ORGANIZER'S ART AND THE ROMANY TRAIL

I wrote this piece years ago -- time has run away like a jackrabbit -- and it is a component of our very long web page on community organizing.  That discourse, I'm glad to see, is being visited even more than it usually is and its stats have always been pretty good.  I hope this is one sign of hopefully many, somewhere, that there is rising interest in thoughtful and systematic activist community organizing.   I've spent my life so far doing just that, and quite successfully as well.  To hell with false modesty.  I'll happily match my record for long-distance grassroots organizing against any living person in this world.

I haven't heard much about Occupy lately.  It burst forth, encompassing the remarkable energy and courage of awakened youth [and others] and capturing the hopes and imagination of many.  Early on, seasoned activist veterans gently raised questions about its lack of inter and intra organizational structure and its paucity of reasonably clear short and long range goals.  As the Occupy saga proceeded, it was clear that advice was falling like water off a duck's back.  And Occupy began to dissipate.  There are undoubtedly pockets that remain, and there may be a few that are genuinely attempting to engage tangible justice issues, but most of it now strikes me as having been sand castles grounded on sand.  If it means anything, Occupy Boise, which has included a family member of ours, has shrunk to less than 15 people, camped stolidly day after day in front of the Capitol.  Some well wishers around the country hope, and maybe trust, that -- come spring -- Occupy will do the Phoenix Arise.  Well, hopefully, but I'm increasingly skeptical.  While I'm sure it's radicalized some, it's very likely also discouraged many.

What seems to me to be much more likely than a significant revival of Occupy, is the emergence of new social justice activism.  Hopefully, that can avoid the mistakes of Occupy -- and those of some similar, transitory flares in recent activist history -- that see turgid rhetoric [and/or ideology alone] as tangible and enduring and effective action.  I'm personally confident that new endeavor, and perhaps several of them at around the same time, will definitely emerge -- and sooner than later.

But now's the time to really Plan -- and to also look Beyond.

Hunter [Hunter Bear]

ORGANIZER'S ART AND THE ROMANY TRAIL   

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]

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' 
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)
 
For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial Introduction by me:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
 
Our community organizing course:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm
 
Personal Background Narrative (with many links):
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm