Green for All in the NYT

Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 March 2008 01:58 Written by Steve Wednesday, 26 March 2008 01:58

The Times has a nice article about the green economy that prominently features Van Jones of Green for All, great folks who will soon be getting a new Plone site and Salesforce.com database from ONE/Northwest. From the article:

Green jobs are especially good “because they cannot be easily outsourced, say, to Asia,” said Van Jones, president of Green for All, an organization based in Oakland, Calif., whose goal is promoting renewable energy and lifting workers out of poverty. “If we are going to weatherize buildings, they have to be weatherized here,” he said. “If you put up solar panels, you can’t ship a building to Asia and have them put the solar panels on and ship it back. These jobs have to be done in the United States.”

Van Jones is really at the center of the green jobs movement, which is fabulous because he deeply understands what is at stake here and conveys the message well. Their focus on green jobs as a pathway out of poverty resonates with me, and I’m excited to see the massive demand for Van and Green for All from people who feel the same way. Although, I do feel for the staff as they deal with these insane demand levels. Hopefully their new Salesforce.com database can help with that overload, although I think what they could really use is about 6 more hours in every day!

Changing the Mindset

Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 March 2008 09:30 Written by Steve Wednesday, 26 March 2008 09:30

A lot of the conversations we have at work revolve around making change in the world. Fundamental change at the societal level that will bring about our vision of a world in harmony with the environment. Many in the environmental movement are Obama supporters, and a good part of that is because Obama is the only candidate talking about fundamental change. Clinton surely would be a change from the last 7 years, but she’s not talking about change in the same way.

There is an amazing article by Spencer Ackerman about what an Obama administration’s foreign policy might look like. I came across it via Paul Rosenberg’s strong analysis at Open Left.

On reading this article, I’m left with an overwhelming optimism about what America’s role in the world could be. To have a candidate talking in deep, substantive, and cohesive ways about focusing our foreign policy on the betterment of others in the world is a bit mind-blowing. I really look forward to an Obama-McCain debate on foreign policy because I really think it will make the choice between the past mindset and a forward-looking, more progressive mindset that I think most Americans will find compelling when they hear about it.

The short of it is that Obama isn’t just talking about change. Read the article and you’ll see what I mean. He will change things, fundamentally. And this is why progressives love him even though he doesn’t advocate for a Department of Peace in his cabinet, or single-payer health care.

What isn’t Organizing?

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 March 2008 01:19 Written by Steve Tuesday, 25 March 2008 01:19

I ran across a great article by educationaction on openleft.com that described Community Organizing by calling out what isn’t Community Organizing.

I’ve been writing about community organizing, but I haven’t been clear about exactly what I mean by this. There is no single effective model of “community organizing.” Currently, however, the approach Saul Alinsky developed in the 1930s on the back streets of Chicago has become dominant in America-for good or ill. I call the current version of this model “post-Alinsky” since it has been significantly developed and changed by people like Ed Chambers, Ernie Cortes, Heather Booth, and others who came after Alinsky. More on the flip. See http://educationaction.org” for more.

What is Post-Alinsky organizing?

1. Community organizing creates durable institutions to give relatively powerless individuals a collective voice.
2. “Organizers” facilitate and guide these groups from the background while “leaders” give voice to the larger mass of members.
3. Community organizing seeks to generate POWER over the long term.
4. Inside organizing groups, power is collaborative–the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Externally, power is seen as a “zero-sum” game.

So what isn’t Organizing?

• Activism
• Mobilizing
• Legal Action
• Advocacy
• Pulling Yourself Up By Your Own Bootstraps
• Direct Service
• Community Governance of Service Organizations
• Facilitated Nonpartisan Dialogues About Community Problems
• Lifestyle Changes

The point isn’t that these activities aren’t worthwhile, it’s just that they don’t meet the criteria laid out above. I know I’ve been guilty of calling some of these things organizing. For detailed description of all these things that aren’t organizing, check out the full article.