Broad Based Organizing - COPS/Metro and the Industrial Areas Foundation

Reveille for Radicals by Saul Alinsky Legendary community organizer Saul Alinsky inspired a generation of activists and politicians with Reveille for Radicals, the original handbook for social change. Alinsky writes both practically and philosophically, never wavering from his belief that the American dream can only be achieved by an active democratic citizenship. First published in 1946 and updated in 1969 with a new introduction and afterword, this classic volume is a bold call to action that still resonates today.

Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky First published in 1971 and written in the midst of radical political developments whose direction Alinsky was one of the first to question, this volume exhibits his style at its best. Like Thomas Paine before him, Alinsky was able to combine, both in his person and his writing, the intensity of political engagement with an absolute insistence on rational political discourse and adherence to the American democratic tradition.

Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice by Edward T. Chambers The successor to the legendary activist Saul Alinsky, Edward T. Chambers pioneered a set of principles and practices that have guided community organizations throughout the US and the world. Roots for Radicals remains his definitive reflection on these fundamental principles of community activism: how, as public citizens, we can navigate the gap between the world as it is and as it should be, between self-interest and self-sacrifice and in doing so create lasting change for our communities.In the face of the increasingly turbulent politics of the 21st-century, Chambers's book has never been more relevant.

Going Public by Michael Gecan "The inside story of an extraordinary politics you probably didn't know existed-ordinary Americans getting together and acquiring real power for themselves." -William Greider, national correspondent, The Nation A New York city neighborhood once called "the beginning of the end of civilization" is where Michael Gecan starts. Hired by residents to help them save their community, he and local leaders spend more than a decade wrestling New York politicians in an impassioned effort against all odds that brings in five thousand new homes. From bad behavior by Ed Koch to complicated negotiations with Rudy Giuliani, Gecan tells the inside story of how the city really works, and how any organized group of citizens can wield power in seemingly unmovable bureaucracies. Gecan's unwavering vision of the value of public action has roots in a rough childhood in Chicago, where he witnessed extortion by the mob and a tragic fire in his Catholic grade school that left ninety-two children and three nuns dead. In his inspiring story of the will to claim the full benefits of citizenship, Gecan offers unforgettable lessons that every American should know: What is the best way to talk to politicians? What resources do all communities need to create change? What kinds of public actions really work? "If you want to know how ordinary Americans accomplished extraordinary things-built affordable homes, created effective schools, won living wages-then the story and the strategy reside in this remarkable book. Going Public is at once pragmatic and profound." -Samuel G. Freedman, author of Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church. Michael Gecan has been an organizer for twenty years. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.