Don't Dis Community Organizers

Amid all the hoopla and pressure, Sarah Palin took to the stage of the RNC convention, wowing the GOP delegates and winning over most of the media commentators. Her speech commanded that we stop viewing her as a curiosity, that we take her seriously as a politician and a leader.

And if we are to take the substance of her words seriously, then we need to point out that Palin -- echoing an attack on Barack Obama delivered a half-hour prior by Rudy Giuliani -- made one of the most absurd statements of the year.

Palin remarked, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

Now I'm all for upholding the dignity of small-town mayors and acknowledging the responsibilities they shoulder. And certainly we need to more of a town hall forum dynamic within government on a national scale if ordinary people are to have any access to counter the influence of corporate lobbyists.

But it's just wrong to dis community organizers. And why belittle community organizers when you are trying to portray yourself as an insurgent candidate seeking to overthrow the Washington elite?

So let's start with one obvious way in which community organizers make a difference. They register new voters. In 1992, a record 150,000 new voters were added to the rolls in Chicago owing in large measure to a grassroots effort led by Project Vote. A January 1993 analysis by Chicago magazine on the local director of Project Vote concluded, "A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape -- and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama."

In this sense, even the crassest politico understands the value of community organizers. They are indispensible to boosting voter turnout (which is why so many GOP strategists have devised counter-mechanisms to deter voting). It's hard to believe that Palin could have successfully challenged the incumbent governor of Alaska without some community organizers working on behalf of her campaign.

Still, there is a much deeper responsibility that the community organizer shoulders. I learned my most important lessons about community organizing over the past 7 years living in Detroit. From a few victories and many setbacks, from elders and youths, from veteran activists and wide-eyed students, I gained a deeper sense of what it means to survive, to struggle, and to envision a better world within what is arguably the nation's most devastated big city.

(You can get a sense of what Barack Obama learned from his community organizing work in Dreams From My Father. Judge the value of his experience for yourself and assess the degree to which his potential presidency would reflect the mentality of a grassroots activist.)

And if we are to take Sarah Palin's rhetoric seriously, then it is clear that she recognizes that the American system of representative democracy is broken. Corporate interests have taken control of Washington leaving us with too many politicians in both parties devoid of courage, accountability, or authenticity. And no single charismatic leader -- be they a P.O.W. survivor, a hockey mom, or a brother from the South Side -- can change that system by themselves.

What is required is a grassroots movement that will make Washington more accountable to participatory democracy. Community organizations inside the United States and even more so around the world are a principle vehicle to engage people in the practice of democratic action. (Author Paul Hawken has chronicled the global impact of such organizations.)

And community organizers -- paid and unpaid -- are a critical part of building such a movement. The best work among the grassroots the people, getting to know the people who make up communities and gaining intimate knowledge of their problems in ways that cannot be gleaned from the photo-op appearances by typical politicians. The best empower people to express their needs and concerns, not just as individuals but as a more powerful collective of diverse but coordinated souls. This means that community organizers must also be skilled at communication, negotiation, and compromise -- traits required of any good leader.

I can't say what possessed Palin to dis community organizers. I hope she understands that most Americans are not on a first-name basis with their mayor. I hope she understands that most Americans cannot and should not expect to get a check from their state government because corporations are making billions by extracting nonrenewable resources. I hope she understands that there are millions of Americans living in places like the South Side of Chicago, inner-city Detroit, and small towns across America whose lives and communities have been devastated by deindustrialization, environmental degradation, the war on drugs, the collapse of public school systems, and so on.

So now is our chance to see what Sarah Palin is really made of. Let's see her go to cities like Detroit and talk to people about their problems, not just the soccer/hockey mom in the suburbs but also the youth whose neighborhood school was just shut down, the mother living on a street haunted by drug dealers and gang violence, and the ex-con trying to straight but unable to secure a job. Once Palin belittles community organizers, what will she have to offer? Will she provide any new ideas or just the same old GOP talking points about how the free market gives everyone a chance to lift themselves up by their bootstraps? Or, will she, just like the politicians she claims to resent, continue to ignore the needs and concerns of the most marginalized sectors of our population?

Comments

[uclalaw]

Please share your passion for community organizing at WeAreCommu­nityOrgani­zers.Com

This is a movement started by student at UCLA. Anyone can upload a picture and help shape the message.

Obama2008!

[robertguinto]

THE USA was establish by community organizers willing to give up their lives. I am proud to continue the tradition of caring about my community and being involved.

Two words that will for months be remembered as a turning point in activism; COMMUNITY ORGANIZER and UPPITY. It is also become a time of real reflection of the role nonprofits. Through out history where government has failed nonprofits have stepped forward. Before nonprofits and today community organizing has been the bedrock of helping neighbors. Katrina was the best recent example of individuals reaching out an organizing a solution. I wrote more and added some pics at http://mynonprofitwebsite.com/blog/2008/09/05/the-freedom-of-expression/

[microbrother]

Community organizers have been the building blocks for everything we enjoy in this society since its inception. Every social/political movement has its base in community organizing: When colonists of old decided that taxation without representation was not a just way to govern. When black slaves, Nat Turner and Joseph Cinquez, said enough is enough! When women, deprived of the right to vote, stood their ground and deprived their husbands the pleasure of marriage. When Dr. Martin Luther King and Minister Malcolm X juxtaposed civil disobedience and the threat of the ballot or the bullet. When Mrs. Jones deemed that her intersection was a safety hazard and organized her neighbors to petition the city for a stop sign.

Madam Governor, the next time you need to reach out to the community for support, just remember that the community organizer is the one who can make that happen for you. Nevertheless, we will remember your insult!

[doodlefarbe]

Seemed to me that what was being dissed was the idea that community organizer = executive experience useful to being president.

[buckethead 22]

At least this is consistant with McCain' views giving America greatest community organizer a holiday.

[MagisterLudi]

REAL Community organizers: Cesar Chavez, Bella Abzug,Samuel Gompers.
People who actually achieved something for the common people. Using com. org. as a quick stepping stone in bid for power is not the best example for future organizers.

[barackobama4prez]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/#scroll_video

[Marissa Moss - Huffpost Blogger]

I decided to start making a list of the most notable community organizers that I could think of, before the word became a pejorative. These are people that fought for our rights as women, for civil rights, for our workers, and for our country.

As the Obama camp just released in an email statement:

Why would the Republicans spend a whole night of their convention attacking ordinary people?

With the nation watching, the Republicans mocked, dismissed, and actually laughed out loud at Americans who engage in community service and organizing.

Some of those "laughable" community organizers?

- Martin Luther King, Jr.,

-Susan B. Anthony, a civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to secure women's suffrage in the United States (without which, none of us women would be able to vote, let alone run)

-Laura Addams, who was a founder of the U.S. Settlement House movement, and the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

-César Chávez: co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers.

-Samuel Adams, a founding father

- Samuel Gompers, an American labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history, who founded the American Federation of Labor

[GBGB]

Palin said that mayors have responsibilities while community organizers do not. There is nothing false about that statement.
Most job titles come with specific duties and responsibilities. "Community organizer" does not. You can do a lot of different things (or very little at all) and still call yourself a "community organizer.­"
Yes, there have been community organizers who have accomplished great things. But I am quite certain that there have been plenty of people who have held themselves out as "community organizers" who have done nothing. Theoretically, I could call myself a "community organizer" if I got two homeless people to stand on a street corner holding signs saying "Impeach Bush."
If Obama wants to be respected for being a "community organizer," he should focus on what he actually accomplished during those years. I, for one, was not aware that Obama was instrumental in registering 150,000 new voters in 1992. If Obama (and his supporters) were to focus on those accomplishments, what he did and what he learned during that time, rather than simply saying that he was a "community organizer," he would command much more respect and it would help to quiet the criticism that he lacks meaningful experience.

[MoMan]

how about republicans do a little research into what Obama did
as a community organizer BEFORE they ridicule and insult him
for having been one!

[thewho77]

Community Organizers are the grassroots lifeblood of our PREDATORY democracy. We have a PREDATORY democracy because our government is bought by the corporations and prey on our citizens.

PREDATORY DEMOCRACY!

[enochsmoky]

When people sear the term "community organizer" they think of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Abbie Hoffman or William Ayers. Like or not, the term brings visions of loud mouthed demagogues using bullying tactics to try to extort money out of businesses or the government. The implicit threat of physical or economic violence is just one tactic out of their overall strategy. Look at the demonstrations outside the conventions and you will see plenty of future and present "community organizers­."

[jupitor]

Where have you been this last year? We've all been educated for a whole year on what community organizers do sense Obama came on the stage and he worked as one, and he Organized every state communities to get out the vote, collect donations, workk the internet and so much more! Evsen the swift boat group is community organized and backed! This lady dissed Mccain/palins voters registation Base/their church Base/ their state champagne working base, an etc! How would you feel as a republican your v.p. just told you your job that you were doing to help you get elected is a worthless job with absolutely no responsabilities! That saying your crap under my feet and worthless to me! Yah, great job lady! Especially sense all those community organizers that just served in the hurrican states, that the repubs wanted to look so good with, that she just dissed!

[jeff]

why doesnt barrack just list all his accomplishment he made while being a community organizer.

its not like he was just working with the acorn group was he?

[HBeachbum]

She was dissing one community organizer. Although, there is not much value in any of them. Lefties all.

[wtfcharlie]

Giuliani's (and Palin's) disparagement of Community Organizers was certainly one of the uglier moments of the Republican convention. He/They somehow managed to turn what is a clearly honorable service into a vicious, race-bating, McCarthyesque slur. It was hypocritical coming from the mouth of the former Mayor of NYC and clearly intended to divide white and black america. It had appalling echo of George H. W. Bush taunting Michael Dukakis as a "card-carrying member of the A.C.L.U.". The low road doesn't get any lower.

As well, Giuliani and mocked Obama when he said Mayor of New York he "never had the chance to vote 'present'. Here is a factoid:

MISSED VOTES
John McCain has missed 407 votes (63.8%) during the current Congress as opposed to Barrack Obama's 45% absentee record.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/m000303/

The lies and distortions of the Republicans are too many to number but these examples stand out to me for their qualities of high sarcasm and nastiness.

[RumiSouth]

Democracy was invented by community organizers. That's why paleoconservatives like Palin are so dismissive: they don't like democracy.

[tkondaks]

Scott: you left out the context in which Palin said what she said about community organizers. The two preceeding sentences to the one you quoted were:

"Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves."

So she was responding to what you and the Democrats were saying about HER experience; she wasn't putting down community organizers.

[kristycu]

um yes she was, and Obama's response to experience was the running of his campaign. She could of said something about that, but she picked on his first job right out of college, I'm sorry but my first job right out of college i didn't start making right out the gate $70,000 a year- hey what about you