1. Roots to Power
Staples Lee (2004) - A Manual for Grass Roots
Organizing
Clinical Professor of Social Work, Boston University
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2. grassroots community organizing
• collective action by community members drawing
on
– the strength of numbers,
– participatory processes, and
– indigenous leadership
• to decrease power disparities and achieve shared
goals for social change.
• Organizing is a bottom-up philosophical approach
to social change, not simply a method to achieve
it
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3. principles
• Community members make their own decisions about
social change
• Community members take collective action that
employs “people power” to achieve shared goals,
resolve common problems, and gain a greater measure
of control over the circumstances of their lives
• The community provides its own leadership for the
change effort.
• developing ongoing organizations as a power base
through which community members can take collective
action over time
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4. Four arenas
•
•
•
•
turf
issue
identity, or
workplace
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5. Types of approach
Community Development
v
Social Action
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6. Community Development
• involves participants in constructive activities and processes to
• produce improvements, opportunities, structures, goods, and
services that
• increase the quality of life, build individual and collective capacities,
and enhance social solidarity.
• approach is developmental & integrative.
• The goal is internal development
• of the community’s capacity to make improvements, solve
problems, generate its own leadership, strengthen social
relationships, and function more effectively
• does not attempt to redistribute resources or to reduce power disparities
• “power holders could be organized to effect change” (Beck and
Eichler, 2000
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7. CD has three goals
• problem resolution
– (e.g., creating a community garden, organizing a
neighbourhood crime watch, producing affordable housing, or generating employment
opportunities),
• capacity building
– through the establishment of effective GCOs,
• and the development of social solidarity
– “the ties that bind.”
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8. Social Action
• brings people together to
– convince,
– pressure, or
– coerce
• external decision-makers to meet collective goals
either to act in a specified manner or to modify or stop
certain activities.
• less powerful groups to transform themselves from
objects of oppression to subjects able to act in unison
to challenge dominant elites (Freire, 1973)
• Is redistributive in nature
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9. SA has 3 goals
• problem resolution
– (e.g., obtaining curve cuts, modifying the
Informed Consent Policy, or eliminating illegal
dumping),
• building a power base
– Through the development of a strong GCO, and
• decreasing power disparities
– Between community members and external
groups
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10. Picture
• a vacant lot in a multiracial low-income neighbourhood.
The land—owned by the city—has become a dumping
ground with old mattresses, furniture, appliances, and car
parts littered across the full expanse. Weeds, broken glass,
and patches of briars fill out the scene.
• CD= cleanup day, and perhaps there might be an effort to
persuade the city to provide some equipment, as well as a
truck to remove the debris. But the actual work would be
done by residents themselves
• SA=begin with door-to-door recruitment, “rubbing raw the
sores of discontent” (Alinsky, 1969)by engaging residents in
agitational conversations about the city’s fail-ure to provide
adequate management of this parcel of land
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11. • The most basic goal of grassroots community
organizing is to bring about social change.
• CD is limited because it fails to
• “deal with underlying issues that are caused by
polarized interest, such as banks that redline the
community, corporations that abandon it,
absentee landlords who run it down, or
private/public policy that undermines it at almost
every turn” (Fisher and Shragge 2000 pp.8–9)
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12. Goals of Community Development Goals of Social Action
• Problem Resolution
• Capacity Building
• Social Solidarity
• Problem Resolution
• Building a Power Base
• Decreasing Power
Disparities
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13. Miller’s 1971 3T’s of power
• taming
– Elimination of the worst abuses, such as police brutality,
racial profiling, predatory lending, or unfair evictions
• transfer
– To replace some decision-makers with “their own people.”
• transformation
– Restructuring of relationships such as the passage of a
mental patients’ rights bill, creation of a housing trust fund
(cf housing benefit and private rents, establishment of a
Living wage (London Living Wages and the Olympics)
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14. 10 tools for taking power
• Doing It Yourself
• Developing Persuasive
Arguments
• Raising Awareness and
Consciousness
• Using Existing Laws,
Policies, and Processes
• Creating or Changing
Laws, Policies, and
Processes
• Generating Publicity
• Exercising Electoral
Power
• Affecting Appointments
• Exercising Consumer
Power
• Disrupting “Business As
Usual”
Tim’s advice: its easier to ask forgiveness than permission!
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15. 15

16. Role of the Organiser
Locate and Relate.
Motivate and Integrate.
Facilitate and Educate.
ACTIVATE!
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17. Organisers
• Organiser is not (always) the community leader
• organizer’s job to get other people to take the
lead,
• “Coaching is the essence of the organizer role”
(Moshe ben Asher 1984)
• Organizers facilitate the process through which
community members begin to analyze the
circumstances of their lives and then think about
making changes in institutions and power
relationships
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18. Time & Location
• Bulk of an organizer’s time is spent working
either with individuals
– In their kitchens, on their front doorstops, and over
the phone
• Or with small groups
– In an endless array of meetings for recruitment,
action research, community education, leadership
training, executive decisions, grassroots fundraising,
strategic analysis, action planning, negotiating,
lobbying, and evaluating organizational actions and
activities
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19. Don’t be dragged in…
• it’s easier to do things for people,
– saving time and
– getting personal ego satisfaction in the
process.
• Yet such shortcuts only reduce
organizational growth by robbing the
members of ownership and control
• do their work without creating relationships
of dependence and overreliance.
• Decision-making power must remain with
the full membership.
• Much of the work can be done through the
skilful use of Socratic questioning, which
helps focus discussion
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20. 20

21. Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’?
Organizing Models and Methods
Ten dimensions
membership, leadership, staffing, structure,
goals, target systems, strategy & tactics
employed, finances, allies, and communications.
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22. WHO: membership, leadership, staffing
& structure
• direct membership
– primary recruitment
– loyalty to cause
• organization of organizations (O of O)
– Team of teams (Ashoka)
– congregation model
– loyalty to primary organisation
– Active, not paper, participation is essential
– No, FB ‘likes’ don’t count….
– But…. Alinsky (1971) “the illusion of a group’s power often
is more important than its actual strength”
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23. leaders
• 1st line leaders
– core activists—regular participants in the group’s
meetings, activities, and events.
• 2nd line leaders
– links between the 1st line & rank-and-file members,
– energy, creativity, and fresh perspectives.
– Slow down “The Iron Law of Oligarchy” as 1st line
leaders become more powerful
– "Bureaucracy happens. If bureaucracy happens,
power rises. Power corrupts”- iron law
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24. Conscientization
• (Freire, 1973) enables organizational leaders
• to actively reflect about their personal life
experience,
• to recognize similar experiences shared by
others,
• to develop a political critique of systemic
oppression and
• to prepare to act collectively to challenge and
change the conditions of their lives.
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25. “WHAT”
• its purpose, mission, history, track record,
opportunities, and challenges are.
• Long-Range Goals-aspirational
• Middle-Range Goals- concrete
• Objectives are measurable outcomes within a
specified time period
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26. ‘Target System’ or Stakeholders
• Internal: establish a positive reputation and
credibility among its own constituency
• External: either
– (CD) efforts to enlist the assistance of external
institutions, or
– (SA) mobilization within the community with
pressure directed at external decision-makers
• Allies?
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27. “HOW”
• a GCO goes about attempting to achieve its
mission and goals— strategy and tactics,
finances, allies, and communications
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28. • internal
• strategies to engage and motivate community
members to take collective action, as well as
• external
• ones designed to convince or coerce
organizational targets to act as the group
wishes.
• Cf Ten Tools for Taking Power
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29. Challenges
• Does the organization understand the dynamics of community
development versus social action, as well as the appropriate
strategic continuum from collaboration to confrontation?
• How often have the various types of strategies been used, and with
what results?
• Have errors been made using strategies and tactics that either were
too weak or too militant?
• What new strategic and tactical abilities and skills have
organizational members, leaders, and staff developed?
• Is the GCO able to mix, match, and modify its tactics as needed?
• Has the group learned to overcome common counter tactics from
resistant targets?
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30. Finance
• “Whoever pays the piper calls the tune.”
• internally
– from sources such as dues, door-to-door
canvassing for contributions, and a variety of
grassroots fundraising projects (such as raffles,
banquets, dances, carnivals, bake sales, ad books,
or potluck suppers)
– Externally
• Grants, funds, trading
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31. 4 phases of organising
• Groundwork:
– gather basic information about the community and begin analyzing the power
dynamics at work within it
– Door knocking, questionnaires, meetings
– use face-to-face recruitment methods in natural settings where potential
members are accessible and feel comfortable interacting.
– Who else is active in the field?
•
Developing an Organizing Committee (OC):
– initial core group is needed to provide leadership and direction for the
organizing effort.
•
General Recruitment Drive:
– Systematic recruitment is launched with the active support and participation
of the Organizing Committee members.
• Formation Meeting:
– The organizing drive culminates with a formation meeting where temporary
leadership is elected and organizational action is planned
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32. groundwork
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Turf
Demographics
Key Institutions.
Community-based
Organizations and
Agencies
Powerful Actors.
Existing Issues
Potential Issues
Political Trends.
• Gatekeepers- who
controls access?
• Opinion Leaders.
• Credentialing – who can
vouch for you?
• Discovery- where does
their self interest lie?
• Visioning-what’s in it for
me
• Commitment- big favour
first
• Building Momentum
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33. 33

34. Analyze, Strategize, and Catalyze
Issues and Strategy
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35. Choosing campaigns
• Is the issue consistent with the long- and middle-range goals of the
organization?
• Will the issue be unifying or divisive?
• What is the GCO’s capacity to undertake this issue campaign at the
present time?
• Will the campaign help the GCO grow?
• Will the campaign provide a good educational experience for leaders and
members, developing their consciousness, independence, and skills?
• Will the GCO receive credit for a victory on the issue, improve its
credibility, and increase its overall visibility?
• How will the campaign affect organizational resources?
• Will the campaign develop new allies and/or enemies?
• Will the campaign emphasize collective action, producing new strategies,
tactics, or issues?
• Will the campaign produce a significant victory
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36. Tactics (alinsky)
• Power isn’t only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.
• Never go outside the experience of your people. This will produce
confusion, fear, a collapse of communication, and a lack of ownership of
the tactic. Keep things simple and logical.
• Wherever possible, go outside of the experience of the enemy. Keep them
off balance by doing the unexpected. Don’t become predictable in your
actions.
• Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.
• Ridicule is one of our most important weapons.
• A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. Have fun!
• A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
• Keep the pressure on with a variety of tactics and actions.
• The threat can be more terrifying than the thing itself.
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37. Tactics (alinsky)
• Develop operations that will maintain a constant pressure on the
opposition. The pressure produces a reaction from the target,
setting the stage for further organizational action and subsequent
oppositional reaction.
• If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through
to its counterside. The real action is in the enemy’s reaction. The
enemy, properly goaded and guided in its reaction, will be your
major strength.
• The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Be
prepared to offer an organizational solution to the issue if called
upon.
• Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.
• Tactics, like organization and like life, require that you move with
the action. Be flexible and imaginative. Have contingency plans for a
variety of responses by the opposition
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38. Innovative direction action
• squatting, street blocking, citizen’s arrests,,
pledges, subpoenaing opponents,
• creative use of e-mail and the Internet,
• “people’s hearings,”
• buying mainstream advertising,
• “billing” the city for services done by the
organization
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39. What the target will do
• The Seven D’s of Defense”
– Deflect,
– Delay,
– Deceive,
– Divide,
– Deny,
– Discredit, and
– Destroy
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40. The best defense
• solid research methodology and a good media
strategy to carry your message to the general
public.
• number of people actively involved in the
campaign and the track record of legitimacy it has
established over time
• strong allies, solid legal assistance, a stepped-up
media campaign, and aggressive direct action can
add up to an effective counteroffensive
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41. Preparation for Action
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Research on Target
Logistical Plans
Action Planning Meetings
Formulate Demands
Prioritize Demands
Divide up Roles
Role Play and Practice
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42. Assessment
•
•
•
•
•
What happened?
Why did this happen?
What did we do well?
What might we have done differently?
Where do we go from here?
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43. Speaking truth to power
• Quaker Milton Mayer 1955
• mainstream approach to community
involvement usually is predisposed toward
limited input—such as reactions to
predetermined institutional decisions
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44. Decision-making structures
• self-appointed “grasstips” leaders—recognized
by outside authorities but neither respected
nor trusted within their own communities—
are designated to speak for a particular group.
• handpicked as “window dressing.”
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45. Representation in power
• Grassroots Community Organisations should be
given precedence over unattached individuals
when various types of institutional decisionmaking structures are constituted
• such representatives should comprise a large
enough portion of the total seats/votes to form a
critical mass
• representatives from GCOs should be given the
requisite orientation and training, so that they
can function as knowledgeable and active
participants.
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46. Operating Policies and Procedures
• a relatively decentralized management
system is most consistent with bottom-up
empowerment approach.
• multiple access points for community groups
to have influence on truly significant
institutional decisions and behaviors.
• policy of long-range planning that
incorporates a central role for community
stakeholders
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47. So
• Community obligated institutions (Coins) like
local authorities or hospitals that show the
following features:
– Centralised power and decision-making
– Single points of ‘customer relations’ or ‘complaints
depts’, or
– Short-term reactive planning
• Are usually ‘playing at’ community
involvement
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48. Programming
• Key programmatic stages of:
–
–
–
–
assessment,
design,
implementation, and
evaluation
• In COINS are essential points of involvement
– assessing needs as well as assets
– community buy-in and ownership
– close monitoring and active evaluation of institutional
programs by GCOs
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49. Making public policy
• Elected decision-makers make different
decisions when watched by the affected
constituents
• Get the right information to the right person
at the right time.
• Public policy-makers weigh opinion as equal to
fact
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50. So what… of community research
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
When panning for gold, don’t discard the diamonds
‘Spin’ning makes the world go round.
Follow the money.
Who is connected to whom ?
Only believe what you see with your own two eyes
have your eyes examined regularly.
If you can’t find an insider, make one.
Know the rules/laws for access to (public) information
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51. After Words, Take Action
For the powerless, there’s only one
course to follow.
Organize! Struggle! Become powerful!
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