Book Review by Ron Jacobs

Hayden, Tom, Ending the War in Iraq Akashic Books 2007

Brown, Michael J., Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups That Can Solve Problems and Change the World Long Haul Press 2007

Tom Hayden' has credentials when it comes to movements opposing war and racism. From the early days of the original SDS to the Chicago 8, his Berkeley days with the Red Family collective to his time in the California legislature and today, his approaches have included confrontation, mass rallies and lobbying. Likewise, his theoretical takes have gone from ending a particular war to revolution to reform. Hayden utilizes this experience quite wisely in his new book Ending the War in Iraq, at least to a point.

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A section of Hayden's book is dedicated towards organizing tactics--all of which are useful despite their brevity. If the reader wants to explore the tactics and strategies of organizing in more detail, however, let me recommend Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups That Can Solve Problems and Change the World by veteran organizer Michael Brown. This text is reminiscent of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and could play as important a role in the future as Alinsky's text did for organizers in the 1970s.

Going well beyond Hayden's brief but useful suggestions on organizing against the war in one's community, Brown's book is a veritable step-by-step guide to creating and maintaining a viable and effective grassroots organization. He intersperses anecdotes of various organizing successes and failures with straightforward instructions and practical exercises to make an indispensable addition to any serious organizer's bookshelf. Whether a group's goal is to organize against public transit fare hikes, getting a stoplight at a dangerous intersection or building a large antiwar coalition, the strategies discussed in Brown's book will have something to offer.

Nowadays, with so much communications technology available, many organizations tend to assume that mass emails and a website can replace one-on-one conversations and other person-to-person contacts. While the internet and text messaging are certainly important tools for notifications and tactical decisions during actions, especially for those already in a particular organization, they tend to be pretty ineffective for recruiting new members and inviting the public to meetings. Building Powerful Community Organizations points out the necessity of personal contact over and over. In addition, Brown makes note of the important role that providing services to the community can make. While reading this section, I was reminded of the Black Panthers free breakfast and community schools program.

ZNet |Activism | Ending the War, Organizing for Change: Two Books, One Task.