Get It Together with Alicia Garza

The Fundamentals of Community Organizing is George Goehl’s bedrock principles of organizing — the modern organizer’s bible, much as Shel Trapp’s Basics of Organizing was for George 30 years ago. Use these fundamentals to hone your craft and become a more effective organizer. The book is available for sale on fundamentalsoforganizing.org, and now, available for listening as an audiobook in this special offering of the podcast. Listen and re-listen to your most necessary fundamentals as many times as you need.

1:44 / Introduction: Why the Fundamentals

3:27 / Chapter 1: Getting Started

10:11 / Chapter 2: Meeting People

17:18 / Chapter 3: Campaigns

25:37 / Chapter 4: Action

30:58 / Chapter 5: Developing Leaders

39:06 / Chapter 6: The Organizer

45:36 / Conclusion: You Are an Organizer

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In the final episode of the season, George talks directly to young organizers today - with the weight of the world on your shoulders, what can each of us do and learn? He shares wisdom and clarifying frameworks on how to win.  

We live in a time that is so humbling. A world that sometimes feels full of possibility, but just as often appears to be unraveling before our eyes. As someone who feels certain organizing will play a defining role in how it all turns out, George often thinks about what it must be like to be a new organizer, a young organizer, in this period.

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What do we need to train the leaders of the future? How can we meet the complex and quickly shifting needs of the political and economic landscape in front of us? Pamela Twiss is a longtime organizer and expert trainer who challenges us to get out of our comfort zone and imagine what we could become if we are willing to move past our fears. In our conversation we discuss some of the experiences that shaped the organizer she is and her vision for what kinds of organizers we are going to need. 

Pamela Twiss is a trainer and a coach with 35 years of organizing and leadership experience. She has worked with National People’s Action, TakeAction Minnesota, Service Employees International Union, and ISAIAH, a faith-based organization of 80 congregations in the greater Twin Cities area.

You can find more on Pamela here

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Sulma Arias takes us back to the basics of organizing by focusing on what matters. No matter the context, Sulma reminds us that the fundamentals require us to invest in people, to listen more than we speak to guide our actions and to sustain ourselves and others for the long-term work. In this episode, George talks with Sulma as she begins a new role as the Executive Director of People’s Action and discusses how she got started and where she goes from here. 

You can find Sulma at @AriasSulma.

Sulma Arias is the new executive director of People’s Action Institute and People’s Action, a national network of state and local grassroots organizations dedicated to fighting for justice and helping communities take control of their destinies – or what we call “power-building.” Arias is also the first Latina immigrant to lead the two organizations.

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For the past few years, we have been steeped in the language of crisis, of upheaval. At times it can be difficult to orient ourselves to slow, transformative work while also being responsive to the moment. Saket Soni is the exact person to help us through this moment. On this episode, Saket and I dig into how to build vibrant, resilient organizing networks on a foundation of strong, reciprocal relationships. 

You can find Saket at @saket_soni and @resilienceforce.

Saket Soni is a labor organizer and human rights strategist. He is founder and director of Resilience Force, a national initiative to transform America’s response to natural disasters by strengthening and securing America’s resilience workforce. As director, Saket crafts the organization’s advocacy and media strategy, and provides strategic counsel to social justice advocates and government officials across the country. Resilience Force follows a 12-year record of successful advocacy in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast.

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So much of organizing is about radical imagination; in order to struggle for change, we must believe that another way of living is possible. In this episode, George talks with Scott Reed, whose own work reminds us that this radical imagining must start within and spread outward. Join us as we discuss the transformative power of agency, what power can look like, the role of faith-based organizations in broader movements and more.

About Scott Reed:

Scott Reed has been a community organizer since the early 70’s, working with leaders, clergy and staff to build organizations throughout the country that are able to effective negotiate values and interests of working families. For more than 40 years, Scott Reed helped build the PICO National Network, renamed Faith in Action in 2018. Faith in Action organizes people through faith-based congregations in over 150 American cities, and multiple other countries. Scott stepped down as Director in 2018.

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What is the future we can't yet imagine? How can we center equity and dignity in our organizing? Erica Smiley is a long-time labor organizer with a vision for addressing some of today’s most urgent challenges in the ongoing struggle for multi-racial democracy. During this episode, she and George talk about what we can learn from the past in order to build what we need for the future. Smiley pushes us to use radical imagining and not to be limited by the conditions we are in.

• Smiley has a new book out with co-author Sarita Gupta called “The Future We Need: Organizing for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century”. Purchase it here or get it from your local library! 
• You can find out more about Smiley’s work here.
• Find Smiley’s recent writing on labor rights, vulnerability and the labeling of essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic here. 

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In this season of Fundamentals of Organizing, host George Goehl is talking to fellow organizers about their organizing journey, and what they see as the essentials we most need to center in the months and years to come. 

As organizers it can feel like we have the weight of the world on our shoulders. This makes sense since these are heavy times and we know that we can make a difference. But the weight is not ours alone. 

Our responsibility is to build a base, develop people, win things and contribute to something larger. That is not easy! It's more than enough and it’s exactly what we need. So let’s get back to the fundamentals of organizing, together. 

Please join us for these conversations and follow Fundamentals of Organizing now wherever you listen to podcasts.

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No new interview this week, but we wanted to tell you about the new column George is writing all about the Fundamentals of Organizing. You'll find highlights from the interviews this season, full transcripts and new pieces all about the craft. Check it out at georgegoehl.substack.com.

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If organizing starts with deep listening, and is sustained by enduring relationships, how do organizers stay the course? Miya Yoshitani, Executive Director of Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) and long at the vanguard of the environmental justice movement, talks with George about the importance of articulating what we fight for. They also discuss showing up authentically as an organizer; and what it means to light a fire within -- rather than under -- communities whose voices have often gone unheard.

You can learn more about Miya Yoshitani's work at peoplesaction.org/nextmove.

Miya is on twitter @miya_yosh.

People’s Action is a national network of 40 state and local grassroots, power-building organizations united in fighting for justice. 

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