Suggested Discussion Outline - Sep 10

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johnkarls
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Suggested Discussion Outline - Sep 10

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SUGGESTED DISCUSSION OUTLINE

A. Historical Context

A-1. Saul Alinsky – “the father of community organizing” (the meatpackers of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”; educating/mentoring Cesar Chavez in organizing the United Farm Workers; and through his Institute, educating and financing many other leaders of union organizing, the civil rights movement, and the anti-Vietnam War resistance)
A-2. Hillary Rodham writes her senior honors thesis on Saul Alinsky
A-3. Barack Obama, two years after college graduation, leaves his NYC corporate job to join Jerry Kellman’s “Developing Communities Project” explicitly based, then and now, on Saul Alinsky’s philosophy

B. Alinsky’s Philosophy

B-1. Purpose
B-2. Means and Ends (the amorality of ALL organizers, going out of his way to demonstrate Mahatma Ghandi’s amorality, contrasted with the necessity of clothing all action in morality)
B-3. Words
B-4. Education of Organizers
B-5. Communication
B-6. In The Beginning
B-7. Tactics
B-8. The Genesis of Tactic Proxy
B-9. The Way Ahead

C. Suggested Discussion Questions

C-1. When you hear Alinsky disciples (e.g., Hillary and Barack) constantly saying “This is not about me, it’s about you” – what do they mean?

C-2. Wedge issues – does Alinsky’s philosophy work better with small, homogeneous groups?

C-3. How does Alinsky’s philosophy fare when employed by a politician who has to focus on the base during primaries and then on independents during the general election?

C-4. Since Alinsky’s philosophy depends upon the group to generate ideas and the “leader” to merely serve as the “agent of change” – what happens if the group lacks imagination? and what happens if the group is wrong? and what happens if the group changes its mind?

C-5. Aren’t Alinsky disciples (e.g., Hillary and Barack) inherently divisive because their agitation on behalf of the “have nots” (and, perhaps, what Alinsky terms the “have a little, want more’s” (that is, “The Middle Class”)) require opposition to the “haves”?

C-6. What would Alinsky say about you, or your party’s, accepting campaign contributions from special interest groups (such as insurance companies – as documented in Michael Moore’s “Sicko” – which is why none of the Democratic candidates, except Dennis Kucinich, took them on and proposed SINGLE-PAYER universal health care)?

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