1.! COMMUNITY MAGIC ACT
Who are the powerful?! Who are world leaders?! You are.! You can make the rules that rule the rulers.! All nations and businesses and revolutions began around a kitchen table, campfire or keyboard.! !!! Sometimes, to shape progress, we just drop a note into the suggestion box.! Most often, though, we need to prepare a longer campaign.!! We must define what we are for, and how we will achieve it. The purpose of an organization is to rally those who will help and be helped. !!! Organizers feel the pulse, proceed on a hunch, make a plan, take a chance.! They learn, by trial and error, when to speak and when to listen, when to push and when to wait, when to lead and when to follow. Start seeking help to promote a cause and you get magic: people join who are team players or loose cannons.! All offer something necessary.
PARALLEL AUTHORITY
!!! When urgent needs are resisted, citizens can combine formal and informal power by asserting parallel authority. !!! In America you can, with more courage than cash, legally create your own money, courtroom, religion, health plan, radio station, commission, militia, legislation, foreign policy, political party, labor union, or bank.! Multiply such grassroots groups by thousands and you have real democracy.! I call this underthrowing the government. !!! Here are some personal experiences: !!! 1.! Need money?! Print your own.! In the MONEY chapter I'll describe the local currency I developed for Ithaca, New York.! It's legal because it doesn't look like dollars.! But millions of dollars worth have been traded. !!! 2.! Can't afford health insurance?! Start your own nonprofit health co-op.! I started the Ithaca Health Alliance, whose members paid $100/YEAR to be reimbursed for 12 categories of everyday medical emergency.! They own their own free clinic.! See HEALTH chapter. !!! 3.! Are you being ignored by City Hall? When bureaucrats neglected our plan for bike lanes, I started the Bicycle Planning Commission.!! Giving yourselves official titles gets their attention.! The mayor soon brought the renegade Commission into City Hall, with official status and budget.! See TRANSPORTATION chapter. !!! 4.! When a major university was about to build a $2 million
incinerator that would have sprayed dioxins that cause birth defects and cancer, I created a media campaign that contributed to its swift abandonment.. !!! 5.! Do transportation planners threaten to plunge an elevated four-lane highway into your town's heart?! You can bring it to a halt, even when all major employers and officials have endorsed it. !!! 6.! Several doctors visiting Dr. Patch Adams' Gesundheit! Institute said that in their countries they were not permitted to clown for children in hospitals, because they were not 'official' clowns.! So I invented the Gesundheit! Institute of Clownology, made official colorful credentials to be signed by Patch.! They worked.! See HEALTH chapter. !!! 7.! A friend and her boyfriend were turned away from a fancy restaurant because he was not wearing a tie.! Since I lived nearby they came asking to borrow a tie.! I had none, so I cut blue cardboard into the shape of a tie.! It worked. !!! 8.! Police patrol sniffing for rotten things people do.! So I started a police department whose deputies issued citations when they saw people doing good things, like "waiting for a friend."! Several people said they framed their citation.! See POLICE chapter. !!! 9.! Investors pour money into Wall Street, where many companies damage communities and nature.! So I drafted the Philadelphia Regional & Independent Stock Exchange (PRAISE) to gather capital of all kinds for eco-development.! See BUSINESS chapter. !!! 10.! When the local daily and weekly papers repeatedly printed last-minute lies about our preferred candidates, I created an email news broadcast.! With 8,000 locals enrolled-half the households-- we were prepared to rebut lies.! See MEDIA/CULTURE chapter. !!! 11.! Depending on the two major political parties is like tolerating just two TV channels. Start your own political party to spotlight your ideas.! Done right, you can scare RepDems and get concessions.! See GOVERNMENT chapter. !!! 12.! Want to magnify your voice?! The media and public may ignore just another protest march.! But they are drawn like fruit flies to novelty.! With some creativity you can bring the world's attention to your cause.! We'll make you famous in the MEDIA chapter.
THE CAMPAIGN
!!! As a community organizer, you! can start or join groups that fill gaps, on behalf of community, ecology and social justice. Whatever you believe, there are some who agree. Begin with who is ready to begin.! I find the people who are excited to make good change, then I gradually move on. Being a leader means knowing when to lead and when to follow.! Sometimes I stay until the board makes it clear they own the organization-- I become happy to be outvoted-- reassured that the group will continue without me.! I've followed other leaders and been inspired by them at least as much as they have looked to me. I'll elaborate on these in the chapters that follow.
CHECKLIST FOR STARTING AN ORGANIZATION OR BUSINESS
!!! 1.! MAKE A PLAN.! Begin by deciding what basic need you'll serve.! Will your group be local, statewide, national, global?! Sketch a simple plan for meeting the need, based on the skills and resources of potential members. !!! Give your group a name.! Then make a website.! To make the name easy to remember, invent a clear acronym.! I've started PRAISE, NESTS, POP, LUV. If you're a nonprofit, incorporation is optional.