[L-I] JUST WHAT MAKES A DAMN GOOD COMMUNITY ORGANIZER?

JUST WHAT MAKES A DAMN GOOD COMMUNITY ORGANIZER?  BASED ON MY 50 YEARS OF
COMMUNITY ORGANIZING    HUNTER GRAY  [HUNTERBEAR]  12/30/03

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.

____________________________________________________________________________
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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 élan -- 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 southeastern Idaho
www.hunterbear.org

It's critical to always keep fighting -- and to always remember that, if one
lives with grace, he/she should be prepared to die with grace.



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