Who is/ was Saul Alinsky?

Saul Alinsky has been noted as an influence on POTUS Obama and SOS Hillary Clinton. Extremes of Adlai Stevenson and William F Buckley thought highly of his skills and intellect.

How is this for a prediction:

"Alinsky described his plans in 1972 to begin to organize the White middle class across America, and the necessity of that project. He believed that what President Richard Nixon and Vice-President Spiro Agnew called "The Silent Majority" was living in frustration and despair, worried about their future, and ripe for a turn to radical social change, to become politically-active citizens. He feared the middle class could be driven to a right-wing viewpoint, "making them ripe for the plucking by some guy on horseback promising a return to the vanished verities of yesterday." His stated motive: "I love this goddamn country, and we're going to take it back"

Alinsky worked across the nation organizing urban blacks and whites together against the Elites for much of his life.

I must admit that I had never heard of Alinsky until recent years and would like to know more about the man. Seems as I have a blank spot as I in Berkeley / SF Area for most of high school and undergrad at Cal in late 60s and early 70s; physically this time was when I was most politically active going to anti-war protests and political rallies as I was active in body and discourse in politcal hotspots then and have been anti-war, green, and a social democrat for the next 40 years.

I think DU must have more insight to share than I. I am interested as Alinsky came from Chicago but passed away in California in the year 1971 I graduated high school (on a Reservation School at home in Humboldt county because my parents discovered I was having too much "fun") before moving to Berkeley in 2003 for Cal.

I want to get a copy of his 1971 book and a good bio (Recommendations?)

What confuses me is that Obama and Clinton were both cited as influenced by Alinsky but their policies the higher they rise in government are counter to what I read at Wiki (an acceptable place to start) and more in favor of the Elite agenda.

From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky



Saul David Alinsky (January 30, 1909 – June 12, 1972) was an American community organizer and writer. He is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing and has been compared in Playboy magazine to Thomas Paine as being "one of the great American leaders of the nonsocialist left."<1>

In the course of nearly four decades of organizing the poor for social action, Alinsky made many enemies, but he has received praise from an array of public figures. His organizing skills were focused on improving the living conditions of poor communities across North America. In the 1950s, he began turning his attention to improving conditions of the African-American ghettos, beginning with Chicago's and later traveling to other ghettos in California, Michigan, New York City, and a dozen other "trouble spots".

His ideas were later adapted by some US college students and other young organizers in the late 1960s and formed part of their strategies for organizing on campus and beyond.<2> Time magazine once wrote that "American democracy is being altered by Alinsky's ideas," and conservative author William F. Buckley said he was "very close to being an organizational genius."<1>

myself and a number of others with solid backgrounds in community organizing have posted information about Alinsky. These have made for my favorite threads, and -- in my opinion -- up there with the most valuable on this forum.

Not just for me but for DU. There must be others with an awareness blank.

I enjoy your posts, we share some commonality.

to "save" individual posts; sometimes, I find them by simply "googling," and other times, rely upon the greater skills of others on this forum. Maybe someone else can locate them.

Probably the best thing that I could suggest would be reading his 1946 and '71 books for "radicals." Most libraries either have them, or can order either/both.

The second post on this thread makes a good point about Alinsky's advocating working within the "system." Equally valid is learning to organize those on the margins of society, as Alinsky did so well. Perhaps the most important skill that he identified for doing this is the ability to listen. "Reflective listening" is definitely of the utmost importance in organizing at the margins.

In my post below, I relate some personal history that very much followed Alinsky tactics before while in active career before age.

As Alinsky was an influence on POTUS Obama and SOS Clinton, I do think Alinsky an interesting topic. Unfortunately and very sadly, I see both Obama and Clinton as sellouts to Elite interests.

What I found on Alinsky on google is a positive but I am surprised I was not aware of his influence when he was active and in formal education and on the streets.

from reading was his use of humor to make a public point. Also

"True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism, Alinsky taught. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within"

And organizing is going to be key if this country is going to move forward in a positive way.

personal impacts have harmed if life was meant for comfort and peace of mind.

I grew up as a locally privileged caucasian minority among American Indians (and loggers and miners).

My parents wanted me to experience the outside world and I was a good student so went to boarding schools.

Went to work for USDA summers as a teen and thought someone must have a better clue. Went to Cal. One public policy class term project - how to influence public policy - I wrote a serious paper and did a tongue in cheek presentation in "Affecting Public Policy by Infiltration".

I left the Feds after 16 years and got a Finance MBA from Cal and went into the belly of the beast still full of idealism. etc.

Seems like organizing can work either way, positive or good. IMO the state of the nation is not good nor trending good alas.

Hope more DUers will add about Alinsky.

objectionable to him or his beliefs.

I mean there are a lot of figures we look up to who are flawed (Che's actions in the Congo, for example) or Marx being misappropriated by the Bolsheviks and it leading to the whole communism/Stalinism thing. Or Bill Ayers.

But I really don't see how Saul Alinsky can be used in a pejorative manner. Not that I suspect such things as getting your pejoratives right matter to Freepers anyway since they lionize people in their movement like G. Gordon Liddy and shun people like William Buckley.

"Saul Alinsky" seems right on to me. Caveat: I did not want Hillary Clinton as POTUS and I cried and was most happy about POTUS's election but not much since then, alas. I was relatively well read and missed Alinsky con-temporally.

Obama confuses me frankly.

Buckley one could respect and disagree, Liddy not so.

Saul Alinsky appears to have a message for grassroots and the dis-enfranchised in general.

Wish there was more DU interest in a man that influenced POTUS Obama and SOS Clinton.

and Blacks. Of course there's nothing wrong with Alinsky other than that he preached a unified approach to solving our problems.

The lifeblood of conservatism in this country is based entirely on race.

As a Chicagoan, born and raised, I am proud of this unique union of diverse ethnic groups, the Catholic church, and the left-wing of labor to preserve jobs and community.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council

The Woodlawn Organization, 1963
The Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council (BYNC) is one of the oldest community organizations in America still functioning. Founded in New City on the Near South Side in 1939 by Saul Alinsky and Joseph Meegan, the council was dedicated to their motto, “We the people will work out our own destiny.”

The BYNC set the pattern for what is known as the Alinsky school of organizing. An outside organizer would work with local leaders to create a democratic organization where people could express their needs and fears, and gain improvements in their conditions via direct action. Membership in the council was based on organizations, rather than individuals, thus using the neighborhood's existing social institutions.

The initial efforts of the council centered around basic organization and economic justice. Overcoming nationalistic hatreds in this ethnically diverse community, they managed to join the Roman Catholic Church and radical labor unions in common cause.

In the 1950s the council turned to neighborhood conservation. They pressured local banks to release funds for mortgages and building upgrades; in the first year alone there were 560 home-improvement loans in this local area. Between 1953 and 1963, the council fostered the rehabilitation of 90 percent of the community's housing stock.

In 1981, Meegan resigned as executive secretary after 42 years of leadership, and was succeeded by Patrick Salmon. Since then, the council has concentrated on economic development and employment, assisting, for example, in the opening of Damen Yards Plaza, and helping to direct jobs toward local residents, who were increasingly Mexican and African American.

Robert Slayton

Bibliography
Horwitt, Sanford. Let Them Call Me Rebel. 1989.
Jablonsky, Thomas J. Pride in the Jungle: Community and Everyday Life in Back of the Yards Chicago. 1993.
Slayton, Robert. Back of the Yards. 1986.

http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/100.html

I perceive Obama and Clinton as preserving the status quo with scant interest to the poor.

They are admitted New-Democrats and Neo-Liberals. Obama appopinted a "DLC" cabinet and is following cookbook DLC / Neo-liberal domestic and foreign policy.

Seriously, I am confused.

they both seem to have very happily joined the elite.

perhaps for them influence expired like a carton of milk

but still ---to admit influence is still better than the bitch from alaska
going on about organizing during her speech at the repub convention

since it seems Bruce Reed's own son is now an Alinsky fan. ;)

Reed co-authored a book with Rahm Emanuel too.


from wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Reed

Bruce Reed is the CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). He is credited with coining the welfare reform catchphrase, "end welfare as we know it." <1>

Reed served as chief speechwriter for Tennessee Senator Al Gore from 1985 to 1989. He was founding editor of the DLC magazine, The New Democrat and served as policy director of the DLC from 1990 to 1991 under DLC Chairman and Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton. In 1992, he was deputy campaign manager for policy of the Clinton-Gore presidential campaign. During the Clinton presidency, Reed served as chief domestic policy advisor and director of the Domestic Policy Council, and helped to write the 1996 welfare reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act.

Reed is a native of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and the son of Idaho State Senator Mary Lou Reed. He attended Princeton University, graduating in 1982, and earned a master's degree in English Literature from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Reed is the author of the taunt, "change you can Xerox," from the February 21, 2008 presidential primary debate in Austin, Texas. Reed supplied Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton with the phrase to invoke accusations of plagiarism against rival Senator Barack Obama while parodying his campaign slogan: "Change you can believe in."<2>

Which is why I pointed out the irony of his son claiming to be a fan of Saul Alinsky.

We are kindred spirits. ;)