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1Rules for Radicals 
2
3
4
5RULES 
6
7FOR 
8
9RADICALS 
10
11A Practical Primer for Realistic 
12Radicals 
13
14SAUL D. ALINSKY 
15
16
17
18RANDOM HOUSE 
19New York 
20
21
22
23Acknowledgments 
24
25This chapter "Of Means and Ends" was presented in the Auburn Lecture Series at Union 
26Theological Seminary. Some of the other sections of this book were delivered in part in 
27lectures before the Leaders of America series at the California Institute of Technology in 
28Pasadena, California; Yale Political Union, New Haven, Connecticut, April, 1970; The 
29Willis D. Wood Fellowship Lecture, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, May, 
301969; American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., 1968; U.S. Chamber of 
31Commerce, Washington, D.C.; March, 1968; A.F. of L.-C.I.O. Labor Press Association, 
32Miami, Florida, December, 1967; American Whig-Cliosophic Society, Princeton 
33University, Princeton, New Jersey, 1967; Centennial Address, Episcopal Theological 
34Seminary, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1968; Harvard Medical Conference, Cambridge, 
35Massachusetts, 1969. 
36
3710987654 
38
39Copyright © 1971 by Saul D. Alinsky 
40
41All rights reserved under International and 
42
43Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by 
44
45Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously 
46
47in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. 
48
49ISBN: 0-394-44341-1 
50
51Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-117651 
52
53
54
55"On the Importance of Being Unprincipled," by John Herman Randall, Jr., is reprinted by 
56
57permission of the publishers from The American Scholar, Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 
58
591938. 
60
61Copyright 1938 by the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. 
62
63A Selection from Industrial Valley, by Ruth McKenney, is reprinted by permission of 
64Curtis Brown Ltd. Copyright © 1939 by Ruth McKenney 
65
66Manufactured in the United States of America by The Haddon Craftsmen 
67
68
69
70Personal Acknowledgments 
71
72To Jason Epstein for his prodding, patience and understanding, and for 
73being a beautiful editor. 
74
75To Cicely Nichols for the hours of painstaking editorial assistance. 
76
77To Susan Rabiner for being the shock absorber between the corporate 
78structure of Random House and this writer. 
79
80To Georgia Harper my heartfelt gratitude for the months of typing and 
81typing and for staying with me through the years of getting this book 
82together. 
83
84To Irene 
85
86
87
88'Where there are no men, be thou a man. " 
89
90—RABBI HILLEL 
91
92"Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I 
93should suffer the misery ofde vils, were I to make a whore of my soul. . . " 
94
95—THOMAS PAINE 
96
97Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very 
98first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to 
99know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), 
100the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and 
101did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer. 
102
103—SAUL ALINSKY 
104
105
106
107Contents 
108
109
110
111Prologue xiii 
112
113The Purpose 3 
114
115Of Means and Ends 24 
116
117A Word About Words 48 
118
119The Education of an Organizer 63 
120
121Communication 81 
122
123In the Beginning 98 
124
125Tactics 1 25 
126
127777e Genesis of Tactic Proxy 1 65 
128
129The Way Ahead 184 
130
131
132
133Prologue 
134
135
136
137THE REVOLUTIONARY FORCE today has two targets, moral as well as 
138material. Its young protagonists are one moment reminiscent of the 
139idealistic early Christians, yet they also urge violence and cry, "Burn the 
140system down!" They have no illusions about the system, but plenty of 
141illusions about the way to change our world. It is to this point that I have 
142written this book. These words are written in desperation, partly because it 
143is what they do and will do that will give meaning to what I and the radicals 
144of my generation have done with our lives. 
145
146They are now the vanguard, and they had to start almost from scratch. 
147Few of us survived the Joe McCarthy holocaust of the early 1950s and of 
148those there were even fewer whose understanding and insights had 
149developed beyond the dialectical materialism of orthodox Marxism. My 
150fellow radicals who were supposed to pass on the torch of experience and 
151insights to a new genera- 
152Prologue xiv 
153
154tion just were not there. As the young looked at the society around them, it 
155was all, in their words, "materialistic, decadent, bourgeois in its values, 
156bankrupt and violent." Is it any wonder that they rejected us in toto. 
157
158Today's generation is desperately trying to make some sense out of their 
159lives and out of the world. Most of them are products of the middle class. 
160They have rejected their materialistic backgrounds, the goal of a well-paid 
161job, suburban home, automobile, country club membership, first-class 
162travel, status, security, and everything that meant success to their parents. 
163They have had it. They watched it lead their parents to tranquilizers, 
164
165
166
167alcohol, long-term-endurance marriages, or divorces, high blood pressure, 
168ulcers, frustration, and the disillusionment of "the good life." They have 
169seen the almost unbelievable idiocy of our political leadership — in the past 
170political leaders, ranging from the mayors to governors to the White 
171House, were regarded with respect and almost reverence; today they are 
172viewed with contempt. This negativism now extends to all institutions, from 
173the police and the courts to "the system" itself. We are living in a world of 
174mass media which daily exposes society's innate hypocrisy, its 
175contradictions and the apparent failure of almost every facet of our social 
176and political life. The young have seen their "activist" participatory 
177democracy turn into its antithesis — nihilistic bombing and murder. The 
178political panaceas of the past, such as the revolutions in Russia and 
179China, have become the same old stuff under a different name. The 
180search for freedom does not seem to have any road or destination. The 
181young are inundated with a barrage of information and facts so 
182overwhelming that the world has come to seem an utter bedlam, which 
183has them spinning in a frenzy, looking for what man has always 
184
185Prologue xv 
186
187looked for from the beginning of time, a way of life that has some meaning 
188or sense. A way of life means a certain degree of order where things have 
189some relationship and can be pieced together into a system that at least 
190provides some clues to what life is about. Men have always yearned for 
191and sought direction by setting up religions, inventing political 
192philosophies, creating scientific systems like Newton's, or formulating 
193ideologies of various kinds. This is what is behind the common cliche, 
194"getting it all together" — despite the realization that all values and factors 
195are relative, fluid, and changing, and that it will be possible to "get it all 
196together" only relatively. The elements will shift and move together just like 
197the changing pattern in a turning kaleidoscope. 
198
199
200
201In the past the "world," whether in its physical or intellectual terms, was 
202much smaller, simpler, and more orderly. It inspired credibility. Today 
203everything is so complex as to be incomprehensible. What sense does it 
204make for men to walk on the moon while other men are waiting on welfare 
205lines, or in Vietnam killing and dying for a corrupt dictatorship in the name 
206of freedom? These are the days when man has his hands on the sublime 
207while he is up to his hips in the muck of madness. The establishment in 
208many ways is as suicidal as some of the far left, except that they are 
209infinitely more destructive than the far left can ever be. The outcome of the 
210hopelessness and despair is morbidity. There is a feeling of death hanging 
211over the nation. 
212
213Today's generation faces all this and says, "I don't want to spend my life 
214the way my family and their friends have. I want to do something, to 
215create, to be me, to 'do my own thing,' to live. The older generation doesn't 
216understand and worse doesn't want to. I don't want to be just a 
217
218Prologue xvi 
219
220piece of data to be fed into a computer or a statistic in a public opinion 
221poll, just a voter carrying a credit card." To the young the world seems 
222insane and falling apart. 
223
224On the other side is the older generation, whose members are no less 
225confused. If they are not as vocal or conscious, it may be because they 
226can escape to a past when the world was simpler. They can still cling to 
227the old values in the simple hope that everything will work out somehow, 
228some way. That the younger generation will "straighten out" with the 
229passing of time. Unable to come to grips with the world as it is, they retreat 
230in any confrontation with the younger generation with that infuriating 
231cliche, "when you get older you'll understand. "One wonders at their 
232reaction if some youngster were to reply, "When you get youngerwh\ch 
233
234
235
236will never be then you'll understand, so of course you'll never understand." 
237Those of the older generation who claim a desire to understand say, 
238"When I talk to my kids or their friends I'll say to them, 'Look, I believe what 
239you have to tell me is important and I respect it. You call me a square and 
240say that Tm not with it' or I don't know where it's at' or I don't know where 
241the scene is' and all of the rest of the words you use. Well, I'm going to 
242agree with you. So suppose you tell me. What do you want? What do you 
243mean when you say 'I want to do my thing.' What the hell is your thing? 
244You say you want a better world. Like what? And don't tell me a world of 
245peace and love and all the rest of that stuff because people are people, as 
246you will find out when you get older — I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say 
247anything about 'when you get older.' I really do respect what you have to 
248say. Now why don't you answer me? Do you know what you want? Do you 
249know what you're talking about? Why can't we get together?' " 
250
251Prologue xvii 
252
253And that is what we call the generation gap. 
254
255What the present generation wants is what all generations have always 
256wanted — a meaning, a sense of what the world and life are — a chance to 
257strive for some sort of order. 
258
259If the young were now writing our Declaration of Independence they would 
260begin, "When in the course of inhuman events . . ." and their bill of 
261particulars would range from Vietnam to our black, Chicano, and Puerto 
262Rican ghettos, to the migrant workers, to Appalachia, to the hate, 
263ignorance, disease, and starvation in the world. Such a bill of particulars 
264would emphasize the absurdity of human affairs and the forlornness and 
265emptiness, the fearful loneliness that comes from not knowing if there is 
266any meaning to our lives. 
267
268
269
270When they talk of values they're asking for a reason. They are searching 
271for an answer, at least for a time, to man's greatest question, "Why am I 
272here?" 
273
274The young react to their chaotic world in different ways. Some panic and 
275run, rationalizing. that the system is going to collapse anyway of its own rot 
276and corruption and so they're copping out, going hippie or yippie, taking 
277drugs, trying communes, anything to escape. Others went for pointless 
278sure-loser confrontations so that they could fortify their rationalization and 
279say, "Well, we tried and did our part" and then they copped out too. Others 
280sick with guilt and not knowing where to turn or what to do went berserk. 
281These were the Weathermen and their like: they took the grand cop-out, 
282suicide. To these I have nothing to say or give but pity — and in some 
283cases contempt, for such as those who leave their dead comrades and 
284take off for Algeria or other points. 
285
286What I have to say in this book is not the arrogance 
287
288Prologue xvm 
289
290of unsolicited advice. It is the experience and counsel that so many young 
291people have questioned me about through all-night sessions on hundreds 
292of campuses in America. It is for those young radicals who are committed 
293to the fight, committed to life. 
294
295Remember we are talking about revolution, not revelation; you can miss 
296the target by shooting too high as well as too low. First, there are no rules 
297for revolution any more than there are rules for love or rules for happiness, 
298butthere are rules for radicals who want to change their world; there are 
299certain central concepts of action in human politics that operate regardless 
300of the scene or the time. To know these is basic to a pragmatic attack on 
301the system. These rules make the difference between being a realistic 
302radical and being a rhetorical one who uses the tired old words and 
303
304
305
306slogans, calls the police "pig" or "white fascist racist" or "motherfucker" 
307and has so stereotyped himself that others react by saying, "Oh, he's one 
308of those," and then promptly turn off. 
309
310This failure of many of our younger activists to understand the art of 
311communication has been disastrous. Even the most elementary grasp of 
312the fundamental idea that one communicates within the experience of his 
313audience — and gives full respect to the other's values — would have ruled 
314out attacks on the American flag. The responsible organizer would have 
315known that it is the establishment that has betrayed the flag while the flag, 
316itself, remains the glorious symbol of America's hopes and aspirations, 
317and he would have conveyed this message to his audience. On another 
318level of communication, humor is essential, for through humor much is 
319accepted that would have been rejected if presented seriously. This is a 
320sad and lonely generation. It laughs too little, and this, too, is tragic. 
321
322Prologue xix 
323
324For the real radical, doing "his thing" is to do the social thing, for and with 
325people. In a world where everything is so interrelated that one feels 
326helpless to know where or how to grab hold and act, defeat sets in; for 
327years there have been people who've found society too overwhelming and 
328have withdrawn, concentrated on "doing their own thing." Generally we 
329have put them into mental hospitals and diagnosed them as 
330schizophrenics. If the real radical finds that having long hair sets up 
331psychological barriers to communication and organization, he cuts his hair. 
332If I were organizing in an orthodox Jewish community I would not walk in 
333there eating a ham sandwich, unless I wanted to be rejected so I could 
334have an excuse to cop out. My "thing," if I want to organize, is solid 
335communication with the people in the community. Lacking communication 
336I am in reality silent; throughout history silence has been regarded as 
337assent — in this case assent to the system. 
338
339
340
341As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like 
342it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken 
343our desire to change it into what we believe it should be — it is necessary to 
344begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it 
345should be. That means working in the system. 
346
347There's another reason for working inside the system. Dostoevski said that 
348taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change 
349must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude 
350toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so 
351frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that 
352they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future. This 
353acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. To bring on this 
354reformation re- 
355Prologue XX 
356
357quires that the organizer work inside the system, among not only the 
358middle class but the 40 per cent of American families — more than seventy 
359million people — whose incomes range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year. 
360They cannot be dismissed by labeling them blue collar or hard hat. They 
361will not continue to be relatively passive and slightly challenging. If we fail 
362to communicate with them, if we don't encourage them to form alliances 
363with us, they will move to the right. Maybe they will anyway, but let's not let 
364it happen by default. 
365
366Our youth are impatient with the preliminaries that are essential to 
367purposeful action. Effective organization is thwarted by the desire for 
368instant and dramatic change, or as I have phrased it elsewhere the 
369demand for revelation rather than revolution. It's the kind of thing we see in 
370play writing; the first act introduces the characters and the plot, in the 
371second act the plot and characters are developed as the play strives to 
372
373
374
375hold the audience's attention. In the final act good and evil have their 
376dramatic confrontation and resolution. The present generation wants to go 
377right into the third act, skipping the first two, in which case there is no play, 
378nothing but confrontation for confrontation's sake — a flare-up and back to 
379darkness. To build a powerful organization takes time. It is tedious, but 
380that's the way the game is played — if you want to play and not just yell, 
381"Kill the umpire." 
382
383What is the alternative to working "inside" the system? A mess of 
384rhetorical garbage about "Burn the system down!" Yippie yells of "Do it!" or 
385"Do your thing." What else? Bombs? Sniping? Silence when police are 
386killed and screams of "murdering fascist pigs" when others are killed? 
387Attacking and baiting the police? Public suicide? "Power comes out of the 
388barrel of a gun!" is an absurd rallying cry 
389
390Prologue xxi 
391
392when the other side has all the guns. Lenin was a pragmatist; when he 
393returned to what was then Petrograd from exile, he said that the 
394Bolsheviks stood for getting power through the ballot but would reconsider 
395after they got the guns! Militant mouthings? Spouting quotes from Mao, 
396Castro, and Che Guevara, which are as germane to our highly 
397technological, computerized, cybernetic, nuclear-powered, mass media 
398society as a stagecoach on a jet runway at Kennedy airport? 
399
400Let us in the name of radical pragmatism not forget that in our system with 
401all its repressions we can still speak out and denounce the administration, 
402attack its policies, work to build an opposition political base. True, there is 
403government harassment, but there still is that relative freedom to fight. I 
404can attack my government, try to organize to change it. That's more than I 
405can do in Moscow, Peking, or Havana. Remember the reaction of the Red 
406Guard to the "cultural revolution" and the fate of the Chinese college 
407
408
409
410students. Just a few of the violent episodes of bombings or a courtroom 
411shootout that we have experienced here would have resulted in a 
412sweeping purge and mass executions in Russia, China, or Cuba. Let's 
413keep some perspective. 
414
415We will start with the system because there is no other place to start from 
416except political lunacy. It is most important for those of us who want 
417revolutionary change to understand that revolution must be preceded by 
418reformation. To assume that a political revolution can survive without the 
419supporting base of a popular reformation is to ask for the impossible in 
420politics. 
421
422Men don't like to step abruptly out of the security of familiar experience; 
423they need a bridge to cross from their own experience to a new way. A 
424revolutionary organizer 
425
426Prologue xxii 
427
428must shake up the prevailing patterns of their lives — agitate, create 
429disenchantment and discontent with the current values, to produce, if not a 
430passion for change, at least a passive, affirmative, non-challenging 
431climate. 
432
433"The Revolution was effected before the war commenced," John Adams 
434wrote. "The Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the people . . . This 
435radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments and affections of the 
436people was the real American Revolution." A revolution without a prior 
437reformation would collapse or become a totalitarian tyranny. 
438
439A reformation means that masses of our people have reached the point of 
440disillusionment with past ways and values. They don't know what will work 
441but they do know that the prevailing system is self-defeating, frustrating, 
442
443
444
445and hopeless. They won't act for change but won't strongly oppose those 
446who do. The time is then ripe for revolution. 
447
448Those who, for whatever combination of reasons, encourage the opposite 
449of reformation, become the unwitting allies of the far political right. Parts of 
450the far left have gone so far in the political circle that they are now all but 
451indistinguishable from the extreme right. It reminds me of the days when 
452Hitler, new on the scene, was excused for his actions by "humanitarians" 
453on the grounds of a paternal rejection and childhood trauma. When there 
454are people who espouse the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy or 
455the Tate murders or the Marin County Courthouse kidnapping and killings 
456or the University of Wisconsin bombing and killing as "revolutionary acts," 
457then we are dealing with people who are merely hiding psychosis behind a 
458political mask. The masses of people recoil with horror and say, "Our way 
459is bad and we were willing to let it change, but certainly not for this 
460murderous madness — no matter 
461
462Prologue xxiii 
463
464how bad things are now, they are better than that." So they begin to turn 
465back. They regress into acceptance of a coming massive repression in the 
466name of "law and order." 
467
468In the midst of the gassing and violence by the Chicago Police and 
469National Guard during the 1968 Democratic Convention many students 
470asked me, "Do you still believe we should try to work inside our system?" 
471
472These were students who had been with Eugene McCarthy in New 
473Hampshire and followed him across the country. Some had been with 
474Robert Kennedy when he was killed in Los Angeles. Many of the tears that 
475were shed in Chicago were not from gas. "Mr. Alinsky, we fought in 
476primary after primary and the people voted noov\ Vietnam. Look at that 
477
478
479
480convention. They're not paying any attention to the vote. Look at your 
481police and the army. You still want us to work in the system?" 
482
483It hurt me to see the American army with drawn bayonets advancing on 
484American boys and girls. But the answer I gave the young radicals 
485seemed to me the only realistic one: "Do one of three things. One, go find 
486a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start 
487bombing — but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a 
488lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you 
489be the delegates. " 
490
491Remember: once you organize people around something as commonly 
492agreed upon as pollution, then an organized people is on the move. From 
493there it's a short and natural step to political pollution, to Pentagon 
494pollution. 
495
496It is not enough just to elect your candidates. You must keep the pressure 
497on. Radicals should keep in mind Franklin D. Roosevelt's response to a 
498reform delegation, "Okay, you've convinced me. Now go on out and bring 
499pressure on me!" Action comes from keeping the heat on. 
500
501Prologue xxiv 
502
503No politician can sit on a hot issue if you make it hot enough. 
504
505As for Vietnam, I would like to see our nation be the first in the history of 
506man to publicly say, "We were wrong! What we did was horrible. We got in 
507and kept getting in deeper and deeper and at every step we invented new 
508reasons for staying. We have paid part of the price in 44,000 dead 
509Americans. There is nothing we can ever do to make it up to the people of 
510Indo-China — or to our own people — but we will try. We believe that our 
511world has come of age so that it is no longer a sign of weakness or defeat 
512to abandon a childish pride and vanity, to admit we were wrong." Such an 
513
514
515
516admission would shake up the foreign policy concepts of all nations and 
517open the door to a new international order. This is our alternative to 
518Vietnam — anything else is the old makeshift patchwork. If this were to 
519happen, Vietnam may even have been somewhat worth it. 
520
521A final word on our system. The democratic ideal springs from the ideas of 
522liberty, equality, majority rule through free elections, protection of the rights 
523of minorities, and freedom to subscribe to multiple loyalties in matters of 
524religion, economics, and politics rather than to a total loyalty to the state. 
525The spirit of democracy is the idea of importance and worth in the 
526individual, and faith in the kind of world where the individual can achieve 
527as much of his potential as possible. 
528
529Great dangers always accompany great opportunities. The possibility of 
530destruction is always implicit in the act of creation. Thus the greatest 
531enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself. 
532
533From the beginning the weakness as well as the strength of the 
534democratic ideal has been the people. 
535
536Prologue xxv 
537
538People cannot be free unless they are willing to sacrifice some of their 
539interests to guarantee the freedom of others. The price of democracy is 
540the ongoing pursuit of the common good by all of the people. One hundred 
541and thirty-five years ago Tocqueville* gravely warned that unless individual 
542citizens were regularly involved in the action of governing themselves, 
543self-government would pass from the scene. Citizen participation is the 
544animating spirit and force in a society predicated on voluntarism. 
545
546We are not here concerned with people who profess the democratic faith 
547but yearn for the dark security of dependency where they can be spared 
548the burden of decisions. Reluctant to grow up, or incapable of doing so, 
549
550
551
552they want to remain children and be cared for by others. Those who can, 
553should be encouraged to grow; for the others, the fault lies not in the 
554system but in themselves. 
555
556Here we are desperately concerned with the vast mass of our people who, 
557thwarted through lack of interest or opportunity, or both, do not participate 
558in the endless re- 
559
560* "It must not be forgotten that it is especially dangerous to enslave men in the minor 
561details of life. For my own part, I should be inclined to think freedom less necessary in 
562great things than in little ones, if it were possible to be secure of the one without 
563possessing the other. 
564
565"Subjection in minor affairs breaks out every day, and is felt by the whole community 
566indiscriminately. It does not drive men to resistance, but it crosses them at every turn, till 
567they are led to surrender the exercise of their will. Thus their spirit is gradually broken and 
568their character enervated; whereas that obedience, which is exacted on a few important 
569but rare occasions, only exhibits servitude at certain intervals, and throws the burden of it 
570upon a small number of men. It is vain to summon a people, which has been rendered so 
571dependent on the central power, to choose from time to time the representatives of that 
572power; this rare and brief exercise of their free choice, however, important it may be, will 
573not prevent them from gradually losing the faculties of thinking, feeling, and acting for 
574themselves, and thus gradually falling below the level of humanity." 
575
576— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America 
577
578Prologue xxvi 
579
580sponsibilities of citizenship and are resigned to lives determined by others. 
581To lose your "identity" as a citizen of democracy is but a step from losing 
582your identity as a person. People react to this frustration by not acting at 
583all. The separation of the people from the routine daily functions of 
584citizenship is heartbreak in a democracy. 
585
586It is a grave situation when a people resign their citizenship or when a 
587resident of a great city, though he may desire to take a hand, lacks the 
588
589
590
591means to participate. That citizen sinks further into apathy, anonymity, and 
592depersonalization. The result is that he comes to depend on public 
593authority and a state of civic-sclerosis sets in. 
594
595From time to time there have been external enemies at our gates; there 
596has always been the enemy within, the hidden and malignant inertia that 
597foreshadows more certain destruction to our life and future than any 
598nuclear warhead. There can be no darker or more devastating tragedy 
599than the death of man's faith in himself and in his power to direct his 
600future. 
601
602I salute the present generation. Hang on to one of your most precious 
603parts of youth, laughter — don't lose it as many of you seem to have done, 
604you need it. Together we may find some of what we're looking for — 
605laughter, beauty, love, and the chance to create. 
606
607Saul Alinsky 
608
609
610
611The Purpose 
612
613
614
615The life of man upon earth is a warfare... 
616
617—Job 7:1 
618
619WHAT FOLLOWS IS for those who want to change the world from what it 
620is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli 
621for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the 
622Have-Nots on how to take it away. 
623
624In this book we are concerned with how to create mass organizations to 
625seize power and give it to the people; to realize the democratic dream of 
626equality, justice, peace, cooperation, equal and full opportunities for 
627education, full and useful employment, health, and the creation of those 
628circumstances in which man can have the chance to live by values that 
629give meaning to life. We are talking about a mass power organization 
630which will change the world into a place where all men and women walk 
631erect, in the spirit of that credo of the Spanish Civil War, "Better to die on 
632your feet than to live on your knees." This means revolution. 
633
634The significant changes in history have been made by revolutions. There 
635are people who say that it is not revolution, but evolution, that brings about 
636change — but evolution is simply the term used by nonparticipants to 
637denote a 
638
639Rules for Radicals 4 
640
641particular sequence of revolutions as they synthesized into a specific 
642major social change. In this book I propose certain general observations, 
643propositions, and concepts of the mechanics of mass movements and the 
644
645
646
647various stages of the cycle of action and reaction in revolution. This is not 
648an ideological book except insofar as argument for change, rather than for 
649the status quo, can be called an ideology; different people, in different 
650places, in different situations and different times will construct their own 
651solutions and symbols of salvation for those times. This book will not 
652contain any panacea or dogma; I detest and fear dogma. I know that all 
653revolutions must have ideologies to spur them on. That in the heat of 
654conflict these ideologies tend to be smelted into rigid dogmas claiming 
655exclusive possession of the truth, and the keys to paradise, is tragic. 
656Dogma is the enemy of human freedom. Dogma must be watched for and 
657apprehended at every turn and twist of the revolutionary movement. The 
658human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are 
659right, while those who believe with complete certainty that they possess 
660the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, 
661and injustice. Those who enshrine the poor or Have-Nots are as guilty as 
662other dogmatists and just as dangerous. To diminish the danger that 
663ideology will deteriorate into dogma, and to protect the free, open, 
664questing, and creative mind of man, as well as to allow for change, no 
665ideology should be more specific than that of America's founding fathers: 
666"For the general welfare." 
667
668Niels Bohr, the great atomic physicist, admirably stated the civilized 
669position on dogmatism: "Every sentence I utter must be understood not as 
670an affirmation, but as a question." I will argue that man's hopes lie in the 
671acceptance of the great law of change; that a general understanding of the 
672
673The Purpose 5 
674
675principles of change will provide clues for rational action and an 
676awareness of the realistic relationship between means and ends and how 
677each determines the other. I hope that these pages will contribute to the 
678education of the radicals of today, and to the conversion of hot, emotional, 
679
680
681
682impulsive passions that are impotent and frustrating to actions that will be 
683calculated, purposeful, and effective. 
684
685An example of the political insensitivity of many of today's so-called 
686radicals and the lost opportunities is found in this account of an episode 
687during the trial of the Chicago Seven: 
688
689Over the weekend some hundred fifty lawyers, from all parts of the country, had gathered 
690in Chicago to picket the federal building in protest against Judge Hoffman's [arrest of] the 
691four lawyers. This delegation, which was supported by thirteen members of the faculty of 
692Harvard Law School and which included a number of other professors as well, submitted 
693a brief, as friend of the Court, which called Judge Hoffman's actions "a travesty of justice 
694[which] threatens to destroy the confidence of the American people in the entire judicial 
695process . . ." By ten o'clock the angry lawyers had begun to march around the Federal 
696Building, where they were joined by hundreds of student radicals, several Black Panthers, 
697and a hundred or more blue-helmeted Chicago police. 
698
699Shortly before noon, about forty of the picketing lawyers carried their signs into the lobby 
700of the Federal Building, despite the notice posted on the glass wall beside the entrance, 
701and signed by Judge Campbell, forbidding such demonstrations within the building. 
702Hardly had the lawyers entered, however, than Judge Campbell himself descended to the 
703lobby, dressed in his black robes 
704
705Rules for Radicals 6 
706
707and accompanied by a marshal, a stenographer, and his court clerk. Surrounded by the 
708angry lawyers, who were themselves encircled by a ring of police and federal marshals, 
709the Judge proceeded to hold Court then and there. He announced that unless the pickets 
710withdrew immediately, he would charge them with contempt. This time, he warned, there 
711could be no question that their contempt would occur in the presence of the Court, and 
712would thus be subject to summary punishment. No sooner had he made this 
713announcement however, than a voice from the throng shouted, "Fuck you, Campbell." 
714After a moment of tense silence, followed by a cheer from the crowd and a noticeable 
715stiffening among the police, Judge Campbell himself withdrew. Then the lawyers, too, left 
716the lobby and rejoined the pickets on the sidewalk. 
717
718— Jason Epstein, The Great Conspiracy Trial, Random House, 1970. 
719
720
721
722The picketing lawyers threw away a beautiful opportunity to create a 
723nationwide issue. Offhand, there would seem to have been two choices, 
724either of which would have forced the judge's hand and kept the issue 
725going: some one of the lawyers could have stepped up to the judge after 
726the voice said, "Fuck you, Campbell," said that the lawyers there did not 
727support personal obscenities, but they were not leaving; or all the lawyers 
728together could have chorused, with one voice, "Fuck you, Campbell!" They 
729did neither; instead, they let the initiative pass from them to the judge, and 
730achieved nothing. 
731
732Radicals must be resilient, adaptable to shifting political circumstances, 
733and sensitive enough to the process of action and reaction to avoid being 
734trapped by their own tactics and forced to travel a road not of their 
735choosing. In 
736
737The Purpose 7 
738
739short, radicals must have a degree of control over the flow of events. 
740
741Here I propose to present an arrangement of certain facts and general 
742concepts of change, a step toward a science of revolution. 
743
744All societies discourage and penalize ideas and writings that threaten the 
745ruling status quo. It is understandable, therefore, that the literature of a 
746Have society is a veritable desert whenever we look for writings on social 
747change. Once the American Revolution was done with, we can find very 
748little besides the right of revolution that is laid down in the Declaration of 
749Independence as a fundamental right; seventy-three years later Thoreau's 
750brief essay on "The Duty of Civil Disobedience"; followed by Lincoln's 
751reaffirmation of the revolutionary right in 1861.* There are many phrases 
752extolling the sacredness of revolution — that is, revolutions of the past. Our 
753enthusiasm for the sacred right of revolution is increased and enhanced 
754with the passage of time. The older the revolution, the more it recedes into 
755
756
757
758history, the more sacred it becomes. Except for Thoreau's limited remarks, 
759our society has given us few words of advice, few suggestions of how to 
760fertilize social change. 
761
762From the Haves, on the other hand, there has come an unceasing flood of 
763literature justifying the status quo. Religious, economic, social, political, 
764and legal tracts endlessly attack all revolutionary ideas and action for 
765change as immoral, fallacious and against God, country, and mother. 
766These literary sedations by the status quo include the threat that, since all 
767such movements are unpatriotic, 
768
769* Lincoln's First Inaugural. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who 
770inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise 
771their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or 
772overthrow it." 
773
774Rules for Radicals 8 
775
776subversive, spawned in hell and reptilian in their creeping insidiousness, 
777dire punishments will be meted out to their supporters. All great 
778revolutions, including Christianity, the various reformations, democracy, 
779capitalism, and socialism, have suffered these epithets in the times of their 
780birth. To the status quo concerned about its public image, revolution is the 
781only force which has no image, but instead casts a dark, ominous shadow 
782of things to come. 
783
784The Have-Nots of the world, swept up in their present upheavals and 
785desperately seeking revolutionary writings, can find such literature only 
786from the communists, both red and yellow. Here they can read about 
787tactics, maneuvers, strategy and principles of action in the making of 
788revolutions. Since in this literature all ideas are imbedded in the language 
789of communism, revolution appears synonymous with communism.* When, 
790in the throes of their revolutionary fervor, the Have-Nots hungrily turn to us 
791
792
793
794in their first steps from starvation to subsistence, we respond with a 
795bewildering, unbelievable, and meaningless conglomeration of 
796abstractions about freedom, morality, equality, and the danger of 
797intellectual enslavement by communistic ideology! This is accompanied by 
798charitable handouts dressed up in ribbons of moral principle and 
799
800* U. S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, "The U. S. and Revolution," Center for 
801the Study of Democratic Institutions Occasional Paper No. 116: "On trips to Asia I often 
802asked men in their thirties and forties what they were reading when they were eighteen. 
803They visually answered 'Karl Marx'; and when I asked them why, they replied, 'We were 
804under colonial rule, seeking a way out. We wanted our independence. To get it we had to 
805make revolution. The only books on revolution were published by the communists.' These 
806men almost invariably had repudiated communism as a political cult, retaining, however, 
807a tinge of socialism. As I talked with them, I came to realize the great opportunities we 
808missed when we became preoccupied in fighting communism with bombs and with 
809dollars, rather than with ideas of revolution, of freedom, of justice." 
810
811The Purpose 9 
812
813"freedom," with the price tag of unqualified political loyalty to us. With the 
814coming of the Revolutions in Russia and China we suddenly underwent a 
815moral conversion and became concerned for the welfare of our brothers all 
816over the world. Revolution by the Have-Nots has a way of inducing a 
817moral revelation among the Haves. 
818
819Revolution by the Have-Nots also induces a paranoid fear; now, therefore, 
820we find every corrupt and repressive government the world around saying 
821to us, "Give us money and soldiers or there will be a revolution and the 
822new leaders will be your enemies." Fearful of revolution and identifying 
823ourselves as the status quo, we have permitted the communists to 
824assume by default the revolutionary halo of justice for the Have-Nots. We 
825then compound this mistake by assuming that the status quo everywhere 
826must be defended and buttressed against revolution. Today revolution has 
827become synonymous with communism while capitalism is synonymous 
828
829
830
831with status quo. Occasionally we will accept a revolution if it is guaranteed 
832to be on our side, and then only when we realize that the revolution is 
833inevitable. We abhor revolutions. 
834
835We have permitted a suicidal situation to unfold wherein revolution and 
836communism have become one. These pages are committed to splitting 
837this political atom, separating this exclusive identification of communism 
838with revolution. If it were possible for the Have-Nots of the world to 
839recognize and accept the idea that revolution did not inevitably mean hate 
840and war, cold or hot, from the United States, that alone would be a great 
841revolution in world politics and the future of man. This is a major reason for 
842my attempt to provide a revolutionary handbook not cast in a communist 
843or capitalist mold, but as a manual for the Have-Nots of the world 
844regardless of the color of their skins 
845
846Rules for Radicals 10 
847
848or their politics. My aim here is to suggest how to organize for power: how 
849to get it and to use it. I will argue that the failure to use power for a more 
850equitable distribution of the means of life for all people signals the end of 
851the revolution and the start of the counterrevolution. 
852
853Revolution has always advanced with an ideological spear just as the 
854status quo has inscribed its ideology upon its shield. All of life is partisan. 
855There is no dispassionate objectivity. The revolutionary ideology is not 
856confined to a specific limited formula. It is a series of general principles, 
857rooted in Lincoln's May 19, 1856, statement: "Be not deceived: 
858Revolutions do not go backward." 
859
860THE IDEOL OG Y OF CHANGE 
861
862This raises the question: what, if any, is my ideology? What kind of 
863ideology, if any, can an organizer have who is working in and for a free 
864
865
866
867society? The prerequisite for an ideology is possession of a basic truth. 
868For example, a Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused 
869by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he 
870logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third 
871stage of reorganization into a new social order or the dictatorship of the 
872proletariat, and finally the last stage — the political paradise of communism. 
873The Christians also begin with their prime truth: the divinity of Christ and 
874the tripartite nature of God. Out of these "prime truths" flow a step-by-step 
875ideology. 
876
877An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological 
878dilemma. To begin with, he does not have a fixed 
879
880The Purpose 1 1 
881
882truth — truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative 
883and changing. He is a politcal relativist. He accepts the late Justice 
884Learned Hand's statement that "the mark of a free man is that ever- 
885gnawing inner uncertainty as to whether or not he is right." The 
886consequence is that he is ever on the hunt for the causes of man's plight 
887and the general propositions that help to make some sense out of man's 
888irrational world. He must constantly examine life, including his own, to get 
889some idea of what it is all about, and he must challenge and test his own 
890findings. Irreverence, essential to questioning, is a requisite. Curiosity 
891becomes compulsive. His most frequent word is "why?"* 
892
893Does this then mean that the organizer in a free society for a free society 
894is rudderless? No, I believe that he has a far better sense of direction and 
895compass than the closed-society organizer with his rigid political ideology. 
896First, the free-society organizer is loose, resilient, fluid, and on the move in 
897a society which is itself in a state of constant change. To the extent that he 
898is free from the shackles of dogma, he can respond to the realities of the 
899
900
901
902widely different situations our society presents. In the end he has one 
903conviction — a belief that if people have the power to act, in the long run 
904they will, most of the time, reach the right decisions. The alternative to this 
905would be rule by the elite — either a dictatorship or some form of a political 
906aristocracy. I am not concerned if this faith in people is regarded as a 
907prime truth and therefore a contradiction of what I have already written, for 
908life is a story of contradictions. Believing in people, the radical has the job 
909of organizing them so that they will have the power and opportunity to best 
910
911* Some say it's no coincidence that the question mark is an inverted plow, breaking up 
912the hard soil of old beliefs and preparing for the new growth. 
913
914Rules for Radicals 12 
915
916meet each unforeseeable future crisis as they move ahead in their eternal 
917search for those values of equality, justice, freedom, peace, a deep 
918concern for the preciousness of human life, and all those rights and values 
919propounded by Judaeo-Christianity and the democratic political tradition. 
920Democracy is not an end but the best means toward achieving these 
921values. This is my credo for which I live and, if need be, die. 
922
923The basic requirement for the understanding of the politics of change is to 
924recognize the world as it is. We must work with it on its terms if we are to 
925change it to the kind of world we would like it to be. We must first see the 
926world as it is and not as we would like it to be. We must see the world as 
927all political realists have, in terms of "what men do and not what they ought 
928to do," as Machiavelli and others have put it. 
929
930It is painful to accept fully the simple fact that one begins from where one 
931is, that one must break free of the web of illusions one spins about life. 
932Most of us view the world not as it is but as we would like it to be. The 
933preferred world can be seen any evening on television in the succession of 
934
935
936
937programs where the good always wins — that is, until the late evening 
938newscast, when suddenly we are plunged into the world as it is." 
939
940Political realists see the world as it is: an arena of power politics moved 
941primarily by perceived immediate self-interests, where morality is rhetorical 
942rationale for expe- 
943
944* With some exceptions. In one of America's Shangri-Las of escape from the world as it 
945is, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, on the coast of the beautiful Monterey Peninsula, radio 
946station KRML used to broadcast the "Sunshine News — which headlines the positive, only 
947the good news of the world!" 
948
949Intellectuals, who would scoff, at "Sunshine News," are no exception to the preference for 
950already-formulated answers. 
951
952The Purpose 13 
953
954dient action and self-interest. Two examples would be the priest who 
955wants to be a bishop and bootlicks and politicks his way up, justifying it 
956with the rationale, "After I get to be bishop I'll use my office for Christian 
957reformation," or the businessman who reasons, "First I'll make my million 
958and after that I'll go for the real things in life." Unfortunately one changes in 
959many ways on the road to the bishopric or the first million, and then one 
960says, "I'll wait until I'm a cardinal and then I can be more effective," or, "I 
961can do a lot more after I get two million" — and so it goes.* In this world 
962laws are written for the lofty aim of "the common good" and then acted out 
963in life on the basis of the common greed. In this world irrationality clings to 
964man like his shadow so that the right things are done for the wrong 
965reasons — afterwards, we dredge up the right reasons for justification. It is 
966a world not of angels but of angles, where men speak of moral principles 
967but act on power principles; a world where we are always moral and our 
968enemies always immoral; a world where "reconciliation" means that when 
969one side gets the power and the other side gets reconciled to it, then we 
970
971
972
973have reconciliation; a world of religious institutions that have, in the main, 
974come to support and justify the status quo 
975
976* Each year, for a number of years, the activists in the graduating class from a major 
977Catholic seminary near Chicago would visit me for a day just before their ordination, with 
978questions about values, revolutionary tactics, and such. Once, at the end of such a day, 
979one of the seminarians said, "Mr. Alinsky, before we came here we met and agreed that 
980there was one question we particularly wanted to put to you. We're going to be ordained, 
981and then we'll be assigned to different parishes, as assistants to — frankly — stuffy, 
982reactionary, old pastors. They will disapprove of a lot of what you and we believe in, and 
983we will be put into a killing routine. Our question is: how do we keep our faith in true 
984Christian values, everything we hope to do to change the system?" 
985
986That was easy. I answered, "When you go out that door, just make your own personal 
987decision about whether you want to be a bishop or a priest, and everything else will 
988follow." 
989
990Rules for Radicals 14 
991
992so that today organized religion is materially solvent and spiritually 
993bankrupt. We live with a Judaeo-Christian ethic that has not only 
994accommodated itself to but justified slavery, war, and every other ugly 
995human exploitation of whichever status quo happened to prevail: 
996
997We live in a world where "good" is a value dependent on whether we want 
998it. In the world as it is, the solution of each problem inevitably creates a 
999new one. In the world as it is there are no permanent happy or sad 
1000endings. Such endings belong to the world of fantasy, the world as we 
1001would like it to be, the world of children's fairy tales where "they lived 
1002happily ever after." In the world as it is, the stream of events surges 
1003endlessly onward with death as the only terminus. One never reaches the 
1004horizon; it is always just beyond, ever beckoning onward; it is the pursuit 
1005of life itself. This is the world as it is. This is where you start. 
1006
1007
1008
1009It is not a world of peace and beauty and dispassionate rationality, but as 
1010Henry James once wrote, "Life is, in fact, a battle. Evil is insolent and 
1011strong; beauty enchanting but rare; goodness very apt to be weak; folly 
1012very apt to be defiant; wickedness to carry the day; imbeciles to be in 
1013great places, people of sense in small, and mankind generally unhappy. 
1014But the world as it stands is no narrow illusion, no phantasm, no evil 
1015dream of the night; we wake up to it again forever and ever; and we can 
1016neither forget it nor deny it nor dispense with it." Henry James's statement 
1017is an affirmation of that of Job: "The life of man upon earth is a warfare..." 
1018Disraeli put it succinctly: "Political life must be taken as you find it." 
1019
1020Once we have moved into the world as it is then we begin to shed fallacy 
1021after fallacy. The prime illusion we must rid ourselves of is the 
1022conventional view in which things are seen separate from their inevitable 
1023counterparts. 
1024
1025The Purpose 15 
1026
1027We know intellectually that everything is functionally interrelated, but in our 
1028operations we segment and isolate all values and issues. Everything about 
1029us must be seen as the indivisible partner of its converse, light and 
1030darkness, good and evil, life and death. From the moment we are born we 
1031begin to die. Happiness and misery are inseparable. So are peace and 
1032war. The threat of destruction from nuclear energy conversely carries the 
1033opportunity of peace and plenty, and so with every component of this 
1034universe; all is paired in this enormous Noah's Ark of life. 
1035
1036Life seems to lack rhyme or reason or even a shadow of order unless we 
1037approach it with the key of converses. Seeing everything in its duality, we 
1038begin to get some dim clues to direction and what it's all about. It is in 
1039these contradictions and their incessant interacting tensions that creativity 
1040begins. As we begin to accept the concept of contradictions we see every 
1041
1042
1043
1044problem or issue in its whole, interrelated sense. We then recognize that 
1045for every positive there is a negative," and that there is nothing positive 
1046without its concomitant negative, nor any political paradise without its 
1047negative side. 
1048
1049Niels Bohr pointed out that the appearance of contradictions was a signal 
1050that the experiment was on the right track: "There is not much hope if we 
1051have only one difficulty, but when we have two, we can match them off 
1052against each other." Bohr called this "complementarity," 
1053
1054* For more than four thousand years the Chinese have been familiar with the principle of 
1055complementarity in their philosophical life. They believe that from the illimitable (nature, 
1056God or gods) came the principle of creation which they called the Great Extreme and 
1057from the Great Extreme came the Two Principles or Dual Powers, Yang and Yin, out of 
1058which came everything else. Yang and Yin have been defined as positive and negative, 
1059light and darkness, male and female, or numerous other examples of opposites or 
1060converses. 
1061
1062Rules for Radicals 16 
1063
1064meaning that the interplay of seemingly conflicting forces or opposites is 
1065the actual harmony of nature. Whitehead similarly observed, "In formal 
1066logic, a contradiction is the signal of a defeat; but in the evolution of real 
1067knowledge it marks the first step in progress towards a victory." 
1068
1069Everywhere you look all change shows this complementarity. In Chicago 
1070the people of Upton Sinclair's Jungle, then the worst slum in America, 
1071crushed by starvation wages when they worked, demoralized, diseased, 
1072living in rotting shacks, were organized. Their banners proclaimed equality 
1073for all races, job security, and a decent life for all. With their power they 
1074fought and won. Today, as part of the middle class, they are also part of 
1075our racist, discriminatory culture. 
1076
1077
1078
1079The Tennessee Valley Authority was one of the prize jewels in the 
1080democratic crown. Visitors came from every part of the world to see, 
1081admire, and study this physical and social achievement of a free society. 
1082Today it is the scourge of the Cumberland Mountains, strip mining for coal 
1083and wreaking havoc on the countryside. 
1084
1085The C.I.O. was the militant champion of America's workers. In its ranks, 
1086directly and indirectly, were all of America's radicals; they fought the 
1087corporate structure of the nation and won. Today, merged with the A.F. of 
1088L, it is an entrenched member of the establishment and its leader 
1089supports the war in Vietnam. 
1090
1091Another example is today's high-rise public housing projects. Originally 
1092conceived and carried through as major advances in ridding cities of 
1093slums, they involved the tearing down of rotting, rat-infested tenements, 
1094and the erection of modern apartment buildings. They were acclaimed as 
1095America's refusal to permit its people to live in the dirty shambles of the 
1096slums. It is common knowledge that they have turned into jungles of horror 
1097and now confront us with the problem of how we can either convert or get 
1098rid of 
1099
1100The Purpose 17 
1101
1102them. They have become compounds of double segregation — on the 
1103bases of both economy and race — and a danger for anyone compelled to 
1104live in these projects. A beautiful positive dream has grown into a negative 
1105nightmare. 
1106
1107It is the universal tale of revolution and reaction. It is the constant struggle 
1108between the positive and its converse negative, which includes the 
1109reversal of roles so that the positive of today is the negative of tomorrow 
1110and vice versa. 
1111
1112
1113
1114This view of nature recognizes that reality is dual. The principles of 
1115quantum mechanics in physics apply even more dramatically to the 
1116mechanics of mass movements. This is true not only in "complementarity" 
1117but in the repudiation of the hitherto universal concept of causality, 
1118whereby matter and physics were understood in terms of cause and effect, 
1119where for every effect there had to be a cause and one always produced 
1120the other. In quantum mechanics, causality was largely replaced by 
1121probability: an electron or atom did not have to do anything specific in 
1122response to a particular force; there was just a set of probabilities that it 
1123would react in this or that way. This is fundamental in the observations and 
1124propositions which follow. At no time in any discussion or analysis of mass 
1125movements, tactics, or any other phase of the problem, can it be said that 
1126if this is done then that will result. The most we can hope to achieve is an 
1127understanding of the probabilities consequent to certain actions. 
1128
1129This grasp of the duality of all phenomena is vital in our understanding of 
1130politics. It frees one from the myth that one approach is positive and 
1131another negative. There is no such thing in life. One man's positive is 
1132another man's negative. The description of any procedure as "positive" or 
1133"negative" is the mark of a political illiterate. Once the nature of revolution 
1134is understood from the dualistic outlook we lose our mono-view of a 
1135revolution and 
1136
1137Rules for Radicals 18 
1138
1139see it coupled with its inevitable counterrevolution. Once we accept and 
1140learn to anticipate the inevitable counterrevolution, we may then alter the 
1141historical pattern of revolution and counterrevolution from the traditional 
1142slow advance of two steps forward and one step backward to minimizing 
1143the latter. Each element with its positive and converse sides is fused to 
1144other related elements in an endless series of everything, so that the 
1145
1146
1147
1148converse of revolution on one side is counterrevolution and on the other 
1149side, reformation, and so on in an endless chain of connected converses. 
1150
1151CLASS DISTINCTIONS: THE TRINITY 
1152
1153The setting for the drama of change has never varied. Mankind has been 
1154and is divided into three parts: the Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-a- 
1155Little, Want Mores. 
1156
1157On top are the Haves with power, money, food, security, and luxury. They 
1158suffocate in their surpluses while the Have-Nots starve. Numerically the 
1159Haves have always been the fewest. The Haves want to keep things as 
1160they are and are opposed to change. Thermopolitically they are cold and 
1161determined to freeze the status quo. 
1162
1163On the bottom are the world's Have-Nots. On the world scene they are by 
1164far the greatest in numbers. They are chained together by the common 
1165misery of poverty, rotten housing, disease, ignorance, political impotence, 
1166and despair; when they are employed their jobs pay the least and they are 
1167deprived in all areas basic to human growth. Caged by color, physical or 
1168political, they are barred from an opportunity to represent themselves in 
1169the politics of 
1170
1171The Purpose 19 
1172
1173life. The Haves want to keep; the Have-Nots want to get. Thermopolitically 
1174they are a mass of cold ashes of resignation and fatalism, but inside there 
1175are glowing embers of hope which can be fanned by the building of means 
1176of obtaining power. Once the fever begins the flame will follow. They have 
1177nowhere to go but up. 
1178
1179They hate the establishment of the Haves with its arrogant opulence, its 
1180police, its courts, and its churches. Justice, morality, law, and order, are 
1181
1182
1183
1184mere words when used by the Haves, which justify and secure their status 
1185quo. The power of the Have-Nots rests only with their numbers. It has 
1186been said that the Haves, living under the nightmare of possible threats to 
1187their possessions, are always faced with the question of "when do we 
1188sleep?" while the perennial question of the Have-Nots is "when do we 
1189eat?" The cry of the Have-Nots has never been "give us your hearts" but 
1190always "get off our backs"; they ask not for love but for breathing space. 
1191
1192Between the Haves and Have-Nots are the Have-a-Little. Want Mores — 
1193the middle class. Torn between upholding the status quo to protect the 
1194little they have, yet wanting change so they can get more, they become 
1195split personalities. They could be described as social, economic, and 
1196political schizoids. Generally, they seek the safe way, where they can 
1197profit by change and yet not risk losing the little they have. They insist on a 
1198minimum of three aces before playing a hand in the poker game of 
1199revolution. Thermopolitically they are tepid and rooted in inertia. Today in 
1200Western society and particularly in the United States they comprise the 
1201majority of our population. 
1202
1203Yet in the conflicting interests and contradictions within the Have-a-Little, 
1204Want Mores is the genesis of creativity. Out of this class have come, with 
1205few exceptions, the great world leaders of change of the past centuries: 
1206
1207Rules for Radicals 20 
1208
1209Moses, Paul of Tarsus, Martin Luther, Robespierre, Georges Danton, 
1210Samuel Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon 
1211Bonaparte, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Nikolai Lenin, Mahatma Gandhi, Fidel 
1212Castro, Mao Tse-tung, and others. 
1213
1214Just as the clash of interests within the Have-a-Little, Want Mores has 
1215bred so many of the great leaders it has also spawned a particular breed 
1216stalemated by cross interests into inaction. These Do-Nothings profess a 
1217
1218
1219
1220commitment to social change for ideals of justice, equality, and 
1221opportunity, and then abstain from and discourage all effective action for 
1222change. They are known by their brand, "I agree with your ends but not 
1223your means." They function as blankets whenever possible smothering 
1224sparks of dissension that promise to flare up into the fire of action. These 
1225Do-Nothings appear publicly as good men, humanitarian, concerned with 
1226justice and dignity. In practice they are invidious. They are the ones 
1227Edmund Burke referred to when he said, acidly: "The only thing necessary 
1228for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Both the 
1229revolutionary leaders, or the Doers, and the Do-Nothings will be examined 
1230in these pages. 
1231
1232The history of prevailing status quos shows decay and decadence 
1233infecting the opulent materialism of the Haves. The spiritual life of the 
1234Haves is a ritualistic justification of their possessions. 
1235
1236More than one hundred years ago, Tocqueville commented, as did other 
1237students of America at that time, that self-indulgence accompanied by 
1238concern for nothing except personal materialistic welfare was the major 
1239menace to America's future. Whitehead noted in Adventures of Ideas that 
1240"The enjoyment of power is fatal to the subtleties of life. Ruling classes 
1241degenerate by reason of their lazy indulgence in obvious gratifications." In 
1242such a state 
1243
1244The Purpose 21 
1245
1246men may be said to fall asleep, for it is in sleep that we each turn away 
1247from the world about us to our private worlds.* I must quote one more 
1248book pertinent to this subject: in Alice in Wonderland, Tiger-Lily explains 
1249about the talking flowers to Alice. Tiger-Lily points out that the flowers that 
1250talk grow out of hard beds of ground and "in most gardens," Tiger-Lily 
1251says, "they make the beds too soft — so that the flowers are always 
1252
1253
1254
1255asleep." It is as though the great law of change had prepared the 
1256anesthesization of the victim prior to the social surgery to come. 
1257
1258Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the 
1259frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or 
1260change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict. In these pages it is 
1261our open political purpose to cooperate with the great law of change; to 
1262want otherwise would be like King Canute's commanding the tides and 
1263waves to cease. 
1264
1265A word about my personal philosophy. It is anchored in optimism. It must 
1266be, for optimism brings with it hope, a future with a purpose, and therefore, 
1267a will to fight for a better world. Without this optimism, there is no reason to 
1268carry on. If we think of the struggle as a climb up a mountain, then we 
1269must visualize a mountain with no top. We see a top, but when we finally 
1270reach it, the overcast rises and we find ourselves merely on a bluff. The 
1271mountain continues on up. Now we see the "real" top ahead of us, and 
1272strive for it, only to find we've reached another bluff, the top still above us. 
1273And so it goes on, interminably. 
1274
1275Knowing that the mountain has no top, that it is a perpetual quest from 
1276plateau to plateau, the question arises, "Why the struggle, the conflict, the 
1277heartbreak, the danger, the sacrifice. Why the constant climb?" Our 
1278answer is the 
1279
1280* Heraclitus, Fragments: "The waking have one world in common; sleepers have each a 
1281private world of his own." 
1282
1283Rules for Radicals 22 
1284
1285same as that which a real mountain climber gives when he is asked why 
1286he does what he does. "Because it's there." Because life is there ahead of 
1287you and either one tests oneself in its challenges or huddles in the valleys 
1288
1289
1290
1291in a dreamless day-to-day existence whose only purpose is the 
1292preservation of an illusory security and safety. The latter is what the vast 
1293majority of people choose to do, fearing the adventure into the unknown. 
1294Paradoxically, they give up the dream of what may lie ahead on the 
1295heights of tomorrow for a perpetual nightmare — an endless succession of 
1296days fearing the loss of a tenuous security. 
1297
1298Unlike the chore of the mythic Sisyphis, this challenge is not an endless 
1299pushing up of a boulder to the top of a hill, only to have it roll back again, 
1300the chore to be repeated eternally. It is pushing the boulder up an endless 
1301mountain, but, unlike Sisyphis, we are always going further upward. And 
1302also unlike Sisyphis, each stage of the trail upward is different, newly 
1303dramatic, an adventure each time. 
1304
1305At times we do fall back and become discouraged, but it is not that we are 
1306making no progress. Simply, this is the very nature of life — that it is a 
1307climb — and that the resolution of each issue in turn creates other issues, 
1308born of plights which are unimaginable today. The pursuit of happiness is 
1309never-ending; happiness lies in the pursuit. 
1310
1311Confronted with the materialistic decadence of the status quo, one should 
1312not be surprised to find that all revolutionary movements are primarily 
1313generated from spiritual values and considerations of justice, equality, 
1314peace, and brotherhood. History is a relay of revolutions; the torch of 
1315idealism is carried by the revolutionary group until this group becomes an 
1316establishment, and then quietly the torch is put down to wait until a new 
1317revolutionary group picks it up for the next leg of the run. Thus the 
1318revolutionary cycle goes on. 
1319
1320The Purpose 23 
1321
1322A major revolution to be won in the immediate future is the dissipation of 
1323man's illusion that his own welfare can be separate from that of all others. 
1324
1325
1326
1327As long as man is shackled to this myth, so long will the human spirit 
1328languish. Concern for our private, material well-being with disregard for the 
1329well-being of others is immoral according to the precepts of our Judaeo- 
1330Christian civilization, but worse, it is stupidity worthy of the lower animals. 
1331It is man's foot still dragging in the primeval slime of his beginnings, in 
1332ignorance and mere animal cunning. But those who know the 
1333interdependence of man to be his major strength in the struggle out of the 
1334muck have not been wise in their exhortations and moral pronouncements 
1335that man is his brother's keeper. On that score the record of the past 
1336centuries has been a disaster, for it was wrong to assume that man would 
1337pursue morality on a level higher than his day-to-day living demanded; it 
1338was a disservice to the future to separate morality from man's daily desires 
1339and elevate it to a plane of altruism and self-sacrifice. The fact is that it is 
1340not man's "better nature" but his self-interest that demands that he be his 
1341brother's keeper. We now live in a world where no man can have a loaf of 
1342bread while his neighbor has none. If he does not share his bread, he dare 
1343not sleep, for his neighbor will kill him. To eat and sleep in safety man 
1344must do the right thing, if for seemingly the wrong reasons, and be in 
1345practice his brother's keeper. 
1346
1347I believe that man is about to learn that the most practical life is the moral 
1348life and that the moral life is the only road to survival. He is beginning to 
1349learn that he will either share part of his material wealth or lose all of it; 
1350that he will respect and learn to live with other political ideologies if he 
1351wants civilization to go on. This is the kind of argument that man's actual 
1352experience equips him to understand and accept. 777/5 is the low road to 
1353morality. There is no other. 
1354
1355
1356
1357Of Means and Ends 
1358
1359
1360
1361We cannot think first and act afterwards. From the moment of birth we are 
1362immersed in action and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought. 
1363
1364—Alfred North Whitehead 
1365
1366THAT PERENNIAL QUESTION, "Does the end justify the means?" is 
1367meaningless as it stands; the real and only question regarding the ethics 
1368of means and ends is, and always has been, "Does this particular end 
1369justify this particular means?" 
1370
1371Life and how you live it is the story of means and ends. The end\s what 
1372you want, and the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about 
1373social change, the question of means and ends arises. The man of action 
1374views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He 
1375has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the 
1376possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether 
1377they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will 
1378work. To say that corrupt means corrupt the ends is to believe in the 
1379immaculate conception of ends and principles. The real arena is corrupt 
1380and bloody. Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns 
1381
1382Of Means and Ends 25 
1383
1384to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; 
1385he who fears corruption fears life. 
1386
1387The practical revolutionary will understand Goethe's "conscience is the 
1388virtue of observers and not of agents of action"; in action, one does not 
1389always enjoy the luxury of a decision that is consistent both with one's 
1390
1391
1392
1393individual conscience and the good of mankind. The choice must always 
1394be for the latter. Action is for mass salvation and not for the individual's 
1395personal salvation. He who sacrifices the mass good for his personal 
1396conscience has a peculiar conception of "personal salvation"; he doesn't 
1397care enough for people to be "corrupted" for them. 
1398
1399The men who pile up the heaps of discussion and literature on the ethics 
1400of means and ends — which with rare exception is conspicuous for its 
1401sterility — rarely write about their own experiences in the perpetual struggle 
1402of life and change. They are strangers, moreover, to the burdens and 
1403problems of operational responsibility and the unceasing pressure for 
1404immediate decisions. They are passionately committed to a mystical 
1405objectivity where passions are suspect. They assume a nonexistent 
1406situation where men dispassionately and with reason draw and devise 
1407means and ends as if studying a navigational chart on land. They can be 
1408recognized by one of two verbal brands: "We agree with the ends but not 
1409the means," or "This is not the time." The means-and-end moralists or 
1410non-doers always wind up on their ends without any means. 
1411
1412The means-and-ends moralists, constantly obsessed with the ethics of the 
1413means used by the Have-Nots against the Haves, should search 
1414themselves as to their real political position. In fact, they are passive — but 
1415real — allies of the Haves. They are the ones Jacques Maritain referred to 
1416in his statement, "The fear of soiling 
1417
1418Rules for Radicals 26 
1419
1420ourselves by entering the context of history is not virtue, but a way of 
1421escaping virtue." These non-doers were the ones who chose not to fight 
1422the Nazis in the only way they could have been fought; they were the ones 
1423who drew their window blinds to shut out the shameful spectacle of Jews 
1424and political prisoners being dragged through the streets; they were the 
1425
1426
1427
1428ones who privately deplored the horror of it all — and did nothing. This is 
1429the nadir of immorality. The most unethical of all means is the non-use of 
1430any means. It is this species of man who so vehemently and militantly 
1431participated in that classically idealistic debate at the old League of 
1432Nations on the ethical differences between defensive and offensive 
1433weapons. Their fears of action drive them to refuge in an ethics so 
1434divorced from the politics of life that it can apply only to angels, not to men. 
1435The standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of 
1436life as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished-for fantasy of the world 
1437as it should be. 
1438
1439I present here a series of rules pertaining to the ethics of means and ends: 
1440first, that one's concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely 
1441with one's personal interest in the issue. When we are not directly 
1442concerned our morality overflows; as La Rochefoucauld put it, "We all 
1443have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others." Accompanying 
1444this rule is the parallel one that one's concern with the ethics of means and 
1445ends varies inversely with one's distance from the scene of conflict. 
1446
1447The second rule of the ethics of means and ends is that the judgment of 
1448the ethics of means is dependent upon the political position of those sitting 
1449in judgment. If you actively opposed the Nazi occupation and joined the 
1450underground Resistance, then you adopted the means of 
1451
1452Of Means and Ends 27 
1453
1454assassination, terror, property destruction, the bombing of tunnels and 
1455trains, kidnapping, and the willingness to sacrifice innocent hostages to 
1456the end of defeating the Nazis. Those who opposed the Nazi conquerors 
1457regarded the Resistance as a secret army of selfless, patriotic idealists, 
1458courageous beyond expectation and willing to sacrifice their lives to their 
1459moral convictions. To the occupation authorities, however, these people 
1460
1461
1462
1463were lawless terrorists, murderers, saboteurs, assassins, who believed 
1464that the end justified the means, and were utterly unethical according to 
1465the mystical rules of war. Any foreign occupation would so ethically judge 
1466its opposition. However, in such conflict, neither protagonist is concerned 
1467with any value except victory. It is life or death. 
1468
1469To us the Declaration of Independence is a glorious document and an 
1470affirmation of human rights. To the British, on the other hand, it was a 
1471statement notorious for its deceit by omission. In the Declaration of 
1472Independence, the Bill of Particulars attesting to the reasons for the 
1473Revolution cited all of the injustices which the colonists felt that England 
1474had been guilty of, but listed none of the benefits. There was no mention 
1475of the food the colonies had received from the British Empire during times 
1476of famine, medicine during times of disease, soldiers during times of war 
1477with the Indians and other foes, or the many other direct and indirect aids 
1478to the survival of the colonies. Neither was there notice of the growing 
1479number of allies and friends of the colonists in the British House of 
1480Commons, and the hope for imminent remedial legislation to correct the 
1481inequities under which the colonies suffered. 
1482
1483Jefferson, Franklin, and others were honorable men, but they knew that 
1484the Declaration of Independence was 
1485
1486Rules for Radicals 28 
1487
1488a call to war. They also knew that a list of many of the constructive 
1489benefits of the British Empire to the colonists would have so diluted the 
1490urgency of the call to arms for the Revolution as to have been self- 
1491defeating. The result might well have been a document attesting to the fact 
1492that justice weighted down the scale at least 60 per cent on our side, and 
1493only 40 per cent on their side; and that because of that 20 per cent 
1494difference we were going to have a Revolution. To expect a man to leave 
1495
1496
1497
1498his wife, his children, and his home, to leave his crops standing in the field 
1499and pick up a gun and join the Revolutionary Army for a 20 per cent 
1500difference in the balance of human justice was to defy common sense. 
1501
1502The Declaration of Independence, as a declaration of war, had to be what 
1503it was, a 100 per cent statement of the justice of the cause of the colonists 
1504and a 100 per cent denunciation of the role of the British government as 
1505evil and unjust. Our cause had to be all shining justice, allied with the 
1506angels; theirs had to be all evil, tied to the Devil; in no war has the enemy 
1507or the cause ever been gray. Therefore, from one point of view the 
1508omission was justified; from the other, it was deliberate deceit. 
1509
1510History is made up of "moral" judgments based on politics. We condemned 
1511Lenin's acceptance of money from the Germans in 1917 but were 
1512discreetly silent while our Colonel William B. Thompson in the same year 
1513contributed a million dollars to the anti-Bolsheviks in Russia. As allies of 
1514the Soviets in World War II we praised and cheered communist guerrilla 
1515tactics when the Russians used them against the Nazis during the Nazi 
1516invasion of the Soviet Union; we denounce the same tactics when they are 
1517used by communist forces in different parts of 
1518
1519Of Means and Ends 29 
1520
1521the world against us. The opposition's means, used against us, are always 
1522immoral and our means are always ethical and rooted in the highest of 
1523human values. George Bernard Shaw, in Man and Superman, pointed out 
1524the variations in ethical definitions by virtue of where you stand. Mendoza 
1525said to Tanner, "I am a brigand; I live by robbing the rich." Tanner replied, 
1526"I am a gentleman; I live by robbing the poor. Shake hands." 
1527
1528The third rule of the ethics of means and ends is that in war the end 
1529justifies almost any means. Agreements on the Geneva rules on treatment 
1530
1531
1532
1533of prisoners or use of nuclear weapons are observed only because the 
1534enemy or his potential allies may retaliate. 
1535
1536Winston Churchill's remarks to his private secretary a few hours before the 
1537Nazis invaded the Soviet Union graphically pointed out the politics of 
1538means and ends in war. Informed of the imminent turn of events, the 
1539secretary inquired how Churchill, the leading British anti-communist, could 
1540reconcile himself to being on the same side as the Soviets. Would not 
1541Churchill find it embarrassing and difficult to ask his government to support 
1542the communists? Churchill's reply was clear and unequivocal: "Not at all. I 
1543have only one purpose, the destruction of Hitler, and my life is much 
1544simplified thereby. If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favorable 
1545reference to the Devil in the House of Commons." 
1546
1547In the Civil War President Lincoln did not hesitate to suspend the right of 
1548habeas corpus and to ignore the directive of the Chief Justice of the 
1549United States. Again, when Lincoln was convinced that the use of military 
1550commissions to try civilians was necessary, he brushed aside the illegality 
1551of this action with the statement that it was "indispensable to the public 
1552safety." He believed 
1553
1554Rules for Radicals 30 
1555
1556that the civil courts were powerless to cope with the insurrectionist 
1557activities of civilians. "Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who 
1558deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to 
1559desert..." 
1560
1561The fourth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that judgment must be 
1562made in the context of the times in which the action occurred and not from 
1563any other chronological vantage point. The Boston Massacre is a case in 
1564point. "British atrocities alone, however, were not sufficient to convince the 
1565people that murder had been done on the night of March 5: There was a 
1566
1567
1568
1569deathbed confession of Patrick Carr, that the townspeople had been the 
1570aggressors and that the soldiers had fired in self defense. This unlooked- 
1571for recantation from one of the martyrs who was dying in the odor of 
1572sanctity with which Sam Adams had vested them sent a wave of alarm 
1573through the patriot ranks. But Adams blasted Carr's testimony in the eyes 
1574of all pious New Englanders by pointing out that he was an Irish 'papist' 
1575who had probably died in the confession of the Roman Catholic Church. 
1576After Sam Adams had finished with Patrick Carr even Tories did not dare 
1577to quote him to prove Bostonians were responsible for the Massacre."* To 
1578the British this was a false, rotten use of bigotry and an immoral means 
1579characteristic of the Revolutionaries, or the' Sons of Liberty. To the Sons 
1580of Liberty and to the patriots, Sam Adams' action was brilliant strategy and 
1581a God-sent lifesaver. Today we may look back and regard Adams' action 
1582in the same light as the British did, but remember that we are not today 
1583involved in a revolution against the British Empire. 
1584
1585Ethical standards must be elastic to stretch with 
1586
1587* Sam Adams, Pioneer in Propaganda, by John C. Miller. 
1588
1589Of Means and Ends 3 1 
1590
1591the times. In politics, the ethics of means and ends can be understood by 
1592the rules suggested here. History is made up of little else but examples 
1593such as our position on freedom of the high seas in 1812 and 1917 
1594contrasted with our 1962 blockade of Cuba, or our alliance in 1942 with 
1595the Soviet Union against Germany, Japan and Italy, and the reversal in 
1596alignments in less than a decade. 
1597
1598Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, his defiance of a directive of the 
1599Chief Justice of the United States, and the illegal use of military 
1600commissions to try civilians, were by the same man who had said in 
1601Springfield, fifteen years earlier: "Let me not be understood as saying that 
1602
1603
1604
1605there are no bad laws, or that grievances may not arise for the redress of 
1606which no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. 
1607But I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be 
1608repealed, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example, they 
1609should be religiously observed." 
1610
1611This was also the same Lincoln who, a few years prior to his signing the 
1612Emancipation Proclamation, stated in his First Inaugural Address: "I do but 
1613quote from one of those speeches when I declared that I have no purpose, 
1614directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States 
1615where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no 
1616inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elected me did so with full 
1617knowledge that I made this and many similar declarations and have never 
1618recanted them." 
1619
1620Those who would be critical of the ethics of Lincoln's reversal of positions 
1621have a strangely unreal picture of a static unchanging world, where one 
1622remains firm and committed to certain so-called principles or positions. In 
1623the politics of human life, consistency is not a virtue. To 
1624
1625Rules for Radicals 32 
1626
1627be consistent means, according to the Oxford Universal Dictionary, 
1628"standing still or not moving." Men must change with the times or die. 
1629
1630The change in Jefferson's orientation when he became President is 
1631pertinent to this point. Jefferson had incessantly attacked President 
1632Washington for using national self-interest as the point of departure for all 
1633decisions. He castigated the President as narrow and selfish and argued 
1634that decisions should be made on a world-interest basis to encourage the 
1635spread of the ideas of the American Revolution; that Washington's 
1636adherence to the criteria of national self-interest was a betrayal of the 
1637American Revolution. However, from the first moment when Jefferson 
1638
1639
1640
1641assumed the presidency of the United States his every decision was 
1642dictated by national self-interest. This story from another century has 
1643parallels in our century and every other. 
1644
1645The fifth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that concern with ethics 
1646increases with the number of means available and vice versa. To the man 
1647of action the first criterion in determining which means to employ is to 
1648assess what means are available. Reviewing and selecting available 
1649means is done on a straight utilitarian basis — will it work? Moral questions 
1650may enter when one chooses among equally effective alternate means. 
1651But if one lacks the luxury of a choice and is possessed of only one 
1652means, then the ethical question will never arise; automatically the lone 
1653means becomes endowed with a moral spirit. Its defense lies in the cry, 
1654"What else could I do?" Inversely, the secure position in which one 
1655possesses the choice of a number of effective and powerful means is 
1656always accompanied by that ethical concern and serenity of con- 
1657
1658Of Means and Ends 33 
1659
1660science so admirably described by Mark Twain as "The calm confidence of 
1661a Christian holding four aces." 
1662
1663To me ethics is doing what is best for the most. During a conflict with a 
1664major corporation I was confronted with a threat of public exposure of a 
1665photograph of a motel "Mr. & Mrs." registration and photographs of my girl 
1666and myself. I said, "Go ahead and give it to the press. I think she's 
1667beautiful and I have never claimed to be celibate. Go ahead!" That ended 
1668the threat. 
1669
1670Almost on the heels of this encounter one of the corporation's minor 
1671executives came to see me. It turned out that he was a secret sympathizer 
1672with our side. Pointing to his briefcase, he said: "In there is plenty of proof 
1673that so and so [a leader of the opposition] prefers boys to girls." I said, 
1674
1675
1676
1677"Thanks, but forget it. I don't fight that way. I don't want to see it. 
1678Goodbye." He protested, "But they just tried to hang you on that girl." I 
1679replied, "The fact that they fight that way doesn't mean I have to do it. To 
1680me, dragging a person's private life into this muck is loathsome and 
1681nauseous." He left. 
1682
1683So far, so noble; but, if I had been convinced that the only way we could 
1684win was to use it, then without any reservations I would have used it. What 
1685was my alternative? To draw myself up into righteous "moral" indignation 
1686saying, "I would rather lose than corrupt my principles," and then go home 
1687with my ethical hymen intact? The fact that 40,000 poor would lose their 
1688war against hopelessness and despair was just too tragic. That their 
1689condition would even be worsened by the vindictiveness of the corporation 
1690was also terrible and unfortunate, but that's life. After all, one has to 
1691remember means and ends. It's true that I might have trouble getting to 
1692sleep because 
1693
1694Rules for Radicals 34 
1695
1696it takes time to tuck those big, angelic, moral wings under the covers. To 
1697me that would be utter immorality. 
1698
1699777e sixth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that the less important 
1700the end to be desired, the more one can afford to engage in ethical 
1701evaluations of means. 
1702
1703The seventh rule of the ethics of means and ends is that generally 
1704success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics. The judgment of 
1705history leans heavily on the outcome of success or failure; it spells the 
1706difference between the traitor and the patriotic hero. There can be no such 
1707thing as a successful traitor, for if one succeeds he becomes a founding 
1708father. 
1709
1710
1711
1712The eighth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that the morality of a 
1713means depends upon whether the means is being employed at a time of 
1714imminent defeat or imminent victory. The same means employed with 
1715victory seemingly assured may be defined as immoral, whereas if it had 
1716been used in desperate circumstances to avert defeat, the question of 
1717morality would never arise. In short, ethics are determined by whether one 
1718is losing or winning. From the beginning of time killing has always been 
1719regarded as justifiable if committed in self-defense. 
1720
1721Let us confront this principle with the most awful ethical question of 
1722modern times: did the United States have the right to use the atomic bomb 
1723at Hiroshima? 
1724
1725When we dropped the atomic bomb the United States was assured of 
1726victory. In the Pacific, Japan had suffered an unbroken succession of 
1727defeats. Now we were in Okinawa with an air base from which we could 
1728bomb the enemy around the clock. The Japanese air force was 
1729decimated, as was their navy. Victory had come in Europe, and the entire 
1730European air force, navy, and army were released for use in the Pacific. 
1731Russia was moving in for a 
1732
1733Of Means and Ends 35 
1734
1735cut of the spoils. Defeat for Japan was an absolute certainty and the only 
1736question was how and when the coup de grace would be administered. 
1737For familiar reasons we dropped the bomb and triggered off as well a 
1738universal debate on the morality of the use of this means for the end of 
1739finishing the war. 
1740
1741I submit that if the atomic bomb had been developed shortly after Pearl 
1742Harbor when we stood defenseless; when most of our Pacific fleet was at 
1743the bottom of the sea; when the nation was fearful of invasion on the 
1744Pacific coast; when we were committed as well to the war in Europe, that 
1745
1746
1747
1748then the use of the bomb at that time on Japan would have been 
1749universally heralded as a just retribution of hail, fire, and brimstone. Then 
1750the use of the bomb would have been hailed as proof that good inevitably 
1751triumphs over evil. The question of the ethics of the use of the bomb would 
1752never have arisen at that time and the character of the present debate 
1753would have been very different. Those who would disagree with this 
1754assertion have no memory of the state of the world at that time. They are 
1755either fools or liars or both. 
1756
1757The ninth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that any effective means 
1758is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical. One of our 
1759greatest revolutionary heroes was Francis Marion of South Carolina, who 
1760became immortalized in American history as "the Swamp Fox." Marion 
1761was an outright revolutionary guerrilla. He and his men operated according 
1762to the traditions and with all of the tactics commonly associated with the 
1763present-day guerrillas. Cornwallis and the regular British Army found their 
1764plans and operations harried and disorganized by Marion's guerrilla 
1765tactics. Infuriated by the effectiveness of his operations, and incapable of 
1766coping with them, the 
1767
1768Rules for Radicals 36 
1769
1770British denounced him as a criminal and charged that he did not engage in 
1771warfare "like a gentleman" or "a Christian." He was subjected to an 
1772unremitting denunciation about his lack of ethics and morality for his use of 
1773guerrilla means to the end of winning the Revolution. 
1774
1775The tenth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that you do what you can 
1776with what you have and clothe it with moral garments. In the field of action, 
1777the first question that arises in the determination of means to be employed 
1778for particular ends is what means are available. This requires an 
1779assessment of whatever strengths or resources are present and can be 
1780
1781
1782
1783used. It involves sifting the multiple factors which combine in creating the 
1784circumstances at any given time, and an adjustment to the popular views 
1785and the popular climate. Questions such as how much time is necessary 
1786or available must be considered. Who, and how many, will support the 
1787action? Does the opposition possess the power to the degree that it can 
1788suspend or change the laws? Does its control of police power extend to 
1789the point where legal and orderly change is impossible? If weapons are 
1790needed, then are appropriate weapons available? Availability of means 
1791determines whether you will be underground or above ground; whether 
1792you will move quickly or slowly; whether you will move for extensive 
1793changes or limited adjustments; whether you will move by passive 
1794resistance or active resistance; or whether you will move at all. The 
1795absence of any means might drive one to martyrdom in the hope that this 
1796would be a catalyst, starting a chain reaction that would culminate in a 
1797mass movement. Here a simple ethical statement is used as a means to 
1798power. 
1799
1800A naked illustration of this point is to be found in Trotsky's summary of 
1801Lenin's famous April Theses, issued 
1802
1803Of Means and Ends 37 
1804
1805shortly after Lenin's return from exile. Lenin pointed out: "The task of the 
1806Bolsheviks is to overthrow the Imperialist Government. But this 
1807government rests upon the support of the Social Revolutionaries and 
1808Mensheviks, who in turn are supported by the trustfulness of the masses 
1809of people. We are in the minority. In these circumstances there can be no 
1810talk of violence on our side." The essence of Lenin's speeches during this 
1811period was "They have the guns and therefore we are for peace and for 
1812reformation through the ballot. When we have the guns then it will be 
1813through the bullet." And it was. 
1814
1815
1816
1817Mahatma Gandhi and his use of passive resistance in India presents a 
1818striking example of the selection of means. Here, too, we see the 
1819inevitable alchemy of time working upon moral equivalents as a 
1820consequence of the changing circumstances and positions of the Have- 
1821Nots to the Haves, with the natural shift of goals from getting to keeping. 
1822
1823Gandhi is viewed by the world as the epitome of the highest moral 
1824behavior with respect to means and ends. We can assume that there are 
1825those who would believe that if Gandhi had lived, there would never have 
1826been an invasion of Goa or any other armed invasion. Similarly, the 
1827politically naive would have regarded it as unbelievable that that great 
1828apostle of nonviolence, Nehru, would ever have countenanced the 
1829invasion of Goa, for it was Nehru who stated in 1955: "What are the basic 
1830elements of our policy in regard to Goa? First, there must be peaceful 
1831methods. This is essential unless we give up the roots of all our policies 
1832and all our behavior . . . We rule out nonpeace-ful methods entirely." He 
1833was a man committed to nonviolence and ostensibly to the love of 
1834mankind, including his enemies. His end was the independence of India 
1835from foreign domination, and his means was that of passive re- 
1836Rules for Radicals 38 
1837
1838sistance. History, and religious and moral opinion, have so enshrined 
1839Gandhi in this sacred matrix that in many quarters it is blasphemous to 
1840question whether this entire procedure of passive resistance was not 
1841simply the only intelligent, realistic, expedient program which Gandhi had 
1842at his disposal; and that the "morality" which surrounded this policy of 
1843passive resistance was to a large degree a rationale to cloak a pragmatic 
1844program with a desired and essential moral cover. 
1845
1846Let us examine this case. First, Gandhi, like any other leader in the field of 
1847social action, was compelled to examine the means at hand. If he had had 
1848
1849
1850
1851guns he might well have used them in an armed revolution against the 
1852British which would have been in keeping with the traditions of revolutions 
1853for freedom through force. Gandhi did not have the guns, and if he had 
1854had the guns he would not have had the people to use the guns. Gandhi 
1855records in his Autobiography his astonishment at the passivity and 
1856submissiveness of his people in not retaliating or even wanting revenge 
1857against the British: "As I proceeded further and further with my inquiry into 
1858the atrocities that had been committed on the people, I came across tales 
1859of Government's tyranny and the arbitrary despotism of its officers such as 
1860I was hardly prepared for, and they filled me with deep pain. What 
1861surprised me then, and what still continues to fill me with surprise, was the 
1862fact that a province that had furnished the largest number of soldiers to the 
1863British Government during the war, should have taken all these brutal 
1864excesses lying down." 
1865
1866Gandhi and his associates repeatedly deplored the inability of their people 
1867to give organized, effective, violent resistance against injustice and 
1868tyranny. His own experi- 
1869
1870Of Means and Ends 39 
1871
1872ence was corroborated by an unbroken series of reiterations from all the 
1873leaders of India — that India could not practice physical warfare against her 
1874enemies. Many reasons were given, including weakness, lack of arms, 
1875having been beaten into submission, and other arguments of a similar 
1876nature. Interviewed by Norman Cousins in 1961. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru 
1877described the Hindus of those days as "A demoralized, timid, and 
1878hopeless mass bullied and crushed by every dominant interest and 
1879incapable of resistance." 
1880
1881Faced with this situation we revert for the moment to Gandhi's assessment 
1882and review of the means available to him. It has been stated that if he had 
1883
1884
1885
1886had the guns he might have used them; this statement is based on the 
1887Declaration of Independence of Mahatma Gandhi issued on January 26, 
18881930, where he discussed "the fourfold disaster to our country." His fourth 
1889indictment against the British reads: "Spiritually, compulsory disarmament 
1890has made us unmanly, and the presence of an alien army of occupation, 
1891employed with deadly effect to crush in us the spirit of resistance, has 
1892made us think we cannot look after ourselves or put up a defense against 
1893foreign aggression, or even defend our homes and families . . ." These 
1894words more than suggest that if Gandhi had had the weapons for violent 
1895resistance and the people to use them this means would not have been so 
1896unreservedly rejected as the world would like to think. 
1897
1898On the same point, we might note that once India had secured 
1899independence, when Nehru was faced with a dispute with Pakistan over 
1900Kashmir, he did not hesitate to use armed force. Now the power 
1901arrangements had changed. India had the guns and the trained army to 
1902use these 
1903
1904Rules for Radicals 40 
1905
1906weapons.* Any suggestion that Gandhi would not have approved the use 
1907of violence is negated by Nehru's own statement in that 1961 interview: "It 
1908was a terrible time. When the news reached me about Kashmir I knew I 
1909would have to act at once — with force. Yet I was greatly troubled in mind 
1910and spirit because I knew we might have to face a war — so soon after 
1911having achieved our independence through a philosophy of nonviolence. It 
1912was horrible to think of. Yet I acted. Gandhi said nothing to indicate his 
1913disapproval. It was a great relief, I must say. If Gandhi, the vigorous 
1914nonviolent, didn't demur, it made my job a lot 
1915
1916• Reinhold Niebuhr, "British Experience and American Power," Christianity and Crisis, 
1917Vol. 16, May 14, 1956, page 57: 
1918
1919
1920
1921"The defiance of the United Nations by India on the Kashmir issue has gone 
1922comparatively unobserved. It will be remembered that Kashmir, a disputed territory, 
1923claimed by both Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India, has a predominately Muslim 
1924population but a Hindu ruler. To determine the future political orientation of the area, the 
1925United Nations ordered a plebiscite. Meanwhile, both India and Pakistan refused to move 
1926their troops from the zones which each had previously occupied. Finally, Nehru took the 
1927law into his own hands and annexed the larger part of Kashmir, which he had shrewdly 
1928integrated into the Indian economy. The Security Council, with only Russia abstaining, 
1929unanimously called upon him to obey the United Nations directive, but the Indian 
1930government refused. Clearly, Nehru does not want a plebiscite now for it would surely go 
1931against India, though he vaguely promises a plebiscite for the future. 
1932
1933"Morally, the incident puts Nehru in a rather bad light.... When India's vital interests were 
1934at stake, Nehru forgot lofty sentiments, sacrificed admirers in the New Statesman and 
1935Nation, and subjected himself to the charge of inconsistency. 
1936
1937"This policy is either Machiavellian or statesmanlike, according to your point of view. Our 
1938consciences may gag at it, but on the other hand those eminently moral men, Prime 
1939Minister Gladstone of another day and Secretary Dulles of our day could offer many 
1940parallels of policy for Mr. Nehru, though one may doubt whether either statesman could 
1941offer a coherent analysis of the mixture of modes which entered into the policy. That is an 
1942achievement beyond the competence of very moral men." 
1943
1944Of Means and Ends 4 1 
1945
1946easier. This strengthened my view that Gandhi could be adaptable." 
1947
1948Confronted with the issue of what means he could employ against the 
1949British, we come to the other criteria previously mentioned; that the kind of 
1950means selected and how they can be used is significantly dependent upon 
1951the face of the enemy, or the character of his opposition. Gandhi's 
1952opposition not only made the effective use of passive resistance possible 
1953but practically invited it. His enemy was a British administration 
1954characterized by an old, aristocratic, liberal tradition, one which granted a 
1955good deal of freedom to its colonials and which always had operated on a 
1956pattern of using, absorbing, seducing, or destroying, through flattery or 
1957
1958
1959
1960corruption, the revolutionary leaders who arose from the colonial ranks. 
1961This was the kind of opposition that would have tolerated and ultimately 
1962capitulated before the tactic of passive resistance. 
1963
1964Gandhi's passive resistance would never have had a chance against a 
1965totalitarian state such as that of the Nazis. It is dubious whether under 
1966those circumstances the idea of passive resistance would even have 
1967occurred to Gandhi. It has been pointed out that Gandhi, who was born in 
19681869, never saw or understood totalitarianism and defined his opposition 
1969completely in terms of the character of the British government and what it 
1970represented. George Orwell, in his essay Reflection on Gandhi, made 
1971some pertinent observations on this point: "... He believed in 'arousing the 
1972world,' which is only possible if the world gets a chance to hear what you 
1973are doing. It is difficult to see how Gandhi's methods could be applied in a 
1974country where opponents of the regime disappear in the middle of the 
1975night and are never heard of again. Without a free press 
1976
1977Rules for Radicals 42 
1978
1979and the right of assembly it is impossible, not merely to appeal to outside 
1980opinion, but to bring a mass movement into being, or even to make your 
1981intentions known to your adversary." 
1982
1983From a pragmatic point of view, passive resistance was not only possible, 
1984but was the most effective means that could have been selected for the 
1985end of ridding India of British control. In organizing, the major negative in 
1986the situation has to be converted into the leading positive. In short, 
1987knowing that one could not expect violent action from this large and torpid 
1988mass, Gandhi organized the inertia: he gave it a goal so that it became 
1989purposeful. Their wide familiarity with Dharma made passive resistance no 
1990stranger to the Hindustani. To oversimplify, what Gandhi did was to say, 
1991
1992
1993
1994"Look, you are all sitting there anyway — so instead of sitting there, why 
1995don't you sit over here and while you're sitting, say 'Independence Now!'" 
1996
1997This raises another question about the morality of means and ends. We 
1998have already noted that in essence, mankind divides itself into three 
1999groups; the Have-Nots, the Have-a-Little, Want-Mores, and the Haves. 
2000The purpose of the Haves is to keep what they have. Therefore, the Haves 
2001want to maintain the status quo and the Have-Nots to change it. The 
2002Haves develop their own morality to justify their means of repression and 
2003all other means employed to maintain the status quo. The Haves usually 
2004establish laws and judges devoted to maintaining the status quo; since 
2005any effective means of changing the status quo are usually illegal and/or 
2006unethical in the eyes of the establishment, Have-Nots, from the beginning 
2007of time, have been compelled to appeal to "a law higher than man-made 
2008law." Then when the Have-Nots achieve success and be- 
2009
2010Of Means and Ends 43 
2011
2012come the Haves, they are in the position of trying to keep what they have 
2013and their morality shifts with their change of location in the power pattern. 
2014
2015Eight months after securing independence, the Indian National Congress 
2016outlawed passive resistance and made it a crime. It was one thing for 
2017them to use the means of passive resistance against the previous Haves, 
2018but now in power they were going to ensure that this means would not be 
2019used against them! No longer as Have-Nots were they appealing to laws 
2020higher than man-made law. Now that they were making the laws, they 
2021were on the side of man-made laws! Hunger strikes — used so effectively 
2022in the revolution — were viewed differently now too. Nehru, in the interview 
2023mentioned above, said: "The government will not be influenced by hunger 
2024strikes ... To tell the truth I didn't approve of fasting as a political weapon 
2025even when Gandhi practiced it." 
2026
2027
2028
2029Again Sam Adams, the firebrand radical of the American Revolution, 
2030provides a clear example. Adams was foremost in proclaiming the right of 
2031revolution. However, following the success of the American Revolution it 
2032was the same Sam Adams who was foremost in demanding the execution 
2033of those Americans who participated in Shays' Rebellion, charging that no 
2034one had a right to engage in revolution against us! 
2035
2036Moral rationalization is indispensable at all times of action whether to 
2037justify the selection or the use of ends or means. Machiavelli's blindness to 
2038the necessity for moral clothing to all acts and motives — he said "politics 
2039has no relation to morals" — was his major weakness. 
2040
2041All great leaders, including Churchill, Gandhi, Lincoln, and Jefferson, 
2042always invoked "moral principles" to cover naked self-interest in the 
2043clothing of "freedom," "equality 
2044
2045Rules for Radicals 44 
2046
2047of mankind," "a law higher than man-made law," and so on. This even held 
2048under circumstances of national crises when it was universally assumed 
2049that the end justified any means. All effective actions require the passport 
2050of morality. 
2051
2052The examples are everywhere. In the United States the rise of the civil 
2053rights movement in the late 1950s was marked by the use of passive 
2054resistance in the South against segregation. Violence in the South would 
2055have been suicidal; political pressure was then impossible; the only 
2056recourse was economic pressure with a few fringe activities. Legally 
2057blocked by state laws, hostile police and courts, they were compelled like 
2058all Have-Nots from time immemorial to appeal to "a law higher than man- 
2059made law." In his Social Contract, Rousseau noted the obvious, that "Law 
2060is a very good thing for men with property and a very bad thing for men 
2061without property." Passive resistance remained one of the few means 
2062
2063
2064
2065available to anti-segregationist forces until they had secured the voting 
2066franchise in fact. Furthermore, passive resistance was also a good 
2067defensive tactic since it curtailed the opportunities for use of the power 
2068resources of the status quo for forcible repression. Passive resistance was 
2069chosen for the same pragmatic reason that all tactics are selected. But it 
2070assumes the necessary moral and religious adornments. 
2071
2072However, when passive resistance becomes massive and threatening it 
2073gives birth to violence. Southern Negroes have no tradition of Dharma, 
2074and are close enough to their Northern compatriots so that contrasting 
2075conditions between the North and the South are a visible as well as a 
2076constant spur. Add to this the fact that the Southern poor whites do not 
2077operate by British tradition but reflect generations of violence; the future 
2078does not argue for making 
2079
2080Of Means and Ends 45 
2081
2082a special religion of nonviolence. It will be remembered for what it was, the 
2083best tactic for its time and place. 
2084
2085As more effective means become available, the Negro civil rights 
2086movement will divest itself of these decorations and substitute a new 
2087moral philosophy in keeping with its new means and opportunities. The 
2088explanation will be, as it always has been, "Times have changed." This is 
2089happening today. 
2090
2091The eleventh rule of the ethics of means and ends is that goals must be 
2092phrased in general terms like "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, " "Of the 
2093Common Welfare, " "Pursuit of Happiness "or "Bread and Peace. "Whitman 
2094put it: "The goal once named cannot be countermanded." It has been 
2095previously noted that the wise man of action knows that frequently in the 
2096stream of action of means towards ends, whole new and unexpected ends 
2097
2098
2099
2100are among the major results of the action. From a Civil War fought as a 
2101means to preserve the Union came the end of slavery. 
2102
2103In this connection, it must be remembered that history is made up of 
2104actions in which one end results in other ends. Repeatedly, scientific 
2105discoveries have resulted from experimental research committed to ends 
2106or objectives that have little relationship with the discoveries. Work on a 
2107seemingly minor practical program has resulted in feedbacks of major 
2108creative basic ideas. J. C. Flugel notes, in Man, Morals and Society, that ". 
2109. . In psychology, too, we have no right to be astonished if, while dealing 
2110with a means (e.g., the cure of a neurotic symptom, the discovery of more 
2111efficient ways of learning, or the relief of industrial fatigue) we find that we 
2112have modified our attitude toward the end (acquired some new insight into 
2113the nature of mental health, the role of education, or the place of work in 
2114human life)." 
2115
2116Rules fob Radicals 46 
2117
2118The mental shadow boxing on the subject of means and ends is typical of 
2119those who are the observers and not the actors in the battlefields of life. In 
2120The Yogi and the Commissar, Koestler begins with the basic fallacy of an 
2121arbitrary demarcation between expediency and morality; between the Yogi 
2122for whom the end never justifies the means and the Commissar for whom 
2123the end always justifies the means. Koestler attempts to extricate himself 
2124from this self-constructed strait jacket by proposing that the end justifies 
2125the means only within narrow limits. Here Koestler, even in an academic 
2126confrontation with action, was compelled to take the first step in the course 
2127of compromise on the road to action and power. How "narrow" the limits 
2128and who defines the "narrow" limits opens the door to the premises 
2129discussed here. The kind of personal safety and security sought by the 
2130advocates of the sanctity of means and ends lies only in the womb of 
2131
2132
2133
2134Yogism or the monastery, and even there it is darkened by the repudiation 
2135of that moral principle that they are their brothers' keepers. 
2136
2137Bertrand Russell, in his Human Society in Ethics and Politics, observed 
2138that "Morality is so much concerned with means that it seems almost 
2139immoral to consider anything solely in relation to its intrinsic worth. But 
2140obviously nothing has any value as a means unless that to which it is a 
2141means has value on its own account. It follows that intrinsic value is 
2142logically prior to value as means." 
2143
2144The organizer, the revolutionist, the activist or call him what you will, who 
2145is committed to a free and open society is in that commitment anchored to 
2146a complex of high values. These values include the basic morals of all 
2147organized religions; their base is the preciousness of human life. These 
2148values include freedom, equality, justice, peace, the right to dissent; the 
2149values that were the ban- 
2150
2151Of Means and Ends 47 
2152
2153ners of hope and yearning of all revolutions of men, whether the French 
2154Revolution's "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality," the Russians' "Bread and 
2155Peace," the brave Spanish people's "Better to die on your feet than to live 
2156on your knees," or our Revolution's "No Taxation Without Representation." 
2157They include the values in our own Bill of Rights. If a state voted for school 
2158segregation or a community organization voted to keep blacks out, and 
2159claimed justification by virtue of the "democratic process," then this 
2160violation of the value of equality would have converted democracy into a 
2161prostitute. Democracy is not an end; it is the best political means available 
2162toward the achievement of these values. 
2163
2164Means and ends are so qualitatively interrelated that the true question has 
2165never been the proverbial one, "Does the End justify the Means?" but 
2166always has been "Does this particular 'end justify this particular means?" 
2167
2168
2169
2170A Word About Words 
2171
2172
2173
2174THE PASSIONS OF MANKIND have boiled over into all areas of political 
2175life, including its vocabulary. The words most common in politics have 
2176become stained with human hurts, hopes, and frustrations. All of them are 
2177loaded with popular opprobrium, and their use results in a conditioned, 
2178negative, emotional response. Even the word politics itself, which Webster 
2179says is "the science and art of government," is generally viewed in a 
2180context of corruption. Ironically, the dictionary synonyms are "discreet; 
2181provident, diplomatic, wise." 
2182
2183The same discolorations attach to other words prevalent in the language 
2184of politics, words like power, self-interest, compromise, and conflict. They 
2185become twisted and warped, viewed as evil. Nowhere is the prevailing 
2186political illiteracy more clearly revealed than in these typical interpretations 
2187of words. This is why we pause here for a word about words. 
2188
2189A Word About Words 49 
2190
2191POWER 
2192
2193The question may legitimately be raised, why not use other words — words 
2194that mean the same but are peaceful, and do not result in such negative 
2195emotional reactions? There are a number of fundamental reasons for 
2196rejecting such substitution. First, by using combinations of words such as 
2197"harnessing the energy" instead of the single word "power," we begin to 
2198dilute the meaning; and as we use purifying synonyms, we dissolve the 
2199bitterness, the anguish, the hate and love, the agony and the triumph 
2200attached to these words, leaving an aseptic imitation of life. In the politics 
2201of life we are concerned with the slaves and the Caesars, not the vestal 
2202
2203
2204
2205virgins. It is not just that, in communication as in thought, we must ever 
2206strive toward simplicity. (The masterpieces of philosophic or scientific 
2207statement are frequently no longer than a few words, for example, "E = 
2208mc 2 .") It is more than that: it is a determination not to detour around reality. 
2209
2210To use any other word but power is to change the meaning of everything 
2211we are talking about. As Mark Twain once put it, "The difference between 
2212the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning 
2213and the lightning bug." 
2214
2215Power is the right word just as self-interest, compromise, and the other 
2216simple political words are, for they were conceived in and have become 
2217part of politics from the beginning of time. To pander to those who have no 
2218stomach for straight language, and insist upon bland, non-controversial 
2219sauces, is a waste of time. They cannot or 
2220
2221Rules for Radicals 50 
2222
2223deliberately will not understand what we are discussing here. I agree with 
2224Nietzsche's statement in The Genealogy of Morals ox\ this point: 
2225
2226Why stroke the hypersensitive ears of our modern weaklings? Why yield even a single 
2227step ... to the Tartuffery of words? For us psychologists that would involve a Tartuffery of 
2228action . . . For a psychologist today shows his good taste (others may say his integrity) in 
2229this, if in anything, that he resists the shamefully moralized 'manner of speaking which 
2230makes all modern judgments about men and things slimy. 
2231
2232We approach a critical point when our tongues trap our minds. I do not 
2233propose to be trapped by tact at the expense of truth. Striving to avoid the 
2234force, vigor, and simplicity of the word "power," we soon become averse to 
2235thinking in vigorous, simple, honest terms. We strive to invent sterilized 
2236synonyms, cleansed of the opprobrium of the word power— -but the new 
2237words mean something different, so that they tranquilize us, begin to 
2238shepherd our mental processes off the main, conflict-ridden, grimy, and 
2239
2240
2241
2242realistic power-paved highway of life. To travel down the sweeter-smelling, 
2243peaceful, more socially acceptable, more respectable, indefinite byways, 
2244ends in a failure to achieve an honest understanding of the issues that we 
2245must come to grips with if we are to do the job. 
2246
2247Let us look at the word power. Power, meaning "ability, whether physical, 
2248mental, or moral, to act," has become an evil word, with overtones and 
2249undertones that suggest the sinister, the unhealthy, the Machiavellian. It 
2250suggests a phantasmagoria of the nether regions. The mo- 
2251
2252A Word About Words 51 
2253
2254ment the word power\s mentioned it is as though hell had been opened, 
2255exuding the stench of the devil's cesspool of corruption. It evokes images 
2256of cruelty, dishonesty, selfishness, arrogance, dictatorship, and abject 
2257suffering. The word power\s associated with conflict; it is unacceptable in 
2258our present Madison Avenue deodorized hygiene, where controversy is 
2259blasphemous and the value is being liked and not offending others. Power, 
2260in our minds, has become almost synonymous with corruption and 
2261immorality. 
2262
2263Whenever the word power\s mentioned, somebody sooner or later will 
2264refer to the classical statement of Lord Acton and cite it as follows: "Power 
2265corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." In fact the correct 
2266quotation is: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts 
2267absolutely." We can't even read Acton's statement accurately, our minds 
2268are so confused by our conditioning. 
2269
2270The corruption of power is not in power, but in ourselves. And yet, what is 
2271this power which men live by and to a significant degree live for? Power is 
2272the very essence, the dynamo of life. It is the power of the heart pumping 
2273blood and sustaining life in the body. It is the power of active citizen 
2274participation pulsing upward, providing a unified strength for a common 
2275
2276
2277
2278purpose. Power is an essential life force always in operation, either 
2279changing the world or opposing change. Power, or organized energy, may 
2280be a man-killing explosive or a life-saving drug. The power of a gun may 
2281be used to enforce slavery, or to achieve freedom. 
2282
2283The power of the human brain can create man's most glorious 
2284achievements, and develop perspectives and insights into the nature of 
2285life-opening horizons previously 
2286
2287Rules for Radicals 52 
2288
2289beyond the imagination. The power of the human mind can also devise 
2290philosophies and ways of life that are most destructive for the future of 
2291mankind. Either way, power is the dynamo of life. 
2292
2293Alexander Hamilton, in The Federalist Papers, put it this way: "What is a 
2294power, but the ability or faculty of doing a thing? What is the ability to do a 
2295thing, but the power of employing the means necessary to its execution?" 
2296Pascal, who was definitely not a cynic, observed that: "Justice without 
2297power is impotent; power without justice is tyranny." St. Ignatius, the 
2298founder of the Jesuit order, did not shrink from the recognition of power 
2299when he issued his dictum: "To do a thing well a man needs power and 
2300competence." We could call the roll of all who have played their parts in 
2301history and find the word power, not a substitute word, used in their 
2302speech and writings. 
2303
2304It is impossible to conceive of a world devoid of power; the only choice of 
2305concepts is between organized and unorganized power. Mankind has 
2306progressed only through learning how to develop and organize 
2307instruments of power in order to achieve order, security, morality, and 
2308civilized life itself, instead of a sheer struggle for physical survival. Every 
2309organization known to man, from government down, has had only one 
2310
2311
2312
2313reason for being — that is, organization for power in order to put into 
2314practice or promote its common purpose. 
2315
2316When we talk about a person's "lifting himself by his own bootstraps" we 
2317are talking about power. Power must be understood for what it is, for the 
2318part it plays in every area of our life, if we are to understand it and thereby 
2319grasp the essentials of relationships and functions between groups and 
2320organizations, particularly in a pluralistic society. To know power and not 
2321fear it is essential to its con- 
2322
2323A Word About Words 53 
2324
2325structive use and control. In short, life without power is death; a world 
2326without power would be a ghostly wasteland, a dead planet! 
2327
2328SELF-INTEREST 
2329
2330Self-interest, like power, wears the black shroud of negativism and 
2331suspicion. To many the synonym for self-interest is selfishness. The word 
2332is associated with a repugnant conglomeration of vices such as 
2333narrowness, self-seeking, and self-centeredness, everything that is 
2334opposite to the virtues of altruism and selflessness. This common 
2335definition is contrary, of course, to our everyday experiences, as well as to 
2336the observations of all great students of politics and life. The myth of 
2337altruism as a motivating factor in our behavior could arise and survive only 
2338in a society bundled in the sterile gauze of New England puritanism and 
2339Protestant morality and tied together with the ribbons of Madison Avenue 
2340public relations. It is one of the classic American fairy tales. 
2341
2342From the great teachers of Judaeo-Christian morality and the 
2343philosophers, to the economists, and to the wise observers of the politics 
2344of man, there has always been universal agreement on the part that self- 
2345interest plays as a prime moving force in man's behavior. The importance 
2346
2347
2348
2349of self-interest has never been challenged; it has been accepted as an 
2350inevitable fact of life. In the words of Christ, "Greater love has no man than 
2351this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Aristotle said, in Politics, 
2352"Everyone thinks chiefly of his own, hardly ever of the 
2353
2354Rules for Radicals 54 
2355
2356public interest." Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, noted that "It is not 
2357from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we 
2358expect our dinner, but from their regard of their own interest. We address 
2359ourselves not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to 
2360them of our own necessities, but of their advantage." In all the reasoning 
2361found in The Federalist Papers, no point is so central and agreed upon as 
2362"Rich and poor alike are prone to act upon impulse rather than pure 
2363reason and to narrow conceptions of self-interest . . ." To question the 
2364force of self-interest that pervades all areas of political life is to refuse to 
2365see man as he is, to see him only as we would like him to be. 
2366
2367And yet, next to this acceptance of self-interest, there are certain 
2368observations I would like to make. Machiavelli, with whom the idea of self- 
2369interest seems to have gained its greatest notoriety, at least among those 
2370who are unaware of the tradition, said: 
2371
2372This is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, fake, cowardly, 
2373covetous, as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, 
2374property, life, and children when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn 
2375against you. 
2376
2377But Machiavelli makes a mortal mistake when he rules out the "moral" 
2378factors of politics and holds purely to self-interest as he defines it. This 
2379mistake can only be accounted for on the basis that Machiavelli's 
2380experience as an active politician was not too great, for otherwise he could 
2381not have overlooked the obvious fluidity of every man's self-interest. The 
2382
2383
2384
2385overall case must be of larger dimensions than that of self-interest 
2386narrowly defined; it must be large 
2387
2388A Word About Words 55 
2389
2390enough to include and provide for the shifting dimensions of self-interest. 
2391You may appeal to one self-interest to get me to the battlefront to fight; but 
2392once I am there, my prime self-interest becomes to stay alive, and if we 
2393are victorious my self-interest may, and usually does, dictate entirely 
2394unexpected goals rather than those I had before the war. For example, the 
2395United States in World War II fervently allied with Russia against 
2396Germany, Japan, and Italy, and shortly after victory fervently allied with its 
2397former enemies — Germany, Japan, and Italy — against its former ally, the 
2398U.S.S.R. 
2399
2400These drastic shifts of self-interest can be rationalized only under a huge, 
2401limitless umbrella of general "moral" principles such as liberty, justice, 
2402freedom, a law higher than man-made law, and so on. Morality, so-called, 
2403becomes the continuum as self-interests shift. 
2404
2405Within this morality there appears to be a tearing conflict, probably due to 
2406the layers of inhibition in our kind of moralistic civilization — it appears 
2407shameful to admit that we operate on the basis of naked self-interest, so 
2408we desperately try to reconcile every shift of circumstances that is to our 
2409self-interest in terms of a broad moral justification or rationalization. With 
2410one breath we point out that we are utterly opposed to communism, but 
2411that we love the Russian people (loving people is in keeping with the 
2412tenets of our civilization). What we hate is the atheism and the 
2413suppression of the individual that we attribute as characteristics 
2414substantiating the "immorality" of communism. On this we base our 
2415powerful opposition. We do not admit the actual fact: our own self-interest. 
2416
2417
2418
2419We proclaimed all of these negative, diabolical Russian characteristics just 
2420prior to the Nazi invasion of Russia. The Soviets were then the cynical 
2421despots who 
2422
2423Rules for Radicals 56 
2424
2425connived in the non-aggression pact with Hitler, the ruthless invaders who 
2426brought disaster to the Poles and the Finns. They were a people in chains 
2427and in misery, held in slavery by a dictator's might; they were a people 
2428whose rulers so distrusted them that the Red Army was not permitted to 
2429have live ammunition because they might turn their guns against the 
2430Kremlin. All this was our image. But within minutes of the invasion of 
2431Russia by the Nazis, when self-interest dictated that the defeat of Russia 
2432would be disastrous to our interest, then — suddenly — they became the 
2433gallant, great, warm, loving Russian people; the dictator became the 
2434benevolent and loving Uncle Joe; the Red Army soon was filled with trust 
2435and devotion to its government, fighting with an unparalleled bravery and 
2436employing a scorched-earth policy against the enemy. The Russian allies 
2437certainly had God on their side — after all, He was on ours. Our June, 
24381941, shift was more dramatic and sudden than our shift against the 
2439Russians shortly after the defeat of our common enemy. In both cases our 
2440self-interest was disguised, as the banners of freedom, liberty, and 
2441decency were unveiled — first against the Nazis, and six years later against 
2442the Russians. 
2443
2444In our present relationship with Tito and the Yugoslavian communists, 
2445then, the issue is not that Tito represents communism, but that he is not 
2446part of the Russian power alignment. Here we take the position we took 
2447after the Nazi invasion, where suddenly communism became, "Well, after 
2448all, it's their way of life and we believe in the right of self-determination and 
2449it's up to the Russians to have the government they like," as long as they 
2450are on our side and do not threaten our self-interest. Too, there is no 
2451
2452
2453
2454question that, with all our denunciation of the Red Chinese, if they 
2455announced that they were no longer a part of 
2456
2457A Word About Words 57 
2458
2459the world communist conspiracy or alignment of forces, they would be 
2460overnight acceptable to us, acclaimed by us, and provided with all kinds of 
2461aid, just so long as they were on our side. In essence, what we are saying 
2462is that we do not care what kind of a communist you are so long as you do 
2463not threaten our self-interest. 
2464
2465Let me give you an example of what I mean by some of the differences between the 
2466world as it is and the world as we would like it to be. Recently, after lecturing at Stanford 
2467University, I met a Soviet professor of political economics from the University of 
2468Leningrad. The opening of our conversation was illustrative of the definitions and outlook 
2469of those who live in the world as it is. The Russian began by asking me, "Where do you 
2470stand on communism?" I replied, "That's a bad question since the real question is, 
2471assuming both of us are operating in and thinking of the world as it is, 'Whose 
2472Communists are they — yours or ours?' If they are ours, then we are all for them. If they 
2473are yours, obviously we are against them. Communism itself is irrelevant. The issue is 
2474whether they are on our side or yours. Now, if you Russians didn't have a first mortgage 
2475on Castro, we would be talking about Cuba's right to self-determination and the fact that 
2476you couldn't have a free election until after there had been a period of education following 
2477the repression of the dictatorship of Batista. As a matter of fact, if you should start trying 
2478to push for a free election in Yugoslavia, we might even send over our Marines to prevent 
2479this kind of sabotage. The same goes if you should try to do it in Formosa." The Russian 
2480came back with, "What is your definition of a free election outside of your country? I said, 
2481"Well, our definition of a free election in, say, Vietnam is pretty much what your definition 
2482
2483Rules for Radicals 58 
2484
2485is in your satellites — if we've got everything so set that we are going to win, then it's a free 
2486election. Otherwise, it's bloody terrorism! Isn't that your definition?" The Russian's 
2487reaction was, "Well, yes, more or less!" 
2488
2489
2490
2491— Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals, Random House, Vintage Books, 
2492New York, rev. 1969, p. 227. 
2493
2494We repeatedly get caught in this conflict between our professed moral 
2495principles and the real reasons why we do things — to wit, our self-interest. 
2496We are always able to mask those real reasons in words of beneficent 
2497goodness — freedom, justice, and so on. Such tears as appear in the fabric 
2498of this moral masquerade sometimes embarrass us. 
2499
2500It is interesting that the communists do not seem to concern themselves 
2501with these moral justifications for their naked acts of self-interest. In a way, 
2502this becomes embarrassing too; it makes us feel that they may be 
2503laughing at us, knowing well that we are motivated by self-interest too, but 
2504are determined to disguise it. We feel that they may be laughing at us as 
2505they struggle in the sea of world politics, stripped to their shorts, while we 
2506flop around, fully dressed in our white tie and tails. 
2507
2508And yet with all this there is that wondrous quality of man that from time to 
2509time floods over the natural dams of survival and self-interest. We 
2510witnessed it in the summer of 1964 when white college students risked 
2511their lives to carry the torch of human freedom into darkest Mississippi. An 
2512earlier instance: George Orwell describes his self-interest in entering the 
2513trenches during the Spanish Civil War as a matter of trying to stop the 
2514spreading horror of fascism. Yet once he was in the trenches, his self- 
2515interest changed to the goal of getting out alive. Still, I 
2516
2517A Word About Words 59 
2518
2519have no question that if Orwell had been given a military assignment from 
2520which he could easily have got lost, he would not have wandered to the 
2521rear at the price of jeopardizing the lives of some of his comrades; he 
2522would never have pursued his "self-interest." These are the exceptions to 
2523the rule, but there have been enough of them flashing through the murky 
2524
2525
2526
2527past of history to suggest that these episodic transfigurations of the human 
2528spirit are more than the flash of fireflies. 
2529
2530COMPROMISE 
2531
2532Compromise is another word that carries shades of weakness, vacillation, 
2533betrayal of ideals, surrender of moral principles. In the old culture, when 
2534virginity was a virtue, one referred to a woman's being "compromised." 
2535The word is generally regarded as ethically unsavory and ugly. 
2536
2537But to the organizer, compromise is a key and beautiful word. It is always 
2538present in the pragmatics of operation. It is making the deal, getting that 
2539vital breather, usually the victory. If you start with nothing, demand 100 per 
2540cent, then compromise for 30 per cent, you're 30 per cent ahead. 
2541
2542A free and open society is an on-going conflict, interrupted periodically by 
2543compromises — which then become the start for the continuation of conflict, 
2544compromise, and on ad infinitum. Control of power is based on 
2545compromise in our Congress and among the executive, legislative, and 
2546judicial branches. A society devoid of compromise is totalitarian. If I had to 
2547define a free and open society in one word, the word would be 
2548"compromise." 
2549
2550Rules for Radicals 60 
2551
2552
2553
2554EGO 
2555
2556
2557
2558All definitions of words, like everything else, are relative. Definition is to a 
2559major degree dependent upon your partisan position. Your leader is 
2560always flexible, he has pride in the dignity of his cause, he is unflinching, 
2561sincere, an ingenious tactician fighting the good fight. To the opposition he 
2562is unprincipled and will go whichever way the wind blows, his arrogance is 
2563masked by a fake humility, he is dogmatically stubborn, a hypocrite, 
2564
2565
2566
2567unscrupulous and unethical, and he will do anything to win; he is leading 
2568the forces of evil. To one side he is a demigod, to the other a demagogue. 
2569
2570Nowhere is the relativity of a definition more germane in the arena of life 
2571than the word ego. Anyone who is working against the Haves is always 
2572facing odds, and in many cases heavy odds. If he or she does not have 
2573that complete self-confidence (or call it ego) that he can win, then the 
2574battle is lost before it is even begun. I have seen so-called trained 
2575organizers go out to another city with an assignment of organizing a 
2576community of approximately 100,000 people, take one look and promptly 
2577wire in a resignation. To be able to look at a community of people and say 
2578to yourself, "I will organize them in so many weeks," "I will take on the 
2579corporations, the press and anything else," is to be a real organizer. 
2580
2581"Ego," as we understand and use it here, cannot be even vaguely 
2582confused with, nor is it remotely related to, egotism. No would-be 
2583organizer afflicted with egotism can avoid hiding this from the people with 
2584whom he is working, 
2585
2586A Word About Words 61 
2587
2588no contrived humility can conceal it. Nothing antagonizes people and 
2589alienates them from a would-be organizer more than the revealing flashes 
2590of arrogance, vanity, impatience, and contempt of a personal egotism. 
2591
2592The ego of the organizer is stronger and more monumental than the ego 
2593of the leader. The leader is driven by the desire for power, while the 
2594organizer is driven by the desire to create. The organizer is in a true sense 
2595reaching for the highest level for which man can reach — to create, to be a 
2596"great creator," to play God. 
2597
2598An infection of egotism would make it impossible to respect the dignity of 
2599individuals, to understand people, or to strive to develop the other 
2600
2601
2602
2603elements that make up the ideal organizer. Egotism is mainly a defensive 
2604reaction of feelings of personal inadequacy — ego is a positive conviction 
2605and belief in one's ability, with no need for egotistical behavior. 
2606
2607Ego moves on every level. How can an organizer respect the dignity of an 
2608individual if he does not respect his own dignity? How can he believe in 
2609people if he does not really believe in himself? How can he convince 
2610people that they have it within themselves, that they have the power to 
2611stand up to win, if he does not believe it of himself? Ego must be so all- 
2612pervading that the personality of the organizer is contagious, that it 
2613converts the people from despair to defiance, creating a mass ego. 
2614
2615CONFLICT 
2616
2617Conflicts another bad word in the general opinion. This is a consequence 
2618of two influences in our society: one in- 
2619
2620Rules for Radicals 62 
2621
2622fluence is organized religion, which has espoused a rhetoric of "turning the 
2623other cheek" and has quoted the Scriptures as the devil never would have 
2624dared because of their major previous function of supporting the 
2625Establishment. The second influence is probably the most subversive and 
2626insidious one, and it has permeated the American scene in the last 
2627generation: that is Madison Avenue public relations, middle-class moral 
2628hygiene, which has made of conflict or controversy something negative 
2629and undesirable. This has all been part of an Advertising Culture that 
2630emphasizes getting along with people and avoiding friction. If you look at 
2631our television commercials you get the picture that American society is 
2632largely devoted to ensuring that no odors come from our mouths or 
2633armpits. Consensus is a keynote — one must not offend one's fellow man; 
2634and so today we find that people in the mass media are fired for 
2635expressing their opinions or being "controversial"; in the churches they are 
2636
2637
2638
2639fired for the same reason but the words used there are "lacking in 
2640prudence"; and on university campuses, faculty members are fired for the 
2641same reason, but the words used there are "personality difficulties." 
2642
2643Conflict is the essential core of a free and open society. If one were to 
2644project the democratic way of life in the form of a musical score, its major 
2645theme would be the harmony of dissonance. 
2646
2647
2648
2649The Education of an Organizer 
2650
2651THE BUILDING of many mass power organizations to merge into a 
2652national popular power force cannot come without many organizers. Since 
2653organizations are created, in large part, by the organizer, we must find out 
2654what creates the organizer. This has been the major problem of my years 
2655of organizational experience: the finding of potential organizers and their 
2656training. For the past two years I have had a special training school for 
2657organizers with a full-time, fifteen-month program. 
2658
2659Its students have ranged from middle-class women activists to Catholic 
2660priests and Protestant ministers of all denominations, from militant Indians 
2661to Chicanos to Puerto Ricans to blacks from all parts of the black power 
2662spectrum, from Panthers to radical philosophers, from a variety of campus 
2663activists, S.D.S. and others, to a priest who was joining a revolutionary 
2664party in South America. Geographically they have come from campuses 
2665and Jesuit seminaries in Boston to Chicanos from tiny Texas towns, 
2666middle-class people from Chicago and Hartford and Seattle, and almost 
2667every place in between. An increasing num- 
2668
2669Rules for Radicals 64 
2670
2671ber of students come from Canada, from the Indians of the northwest to 
2672the middle class of the Maritime Provinces. For years before the formal 
2673school was begun, I spent most of my time on the education as an 
2674organizer of every member of my staff. 
2675
2676The education of an organizer requires frequent long conferences on 
2677organizational problems, analysis of power patterns, communication, 
2678conflict tactics, the education and development of community leaders, and 
2679
2680
2681
2682the methods of introduction of new issues. In these discussions, we have 
2683found ourselves dealing with quite a range of issues: internal problems of 
2684a clique in a Los Angeles organization out to get rid of its organizer; a 
2685Christmas tree selling fund-raising fiasco in San Jose and why it failed; a 
2686massive voter registration drive in a Chicago project which was being 
2687delayed in getting started; a group in Rochester, New York, attacking the 
2688organizer so that they could get their hot hands on the funds earmarked 
2689for organization — and so on. 
2690
2691Always the potential organizer's personal experience was used as the 
2692basis for teaching. Always after the problem was solved there would be 
2693long sessions in which a postmortem would dissect the specifics and then 
2694stitch them into a synthesis, a body of concepts. All experiences are 
2695significant only insofar as they are related to and illuminating a central 
2696concept. History does not repeat specific situations — if any of the 
2697examples in these pages are read isolated from the general concept, they 
2698will be nothing more than a series of anecdotes. Everything became a 
2699learning experience. 
2700
2701Frequently personal domestic hangups were part of the conferences. An 
2702organizer's working schedule is so 
2703
2704The Education of an Organizer 65 
2705
2706continuous that time is meaningless; meetings and caucuses drag 
2707endlessly into the early morning hours; any schedule is marked by 
2708constant unexpected unscheduled meetings; work pursues an organizer 
2709into his or her home, so that either he is on the phone or there are people 
2710dropping in. The marriage record of organizers is with rare exception 
2711disastrous. Further, the tensions, the hours, the home situation, and the 
2712opportunities, do not argue for fidelity. Also, with rare exception, I have not 
2713known really competent organizers who were concerned about celibacy. 
2714
2715
2716
2717Here and there are wives and husbands or those in love relationships who 
2718understand and are committed to the work, and are real sources of 
2719strength to the organizer. 
2720
2721Besides the full-timers, there were the community leaders whom we 
2722trained on the job to be organizers. Organizers are not only essential to 
2723start and build an organization; they are also essential to keep it going. 
2724Maintaining interest and activity, keeping the group's goals strong and 
2725flexible at once, is a different operation but still organization. 
2726
2727As I look back on the results of those years, they seem to be a potpourri, 
2728with, I would judge, more failures than successes. Here and there are 
2729organizers who are outstanding in their chosen fields and are featured by 
2730the press as my trained "proteges," but to me the overall record has been 
2731unpromising. 
2732
2733Those out of their local communities who were trained on the job achieved 
2734certain levels and were at the end of their line. If one thinks of an organizer 
2735as a highly imaginative and creative architect and engineer then the best 
2736we have been able to train on the job were skilled plumbers, electricians, 
2737and carpenters, all essential to the 
2738
2739Rules for Radicals 66 
2740
2741building and maintenance of their community structure but incapable of 
2742going elsewhere to design and execute a new structure in a new 
2743community. 
2744
2745Then there were others who learned to be outstanding organizers in 
2746particular kinds of communities with particular ethnic groups but in a 
2747different scene with different ethnic groups couldn't organize their way out 
2748of a paper bag. 
2749
2750
2751
2752Then there were those rare campus activists who could organize a 
2753substantial number of students — but they were utter failures when it came 
2754to trying to communicate with and organize lower-middle-class workers. 
2755
2756Labor union organizers turned out to be poor community organizers. Their 
2757experience was tied to a pattern of fixed points, whether it was definite 
2758demands on wages, pensions, vacation periods, or other working 
2759conditions, and all of this was anchored into particular contract dates. 
2760Once the issues were settled and a contract signed, the years before the 
2761next contract negotiation held only grievance meetings about charges on 
2762contract violations by either side. Mass organization is a different animal, it 
2763is not housebroken. There are no fixed chronological points or definite 
2764issues. The demands are always changing; the situation is fluid and ever- 
2765shifting; and many of the goals are not in concrete terms of dollars and 
2766hours but are psychological and constantly changing, like "such stuff as 
2767dreams are made on." I have seen labor organizers almost out of their 
2768minds from the community organization scene. 
2769
2770When labor leaders have talked about organizing the poor, their talk has 
2771been based on nostalgia, a wistful look back to the labor organizers of the 
2772C.I.O. through the great depression of the thirties. Those "labor 
2773organizers" — Powers Hapgood, Henry Johnson, and Lee Pressman, 
2774
2775The Education of an Organizer 67 
2776
2777for instance — were primarily middle-class revolutionary activists to whom 
2778the C.I.O. labor organizing drive was just one of many activities. The 
2779agendas of those labor union mass meetings were 10 per cent on the 
2780specific problems of that union and 90 per cent speakers on the conditions 
2781and needs of the southern Okies, the Spanish Civil War and the 
2782International Brigade, raising funds for blacks who were on trial in some 
2783southern state, demanding higher relief for the unemployed, denouncing 
2784
2785
2786
2787police brutality, raising funds for anti-Nazi organizations, demanding an 
2788end to American sales of scrap iron to the Japanese military complex, and 
2789on and on. They were radicals, and they were good at their job: they 
2790organized vast sectors of middle-class America in support of their 
2791programs. But they are gone, now, and any resemblance between them 
2792and the present professional labor organizer is only in title. 
2793
2794Among the organizers I trained and failed with, there were some who 
2795memorized the words and the related experiences and concepts. Listening 
2796to them was like listening to a tape playing back my presentation word for 
2797word. Clearly there was little understanding; clearly, they could not do 
2798more than elementary organization. The problem with so many of them 
2799was and is their failure to understand that a statement of a specific 
2800situation is significant only in its relationship to and its illumination of a 
2801general concept. Instead they see the specific action as a terminal point. 
2802They find it difficult to grasp the fact that no situation ever repeats itself, 
2803that no tactic can be precisely the same. 
2804
2805Then there were those who had trained in schools of social work to 
2806become community organizers. Community organization 101, 102, and 
2807103. They had done "field 
2808
2809Rules for Radicals 68 
2810
2811work" and acquired even a specialized vocabulary. They call it "CO." 
2812(which to us means Conscientious Objector) or "Community Org." (which 
2813to us evokes a huge Freudian fantasy). Basically the difference between 
2814their goals and ours is that they organize to get rid of four-legged rats and 
2815stop there; we organize to get rid of four-legged rats so we can get on to 
2816removing two-legged rats. Among those who, disillusioned, reject the 
2817formalized garbage they learned in school, the odds are heavily against 
2818their developing into effective organizers. One reason is that despite their 
2819
2820
2821
2822verbal denunciations of their past training there is a strong subconscious 
2823block against repudiating two to three years of life spent in this training, as 
2824well as the financial cost of these courses. 
2825
2826Through these years I have constantly tried to search out reasons for our 
2827failures as well as our occasional successes in training organizers. Our 
2828teaching methods, those of others, our personal competency for teaching, 
2829and improvised new teaching approaches, have and are being examined; 
2830our own self-criticism is far more rigorous than that of our most bitter 
2831critics. All of us have faults. I know that in a community, working as an 
2832organizer, I have unlimited patience in talking to and listening to the local 
2833residents. Any organizer must have this patience. But among my faults is 
2834that in a teaching position at the training institute or at conferences I 
2835become an intellectual snob with unimaginative, limited students, 
2836impatient, bored, and inexcusably rude. 
2837
2838I have improvised teaching approaches. For example, knowing that one 
2839can only communicate and understand in terms of one's experience, we 
2840had to construct experience for our students. Most people do not 
2841accumulate a body of experience. Most people go through life under- 
2842
2843The Education of an Organizer 69 
2844
2845going a series of happenings, which pass through their systems 
2846undigested. Happenings become experiences when they are digested, 
2847when they are reflected on, related to general patterns, and synthesized. 
2848
2849There is meaning to that cliche, "We learn from experience." Our job was 
2850to shovel those happenings back into the student's system so he could 
2851digest them into experience. During a seminar I would say, "Life is the 
2852expectation of the unexpected — the things you worry about rarely happen. 
2853Something new, the unexpected, will usually come in from outside the ball 
2854park. You're all nodding as if you understand but you really don't. What 
2855
2856
2857
2858I've said are just words to you. I want you to go to your private cubbyholes 
2859and think for the next four hours. Try to remember all the things you 
2860worried about during the last years and whether they ever happened or 
2861what did happen — and then we'll talk about it." 
2862
2863At the next session the student reactions were excited, "Hey, you're right. 
2864Only one out of the eight big worries I've had ever happened — and even 
2865that one was different from the way I worried about it. I understand what 
2866you mean." And he did. 
2867
2868While the experience of trying to educate organizers has been nowhere so 
2869successful as I'd hoped, there was a great deal of education for me and 
2870my associates. We were constantly in a state of self-examination. First, we 
2871learned what the qualities of an ideal organizer are; and second, we were 
2872confronted with a basic question: whether it was possible to teach or 
2873educate for the achieving of these qualities. 
2874
2875The area of experience and communication is fundamental to the 
2876organizer. An organizer can communicate only within the areas of 
2877experience of his audience; other- 
2878Rules for Radicals 70 
2879
2880wise there is no communication. The organizer, in his constant hunt for 
2881patterns, universalities, and meaning, is always building up a body of 
2882experience. 
2883
2884Through his imagination he is constantly moving in on the happenings of 
2885others, identifying with them and extracting their happenings into his own 
2886mental digestive system and thereby accumulating more experience. It is 
2887essential for communication that he know of their experiences. Since one 
2888can communicate only through the experiences of the other, it becomes 
2889
2890
2891
2892clear that the organizer begins to develop an abnormally large body of 
2893experience. 
2894
2895He learns the local legends, anecdotes, values, idioms. He listens to small 
2896talk. He refrains from rhetoric foreign to the local culture: he knows that 
2897worn-out words like "white racist," "fascist pig," and "motherfucker" have 
2898been so spewed about that using them is now within the negative 
2899experience of the local people, serving only to identify the speaker as "one 
2900of those nuts" and to turn off any further communication. 
2901
2902And yet the organizer must not try to fake it. He must be himself. I 
2903remember a first meeting with Mexican-American leaders in a California 
2904barrio where they served me a special Mexican dinner. When we were 
2905halfway through I put down my knife and fork saying, "My God! Do you eat 
2906this stuff because you like it or because you have to? I think it's as lousy 
2907as the Jewish kosher crap I had to eat as a kid!" There was a moment of 
2908shocked silence and then everybody roared. Suddenly barriers began to 
2909come down as they all began talking and laughing. They were so 
2910accustomed to the Anglo who would rave about the beauty of Mexican 
2911food even though they knew it was killing him, the Anglo who had 
2912memorized a few Spanish phrases with the inevitable hasta la vista, that it 
2913
2914The Education of an Organizer 71 
2915
2916was a refreshingly honest experience to them. The incident became a 
2917legend to many and you would hear them say, for instance, "He has as 
2918much use for that guy as Alinsky has for Mexican food." A number of the 
2919Mexican-Americans present confessed that they only ate some of those 
2920dishes when they entertained an Anglo. The same faking goes on with 
2921whites on certain items of blacks' "soul food." 
2922
2923There is a difference between honesty and rude disrespect of another's 
2924tradition. The organizer will err far less by being himself than by engaging 
2925
2926
2927
2928in "professional techniques" when the people really know better. It shows 
2929respect for people to be honest, as in the Mexican dinner episode; they 
2930are being treated as people and not guinea pigs being techniqued. It is 
2931most important that this action be understood in context. Prior to my 
2932remark there had been a warm personal discussion of the problems of the 
2933people. They knew not only of my concern about their plight but that I liked 
2934them as people. I felt their response in friendship, and we were together. It 
2935is in this totality of the situation that I did what, otherwise, would have been 
2936offensive. 
2937
2938The qualities we were trying to develop in organizers in the years of 
2939attempting to train them included some qualities that in all probability 
2940cannot be taught. They either had them, or could get them only through a 
2941miracle from above or below. Other qualities they might have as potentials 
2942that could be developed. Sometimes the development of one quality 
2943triggered off unsuspected others. I learned to check against the list and 
2944spot the negatives; and if it was impossible to develop that quality, at least 
2945I could be aware and on guard to try to diminish its negative effect upon 
2946the work. 
2947
2948Rules for Radicals 72 
2949
2950Here is the list of the ideal elements of an organizer — the items one looks 
2951for in identifying potential organizers and in appraising the future 
2952possibilities of new organizers, and the pivot points of any kind of 
2953educational curricula for organizers. Certainly it is an idealized list — I doubt 
2954that such qualities, in such intensity, ever come together in one man or 
2955woman; yet the best of organizers should have them all, to a strong extent, 
2956and any organizer needs at least a degree of each. 
2957
2958Curiosity. What makes an organizer organize? He is driven by a 
2959compulsive curiosity that knows no limits. Warning cliches such as 
2960
2961
2962
2963"curiosity killed a cat" are meaningless to him, for life is for him a search 
2964for a pattern, for similarities in seeming differences, for differences in 
2965seeming similarities, for an order in the chaos about us, for a meaning to 
2966the life around him and its relationship to his own life — and the search 
2967never ends. He goes forth with the question as his mark, and suspects 
2968that there are no answers, only further questions. The organizer becomes 
2969a carrier of the contagion of curiosity, for a people asking "why" are 
2970beginning to rebel. The questioning of the hitherto accepted ways and 
2971values is the reformation stage that precedes and is so essential to the 
2972revolution. 
2973
2974Here, I couldn't disagree more with Freud. In a letter to Marie Bonaparte, 
2975he said, "The moment a man questions the meaning and value of life, he 
2976is sick." If there is, somewhere, an answer about life, I suspect that the key 
2977to it is finding the core question. 
2978
2979Actually, Socrates was an organizer. The function of an organizer is to 
2980raise questions that agitate, that break through the accepted pattern. 
2981Socrates, with his goal of "know thyself," was raising the internal questions 
2982within the individual that are so essential for the revolution which 
2983
2984The Education of an Organizer 73 
2985
2986is external to the individual. So Socrates was carrying out the first stage of 
2987making revolutionaries. If he had been permitted to continue raising 
2988questions about the meaning of life, to examine life and refuse the 
2989conventional values, the internal revolution would soon have moved out 
2990into the political arena. Those who tried him and sentenced him to death 
2991knew what they were doing. 
2992
2993Irreverence. Curiosity and irreverence go together. Curiosity cannot exist 
2994without the other. Curiosity asks, "Is this true?" "Just because this has 
2995always been the way, is this the best or right way of life, the best or right 
2996
2997
2998
2999religion, political or economic value, morality?" To the questioner nothing 
3000is sacred. He detests dogma, defies any finite definition of morality, rebels 
3001against any repression of a free, open search for ideas no matter where 
3002they may lead. He is challenging, insulting, agitating, discrediting. He stirs 
3003unrest. As with all life, this is a paradox, for his irreverence is rooted in a 
3004deep reverence for the enigma of life, and an incessant search for its 
3005meaning. It could be argued that reverence for others, for their freedom 
3006from injustice, poverty, ignorance, exploitation, discrimination, disease, 
3007war, hate, and fear, is not a necessary quality in a successful organizer. 
3008All I can say is that such reverence is a quality I would have to see in 
3009anyone I would undertake to teach. 
3010
3011Imagination. Imagination is the inevitable partner of irreverence and 
3012curiosity. How can one be curious without being imaginative? 
3013
3014According to Webster's Unabridged, imagination is the "mental synthesis 
3015of new ideas from elements experienced separately . . . The broader 
3016meaning . . . starts with the notion of mental imaging of things suggested 
3017but not previously experienced, and thence expands ... to the 
3018
3019Rules for Radicals 74 
3020
3021idea of mental creation and poetic idealization [creative imagination] . . ." 
3022To the organizer, imagination is not only all this but something deeper. It is 
3023the dynamism that starts and sustains him in his whole life of action as an 
3024organizer. It ignites and feeds the force that drives him to organize for 
3025change. 
3026
3027There was a time when I believed that the basic quality that an organizer 
3028needed was a deep sense of anger against injustice and that this was the 
3029prime motivation that kept him going. I now know that it is something else: 
3030this abnormal imagination that sweeps him into a close identification with 
3031mankind and projects him into its plight. He suffers with them and 
3032
3033
3034
3035becomes angry at the injustice and begins to organize the rebellion. 
3036Clarence Darrow put it on more of a self-interest basis: "I had a vivid 
3037imagination. Not only could I put myself in the other person's place, but I 
3038could not avoid doing so. My sympathies always went out to the weak, the 
3039suffering, and the poor. Realizing their sorrows I tried to relieve them in 
3040order that I myself might be relieved." 
3041
3042Imagination is not only the fuel for the force that keeps organizers 
3043organizing, it is also the basis for effective tactics and action. The 
3044organizer knows that the real action is in the reaction of the opposition. To 
3045realistically appraise and anticipate the probable reactions of the enemy, 
3046he must be able to identify with them, too, in his imagination, and foresee 
3047their reactions to his actions. 
3048
3049A sense of humor. Back to Webster's Unabridged: humor is defined as 
3050"The mental faculty of discovering, expressing, or appreciating ludicrous or 
3051absurdly incongruous elements in ideas, situations, happenings, or acts . . 
3052." or "A changing and uncertain state of mind . . ." 
3053
3054The organizer, searching with a free and open mind 
3055
3056The Education of an Organizer 75 
3057
3058void of certainty, hating dogma, finds laughter not just a way to maintain 
3059his sanity but also a key to understanding life. Essentially, life is a tragedy; 
3060and the converse of tragedy is comedy. One can change a few lines in any 
3061Greek tragedy and it becomes a comedy, and vice versa. Knowing that 
3062contradictions are the signposts of progress he is ever on the alert for 
3063contradictions. A sense of humor helps him identify and make sense out of 
3064them. 
3065
3066Humor is essential to a successful tactician, for the most potent weapons 
3067known to mankind are satire and ridicule. 
3068
3069
3070
3071A sense of humor enables him to maintain his perspective and see himself 
3072for what he really is: a bit of dust that burns for a fleeting second. A sense 
3073of humor is incompatible with the complete acceptance of any dogma, any 
3074religious, political, or economic prescription for salvation. It synthesizes 
3075with curiosity, irreverence, and imagination. The organizer has a personal 
3076identity of his own that cannot be lost by absorption or acceptance of any 
3077kind of group discipline or organization. I now begin to understand what I 
3078stated somewhat intuitively in Reveille for Radicals almost twenty years 
3079ago, that "the organizer in order to be part of all can be part of none." 
3080
3081A bit of a blurred vision of a better world. Much of an organizer's daily work 
3082is detail, repetitive and deadly in its monotony. In the totality of things he is 
3083engaged in one small bit. It is as though as an artist he is painting a tiny 
3084leaf. It is inevitable that sooner or later he will react with "What am I doing 
3085spending my whole life just painting one little leaf? The hell with it, I quit." 
3086What keeps him going is a blurred vision of a great mural where other 
3087artists — organizers — are painting their bits, and each piece is essential to 
3088the total. 
3089
3090Rules for Radicals 76 
3091
3092An organized personality. The organizer must be well organized himself so 
3093he can be comfortable in a disorganized situation, rational in a sea of 
3094irrationalities. It is vital that he be able to accept and work with 
3095irrationalities for the purpose of change. 
3096
3097With very rare exceptions, the right things are done for the wrong reasons. 
3098It is futile to demand that men do the right thing for the right reason — this 
3099is a fight with a windmill. The organizer should know and accept that the 
3100right reason is only introduced as a moral rationalization after the right end 
3101has been achieved, although it may have been achieved for the wrong 
3102reason — therefore he should search for and use the wrong reasons to 
3103
3104
3105
3106achieve the right goals. He should be able, with skill and calculation, to 
3107use irrationality in his attempts to progress toward a rational world. 
3108
3109For a variety of reasons the organizer must develop multiple issues. First, 
3110a wide-based membership can only be built on many issues. When we 
3111were building our organization in the Back of the Yards, the Polish Roman 
3112Catholic churches in Chicago joined us because they were concerned 
3113about the expanding power of the Irish Roman Catholic churches. The 
3114Packing House Workers Union was with us — so their rival unions joined, 
3115trying to counteract the potential membership and power pickup. We 
3116didn't, of course, care why they'd joined us — we just knew we'd be better 
3117off if they did. 
3118
3119The organizer recognizes that each person or bloc has a hierarchy of 
3120values. For instance, let us assume that we are in a ghetto community 
3121where everyone is for civil rights. 
3122
3123A black man there had bought a small house when the neighborhood was 
3124first changing, and he wound up paying a highly inflated price — more than 
3125four times the value of 
3126
3127The Education of an Organizer 77 
3128
3129the property. Everything he owns is tied into that house. Urban renewal, 
3130now, is threatening to come in and take it on the basis of a value appraisal 
3131according to their criteria, which would be less than a fourth of his financial 
3132commitment. He is desperately trying to save his own small economic 
3133world. Civil rights would get him to a meeting once a month, maybe he'd 
3134sign some petitions and maybe he'd give a dollar here and there, but on a 
3135fight against urban renewal's threat to wipe out his property, he would 
3136come to meetings every night. 
3137
3138
3139
3140Next door to him is a woman who is renting. She is not concerned about 
3141urban renewal. She has three small girls, and her major worry is the drug 
3142pushers and pimps that infest the neighborhood and threaten the future of 
3143her children. She is for civil rights too, but she is more concerned about a 
3144community free of pimps and pushers; and she wants better schools for 
3145her children. Those are her No. 1 priorities. 
3146
3147Next door to her is a family on welfare; their No. 1 priority is more money. 
3148Across the street there is a family who can be described as the working 
3149poor, struggling to get along on their drastically limited budget — to them, 
3150consumer prices and local merchants' gouging are the No. 1 priorities. Any 
3151tenant of a slum landlord, living among rats and cockroaches, will quickly 
3152tell you what his No. 1 priority is — and so it goes. In a multiple-issue 
3153organization, each person is saying to the other, "I can't get what I want 
3154alone and neither can you. Let's make a deal: I'll support you for what you 
3155want and you support me for what I want." Those deals become the 
3156program. 
3157
3158Not only does a single- or even a dual-issue organization condemn you to 
3159a small organization, it is axiomatic that a single-issue organization won't 
3160last. An organization 
3161
3162Rules for Radicals 78 
3163
3164needs action as an individual needs oxygen. With only one or two issues 
3165there will certainly be a lapse of action, and then comes death. Multiple 
3166issues mean constant action and life. 
3167
3168An organizer must become sensitive to everything that is happening 
3169around him. He is always learning, and every incident teaches him 
3170something. He notices that when a bus has only a few empty seats, the 
3171crowd trying to get on will push and shove; if there are many empty seats 
3172the crowd will be courteous and considerate; and he muses that in a world 
3173
3174
3175
3176of opportunities for all there would be a change in human behavior for the 
3177good. In his constant examination of life and of himself he finds himself 
3178becoming more and more of an organized personality. 
3179
3180A well-integrated political schizoid. The organizer must become schizoid, 
3181politically, in order not to slip into becoming a true believer. Before men 
3182can act an issue must be polarized. Men will act when they are convinced 
3183that their cause is 100 per cent on the side of the angels and that the 
3184opposition are 100 per cent on the side of the devil. He knows that there 
3185can be no action until issues are polarized to this degree. I have already 
3186discussed an example in the Declaration of Independence — the Bill of 
3187Particulars that conspicuously omitted all the advantages the colonies had 
3188gained from the British and cited only the disadvantages. 
3189
3190What I am saying is that the organizer must be able to split himself into 
3191two parts — one part in the arena of action where he polarizes the issue to 
3192100 to nothing, and helps to lead his forces into conflict, while the other 
3193part knows that when the time comes for negotiations that it really is only a 
319410 per cent difference — and yet both parts have to live comfortably with 
3195each other. Only a well- 
3196
3197The Education of an Organizer 79 
3198
3199organized person can split and yet stay together. But this is what the 
3200organizer must do. 
3201
3202Ego. Throughout these desired qualities is interwoven a strong ego, one 
3203we might describe as monumental in terms of solidity. Here we are using 
3204the word ego as discussed in the previous chapter, clearly differentiated 
3205from egotism. Ego is unreserved confidence in one's ability to do what he 
3206believes must be done. An organizer must accept, without fear or worry, 
3207that the odds are always against him. Having this kind of ego, he is a doer 
3208
3209
3210
3211and does. The thought of copping out never stays with him for more than a 
3212fleeting moment; life is action. 
3213
3214A free and open mind, and political relativity. The organizer in his way of 
3215life, with his curiosity, irreverence, imagination, sense of humor, distrust of 
3216dogma, his self-organization, his understanding of the irrationality of much 
3217of human behavior, becomes a flexible personality, not a rigid structure 
3218that breaks when something unexpected happens. Having his own 
3219identity, he has no need for the security of an ideology or a panacea. He 
3220knows that life is a quest for uncertainty; that the only certain fact of life is 
3221uncertainty; and he can live with it. He knows that all values are relative, in 
3222a world of political relativity. Because of these qualities he is unlikely to 
3223disintegrate into cynicism and disillusionment, for he does not depend on 
3224illusion. 
3225
3226Finally, the organizer is constantly creating the new out of the old. He 
3227knows that all new ideas arise from conflict; that every time man has had a 
3228new idea it has been a challenge to the sacred ideas of the past and the 
3229present and inevitably a conflict has raged. Curiosity, irreverence, 
3230imagination, sense of humor, a free and open mind, an acceptance of the 
3231relativity of values and of the uncer- 
3232
3233Rules for Radicals 80 
3234
3235tainty of life, all inevitably fuse into the kind of person whose greatest joy is 
3236creation. He conceives of creation as the very essence of the meaning of 
3237life. In his constant striving for the new, he finds that he cannot endure 
3238what is repetitive and unchanging. For him hell would be doing the same 
3239thing over and over again. 
3240
3241This is the basic difference between the leader and the organizer. The 
3242leader goes on to build power to fulfill his desires, to hold and wield the 
3243
3244
3245
3246power for purposes both social and personal. He wants power himself. 
3247The organizer finds his goal in creation of power for others to use. 
3248
3249These qualities are present in any free, creative person, whether an 
3250educator, or in the arts, or in any part of life. In "Adam Smith's" The Money 
3251Game, the characteristics of the desirable fund manager are described: 
3252
3253It is personal intuition, sensing patterns of behavior. There is always something unknown, 
3254un-discerned. . . . You can't just graduate an analyst into managing funds. What is it the 
3255good managers have? It's a kind of locked-in concentration, an intuition, a feel, nothing 
3256that can be schooled. The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows 
3257himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer. 
3258
3259One would think that this was a description of an organizer but in 
3260everything creative, whether it is organizing a mutual fund or a mutual 
3261society, one is on the hunt for these qualities. Why one becomes an 
3262organizer instead of something else is, I suspect, due to a difference of 
3263degree of intensity of specific elements or relationships between them — or 
3264accident. 
3265
3266
3267
3268Communication 
3269
3270
3271
3272ONE CAN LACK any of the qualities of an organizer — with one 
3273exception — and still be effective and successful. That exception is the art 
3274of communication. It does not matter what you know about anything if you 
3275cannot communicate to your people. In that event you are not even a 
3276failure. You're just not there. 
3277
3278Communication with others takes place when they understand what you're 
3279trying to get across to them. If they don't understand, then you are not 
3280communicating regardless of words, pictures, or anything else. People 
3281only understand things in terms of their experience, which means that you 
3282must get within their experience. Further, communication is a two-way 
3283process. If you try to get your ideas across to others without paying 
3284attention to what they have to say to you, you can forget about the whole 
3285thing. 
3286
3287I know that I have communicated with the other party when his eyes light 
3288up and he responds, "I know exactly what you mean. I had something just 
3289like that happen to me once. Let me tell you about it!" Then I know that 
3290there has been communication. Recently I flew from 
3291
3292Rules for Radicals 82 
3293
3294O'Hare Airport in Chicago to New York. After the jet pulled away from the 
3295gate we heard the familiar announcement, "This is your captain speaking. I 
3296am sorry to advise you that we are No. 18 for take-off. I am turning off the 
3297'No Smoking' sign and will keep you posted." 
3298
3299
3300
3301Many a captain feels compelled to keep you "entertained" with an 
3302incessant stream of verbal garbage. "You will be interested to know that 
3303this airplane fully loaded weighs blah blah tons." You couldn't care less. 
3304Or, "Our flight plan will carry us over Bazickus, Ohio, and then Junk-spot," 
3305etc., etc. However, on this trip the captain of the plane touched on the 
3306experience of many of the passengers and really communicated. In the 
3307midst of his "entertainment" he commented: "Incidentally, I will let you 
3308know when we get the take-off clearance and from the instant you hear 
3309those jets roar for the take-off until the instant of liftoff, we will have 
3310consumed enough fuel for you to drive an automobile from Chicago to 
3311New York and back with detours as well!" You could hear such comments 
3312as, "Oh, come on — he must be kidding." With the announcement of 
3313clearance and the take-off run, passengers all over the plane were looking 
3314at their watches. At the end of approximately 25 seconds to lift-off 
3315passengers were turning to each other saying, "Would you believe it?" It 
3316was evident that, as you might expect, many passengers had been 
3317concerned at some time with the number of miles a car could travel on a 
3318given amount of gas. 
3319
3320Educators are in common agreement on this concept of communication, 
3321even though few teachers use it. But after all, there are only a few real 
3322teachers in that profession. 
3323
3324An educational leader makes this point of understanding and experience 
3325in a very personal way: 
3326
3327Communication 83 
3328
3329"When he has had experience of life." Read Homer and Horace by all means, says 
3330Newman; feed mind and eye and ear with their images and language and music; but do 
3331not expect to understand what they are really talking about before you are forty. 
3332
3333
3334
3335This truth was first brought home to me more than thirty years ago one December day, as 
3336I walked down the road from Argentieres to Chamonix after a snowfall, and suddenly 
3337from the abyss of unconscious memory a line of Virgil rose into my mind and I found 
3338myself repeating 
3339
3340Sed iacet agger/bus niveis inform is et alto 
3341
3342Terra gelu. 
3343
3344I had read the words at school and no doubt translated them glibly "the earth lies formless 
3345under snowdrifts and deep frost"; but suddenly, with the snow scene before my eyes, I 
3346perceived for the first time what Virgil meant by the epithet informis, "without form," and 
3347how perfectly it describes the work of snow, which literally does make the world formless, 
3348blurring the sharp outlines of roofs and eaves, of pines and rocks and mountain ridges, 
3349taking from them their definite-ness of shape and form. Yet how many times before that 
3350day had I read the words without seeing what they really mean! It is not that the word 
3351informis meant nothing to me when I was an undergraduate; but it meant much less than 
3352its full meaning. Personal experience was necessary to real understanding. 
3353
3354— Sir Richard Livingstone, On Education, New York, 1945, p. 13. 
3355
3356Every now and then I have been accused of being crude and vulgar 
3357because I have used analogies of sex or the toilet. I do not do this 
3358because I want to shock, 
3359
3360Rules for Radicals 84 
3361
3362particularly, but because there are certain experiences common to all, and 
3363sex and toilet are two of them. Furthermore, everyone is interested in 
3364those two — which can't be said of every common experience. I remember 
3365explaining relativity in morals by telling the following story. A question is 
3366put to three women, one American, one British, and one French: What 
3367would they do if they found themselves shipwrecked on a desert island 
3368with six sex-hungry men? The American woman said she would try to hide 
3369and build a raft at night or send up smoke signals in order to escape. The 
3370British woman said she would pick the strongest man and shack up with 
3371
3372
3373
3374him, so that he could protect her from the others. The French woman 
3375looked up quizzically and asked, "What's the problem?" 
3376
3377Since people understand only in terms of their own experience, an 
3378organizer must have at least a cursory familiarity with their experience. It 
3379not only serves communication but it strengthens the personal 
3380identification of the organizer with the others, and facilitates further 
3381communication. For example, in one community there was a Greek 
3382Orthodox priest, who will be called here the Archimandrite Anastopolis. 
3383Every Saturday night, faithfully followed by six of his church members, he 
3384would tour the local taverns. After some hours of imbibing he would 
3385suddenly stiffen, and become so drunk that he was paralyzed. At this point 
3386his faithful six, like pallbearers, would carry him through the streets back to 
3387the safety of his church. Over the years it became part of the community's 
3388experience, in fact a living legend. In talking to anyone in that 
3389neighborhood you could not communicate the fact that something was out 
3390of place, not with it, except to say it was "out like the Archimandrite." The 
3391response would be laughter, nodding of heads, a "Yeah, we know what 
3392
3393Communication 85 
3394
3395you mean" — but also an intimacy of sharing a common experience. 
3396
3397When you are trying to communicate and can't find the point in the 
3398experience of the other party at which he can receive and understand, 
3399then, you must create the experience for him. 
3400
3401I was trying to explain to two staff organizers in training how their problems 
3402in their community arose because they had gone outside the experience of 
3403their people: that when you go outside anyone's experience not only do 
3404you not communicate, you cause confusion. They had earnest, intelligent 
3405expressions on their faces and were verbally and visually agreeing and 
3406understanding, but I knew they really didn't understand and that I was not 
3407
3408
3409
3410communicating. I had not got into their experience. So I had to give them 
3411an experience. 
3412
3413We were having lunch in a restaurant at the time. I called their attention to 
3414the luncheon menu listing eight items or combinations and all numbered. 
3415Item No. 1 was bacon and eggs, potatoes, toast and coffee; Item No. 2, 
3416something else, and Item No. 6 was a chicken-liver omelet. I explained 
3417that the waiter was conditioned in terms of his experience to immediately 
3418translate any order into its accompanying number. He would listen to the 
3419words "bacon and eggs," etc. but his mind had already clicked "No. 1." 
3420The only variation was whether the eggs were to be done easy or the 
3421bacon very crisp, in which case he would call out, "No. 1, easy," or a 
3422variation thereof. 
3423
3424With this clear, I said, "Now, when the waiter takes my order, instead of 
3425my saying 'a chicken-liver omelet,' which to him is No. 6, I will go outside 
3426his area of experience and say 'You see this chicken-liver omelet?' He will 
3427respond, 'Yes, No. 6.' I will say, 'Well, just a minute. I 
3428
3429Rules for Radicals 86 
3430
3431don't want the chicken livers in the omelet. I want the omelet with the 
3432chicken livers on the side — now, is that clear?' He will say it is, and then 
3433the odds are 9 to 1 everything is going to get screwed up because he can't 
3434just order No. 6 any more. I don't know what will happen but I have gone 
3435outside his accepted area of experience." 
3436
3437The waiter took my order precisely as I have described above. In about 
3438twenty minutes he returned with an omelet and a full order of chicken 
3439livers, as well as a bill for $3.25 — $1 .75 for the omelet and $1 .50 for the 
3440chicken livers. I objected and immediately took issue, pointing out that all I 
3441had wanted was No. 6, the total price of which was $1.50, but that instead 
3442of having the livers mixed in with the omelet, I had wanted them on the 
3443
3444
3445
3446side. Now there was a full omelet, a full order of chicken livers, and a bill 
3447for nearly three times the menu price. Furthermore I could not eat a full 
3448order of chicken livers as well as the omelet. Confusion came down. 
3449Waiter and manager huddled. Finally the waiter returned, flushed and 
3450upset: "Sorry about the mistake — everybody got mixed up — eat whatever 
3451you want." The bill was changed back to the original price for No. 6. 
3452
3453In a similar situation in Los Angeles four staff members and I were talking 
3454in front of the Biltmore Hotel when I demonstrated the same point, saying: 
3455"Look, I am holding a ten-dollar bill in my hand. I propose to walk around 
3456the Biltmore Hotel, a total of four blocks, and try to give it away. This will 
3457certainly be outside of everyone's experience. You four walk behind me 
3458and watch the faces of the people I'll approach. I am going to go up to 
3459them holding out this ten-dollar bill and say, 'Here, take this.' My guess is 
3460that everyone will back off, look confused, insulted, or fearful, and want to 
3461get away from this nut fast. 
3462
3463Communication 87 
3464
3465From their experience when someone approaches them he is either out to 
3466ask for instructions or to panhandle — particularly the way I'm dressed, no 
3467coat or tie." 
3468
3469I walked around, trying to give the ten-dollar bill away. The reactions were 
3470all "within the experiences of the people." About three of them, seeing the 
3471ten-dollar bill, spoke first — "I'm sorry. I don't have any change." Others 
3472hurried past saying, "I'm sorry, I don't have any money on me right now," 
3473as though I had been trying to get money from them instead of trying to 
3474give them money. One young woman flared up, almost screaming, "I'm not 
3475that kind of a girl and if you don't get away from here, I'll call a cop!" 
3476Another woman in her thirties snarled, "I don't come that cheap!" There 
3477was one man who stopped and said, "What kind of a con game is this?" 
3478
3479
3480
3481and then walked away. Most of the people responded with shock, 
3482confusion, and silence, and they quickened their pace and sort of walked 
3483around me. 
3484
3485After approximately fourteen people, I found myself back at the front 
3486entrance of the Biltmore Hotel, still holding my ten-dollar bill. My four 
3487companions had, then, a clearer understanding of the concept that people 
3488react strictly on the basis of their own experience. 
3489
3490For another example of the same principle, here is a Christian civilization 
3491where most people have gone to church and have mouthed various 
3492Christian doctrines, and yet this is really not part of their experience 
3493because they haven't lived it. Their church experience has been purely a 
3494ritualistic decoration. 
3495
3496The New York Times some years ago reported the case of a man who 
3497converted to Catholicism at around the age of forty and then, filled with the 
3498zeal of a convert, determined to emulate as far as possible the life of St. 
3499Francis 
3500
3501Rules for Radicals 88 
3502
3503of Assisi. He withdrew his life's savings, about $2,300. He took this money 
3504out in $5 bills. Armed with his bundle of $5 bills, he went down to the 
3505poorest section of New York City, the Bowery (this was before the time of 
3506urban renewal), and every time a needy-looking man or woman passed by 
3507him he would step up and say, "Please take this." Now, the difference 
3508between this situation and mine around the Biltmore Hotel is that the 
3509panhandlers on the Bowery would not find an offer of money or of a bowl 
3510of soup outside their experience. At any rate, our friend attempting to live a 
3511Christian life and emulate St. Francis of Assisi found that he could do so 
3512for only forty minutes before being arrested by a Christian police officer, 
3513driven to Bellevue Hospital by a Christian ambulance doctor, and 
3514
3515
3516
3517pronounced non compos mentis by a Christian psychiatrist. Christianity is 
3518beyond the experience of a Christian-professing-but-not-practicing 
3519population. 
3520
3521In mass organization, you can't go outside of people's actual experience. 
3522I've been asked, for example, why I never talk to a Catholic priest or a 
3523Protestant minister or a rabbi in terms of the Judaeo-Christian ethic or the 
3524Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. I never talk in those 
3525terms. Instead I approach them on the basis of their own self-interest, the 
3526welfare of their Church, even its physical property. 
3527
3528If I approached them in a moralistic way, it would be outside their 
3529experience, because Christianity and Judaeo-Christianity are outside of 
3530the experience of organized religion. They would just listen to me and very 
3531sympathetically tell me how noble I was. And the moment I walked out 
3532they'd call their secretaries in and say, "If that screwball ever shows up 
3533again, tell him I'm out." 
3534
3535Communication for persuasion, as in negotiation, is 
3536
3537Communication 89 
3538
3539more than entering the area of another person's experience. It is getting a 
3540fix on his main value or goal and holding your course on that target. You 
3541don't communicate with anyone purely on the rational facts or ethics of an 
3542issue. The spisode between Moses and God, when the Jews had begun to 
3543worship the Golden Calf,* is revealing. Moses did not try to communicate 
3544with God in terms of mercy or justice when God was angry and wanted to 
3545destroy the Jews; he moved in on a top value and outmaneuvered God. It 
3546is only when the other party is concerned or feels threatened that he will 
3547listen — in the arena of action, a threat or a crisis becomes almost a 
3548precondition to communication. 
3549
3550
3551
3552A great organizer, like Moses, never loses his cool as a lesser man might 
3553have done when God said: "Go, get 
3554
3555* "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, get thee down: thy people, which thou hast 
3556brought out of the land of Egypt hath sinned. 
3557
3558"They have quickly strayed from the way which thou didst shew them: and they have 
3559made to themselves a molten calf and have adored it, and sacrificing victims to it, have 
3560said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. 
3561
3562"And again the Lord said to Moses: See that this people is stiff necked: 
3563
3564"Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, 
3565and I will make of thee a great nation. 
3566
3567"But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: Why, O Lord, is thy indignation enkindled 
3568against thy people, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, 
3569and with a mighty hand? 
3570
3571"Let not the Egyptians say, I beseech thee: He craftily brought them out that he might kill 
3572them in the mountains, and destroy them from the earth: let thy anger cease, and be 
3573appeased upon the wickedness of thy people. 
3574
3575"Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou sworest by thy own 
3576self, saying: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven: and this whole land that I 
3577have spoken of, I will give to your seed, and you shall possess it for ever. 
3578
3579"And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which he had spoken against his 
3580people." 
3581
3582— Exodus 32: 7-14, Douay-Rheims ed. 
3583
3584Rules for Radicals 90 
3585
3586thee down: thy people, whom thouhast brought out of the land of Egypt 
3587hath sinned." At that point, if Moses had dropped his cool in any way, one 
3588would have expected him to reply, "Where do you get off with all that stuff 
3589about my people whom /brought out of the land of Egypt ... I was just 
3590
3591
3592
3593taking a walk through the desert and who started that bush burning, and 
3594who told me to get over to Egypt, and who told me to get those people out 
3595of slavery, and who pulled all the power plays, and all the plagues, and 
3596who split the Red Sea, and who put a pillar of clouds up in the sky, and 
3597now all of a sudden they become my people." 
3598
3599But Moses kept his cool, and he knew that the most important center of his 
3600attack would have to be on what he judged to be God's prime value. As 
3601Moses read it, it was that God wanted to be No. 1 . All through the Old 
3602Testament one bumps into "there shall be no other Gods before me," 
3603"Thou shalt not worship false gods," "I am a jealous and vindictive God," 
3604"Thou shalt not use the Lord's name in vain." And so it goes, on and on, 
3605including the first part of the Ten Commandments. 
3606
3607Knowing this, Moses took off on his attack. He began arguing and telling 
3608God to cool it. (At this point, trying to figure out Moses' motivations, one 
3609would wonder whether it was because he was loyal to his own people, or 
3610felt sorry for them, or whether he just didn't want the job of breeding a 
3611whole new people, because after all he was pushing 120 and that's asking 
3612a lot.) At any rate, he began to negotiate, saying, "Look, God, you're God. 
3613You're holding all the cards. Whatever you want to do you can do and 
3614nobody can stop you. But you know, God, you just can't scratch that deal 
3615you've got with these people — you remember, the Covenant — in which you 
3616promised them not 
3617
3618Communication 91 
3619
3620only to take them out of slavery but that they would practically inherit the 
3621earth. Yeah, I know, you're going to tell me that they broke their end of it 
3622all so all bets are off. But it isn't that easy. You're in a spot. The news of 
3623this deal has leaked out all over the joint. The Egyptians, Philistines, 
3624Canaanites, everybodyknows about it. But, as I said before, you're God. 
3625
3626
3627
3628Go ahead and knock them off. What do you care if people are going to 
3629say, There goes God. You can't believe anything he tells you. You can't 
3630make a deal with him. His word isn't even worth the stone it's written on.' 
3631But after all, you're God and I suppose you can handle it." 
3632
3633And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which he had spoken against his people. 
3634
3635Another maxim in effective communication is that people have to make 
3636their own decisions. It isn't just that Moses couldn't tell God what God 
3637should do; no organizer can tell a community, either, what to do. Much of 
3638the time, though, the organizer will have a pretty good idea of what the 
3639community should be doing, and he will want to suggest, maneuver, and 
3640persuade the community toward that action. He will not ever seem to tell 
3641the community what to do; instead, he will use loaded questions. For 
3642example, in a meeting on tactics where the organizer is convinced that 
3643tactic Z is the thing to do: 
3644
3645Organizer: What do you think we should do now? Community Leader No. 
36461 : I think we should do tactic X. Organizer: What do you think, Leader No. 
36472? Leader No. 2: Yeah, that sounds pretty good to me. Organizer: What 
3648about you, No. 3? 
3649
3650Rules for Radicals 92 
3651
3652Leader No. 3: Well, I don't know. It sounds good but something worries 
3653me. What do you think, organizer? 
3654
3655Organizer: The important thing is what you guys think. What's the 
3656something that worries you? 
3657
3658Leader No. 3: I don't know — it's something — 
3659
3660Organizer: I got a hunch that — I don't know, but I remember yesterday you 
3661and No. 1 talking and explaining to me something about somebody who 
3662
3663
3664
3665once tried something like tactic X and it left him wide open because of this 
3666and that so it didn't work or something. Remember telling me about that, 
3667No. 1? 
3668
3669Leader No. 1 (who has been listening and now knows tactic X won't work): 
3670Sure. Sure. I remember. Yeah, well, we all know X won't work. 
3671
3672Organizer: Yeah. We also know that unless we put out all the things that 
3673won't work, we'll never get to the one that will. Right? 
3674
3675Leader No. 1 (fervently): Absolutely! 
3676
3677And so the guided questioning goes on without anyone losing face or 
3678being left out of the decision-making. Every weakness of every proposed 
3679tactic is probed by questions. Eventually someone suggests tactic Z, and, 
3680again through questions, its positive features emerge and it is decided on. 
3681
3682Is this manipulation? Certainly, just as a teacher manipulates, and no less, 
3683even a Socrates. As time goes on and education proceeds, the leadership 
3684becomes increasingly sophisticated. The organizer recedes from the local 
3685circle of decision-makers. His response to questions about what Rethinks 
3686becomes a non-directive counterquestion, "What do you think?" His job 
3687becomes one of weaning the group away from any dependency upon him. 
3688Then his job is done. 
3689
3690Communication 93 
3691
3692While the organizer proceeds on the basis of questions, the community 
3693leaders always regard his judgment above their own. They believe that he 
3694knows his job, he knows the right tactics, that's why he is their organizer. 
3695The organizer knows that even if they feel that way consciously, if he 
3696starts issuing orders and "explaining," it would begin to build up a 
3697subconscious resentment, a feeling that the organizer is putting them 
3698
3699
3700
3701down, is not respecting their dignity as individuals. The organizer knows 
3702that it is a human characteristic that someone who asks for help and gets 
3703it reacts not only with gratitude but with a subconscious hostility toward the 
3704one who helped him. It is a sort of psychic "original sin" because he feels 
3705that the one who helped him is always aware that if it hadn't been for his 
3706help, he would still be a defeated nothing. All this involves a skillful and 
3707sensitive role-playing on the part of the organizer. In the beginning the 
3708organizer is the general, he knows where, what, and how, but he never 
3709wears his four stars, never is addressed as nor acts as a general — he is 
3710an organizer. 
3711
3712There are times, too — plenty of them — when the organizer discovers in the 
3713course of discussions like the one above that tactic Z, or whatever it was 
3714he decided on ahead of time, is not the appropriate tactic. At this point, 
3715let's hope his ego is strong enough to allow someone else to have the 
3716answer. 
3717
3718One of the factors that changes what you can and can't communicate is 
3719relationships. There are sensitive areas that one does not touch until there 
3720is a strong personal relationship based on common involvements. 
3721Otherwise the other party turns off and literally does not hear, regardless 
3722of whether your words are within his experience. 
3723
3724Rules for Radicals 94 
3725
3726Conversely, if you have a good relationship, he is very receptive, and your 
3727"message" comes through in a positive context. 
3728
3729For example, I have always believed that birth control and abortion are 
3730personal rights to be exercised by the individual. If, in my early days when 
3731I organized the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago, which was 95 
3732per cent Roman Catholic, I had tried to communicate this, even through 
3733the experience of the residents, whose economic plight was aggravated by 
3734
3735
3736
3737large families, that would have been the end of my relationship with the 
3738community. That instant I would have been stamped as an enemy of the 
3739church and all communication would have ceased. Some years later, after 
3740establishing solid relationships, I was free to talk about anything, including 
3741birth control. I remember discussing it with the then Catholic Chancellor. 
3742By then the argument was no longer limited to such questions as, "How 
3743much longer do you think the Catholic Church can hang on to this archaic 
3744notion and still survive?" I remember seeing five priests in the waiting 
3745room who wanted to see the chancellor, and knowing his contempt for 
3746each one of them, I said, "Look, I'll prove to you that you do really believe 
3747in birth control even though you are making all kinds of noises against it," 
3748and then I opened the door, saying, "Take a look out there. Can you look 
3749at them and tell me you oppose birth control?" He cracked up and said 
3750"That's an unfair argument and you know it," but the subject and nature of 
3751the discussion would have been unthinkable without that solid relationship. 
3752
3753A classic example of the failure to communicate because the organizer 
3754has gone completely outside the experience of the people, is the attempt 
3755by campus activists 
3756
3757Communication 95 
3758
3759to indicate to the poor the bankruptcy of their prevailing values. "Take my 
3760word for it — if you get a good job and a split-level ranch house out in the 
3761suburbs, a color TV, two cars, and money in the bank, that just won't bring 
3762you happiness." The response without exception is always, "Yeah. Let me 
3763be the judge of that one — I'll let you know after I get it." 
3764
3765Communication on a general basis without being fractured into the 
3766specifics of experience becomes rhetoric and it carries a very limited 
3767meaning. It is the difference between being informed of the death of a 
3768quarter of a million people — which becomes a statistic — or the death of 
3769
3770
3771
3772one or two close friends or loved ones or members of one's family. In the 
3773latter it becomes the full emotional impact of the finality of tragedy. In 
3774trying to explain what the personal relationship means, I have told various 
3775audiences, "If the chairman of this meeting had opened up by saying, 'I am 
3776shocked and sorry to have to report to you that we have just been notified 
3777that Mr. Alinsky has just been killed in a plane crash and therefore this 
3778lecture is canceled,' the only reaction you would have would be, 'Well, 
3779gee, that's too bad. I wonder what he was like, but oh, well, let's see, what 
3780are we going to do this evening. We've got the evening free now. We 
3781could go to a movie.' And that is all that one would expect, except of those 
3782who have known me in the past, regardless of what the relationship was. 
3783
3784"Now suppose after finishing this lecture, let us assume that all of you 
3785have disagreed with everything I have said; you don't like my face, the 
3786sound of my voice, my manner, my clothes, you just don't like me, period. 
3787Let us further assume that I am to lecture to you again next week, and at 
3788that time you are informed of my sudden death. Your reaction will be very 
3789different, regardless of your 
3790
3791Rules for Radicals 96 
3792
3793dislike. You will react with shock: you will say, 'Why, just yesterday he was 
3794alive, breathing, talking, and laughing. It just seems incredible to believe 
3795that suddenly like that he's gone.' This is the human reaction to a personal 
3796relationship." 
3797
3798What is of particular importance here however is the fact that you were 
3799dealing with one specific person and not a general mass. 
3800
3801It is what was implicit in the reputed statement of that organizational 
3802genius Samuel Adams, at the time when he was allegedly planning the 
3803Boston Massacre; he was quoted as saying that there ought to be no less 
3804than three or four killed so that we will have martyrs for the Revolution, but 
3805
3806
3807
3808there must be no more than ten, because after you get beyond that 
3809number we no longer have martyrs but simply a sewage problem. 
3810
3811This is the problem in trying to communicate on the issue of the H bomb. It 
3812is too big. It involves too many casualties. It is beyond the experience of 
3813people and they just react with, "Yeah, it is a terrible thing," but it really 
3814does not grip them. It is the same thing with figures. The moment one gets 
3815into the area of $25 million and above, let alone a billion, the listener is 
3816completely out of touch, no longer really interested, because the figures 
3817have gone above his experience and almost are meaningless. Millions of 
3818Americans do not know how many million dollars make up a billion. 
3819
3820This element of the specific that must be small enough to be grasped by 
3821the hands of experience ties very definitely into the whole scene of issues. 
3822Issues must be able to be communicated. It is essential that they can be 
3823communicated. It is essential that they be simple enough to be grasped as 
3824rallying or battle cries. They cannot be 
3825
3826Communication 97 
3827
3828generalities like sin or immorality or the good life or morals. They must be 
3829this immorality of //7/sslum landlord with //7/sslum tenement where these 
3830people suffer. 
3831
3832It should be obvious by now that communication occurs concretely, by 
3833means of one's specific experience. General theories become meaningful 
3834only when one has absorbed and understood the specific constituents and 
3835then related them back to a general concept. Unless this is done, the 
3836specifics become nothing more than a string of interesting anecdotes. That 
3837is the world as it is in communication. 
3838
3839
3840
3841In the Beginning 
3842
3843
3844
3845IN THE BEGINNING the incoming organizer must establish his identity or, 
3846putting it another way, get his license to operate. He must have a reason 
3847for being there — a reason acceptable to the people. 
3848
3849Any stranger is suspect. "Who's the cat?" "What's he asking all those 
3850questions for?" "Is he really the cops or the F.B.I.?" "What's his bag?" 
3851"What's he really after?" "What's in it for him?" "Who's he working for?" 
3852
3853The answers to these questions must be acceptable in terms of the 
3854experience of the community. If the organizer begins with an affirmation of 
3855his love for people, he promptly turns everyone off. If, on the other hand, 
3856he begins with a denunciation of exploiting employers, slum landlords, 
3857police shakedowns, gouging merchants, he is inside their experience and 
3858they accept him. People can make judgments only on the basis of their 
3859own experiences. And the question in their minds is, "If we were in the 
3860organizer's position, would we do what he is doing and if so, why?" Until 
3861they have an answer that is at least somewhat acceptable they find it 
3862difficult to understand and accept the organizer. 
3863
3864In the Beginning 99 
3865
3866His acceptance as an organizer depends on his success in convincing key 
3867people — and many others — first, that he is on their side, and second, that 
3868he has ideas, and knows how to fight to change things; that he's not one of 
3869these guys "doing his thing," that he's a winner. Otherwise who needs 
3870him? All his presence means is that the census changes from 225,000 to 
3871225,001. 
3872
3873
3874
3875It is not enough to persuade them of your competence, talents, and 
3876courage — they must have faith in your ability and courage. They must 
3877believe in your capacity not just to provide the opportunity for action, 
3878power, change, adventure, a piece of the drama of life, but to give a very 
3879definite promise, almost an assurance of victory. They must also have 
3880faith in your courage to fight the oppressive establishment — courage that 
3881they, too, will begin to get once they have the protective armor of a power 
3882organization, but don't have during the first lonely steps forward. 
3883
3884Love and faith are not common companions. More commonly power and 
3885fear consort with faith. The Have-Nots have a limited faith in the worth of 
3886their own judgments. They still look to the judgments of the Haves. They 
3887respect the strength of the upper class and they believe that the Haves are 
3888more intelligent, more competent, and endowed with "something special." 
3889Distance has a way of enhancing power, so that respect becomes tinged 
3890with reverence. The Haves are the authorities and thus the beneficiaries of 
3891the various myths and legends that always develop around power. The 
3892Have-Nots will believe them where they would be hesitant and uncertain 
3893about their own judgments. Power is not to be crossed; one must respect 
3894and obey. Power means strength, whereas love is a human frailty the 
3895people mistrust. It is a sad fact of life that power and fear are the 
3896fountainheads of faith. 
3897
3898Rules for Radicals 100 
3899
3900The job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that 
3901it will publicly attack him as a "dangerous enemy." The word "enemy" is 
3902sufficient to put the organizer on the side of the people, to identify him with 
3903the Have-Nots, but it is not enough to endow him with the special qualities 
3904that induce fear and thus give him the means to establish his own power 
3905against the establishment. Here again we find that it is power and fear that 
3906are essential to the development of faith. This need is met by the 
3907
3908
3909
3910establishment's use of the brand "dangerous," for in that one word the 
3911establishment reveals its fear of the organizer, its fear that he represents a 
3912threat to its omnipotence. Now the organizer has his "birth certificate" and 
3913can begin. 
3914
3915In 1939, when I first began to organize back of the old Chicago 
3916stockyards, on the site of Upton Sinclair's Jungle, I acted in such a way 
3917that within a few weeks the meatpackers publicly pronounced me a 
3918"subversive menace." The Chicago Tribune's adoption of me as a public 
3919enemy of law and order, "a radical's radical," gave me a perennial and 
3920constantly renewable baptismal certificate in the city of Chicago. A 
3921generation later, in a black community on Chicago's South Side, next to 
3922my alma mater, the University of Chicago, it was the university's virulent 
3923personal attack on me, augmented by attacks by the press, that 
3924strengthened my credentials with a black community somewhat suspicious 
3925of white skin. Eastman Kodak and the Gannett newspaper chain did the 
3926same for me in Rochester, New York. In both black ghettos, in Chicago 
3927and in Rochester, the reaction was: "The way the fat-cat white 
3928newspapers are ripping hell out of Alinsky — he must be all right!" I could 
3929very easily have gone into either Houston, Texas or Oakland, California; in 
3930the former, the 
3931
3932In the Beginning 101 
3933
3934Ku Klux Klan appeared at the airport in full regalia, with threats against my 
3935personal security. The Houston press printed charges against me by the 
3936Mayor of Houston, and there was a mass picket line by the John Birch 
3937Society. In Oakland, the City Council, fearing the possibility of my coming 
3938into Oakland, passed a widely publicized special resolution declaring me 
3939unwelcome in the city. In both cases, the black communities were treated 
3940to the spectacle of seeing the establishment react with unusually severe 
3941fear and hysteria. 
3942
3943
3944
3945Establishing one's credentials of competency is only part of the organizer's 
3946first job. He needs other credentials to begin — credentials that enable him 
3947to meet the question, "Who asked you to come in here?" with the answer, 
3948"You did." He must be invited by a significant sector of the local 
3949population, their churches, street organizations, social clubs, or other 
3950groups. 
3951
3952Today my notoriety and the hysterical instant reaction of the establishment 
3953not only validate my credentials of competency but also ensure automatic 
3954popular invitation. An example was the invitation into the black ghettos in 
3955Rochester. 
3956
3957In 1964 Rochester exploded in a bloody race riot resulting in the calling of 
3958the National Guard, the fatal crash of a police helicopter, and considerable 
3959loss of life and property. In its wake, the city was numb with shock. A city 
3960proud of its affluence, culture, and progressive churches, was dazed and 
3961guilt-ridden at its rude discovery of the misery of life in the ghetto and of its 
3962failure to do anything about it. The City Council of Churches, representing 
3963the Protestant churches, approached me and asked me if I would be 
3964available to help organize the black ghetto to get equality, jobs, housing, 
3965quality education, 
3966
3967Rules for Radicals 102 
3968
3969and particularly power to participate in the decision-making in all public 
3970programs involving their people. They also demanded that the 
3971representatives of the black community be those chosen by the blacks and 
3972not those selected by the white establishment. I advised the church 
3973council of the cost and said that my organization was available. The 
3974council agreed to the cost and "invited" us to come in and organize. I 
3975replied, then, that the churches had a right to invite us in to organize their 
3976people in /^//"neighborhoods, but that they had no right to speak for, let 
3977
3978
3979
3980alone invite anyone into, the black community. I emphasized that we were 
3981not a colonial power like the churches who sent their missionaries 
3982everywhere whether they were invited or not. The black community had 
3983been silent — but at that point panic gripped the white establishment. The 
3984Rochester press, in front page stories and editorials, raised the cry that if I 
3985came to Rochester it would mean the end of good fellowship, of 
3986Brotherhood Week, of Christian understanding between black and white! It 
3987meant that I would say to the blacks, "The only way you can get your 
3988legitimate rights is to organize, get the power and tell the white 
3989establishment 'either come around or else!'" The blacks read and heard 
3990and agreed. Between the press and the mass media you would have 
3991assumed that my coming to Rochester was equivalent to the city's being 
3992invaded by the Russians, the Chinese, and the bubonic plague. 
3993Rochesterians will never forget it, and one had to be there to believe it. 
3994And so we were invited in by nearly every church and organization in the 
3995ghetto and by petitions signed by thousands of ghetto residents. Now we 
3996had a legitimate right to be there, even more of a right than any of the 
3997inviting organizations in the ghetto, for 
3998
3999In the Beginning 103 
4000
4001even they had not been invited in by the mass of their community. 
4002
4003This advantage is the dividend of reputation, but the important issue here 
4004is how the organizer without a reputation gets the invitation. 
4005
4006The organizer's job is to inseminate an invitation for himself, to agitate, 
4007introduce ideas, get people pregnant with hope and a desire for change 
4008and to identify you as the person most qualified for this purpose. Here the 
4009tool of the organizer, in the agitation leading to the invitation as well as 
4010actual organization and education of local leadership, is the use of the 
4011question, the Socratic method: 
4012
4013
4014
4015Organizer: Do you live over in that shimmy building? 
4016
4017Answer: Yeah. What about it? 
4018
4019Organizer: What the hell do you live there for? 
4020
4021Answer: What do you mean, what do I live there for? Where else am I 
4022going to live? I'm on welfare. 
4023
4024Organizer: Oh, you mean you pay rent in that place? 
4025
4026Answer: Come on, is this a put-on? Very funny! You know where you can 
4027live for free? 
4028
4029Organizer: Hmm. That place looks like it's crawling with rats and bugs. 
4030
4031Answer: It sure is. 
4032
4033Organizer: Did you ever try to get that landlord to do anything about it? 
4034
4035Answer: Try to get him to do anything about anything! If you don't like it, 
4036get out. That's all he has to say. There are plenty more waiting. 
4037
4038Organizer: What if you didn't pay your rent? 
4039
4040Answer: They'd throw us out in ten minutes. 
4041
4042Organizer: Hmm. What if nobody in that building paid their rent? 
4043
4044Rules for Radicals 104 
4045
4046Answer: Well, they'd start to throw . . . Hey, you know, they'd have trouble 
4047throwing everybody out, wouldn't they? 
4048
4049Organizer: Yeah, I guess they would. 
4050
4051
4052
4053Answer: Hey, you know, maybe you got something — say, I'd like you to 
4054meet some of my friends. How about a drink? 
4055
4056POLICY AFTER POWER 
4057
4058One of the great problems in the beginning of an organization is, often, 
4059that the people do not know what they want. Discovering this stirs up, in 
4060the organizer, that inner doubt shared by so many, whether the masses of 
4061people are competent to make decisions for a democratic society. It is the 
4062schizophrenia of a free society that we outwardly espouse faith in the 
4063people but inwardly have strong doubts whether the people can be 
4064trusted. These reservations can destroy the effectiveness of the most 
4065creative and talented organizer. Many times, contact with low-income 
4066groups does not fire one with enthusiasm for the political gospel of 
4067democracy. This disillusionment comes partly because we romanticize the 
4068poor in a way we romanticize other sectors of society, and partly because 
4069when you talk with any people you find yourselves confronted with cliches, 
4070a variety of superficial, stereotyped responses, and a general lack of 
4071information. In a black ghetto if you ask, "What's wrong?" you are told, 
4072"Well, the schools are segregated." "What do you think should be done to 
4073make 
4074
4075In the Beginning 105 
4076
4077better schools?" "Well, they should be desegregated." "How?" "Well, you 
4078know." And if you say you don't know, then a lack of knowledge or an 
4079inability on the part of the one you are talking to may show itself in a 
4080defensive, hostile reaction: "You whites were responsible for the 
4081segregation in the first place. We didn't do it. So it's your problem, not 
4082ours. You started it, you finish it." If you pursue the point by asking, "Well, 
4083what else is wrong with the schools right now?" you get the answer, "The 
4084buildings are old; the teachers are bad. We've got to have change." "Well, 
4085
4086
4087
4088what kind of change?" "Well, everybody knows things have to be 
4089changed." That is usually the end of the line. If you push it any further, you 
4090come again to a hostile, defensive reaction or to withdrawal as they 
4091suddenly remember they have to be somewhere else. 
4092
4093The issue that is not clear to organizers, missionaries, educators, or any 
4094outsider, is simply that if people feel they don't have the power to change a 
4095bad situation, then they do not think about it. Why start figuring out how 
4096you are going to spend a million dollars if you do not have a million dollars 
4097or are ever going to have a million dollars — unless you want to engage in 
4098fantasy? 
4099
4100Once people are organized so that they have the power to make changes, 
4101then, when confronted with questions of change, they begin to think and to 
4102ask questions about how to make the changes. If the teachers in the 
4103schools are bad then what do we mean by a bad teacher? What is a good 
4104teacher? How do we get good teachers? When we say our children do not 
4105understand what the teachers are talking about and our teachers do not 
4106understand what the children are talking about, then we ask how 
4107communication can be established. Why cannot teach- 
4108
4109Rules for Radicals 206 
4110
4111ers communicate with the children and the latter with the teachers. What 
4112are the hangups? Why don't the teachers understand what the values are 
4113in our neighborhood? How can we make them understand? All these and 
4114many other perceptive questions begin to arise. It is when people have a 
4115genuine opportunity to act and to change conditions that they begin to 
4116think their problems through — then they show their competence, raise the 
4117right questions, seek special professional counsel and look for the 
4118answers. Then you begin to realize that believing in people is not just a 
4119romantic myth. But here you see that the first requirement for 
4120
4121
4122
4123communication and education is for people to have a reason for knowing. 
4124It is the creation of the instrument or the circumstances of power that 
4125provides the reason and makes knowledge essential. Remember, too, that 
4126a powerless people will not be purposefully curious about life, and that 
4127they then cease being alive. 
4128
4129Something else that comes with experience is the knowledge that the 
4130resolution of a particular problem will bring on another problem. The 
4131organizer may know this, but he doesn't mention it; if he did he would 
4132invite, and encounter, a feeling of futility on the part of the others. "Why 
4133bother doing this if it means another problem? We fight and win and what 
4134have we won? So let's forget it." 
4135
4136He knows too that what we fight for now as matters of life and death will 
4137be soon forgotten, and changed situations will change desires and issues. 
4138It is common for policy to be the product of power. You begin to build 
4139power for a particular program — then the program changes when some 
4140power has been built. The reaction of the Woodlawn leaders was typical 
4141on this point. 
4142
4143In the Beginning 107 
4144
4145In the beginning of the organization of the black ghetto of Woodlawn there 
4146were five major issues involving urban renewal, all centering on stopping 
4147the close-by University of Chicago from bulldozing the ghetto. The 
4148Woodlawn Organization quickly developed power and scored a series of 
4149victories. Eight months later the city of Chicago issued a new policy 
4150statement on urban renewal. That day the leaders of the Woodlawn 
4151Organization stormed into my office angrily denouncing the policy 
4152statement: "The city can't get away with this — who do they think they are? 
4153Well put barricades in our streets — we'll fight!" Throughout the tirade it 
4154never occurred to any of the angry leaders that the city's new policy 
4155
4156
4157
4158granted all the five demands for which the Woodlawn Organization began. 
4159Then they were fighting for hamburger; now they wanted filet mignon; so it 
4160goes. And why not? 
4161
4162An organizer knows that life is a sea of shifting desires, changing 
4163elements, of relativity and uncertainty, and yet he must stay within the 
4164experience of the people he is working with and act in terms of specific 
4165resolutions and answers, of definitiveness and certainty. To do otherwise 
4166would be to stifle organization and action, for what the organizer accepts 
4167as uncertainty would be seen by them as a terrifying chaos. 
4168
4169In the early days the organizer moves out front in any situation of risk 
4170where the power of the establishment can get someone's job, call in an 
4171overdue payment, or any other form of retaliation, partly because these 
4172dangers would cause many local people to back off from conflict. Here the 
4173organizer serves as a protective shield: if anything goes wrong it is all his 
4174fault, he has the responsibility. If they are successful all credit goes to the 
4175local people. 
4176
4177Rules for Radicals 108 
4178
4179He acts as the septic tank in the early stages — he gets all the shit. Later, 
4180as power increases, the risks diminish, and gradually the people step out 
4181front to take the risks. This is part of the process of growing up, both for 
4182the local community leaders and for the organization. 
4183
4184The organizer must know and be sensitive to the shadows that surround 
4185him during his first days in the community. One of the shadows is that it is 
4186just about impossible for people to fully understand — much less adhere 
4187to — a totally new idea. The fear of change is, as discussed earlier, one of 
4188our deepest fears, and a new idea must be at the least couched in the 
4189language of past ideas; often, it must be, at first, diluted with vestiges of 
4190the past. 
4191
4192
4193
4194RATIONALIZATION 
4195
4196A large shadow over organizing efforts, in the beginning, is, then, 
4197rationalization. Everyone has a reason or rationalization for what he does 
4198or does not do. No matter what, every action carries its rationalization. 
4199One of Chicago's political ward bosses nationally notorious for his use of 
4200the chain ballot and multiple voting once unleashed a tirade well seasoned 
4201with alcohol on my being a disloyal American. He climaxed with, "And you, 
4202Alinsky! When that great day of America, election day, comes around — 
4203that day of the right to vote for which our ancestors fought and died — when 
4204that great day comes around you care so little for your country that you 
4205never even bother to vote more than once!" 
4206
4207In the Beginning 109 
4208
4209Organizing, one must be aware of the tremendous importance of 
4210understanding the part played by rationalization on a mass basis — it is 
4211similar to the function on an individual basis. On a mass basis it is the 
4212community residents' and leadership's justification for why they have not 
4213been able to do anything until the organizer appeared. It is primarily a 
4214subconscious feeling that the organizer is looking down on them, 
4215wondering why they did not have the intelligence, so to speak, and the 
4216insights, to realize that through organization and the securing of power 
4217they could have resolved many of the problems they've lived with for these 
4218many years — why did they have to wait for him? With this going on in their 
4219minds they throw up a whole series of arguments against various 
4220organizational procedures, but they are not real arguments, simply 
4221attempts to justify the fact that they have not moved or organized in the 
4222past. Most people find this necessary, not only to justify themselves to the 
4223organizer, but also to themselves. 
4224
4225
4226
4227In an individual a psychiatrist would call these "rationalizations," as we call 
4228them here, "defenses." The patient has a series of defenses, which in 
4229therapy have to be broken through to get to the problem — which the 
4230patient then is compelled to confront. Chasing rationalizations is like 
4231attempting to find the rainbow. Rationalizations must be recognized as 
4232such so that the organizer does not get trapped in communication 
4233problems or in treating them as the real situations. 
4234
4235An extreme example, but one that very clearly spelled out the nature of 
4236rationalizations, came about three years ago when I met with various 
4237Canadian Indian leaders in the north of a Canadian province. I was there 
4238at the 
4239
4240Rules for Radicals 110 
4241
4242invitation of these leaders, who wanted to discuss their problems and 
4243solicit my advice. The problems of the Canadian Indians are very similar to 
4244those of the American Indians. They are on reservations, they are 
4245segregated, relatively speaking, and they suffer from all the general 
4246discriminatory practices Indians have been subjected to since the white 
4247man took over North America. In Canada the census figures on the Indian 
4248population range from 150,000 to 225,000 out of a total population 
4249estimated at between 22 and 24 million. 
4250
4251The conversation began with my suggesting that the general approach 
4252should be that the Indians get together, crossing all tribal lines, and 
4253organize. Because of their relatively small numbers I thought that they 
4254should then work with various sectors of the white liberal population, gain 
4255them as allies, and then begin to move nationally. Immediately I ran into 
4256the rationalizations. The dialogue went something like this (I should 
4257preface this by noting that it was quite obvious what was happening since I 
4258could see from the way the Indians were looking at each other they were 
4259
4260
4261
4262thinking: "So we invite this white organizer from south of the border to 
4263come up here and he tells us to get organized and to do these things. 
4264What must be going through his mind is: "What's wrong with you Indians 
4265that you have been sitting around here for a couple of hundred years now 
4266and you haven't organized to do these things?'" And so it began): 
4267
4268Indians: Well, we can't organize. 
4269
4270Me: Why not? 
4271
4272Indians: Because that's a white man's way of doing things. 
4273
4274Me (I decided to let that one pass though it obviously was untrue, since 
4275mankind from time immemorial has always organized, regardless of what 
4276race or color they 
4277
4278In the Beginning 111 
4279
4280were, whenever they wanted to bring about change): I don't understand. 
4281
4282Indians: Well, you see, if we organize, that means getting out and fighting 
4283the way you are telling us to do and that would mean that we would be 
4284corrupted by the white man's culture and lose our own values. 
4285
4286Me: What are these values that you would lose? 
4287
4288Indians: Well, there are all kinds of values. 
4289
4290Me: Like what? 
4291
4292Indians: Well, there's creative fishing. 
4293
4294Me: What do you mean, creative fishing? 
4295
4296Indians: Creative fishing. 
4297
4298
4299
4300Me: I heard you the first time. What is this creative fishing? 
4301
4302Indians: Well, you see, when you whites go out and fish, you just go out 
4303and fish, don't you? 
4304
4305Me: Yeah, I guess so. 
4306
4307Indians: Well, you see, when we go out and fish, we fish creatively. 
4308
4309Me: Yeah. That's the third time you've come around with that. What is this 
4310creative fishing? 
4311
4312Indians: Well, to begin with, when we go out fishing, we get away from 
4313everything. We get way out in the woods. 
4314
4315Me: Well, we whites don't exactly go fishing in Times Square, you know. 
4316
4317Indians: Yes, but it's different with us. When we go out, we're out on the 
4318water and you can hear the lap of the waves on the bottom of the canoe, 
4319and the birds in the trees and the leaves rustling, and — you know what I 
4320mean? 
4321
4322Me: No, I don't know what you mean. Furthermore, I think that that's just a 
4323pile of shit. Do you believe it yourself? 
4324
4325This brought a shocked silence. It should be noted that I was not being 
4326profane purely for the sake of being 
4327
4328Rules for Radicals / 12 
4329
4330profane, I was doing this purposefully. If I had responded in a tactful way, 
4331saying, "Well, I don't quite understand what you mean, "we would have 
4332been off for a ride around the rhetorical ranch for the next thirty days. Here 
4333profanity became literally an up-against-the-wall bulldozer. 
4334
4335
4336
4337From there we went off to creative welfare. "Creative welfare" seemed to 
4338have to do with "since whites stole Indians' lands, all Indians' welfare 
4339payments are really installment payments due to them and it's not really 
4340welfare or charity." Well, that took us another five or ten minutes, and we 
4341kept breaking through one "creative" rationalization after another until 
4342finally we got down to the issue of organization. 
4343
4344An interesting aftermath is that some of this was filmed by the National 
4345Film Board of Canada, which was doing a series of documentaries on my 
4346work, and a film with part of this episode was shown at a meeting of 
4347Canadian development workers, with a number of these Indians present. 
4348The white Canadian community development workers kept looking at the 
4349floor, very embarrassed, during the unreeling of that scene, and giving 
4350sidelong looks at the Indians. After it was over one of the Indians stood up 
4351and said, "When Mr. Alinsky told us we were full of shit, that was the first 
4352time a white man has really talked to us as equals — you would never say 
4353that to us. You would always say 'Well, I can see your point of view but I'm 
4354a little confused,' and stuff like that. In other words you treat us as 
4355children." 
4356
4357Learn to search out the rationalizations, treat them as rationalizations, and 
4358break through. Do not make the mistake of locking yourself up in conflict 
4359with them as though they were the issues or problems with which you are 
4360trying to engage the local people. 
4361
4362In the Beginning 1 1 3 
4363
4364THE PROCESS OF POWER 
4365
4366From the moment the organizer enters a community he lives, dreams, 
4367eats, breathes, sleeps only one thing and that is to build the mass power 
4368base of what he calls the army. Until he has developed that mass power 
4369base, he confronts no major issues. He has nothing with which to confront 
4370
4371
4372
4373anything. Until he has those means and power instruments, his "tactics" 
4374are very different from power tactics. Therefore, every move revolves 
4375around one central point: how many recruits will this bring into the 
4376organization, whether by means of local organizations, churches, service 
4377groups, labor unions, corner gangs, or as individuals. The only issue is, 
4378how will this increase the strength of the organization. If by losing in a 
4379certain action he can get more members than by winning, then victory lies 
4380in losing and he will lose. 
4381
4382Change comes from power, and power comes from organization. In order 
4383to act, people must get together. 
4384
4385Power is the reason for being of organizations. When people agree on 
4386certain religious ideas and want the power to propagate their faith, they 
4387organize and call it a church. When people agree on certain political ideas 
4388and want the power to put them into practice, they organize and call it a 
4389political party. The same reason holds across the board. Power and 
4390organization are one and the same. 
4391
4392The organizer knows, for example, that his biggest job is to give the 
4393people the feeling that they can do something, that while they may accept 
4394the idea that organization means power, they have to experience this idea 
4395in 
4396
4397Rules for Radicals / 14 
4398
4399action. The organizer's job is to begin to build confidence and hope in the 
4400idea of organization and thus in the people themselves: to win limited 
4401victories, each of which will build confidence and the feeling that "if we can 
4402do so much with what we have now just think what we will be able to do 
4403when we get big and strong." It is almost like taking a prize-fighter up the 
4404road to the championship — you have to very carefully and selectively pick 
4405his opponents, knowing full well that certain defeats would be demoralizing 
4406
4407
4408
4409and end his career. Sometimes the organizer may find such despair 
4410among the people that he has to put on a cinch fight. 
4411
4412An example occurred in the early days of Back of the Yards, the first 
4413community that I attempted to organize. This neighborhood was utterly 
4414demoralized. The people had no confidence in themselves or in their 
4415neighbors or in their cause. So we staged a cinch fight. One of the major 
4416problems in Back of the Yards in those days was an extraordinarily high 
4417rate of infant mortality. Some years earlier, the neighborhood had had the 
4418services of the Infant Welfare Society medical clinics. But about ten or 
4419fifteen years before I came to the neighborhood the Infant Welfare Society 
4420had been expelled because tales were spread that its personnel was 
4421disseminating birth-control information. The churches therefore drove out 
4422these "agents of sin." But soon the people were desperately in need of 
4423infant medical services. They had forgotten that they themselves had 
4424expelled the Infant Welfare Society from the Back of the Yards community. 
4425
4426After checking it out, I found out that all we had to do to get Infant Welfare 
4427Society medical services back into the neighborhood was ask for it. 
4428However, I kept this information to myself. We called an emergency 
4429meeting, 
4430
4431In the Beginning 1 15 
4432
4433recommended we go in committee to the society's offices and demand 
4434medical services. Our strategy was to prevent the officials from saying 
4435anything; to start banging on the desk and demanding that we get the 
4436services, /7ei/e/"permitting them to interrupt us or make any statement. The 
4437only time we would let them talk was after we got through. With this careful 
4438indoctrination we stormed into the Infant Welfare Society downtown, 
4439identified ourselves, and began a tirade consisting of militant demands, 
4440refusing to permit them to say anything. All the time the poor woman was 
4441
4442
4443
4444desperately trying to say, "Why of course you can have it. We'll start 
4445immediately." But she never had a chance to say anything and finally we 
4446ended up in a storm of "And we will not take 'No' for an answer!" At which 
4447point she said, "Well, I've been trying to tell you . . ." and I cut in, 
4448demanding, "Is it yes or is it no?" She said, "Well of course it's yes." I said, 
4449"That's all we wanted to know." And we stormed out of the place. All the 
4450way back to Back of the Yards you could hear the members of the 
4451committee saying, "Well, that's the way to get things done: you just tell 
4452them off and don't give them a chance to say anything. If we could get this 
4453with just the few people that we have in the organization now, just imagine 
4454what we can get when we have a big organization." (I suggest that before 
4455critics look upon this as "trickery," they reflect on the discussion of means 
4456and ends.) The organizer simultaneously carries on many functions as he 
4457analyzes, attacks, and disrupts the prevailing power pattern. The ghetto or 
4458slum in which he is organizing is nota disorganized community. There is 
4459no such animal as a disorganized community. It is a contradiction in terms 
4460to use the two words "disorganization" and "community" together: the word 
4461community itself means an 
4462
4463Rules for Radicals 116 
4464
4465organized, communal life; people living in an organized fashion. The 
4466people in the community may have experienced successive frustrations to 
4467the point that their will to participate has seemed to atrophy. They may be 
4468living in anonymity and may be starved for personal recognition. They may 
4469be suffering from various forms of deprivation and discrimination. They 
4470may have accepted anonymity and resigned in apathy. They may despair 
4471that their children will inherit a somewhat better world. From your point of 
4472view they may have a very negative form of existence, but the fact is that 
4473they are organized in that way of life. Call it organized apathy or organized 
4474nonparticipation, but that is their community pattern. They are living under 
4475a certain set of arrangements, standards, way of life. They may in short 
4476
4477
4478
4479have surrendered — but life goes on in an organized form, with a definite 
4480power structure; even if it is, as Thoreau called most lives, "quiet 
4481desperation." 
4482
4483Therefore, if your function is to attack apathy and get people to participate 
4484it is necessary to attack the prevailing patterns of organized living in the 
4485community. The first step in community organization is community 
4486disorganization. The disruption of the present organization is the first step 
4487toward community organization. Present arrangements must be 
4488disorganized if they are to be displaced by new patterns that provide the 
4489opportunities and means for citizen participation. All change means 
4490disorganization of the old and organization of the new. 
4491
4492This is why the organizer is immediately confronted with conflict. The 
4493organizer dedicated to changing the life of a particular community must 
4494first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; fan the latent 
4495hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expression. He must 
4496search out controversy and issues, rather 
4497
4498In the Beginning 1 17 
4499
4500than avoid them, for unless there is controversy people are not concerned 
4501enough to act. The use of the adjective "controversial" to qualify the word 
4502"issue" is a meaningless redundancy. There can be no such thing as a 
4503"non-controversial" issue. When there is agreement there is no issue; 
4504issues only arise when there is disagreement or controversy. An organizer 
4505must stir up dissatisfaction and discontent; provide a channel into which 
4506the people can angrily pour their frustrations. He must create a 
4507mechanism that can drain off the underlying guilt for having accepted the 
4508previous situation for so long a time. Out of this mechanism, a new 
4509community organization arises. But more on this point later. 
4510
4511
4512
4513The job then is getting the people to move, to act, to participate; in short, 
4514to develop and harness the necessary power to effectively conflict with the 
4515prevailing patterns and change them. When those prominent in the status 
4516quo turn and label you an "agitator" they are completely correct, for that is, 
4517in one word, your function — to agitate to the point of conflict. 
4518
4519A sound analogy is to be found in the organization of trade unions. A 
4520competent union organizer approaches his objective, let's say the 
4521organization of a particular industrial plant where the workers are 
4522underpaid, suffering from discriminatory practices, and without job 
4523security. The workers accept these conditions as inevitable, and they 
4524express their demoralization by saying, "what's the use." In private they 
4525resent these circumstances, complain, talk about the futility of "bucking the 
4526big shots" and generally succumb to frustration — all because of the lack of 
4527opportunity for effective action. 
4528
4529Enter the labor organizer or the agitator. He begins his "trouble making" by 
4530stirring up these angers, frustra- 
4531
4532Rules for Radicals / 18 
4533
4534tions, and resentments, and highlighting specific issues or grievances that 
4535heighten controversy. He dramatizes the injustices by describing 
4536conditions at other industrial plants engaged in the same kind of work 
4537where the workers are far better off economically and have better working 
4538conditions, job security, health benefits, and pensions as well as other 
4539advantages that had not even been thought of by the workers he is trying 
4540to organize. Just as important, he points out that the workers in the other 
4541places had also been exploited in the past and had existed under similar 
4542circumstances until they used their intelligence and energies to organize 
4543into a power instrument known as a trade union, with the result that they 
4544
4545
4546
4547achieved all of these other benefits. Generally this approach results in the 
4548formation of a new trade union. 
4549
4550Let us examine what this labor organizer has done. He has taken a group 
4551of apathetic workers; he has fanned their resentments and hostilities by a 
4552number of means, including challenging contrasts of better conditions of 
4553other workers in similar industries. Most important, he has demonstrated 
4554that something can be done, and that there is a concrete way of doing it 
4555that has already proven its effectiveness and success: that by organizing 
4556together as a trade union they will have the power and the instrument with 
4557which to make these changes. He now has the workers participating in a 
4558trade union and supporting its program. We must never forget that so long 
4559as there is no opportunity or method to make changes, it is senseless to 
4560get people agitated or angry, leaving them no course of action except to 
4561blow their tops. 
4562
4563And so the labor organizer simultaneously breeds conflict and builds a 
4564power structure. The war between the trade union and management is 
4565resolved either through a 
4566
4567In the Beginning 1 19 
4568
4569strike or a negotiation. Either method involves the use of power; the 
4570economic power of the strike or the threat of it, which results in successful 
4571negotiations. No one can negotiate without the power to compel 
4572negotiation. 
4573
4574This is the function of a community organizer. Anything otherwise is 
4575wishful non-thinking. To attempt to operate on a good-will rather than on a 
4576power basis would be to attempt something that the world has not yet 
4577experienced. 
4578
4579
4580
4581In the beginning the organizer's first job is to create the issues or 
4582problems. It sounds mad to say that a community such as a low-income 
4583ghetto or even a middle-class community has no issues per se. The 
4584reader may feel that this statement borders on lunacy, particularly with 
4585reference to low-income communities. The simple fact is that in any 
4586community, regardless of how poor, people may have serious problems — 
4587but they do not have issues, they have a bad scene. An issue is 
4588something you can do something about, but as long as you feel powerless 
4589and unable to do anything about it, all you have is a bad scene. The 
4590people resign themselves to a rationalization: it's that kind of world, it's a 
4591crumby world, we didn't ask to come into it but we are stuck with it and all 
4592we can do is hope that something happens somewhere, somehow, 
4593sometime. This is what is usually taken as apathy, what we discussed 
4594earlier — that policy follows power. Through action, persuasion, and 
4595communication the organizer makes it clear that organization will give 
4596them the power, the ability, the strength, the force to be able to do 
4597something about these particular problems. It is then that a bad scene 
4598begins to break up into specific issues, because now the people can do 
4599something about it. What the organizer does is convert the plight into a 
4600problem. The question is 
4601
4602Rules for Radicals 120 
4603
4604whether they do it this way or that way or whether they do all of it or part of 
4605it. But now you have issues. 
4606
4607The organization is born out of the issues and the issues are bom out of 
4608the organization. They go together, they are concomitants essential to 
4609each other. Organizations are built on issues that are specific, immediate, 
4610and realizable. 
4611
4612
4613
4614Organizations must be based on many issues. Organizations need action 
4615as an individual needs oxygen. The cessation of action brings death to the 
4616organization through factionalism and inaction, through dialogues and 
4617conferences that are actually a form of rigor mortis rather than life. It is 
4618impossible to maintain constant action on a single issue. A single issue is 
4619a fatal strait jacket that will stifle the life of an organization. Furthermore, a 
4620single issue drastically limits your appeal, where multiple issues would 
4621draw in the many potential members essential to the building of a broad, 
4622mass-based organization. Each person has a hierarchy of desires or 
4623values; he may be sympathetic to your single issue but not concerned 
4624enough about that particular one to work and fight for it. Many issues 
4625mean many members. Communities are not economic organizations like 
4626labor unions, with specific economic issues; they are as complex as life 
4627itself. 
4628
4629To organize a community you must understand that in a highly mobile, 
4630urbanized society the word "community" means community of interests, 
4631not physical community. The exceptions are ethnic ghettos where 
4632segregation has resulted in physical communities that coincide with their 
4633community of interests, or, during political campaigns, political districts that 
4634are based on geographical demarcations. 
4635
4636People hunger for drama and adventure, for a breath 
4637
4638In the Beginning 121 
4639
4640of life in a dreary, drab existence. One of a number of cartoons in my 
4641office shows two gum-chewing stenographers who have just left the 
4642movies. One is talking to the other, and says, "You know, Sadie. You know 
4643what the trouble with life is? There just ain't any background music." 
4644
4645But it's more than that. It is a desperate search for personal identity — to let 
4646other people know that at least you are alive. Let's take a common case in 
4647
4648
4649
4650the ghetto. A man is living in a slum tenement. He doesn't know anybody 
4651and nobody knows him. He doesn't care for anyone because no one cares 
4652for him. On the corner newsstand are newspapers with pictures of people 
4653like Mayor Daley and other people from a different world — a world that he 
4654doesn't know, a world that doesn't know that he is even alive. 
4655
4656When the organizer approaches him part of what begins to be 
4657communicated is that through the organization and its power he will get his 
4658birth certificate for life, that he will become known, that things will change 
4659from the drabness of a life where all that changes is the calendar. This 
4660same man, in a demonstration at City Hall, might find himself confronting 
4661the mayor and saying, "Mr. Mayor, we have had it up to here and we are 
4662not going to take it any more." Television cameramen put their 
4663microphones in front of him and ask, "What is your name, sir?" "John 
4664Smith." Nobody ever asked him what his name was before. And then, 
4665"What do you think about this, Mr. Smith?" Nobody ever asked him what 
4666he thought about anything before. Suddenly he's alive! This is part of the 
4667adventure, part of what is so important to people in getting involved in 
4668organizational activities and what the organizer has to communicate to 
4669him. Not that every member 
4670
4671Rules for Radicals 122 
4672
4673will be giving his name on television — that's a bonus — but for once, 
4674because he is working together with a group, what he works for will mean 
4675something. 
4676
4677Let us look at what is called process. Process tells us how. Purpose tells 
4678us why. But in reality, it is academic to draw a line between them, they are 
4679part of a continuum. Process and purpose are so welded to each other 
4680that it is impossible to mark where one leaves off and the other begins, or 
4681which is which. The very process of democratic participation is for the 
4682
4683
4684
4685purpose of organization rather than to rid the alleys of dirt. Process is 
4686really purpose. 
4687
4688Through all this the constant guiding star of the organizer is in those 
4689words, "The dignity of the individual." Working with this compass, he soon 
4690discovers many axioms of effective organization. 
4691
4692If you respect the dignity of the individual you are working with, then his 
4693desires, not yours; his values, not yours; his ways of working and fighting, 
4694not yours; his choice of leadership, not yours; his programs, not yours, are 
4695important and must be followed; except if his programs violate the high 
4696values of a free and open society. For example, take the question, "What if 
4697the program of the local people offends the rights of other groups, for 
4698reasons of color, religion, economic status, or politics? Should this 
4699program be accepted just because it is their program?" The answer is 
4700categorically no. Always remember that "the guiding star is 'the dignity of 
4701the individual.'" This is the purpose of the program. Obviously any program 
4702that opposes people because of race, religion, creed, or economic status, 
4703is the antithesis of the fundamental dignity of the individual. 
4704
4705It is difficult for people to believe that you really respect their dignity. After 
4706all, they know very few people, 
4707
4708In the Beginning 123 
4709
4710including their own neighbors, who do. But it is equally difficult for you to 
4711surrender that little image of God created in our own likeness, which lurks 
4712in all of us and tells us that we secretly believe that we know what's best 
4713for the people. A successful organizer has learned emotionally as well as 
4714intellectually to respect the dignity of the people with whom he is working. 
4715Thus an effective organizational experience is as much an educational 
4716process for the organizer as it is for the people with whom he is working. 
4717They both must learn to respect the dignity of the individual, and they both 
4718
4719
4720
4721must learn that in the last analysis this is the basic purpose of 
4722organization, for participation is the heartbeat of the democratic way of life. 
4723
4724We learn, when we respect the dignity of the people, that they cannot be 
4725denied the elementary right to participate fully in the solutions to their own 
4726problems. Self-respect arises only out of people who play an active role in 
4727solving their own crises and who are not helpless, passive, puppet-like 
4728recipients of private or public services. To give people help, while denying 
4729them a significant part in the action, contributes nothing to the 
4730development of the individual. In the deepest sense it is not giving but 
4731taking — taking their dignity. Denial of the opportunity for participation is the 
4732denial of human dignity and democracy. It will not work. 
4733
4734In Reveille for Radicals I described an incident in which the government of 
4735Mexico once decided to pay tribute to Mexican mothers. A proclamation 
4736was issued that every mother whose sewing machine was being held by 
4737the Monte de Piedad (the national pawn shop of Mexico) should have her 
4738machine returned as a gift on Mother's Day. There was tremendous joy 
4739over the occasion. Here was a gift being made outright, without any 
4740
4741Rules for Radicals 124 
4742
4743participation on the part of the recipients. Inside of three weeks the exact 
4744same number of sewing machines was back in the pawn shop. 
4745
4746Another example occurred in a statement made by the United Nations 
4747delegate from Liberia. Analyzing problems of Liberia, he noted that his 
4748nation had been deprived of "the benefits of a previous history of 
4749colonialism." Press reaction was astonishment and ridicule, but the 
4750statement showed insight and wisdom. The people of Liberia had never 
4751been exploited by a colonial power, never been forced to band together at 
4752the risk of great personal sacrifice to revolt for freedom. They had been 
4753
4754
4755
4756given "freedom" upon the establishment of their nation. Even freedom, as 
4757a gift, is deficient in dignity; hence the political sterility of Liberia. 
4758
4759As Finley Peter Dunne's Mr. Dooley put it, 
4760
4761Don't ask fr rights. Take thim. An' don't let anny wan give thim to ye. A right that is 
4762handed to ye fer nawthin has somethin the mather with it. It's more thin likely it's only a 
4763wrrong turned inside out. 
4764
4765The organization has to be used in every possible sense as an 
4766educational mechanism, but education is not propaganda. Real education 
4767is the means by which the membership will begin to make sense out of 
4768their relationship as individuals to the organization and to the world they 
4769live in, so that they can make informed and intelligent judgments. The 
4770stream of activities and programs of the organization provides a never- 
4771ending series of specific issues and situations that create a rich field for 
4772the learning process. 
4773
4774The concern and conflict about each specific issue 
4775
4776In the Beginning 125 
4777
4778leads to a speedily enlarging area of interest. Competent organizers 
4779should be sensitive to these opportunities. Without the learning process, 
4780the building of an organization becomes simply the substitution of one 
4781power group for another. 
4782
4783
4784
4785Tactics 
4786
4787
4788
4789We will either find a way or make one. 
4790— Hannibal 
4791
4792
4793
4794TACTICS MEANS doing what you can with what you have. Tactics are 
4795those consciously deliberate acts by which human beings live with each 
4796other and deal with the world around them. In the world of give and take, 
4797tactics is the art of how to take and how to give. Here our concern is with 
4798the tactic of taking; how the Have-Nots can take power away from the 
4799Haves. 
4800
4801For an elementary illustration of tactics, take parts of your face as the point 
4802of reference; your eyes, your ears, and your nose. First the eyes; if you 
4803have organized a vast, mass-based people's organization, you can parade 
4804it visibly before the enemy and openly show your power. Second the ears; 
4805if your organization is small in numbers, then do what Gideon did: conceal 
4806the members in the dark but raise a din and clamor that will make the 
4807listener believe that your organization numbers many more than it does. 
4808Third, the nose; if your organization is too tiny even for noise, stink up the 
4809place. 
4810
4811Always remember the first rule of power tactics: 
4812
4813Tactics 127 
4814
4815Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have * 
4816
4817The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people. When 
4818an action or tactic is outside the experience of the people, the result is 
4819confusion, fear, and retreat. It also means a collapse of communication, as 
4820we have noted. 
4821
4822The third rule is: Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the 
4823enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat. 
4824
4825General William T. Sherman, whose name still causes a frenzied reaction 
4826throughout the South, provided a classic example of going outside the 
4827
4828
4829
4830enemy's experience. Until Sherman, military tactics and strategies were 
4831based on standard patterns. All armies had fronts, rears, flanks, lines of 
4832communication, and lines of supply. Military campaigns were aimed at 
4833such standard objectives as rolling up the flanks of the enemy army or 
4834cutting the lines of supply or lines of communication, or moving around to 
4835attack from the rear. When Sherman cut loose on his famous March to the 
4836Sea, he had no front or rear lines of supplies or any other lines. He was on 
4837the loose and living on the land. The South, confronted with this new form 
4838of military invasion, reacted with confusion, panic, terror, and collapse. 
4839Sherman swept on to inevitable vic- 
4840
4841* Power has always derived from two main sources, money and people. Lacking money, 
4842the Have-Nots must build power from their own flesh and blood. A mass movement 
4843expresses itself with mass tactics. Against the finesse and sophistication of the status 
4844quo, the Have-Nots have always had to club their way. In early Renaissance Italy the 
4845playing cards showed swords for the nobility (the word spade is a corruption of the Italian 
4846word for sword), chalices (which became hearts) for the clergy, diamonds for the 
4847merchants, and clubs as the symbol of the peasants. 
4848
4849Rules for Radicals 128 
4850
4851tory. It was the same tactic that, years later in the early days of World War 
4852II, the Nazi Panzer tank divisions emulated in their far-flung sweeps into 
4853enemy territory, as did our own General Patton with the American Third 
4854Armored Division. 
4855
4856The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You 
4857can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the 
4858Christian church can live up to Christianity. 
4859
4860The fourth rule carries within it the fifth rule: Ridicule is man's most potent 
4861weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates 
4862the opposition, who then react to your advantage. 
4863
4864
4865
4866The sixth rule is: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy* If your 
4867people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with 
4868the tactic. 
4869
4870The seventh rule: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. Man 
4871can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time, after which 
4872it becomes a ritualistic commitment, like going to church on Sunday 
4873mornings. New issues and crises are always developing, and one's 
4874reaction becomes, "Well, my heart bleeds for those people and I'm all for 
4875the boycott, but after all there are other important things in life" — and there 
4876it goes. 
4877
4878The eighth rule: Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, 
4879and utilize all events of the period for your purpose. 
4880
4881* Alinsky takes the iconoclast's pleasure in kicking the biggest behinds in town and the 
4882sport is not untempting . . ." — William F. Buckley, Jr., Chicago Daily News, October 19, 
48831966. 
4884
4885Tactics 129 
4886
4887The ninth rule: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. 
4888
4889The tenth rule: The major premise for tactics is the development of 
4890operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is 
4891this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition 
4892that are essential for the success of the campaign. It should be 
4893remembered not only that the action is in the reaction but that action is 
4894itself the consequence of reaction and of reaction to the reaction, ad 
4895infinitum. The pressure produces the reaction, and constant pressure 
4896sustains action. 
4897
4898The eleventh rule is: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will 
4899break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every 
4900
4901
4902
4903positive has its negative. We have already seen the conversion of the 
4904negative into the positive, in Mahatma Gandhi's development of the tactic 
4905of passive resistance. 
4906
4907One corporation we organized against responded to the continuous 
4908application of pressure by burglarizing my home, and then using the keys 
4909taken in the burglary to burglarize the offices of the Industrial Areas 
4910Foundation where I work. The panic in this corporation was clear from the 
4911nature of the burglaries, for nothing was taken in either burglary to make it 
4912seem that the thieves were interested in ordinary loot — they took only the 
4913records that applied to the corporation. Even the most amateurish burglar 
4914would have had more sense than to do what the private detective agency 
4915hired by that corporation did. The police departments in California and 
4916Chicago agreed that "the corporation might just as well have left its 
4917fingerprints all over the place." 
4918
4919In a fight almost anything goes. It almost reaches the 
4920
4921Rules for Radicals 130 
4922
4923point where you stop to apologize if a chance blow lands above the belt. 
4924When a corporation bungles like the one that burglarized my home and 
4925office, my visible public reaction is shock, horror, and moral outrage. In 
4926this case, we let it be known that sooner or later it would be confronted 
4927with this crime as well as with a whole series of other derelictions, before a 
4928United States Senate Subcommittee Investigation. Once sworn in, with 
4929congressional immunity, we would make these actions public. This threat, 
4930plus the fact that an attempt on my life had been made in Southern 
4931California, had the corporation on a spot where it would be publicly 
4932suspect in the event of assassination. At one point I found myself in a 
4933thirty-room motel in which every other room was occupied by their security 
4934
4935
4936
4937men. This became another devil in the closet to haunt this corporation and 
4938to keep the pressure on. 
4939
4940The twelfth rule: The price of a successful attack is a constructive 
4941alternative. You cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden 
4942agreement with your demand and saying "You're right — we don't know 
4943what to do about this issue. Now you tell us." 
4944
4945The thirteenth rule: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. 
4946
4947In conflict tactics there are certain rules that the organizer should always 
4948regard as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as 
4949the target and "frozen." By this I mean that in a complex, interrelated, 
4950urban society, it becomes increasingly difficult to single out who is to 
4951blame for any particular evil. There is a constant, and somewhat 
4952legitimate, passing of the buck. In these times of urbanization, complex 
4953metropolitan governments, the complexities of major interlocked 
4954corporations, and the interlocking of political life between cities and 
4955
4956Tactics 131 
4957
4958counties and metropolitan authorities, the problem that threatens to loom 
4959more and more is that of identifying the enemy. Obviously there is no point 
4960to tactics unless one has a target upon which to center the attacks. One 
4961big problem is a constant shifting of responsibility from one jurisdiction to 
4962another — individuals and bureaus one after another disclaim responsibility 
4963for particular conditions, attributing the authority for any change to some 
4964other force. In a corporation one gets the situation where the president of 
4965the corporation says that he does not have the responsibility, it is up to the 
4966board of trustees or the board of directors, the board of directors can shift 
4967it over to the stockholders, etc., etc. And the same thing goes, for 
4968example, on the Board of Education appointments in the city of Chicago, 
4969where an extra-legal committee is empowered to make selections of 
4970
4971
4972
4973nominees for the board and the mayor then uses his legal powers to select 
4974names from that list. When the mayor is attacked for not having any blacks 
4975on the list, he shifts the responsibility over to the committee, pointing out 
4976that he has to select those names from a list submitted by the committee, 
4977and if the list is all white, then he has no responsibility. The committee can 
4978shift the responsibility back by pointing out that it is the mayor who has the 
4979authority to select the names, and so it goes in a comic (if it were not so 
4980tragic) routine of "who's on first" or "under which shell is the pea hidden?" 
4981The same evasion of responsibility is to be found in all areas of life and 
4982other areas of City Hall Urban Renewal departments, who say the 
4983responsibility is over here, and somebody else says the responsibility is 
4984over there, the city says it is a state responsibility, and the state says it is a 
4985federal responsibility and the federal government passes it back to the 
4986local community, and on ad infinitum. 
4987
4988Rules for Radicals 132 
4989
4990It should be borne in mind that the target is always trying to shift 
4991responsibility to get out of being the target. There is a constant squirming 
4992and moving and strategy — purposeful, and malicious at times, other times 
4993just for straight self-survival — on the part of the designated target. The 
4994forces for change must keep this in mind and pin that target down 
4995securely. If an organization permits responsibility to be diffused and 
4996distributed in a number of areas, attack becomes impossible. 
4997
4998I remember specifically that when the Woodlawn Organization started the 
4999campaign against public school segregation, both the superintendent of 
5000schools and the chairman of the Board of Education vehemently denied 
5001any racist segregationist practices in the Chicago Public School System. 
5002They took the position that they did not even have any racial-identification 
5003data in their files, so they did not know which of their students were black 
5004
5005
5006
5007and which were white. As for the fact that we had all-white schools and all- 
5008black schools, well, that's just the way it was. 
5009
5010If we had been confronted with a politically sophisticated school 
5011superintendent he could have very well replied, "Look, when I came to 
5012Chicago the city school system was following, as it is now, a neighborhood 
5013school policy. Chicago's neighborhoods are segregated. There are white 
5014neighborhoods and black neighborhoods and therefore you have white 
5015schools and black schools. Why attack me? Why not attack the 
5016segregated neighborhoods and change them?" He would have had a valid 
5017point, of sorts; I still shiver when I think of this possibility; but the 
5018segregated neighborhoods would have passed the buck to someone else 
5019and so it would have gone into a dog-chasing-his-tail pattern — and it would 
5020have been a fifteen-year 
5021
5022Tactics 133 
5023
5024job to try to break down the segregated residential pattern of Chicago. We 
5025did not have the power to start that kind of a conflict. One of the criteria in 
5026picking your target is the target's vulnerability — where do you have the 
5027power to start? Furthermore, any target can always say, "Why do you 
5028center on me when there are others to blame as well?" When you "freeze 
5029the target," you disregard these arguments and, for the moment, all the 
5030others to blame. 
5031
5032Then, as you zero in and freeze your target and carry out your attack, all 
5033of the "others" come out of the woodwork very soon. They become visible 
5034by their support of the target. 
5035
5036The other important point in the choosing of a target is that it must be a 
5037personification, not something general and abstract such as a community's 
5038segregated practices or a major corporation or City Hall. It is not possible 
5039to develop the necessary hostility against, say, City Hall, which after all is 
5040
5041
5042
5043a concrete, physical, inanimate structure, or against a corporation, which 
5044has no soul or identity, or a public school administration, which again is an 
5045inanimate system. 
5046
5047John L. Lewis, the leader of the radical C.I.O. labor organization in the 
50481930s, was fully aware of this, and as a consequence the C.I.O. never 
5049attacked General Motors, they always attacked its president, Alfred 
5050"Icewater-ln-His-Veins" Sloan; they never attacked the Republic Steel 
5051Corporation but always its president, "Bloodied Hands" Tom Girdler, and 
5052so with us when we attacked the then-superintendent of the Chicago 
5053public school system, Benjamin Willis. Let nothing get you off your target. 
5054
5055With this focus comes a polarization. As we have indicated before, all 
5056issues must be polarized if action is to follow. The classic statement on 
5057polarization comes from 
5058
5059Rules for Radicals 134 
5060
5061Christ: "He that is not with me is against me" (Luke 1 1:23). He allowed no 
5062middle ground to the moneychangers in the Temple. One acts decisively 
5063only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils 
5064on the other. A leader may struggle toward a decision and weigh the 
5065merits and demerits of a situation which is 52 per cent positive and 48 per 
5066cent negative, but once the decision is reached he must assume that his 
5067cause is 100 per cent positive and the opposition 100 per cent negative. 
5068He can't toss forever in limbo, and avoid decision. He can't weigh 
5069arguments or reflect endlessly — he must decide and act. Otherwise there 
5070are Hamlet's words: 
5071
5072And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And 
5073enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose 
5074the name of action. 
5075
5076
5077
5078Many liberals, during our attack on the then-school superintendent, were 
5079pointing out that after all he wasn't a 100 per cent devil, he was a regular 
5080churchgoer, he was a good family man, and he was generous in his 
5081contributions to charity. Can you imagine in the arena of conflict charging 
5082that so-and-so is a racist bastard and then diluting the impact of the attack 
5083with qualifying remarks such as "He is a good churchgoing man, generous 
5084to charity, and a good husband"? This becomes political idiocy. 
5085
5086An excellent illustration of the importance of polarization here was cited by 
5087Ruth McKenney in Industrial Valley, her classical study of the beginning of 
5088organization of the rubber workers in Akron, Ohio: 
5089
5090[John L] Lewis faced the mountaineer workers of Akron calmly. He had taken the trouble 
5091to pre- 
5092
5093Tactics 135 
5094
5095pare himself with exact information about the rubber industry and The Goodyear Tire and 
5096Rubber Company. He made no vague, general speech, the kind the rubberworkers were 
5097used to hearing from Green [then president of the A.F. of L.]. Lewis named names and 
5098quoted figures. His audience was startled and pleased when he called Cliff Slusser by 
5099name, described him, and finally denounced him. The A.F. of L. leaders who used to 
5100come into Akron in the old days were generally doing well if they remembered who Paul 
5101Litchfield was. 
5102
5103The Lewis speech was a battle cry, a challenge. He started off by recalling the vast profits 
5104the rubber companies had always made, even during the deepest days of the 
5105Depression. He mentioned the Goodyear labor policy, and quoted Mr. Litchfield's pious 
5106opinions about the partnership of labor and capital. 
5107
5108"What," he said in his deep, passionate voice, "have Goodyear workers gotten out of the 
5109growth of the company?" His audience squirmed in its seats, listening with almost painful 
5110fervor. 
5111
5112"Partnership!" he sneered. "Well, labor and capital may be partners in theory, but they are 
5113enemies in fact. " 
5114
5115
5116
5117. . . The rubberworkers listened to this with surprise and great excitement. William Green 
5118used to tell them about the partnership of labor and capital nearly as eloquently as Paul 
5119Litchfield. Here was a man who put into words — what eloquent and educated and even 
5120elegant words — facts they knew to be true from their own experience. Here was a man 
5121who said things that made real sense to a guy who worked on a tire machine at 
5122Goodyear. 
5123
5124"Organize!" Lewis shouted, and his voice echoed from the beams of the armory. "Organ- 
5125Rules for Radicals 136 
5126
5127ize!" he said, pounding the speaking pulpit until it jumped. "Organize! Go to Goodyear 
5128and tell them you want some of those stock dividends. Say, So we're supposed to be 
5129partners, are we? Well, we're not. We're enemies." 
5130
5131• The real action is in the enemy's reaction. 
5132
5133• The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major 
5134strength. 
5135
5136• Tactics, like organization, like life, require that you move with the action. 
5137
5138The scene is Rochester, New York, the home of Eastman Kodak — or 
5139rather Eastman Kodak, the home of Rochester, New York. Rochester is 
5140literally dominated by this industrial giant. For anyone to fight or publicly 
5141challenge Kodak is in itself completely outside of Rochester's experience. 
5142Even to this day this company does not have a labor union. Its attitudes 
5143toward the general public make paternalistic feudalism look like 
5144participatory democracy. 
5145
5146Rochester prides itself on being one of America's cultural crown jewels; it 
5147has its libraries, school system, university, museums, and its well-known 
5148symphony. As previously mentioned we were coming in on the invitation of 
5149the black ghetto to organize them (they literally organized to invite us in). 
5150The city was in a state of hysteria and fear at the very mention of my 
5151
5152
5153
5154name. Whatever I did was news. Even my old friend and tutor, John L. 
5155Lewis, called me and affectionately growled, "I resent the fact that you are 
5156more hated in Rochester than I was." This was the setting. 
5157
5158One of the first times I arrived at the airport I was surrounded by reporters 
5159from the media. The first question was what I thought about Rochester as 
5160a city and I replied, 
5161
5162Tactics 137 
5163
5164"It is a huge southern plantation transplanted north." To the question why 
5165was I "meddling" in the black ghetto after "everything" that Eastman Kodak 
5166had done for the blacks (there had been a bloody riot, National Guard, 
5167etc., the previous summer), I looked blank and replied, "Maybe I am 
5168innocent and uninformed of what has been happening here, but as far as I 
5169know the only thing Eastman Kodak has done on the race issue in 
5170America has been to introduce color film." The reaction was shock, anger, 
5171and resentment from Kodak. They were not being attacked or insulted — 
5172they were being laughed at, and this was insufferable. It was the first dart 
5173tossed at the big bull. Soon Eastman would become so angry that it would 
5174make the kind of charges that finally led to its own downfall. 
5175
5176The next question was about my response to a bitter personal 
5177denunciation of me from W. Allen Wallis, the president of the University of 
5178Rochester and a present director of Eastman Kodak. He had been the 
5179head of the Department of Business Administration, formerly, at the 
5180University of Chicago. He was at the university when it was locked in bitter 
5181warfare with the black organization in Woodlawn. "Wallis?" I replied. 
5182"Which one are you talking about — Wallace of Alabama, or Wallis of 
5183Rochester — but I guess there isn't any difference, so what was your 
5184question?" This reply (1) introduced an element of ridicule and (2) it ended 
5185any further attacks from the president of the University of Rochester, who 
5186
5187
5188
5189began to suspect that he was going to be shafted with razors, and that an 
5190encounter with me or with my associates was not going to be an academic 
5191dialogue. 
5192
5193It should be remembered that you can threaten the enemy and get away 
5194with it. You can insult and annoy 
5195
5196Rules for Radicals 138 
5197
5198him, but the one thing that is unforgivable and that is certain to get him to 
5199react is to laugh at him. This causes an irrational anger. 
5200
5201I hesitate to spell out specific applications of these tactics. I remember an 
5202unfortunate experience with my Reveille for Radicals, in which I collected 
5203accounts of particular actions and tactics employed in organizing a 
5204number of communities. For some time after the book was published I got 
5205reports that would-be organizers were using this book as a manual, and 
5206whenever they were confronted with a puzzling situation they would retreat 
5207into some vestibule or alley and thumb through to find the answer! There 
5208can be no prescriptions for particular situations because the same 
5209situation rarely recurs, any more than history repeats itself. People, 
5210pressures, and patterns of power are variables, and a particular 
5211combination exists only in a particular time — even then the variables are 
5212constantly in a state of flux. Tactics must be understood as specific 
5213applications of the rules and principles that I have listed above. It is the 
5214principles that the organizer must carry with him in battle. To these he 
5215applies his imagination, and he relates them tactically to specific 
5216situations. 
5217
5218For example, I have emphasized and re-emphasized that tactics means 
5219you do what you can with what you've got, and that power in the main has 
5220always gravitated towards those who have money and those whom people 
5221follow. The resources of the Have-Nots are (1) no money and (2) lots of 
5222
5223
5224
5225people. All right, let's start from there. People can show their power by 
5226voting. What else? Well, they have physical bodies. How can they use 
5227them? Now a melange of ideas begins to appear. Use the power of the 
5228law by making the establishment obey its own rules. Go 
5229
5230Tactics 139 
5231
5232outside the experience of the enemy, stay inside the experience of your 
5233people. Emphasize tactics that your people will enjoy. The threat is usually 
5234more terrifying than the tactic itself. Once all these rules and principles are 
5235festering in your imagination they grow into a synthesis. 
5236
5237I suggested that we might buy one hundred seats for one of Rochester's 
5238symphony concerts. We would select a concert in which the music was 
5239relatively quiet. The hundred blacks who would be given the tickets would 
5240first be treated to a three-hour pre-concert dinner in the community, in 
5241which they would be fed nothing but baked beans, and lots of them; then 
5242the people would go to the symphony hall — with obvious consequences. 
5243Imagine the scene when the action began! The concert would be over 
5244before the first movement! (If this be a Freudian slip — so be it!) 
5245
5246Let's examine this tactic in terms of the concepts mentioned above. 
5247
5248First, the disturbance would be utterly outside the experience of the 
5249establishment, which was expecting the usual stuff of mass meetings, 
5250street demonstrations, confrontations and parades. Not in their wildest 
5251fears would they expect an attack on their prize cultural jewel, their famed 
5252symphony orchestra. Second, all of the action would ridicule and make a 
5253farce of the law for there is no law, and there probably never will be, 
5254banning natural physical functions. Here you would have a combination 
5255not only of noise but also of odor, what you might call natural stink bombs. 
5256Regular stink bombs are illegal and cause for immediate arrest, but there 
5257would be absolutely nothing here that the Police Department or the ushers 
5258
5259
5260
5261or any other servants of the establishment could do about it. The law 
5262would be completely paralyzed. 
5263
5264Rules for Radicals 140 
5265
5266People would recount what had happened in the symphony hall and the 
5267reaction of the listener would be to crack up in laughter. It would make the 
5268Rochester Symphony and the establishment look utterly ridiculous. There 
5269would be no way for the authorities to cope with any future attacks of a 
5270similar character. What could they do? Demand that people not eat baked 
5271beans before coming to a concert? Ban anyone from succumbing to 
5272natural urges during the concert? Announce to the world that concerts 
5273must not be interrupted by farting? Such talk would destroy the future of 
5274the symphony season. Imagine the tension at the opening of any concert! 
5275Imagine the feeling of the conductor as he raised his baton! 
5276
5277With this would come certain fall-outs. On the following morning, the 
5278matrons, to whom the symphony season is one of the major social 
5279functions, would confront their husbands (both executives and junior 
5280executives) at the breakfast table and say, "John, we are not going to have 
5281our symphony season ruined by those people! \ don't know what they want 
5282but whatever it is, something has got to be done and this kind of thing has 
5283to be stopped!" 
5284
5285Lastly, we have the universal rule that while one goes outside the 
5286experience of the enemy in order to induce confusion and fear, one must 
5287not do the same with one's own people, because you do not want them to 
5288be confused and fearful. Now, let us examine this rule with reference to 
5289the symphony tactic. To start with, the tactic is within the experience of the 
5290local people; it also satisfies another rule — that the people must enjoy the 
5291tactic. Here we have an ambivalent situation. The reaction of the blacks in 
5292
5293
5294
5295the ghetto — their laughter when the tactic was proposed — made it clear 
5296that the tactic, at least in fantasy, 
5297
5298Tactics 141 
5299
5300was within their experience. It connected with their hatred of Whitey. The 
5301one thing that all oppressed people want to do to their oppressors is shit 
5302on them. Here was an approximate way to do this. However, we were also 
5303aware that when they found themselves actually in the symphony hall, 
5304probably for the first time in their lives, they would find themselves seated 
5305amid a mass of whites, many of them in formal dress. The situation would 
5306be so much out of their experience that they might congeal and revert 
5307back to their previous role. The very idea of doing what they had come to 
5308do would be so embarrassing, so mortifying, that they would do almost 
5309anything to avoid carrying through the plan. But we also knew that the 
5310baked beans would compel them physically to go through with the tactic 
5311regardless of how they felt. 
5312
5313I must emphasize that tactics like this are not just cute; any organizer 
5314knows, as a particular tactic grows out of the rules and principles of 
5315revolution, that he must always analyze the merit of the tactic and 
5316determine its strengths and weaknesses in terms of these same rules. 
5317
5318Imagine the scene in the U.S. Courtroom in Chicago's recent conspiracy 
5319trial of the seven if the defendants and counsel had anally trumpeted their 
5320contempt for Judge Hoffman and the system. What could Judge Hoffman, 
5321the bailiffs, or anyone else, do? Would the judge have found them in 
5322contempt for farting? Here was a tactic for which there was no legal 
5323precedent. The press reaction would have stunk up the judge for the rest 
5324of time. 
5325
5326Another tactic involving the bodily functions developed in Chicago during 
5327the days of the Johnson-Goldwater campaign. Commitments that were 
5328
5329
5330
5331made by the authorities to the Woodlawn ghetto organization were not 
5332being met by the city. The political threat that had originally 
5333
5334Rules for Radicals 142 
5335
5336compelled these commitments was no longer operative. The community 
5337organization had no alternative but to support Johnson and therefore the 
5338Democratic administration felt the political threat had evaporated. It must 
5339be remembered here that not only is pressure essential to compel the 
5340establishment to make its initial concession, but the pressure must be 
5341maintained to make the establishment deliver. The second factor seemed 
5342to be lost to the Woodlawn Organization. 
5343
5344Since the organization was blocked in the political arena, new tactics and 
5345a new arena had to be devised. 
5346
5347O'Hare Airport became the target. To begin with, O'Hare is the world's 
5348busiest airport. Think for a moment of the common experience of jet 
5349travelers. Your stewardess brings you your lunch or dinner. After eating, 
5350most people want to go to the lavatory. However, this is often inconvenient 
5351because your tray and those of your seat partners are loaded down with 
5352dishes. So you wait until the stewardess has removed the trays. By that 
5353time those who are seated closest to the lavatory have got up and the 
5354"occupied" sign is on. So you wait. And in these days of jet travel the seat 
5355belt sign is soon flashed, as the airplane starts its landing approach. You 
5356decide to wait until after landing and use the facilities in the terminal. This 
5357is obvious to anyone who watches the unloading of passengers at various 
5358gates in any airport — many of the passengers are making a beeline for the 
5359men's or the ladies' room. 
5360
5361With this in mind, the tactic becomes obvious — we tie up the lavoratories. 
5362In the restrooms you drop a dime, enter, push the lock on the door — and 
5363you can stay there all day. Therefore the occupation of the sit-down toilets 
5364
5365
5366
5367presents no problem. It would take just a relatively few people to walk into 
5368these cubicles, armed with books and 
5369
5370Tactics 143 
5371
5372newspapers, lock the doors, and tie up all the facilities. What are the 
5373police going to do? Break in and demand evidence of legitimate 
5374occupancy? Therefore, the ladies' restrooms could be occupied 
5375completely; the only problem in the men's lavatories would be the stand-up 
5376urinals. This, too, could be taken care of, by having groups busy 
5377themselves around the airport and then move in on the stand-up urinals to 
5378line up four or five deep whenever a flight arrived. An intelligence study 
5379was launched to learn how many sit-down toilets for both men and 
5380women, as well as stand-up urinals, there were in the entire O'Hare Airport 
5381complex and how many men and women would be necessary for the 
5382nation's first "shit-in." 
5383
5384The consequences of this kind of action would be catastrophic in many 
5385ways. People would be desperate for a place to relieve themselves. One 
5386can see children yelling at their parents, "Mommy, I've got to go," and 
5387desperate mothers surrendering, "All right — well, do it. Do it right here." 
5388O'Hare would soon become a shambles. The whole scene would become 
5389unbelievable and the laughter and ridicule would be nationwide. It would 
5390probably get a front page story in the London Times. It would be a source 
5391of great mortification and embarrassment to the city administration. It 
5392might even create the kind of emergency in which planes would have to be 
5393held up while passengers got back aboard to use the plane's toilet 
5394facilities. 
5395
5396The threat of this tactic was leaked (again there may be a Freudian slip 
5397here, and again, so what?) back to the administration, and within forty- 
5398eight hours the Wood-lawn Organization found itself in conference with the 
5399
5400
5401
5402authorities who said that they were certainly going to live up to their 
5403commitments and they could never understand 
5404
5405Rules for Radicals 144 
5406
5407where anyone got the idea that a promise made by Chicago's City Hall 
5408would not be observed. At no point, then or since, has there ever been any 
5409open mention of the threat of the O'Hare tactic. Very few of the members 
5410of the Woodlawn Organization knew how close they were to writing 
5411history. 
5412
5413With the universal principle that the right things are always done for the 
5414wrong reasons and the tactical rule that negatives become positives, we 
5415can understand the following examples. 
5416
5417In its early history the organized black ghetto in the Woodlawn 
5418neighborhood in Chicago engaged in conflict with the slum landlords. It 
5419never picketed the local slum tenements or the landlord's office. It selected 
5420its blackest blacks and bused them out to the lily-white suburb of the slum 
5421landlord's residence. Their picket signs, which said, "Did you know that 
5422Jones, your neighbor, is a slum landlord?" were completely irrelevant; the 
5423point was that the pickets knew Jones would be inundated with phone 
5424calls from his neighbors. 
5425
5426Jones: Before you say a word let me tell you that those signs are a bunch 
5427of lies! 
5428
5429Neighbor: Look, Jones, I don't give a damn what you do for a living. All we 
5430know is that you get those goddam niggers out of here or you get out! 
5431
5432Jones came out and signed. 
5433
5434The pressure that gave us our positive power was the negative of racism 
5435in a white society. We exploited it for our own purposes. 
5436
5437
5438
5439Let us take one of the negative stereotypes that so many whites have of 
5440blacks: that blacks like to sit around eating watermelon. Suppose that 
54413,000 blacks suddenly 
5442
5443Tactics 145 
5444
5445descended into the downtown sections of any city, each armed with and 
5446munching a huge piece of watermelon. This spectacle would be so far 
5447outside the experience of the whites that they would be unnerved and 
5448disorganized. In alarm over what the blacks were up to, the establishment 
5449would probably react to the advantage of the blacks. Furthermore, the 
5450whites would recognize at last the absurdity of their stereotype of black 
5451habits. Whites would squirm in embarrassment, knowing that they were 
5452being ridiculed. That would be the end of the black watermelon stereotype. 
5453I think that this tactic would bring the administration to contact black 
5454leadership and ask what their demands were even if no demands had 
5455been made. Here again is a case of doing what you can with what you've 
5456got. Another example of doing what you can with what you've got is the 
5457following: 
5458
5459I was lecturing at a college run by a very conservative, almost fundamentalist Protestant 
5460denomination. Afterward some of the students came to my motel to talk to me. Their 
5461problem was that they couldn't have any fun on campus. They weren't permitted to dance 
5462or smoke or have a can of beer. I had been talking about the strategy of effecting change 
5463in a society and they wanted to know what tactics they could use to change their 
5464situation. I reminded them that a tactic is doing what you can with what you've got. "Now, 
5465what have you got?" I asked. "What do they permit you to do?" "Practically nothing," they 
5466said, "except — you know — we can chew gum." I said, "Fine. Gum becomes the weapon. 
5467You get two or three hundred students to get two packs of gum each, which is quite a 
5468wad. Then you have them drop it on the campus walks. This will cause absolute chaos. 
5469Why, with five hundred wads of 
5470
5471Rules for Radicals 146 
5472
5473
5474
5475gum I could paralyze Chicago, stop all the traffic in the Loop." They looked at me as 
5476though I was some kind of a nut. But about two weeks later I got an ecstatic letter saying, 
5477"It worked! It worked! Now we can do just about anything so long as we don't chew gum." 
5478
5479— quoted in Marion K. Sanders' The Professional Radical— Conversations 
5480with Saul Alinsky. 
5481
5482As with the slum landlords, one of the major department stores in the 
5483nation was brought to heel by the following threatened tactic. Remember 
5484the rule — the threat is often more effective than the tactic itself, but onlyW 
5485you are so organized that the establishment knows not only that you have 
5486the power to execute the tactic but that you definitely will. You can't do 
5487much bluffing in this game; if you're ever caught bluffing, forget about ever 
5488using threats in the future. On that point you're dead. 
5489
5490There is a particular department store that happens to cater to the carriage 
5491trade. It attracts many customers on the basis of its labels as well as the 
5492quality of its merchandise. Because of this, economic boycotts had failed 
5493to deter even the black middle class from shopping there. At the time its 
5494employment policies were more restrictive than those of the other stores. 
5495Blacks were hired for only the most menial jobs. 
5496
5497We made up a tactic. A busy Saturday shopping date was selected. 
5498Approximately 3,000 blacks all dressed up in their good churchgoing suits 
5499or dresses would be bused downtown. When you put 3,000 blacks on the 
5500main floor of a store, even one that covers a square block, suddenly the 
5501entire color of the store changes. Any white coming through the revolving 
5502doors would take one pop-eyed look and assume that somehow he had 
5503stepped into Africa. He 
5504
5505Tactics 147 
5506
5507
5508
5509would keep right on going out of the store. This would end the white trade 
5510for the day. 
5511
5512For a low-income group, shopping is a time-consuming experience, for 
5513economy means everything. This would mean that every counter would be 
5514occupied by potential customers, carefully examining the quality of 
5515merchandise and asking, say, at the shirt counter, about the material, 
5516color, style, cuffs, collars, and price. As the group occupying the clerks' 
5517attention around the shirt counters moved to the underwear section, those 
5518at the underwear section would replace them at the shirt counter, and the 
5519personnel of the store would be constantly occupied. 
5520
5521Now pause to examine the tactic. It is legal. There is no sit-in or unlawful 
5522occupation of premises. Some thousands of people are in the store 
5523"shopping." The police are powerless and you are operating within the law. 
5524
5525This operation would go on until an hour before closing time, when the 
5526group would begin purchasing everything in sight to be delivered C.O.D.! 
5527This would tie up truck-delivery service for at least two days — with obvious 
5528further heavy financial costs, since all the merchandise would be refused 
5529at the time of delivery. 
5530
5531The threat was delivered to the authorities through a legitimate and 
5532"trustworthy" channel. Every organization must have two or three stool 
5533pigeons who are trusted by the establishment. These stool pigeons are 
5534invaluable as "trustworthy" lines of communication to the establishment. 
5535With all plans ready to go, we began formation of a series of committees: 
5536a transportation committee to get the buses, a mobilization committee to 
5537work with the ministers to get their people to their buses, and other 
5538committees with other specific functions. Two of the key committees 
5539deliberately included one of these stoolies 
5540
5541Rules for Radicals 148 
5542
5543
5544
5545each, so that there would be one to back up the other. We knew the plan 
5546would be quickly reported back to the department store. The next day we 
5547received a call from the department store for a meeting to discuss new 
5548personnel policies and an urgent request that the meeting take place 
5549within the next two or three days, certainly before Saturday! 
5550
5551The personnel policies of the store were drastically changed. Overnight, 
5552186 new jobs were opened. For the first time, blacks were on the sales 
5553floor and in executive training. 
5554
5555This is the kind of tactic that can be used by the middle class too. 
5556Organized shopping, wholesale buying plus charging and returning 
5557everything on delivery, would add accounting costs to their attack on the 
5558retailer with the ominous threat of continued repetition. This is far more 
5559effective than canceling a charge account. Let's look at the score: (1) sales 
5560for one day are completely shot; (2) delivery service is tied up for two days 
5561or more; and (3) the accounting department is screwed up. The total cost 
5562is a nightmare for any retailer, and the sword remains hanging over his 
5563head. The middle class, too, must learn the nature of the enemy and be 
5564able to practice what I have described as mass jujitsu, utilizing the power 
5565of one part of the power structure against another part. 
5566
5567COMPETITION 
5568
5569Once we understand the external reactions of the Haves to the challenges 
5570of the Have-Nots, then we go to 
5571
5572Tactics 149 
5573
5574the next level of examination, the anatomy of power of the Haves among 
5575themselves. 
5576
5577
5578
5579But let us go deeper into the psyche of this Goliath. The Haves possess 
5580and in turn are possessed by power. Obsessed with the fear of losing 
5581power, their every move is dictated by the idea of keeping it. The way of 
5582life of the Haves is to keep what they have and wherever possible to shore 
5583up their defenses. 
5584
5585This opens a new vista — not only do we have a whole class determined to 
5586keep its power and in constant conflict with the Have-Nots; at the same 
5587time, they are in conflict among themselves. Power is not static; it cannot 
5588be frozen and preserved like food; it must grow or die. Therefore, in order 
5589to keep power the status quo must get more. But from whom? There is 
5590just so much more than can be squeezed out of the Have-Nots — so the 
5591Haves must take it from each other. They are on a road from which there 
5592is no turning back. This power cannibalism of the Haves permits only 
5593temporary truces, and only when equally confronted by a common enemy. 
5594Even then there are regular breaks in the ranks, as individual units attempt 
5595to exploit the general threat for their own special benefit. Here is the 
5596vulnerable belly of the status quo. 
5597
5598I first learned this lesson during the 1930s depression, when the United 
5599States experienced a revolutionary upheaval in the form of a mass labor- 
5600union-organizing drive known as the C.I.O. This was the radical wing of 
5601the labor movement; it espoused industrial unionism while the 
5602conservative and archaic A.F. of L. clung to craft unionism. The position of 
5603the A.F. of L. excluded the masses of workers from union organization. 
5604The battle cry of the C.I.O. was "organize the unorganized." Very quickly 
5605the issue was joined with the gargantuan automobile industry, 
5606
5607Rules for Radicals 150 
5608
5609which was at that time an open shop, and completely unorganized. The 
5610first attack was against the behemoth of this empire, General Motors. A 
5611
5612
5613
5614sit-down strike was launched against Chevrolet. John L. Lewis, then the 
5615leader of the C.I.O., told me that at the height of this sit-down strike he 
5616heard a rumor that General Motors had met with both Ford and Chrysler to 
5617advance the following proposition: "We at General Motors are fighting your 
5618battle for if the C.I.O. beats us, then you're next in line and there will be no 
5619stopping them. Now we are willing to let the C.I.O. sit in at Chevrolet until 
5620hell freezes and suffer that loss in our profits //you will hold your 
5621production of Fords and Plymouths [the price-class competitors to the 
5622Chevrolet] to your present market. On the other hand, we cannot hold out 
5623against the C.I.O. if you boost production in order to sell to all potential 
5624Chevrolet customers who will buy your products because they cannot get 
5625Chevrolets." 
5626
5627Lewis, who was an organizational genius with a rare insight into the power 
5628mechanics of the status quo, dismissed it with a perceptive comment. It 
5629doesn't matter whether this is a false rumor or true, he said, because 
5630neither Ford nor Chrysler could ever agree to overlook an opportunity for 
5631an immediate increase in their profits and power, shortsighted as it might 
5632be. 
5633
5634The internecine struggle among the Haves for their individual self-interest 
5635is as shortsighted as internecine struggle among the Have-Nots. I have on 
5636occasion remarked that I feel confident that I could persuade a millionaire 
5637on a Friday to subsidize a revolution for Saturday out of which he would 
5638make a huge profit on Sunday even though he was certain to be executed 
5639on Monday. 
5640
5641Once one understands this internal battle for power within the status quo, 
5642one can begin to appraise effective 
5643
5644Tactics 151 
5645
5646
5647
5648tactics to exploit it. It is sad to see the stupidity of inexperienced 
5649organizers who make gross errors by failing to have even an elementary 
5650appreciation of this pattern. 
5651
5652An example is to be found just a couple of years ago when during the 
5653height of the rising tide of the struggle for civil rights certain civil rights 
5654leaders in Chicago declared a Christmas boycott on a//the department 
5655stores downtown. The boycott was a disastrous failure, and any 
5656experienced revolutionary could have predicted without any reservations 
5657that this would have been the case. Any attack against the status quo 
5658must use the strength of the enemy against itself. Let us examine this 
5659particular boycott — the error was in trying to boycott all, instead of some. 
5660Few liberals, white or black, would forgo all Christmas shopping in the 
5661most attractive shopping places. Even if it had not been the Christmas 
5662season, we know that picket lines are relatively ineffective today in 
5663stopping the general population. There is a low degree of identification on 
5664the part of the general population with the labor movement or with picket 
5665lines in general. However, even that low degree can be exploited by 
5666placing a picket line in front of only one department store. If the same 
5667merchandise can be purchased at the same price at another department 
5668store across the street, the slight uneasiness that the picket line creates 
5669can affect a significant number of customers — they have an easy enough, 
5670visible enough alternative: they will cross the street. The power squeeze 
5671comes when the picketed department store sees a number of customers 
5672going across to its competitors. 
5673
5674This calculated maneuvering of the power of one part of the Haves against 
5675its other parts is central to strategy. In a certain sense it is similar-to the 
5676Have-Not nations playing off the U.S.A. against the U.S.S.R. 
5677
5678Rules for Radicals 152 
5679
5680
5681
5682THEIR OWN PETARD 
5683
5684The basic tactic in warfare against the Haves is a mass political jujitsu: the 
5685Have-Nots do not rigidly oppose the Haves, but yield in such planned and 
5686skilled ways that the superior strength of the Haves becomes their own 
5687undoing. For example, since the Haves publicly pose as the custodians of 
5688responsibility, morality, law, and justice (which are frequently strangers to 
5689each other), they can be constantly pushed to live up to their own book of 
5690morality and regulations. No organization, including organized religion, can 
5691live up to the letter of its own book. You can club them to death with their 
5692"book" of rules and regulations. This is what that great revolutionary, Paul 
5693of Tarsus, knew when he wrote to the Corinthians: "Who also hath made 
5694us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit; 
5695for the letter killeth." Let us take, for example, the case of the civil rights 
5696demonstrations of 1963 in Birmingham, when thousands of Negro children 
5697stayed out of school to participate in the street demonstrations. The 
5698Birmingham Board of Education dusted off its book of regulations and 
5699threatened to expel all children absent for this reason. Here the civil rights 
5700leaders erred (as they did on other vital tactics) by backing off instead of 
5701rushing in with more demonstrations and pressing the Birmingham Board 
5702of Education between the pages of their book of regulations by forcing 
5703them to live up to the letter of their regulations and statements. The Board 
5704and the City of Birmingham would have been in an impossible situation 
5705with every Negro child 
5706
5707Tactics 153 
5708
5709expelled and loose on the streets — if they didn't reverse themselves before 
5710they acted, they would have reversed themselves one day later. 
5711
5712Another dramatic failure to understand tactics came during the second 
5713Chicago public school boycott, in 1964, a struggle against a de facto 
5714
5715
5716
5717segregated public school system. We know that the efficacy of any action 
5718is in the reaction it evokes from the Haves, so that the cycle escalates in a 
5719continuum of conflict. Lacking any reaction from the Haves (except public 
5720notice of the numbers of children involved), effects of the boycott were 
5721significantly over by the next day. This boycott was what I call a terminal 
5722tactic, one that crests, breaks, and disappears like a wave. Terminal 
5723tactics do not arouse the reaction that is essential for the development of a 
5724conflict. A terminal tactic is to be exercised only to finish a conflict, for it is 
5725ineffective in the development of the rhythm of give and take that one must 
5726have while stepping up the war and building the movement. 
5727
5728Civil rights leaders could console themselves with the "psychological 
5729carry-overs," "public display of support," and similar prayerful hopes, but 
5730as for carrying on the conflict for integration, that was over and done with 
5731by the next day. Nice memory. 
5732
5733In Chicago the Haves slipped badly when both a judge and a district 
5734attorney muttered that the book of regulations banned attempts to induce 
5735the absence of public school students, and growled ominously about an 
5736injunction against all civil rights leaders taking part in the development of 
5737the boycott. Here, as always, whenever the Haves start living by their book 
5738they present a golden opportunity to the Have-Nots to transform what had 
5739been a terminal tactic into a sweeping advance on 
5740
5741Rules for Radicals 154 
5742
5743many fronts. The children wouldn't need to be absent — the leaders would 
5744be the only people who needed to act. Now was the time to start an 
5745intensive campaign of ridicule, insults, and taunting defiance, daring the 
5746district attorney and the judge either to live up to their regulations and 
5747issue the injunctions or stand publicly exposed as fearful frauds who were 
5748afraid to put the law where their mouths were. Such behavior on the part 
5749
5750
5751
5752of the Have-Nots would probably have resulted in the injunction. But by 
5753this time the boycott tactic would have had shaking consequences. 
5754Immediately following the boycott every civil rights leader in the city of 
5755Chicago involved in it would have been in violation of the court injunction. 
5756But the last thing that the establishment wants is to indict and imprison 
5757every single civil rights leader (which would have included leaders of every 
5758religious organization in town) in the city of Chicago. Such a step would 
5759have shaken the power structure of Chicago, and certainly put the entire 
5760issue of school segregation policy on the line. Without any question, the 
5761district attorney and the judge would have had to depend on 
5762postponements in the hope that everybody would just forget about it. At 
5763this point, now that the civil rights leaders had the powerful weapon of the 
5764book of laws of the Haves, they would have to stand fast publicly — once 
5765again taunting, insulting, demanding that the judge and the district attorney 
5766"obey the law," charging that the district attorney and the courts had 
5767issued an injunction which they had publicly, willfully, and maliciously 
5768violated, and that they therefore must be compelled to pay the penalties 
5769for this action. If the civil rights leaders insisted that they be arrested and 
5770tried, the Haves would be on the run and in complete confusion, caught in 
5771the strait jacket of their own book. 
5772
5773Tactics 155 
5774
5775Enforcement of their injunction would have resulted in a citywide storm of 
5776protest and a rapid growth in the organization. Non-enforcement would 
5777have signaled a breakdown and retreat of the Haves from the Have-Nots, 
5778and also resulted in swelling the size and force of the Have-Not 
5779organization. 
5780
5781TIME IN JAIL 
5782
5783
5784
5785The reaction of the status quo in jailing revolutionary leaders is in itself a 
5786tremendous contribution to the development of the Have-Not movement 
5787as well as to the personal development of the revolutionary leaders. This 
5788point should be carefully remembered as another example of how mass 
5789jujitsu tactics can be used to so maneuver the status quo that it turns its 
5790power against itself. 
5791
5792Jailing the revolutionary leaders and their followers performs three vital 
5793functions for the cause of the Have-Nots: (1) it is an act on the part of the 
5794status quo that in itself points up the conflict between the Haves and the 
5795Have-Nots; (2) it strengthens immeasurably the position of the 
5796revolutionary leaders with their people by surrounding the jailed leadership 
5797with an aura of martyrdom; (3) it deepens the identification of the 
5798leadership with their people since the prevalent reaction among the Have- 
5799Nots is that their leadership cares so much for them, and is so sincerely 
5800committed to the issue, that it is willing to suffer imprisonment for the 
5801cause. Repeatedly in situations where the relationship between the Have- 
5802Nots and their leaders has become strained the remedy has been the 
5803jailing of the 
5804
5805Rules for Radicals 156 
5806
5807leaders by the establishment. Immediately the ranks close and the leaders 
5808regain their mass support. 
5809
5810At the same time, the revolutionary leaders should make certain that their 
5811publicized violations of the regulations are so selected that their jail terms 
5812are relatively brief, from one day to two months. The trouble with a long jail 
5813sentence is that (a) a revolutionary is removed from action for such an 
5814extended period of time that he loses touch, and (b) if you are gone long 
5815enough everybody forgets about you. Life goes on, new issues arise, and 
5816new leaders appear; however, a periodic removal from circulation by being 
5817
5818
5819
5820jailed is an essential element in the development of the revolutionary. The 
5821one problem that the revolutionary cannot cope with by himself is that he 
5822must now and then have an opportunity to reflect and synthesize his 
5823thoughts. To gain that privacy in which he can try to make sense out of 
5824what he is doing, why he is doing it, where he is going, what has been 
5825wrong with what he has done, what he should have done and above all to 
5826see the relationships of all the episodes and acts as they tie in to a general 
5827pattern, the most convenient and accessible solution is jail. It is here that 
5828he begins to develop a philosophy. It is here that he begins to shape long- 
5829term goals, intermediate goals, and a self-analysis of tactics as tied to his 
5830own personality. It is here that he is emancipated from the slavery of 
5831action wherein he was compelled to think from act to act. Now he can look 
5832at the totality of his actions and the reactions of the enemy from a fairly 
5833detached position. 
5834
5835Every revolutionary leader of consequence has had to undergo these 
5836withdrawals from the arena of action. Without such opportunities, he goes 
5837from one tactic and one action to another, but most of them are almost 
5838terminal 
5839
5840Tactics 157 
5841
5842tactics in themselves; he never has a chance to think through an overall 
5843synthesis, and he burns himself out. He becomes, in fact, nothing more 
5844than a temporary irritant. The prophets of the Old Testament and the New 
5845found their opportunity for synthesis by voluntarily removing themselves to 
5846the wilderness. It was after they emerged that they began propagandizing 
5847their philosophies. Often a revolutionary finds that he cannot voluntarily 
5848detach himself, since the pressure of events and action do not permit him 
5849that luxury; furthermore, a revolutionary or a man of action does not have 
5850the sedentary frame of mind that is part of the personality of a research 
5851scholar. He finds it very difficult to sit quietly and think and write. Even 
5852
5853
5854
5855when provided with a voluntary situation of that kind he will react by trying 
5856to escape the job of thinking and writing. He will do anything to avoid it. 
5857
5858I remember that once I accepted an invitation to participate in a one-week 
5859discussion at the Aspen Institute. The argument was made that this would 
5860be a good opportunity to get away from it all and write. The institute 
5861sessions would last only from 10:00 to noon and I would be free for the 
5862rest of the afternoon and the evening. The morning began with the institute 
5863sessions; the subjects were very interesting and carried over through a 
5864luncheon discussion, which lasted until 2:30 or 3:00. Now I could sit and 
5865write from 3:00 to dinner, but then one of the members of the discussion 
5866group, a most interesting astronomer, stopped in for a chat. By the time he 
5867left it was 5:00 p.m.; there wasn't much point in starting to write then, for 
5868there would be cocktails at 5:30, and after cocktails there wasn't much 
5869point in sitting down to start writing because dinner would be served soon, 
5870and after dinner there wasn't much point in trying to start writing because it 
5871was late and I 
5872
5873Rules for Radicals 158 
5874
5875was tired. Now it is true that I could have got up immediately after lunch, 
5876told everybody that I was not to be disturbed, and gone to spend the 
5877afternoon writing. I could have gone back to my quarters, locked the door, 
5878and, hopefully, started writing; but the fact is that I did not want to come to 
5879grips with thinking and writing any more than anyone else involved in 
5880revolutionary movements does. I welcomed the interruptions and used 
5881them as rationalizing excuses to escape the ordeal of thinking and writing. 
5882
5883Jail provides just the opposite circumstances. You have no phones and, 
5884except for an hour or so a day, no visitors. Your jailers are rough, 
5885unsociable, and generally so dull that you wouldn't want to talk to them 
5886anyway. You find yourself in a physical drabness and confinement, which 
5887
5888
5889
5890you desperately try to escape. Since there is no physical escape you are 
5891driven to erase your surroundings imaginatively: you escape into thinking 
5892and writing. It was through periodic imprisonment that the basis for my first 
5893publication and the first orderly philosophical arrangement of my ideas and 
5894goals occurred. 
5895
5896TIME IN TACTICS 
5897
5898Enough of philosophical cells — let's get back to the business of the active 
5899essentials of organizing. Among the essentials is timing. 
5900
5901Timing is to tactics what it is to everything in life — the difference between 
5902success and failure. I don't mean 
5903
5904Tactics 159 
5905
5906the timing of the start of a tactic — that is important certainly, but as has 
5907been stated repeatedly, life does not usually afford the tactician the luxury 
5908of time or place when the conflict is engaged. Life does permit, however, 
5909that the skilled tactician be conscious of the utilization of time in the use of 
5910tactics. 
5911
5912Once the battle is joined and a tactic is employed, it is important that the 
5913conflict not be carried on over too long a time. If you will recall, this was 
5914the seventh rule noted at the beginning of this chapter. There are many 
5915reasons of human experience arguing for this point. I cannot repeat too 
5916often that a conflict that drags on too long becomes a drag. The same 
5917universality applies for a tactic or for any other specific action. 
5918
5919Among the reasons is the simple fact that human beings can sustain an 
5920interest in a particular subject only over a limited period of time. The 
5921concentration, the emotional fervor, even the physical energy, a particular 
5922experience that is exciting, challenging, and inviting, can last just so 
5923
5924
5925
5926long — this is true of the gamut of human behavior, from sex to conflict. 
5927After a period of time it becomes monotonous, repetitive, an emotional 
5928treadmill, and worse than anything else a bore. From the moment the 
5929tactician engages in conflict, his enemy is time. 
5930
5931This should be kept in mind when one is considering boycotts. First, any 
5932consideration of a boycott should carefully avoid essentials such as meat, 
5933milk, bread, or basic vegetables, since even selective buying weakens 
5934after a period of time as the opponent cuts his prices below his 
5935competitors. With non-essentials — grapes, bananas, pistachio nuts, 
5936maraschino cherries, and the like — many liberals can make the "sacrifice" 
5937and feel noble. 
5938
5939Rules for Radicals 160 
5940
5941Even so, any skilled organizer knows that he can push this negative over 
5942into a positive: he can compel or maneuver the opposition to make the 
5943mistake themselves. The drama of continuous involvement builds up an 
5944immunity to any further excitement. The consequence is that the 
5945opposition will finally, out of their own tedium, give in. 
5946
5947The pressure of time should be ever-present in the mind of the tactician as 
5948he begins to engage in action. This applies to the physical action such as 
5949a mass demonstration as well as to its emotional counterpart. When the 
5950Woodlawn Organization in Chicago decided to have a massive move-in on 
5951City Hall with reference to an issue on education, 5,000 to 8,000 
5952individuals were to fill the lobby of City Hall in Chicago at 10:00 a.m. for a 
5953confrontation with the mayor. At the time the strategy was being 
5954developed, the function of time in the use of the tactic was examined and 
5955understood, and therefore the tactic was utilized to its fullest potential 
5956rather than turning into a debacle, as was the case with the recent poor 
5957people's march, Resurrection City, etc. There was a clear understanding 
5958
5959
5960
5961on the part of the leadership that when some thousands of people are 
5962assembled downtown, the physical tedium of standing, of being in one 
5963place for a period of time, begins to dampen ardor rather soon, and that 
5964small groups will begin to disappear to go shopping, go sight-seeing, get 
5965refreshments. In short, the life of the immediate metropolitan area 
5966becomes much more attractive and inviting than simply being in City Hall 
5967in an action that has already spent the excitement of witnessing the 
5968opposition's shock. After a while — and by "a while" meaning two to three 
5969hours — the 8,000 would have dwindled to 800 or less and the impact of 
5970mass numbers would have been seriously diluted and 
5971
5972Tactics 161 
5973
5974weakened. Furthermore, the effect on the opposition would have been that 
5975the mayor, seeing a mass action of 8,000 shrink to 800, would assume 
5976that if he only sits it out for another two or three hours the 800 will shrink to 
597780, and if he sits it out for a day there will be nothing left. That would have 
5978gained us nothing. 
5979
5980With this in mind, the leadership of the Woodlawn Organization made its 
5981confrontation with the mayor, told the mayor that they wanted action and 
5982quickly on their particular demands, and that they were going to give him 
5983just so much time to meet their demands. Having given their message, 
5984they said, they were now calling off their demonstration, but they would be 
5985back in the same numbers or more. And with that they turned around and 
5986led their still-enthusiastic army in an organized, fully armed, powerful 
5987withdrawal, and left this mass impression upon the City Hall authorities. 
5988
5989There is a way to keep the action going and to prevent it from being a 
5990drag, but this means constantly cutting new issues as the action 
5991continues, so that by the time the enthusiasm and the emotions for one 
5992issue have started to de-escalate, a new issue has come into the scene 
5993
5994
5995
5996with a consequent revival. With a constant introduction of new issues, it 
5997will go on and on. This is the case with many prolonged fights; in the end, 
5998the negotiations don't even involve the issues around which the conflict 
5999originally began. It brings to mind the old anecdote of the Hundred Years' 
6000War in Europe: when the parties finally got together for peace negotiations 
6001nobody could remember what the war was all about, or how it had 
6002begun — and furthermore, whatever the original issues, they were now 
6003irrelevant to the peace negotiations. 
6004
6005Rules for Radicals 162 
6006
6007NEW TACTICS AND OLD 
6008
6009Speaking of issues, let's look at the issue of pollution. Here again, we can 
6010use the Haves against the Haves to get what we want. When utilities or 
6011heavy industries talk about the "people," they mean the banks and other 
6012power sectors of their own world. If their banks, say, start pressing them, 
6013then they listen and hurt. The target, therefore, should be the banks that 
6014serve the steel, auto, and other industries, and the goal, significant 
6015lessening of pollution. 
6016
6017Let us begin by making the banks live up to their own public statements. 
6018
6019All banks want money and advertise for new savings and checking 
6020accounts. They even offer premium prizes to those who will open 
6021accounts. Opening a savings account in a bank is more than a routine 
6022matter. First, you sit down with one of the multiple vice-presidents or 
6023employees and begin to fill out forms and respond to questions for at least 
6024thirty minutes. If a thousand or more people all moved in, each with $5 or 
6025$10 to open up a savings account, the bank's floor functions would be 
6026paralyzed. Again, as in the case of the shop-in, the police would be 
6027immobilized. There is no illegal occupation. The bank is in a difficult 
6028position. It knows what is happening, but still it does not want to 
6029
6030
6031
6032antagonize would-be depositors. The bank's public image would be 
6033destroyed if some thousand would-be depositors were arrested or forcibly 
6034ejected from the premises. 
6035
6036The element of ridicule is here again. A continuous chain of action and 
6037reaction is formed. Following this, the 
6038
6039Tactics 163 
6040
6041people can return in a few days and close their accounts, and then return 
6042again later to open new accounts. This is what I would call a middle-class 
6043guerrilla attack. It could well cause an irrational reaction on the part of the 
6044banks which could then be directed against their large customers, for 
6045example the polluting utilities or whatever were the obvious, stated targets 
6046of the middle-class organizations. The target of a secondary attack such 
6047as this is always outraged; the bank, thus, is likely to react more 
6048emotionally since it as a body feels that it is innocent, being punished for 
6049another's sins. 
6050
6051At the same time, this kind of action can also be combined with social 
6052refreshments and gathering together with friends downtown, as well as 
6053with the general enjoyment of seeing the discomfiture and confusion on 
6054the part of the establishment. The middle-class guerrillas would enjoy 
6055themselves as they increased the pressure on their enemies. 
6056
6057Once a specific tactic is used, it ceases to be outside the experience of the 
6058enemy. Before long he devises countermeasures that void the previous 
6059effective tactic. Recently the head of a corporation showed me the 
6060blueprint of a new plant and pointed to a large ground-floor area: "Boy, 
6061have we got an architect who is with it!" he chuckled. "See that big hall? 
6062That's our sit-in room! When the sit-inners come they'll be shown in and 
6063there will be coffee, T.V., and good toilet facilities — they can sit here until 
6064hell freezes over." 
6065
6066
6067
6068Now you can relegate sit-ins to the Smithsonian Museum. 
6069
6070Once, though — and in rare circumstances even now — sit-downs were 
6071really revolutionary. A vivid illustration was the almost spontaneous sit- 
6072down strikes of the United 
6073
6074Rules for Radicals 164 
6075
6076Automobile Workers Union in their 1937 organizing drive at General 
6077Motors. The seizure of private property caused an uproar in the nation. 
6078With rare exception every labor leader ran for cover — this was too 
6079revolutionary for them. The sit-down strikers began to worry about the 
6080illegality of their action and the why and wherefore, and it was then that 
6081the chief of all C.I.O. organizers, Lewis, gave them their rationale. He 
6082thundered, "The right to a man's job transcends the right of private 
6083property! The C.I.O. stands squarely behind these sit-downs!" 
6084
6085The sit-down strikers at G.M. cheered. A/cwthey knew whyVney had done 
6086what they did, and why\.Y\ey would stay to the end. The lesson here is that 
6087a major job of the organizer is to instantly develop the rationale for actions 
6088which have taken place by accident or impulsive anger. Lacking the 
6089rationale, the action becomes inexplicable to its participants and rapidly 
6090disintegrates into defeat. Possessing a rationale gives action a meaning 
6091and purpose. 
6092
6093
6094
6095The Genesis of Tactic Proxy 
6096
6097THE GREATEST BARRIER to communication between myself and would- 
6098be organizers arises when I try to get across the concept that tactics are 
6099not the product of careful cold reason, that they do not follow a table of 
6100organization or plan of attack. Accident, unpredictable reactions to your 
6101own actions, necessity, and improvisation dictate the direction and nature 
6102of tactics. Then, analytical logic is required to appraise where you are, 
6103what you can do next, the risks and hopes that you can look forward to. It 
6104is this analysis that protects you from being a blind prisoner of the tactic 
6105and the accidents that accompany it. But I cannot overemphasize that the 
6106tactic itself comes out of the free flow of action and reaction, and requires 
6107on the part of the organizer an easy acceptance of apparent 
6108disorganization. 
6109
6110The organizer goes with the action. His approach must be free, open- 
6111ended, curious, sensitive to any opportunities, any handles to grab on to, 
6112even though they involve other issues than those he may have in mind at 
6113that particular time. The organizer should never feel lost 
6114
6115Rules for Radicals 166 
6116
6117because he has no plot, no timetable or definite points of reference. A 
6118great pragmatist, Abraham Lincoln, told his secretary in the month the war 
6119began: 
6120
6121"My policy is to have no policy." 
6122
6123Three years later, in a letter to a Kentucky friend, he confessed plainly: "I 
6124have been controlled by events." 
6125
6126
6127
6128The major problem in trying to communicate this idea is that it is outside 
6129the experience of practically everyone who has been exposed to our 
6130alleged education system. The products of this system have been trained 
6131to emphasize order, logic, rational thought, direction, and purpose. We call 
6132it mental discipline and it results in a structured, static, closed, rigid, 
6133mental makeup. Even a phrase such as "being open-minded" becomes 
6134just a verbalism. Happenings that cannot be understood at the time, or 
6135don't fit into the accumulated "educational" pattern, are considered 
6136strange, suspect, and to be avoided. For anyone to understand what 
6137anyone else is doing, he has got to understand it in terms of logic, rational 
6138decision, and deliberate conscious action. Therefore when you try to 
6139communicate the whys and wherefores of your actions you are compelled 
6140to fabricate these logical, rational, structured reasons to rationalizations. 
6141This is not how it is in real life. 
6142
6143Since the nature of the development of tactics cannot be described as a 
6144general proposition, I shall attempt instead to present a case study of the 
6145development of the proxy tactic, one that promises to be a major tactic for 
6146some years to come. I shall try to take the reader into my experience with 
6147the hope that afterward he will reflect candidly upon the hows and whys of 
6148his own tactical experience. 
6149
6150We know that we are predominantly a middle-class society living in a 
6151corporate economy, an economy that 
6152
6153The Genesis of Tactic Proxy 167 
6154
6155tends to form conglomerates so that in order to know where the power 
6156lies, you have to find out who owns whom. For some years past it's been 
6157like trying to find the pea in the shell game — but now there are strobe 
6158lights flashing for further confusion. The one thing certain is that masses of 
6159
6160
6161
6162middle-class Americans are ready to move toward major confrontations 
6163with corporate America. 
6164
6165College students have argued that their administrations should give 
6166student committees the proxies in their stock portfolios for use in the 
6167struggle for peace and against pollution, inflation, racially discriminatory 
6168policies, and other evils. 
6169
6170Citizens from Baltimore to Los Angeles are organizing proxy groups to 
6171pool their votes for action on the social and political policies of "their" 
6172corporations. Feeling that national proxy organization may give them, for 
6173the first time, the power to do something, they are now waking to a 
6174growing interest in the relationship of their corporate holdings to the 
6175Pentagon. 
6176
6177This pragmatic means toward political action has loosed new forces. 
6178Recently I talked to three students at Stanford's School of Business 
6179Administration about the ways and means of proxy use. I asked them what 
6180their major goal was and they responded, "Getting out of Vietnam." They 
6181shook their heads when I asked whether they had been active on this 
6182issue. "Why not?" I inquired. Their answer was that they didn't believe in 
6183the effectiveness of demonstrations in the streets, and recoiled from such 
6184actions as carrying Viet Cong flags, draft card burning or draft evasion, but 
6185they did believe in the use of proxies. Enter three new recruits; you can 
6186depend upon the establishment to radicalize them further. 
6187
6188Like any new political program, the proxy tactic was 
6189
6190Rules for Radicals 168 
6191
6192not the result of reason and logic — it was part accident, part necessity, 
6193part response to reaction, and part imagination, and each part affected the 
6194other. Of course "imagination" is also tactical sensitivity; when the 
6195
6196
6197
6198"accident" happens, the imaginative organizer recognizes it and grabs it 
6199before it slips by. 
6200
6201The various accounts of the "history" of the development of the proxy 
6202tactic show a line of reason, purpose, and order that were never there. 
6203The mythology of "history" is usually so pleasant for the ego of the subject 
6204that he accepts it in a "modest" silence, an affirmation of the validity of the 
6205mythology. After a while he begins to believe it. 
6206
6207The further danger of mythology is that it carries the picture of "genius at 
6208work" with the false implication of purposeful logic and planned actions. 
6209This makes it more difficult to free oneself from the structured approach. 
6210For this if no other reason mythology should be understood for what it is. 
6211
6212The history of Chicago's Back of the Yards Council reads, "Out from the 
6213gutters, the bars, the churches, the labor unions, yes, even the communist 
6214and socialist parties; the neighborhood businessmen's associations, the 
6215American Legion and Chicago's Catholic Bishop Bernard Sheil. They all 
6216came together on July 14, 1939. July 14, Bastille Day! Their Bastille Day, 
6217the day they deliberately and symbolically selected to join together to 
6218storm the barricades of unemployment, rotten housing, disease, 
6219delinquency and demoralization." 
6220
6221That's the way it reads. What really happened is that July 14 was selected 
6222because it was the one day the public park fieldhouse was clear — the one 
6223day that the labor unions had no scheduled meetings — the day that many 
6224priests thought was best — the one day that the late Bishop 
6225
6226777e Genesis of Tactic Proxy 169 
6227
6228Sheil was free. There wasn't a thought of Bastille Day in any of our minds. 
6229
6230
6231
6232That day at a press conference before the convention came to order a 
6233reporter asked me, "Don't you think it's somewhat too revolutionary to 
6234deliberately select Bastille Day for your first convention?" I tried to cover 
6235my surprise but I thought, "How wonderful! What a windfall!" I answered, 
6236"Not at all. It is fitting that we do so and that's why we did it." 
6237
6238I quickly informed all the speakers about "Bastille Day" and it became the 
6239keynote of nearly every speech. And so history records it as a "calculated, 
6240planned" tactic. 
6241
6242The difference between fact and history was brought home when I was a 
6243visiting professor at a certain Eastern university. Two candidates there 
6244were taking their written examinations for the doctorate in community 
6245organization and criminology. I persuaded the president of this college to 
6246get me a copy of this examination and when I answered the questions the 
6247departmental head graded my paper, knowing only that I was an 
6248anonymous friend of the president. Three of the questions were on the 
6249philosophy and motivations of Saul Alinsky. I answered two of them 
6250incorrectly. I did not know what my philosophy or motivations were; but 
6251they did! 
6252
6253I remember that when I organized the Back of the Yards in Chicago I 
6254made many moves almost intuitively. But when I was asked to explain 
6255what I had done and why, I had to come up with reasons. Reasons that 
6256were not present at the time. What I did at the time, I did because that was 
6257the thing to do; it was the best thing to do, or it was the only thing to do. 
6258However, when pressed for reasons I had to start considering an 
6259intellectual scaffolding for my past actions — really, rationalizations. I can 
6260re- 
6261Rules for Radicals 170 
6262
6263
6264
6265member the "reasons" being so convincing even to myself that I thought, 
6266"Why, of course, I did it for those reasons — I should have known that that 
6267was why I did it." 
6268
6269The proxy tactic was born in Rochester, New York, in the conflict between 
6270Eastman Kodak and the black ghetto organization called FIGHT our 
6271foundation had helped to organize. The issues* of the conflict are not 
6272relevant to the present subject except that a vice-president of Kodak 
6273assigned to negotiate with FIGHT reached an agreement with FIGHT, and 
6274that seemed to close the matter. Enter the first accident, for Kodak then 
6275repudiated its own vice-president and the agreement he had made. This 
6276re-opened the battle. If Kodak had not reneged, the issue would have 
6277ended there. 
6278
6279Now necessity moved in. As the lines were drawn for battle it became 
6280clear that the usual strategy of demonstrations and confrontations would 
6281be unavailing. While Kodak's buildings and administration were in 
6282Rochester, its real life was throughout its American and overseas markets. 
6283Demonstrations might be embarrassing and inconvenient, but they would 
6284not be the tactic to force an agreement. It wasn't Rochester that Eastman 
6285Kodak was concerned about. Their image in that community could 
6286
6287* Those involved in the Kodak-FIGHT battle knew that there was one issue — "Would 
6288Kodak or any other corporation recognize FIGHT as the bargaining agent for the black 
6289ghetto of Rochester, New York?" Once Kodak recognized FIGHT as representing the 
6290black ghetto, we could come to the table to negotiate on all other issues, including the 
6291employment of more blacks. Kodak's recognition of FIGHT would result in other 
6292corporations following suit and this would lead to other programs and other issues. 
6293Kodak's subsequent recognition of FIGHT caused Xerox to do the same and resulted in 
6294the launching of a black-owned and black-manned factory by FIGHT called FIGHTON in 
6295collaboration with the Xerox Corporation. 
6296
6297777e Genesis of Tactic Proxy 171 
6298
6299
6300
6301always be sustained by sheer financial power. Their vulnerability was 
6302throughout the nation and overseas. 
6303
6304We then began looking for appropriate tactics. An economic boycott was 
6305rejected because of Kodak's overwhelming domination of the film-negative 
6306market. Thus a call for an economic boycott would be asking the American 
6307people to stop taking pictures, which obviously would not work as long as 
6308babies were being born, children were graduating, having birthday parties, 
6309getting married, going on picnics and so forth. The idea of boycott did 
6310evoke thoughts of checking out the Sherman Anti-Trust Act against them 
6311at some point. Other wild ideas were tossed about.* 
6312
6313* The National Observer, July 17, 1967: "Civil-rights activists have devised a major new 
6314plan to bring pressure on some of the nation's biggest corporations, The National 
6315Observer learned last week. These activists plan to wage proxy battles — hoping to push 
6316management into providing more jobs for poor whites and Negroes.... 
6317
6318"The Eastman Kodak case was the guidepost. It was not until the late-blooming proxy 
6319battle that Rochester's FIGHT made headway. Before the proxy fight, there were few 
6320ways in which pressure could be brought on the dominant international photography 
6321company. 
6322
6323" 'Eastman Kodak wasn't worried about what FIGHT could do, and I don't blame them,' 
6324Mr. Alinsky says. 'A boycott was out of the question. That would be like asking everyone 
6325to stop taking pictures. This called for a new kind of tactic, and we hit on one. 
6326
6327" 'We had all kinds of plans. We had heard that Queen Elizabeth owned Kodak stock. So 
6328we were considering throwing up a picket line around Buckingham Palace in London, and 
6329charging that the changing of the guard was a conspiracy to encourage picture-taking. 
6330But we didn't have time to follow this or a lot of other things up. If we have time to plan a 
6331campaign, it could be much more effective.' 
6332
6333"The thought of the Buckingham Palace picket line may seem ludicrous, but it is typical of 
6334Alinsky methods — attention-getting and outrageous to the point of amusement. His basic 
6335philosophy, as he has often stated, is that the poor, who lack the money or authority to 
6336
6337
6338
6339challenge the 'power structure,' must use the only weapon they have at their command — 
6340people and publicity." 
6341
6342Rules for Radicals 172 
6343
6344The proxy idea first came up as a way to gain entrance to the annual 
6345stockholders' meeting for harassment and publicity, and again accident 
6346and necessity played a part. I had recently accepted a number of 
6347invitations to address universities, religious conventions, and similar 
6348organizations in various parts of the United States. Why not talk to them 
6349about the Kodak-FIGHT battle and ask for proxies? Why not accept all 
6350speaking invitations even if it meant ninety consecutive days in ninety 
6351different places? It wouldn't cost us a penny. These places not only paid 
6352fees to my organization, but they also paid travel expenses. 
6353
6354And so it began with nothing specific in mind except to ask Eastman 
6355Kodak stockholders to assign their proxies to the Rochester black 
6356organization or come to the stockholders' meeting and vote in favor of 
6357FIGHT. 
6358
6359There was never any thought, then or now, of using proxies to gain 
6360economic power inside the corporation or to elect directors to the board. I 
6361couldn't be less interested in having a couple of directors elected to the 
6362board of Kodak or any other corporation. As long as the opposition has the 
6363majority, that's it. Also, boards of directors are only rubber stamps of 
6364management. With the exception of some management people "retired" to 
6365the board, the rest of them don't know which way is up. 
6366
6367The first real breakthrough followed my address to the National Unitarian 
6368Convention in Denver on May 3, 1967, in which I asked for and received 
6369the passage of a resolution that the proxies of their organization would be 
6370given to FIGHT. The reactions of the local politicians made me realize that 
6371
6372
6373
6374senators and congressmen up for reelection would turn to their research 
6375directors and ask, "How many Unitarians have I got in my district?" The 
6376
6377The Genesis of Tactic Proxy 173 
6378
6379proxy tactic now began to look like a possible political bank-shot. Political 
6380leaders who saw their churches assigning proxies to us could see them 
6381assigning their votes as well. This meant political power. Kodak has 
6382money, but money counts in elections for television time, newspaper ads, 
6383political workers, publicity, pay-offs and pressure. If this fails to get the 
6384vote, money is politically useless. It was obvious that politicians who would 
6385support us had everything to gain. 
6386
6387Proxies were now seen as proof of political intent if they came from large 
6388membership organizations. The church organizations had mass 
6389members — voters! \\ meant publicity and publicity meant pressure on 
6390political candidates and incumbents. We hoisted a banner with our slogan, 
6391"Keep your sermons; give us your proxies," and set sail into the sea of 
6392churches. I couldn't help noting the irony that churches, having sold their 
6393spiritual birthright in exchange for donations of stock, could now go 
6394straight again by giving their proxies to the poor. 
6395
6396The pressure began to build. My only concern was whether Kodak would 
6397get the message. Never before or since have I encountered an American 
6398corporation so politically insensitive. I wondered whether Kodak would 
6399have to be brought before a Senate subcommittee hearing before it would 
6400wake up and give in. The building of political support would have prepared 
6401the ground for two actions: (1) a Senate subcommittee hearing in which a 
6402number of practices would be exposed and (2) the possibility of an 
6403investigation by the Attorney-General's office. Kodak would reconsider 
6404dealing with us if those two were the alternatives. I had an understanding 
6405
6406
6407
6408with the late Senator Robert Kennedy to advise him when we were ready 
6409to move. In my discussions with Kennedy, I found 
6410
6411Rules for Radicals 174 
6412
6413that his commitment was not political but human. He was outraged by the 
6414conditions in the Rochester ghetto. 
6415
6416I began looking over the national scene for avenues of attack. Foundations 
6417such as Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and others with substantial 
6418investments, were ostensibly committed to social progress. So were union 
6419retirement funds. I planned to ask them, "If you are on the level, then 
6420prove it at no cost to yourselves. We are not asking for a penny. Just 
6421assign us the proxies of the stock you hold." The effect of foundation 
6422proxies would, of course, be marginal since their proxies, unlike those of 
6423the churches, represented no constituencies. Even so, they were not to be 
6424dismissed. 
6425
6426Other ideas began to occur. This was a whole new ball game for me and 
6427my curiosity sent me scurrying and sniffing at the many opportunities in 
6428this great Wall Street Wonderland. I didn't know where I was going, but 
6429that was part of the fascination. I wasn't the least worried. I knew that 
6430accident or necessity or both would tell us, "Hey, we go this way." Since I 
6431didn't seem disturbed or confused everyone believed I had a secret and 
6432totally organized Machiavellian campaign. No one suspected the truth. 
6433The Los Angeles Times said: 
6434
6435... the Kodak proxy battle created waves throughout the corporate world. Heads of 
6436several large corporations and representatives of some mutual funds have tried to 
6437contact Alinsky to ferret out the rest of his plans. One corporation executive told a 
6438reporter, "When I asked him what he was going to do next he said he did not know. I do 
6439not believe that." 
6440
6441
6442
6443A reporter asked Alinsky what he is going to do next with the proxies. "I honestly do not 
6444know," 
6445
6446The Genesis of Tactic Proxy 175 
6447
6448he said. "Sure, I have plans, but you know that a thing like this opens up its own 
6449possibilities, things you never thought of. Man, we can have a ball, a real ball!" 
6450
6451This was all virgin territory. In the past a few individuals had gone to 
6452stockholders' meetings to sound off, but at best they were minor irritants. 
6453No one had ever organized a campaign to use proxies for social and 
6454political purposes. 
6455
6456The good old establishment made its usual contribution. Corporation 
6457executives sought me out. Their anxious questions convinced me that we 
6458had the razor to cut through the golden curtain that protected the so-called 
6459private sector from facing its public responsibilities. Business publications 
6460added their violent attacks and convinced me further.* In all my wars with 
6461the establishment I had never seen it so uptight. I knew there was 
6462dynamite in the proxy scare. But where? "Where" meant "how." 
6463
6464As I meandered around this jungle, looking for some kind of a power 
6465pattern, I began to notice things. Look! DuPont owns a nice piece of 
6466Kodak, and so does this and that corporation. And those mutual funds! 
6467They've got more than $60 billion in stock investments and their hold- 
6468
6469* Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly, May 1, 1967, "Who's Out of Focus?": 
6470". . . Perhaps the most memorable event of the season occurred at Flemington, N.J., 
6471where Eastman Kodak Co. held its annual meeting on Tuesday . . . Perhaps by 
6472coincidence, in a generally strong market Eastman Kodak stock promptly dropped half-a- 
6473dozen points . . . Companies best serve their stockholders and communities by sticking to 
6474business . . . [Alinsky was described] by 'Muhammad Speaks,' house organ of the Black 
6475Muslims, as 'one of the world's great sociologists and criminologists'. . . For Kodak and 
6476the rest of U.S. industry, it's time to stop turning the other cheek . . . management is the 
6477
6478
6479
6480steward of other people's property. It can never afford to forget where its primary 
6481obligations lie." 
6482
6483Rules for Radicals 176 
6484
6485ings include Kodak. After all, mutual funds have annual meetings and 
6486proxies too. Suppose we had proxies in every corporation in America and 
6487suppose we were fighting Corporation X and suppose we also had proxies 
6488for the various corporations that had stock in Corporation X and proxies for 
6489other corporations that had stock in the corporations that had stock in 
6490Corporation X. 
6491
6492Soon I was intoxicated by the possibilities. You could begin to play the 
6493whole Wall Street Board up and down. You could go to, say, Corporation 
6494Z, point out your proxy holding there, mention that there were certain 
6495grievances you had against them for some of their bad policy operations, 
6496but that you were willing to forget about them (for the time being) if they 
6497would use their stock to put pressure on Corporation Q for the sake of 
6498influencing Corporation X. The same muscle could be applied to 
6499Corporation Q itself. You could make your deals up and down. Always 
6500operating in your favor was the self-interest of the corporations and the 
6501fact that they hate each other. This is what I would call corporate jujitsu. 
6502
6503Recently I was at a luncheon meeting with a number of presidents of 
6504major corporations where one of them expressed his fear that I saw things 
6505only in terms of power rather than from the point of view of good will and 
6506reason. I replied that when he and his corporation approached other 
6507corporations in terms of reason, good will, and cooperation, instead of 
6508going for the jugular, that would be the day that I would be happy to 
6509pursue the conversation. The subject was dropped. 
6510
6511
6512
6513Proxies represented a key to participation by the middle class. But the 
6514question was how to organize it. Imagination had had its moment. It was 
6515time for accident 
6516
6517The Genesis of Tactic Proxy 177 
6518
6519or necessity or both to come on stage. I found myself saying, "Accident, 
6520accident, where the hell are you?" 
6521
6522Then it came! The Los Angeles Times earned a frontpage story on the 
6523proxy tactic. Soon we were deluged with mail, including sackfuls of proxies 
6524of different corporations. One letter read, "I have $10,000 to invest. What 
6525kind of stock should I buy? What kind of proxies do you need? Should I 
6526buy Dow Chemical?" But the two most important letters provided the 
6527accident that pointed to the next step. "Enclosed find my proxies. I wonder 
6528whether you have heard from anyone else in my suburb? If you have, I 
6529would appreciate receiving their names and addresses so that I can call a 
6530housemeeting and organize a San Fernando Valley Chapter of Proxies for 
6531People." The second letter said, "I'm all for it but I don't know why you 
6532should have the right to decide which corporations should be attacked — 
6533after all, they are our proxies and we would like to have something to say 
6534about it. Also, we don't know why you should go to the board meetings 
6535with our proxies — why cant we go with our proxies, of course all organized 
6536and knowing what we want, but we would like to go ourselves. '"* 
6537
6538It was these two letters that kicked open the door. Of course! For years I 
6539had been saying power is with people! How stupid could I be? There it 
6540was! Instead of annual put-ons like Eastman Kodak's in Flemington, New 
6541Jersey, where the company buses down a dozen loads of stockholding 
6542payrollers to a public school auditorium — for a day off with pay and a free 
6543lunch (and a crumby one at that) they sing out their Sieg Heils and back to 
6544Rochester — 
6545
6546
6547
6548*Emphasis added. 
6549
6550Rules for Radicals 178 
6551
6552let's make them hold their meetings in Newark or Jersey City in the ball 
6553park, or outdoors in Atlantic City, where thousands and thousands of proxy 
6554holders can attend. Yankee Stadium in New York or Soldier Field in 
6555Chicago would be better, but many of America's corporations are 
6556incorporated in special protective sanctuaries like New Jersey or Delaware 
6557and would claim that they must meet in these states. Well, President 
6558Nixon has set up the precedent for sanctuaries. Let's see what happens 
6559when Flemington, New Jersey, with its one beat-up hotel and two motels, 
6560faces an invasion of 50,000 stockholders. Will the state call out the 
6561National Guard to keep stockholders out of their annual meeting? 
6562Remember these are not hippies but American citizens in the most 
6563establishment sense — stockholders! What could be more American than 
6564that? 
6565
6566Let's imagine a situation in which 75,000 people vote "no" and one man 
6567says, "On behalf of the majority of the proxies assigned to management I 
6568vote 'aye' and the ayes have it." I would dare management to expose 
6569themselves in this way. 
6570
6571But the real importance of those letters was that they showed a way for 
6572the middle class to organize. These people, the vast majority of 
6573Americans, who feel helpless in the huge corporate economy, who don't 
6574know which way to turn, have begun to turn awayfrom America, to 
6575abdicate as citizens. They rationalize their action by saying that, after all, 
6576the experts and the government will take care of it all. They are like the 
6577Have-Nots who, when unorganized and powerless, simply resign 
6578themselves to a sad scene. Proxies can be the mechanism by which these 
6579
6580
6581
6582people can organize, and once they are organized they will re-enter the 
6583life of politics. Once organized around proxies 
6584
6585The Genesis of Tactic Proxy 179 
6586
6587they will have a reason to examine, to become educated about, the 
6588various corporation policies and practices both domestic and foreign — 
6589because now they can do something about them. 
6590
6591There will even be "fringe benefits." Trips to stockholders' meetings will 
6592bring drama and adventure into otherwise colorless and sedentary 
6593suburban lives. Proxy organizations will help bridge the generation gap, as 
6594parents and children join in the battle against the Pentagon and the 
6595corporations. 
6596
6597Proxies can be the effective path to the Pentagon. The late General 
6598Douglas MacArthur in his farewell speech to the Congress uttered a half 
6599truth; "Old generals never die, they just fade away." General MacArthur 
6600should have completed his statement by saying "they fade away to 
6601Lockheed, Boeing, General Dynamics, and other corporations." Two years 
6602before retirement a general will be found already scouting and setting up 
6603his "fade-away" corporation sanctuary. 
6604
6605One can envisage the scene where a general informs a corporate 
6606executive that a $50 million order will be coming to the corporation for the 
6607making of nerve gas, napalm, defoliants, or any other of the great products 
6608we export for the benefit of mankind. Instead of a reaction of gratitude and 
6609a "General, as soon as you retire we would like to talk to you about your 
6610future," he encounters a "Well, look, General, I appreciate your 
6611considering us for this contract but we've got a stockholders' meeting 
6612coming up next month and the hell that would blow when these thousands 
6613of stockholders heard about it — well, General, I don't want to think about it. 
6614And we certainly couldn't keep it quiet. It's been very nice seeing you." 
6615
6616
6617
6618Now what has happened? First of all the general has 
6619
6620Rules for Radicals 180 
6621
6622suddenly realized that corporations are backing away from the whole war 
6623scene. Secondly, the fact that thousands of stockholders would be 
6624opposed to this becomes translated to him as thousands of American 
6625citizens, not long-hairs, not trouble-makers, not Reds, but 200 per cent 
6626bonafide Americans. One could begin to communicate with the unique 
6627(alleged) mentality of the Pentagon species. 
6628
6629What will be required is a computerized operation that will quickly give (1) 
6630a breakdown of the holdings of any corporation, (2) a breakdown of 
6631holdings of other corporations that own shares in the target corporation, 
6632and (3) a breakdown of individual stock proxies in the target corporation 
6633and in the corporations that have holdings in the target corporation. It will 
6634be necessary to keep the records of individuals' proxies confidential to 
6635protect people who would rather not let their neighbors know how many 
6636stocks they own. 
6637
6638There will be a nationwide organization, set up either by myself or others, 
6639with national headquarters in Chicago or New York City, or both. The New 
6640York office could handle all of the computerized operations; the Chicago 
6641office would serve as headquarters for a staff of organizers who would be 
6642constantly on the move through the various communities of America, from 
6643the San Fernando Valley to Baltimore, and all places in between. 
6644Responding to the interests and requests of local suburban groups, they 
6645would be using their skills to set up organization meetings and to train 
6646volunteer organizers to carry on. The staff organizers would approach 
6647each scene with only one thing in mind — to get a mass-based middle- 
6648class organization started. The proxy tactic will be common to all these 
6649groups, and each group will gather in any other issues 
6650
6651
6652
6653The Genesis of Tactic Proxy 18 1 
6654
6655around which people will organize. They may start by setting up study 
6656groups on corporate policies; making recommendations as to the 
6657corporations which should be "communicated with" and electing one of 
6658theirs as a representative to a national board. The national board will be 
6659responsible for the decisions as to corporate targets, issues and policies. 
6660The various representatives on the national board will also be responsible 
6661for recruiting members of their own local organizations for attendance at 
6662annual stockholders' meetings. On this national board will also be 
6663representatives of all kinds of consumer organizations as well as churches 
6664and other institutions committed to this program. They will be able to 
6665contribute invaluable technical advice as well as the support of their own 
6666membership. 
6667
6668Remember that the objective of the proxies approach is not simply a 
6669power instrument with reference to our corporate economy, but a 
6670mechanism providing for a blast-off for middle-class organization — 
6671beginning with the proxy, it will then begin to ignite other rockets on the 
6672whole political scene from local elections to the congress. Once a people 
6673are organized they will keep moving from issue to issue. People power is 
6674the real objective; the proxies are simply a means to that end. 
6675
6676This total operation will require special fund-raising for the budget 
6677essential to the operation. There are many who are already volunteering 
6678time and money, but the fund-raising will be difficult since it is obvious that 
6679there will be no contributions from corporations or foundations — also, none 
6680of the contributions would be tax deductible. 
6681
6682Unquestionably corporations will fight back by pointing out to stockholders 
6683that prevention programs on pol- 
6684
6685Rules for Radicals 182 
6686
6687
6688
6689lution, the rejection of war contracts, or other demands of the stockholders 
6690will result in diminished dividends. By the time this occurs, the 
6691stockholders will find such satisfaction and meaningfulness in their 
6692campaigns that these will be more important than a cut in dividends. 
6693
6694Corporations will change their contributions of stocks to universities. 
6695Already it is said that the University of Rochester's Kodak stock cannot be 
6696voted by the university, that the voting power is retained by Kodak 
6697management — and this presents an interesting legal question. These are 
6698some of the potentials and problems of the proxy operation on the 
6699American scene. It can mark the beginning of a whole new kind of 
6700campaign on campuses against university administrations through their 
6701stockholdings. On May 12, 1970, the Stanford University trustees voted 
6702their 24,000 shares of General Motors stock in favor of management, in 
6703disregard of Stanford's student proposals to use the stock proxies against 
6704management. The same at the University of California with 100,000 
6705shares, the University of Michigan with 29,000 shares, the University of 
6706Texas for 66,000 shares, Harvard with 287,000 shares, and M.I.T. with 
6707291,500 shares; the exceptions were the University of Pennsylvania and 
6708Antioch College, where their respective 29,000 and 1 ,000 shares were 
6709voted for a student-supported proposal. 
6710
6711Talk about a "relevant college curriculum"! What could be more 
6712educational than for students to begin to study American corporation 
6713policy, and to get involved at stockholders' meetings by means of 
6714university proxies? For years universities have without compunction gone 
6715in for what they call field research and action programs among the poor, 
6716but when it comes to research plus action among corporations, they tend 
6717to balk. I suggest that 
6718
6719The Genesis of Tactic Proxy 183 
6720
6721
6722
6723America's corporations are a spiritual slum, and their arrogance is the 
6724major threat to our future as a free society. There will and there should be 
6725a major struggle on the university campuses of this country on this issue. 
6726
6727If I go into this it means leaving the Industrial Areas Foundation after thirty 
6728years — the organization I built. What will probably happen will be that 
6729others will come forth to give full time to this campaign and that I would be 
6730with it full time for its launching and its setting out to sea. But if after what 
6731we have seen about the genesis of tactic proxy it is not clear that the 
6732genesis of Proxies for People is unpredictable, that it will develop by 
6733accidents, needs, and imagination, then both of us have wasted our 
6734time — me in recording all this and you in reading it. 
6735
6736Recently one of President Nixon's chief White House advisers told me, 
6737"Proxies for People would mean revolution — they'll never let you get away 
6738with it." I believe he is right that it "would mean revolution." It could mean 
6739the organization for power of a previously silent people. The way of proxy 
6740participation could mean the democratization of corporate America. It 
6741could result in the changing of their foreign operations, which would cause 
6742major shifts in national foreign policy. This could be one of the single most 
6743important breakthroughs in the revolutions of our times. 
6744
6745
6746
6747The Way Ahead 
6748
6749
6750
6751ORGANIZATION FOR ACTION will now and in the decade ahead center 
6752upon America's white middle class. That is where the power is. When 
6753more than three-fourths of our people from both the point of view of 
6754economics and of their self-identification are middle class, it is obvious that 
6755their action or inaction will determine the direction of change. Large parts 
6756of the middle class, the "silent majority," must be activated; action and 
6757articulation are one, as are silence and surrender. 
6758
6759We are belatedly beginning to understand this, to know that even if all the 
6760low-income parts of our population were organized — all the blacks, 
6761Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Appalachian poor whites — if through 
6762some genius of organization they were all united in a coalition, it would not 
6763be powerful enough to get significant, basic, needed changes. It would 
6764have to do what all minority organizations, small nations, labor unions, 
6765political parties or anything small, must do — seek out allies. The 
6766pragmatics of power will not allow any alternative. 
6767
6768The Way Ahead 185 
6769
6770The only potential allies for America's poor would be in various organized 
6771sectors of the middle class. We have seen Cesar Chavez' migrant farm 
6772workers turn to the middle class with their grape boycott. In the fight 
6773against Eastman Kodak, the blacks of Rochester, New York, turned to the 
6774middle class and their proxies. 
6775
6776Activists and radicals, on and off our college campuses — people who are 
6777committed to change — must make a complete turnabout. With rare 
6778exceptions, our activists and radicals are products of and rebels against 
6779
6780
6781
6782our middle-class society. All rebels must attack the power states in their 
6783society. Our rebels have contemptuously rejected the values and way of 
6784life of the middle class. They have stigmatized it as materialistic, decadent, 
6785bourgeois, degenerate, imperialistic, war-mongering, brutalized, and 
6786corrupt. They are right; but we must begin from where we are if we are to 
6787build power for change, and the power and the people are in the big 
6788middle-class majority. Therefore, it is useless self-indulgence for an 
6789activist to put his past behind him. Instead, he should realize the priceless 
6790value of his middle-class experience. His middle-class identity, his 
6791familiarity with the values and problems, are invaluable for organization of 
6792his "own people." He has the background to go back, examine, and try to 
6793understand the middle-class way; now he has a compelling reason to 
6794know, for he must know if he is to organize. He must know so he can be 
6795effective in communication, tactics, creating issues and organization. He 
6796will look very differently upon his parents, their friends, and their way of 
6797life. Instead of the infantile dramatics of rejection, he will now begin to 
6798dissect and examine that way of life as he never has before. He will know 
6799that a "square" is no longer to be dismissed as such — instead, his own 
6800approach 
6801
6802Rules for Radicals 186 
6803
6804must be "square" enough to get the action started. Turning back to the 
6805middle class as an organizer, he will find that everything now has a 
6806different meaning and purpose. He learns to view actions outside of the 
6807experience of people as serving only to confuse and antagonize them. He 
6808begins to understand the differences in value definition of the older 
6809generation regarding "the privilege of college experience," and their 
6810current reaction to the tactics a sizeable minority of students uses in 
6811campus rebellions. He discovers what their definition of the police is, and 
6812their language — he discards the rhetoric that always says "pig." Instead of 
6813hostile rejection he is seeking bridges of communication and unity over the 
6814
6815
6816
6817gaps, generation, value, or others. He will view with strategic sensitivity 
6818the nature of middle-class behavior with its hangups over rudeness or 
6819aggressive, insulting, profane actions. All this and more must be grasped 
6820and used to radicalize parts of the middle class. 
6821
6822The rough category "middle class" can be broken down into three groups: 
6823lower middle class, with incomes from $6,000 to $1 1,000; middle middle 
6824class, $12,000 to $20,000; and upper middle class, $20,000 to $35,000. 
6825There are marked cultural differences between the lower middle class and 
6826the rest of the middle class. In the lower middle class we encounter people 
6827who have struggled all their lives for what relatively little they have. 
6828
6829With a few exceptions, such as teachers, they have never gone beyond 
6830high school. They have been committed to the values of success, getting 
6831ahead, security, having their "own" home, auto, color TV, and friends. 
6832Their lives have been 90 per cent unfulfilled dreams. To escape their 
6833frustration they grasp at a last hope that their children will get that college 
6834education and realize those 
6835
6836777e Way Ahead 187 
6837
6838unfulfilled dreams. They are a fearful people, who feel threatened from all 
6839sides: the nightmare of pending retirement and old age with a Social 
6840Security decimated by inflation; the shadow of unemployment from a 
6841slumping economy, with blacks, already fearsome because the cultures 
6842conflict, threatening job competition; the high cost of long-term illness; and 
6843finally with mortgages outstanding, they dread the possibility of property 
6844devaluation from non-whites moving into their neighborhood. They are 
6845beset by taxes on incomes, food, real estate, and automobiles, at all 
6846levels — city, state, and national. Seduced by their values into installment 
6847buying, they find themselves barely able to meet long-term payments, let 
6848alone the current cost of living. Victimized by TV commercials with their 
6849
6850
6851
6852fraudulent claims for food and medical products, they watch the news 
6853between the commercial with Senate committee hearings showing that the 
6854purchase of these products is largely a waste of their hard-earned money. 
6855Repeated financial crises result from accidents that they thought they were 
6856insured against only to experience the fine-print evasions of one of our 
6857most shocking confidence rackets of today, the insurance racket. Their 
6858pleasures are simple: gardening a tiny back yard behind a small house, 
6859bungalow, or ticky-tacky, in a monotonous subdivision on the fringe of 
6860suburbs; going on a Sunday drive out to the country, having a once-a- 
6861week dinner out at some place like a Howard Johnson's. Many of the so- 
6862called hard hats, police, fire, sanitation workers, schoolteachers, and much 
6863of civil service, mechanics, electricians, janitors, and semiskilled workers 
6864are in this class. 
6865
6866They look at the unemployed poor as parasitical dependents, recipients of 
6867a vast variety of massive public programs all paid for by them, "the public." 
6868They see the 
6869
6870Rules for Radicals 188 
6871
6872poor going to colleges with the waiving of admission requirements and 
6873given special financial aid. In many cases the lower middle class were 
6874denied the opportunity of college by these very circumstances. Their 
6875bitterness is compounded by their also paying taxes for these colleges, for 
6876increased public services, fire, police, public health, and welfare. They 
6877hear the poor demanding welfare as "rights." To them this is insult on top 
6878of injury. 
6879
6880Seeking some meaning in life, they turn to an extreme chauvinism and 
6881become defenders of the "American" faith. Now they even develop 
6882rationalizations for a life of futility and frustration. "It's the Red menace!" 
6883Now they are not only the most vociferous in their espousal of law and 
6884
6885
6886
6887order but ripe victims for such as demagogic George Wallace, the John 
6888Birch Society, and the Red-menace perennials. 
6889
6890Insecure in this fast-changing world, they cling to illusory fixed points — 
6891which are very real to them. Even conversation is charted toward fixing 
6892your position in the world: "I don't want to argue with you, just tell me what 
6893our flag means to you?" or "What do you think of those college punks who 
6894never worked a day in their lives?" They use revealing adjectives such as 
6895"outside agitators" or "troublemakers" and other "When did you last beat 
6896your wife?" questions. 
6897
6898On the other side they see the middle middle class and the upper middle 
6899class assuming a liberal, democratic, holier-than-thou position, and 
6900attacking the bigotry of the employed poor. They see that through all kinds 
6901of tax-evasion devices the middle middle and upper middle can elude their 
6902share of the tax burdens — so that most of it comes back (as they see it) 
6903upon themselves, the lower middle class. 
6904
6905They see a United States Senate in which approxi- 
6906
6907The Way Ahead 189 
6908
6909mately one-third are millionaires and the rest with rare exception very 
6910wealthy. The bill requiring full public disclosure of senators' financial 
6911interests and prophetically titled Senate Bill 1993 (which is probably the 
6912year it will finally be passed) is "in committee," they see, and then they say 
6913to themselves, "The government represents the upper class but not us." 
6914
6915Many of the lower middle class are members of labor unions, churches, 
6916bowling clubs, fraternal, service, and nationality organizations. They are 
6917organizations and people that must be worked with as one would work 
6918with any other part of our population — with respect, understanding, and 
6919sympathy. 
6920
6921
6922
6923To reject them is to lose them by default. They will not shrivel and 
6924disappear. You can't switch channels and get rid of them. This is what you 
6925have been doing in your radicalized dream world but they are here and will 
6926be. If we don't win them Wallace or Spiro T. Nixon will. Never doubt it that 
6927the voice may be Agnew's but the words, the vindictive smearing, is 
6928Nixon's. There never was a vice-president who didn't either faithfully serve 
6929as his superior's faithful sounding board or else be silent. 
6930
6931Remember that even if you cannot win over the lower middle-class, at 
6932least parts of them must be persuaded to where there is at least 
6933communication, then to a series of partial agreements and a willingness to 
6934abstain from hard opposition as changes take place. They have their role 
6935to play in the essential prelude of reformation, in their acceptance that the 
6936ways of the past with its promises for the future no longer work and we 
6937must move ahead — where we move to may not be definite or certain, but 
6938move we must. 
6939
6940People must be "reformed" — so they cannot be de- 
6941Rules for Radicals 290 
6942
6943formed into dependency and driven through desperation to dictatorship 
6944and the death of freedom. The "silent majority," now, are hurt, bitter, 
6945suspicious, feeling rejected and at bay. This sick condition in many ways is 
6946as explosive as the current race crisis. Their fears and frustrations at their 
6947helplessness are mounting to a point of a political paranoia which can 
6948demonize people to turn to the law of survival in the narrowest sense. 
6949These emotions can go either to the far right of totalitarianism or forward 
6950to Act II of the American Revolution. 
6951
6952The issues of 1972 would be those of 1776, "No Taxation Without 
6953Representation." To have real representation would involve public funds 
6954being available for campaign costs so that the members of the lower 
6955
6956
6957
6958middle class can campaign for political office. This can be an issue for 
6959mobilization among the lower middle class and substantial sectors of the 
6960middle middle class. 
6961
6962The rest of the middle class, with few exceptions, reside in suburbia, living 
6963in illusions of partial escape. Being more literate, they are even more lost. 
6964Nothing seems to make sense. They thought that a split-level house in the 
6965suburbs, two cars, two color TVs, country club membership, a bank 
6966account, children in good prep schools and then in college, and they had it 
6967made. They got it — only to discover that they didn't have it. Many have lost 
6968their children — they dropped out of sight into something called the 
6969generation gap. They have seen values they held sacred sneered at and 
6970found themselves ridiculed as squares or relics of a dead world. The 
6971frenetic scene around them is so bewildering as to induce them to either 
6972drop out into a private world, the nonexistent past, sick with its own form of 
6973social schizophrenia — or to face it and move into action. If one wants to 
6974act, the dilemma is how 
6975
6976The Way Ahead 191 
6977
6978and where; there is no "when?" with time running out, the time is obviously 
6979now. 
6980
6981There are enormous basic changes ahead. We cannot continue or last in 
6982the nihilistic absurdities of our time where nothing we do makes sense. 
6983The scene around us compels us to look away quickly, if we are to cling to 
6984any sanity. We are the age of pollution, progressively burying ourselves in 
6985our own waste. We announce that our water is contaminated by our own 
6986excrement, insecticides, and detergents, and then do nothing. Even a half- 
6987witted people, if sane, would long since have done the simple and 
6988obvious — ban all detergents, develop new non-polluting insecticides, and 
6989immediately build waste-disposal units. Apparently we would rather be 
6990
6991
6992
6993corpses in clean shirts. We prefer a strangling ring of dirty air to a "ring 
6994around the collar." Until the last, well be buried in bright white shirts. Our 
6995persistent use of our present insecticides may well ensure that the insects 
6996shall inherit the world. 
6997
6998Of all the pollution around us, none compares to the political pollution of 
6999the Pentagon. From a Vietnam war simultaneously suicidal and murderous 
7000to a policy of getting out by getting in deeper and wider, to the Pentagon 
7001reports that strained even a moron's intelligence that within the next six 
7002months the war would be "won," to destroying more bridges in North 
7003Vietnam than there are in the world, to counting and reporting the enemy 
7004dead from helicopters, "Okay, Joe, we've been here for fifteen minutes; 
7005let's go back and call it 150 dead," to brutalizing our younger generation 
7006with My Lais but ignoring our own principles of the Nuremberg trials, to 
7007putting our soldiers in conditions so conducive to drugs that we stand forth 
7008as freedom's liberating force of pot. This Pentagon, whose economic 
7009waste and corruption is bankrupting our 
7010
7011Rules for Radicals 192 
7012
7013nation morally as well as economically, allows Lockheed Aircraft to put 
7014one-fourth of its production in the small Georgia country town of the late 
7015Senator Russell (a powerful man in military appropriation decisions), and 
7016then transmits its appeals for federal millions to save it from its financial 
7017fiascos. Far worse is the situation in the late Representative Mendel 
7018Rivers' congressional district — he of the House Military Affairs 
7019Committee — with the phenomenal pay-offs of every kind of installation 
7020from corporations vying for Pentagon gold. Even our solid-state mental 
7021vice-president described it in a way he thought was amusing but is tragic 
7022beyond belief to any freedom-loving American. 
7023
7024
7025
7026. . . Vice President Agnew praised Mr. Rivers for his "willingness to go to bat for the so- 
7027called and often discredited military industrial complex" as 1,150 generals, Congressmen 
7028and defense contractors applauded in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton Hotel. 
7029
7030... Mr. Agnew said he wanted "to lay to rest the ugly, vicious, dastardly rumor" that Mr. 
7031Rivers, whose Charleston, S.C., district is chock full of military installations, "is trying to 
7032move the Pentagon piecemeal to South Carolina. 
7033
7034"Even when it appeared Charleston might sink into the sea from the burden," said the 
7035Vice President, Mr. Rivers' response was, "I regret that I have but one Congressional 
7036District to my country to — I mean to give to my country." 
7037
7038—New York Times, August 13, 1970 
7039
7040This is the Pentagon that has manufactured nearly 16,000 tons of nerve 
7041gas, why and what for being unclear except to overkill the overkill. No one 
7042has raised the questions, who got the contracts? what it cost? where the 
7043
7044The Way Ahead 193 
7045
7046pay-offs went? Now the big question is how to dispose of it as it 
7047deteriorates and threatens to get loose among us. The Pentagon 
7048announces that the sinking of the nerve gas is safe but from now on they 
7049will find a safe wayilhe obvious American way of assuming personal 
7050responsibility for one's action is utterly ignored — otherwise, since the 
7051Pentagon made it, it should keep it, and have it all stored in the basements 
7052of the Pentagon; or, since the President as Commander-in-Chief of our 
7053armed forces believed that the sinking in the ocean of the 67 tons of nerve 
7054gas was so safe, why didn't he attest to his belief by having it dumped into 
7055the waters off San Clemente, California? Either action would at least have 
7056given some hope for the nation's future. 
7057
7058The record goes on without any deviations toward sanity. The army chose 
7059the final day of hearings of the President's Commission investigating the 
7060National Guard killings at Kent State, to announce that M-16 rifles would 
7061
7062
7063
7064now be issued to the National Guard. The President's Commission report 
7065is doomed not to be read until after the bowl games on New Year's Day by 
7066a President who watches football on TV the afternoon of the biggest 
7067march in history on Washington, Moratorium Day. There are our generals 
7068and their "scientific" gremlins who after assurance of no radioactive 
7069menace from the atomic tests in Nevada now more than a dozen years 
7070later have sealed off 250 square miles as "contaminated with poisonous 
7071and radioactive plutonium 239." (New York Times, August 21, 1970.) This 
7072from the explosions in 1958! Will the "safe" disposition in 1970 of the nerve 
7073gas still be as "safe" a dozen or less years from now? One can only 
7074wonder how they will seal off some 250 miles in the Atlantic Ocean. We 
7075can assume that these same "scientific" gremlins will 
7076
7077Rules for Radicals 194 
7078
7079be assigned to the disposition of the thousands of tons of additional 
7080stockpiled nerve gas of which approximately 15,000 tons are on Okinawa 
7081and to be moved to some other island. 
7082
7083Compound this with a daily record of now we are in Cambodia, now we 
7084are out, now we are not in it just over it with our bombers, we will not get 
7085involved there as in Vietnam but we can't get out of Vietnam without 
7086safeguarding Cambodia, we're doing this but really the other, with no other 
7087clue to all this madness except the half-helpful comment from the White 
7088House, "Don't listen to what we say, just watch what we do," half-helpful 
7089only because either statements or actions are sufficient to make us freeze 
7090into bewilderment and stunned disbelief. It is in such times that we are 
7091haunted by the old maxim, "Those whom the gods would destroy, they first 
7092make ludicrous." 
7093
7094The middle classes are numb, bewildered, scared into silence. They don't 
7095know what, if anything, they can do. This is the job for today's radical — to 
7096
7097
7098
7099fan the embers of hopelessness into a flame to fight. To say, "You cannot 
7100cop out as have many of my generation!" "You cannot turn away — look at 
7101it — let us change it together!" "Look at us. We are your children. Let us not 
7102abandon each other for then we are all lost. Together we can change it for 
7103what we want. Let's start here and there — let's go!" 
7104
7105It is a job first of bringing hope and doing what every organizer must do 
7106with all people, all classes, places, and times — communicate the means or 
7107tactics whereby the people can feel that they have the power to do this 
7108and that and on. To a great extent the middle class of today feels more 
7109defeated and lost than do our poor. 
7110
7111So you return to the suburban scene of your middle 
7112
7113The Way Ahead 195 
7114
7115class with its variety of organizations from PTAs to League of Women 
7116Voters, consumer groups, churches, and clubs. The job is to search out 
7117the leaders in these various activities, identify their major issues, find 
7118areas of common agreement, and excite their imagination with tactics that 
7119can introduce drama and adventure into the tedium of middle-class life. 
7120
7121Tactics must begin within the experience of the middle class, accepting 
7122their aversion to rudeness, vulgarity, and conflict. Start them easy, don't 
7123scare them off. The opposition's reactions will provide the "education" or 
7124radicalization of the middle class. It does it every time. Tactics here, as 
7125already described, will develop in the flow of action and reaction. The 
7126chance for organization for action on pollution, inflation, Vietnam, violence, 
7127race, taxes, and other issues, is all about us. Tactics such as stock proxies 
7128and others are waiting to be hurled into the attack. 
7129
7130The revolution must manifest itself in the corporate sector by the 
7131corporations' realistic appraisal of conditions in the nation. The 
7132
7133
7134
7135corporations must forget their nonsense about "private sectors." It is not 
7136just that government contracts and subsidies have long since blurred the 
7137line between public and private sectors, but that every American individual 
7138or corporation is public as well as private; public in that we are Americans 
7139and concerned about our national welfare. We have a double commitment 
7140and corporations had better recognize this for the sake of their own 
7141survival. Poverty, discrimination, disease, crime — everything is as much a 
7142concern of the corporation as is profits. The days when corporate public 
7143relations worked to keep the corporation out of controversy, days of 
7144playing it safe, of not offending Democratic or Republican customers, 
7145advertisers or associates — those days are done. If the same predatory 
7146
7147Rules for Radicals 196 
7148
7149drives for profits can be partially transmuted for progress, then we will 
7150have opened a whole new ball game. I suggest here that this new policy 
7151will give its executives a reason for what they are doing — a chance for a 
7152meaningful life. 
7153
7154A major battle will be pitched on quality and prices of consumer goods, 
7155targeting particularly oh the massive misleading advertising campaigns, 
7156the costs of which are passed on to the consumer. It will be the people 
7157against Madison Avenue or "The Battle of Bunkum Hill." 
7158
7159Any timetable would be speculation but the writing of middle-class 
7160organization had better be on the walls by 1972. 
7161
7162The human cry of the second revolution is one for a meaning, a purpose 
7163for life — a cause to live for and if need be die for. Tom Paine's words, 
7164"These are the times that try men's souls," are more relevant to Part II of 
7165the American Revolution than the beginning. This is literally the revolution 
7166of the soul. 
7167
7168
7169
7170The great American dream that reached out to the stars has been lost to 
7171the stripes. We have forgotten where we came from, we don't know where 
7172we are, and we fear where we may be going. Afraid, we turn from the 
7173glorious adventure of the pursuit of happiness to a pursuit of an illusionary 
7174security in an ordered, stratified, striped society. Our way of life is 
7175symbolized to the world by the stripes of military force. At home we have 
7176made a mockery of being our brother's keeper by being his jail keeper. 
7177When Americans can no longer see the stars, the times are tragic. We 
7178must believe that it is the darkness before the dawn of a beautiful new 
7179world; we will see it when we believe it. 
7180
7181About the Author 
7182
7183Saul Alinsky was born in Chicago in 1909, and educated first in the streets 
7184of that city and then in its university. Graduate work in criminology at the 
7185University of Chicago introduced him to the Capone gang, and later to 
7186Joliet State Prison, where he studied prison life. 
7187
7188He founded what is known today as the Alinsky ideology and Alinsky 
7189concepts of mass organization for power. His work in organizing the poor 
7190to fight for their rights as citizens has been internationally recognized. In 
7191the late 1930s he organized the Back of the Yards area in Chicago (Upton 
7192Sinclair's Jungle). Subsequently, through the Industrial Areas Foundation 
7193which he began in 1940, Mr. Alinsky and his staff have helped to organize 
7194communities not only in Chicago but throughout the country, from the 
7195black ghetto of Rochester, New York, to the Mexican-American barrios of 
7196California. Today Mr. Alinsky's organizing attention has turned to the 
7197middle class, and he and his associates have a training institute for 
7198organizers. Mr. Alinsky's early organizing efforts resulted in his being 
7199arrested and jailed from time to time, and it was on such occasions that he 
7200wrote most of his first book about community organization, Reveille for 
7201Radicals.