Comments Sam has made

  • Give me a break

    Give me a break, Green Mountain Boy-- Do you really think the organizers that dedicate their lives to protecting the environment at the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, PIRG & Clean Water Action have never read Alinsky?  Do you really think they don't want to get people more involved?  

    1.  Of course, it's a substantive form of organizing.  Money means staff, materials, research, lobbying- take away the member support of these organizations and there goes their work and their politcal power.  When a person gives money it helps build a connection (didn't you notice this on the Dean campaign?)  It's a deeply politcal act, and incredibly powerful.  Do you understand that politicans care about this?  That they listen to environmental groups at all because they represent people who care enough to actually give a contribution.    

    2.  The act of talking to people about problems, policy, politics and what they can do about it is accomplished on the most basic personal level-- face to face.  Bypassing the corporate media filter, and allowing for a 2 way conversation.  

    3.  Another important Alinsky principle is to organize people where they're at.  When organizing college students it makes sense to ask for their time. When organizing suburban home owners with jobs and kids it makes sense to ask them for their money.  

    4.  If people have time they're more than welcome to give it- The only thing that could possibly disenfranchise people is an inexperienced canvasser not knowing (the example in the first comment about the call from the DNC) the other ways for people to get involved. I wish people would stop thinking of these young organizers as service providers who have to have all the answers or they're useless.  What a lame message to send to them!  Nutella- Why not go to the DNC website yourself, or contact them yourself?  Why are you waiting at home for someone to ask you to do something?  All of these groups offer activist/volunteer opportunities to their members.  Local chapters, citizen advocacy, attending rallies, letter writing, phone calls, house parties, petitioning, citizen canvasses, lte's, etc.  And most canvassers should be asking.    

    5.  And, of course, money doesn't grow on trees.  Without paying for themselves through fundraising- none of these groups could either afford to hire students or afford to do much of the work they're doing now.  

    Frankly, I think it's callow, and a little country club liberal, to suggest that canvassing for money is somehow a less pure or ineffective form of organizing.  

    I would argue that it's about the only thing the environmental movement is doing right.    On Why green-group canvassing operations need an overhaul posted 3 years, 6 months ago 28 Responses

  • Raising money is Organizing

    If knocking on your fellow citizens doors and asking them to make a financial commitment to an issue isn't important work- I don't know what is.  

    Money is important.  Money shows that people care.   And, money pays for students to spend their summers organizing.  

    Raising money is organizing.  

    Would Nathan prefer that organizations depend on foundations, super wealthy individuals or corporations for their support?  How would groups pay these summer employees if fundraising wasn't a part of their job?  And if they couldn't pay them, wouldn't that limit these jobs to the children of the wealthy? (How much is that Brown Univ. tuition?)  

    If groups didn't depend on regular individuals for support, and instead relied on the super-wealthy, who would they be beholden to?

    The importance, and possibility, of raising money from small donors has been a major lesson of the MoveOn, Dean campaign, etc.  

    It strikes me that too many people, including this Ivy League student, think asking for money is beneath them.  It's not- Karl Rove knows this, Ken Mehlman knows this, the Republican party knows this- Will environmentalists learn this someday too?      On Why green-group canvassing operations need an overhaul posted 3 years, 6 months ago 28 Responses