Book Thoughts: People Power Change Notes by Marshall Ganz
I didn't find reading this. It was interesting, and I'm sure the content is useful, but it doesn't feel like it was really formulated as a proper book and lacks a lot of anecdotes that would've been useful to explain points. My sister went to an organizing conference where she got the copy of this book, and she listened to the author's talk and reported back that the things I mentioned basically just sounded like the powerpoint slides put into a book. My guess is that the talk is better and maybe more engaging.
Also the graphics/charts are kind of nonsensical, sorry.
Notably, this book is approaching organizing from a more numbers/efficacy lens, which makes a lot of sense when you think about how this is written by a white man. Some of these points are contradicted by abolitionist texts, like by Mariame Kaba, and would probably be critiqued of being extractionist.
That said, the most key parts, known as, "Take time to talk to people, for the love of anything in the cosmos," remain the same across all organizing literature. From talking to my sister, though, you'd be surprised how many people (including people supposedly doing this organizing) want to get out of it because talking to someone one-on-one is extremely boring and not immediately gratifying. And yet, it's these one-on-ones that are the basis for action, not just random calls to social media.
The thing that made me go "hmm" most of the parts I read of this book were the idea that a lot of "weak ties" are necessary for success and to pool enough resources together. I don't have experience or much thought to say whether or not I disagree with this.
Random bullet points I took before I gave up:
- Issue-based vs values-based 19
- power as a "do you need my resources more than me or i you" / how can you make it more costly for the person in power so that resisting change is harder than accepting it 20
- time rather than money
- "if you can't count it, it didn't happen"
- time as a cycle (organizations) and time as an arrow (campaigns)
- "leadership requires accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty" enables rather than commands (authority)
- Snowflake model of leadership
- relationships are motivated by differences that can be exchanged as resources (understanding, empathy, courage, companionship, collaboration, etc.); things like trust, commonality, a shared purpose, etc. are more likely to result from a relationship rather than motivate their formation. commonality make relationships possible, differences make them beneficial
- time as the most valuable resource
- Civic relationships as having different appropriate social interactions. Act to be respected but not necessarily liked so you don't violate group goals and fail to hold power brokers accountable
- Civic relationships are more choice-based than others like family
- Strong ties are with people like us and weak ties are with people not like us. However, strong ties can inhibit organizing because they create closed-in circles of people with limited resources. A lot of weak ties is more flexible and better at securing outside sources of support. According to sociologist Mark Granovetter. For broader and more inclusive goals, weak ties are the key to success
- Story of self
- leads vs. recruits
- Implicitly, one-on-ones explore three questions: Do i have resources in which you have interest? do you have resources in which i have an interest? so we share values that may motivate us to work together that go beyond a single exchange or moment in pursuit of shared interests?
- People often err by going right to a commitment without having first created a relational basis for it
- only commitment can transform an exchange into a relationship
- Take the time for one-on-ones (gbio)
- House meetings: a person who commits to becoming a host invites 50 people they know (not only friends and family) for a 1-2 discussion with an organizer. This is how Cesar Chavez was recruited, and how Obama's campaign was organized also. Finding the right host requires a lot of one-on-ones. I honestly didn't realize how much work went into getting Obama elected before reading this. Political campaigns are organizing too.
- Emergency meetings when there's not enough time, which is basically recruiting organizers to recruit leaders and targeting who to talk to. Given that nowadays our messages are actually too targeted and voter contact methods are dropping in efficacy due to saturation, it goes to show that you can't rely on this forever. Can't always talk to the same people.