Sunday, October 28, 2012

Who gains admission and who counts white? - Immigrants organize now and then (Part 1)


Strike! Source: UFW.
Back in August in Portland I committed a minor traffic infraction and unlucky me, there was a police officer on the spot who stopped me. I didn't have an international driver's license, he did not accept my Hungarian license, and he fined me. So I went to the local DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) in order to settle my status, and I did not have my immigration card on me, which would have verified that I was legally in the country. A few months earlier I had applied for the extension of my visa and carelessly, I did not attach the new card into my passport. Even though I was flaunting the printed email which proved the visa renewal process, in their eyes I could have been an undocumented immigrant.

In the U.S. it is not unusual that people in similar situations end up in detention facilities. In line with the continuously harshening immigration laws, in 2008, Secure Communities, a very controversial immigration program, started and this made the procedure with undocumented immigrants more severe. This whole issue made me think about whether any police officer would have let me go without checking my passport and my immigrant status if I had not been a white person with good English and a pretty decent appearance. This post is about immigrants and immigrant community organizers who put their body on the line risking even deportation to secure their rights.

Who gains admission and who counts white?

In 2010, 40.2 million immigrants lived in the U.S. (Pew), more than half of whom being Mexican. Significant numbers of people arrive also from China, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and South Korea, and from Central America (El Salvador, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala) (CIS).

11.2 million of them are estimated to be undocumented immigrants (2011: Pew), more than half of whom being Mexican (2011: Pew). Approximately 1 million of them arrive as a child with their parents (2011: Pew). Out of these 11.2 million people, 6-7 million cross the border illegally, through human smuggling (2006: Pew), another 4-6 million overstay their visa after the time of admission has expired (2011: CIS), and approximately 250-500,000 people enter using their Border Crossing Card which authorizes visits to the border areas for a set amount of time (2006: Pew).

In the last decade the number of deportations doubled, and the majority of the deported were Mexicans, 70 percent in 2009 (2011: Pew). In 2010, 400,000 people were deported (2011: CIS).

A Filipino on strike in 1966.
Source: Reuther
In the history of the U.S., where everybody is an immigrant (which is essentially true for Europe, too...), the state became concerned with determining eligibility for citizenship after it had broken free from the British hegemony. From 1790 until a little after the end of the American Civil War (1868), citizenship was designated to "free white persons" of "good moral character". "Whiteness" however, has always been a political category: in the beginning of the 20th century, for example, neither the Irish nor the Jews nor the Slavs were considered to be white.

The Fourteenth Amendment eventually proclaimed in 1868 that regardless of the race of the parents, their citizenship and place of birth, those who were born in the United States are entitled to become citizens, and this right was extended in 1870 to African-Americans who had formerly been slaves. This right to citizenship was, however, denied to Native Americans, some of whom first became citizens in 1890, until finally this right was extended to all Native Americans in 1924. Moreover, Chinese immigrants, who started to migrate to the U.S. at the second half of the 19th century, were excluded from the right to become citizens in 1882 (Chinese Exclusion Act). Racial discrimination in gaining citizenship was eventually abolished with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.

There were practically no legal restrictions on immigration to the U.S. until 1875. People from different nations arrived in different periods with significantly different social and financial background (primarily, the Spanish, the English, the French, the Germans, the Dutch, people from other countries from Northwestern Europe, and the African slaves, then Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europeans, Italians, Greeks, Russians, and Asians, Latin-Americans, Africans). The connections between these nations and their prevailing power relations over the course of history made an impact on the American immigration legislation.

The first two immigration laws were the Page Act of 1875 followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which restricted and banned the immigration of Chinese workers based on ethnicity. The ban was abolished only in 1943. The Immigration Act of 1924 essentially restricted the entry of Central and Eastern Europeans by limiting the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2 percent of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States (Canadians, Latin Americans and Caribbeans were exempt from the quota system). The national-origin quota was repealed in 1965, and the new law focused on skills and family connections in the U.S. This was a significant paradigm change compared to the overtly or covertly racist immigration legislation.

A new significant milestone in the changing attitude and policy of the government towards immigrants was the Illegal Immigration Act of 1996, which imposed stricter sanctions against immigrants unlawfully present in the country and extended the possibility of deportations. So far this law provides the basis for the current U.S. immigration policy.

Under procedure in a detention facility.
Source: findingdulcinea.com
At the same time, the U.S. granted amnesty to undocumented immigrants several times. In 1940, for example, during WWII for security reasons in order to control and oppress any activities aiming against the state or the prevailing state ideology, the status of several million people, mostly of European origin were legalized (Alien Registry Act of 1940). In 1986, the Reagan administration legalized the status of approximately 3 million people, mostly Latin-American and Asian immigrant farmworkers, and those who settled down in the U.S. before 1982. And now, the most recent beam of hope for young immigrants is the DREAM Act, which would open the avenue to gain citizenship for undocumented immigrants who are under the age of 30, graduated from high school and obtain a college degree or complete two years of military service within six years.

Who does NOT get caught in the control mechanism of the immigration office?

These measures were accompanied by a more severe border protection and immigration control mechanism, which were in line with national security measures after 2001. In 2005, for example, the federal government determined the process (Real ID Act) of how local DMVs issue a driver's license and other personal identification documents (until then the system was not centralized). As a result, every DMV in each state of the whole country needs to request the immigration documents in case of a non-American citizen (that's the reason why I was asked for my immigration card which I did not have on me), and are obliged to store and to some extent share the data of the clients with other authorities.

Source: cnn.com
The other recent measure in 2008 was the already mentioned Secure Communities program, which determines that data and fingerprints of arrestees are submitted not only to the FBI but also to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The automated system indicates to ICE when the detainee is an immigrant, where officers evaluate the case and can request further detention in case they want to start a procedure against the detainee. The officially declared aim of the program is to identify those detainees who are eligible for deportation according to current immigration laws, that is, those who were convicted of a crime, and to assess these cases based on the level of crime, and at the same time only to deport those who committed serious crimes such as homicide, robbery, kidnapping, major drug offenses, or those who impose a threat to national security. But despite Secure Communities’ stated priorities, many of the undocumented immigrants detained and deported via the program have never been convicted of any crime. The possibility of racial discrimination and an avenue to anti-immigrant sentiments are inherently encoded into the implementation of such a program, as it gives opportunity for law enforcement officers to pick and check "immigrant-like" people (Latin Americans, Asians).

While according to the statistics, in 2011, 26 percent of the deported people committed the above listed serious crimes, another 29 percent were deported for misdemeanors and lesser crimes, and another 26 percent were deported for not having committed any crime, but who were undocumented (IPC), and who were, for instance, arrested because of driving without a license, burned-out tail lights or speeding. Take the case of Emiliano Rojas, who was immediately asked for his immigration papers by the police officer in 2010 when he committed a minor traffic infraction. He did not have proper documents, so the police officer did not let him go away, saying that the car Emiliano had been driving was in the name of his father. When his father, Claudio, who was also undocumented, arrived to help his son out, both of them were arrested and detained.

This made me think that if any police officer had wanted to see my passport and had realized that I cannot prove my legal status on the spot, would have I gotten arrested? In that case, would he or she have found it suspicious that the car I was driving was not mine? Naturally, I would have been cleared within foreseeable time that I am legally in the country, and obviously nobody would have wanted to deport me, but the fair treatment, which everybody would deserve, saved me from getting in closer acquaintance with the American detention facilities. Not like the Rojas family, where the boy was let go after three months of detention, but the father was ordered to leave the country. Neither of them had any criminal record. Despite the sentence, Claudio, however, had decided to stay in the country with his family, until the ICE caught him two years later and imprisoned him again and ordered the deportation. The case became famous because Claudio started a hunger strike this August and the DREAM activists protested for him.

Lower-middle class undocumented immigrants organize: the DREAM activists


Source: cleveland.com
The DREAMers got their name after the bill known as the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, Education for Alien Minors). These young people have been living in the U.S. undocumented for many years, they once left the country of their birth with their immigrant parents. They grew up without proper documents, with the support of their family, they attended high school, they are firmly rooted in the U.S.

Currently, approximately one million children live undocumented in the U.S. The DREAM Act offers permanent residency to young people under the age of 30, which would later open a path for them to apply for citizenship. Those are eligible for the benefits who came before the age of 16 and have been living here for more than five consecutive years, and who within six years get a college degree, or complete at least two years at a college or complete a two-year military service.

The DREAMers, who started the movement in 2007, protested for Claudio Rojas because they knew that there are other people like him unjustly detained despite the fact that the ICE announced in June 2011 (Morton Memo, prosecutorial discretion) that "low-priority" undocumented immigrants who impose no threat to national security should be protected from detention or deportation. ICE requested to review their cases, and declared that they will not use their resources any further to deport these immigrants. In order to prove that ICE was not fulfilling its promise, and to collect evidence that that there are immigrants kept in detention facilities who would be eligible for the DREAM Act, the young immigrants launched an action: by pretending to be uninformed undocumented immigrants, they got themselves arrested in order to infiltrate the immigrant detention facilities and collect evidence about how many people are unjustly detained. Their action gained huge media coverage.

They demanded the release of Claudio Rojas and other immigrants in situations similar to his and requested that the deportation procedures of these immigrants be stopped. They sent video messages about themselves and their own stories, and about how the DREAM Act would change their lives. They published their personal stories on their website. The bill was introduced in 2001 and is awaiting the decision of Congress. The presidency of Barack Obama has not brought the expected breakthrough. Therefore, the DREAMers, exploiting media attention around the presidential election, organized sit-ins in many states, and demanded that President Obama should use his executive authority to cease the deportations of DREAM Act eligible youth, then protested at the National Democratic Convention. This August, as a reply to the organizing of the activists and under the pressure of the presidential election campaign, Obama introduced a "deferred action" (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) for DREAM Act eligible youth. The measure ceases deportation for two years for those, who are under the age of 31, came to the country before the age of 16, have been living here for at least five consecutive years, are in school, already graduated from high school or completed a two-year military service, and have no criminal records. They can apply for a work permit, but this is not a path to receive citizenship. These are the latest developments of the issue and the results of the presidential election will probably bring substantial changes.

Part 2 (next week)
Working-class undocumented immigrants organize: César Chávez and the non-violent movement of farmworkers and their unions

The American middle class organizes: the Sanctuary Movement in support of undocumented immigrants

Further literature: Walter A. Ewing: Opportunity and Exclusion: A Brief History of U.S. Immigration Policy. Immigration Policy Center, 2012.

Read it in Hungarian.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The last stop sign - Some comments about the Handbook on Citizen Participation

Roma people and their allies protest against
the Hungarian far-right party, Jobbik
in October 17, 2012. Source: BT
Why is it useful to talk about community organizing in Hungary in a social moment when there is an expanding, wide-based civil cooperation emerging? Why are we talking about community organizing as a novelty when there have been many dynamic organizing projects in Budapest and in the country? What is this if not community organizing?

Community organizing should not be confused with community development, even though there are overlaps in their roots and tools.(1) Coalition building, campaign coordination or activist coordination are organizing but not community organizing, although all of these methods are applied during community organizing. How can community organizing contribute with something new?

Well-developed organizing infrastructure!

In the process of community organizing, people who don't have a say in the decision-making processes organize for social change and to rearrange unfair power inequalities by establishing non-hierarchical citizen organizations - organizations in the structural sense not necessarily in the legal sense. Based on community organizing, the roots of social and economic injustice are sought in the unequal distribution of power and resources among social groups(2), therefore community members ultimately organize for a more equal redistribution of power and resources, through influencing the decision-making processes by democratic means. The North Star of community organizing is meaningful democracy, dignity, and collaboration with allied social groups.

Because community organizing traditionally embraces social justice (understood in line with human rights principles), in many cases, citizen groups are run and if possible led by the participation of socially excluded, oppressed people, but in all cases with those, who are directly affected by the issue. (That's why we don't consider the Hungarian Guard or the Better Future Civil Guard Association or the Tea Party as doing community organizing, because although these groups use community organizing methods, they do not embrace its principles.)

Through citizen participation, the fundamental aim is that excluded social classes and vulnerable groups (discriminated based on their ethnicity, gender, religion or economic status, sexual orientation, age or disability) attain enough power through democratic tactics to have an influence on decision makers.(3) Due to unbalanced power relations, confrontational tactics gain emphasis.

As a result, the group is represented by community members to the decision-makers and to the media; not by professionals, but by people who are generally excluded from participating in our democracy. In case of citizen groups of ethnic, gender or other kinds of minorities, the group is represented not only by those members of these minorities who belong to the elite or the educated middle-class. This is possible because in the process of community organizing, there is great emphasis on popular education, or education in order to increase the citizen toolbox of marginalized groups: peer-learning about social issues and the welfare system, internal trainings on how to talk to the media, role plays on how to meet a decision-maker, to name a few.

In this process, the role of a community organizer is to get to know the members of a community (a neighborhood, a congregation, an institution, or a group of people affected by the same issue, etc.), and, mostly through listening, learn the problems of the community, and identify and support those members, the so-called community leaders who are able to consider and act along community interests and participate in or coordinate the establishment of a democratic group. All in all, the community organizer facilitates or actively shapes the forming of the group, the implementation of pressure tactics, and the process of community learning and, together with the community leaders, nurtures the democratic development of the group. It is essential for a strong organizational structure and a dynamic and democratic expansion of the group that more and more members learn how to become community leaders.

Forms of coalition in community organizing

Citizen organizations can emerge in several contexts and all require a different strategy. In neighborhood-based community organizing, the organizer identifies community leaders and issues in neighborhoods, facilitates the group forming, works on the implementation of pressure tactics and the process of community learning, and then promotes collaboration between these newly-emerged neighborhood-based groups (see the work of Virginia Organizing or examples shared here and here). The community organizer does not start building from scratch: they rely on past or present initiatives, organizations, leaders or members of organizations, or on less elaborated organizational forms, any forms which have structure in the community. Naturally, the community organizer starts organizing upon the invitation or with the consent of some members of the neighborhood, the congregation, or an institution.

In congregation-based community organizing, the community organizer organizes socially inactive congregations into living and welcoming faith communities, or facilitates cross-denominational cooperation on a specific issue. This process is usually preceded by the pastor or some congregational members realizing that they are alienated both in practice and membership from people suffering social injustice. Or they decide to become (more) active around social justice issues, perhaps in cooperation with other congregations. The community organizer here facilitates the process of the faith community making a decision and elaborating an action plan on how their congregation could become more relevant for a socially excluded group, how they could involve them in the congregation, and how they could collaborate with them, if possible, on an egalitarian basis for social change. Or how they could support efforts in collaboration with other congregations (see the Back of the Yards or DART).

In institution-based community organizing, the process is similar again: the community organizer organizes institutions into a common platform around a specific issue, or organizes the members of the institution, or the marginalized groups linked up with the institution (see Chicago Coalition for the Homeless or the Back of the Yards).

When doing issue-based community organizing, the organizer organizes either a group of individuals who are directly affected by the same issue (housing, health care, immigration, etc.) but don't live in the same neighborhood, and they are not the members of the same institution or congregation. It can also mean organizing the collaboration of different types of groups (neighborhood-based, congregation-based, institution-based, issue-based; see examples from the Kentuckians For The Commonwealth here and here, where local people living in the vicinity of the coal mines, high school students, artists, NGOs, etc., are organized in order to have the mountain top removal banned in Appalachia; or Iowa CCI, around nurturing collaboration between farmers and immigrants).

As a result of this, community organizing can support the well-founded collaboration of a wide variety of social groups through a strong and democratic organizational structure, where the poor and oppressed groups can make their voices heard as resolutely and clearly as those civil actors who honestly represent their interests. And besides wanting to reach improvement in their neighborhood and their own life, they want to attain systemic changes, beyond development projects. Through linking the local and national level, community organizations, ideally, do not lose the connection with local issues and interests, and can keep proper balance between local, regional and national goals, while they can strategically use their power.

Some comments about the Handbook on Citizen Participation: "The Last Stop Sign"(4)

The Handbook on Citizen Participation: Community Organizing as a Tool of Enhancing Citizen Participation is one the few publications which talks about community organizing in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, it is crucial that it summarizes and introduces some of the initiatives in this region, and through these examples, gives a short overview of the basic principles of community organizing. As a result of this, and the work of the past years, more and more countries have become familiar with the methodology of community organizing. When, however, we try to read the publication with the eyes of an activist who does not know this type of community intervention, most of the case studies would reflect that community organizers' ambitions eventually end in the beautification of a city and city development projects. Six out of the nine citizen groups (and their community organizers) addressed the decision-makers with demands such as building a bridge between two neighborhoods instead of letting the decision-maker simply destroying the old one, introducing environmentally friendly and cheap garbage collection, solving a parking space issue, cleaning an alley, building a park and a playground, preserving a pedestrian area as opposed to a planned gas station, solving garbage delivery, and renovating a sports center and a bus stop. Three groups formed other types of demands such as improving the situation of the unemployed and the workers on public assistance, eliminating homelessness through the enactment of the right to housing and through a well-developed public housing system, and buying medical equipment for a village hospital.

Naturally, in the first set of examples, "small and winnable issues" were picked because citizens were expected to learn how to put pressure on decision makers and wins would encourage more citizen participation. However, based on these examples, it may seem as if community organizing was organizing "for its own sake", as if work went without any strategy or future perspectives, simply in order to encourage citizen participation (which, supposedly, was not the intention of the authors). Although it was made explicit that there was an attempt to reach out to low-income social classes and other vulnerable groups in more or less all the case studies, it is unclear in almost all of the examples, except those of the Hungarian Anti-Poverty Network (HAPN) and The City Is For All, how community organizers, through the issues that are selected, want to contribute to systemic social change and to rearrange unfair power inequalities, which would differentiate community organizing from community development. However, enhanced citizen participation per se does not necessarily lead to the rearrangement of unfair power relations. When we, in a new region, try to elaborate and make appealing the methodology of this community intervention form, it is helpful to make the principles of this methodology and its long-term potential for social change explicit.

It is given a huge emphasis in the tradition of community organizing that a new citizen group should start out with "a small and winnable" issue, rather than something with a blurred long-term vision which may cause controversy in the emerging group (see the community organizing strategy of Alinsky). This strategy is pretty conspicuous in this publication, too, through demands around issues such as garbage collection and delivery, a parking space problem, cleaning an alley, renovating a bus stop, etc. In the tradition of community organizing, it also is stressed that these issues are identified by the community (in a democratic manner). According to the argument, the experience of winning gives impetus to the development of the organization, and wins can enhance membership growth, which is essential for a bigger campaign.

These all seem logical, but it can be very misleading. Gary Delgado (American researcher, lecturer, activist, one of the founding members and organizers of ACORN) recollects a story in his article from 1998 (The Last Stop Sign), when a community organizer (organizer of the Industrial Areas Foundation established by Saul Alinsky) told him that in their organization in New Mexico, a state on the southern border of the U.S., they didn't address the immigration issue because it had never come up with the constituents. As the organizer was a white European-American man, while the constituency was Latino, Delgado is suggesting that the issue might not have been raised due to (an initial) lack of trust rooted in the differences between the origin of the organizer and the constituents, even though the issue obviously carries great relevance for the community. To what extent is the responsibility of the organizer to raise an issue,? asks Delgado, and replies with another example. The Californian authorities wanted to take away the child of a lesbian mother. The neighborhood organization embraced the issue because the director of the organization explained the significance of the case to the board. The director was a lesbian woman. So in this case the community organizer influenced the flow of events, and acted as a "bridge person" between the citizen group and the lesbian mother, or rather between the neighborhood and the LGBT issue, and helped members to understand and accept the relevance of an issue, which they may have rejected before.

Decision makers may retain their power by pitting oppressed groups against one another along ethnicity, gender, class, etc.: Roma people on welfare against low-income non-Roma, the housing poor against the homeless people, the religious against the gay, and in general, marginalized groups against the tax-paying middle-class, while, in fact, the state spends a tiny amount of their tax on welfare assistance. These controversial issues unavoidably come up during community organizing. Furthermore, because somebody is oppressed, it does not mean that they themselves do not exert oppression on someone else such as domestic violence or aggression against animals. For long-term social change, community organizers need to take up contradictory issues, and act as bridge persons and live up to the role of "Hermes, the interpreter".

Is it really an effective strategy when a new organization sticks to "small and winnable issues", fighting for a parking space or stop signs? In the last decade of community organizing, has the gap between small and winnable issues and big and significant social issues, in fact, been bridgeable? Does this really lead us to long-term social change? Delgado continues with these questions.

Right-wing grassroots efforts, which would close abortion clinics, would put gays and lesbians back into the closet, he says, have never organized for stop signs. These groups, he adds, supposedly know that "good organizing issues are deeply felt, controversial." Delgado does not want to deny traditional methods of community organizing: empowering grassroots community leaders, organizing a wide democratic base, or community learning through which marginalized people could prove that they can articulate their issues and they do not need anointed experts. He does not intend to dismiss real victories either: the improvement of public housing, school reform, tax reform. But he also says that community organizing often has "misconceived notions of "wins"" and "is almost completely separate from the parallel world of progressive activism" which, he thinks, achieved significant results (women's movement, gay and lesbian movement, immigrant movement, etc.).

The essence and merit of community organizing is the building of a community infrastructure, which can lay the foundations of a new movement, or can enhance an existing one (see the activities of National People's Action related to the Occupy Movement here or here). Naturally, the progressive activist movements, which Delgado was hailing, could not have evolved in their full potential without an existing community infrastructure, through which participants could mobilize one another. And therefore, it is essential that neighborhood groups fight for less spectacular, smaller issues, so that group identity can shape and citizen participation can become a familiar phenomenon. Accepting all this, it is important what Delgado in 1998 said that "if traditional CO [community organizing] is to become a force for change in the millennium and beyond, it must proactively address issues of race, class, gender, corporate concentration, and the complexities of a transnational economy."

Therefore, I believe, when we speak about community organizing, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe, where we now intend to elaborate the methodology of this community intervention form, it is crucial that the short-term and long-term potential of community organizing (local-regional-national collaboration, collaboration crossing ethnicity, gender, congregations, social classes, building out a community infrastructure which can contribute to an emerging movement), the principles of community organizing (organizing vulnerable groups in the name of social justice), the role of community leaders and leadership development, the significance of community learning and internal trainings, etc., are all well-explained and that case studies are presented in line with these, all done in a strategic framework.

In addition, it is also helpful to make a distinction between community organizing and community development, knowing that both community intervention methods can be effective strategy. Which one to choose depends on several factors: the composition of the community, the internal power dynamics, the relations with the decision-makers, whether or not the decision-maker is open to consider the interests of the most vulnerable groups on an issue, or if the power structure is so unbalanced that confrontation is essential, etc. Building a bridge or a road between two neighborhoods, or having a park, or a parking space, etc. can be both community development and community organizing. The action does not become community organizing simply because it enhances citizen participation (as that is the aim of community development, too) but because the bridge, the road, the park or the parking space are important for the group because, by getting these, they make a step towards the rearrangement of unjust power relations (so they are small and winnable issues, but they have a strategic meaning for the group): because the bridge or the road connects a low-income and a middle-class neighborhood, and the low-income people will have access to the middle-class neighborhood with all of its services; or because through organizing about the park or the parking space, through popular education, it becomes crystal clear for the citizen group that they did not have a park or parking space before because of the unequal distribution of resources. This revelation together with the victory will give impetus to the group and enhance the emergence of new issues and new struggles.

With the past of monarchies and dictatorships citizen participation, collaboration, and the practice of opening up to one another are undoubtedly crucial in the life of the new Central and Eastern European democracies. However, in the shadow of excluding nationalism, or decision-makers neglecting the interests of vulnerable groups, or economic exploitation or the growing far-right, we can be brave and impatient enough to identify bigger goals for long-term social change, without losing sight of the conscious organization development strategy of community organizing, for example, to stop the exploitation of poor workers through the mobilization of workers on public assistance, or the development of the public housing system through the mobilization of homeless people (the goals of HAPN and The City Is For All mentioned in the handbook).

And an American example - for the fans of organization theory...

Organizing communities on a local and national level is not easy. The model of the organization I spent my last year with is very instructive in this aspect. The neighborhood-based and institution-based community organizing models are applied hand-in-hand in several organizations, but in Virginia Organizing (VO), it is even more emphatic. VO has 12 chapters, in 12 different locations in the state of Virginia, which were selected mostly because they are regarded as strategic centers in the region or because there is a high proportion of low-income neighborhoods. Community organizers are based in these areas and they may be local or may have moved to the there upon the call of VO. There is usually one chapter in each location and members may be community leaders in their neighborhoods, may be members or leaders of other organizations, or they may simply come on behalf of their family.

In statewide campaigns (around issues such as health care, immigration, anti-discrimination, budget and tax reform, civic participation, ex-felons' right to vote, economic justice, etc.), the staff of Virginia Organizing builds the coalition with other NGOs. Campaigns at a local, city-level are, for example, job creation through state-funded weatherization programs, or the increased participation of people of color in City Council management positions.

-------------------------------

(1) Community development and community organizing may differ mostly in the sense that, while community development holds that social inequalities are fundamentally rooted in the lack of problem solving skills at a community level and lack of self-help mechanisms due to alienation, community organizing thinks that the root of injustice is the unequal distribution of power and resources. In community development, therefore, the emphasis is on strengthening relationship between the members of the community, utilizing community competences and common problem solving skills, while members try to get the support of the decision-maker and strive for consensus. On the other hand, community organizing holds that the solution is in the more just redistribution of power and resources, so community members collaborate in order to this through influencing the decision-making processes. Due to unbalanced power relations, confrontational tactics gain emphasis. (Jack Rothman (1995): A közösségi intervenció megközelítései)
(2) Community organizing is finding its roots, among others, in the women's movement, the abolitionist movement, the labor movement, the settlement movement, and in the organizing tradition of Saul Alinsky, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and the Mexican-American Farmworkers' Movement. The methodology of community organizing was elaborated by Alinsky, which has been enriched by almost a century of experience.
(3) Naturally, organizing the middle class can be a strategic goal. Before his death, in 1972, Alinsky saw the potential in organizing the middle class. He thought in a consumer society that the middle class is miserably misled and is oppressed, and because of being a wide social stratum, it can be a good ally for a systemic social change (Playboy Interview, 1972). The ultimate goal, however, is the empowering of marginalized groups. When Alinsky in 1959 organized the Provisional Organization for Southwest Community in the Southwest Side of Chicago with a mainly white American constituency, his ultimate aim was to decrease racist tension in the neighborhood, to bridge the communication gap between the African-American and the white communities and bring about the process of African-Americans peacefully moving in the neighborhood. He, however, finally questioned this strategy. In addition, Iowa CCI organizes white farmers against factory farms on the one hand, and, on the other hand, Latino immigrant workers abused by their employers. The strategy of the organization is that, through common organizational membership, the gap between the two groups will narrow. When Rural Organizing Project talks about welcoming communities, organizing middle class neighborhoods becomes a goal in order to reach immigration justice.
(4) The title "The Last Stop Sign" is adopted from the article of Gary Delgado, quoted in the post. (Gary Delgado (1998): The Last Stop Sign, accessible online at: http://www.nhi.org/online/issues/102/stopsign.html)

Read it in Hungarian.

Next Monday: Who gains admission and who counts white? - Undocumented immigrants organize now and then.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

expanding... resources

On-Line Accessible Literature on the Theory of Organizing

COMM-ORG Papers, Readings and Archives Collection
Theory and practice of community organizing, movements and organizers (a whole lot! :)

COMM-ORG Syllabi Collection
A vast amount of reading lists from scholars and practitioners on community development, community infrastructure, community organizing, community organizing & education, community organizing & globalization, community-based rehabilitation & service learning, community organizing & social work, participation and planning, environment & food, social movements, urban issues, and others
http://comm-org.wisc.edu/co/?q=node/6

COMM-ORG Action Research&Data
Community Intervention Strategies
Action Research, Participatory Evaluation, Popular Education, Community-Campus Partnerships, Researching Corporations, Action Data - Geographic Info Systems, Action Data - Databases
http://comm-org.wisc.edu/co/?q=node/20

David Harvey Papers, lectures: leftist perspective and the city
Organizing for the Anti-Capitalist Transition - http://davidharvey.org/2009/12/organizing-for-the-anti-capitalist-transition/
Reading Marx's Capital - http://davidharvey.org/

Joshua Kahn Russell blog Articles Collection: Privilege, Power, Race, Environmental Justice & Climate Justice, Class, and Gender

Community Organisers Publications and Articles Collection


Organizing Toolbox

Shell Trapp: Basics of Organizing (book)
Nuts and bolts from the founding member of National People's Action

Joshua Kahn Russell Collection of Activists Tools
Non-violent Direct Action and Civil Disobedience, Tactical How-To, Strategy Tools, Facilitation, Organizing, Media, Outreach

Virginia Organizing Organizing Toolbox
Tips for writing effective letters to the editor, tips on talking with your legislator, how to organize a living wage campaign, tips on chairing a meeting, etc. 

Virginia Organizing Holding House Meetings

Rural Organizing Project Starting, Nurturing and Structuring a Group
Capacity Building, Growing, Leadership Teams, Database, Capacity Assessment, Democracy Grid, Living Room Conversations

Rural Organizing Project Building Welcoming Communities

Rural Organizing Project Living Room Conversations

The 99% Spring Media Toolkit
Good tips on how-to-use the media in general

Journal of New Organizing Webinars
Webinars on Organizing and Leadership, Voter Contact, Online Organizing, Campaign Management, Data Management, Voter Registration, from GOTV Center, from NGP VAN, Training for Trainers

The 99% Spring Campaign Toolkits for Occupy organizers
Toolkits on Banks and the Economy, Corporate Tax Dodging, Money in Politics, Right to Education
Media talking points

The 99% Spring Non-Violent Direct Action Planning Toolkit for Occupy organizers

Rural Organizing Project Resources for Small Town Occupations for Occupy organizers
http://www.rop.org/files/Resources%20for%20Small%20Town%20Occupations.pdf


On-Line Accessible Training Manuals and Training Tools

COMM-ORG Online Training Manuals Collection - Tons of webinars, handbooks, tips for activities

Training For Change Training Tools - Training tools & activities based on direct education approach, rooted in popular education

Southern Echo Pathways Out of Poverty
Structural causes of poverty, changing policies, strategic planning, building the organization

Southern Echo Dismantling the Achievement Gap: Education
A selection of studies and exercises on education for children at-risk

ECON Training Guide for involving young people
Training for involving young people in community organizing activities

The 99% Spring Full-Day Trainings Trainer's Notes & Presentation for Occupy organizers

The 99% Spring Half-Day Trainings Trainer's Notes & Presentation for Occupy organizers


Blogs

COMM-ORG Bloggers Collection - http://comm-org.wisc.edu/co/?q=node/13
Homeless people and their allies organize for the right to housing


Periodicals, magazines

COMM-ORG Collection
AhoraNow, City Limits, GEO (Grassroots Economic Organizing) Newsletter, Journal of New Organizing, Making Waves Magazine, Shelterforce, Social Policy - The Magazine about Movements, ColorLines Magazine


Documentary Films, Videos, Audio, Music

Eyes on the Prize - America's Civil Rights Movement 1954-1985
Comprehensive history of the African American Civil Rights Movement. America's Civil Rights Years (Episode 1-6). America at the Crossroads (Episode 1-8).
Henry Hampton and Blackside, available on YouTube

Freedom Riders
Documentary about one of the non-violent direct actions of the African American Civil Rights Movement from 1961 which challenged the racial segregation of South in the U.S.
Stanley Nelson, Firelight Media and PBS, available on YouTube-on

Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement
Quest for a Homeland, The Struggle in the Fields, Taking Back the Schools, Fighting for Political Power (Episode 1-4, 1966-1972)
National Latino Communications Center and PBS, available on YouTube

Interview with Saul Alinsky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UrZ_mVdhzZ0#!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ9Si5pkAqg (1967)

COMM-ORG Collection
ClipArt, Music, Video, Media in Action
http://comm-org.wisc.edu/co/?q=node/22 (several links do not work in the video section)


Issue Organizing

Hungarian community-led groups, community development and capacity building projects:
Art, creating and the Roma - http://cseppgyerek.blog.hu/ (Van Helyed Alapítvány, hétesi modellprogram)
Art, creating and the Roma - http://www.bodvalenke.eu/ (Bódvalenke Freskófalu)
City, women, family - http://www.ferencvarosiszuletes.gportal.hu/ (Írisz Családi Kör)
Education, economic justice and the Roma - http://www.jaibhim.hu/ (Dzsaj Bhím Közösség, Sajókazai Asszonygyülekezet) - in English
Environment and health - http://cmm.hu/http://www.istenkut.hu/indexx.php (Civilek a Mecsekért Mozgalom)
Housing, homelessness, the city - http://avarosmindenkie.blog.hu/tags/english (The City Is For All) - in English
Identity and the Roma - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW2qiNJqFng&feature=relatedhttp://www.sosinet.hu/2011/06/13/a-het-kerdese-nepszamlalas-vallalod-e-a-szarmazasod/ (Ide tartozunk! Népszámlálás 2011)
Legal aid, legal education and the Roma - http://tasz.hu/en/roma-program (Hungarian Civil Liberties Union) - in English
Media and the Roma - http://cicsero.net/en (Cicsero News Agency) - in English
Occupy and economic justice - https://www.facebook.com/occupy.blaha?fref=tshttps://www.facebook.com/OccupyPecs?fref=ts (Occupy Blaha, Occupy Pécs)
Welfare work assignment and economic justice - http://www.mszeh.hu/ (Magyar Szegénységellenes Hálózat)

American community organizations' thematic resources:
Coal, Water & Environmental Justice - http://kftc.org/issues/coal-and-water/resources (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth)
Economic Justice & Jobs Creation - http://www.campusactivism.org/server-new/uploads/acjc%20replication%20manual.pdf (Center for Community Change & Alameda Corridor Jobs Coalition)
Economic Justice & Tax Justice - http://kftc.org/issues/economic-justice/resources (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth)
Education Organizing - http://comm-org.wisc.edu/co/?q=node/17 (COMM-ORG collection)
Farming & Environmental Justice - http://www.northernplains.org/fact-sheets/ (Northern Plains Resource Council)
Food Organizing - http://comm-org.wisc.edu/co/?q=node/14 (COMM-ORG collection)
Health Organizing - http://comm-org.wisc.edu/co/?q=node/16 (COMM-ORG collection)
Homelessness & Housing - http://picturethehomeless.org/publications.html (Picture the Homeless)
Immigrants & Farmworkers - http://cllas.uoregon.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/PCUN_story_WEB.pdf (PCUN Oregon's Farmworker Union)
Immigrant Fairness - http://www.rop.org/category/immigrant-fairness/ (Rural Organizing Project)
Immigrant Organizing - http://comm-org.wisc.edu/co/?q=node/19 (COMM-ORG collection)
New Energy & Transition - http://kftc.org/issues/new-energy-and-transition/resources (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth)
Participatory Budgeting - http://www.cvhaction.org/PBbriefing-April2012 (Community Voices Heard)
Youth Organizing - http://comm-org.wisc.edu/co/?q=node/18 (COMM-ORG collection)


Groups and Networks

European Community Organizing Network (ECON)

Hungarian network of community organizers

Case studies and groups in Central and Eastern Europe and Germany
ECON Handbook on Citizen Participation

Locality - UK network for community-led organisations
& its affiliate
Community Organisers

COMM-ORG Community Organizing Groups & Networks Collection
All around the world - http://comm-org.wisc.edu/co/?q=node/8


Fundraising

International Human Rights Funders Group Funds Database
COMM-ORG Funds Collection

Joshua Kahn Russell Grassroots Fundraising How-To (Grassroots Fundraising section)