The Trump years witnessed a continuous attack on public lands, from opening them to drilling and logging, pardoning militia types convicted for attacking land managers, awarding sweetheart leases to insiders and restricting public’s knowledge of proposed projects. If all three branches of government come under Republican control these efforts may prove to be just prelude […]
– Bob Marshall’s Long-Lost Arguments For Wilderness Read More »
From Organize to Win Vol 1 by Jim Britell “… kids don’t have a little brother working in the coal mine, (or) a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized… Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management… they were fought
– In 1972 Alinsky explained why a Trump would rise in the US and how to defeat him Read More »
Most campaigns Today don’t do any of the things successful grassroots leaders of the past said you must always do, while doing all the things they said you mustn’t. In the last 125 years, American grassroots campaigns have forced legislatures to pass laws on women’s suffrage, social security, civil rights, wilderness, clean air and clean
– Why Some Grassroots Campaigns Succeed And Others Fail Read More »
Never overestimate the knowledge, intelligence, or courage of elected representatives.
– Misconceptions About Lobbying Representatives and Agencies Read More »
A grassroots campaign against a powerful foe is a battle where your best source of ammunition is data you weaponize into persuasive information, and the simplest way to collect, organize and mobilize data is to put it in a case file created specifically for the issue. Opening a file means simply starting a new electronic
– Prerequisite to Grassroots Campaigns Facing Impossible Odds Read More »
When the laws regulating forest practices, endangered species, clean air and water were put on the books, it was well before the 1990s when our society became enthralled with neoliberalism that elevated economic utility and job creation above all in matters of public policy. Public resource managers now face local political pressure to base every
– The Problem With Partnerships And Roundtables Read More »
In 2002, a new method of organizing was used by 20 organizations in a rural area of southwest Oregon to successfully confront an ATV threat in an area where no national, regional or local group had enough members to do much by itself. The nature of the campaign required numbers of people to turn out
– “Zone Defense” A New Way To Stop ATV’s In Wildernesses Read More »
The first grassroots campaign to preserve roadless wilderness pioneered innovative tactics, methods and strategies, now abandoned, that must be relearned if future such campaigns are to succeed. The unsurpassed exemplar of effective grassroots organizing is the 1940s campaign that blocked the building of a dam in the Adirondacks of New York. The campaign created a
– The Golden Age of Grassroots Wilderness Political Organizing: The Black River Dam Wars Read More »
(Preview of a chapter from volume one of Organize to Win Shortly before becoming a wilderness activist, I retired as a federal manager. During my 25-year career in government service, I was responsible for resolving turf conflicts within agencies, oversaw the evaluation of managers and supervisors, and conducted scores of audits of local and regional
– Secrets of Dealing With Public Employees Read More »
For 50 years the environmental movement has depended on laws and regulations from the 1970’s enforced by lawyers and judges to achieve its goals. But since Trump’s election, the regulations, processes, courtesies, assumptions and norms undergirding America’s approach to the environment have been systematically discarded, reversed and dismantled. Accordingly, grassroots organizing will have to evolve
– Lessons From America’s Greatest Grassroots Campaigns Read More »