piece of mine and expanded it a bit. This is probably
the last time I'll put it out on discussion lists -- but some day and some
way, along with much more of course, it'll be published in a book.

BTW, I have gradually learned that this Organizing piece of mine has been
really widely reprinted to the Four Directions and I much appreciate that!
H

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
From my Organizing Catechism:

9] And any really healthy grassroots organizing campaign has to have a
Vision -- one that is two dimensional: Over The Mountain Yonder, and the
Day - To - Day needs. As I have indicated, a movement which, among other
things, is characterized by an idea whose time has come, is a broad-based
cause growing out of local community organizational efforts -- in turn
inspiring and stimulating new community-based thrusts. To become a bona fide
movement, there absolutely has to be the two-dimensional ethos and active
life. But the purely local effort has to have the same two dimensional
ingredients, whether it's part of a movement or by itself.

[Something with vision only can easily wind up a small, in-grown sect;
and something that's only day - to -day can become a tired service program.
And when an organization has lost its way, factionalism is a sure thing
along with the withdrawal of the local people.]

A good Organizer's role in all of this vision-building is extremely
critical -- especially at the outset. But it's also critical all the way
through in conjunction with the growing awareness of the grassroots people.
The two-dimensional vision -- Over The Mountain and Day - To -Day -- is the
shiny idea that makes people part of a crusade and sometimes a truly great
one. It all gives meaning to life. And sometimes, if necessary, one will die
for it. Each of these two dimensions stimulates and feeds the other. A good
and truly effective Organizer absolutely has to show this interconnection.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------

So here, then, is the mini version of my full course [so far] on
Organizing -- including comments and a good colloquy with a friend on
voluntarism and related matters.

http://www.hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ORGANIZER'S ART AND THE ROMANY TRAIL [HUNTER BEAR, 9/14/05]

NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR:

Grassroots organizing is Genesis. Pure and simple. It's absolutely
critical in building the bona fide human solidarity required for effective
security, enhancement of one's life and that of the group [large or small]
in the immediate and relatively near future senses [on-going], and in
creating a myriad of currents which ultimately and inevitably flow together
at various levels and with varying breadth -- first as Movement and then as
a conscious part of Many Movements and then into a Mighty Movement, for
genuinely fundamental and radical systemic change. From my little catechism
on community organizing and related dimensions:
http://www.hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
This extensive discussion has now, I'm pleased to say with no false modesty,
been very widely reprinted and both the United States and Canada.

"And any really healthy grassroots organizing campaign has to have a
Vision -- one that is two dimensional: Over The Mountain Yonder, and the
Day - To - Day needs. As I have indicated, a movement which, among other
things, is characterized by an idea whose time has come, is a broad-based
cause growing out of local community organizational efforts -- in turn
inspiring and stimulating new community-based thrusts. To become a bona fide
movement, there absolutely has to be the two-dimensional ethos and active
life. But the purely local effort has to have the same two dimensional
ingredients, whether it's part of a movement or by itself.

[Something with vision only can easily wind up a small, in-grown sect;
and something that's only day - to -day can become a tired service program.
And when an organization has lost its way, factionalism is a sure thing
along with the withdrawal of the local people.]

A good Organizer's role in all of this vision-building is extremely
critical -- especially at the outset. But it's also critical all the way
through in conjunction with the growing awareness of the grassroots people.
The two-dimensional vision -- Over The Mountain and Day - To -Day -- is the
shiny idea that makes people part of a crusade and sometimes a truly great
one. It all gives meaning to life. And sometimes, if necessary, one will die
for it. Each of these two dimensions stimulates and feeds the other. A good
and truly effective Organizer absolutely has to show this interconnection."
--------------------------------------

My oldest son, John [Beba] made this post last night 9/13/05 -- and it's
quite on
target. Nothing has much changed for us material possessions-wise -- to
this very point -- but we are incredibly rich in family [including animal
companions] and friends. Our current house on the far-up edge of Pocatello
[Idaho] has proven to be a wise investment from many perspectives. And we
do take pride in our extensive collection of Native arts and crafts
[including paintings] sprinkled judiciously and often inconspicuously around
our house as well as an extensive library.

This from Beba and then a bit more from me:

"Speaking as the son of a lifelong organizer, I can say this. We never
owned a new stick of furniture. We weren't always allowed to answer the
phone as children because men would be on the other end saying they were
coming to kill us. It was not uncommon to come home from school and learn
that we'd be moving across the country in a couple weeks. My point being
that we need to separate different kinds of organizers--the light load trail
rider Shane vs. those comfortably ensconced in their settings. Great topic,
though!" -- John Salter

>From Hunter Bear, again:

>From the historic and still very much alive Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers
film of 1953-54, SALT OF THE EARTH, based on the 1950-52 strike against
Empire Zinc in Grant County, New Mexico: Ruth Barnes [Virginia Jencks] on
the life of she and her organizer husband, Frank Barnes [Clinton Jencks]:

"Me, I'm a camp follower -- following this organizer from one mining camp to
another -- Montana, Colorado, Idaho . . ."

I can say I've been a working organizer virtually all of my life -- long
before I married Eldri in 1961. But since even then, we have lived in 16
different settings all over the 'States. [In a number of those places, I
worked in several different specific areas in the region.] A good
organizer, sooner or later, works himself/herself out of a job.
Presumptuous as this sounds, see my little catechism:
http://www.hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm

"The Organizers, who at the outset may well play a very key role in the
function and affairs of the community organization, must, on a step-by-step
and essentially pragmatic basis, shift increasing responsibility to the
leaders and membership of the group, to eventually:

A] First, insure that the community organization can function effectively
with only occasional involvement by Organizers.

B] And then, that the community organization can function effectively
with no involvement by Organizers to the point that, in addition to
conducting its regular affairs, the group can "organize on its
own" --bringing in new constituents and/or assisting other grassroots people
in adjoining areas in setting up and conducting their own community
organizations."

For four years, 1969-73, I directed a large-scale grassroots community
organizing project on the turbulent and sanguinary South/Southwest side of
Chicago -- working primarily with Black, Puerto Rican, Chicano people "of
the fewest alternatives". We had a wide range of enemies: e.g., white
racists -- organized and otherwise, the Daley Machine, Republicans, many
[not all] police. We were also vigorously opposed by the Back of the Yards
Council, the first of the Saul Alinsky organizing projects. That dinosaur
richly exemplified two major organizing flaws: [1] top down organizing and
[2] the fact that some organizers stayed on and refused to relinquish the
coalition."

For a discussion of all of this, see my: Chicago Organizing: Tough,
Cat-Clawing and Bloody
http://www.hunterbear.org/chicago_organizing.htm

And, one final time lest it's gotten lost in my verbiage:
http://www.hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
---------------------------------------
The Internet can help -- help -- mobilize. But it can never accomplish
fundamentally real organizing.

Real organizing -- the grassroots stuff -- is tough and usually tedious and
always the hardest work there is.

Keeps the Real Organizer usually thin and always happy.

In Solidarity -

Hunter [Hunter Bear]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: 12/18/05 [ORGANIZING/MOBILIZING: THE CONFERENCE AS A KEY APPROACH

From Thailand, hard-driving Matthew McDaniel writes in part:

"I know little about mobilization. It is the better part of activism because it mobilizes OTHERS to be activists for their own behalf.

So I come to you for notes on how I might do that better in my current situation, with the goal being to bring a greater sense of connectedness and awareness to the Akha in four countries. In Thailand it is particularly hazardous because of the US missionaries wiping out the culture and enslaving minds."

Dear Matthew:

Good, as it always is, to hear from you and about your very solid work. In the past, you have sometimes discussed your labor and vision on a few select lists. I am posting this accordingly in case others might find something helpful in our colloquy.

Mobilization often means to me a community organizational shift into a higher gear for urgent, compelling local action. It can also, however, involve sowing activist seeds locally over a geographical area that goes far beyond one's local project/organization. Reaching four countries [!] -- now that is a Big Mountain Range.

But, of course, it can be done.

Your website, as you have so carefully feathered it out, is obviously one fine tool for getting that started and for sustaining, explaining, and propounding the excellent work you all have already and obviously accomplished.

Staff, paid or dependably volunteer, who can discuss at the grassroots level face-to-face, are always, of course, extremely helpful.

But I also suggest the Conference approach: a well organized One Big Conference [as a starter] which draws active and potential local leaders together from a broad region -- or several substantial Conferences in especially selected areas. Well organized, well publicized, with carefully chosen speakers and workshop leaders, as well as the always important music and food -- well, Conferences can be most useful in all facets of grassroots organizing and consequent action.

And when the Conference actually takes place, discussion from those in attendance is extremely important.

Some thoughts:

1] A Conference that covers a full day, and no more than 12 hours, is often the most useful -- and practical. It should be preceded by taking some basic soundings of what's needed in the projected conference target area. Good listening is always critical.

2] It should stress what you all have already accomplished in your project and your plans regarding next steps and beyond.

3] What needs to be done over a broad geographical region is, of course, a very key component and thrust.

4] A major focus should obviously be what people themselves can do at the grassroots in their own home areas.

5] Specific organizing techniques. You have often used my Community Organizing "manual" from our large website [ with appropriate cultural adaptations]. http://www.hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm

Please continue to always feel very free to reprint it -- however and whatever.

6] Specific technical advice from especially knowledgeable individuals is always a plus -- geared, clearly, toward the particular practical challenges you all face.

7] Appropriate free literature.

8] A good, down to earth Call-To-Action from an inspiring soul [very possibly You!]

9] And always good food and good music. [No reason, of course, that one couldn't take up a free will collection to cover food and perhaps some other costs as well.]

Your situation, to state it mildly, is challenging as all Hell. We have effectively faced some tough ones -- but hardly covering four countries. One of our most challenging was carrying the civil rights work we had done in one especially tough Northeastern North Carolina black-belt county -- Halifax -- across that entire poverty-stricken and Klan-infested multi-county region. On a really seminal conference in that particular context [in the days when I was known as John Salter], that was quite effective in sowing seeds, see

http://www.hunterbear.org/threeblackbelt.htm [Scroll all the way down. This page is also followed by several pages of conference photos -- just keep going, page by page. Our call-to-arms speaker was a major civil rights activist and good friend, Miss Ella J. Baker. Note that the very productive music dimension was handled by the extremely capable and committed Clyde Appleton, who is presently on two of our key discussion lists.

Hope this is helpful. We will also pray! Hang with it, amigo.

In Solidarity - Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear]

_________________________________

AND AN ORGANIZER'S BRIEF POLITICAL NOTE: [HUNTER BEAR - FEBRUARY 2008]

On February 24 2008, the e-news service, Portside, ran a piece in which a vehemently pro-Hillary Clinton top leader of the Machinists union, Thomas Buffenbarger, said of Barack Obama and Obama supporters -- and I responded:

"Obama is no Mohammed Ali. He took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois state senate," Buffenbarger declared. "That's what a shadow boxer does. All the right moves, all the right combinations, all the right footwork --- but he never steps into the ring. He walks away from the fight."

The union president, his voice dripping contempt, escalated the attack. "I've got news for all the latte- drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing trust-fund babies crowding in to hear him speak," he said referring to the multitudinous crowds that Obama has been drawing. "This guy won't last a round against the Republican attack machine. He's a poet, not a fighter." [Portside]

I responded with a counter-post, which I sent out widely:

NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR:

This attached, drawn from Huffington Post, arrived via Portside -- and I say immediately, with regard to the especially offensive comments therein, that I'm certain that it does NOT carry the imprimatur of that liberal/left news e-news service. Normally, I don't repost Portside -- its circ is quite respectable in its own right. But when I saw this, I must say that my "fur lifted" faster than that of our late beloved Cloudy Gray -- my super shrewd and super-loyal one half-Bobcat, whenever she would see a strange and yappy pooch in the yard.

This really Is a little something. But the message and shrill tenor of its leading protagonist, an obviously frustrated leader of the Machinists union, is as far from accuracy as the tropics from Lapland -- or Bush from Reality -- and, even much further from the nature and thought of at least most of American labor. [Labor endorsements are flowing to Obama.] But it should be noted, especially as an example of Clintonesque attack strategy. [Its only difference from the basic weapons kit of that crowd is that -- perhaps because of its Last Stand ethos -- it's not done from Shadow Land.

Speaking from our large family, which here in the Gem State is closely linked to that of Josie's [our youngest daughter] Cameron -- whose own family [working and union and rural people] also supports Obama, as do virtually all Idaho Democrats -- I do have this to say to "Brother" Buffenbarger:

"Come out to see us, 'way up high in Idaho. Be happy to show you my very respectable collection of hunting firearms, Lowa mountain boots, used furniture and clothing from the local thrift shops, and our [union-made] ten year old Jeep Cherokee [with barely 51,000 miles, I should add.]

I could also show him my ancient membership book in my first philosophical love, the Industrial Workers of the World -- Wobblies -- from more than half a century ago,

Hell, I'd even pour him a drink from Eldri's [my spouse of 47 years with, btw, some Lapp ancestry] Jim Beam bottle.

But I do have to say, in all candor, that I would then be tempted to take the jug and crack him along side of the head. [Of course, I speak only figuratively -- well, probably.]

In Solidarity,

Hunter [Hunter Bear] -- UAW/AFL-CIO

And I am pleased that my response drew a number of favorable comments. Quoting from three of them:

Attorney Stephen McNichols of San Francisco wrote: "Beautifully and convincingly said--as always."

_____

Robert Gately, son of a union organizer in the old Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, wrote in part:

"Nice to hear your spirited response to this insulting post. Hope
you've pissed some important people off and they will try an throw
you a right wing hook. Duck an jab, jab an duck...You got a great
left jab.

Best regards from Tempe,Az,"

Bob

_____

And Dale Jacobson, Grand Forks ND, commented:

"Hunter, your response cracks me up!" Dale

____________________________________________________

LETTER TO AN INTERESTED NEOPHYTE [HUNTER BEAR] APRIL 28 2008

Dear Mr. Gray

I would love to be a community organizer in my own neighborhood but do not have the funding full- time how do I obtain the proper funding to dedicate myself to being a community organizer?

Thanks, Robert, for your note.

It's a little difficult to be too specific on advice since you've given little information. But let me try in a general way:

To be a good and effective community organizer, you have to believe in people -- the ability of people to develop democratic organizations which will help them control and shape the forces that affect their lives and those of others. If you're just starting out, it's always helpful to move along with your academic education. And, while you are doing that, you can also -- and it almost always begins with small steps -- dip your toe in the organizing waters. There are always social justice issues -- even in schools and certainly in neighborhoods. But, when you start the business of getting people together for good action, don't get too carried away, too quickly -- especially if you are fairly new to all of this. Be thoughtful, sensible, cool.

I give some guidelines in various parts of my website. Though you may have seen it, my signature to this message includes a link to a comprehensive guide that I've written.

Funding is always a tough issue -- and usually comes later when you've learned the ropes and built something of a track record. One way to do that is to start by volunteering your time and energy in an already on-going organizing project and, at the same time, starting and carrying through your own things. In my case, as a 21 year old, I volunteered a good deal of time and energy to an embattled labor union in my home state of Arizona, learned much as an apprentice, and then took on some significant union responsibilities. Not too long after that, we organized a broad-based student movement at Arizona State around food service and dorm issues -- and it was very successful. I kept at it, even as a very young college teacher in Wisconsin, and then my wife and I went to Mississippi where I taught in a Black college and was soon very much involved in the organization of a major civil rights struggle, the Jackson Movement. After that, I became a modestly paid organizer for a civil rights organization and worked in a number of parts of the South.

And then things flowed on from there. There are several bios of me and my organizing work on our website. See Outlaw Trail in the far upper end of our directory.

Money should never be the primary goal, of course. People and their well-being, a better life and a better world, are the basic goals.

Here's a thought: the AFL-CIO has a summer school that provides some organizing training. I found a very little about it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsRoJ1cgWvY&feature=related

There's not much info, but you could get more by calling or visiting your local AFL-CIO Central Labor Council.

I hope you very much stick with your organizing interest. But remember, all of it is a long tough development process -- for both yourself and your projects as well.

Hope this has been of some help. Best wishes.

In Solidarity, Hunter [Hunter Bear]

_____

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na�shdo�i�ba�i�
and Ohkwari'

Check out our Hunterbear website Directory http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm
[The site is dedicated to our one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm

See Forces and Faces Along the Activist Trail: http://hunterbear.org/forces_and_faces_along_the_trail.htm
And see also this companion piece, http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm

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