海角大神

Saul Alinsky is called the father of modern community organizing. His 1971 Rules for Radicals is like a political version of The Art of War merged with street fighting tips from a boxing coach鈥攖he tone is gruff, aggressive, and blunt. For Alinsky, the ends justify pretty much any means. But a new crop of activists is forging a different path鈥攁nd turning organizing orthodoxy on its head.

In the traditional Alinsky approach, opponents are 鈥渆nemies鈥� and strategy involves concepts like 鈥減ressure鈥� and 鈥渁ttack.鈥� Alinsky鈥檚 final rule is 鈥淧ick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.鈥� Don鈥檛 just target institutions, he says鈥攇o after individuals and make it personal and painful. This is the advice that helped shape modern political organizing鈥攏ot always the most effective approach for alliance building and mass public appeal.

The new generation of community organizers is adapting the antagonistic politics of the past and building bridges instead of burning them鈥攏ot necessarily abandoning old-school, Alinsky-style organizing altogether, but reimagining orthodoxies of organizing to create new alliances, innovations, and possibilities.

Ai-jen Poo is the founder and director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, a membership organization of housekeepers, nannies, and home health assistants, most of whom are undocumented immigrant women. These are the workers who are at the furthest margins of our economy. In 1938, they were explicitly excluded from initial labor standards as a concession to segregationists in Congress, and these workers, who do the work that makes all other work possible, are to this day excluded from basic wage and safety protections. But the central theme of Poo鈥檚 politics? Not revenge. Not protest. Not polarization.

It鈥檚 love.

鈥淭he way we try to think about it and the way the world is, we鈥檙e all interdependent and interconnected,鈥� says Poo of her organizational philosophy. 鈥淭hose connections are fairly invisible to most people most of the time. We鈥檙e taught not to see those connections. What organizing with love does is organizes ways for people to see their interconnections and harnesses that connection as a source for change.鈥�

It鈥檚 not that Poo鈥檚 鈥減olitical love鈥� is conflict or tension free, a saccharine 鈥淜umbaya鈥� holdover from the 鈥�60s.

鈥淐onflict and tension are as much a part of the human condition as interdependence is,鈥� Poo says. 鈥淭here are times we have to have conflict, and tension has to exist to bring something else into being. But they have to coexist with a deep sense of connection and shared destiny.鈥�

While the natural 鈥渆nemy鈥� of domestic workers might be their employers in a traditional Alinsky-style power analysis, through Poo鈥檚 prism, most employers mean well and love their home aides and nannies鈥攁nd want to do well by them鈥攂ut maybe don鈥檛 know how or face hurdles to doing so because of existing policy. So instead of fighting employers, Poo organized them鈥攊nspiring the launch of Hand in Hand, an association for employers of domestic workers.

Saru Jayaraman has used this model in her work. As co-founder and director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), Jayaraman organizes low-wage workers in the restaurant industry鈥攖he servers and dishwashers and bussers who often make as little as $2.13 an hour and get no benefits or sick days. In Jayaraman鈥檚 work, calling restaurant owners 鈥渧illains鈥� isn鈥檛 just a figure of speech鈥擱OC United has organized campaigns against specific restaurant owners for wage theft and other employment violations.

And yet after a very brutal public campaign that recouped $1.15 million in overdue wages for workers at one of celebrity chef Mario Batali鈥檚 top restaurants, Jayaraman extended her hand. She welcomed Batali into a group of 鈥渉igh road鈥� restaurant owners that ROC United convenes. This might seem like a variation on another Alinsky mantra, 鈥渘o permanent friends, no permanent enemies,鈥� but it goes beyond a superficial tactic to a philosophical mindset. Jayaraman isn鈥檛 just moving targets like chess pieces. She isn鈥檛 burning opponents to the point where relationships are permanently charred. She鈥檚 building long-term alliances with partners that have recently been her opposition.

鈥淲e鈥檝e evolved to think that nobody is evil at all,鈥� says Jayaraman of her organizing philosophy and approach. 鈥淚t鈥檚 different from how we thought about organizing even just 10 years ago鈥攁s bosses versus the rest of us. That鈥檚 not how we think about it anymore. We actually understand how hard it is to run a restaurant and be profitable. And at the same time, we think we can all do better. And we鈥檙e working together to do better.鈥�

In fact, soon Jayaraman and her organization will launch a new association for restaurant owners who want to treat their workers responsibly, a competitive alternative to the anti-worker Restaurant Industry Association. 鈥淲e鈥檙e willing to work with anyone,鈥� Jayaraman says.

This new generation of bridge-building organizers isn鈥檛 just connecting unlikely allies but unlikely issues as well.

Take the work of Eveline Shen, head of Forward Together, a multiracial grass-roots organization that traditionally focused on reproductive justice issues within communities of color. Shen broadened the mission of the group and launched Strong Families, a nationwide campaign that is connecting women鈥檚 rights organizations, immigrant groups, queer activists, and poverty rights organizations to advocate for the full range of America鈥檚 families, the vast majority of which no longer fit the traditional mom-and-dad-and-kid, white-picket-fence norm of yesteryear.

Shen gives an example around identity: 鈥淲hen a queer Vietnamese American woman in New Orleans faces job discrimination, it may be difficult to disentangle whether it was due to racism, sexism, or homophobia, or a combination of these factors.鈥� And it鈥檚 the same for issues: 鈥淲e don鈥檛 experience climate change on Monday and economic hardship on Wednesday.鈥�

A generation ago, organizers strategized about how to 鈥渃ut an issue鈥濃�攈ow to break an issue down and focus on the right bite-sized piece around which to organize an advocacy campaign.

The new generation strives to connect issues more and more.聽鈥淚n our work, we lift up the leadership and needs of communities that sit at the intersection of multiple systems of oppression to demand policy and culture change that reflect the reality of our lives,鈥� says Shen. Her approach has led to a groundbreaking Strong Families coalition in New Mexico, which includes Native American, Latino immigrant, and gay rights organizations all at the same table. They have worked together to stop harsh anti-abortion legislation and juvenile incarceration proposals鈥攊ssues these conventionally disparate groups would likely never take up on their own. It鈥檚 a model Strong Families is spreading to other states.

For Marcy Westerling, who founded the Rural Organizing Project to advance social change in rural Oregon, bridge building was a cultural necessity. 鈥淪mall towns and rural communities lack anonymity,鈥� Westerling says, so more conventional antagonistic organizing methods don鈥檛 make sense there鈥攅specially when it can lead to grass-roots leaders losing their day jobs or their kids being ostracized at school.

鈥淭here is a need to frame topics from some shared starting point,鈥� says Westerling. It鈥檚 an approach that has worked for the Rural Organizing Project, winning support on issues such as gay rights and immigration reform from some of the most traditionally conservative parts of the Northwest.

Westerling notes that conservatives now use Alinsky as their playbook. Groups like Freedom Works, one of the parent organizations of the Tea Party movement, handed out copies of Rules for Radicals as a training manual for new leaders.

鈥淭he modern right uses the language of war when describing their assaults,鈥� says Westerling. At this moment in history, she argues, the left must play a different role鈥攏ot only disrupting and upending the status quo, but also pointing toward and building constructive alternatives. 鈥淣ow it is more incumbent on us to be the keepers of calm, as we both acknowledge tense issues and offer reasonable ways forward that are fair to all sides.鈥�

鈥淒eep down, our organizing today doesn鈥檛 reflect a different value system,鈥� Jayaraman says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not about being less radical or caring less about workers. It鈥檚 about being effective.鈥�

鈥淭he traditional us-versus-them framework is limiting,鈥� adds Poo. 鈥淭here are moments when it should be utilized, when opposition is important to dramatize an issue鈥攂ut ultimately, in the long term, we should be building shared destiny and a collective sense of humanity. That should be the driving force, even underneath moments of opposition.鈥�

Westerling agrees. Leading with bridge building doesn鈥檛 mean abandoning the edge of protest or softening demands. Rather, says Westerling, it means trying to move beyond current dynamics and aim for shared analysis 鈥渢o imagine a just future for everyone.鈥�

In fact, Shen notes that under the traditional model, Alinsky discouraged organizers from 鈥渃hallenging issues鈥� in favor of 鈥渟hort-term, winnable campaigns.鈥� But the greatest need is often in the stickiest issues, which, if approached right, also hold the greatest promise for powerful bridge building鈥攁nd for big change.

And yes, Westerling adds, that often means strange bedfellows 鈥渨ho confess their own surprise at walking with us.鈥� But if the goal of progressive organizing is to achieve change, it makes sense that the strategies of organizing鈥攁s well as the alliances鈥攕hould also change.

One of Ai-jen Poo鈥檚 role models is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who understood very well the advantages of combative organizing models as well as the power of joining with your one-time enemies to build bridges toward change. Now, in the shadow of the civil rights era, as opponents of fairness and justice rev up with increasing hatred and vitriol, a new generation of organizers鈥攏otably led by women of color鈥攊s innovating new approaches to organizing that borrow from these deep and old notions of community and love. They point the way forward toward a future that is better for all through a politics and practice that potentially engages everyone in achieving change.

鈥� Sally Kohn wrote this article for , the Summer 2013 issue of YES! Magazine. Sally is a writer, activist, and television commentator. Her writing has appeared in Salon, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, More Magazine, USA Today, and elsewhere.

鈥� at .