This is a continuation of quotes from Saul Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals, along with my commentary.
This is part 4 of 6 parts. Also see:
- Marxism, the heart of Community Organization: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals Part 1
- Marxism, the heart of Community Organization: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals Part 2
- Marxism, the heart of Community Organization: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals Part 3
- Marxism, the heart of Community Organization: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals Part 5
- Marxism, the heart of Community Organization: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals Part 6
On with the quotes:
People hunger for drama and adventure, for a breath of life in a dreary, drab existence….It is a desperate search for personal identity- to let other people know that at least you are alive. Let’s take a common case in the ghetto. A man is living in a slum tenement…When the organizer approaches him part of what begins to be communicated is that through the organization and its power he will get his birth certificate for life, that he will become known, that things will change from the drabness of a life where all that changes is the calendar.” (Page 121)
Always remember that “the guiding star is ‘the dignity of the individual.’” This is the purpose of the program. Obviously any program that opposes people because of race, religion, creed, or economic status, is the antithesis of the fundamental dignity of the individual. (Page 122)
According to Alinksy’s definition above, “the dignity of the individual” means that anything goes and any creed is fine, so long as the creed does not claim an exclusive knowledge of the truth or require people to live up to any kind of a standard. This reminds me of people talking about religion or philosophy and using the “elephant” analogy. Several blind men are led to an elephant and one is at the leg, another at the trunk, another at the tail, and so on. And one man says, “the object is big and round and stumpy and get’s wider at the bottom”, and another says, “No, it’s long and flexible and moves around a lot”, and another says, “no, it’s short and stringy…”, etc. The person telling the elephant analogy then says that any attempt to understand religious or philosophical truth is the same way. No one sees the big picture, and so it’s prideful and vain to imagine that your view is the correct one. At first that would seem like wisdom, but on closer inspection the logic breaks down. First off, it is really impossible to know truth? No, it’s very possible to know the truth. Second, if someone uses the elephant analogy it is actually they who are being arrogant, for they are claiming that no one else is able to see the whole picture except for them. They are claiming to be the only one with an exclusive knowledge of the truth.
In the world of give and take, tactics is the art of how to take and how to give. Here our concern is with the tactic of taking; how the Have-Nots can take power away from the Haves. (Page 126)
…the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have. Power has always derived from two main sources, money and people. Lacking money, the Have-Nots must build power from their own flesh and blood. A mass movement expresses itself with mass tactics. Against the finesse and sophistication of the status quo, the Have-Nots have always had to club their way. (Page 127)
The third rule is: Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat.” (Page 127)
The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian can live up to Christianity. (Page 128)
The fourth rule carries with it the fifth rule: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. (Page 128)
If Alinsky’s rule is to ridicule his enemy, then it is very clear he considered the United States, the Founding Fathers, the U.S. Allies, Christianity, capitalism, the average citizen (i.e., the middle-class) and families to be his enemy. His ridicule of these runs all through the book. Note that all of these are institutions which Marxism and Communism consider an enemy and wish to eliminate or fundamentally redefine.
The seventh rule: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. Man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time, after which it becomes a ritualistic commitment, like going to church on Sunday mornings. (Page 128)
In a fight almost anything goes. It almost reaches the point where you stop to apologize if a chance blow lands above the belt. (Page 129)
The thirteenth rule: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In conflict tactics there are certain rules that the organizer should always regard as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and “frozen.” (Page 130)
One of the criteria in picking your target is the target’s vulnerability- where do you have the power to start? Furthermore, any target can always say, “Why do you center on me when there are others to blame as well?” When you “freeze the target,” you disregard these arguments and, for the moment, all others to blame. (Page 133)
The classic statement on polarization comes from Christ: “He that is not with me is against me” (Luke 11:23). He allowed no middle ground to the money-changers in the Temple. One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other. A leader may struggle toward a decision and weigh the merits and demerits of a situation which is 52 per cent positive and 48 per cent negative, but once the decision is reached he must assume that his cause is 100 per cent positive and the opposition 100 per cent negative. (Page 133)
In this section of the book, Alinsky is saying to arbitrarily pick a target, freeze it, and then paint the target as being 100% evil.
An excellent illustration of the importance of polarization here was cited by Ruth McKenney in Industrial Valley, her classical study on the beginning of organization of the rubber workers in Akron, Ohio: “[John L.] Lewis faced the mountaineer workers of Akron calmly….The Lewis speech was a battle cry, a challenge…. ‘Partnership!’ he sneered. ‘Well, labor and capital may be partners in theory, but they are enemies in fact.’….’Organize!’ Lewis shouted, and his voice echoed from the beams of the armory. ‘Organize!’ he said, pounding the speaking pulpit until it jumped. ‘Organize! Go to Goodyear and tell them you want some of those stock dividends. Say, So we’re supposed to be partners, are we? Well, we’re no. We’re enemies.‘” (Page 134, Emphasis is Alinsky’s)
The next question was about my response to a bitter personal denunciation of me from W. Allen Wallis, the president of the University of Rochester and a present director of Eastman Kodak. He has been the head of the Department of Business Administration, formerly, at the University of Chicago. He was at the university when it was locked in bitter warfare with the black organization in Woodlawn. “Wallis?” I replied. “Which one are you talking about- Wallace of Alabama, or Wallis of Rochester – but I guess there isn’t any difference, so what was your question?” This reply (1) introduced an element of ridicule and (2) it ended any further attacks from the president of the University of Rochester, who began to suspect that he was going to be shafted with razors, and that an encounter with me or with my associates was not going to be an academic dialogue.” (Page 137)
Alinsky, in the quote above, is making a reference to Alabama Governor George Wallace. Wallace was a staunch racist who aided Police Cheif Eugene Connor in loosing police dogs and fire hoses on black protesters demonstrating for an end to segregation in Birmingham, Alabama at the height of the civil rights struggle in the 60′s. Coverage of Wallace’s actions helped galvanize the nation against racism and segregation, as it should have. Alinsky compares the president of the University of Rochester to Wallace because the two happen to have last names that are pronounced the same, and because Alinksy was trying to stir up racial tension in order to get Kodak to allow a labor union.
The resources of the Have-Nots are (1) no money and (2) lots of people. All right, let’s start from there. People can show their power by voting. What else? Well, they have physical bodies. How can they use them? now a melange of ideas begins to appear. Use the power of the law by making the establishment obey its own rules. Go outside the experience of the enemy, stay inside the experience of your people. Emphasize tactics that your people will enjoy. The threat is usually more terrifying than the tactic itself. Once all these rules and principles are festering in your imagination they grow into a synthesis. I suggested we might buy one hundred seats for one of Rochester’s symphony concerts. We would select a concert in which the music was relatively quiet. The hundred blacks who would be given the tickets would first be treated to a three-hour pre-concert dinner in the community, in which they would be fed nothing but backed beans, and lots of them; then the people would go to the symphony hall- with obvious consequences. Imagine the scene when the action began! (Page 138)
The reaction of the blacks in the ghetto- their laughter when the tactic was proposed- made it clear that the tactic, at least in fantasy, was within their experience. it connected with their hatred of Whitey. The one thing that all oppressed people want to do to their oppressors is shit on them. Here was an approximate way to do this.” (Page 140)
“O’Hare Airport became the target….You decide to wait until after landing to use the facilities in the terminal….the tactic becomes obvious- we tie up the lavatories. In the restrooms you drop a dime, enter, push the lock on the door- and you can stay there all day….the ladies’ restrooms could be occupied completely; the only problem in the men’s lavatories would be the stand-up urinals. This, too, could be taken care of, by having groups busy themselves around the airport and then move in on the stand-up urinals to line up four or five deep whenever a flight arrived….the nation’s first “shit-in”….One can see children yelling at their parents, “Mommy, I’ve got to go,” and desperate mothers surrendering, “All right- well, do it. Do it right here.” O’Hare would soon become a shambles. The whole scene would become unbelievable and the laughter and ridicule would be nationwide.” (Page 142)
The two tactics above were never utilized but they give further insight into how Alinksy’s mind worked.
With the universal principle that the right things are always done for the wrong reasons and the tactical rule that negatives becomes positives, we can understand the following examples….’I was lecturing at a college run by a very conservative, almost fundamentalist Protestant denomination. Afterward some of the students came to my motel to talk to me. Their problem was that they couldn’t have any fun on campus. They weren’t permitted to dance or smoke or have a can of beer…I said, “Fine. Gum becomes the weapon. You get two or three hundred students to get two packs of gum each, which is quite a wad. Then you have them drop it on the campus walks. This will cause absolute chaos.”‘ (Page 144)
According to Alinsky the above tactic worked; the campus gave in and loosened its standards.
The middle class, too, must learn the nature of the enemy and be able to practice what I have described as mass jujitsu, utilizing the power of the one part of the power structure against the other part. (Page 148)
The Haves possess and in turn are possessed by power. Obsessed with the fear of losing power, their every move is dictated by the idea of keeping it….This opens a new vista- not only do we have a whole class determined to keep its power and in constant conflict with the Have-Nots; at the same time, they are in conflict among themselves….Here is the vulnerable belly of the status quo. (Page 149)
The internecine struggle among the Haves for their individual self-interest is as shortsighted as the internecine struggle among the Have-Nots. I have on occasion remarked that I feel confident that I could persuade a millionaire on a Friday to subsidize a revolution for Saturday out of which he would make a huge profit on Sunday even though he was certain to be executed on Monday. (Page 150)
Alinksy’s comment above is the same in principle as the quote by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union: “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”
Click here to continue on to Marxism, the heart of Community Organization: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals Part 5
