COMMMUNITY ORGANIZING
Conceptual overview
 
 

 Community organizing is a working force of peoples’ democracy.  According to its proponents, “community organizing is a process by which exploited people learn to employ the tools of a democratic society.”  There have been three major theories of community organizing that have been applied in the twentieth century: Social work Approach, Political Activist Approach, and Neighborhood Maintenance Approach.  One of the most important figures in community organizing is Mr. Saul Alinsky.  Alinsky is said to be the godfather of community organizing as well as the founder of the Political Activist Approach.  The Alinsky model of community organizing is based on the continuation of tradition - a democratically run church based community. The major strategies are local leadership, confrontational tactics, personalizing the issue.  This organization scheme continues to remain the backbone of community organization even though urban environments have changed throughout the decades.
 American cities are facing the collapse of urban culture in terms of the exodus of inner city financial resources, institutions, role models and jobs as well as the emergence of gangs, drugs and increasing crime rates.  East St. Louis is one of the extreme examples of the rapid decline of a once affluent city.  In this situation community organizations have become the initiators of reform and urban revitalization.  Harold Washington, former mayor of Chicago, was the first to involve community organizations in decision making and building.  This tradition continues today with introduction of President Clinton’s Local Initiatives Support Corporation.   Local community organizers were initiators of this social change.

 Citizen Action  and Training Information Center, are the two Chicago organizations started by women activists.  Heather Booth has built an organization of 1.75 million members that spans 24 states and routinely affects legislation and elects progressives to office.  Gale Cincotta is a former housewife who is well known in bank boardrooms around the country. Through a shrewd combination of confrontation and strong–armed legislation, she has forced banks to lend $1.6 billion in neighborhoods that need reinvestment.
“Anger”, “just anger” was the initial motivation of Gale Cincotta. Banks and mortgage companies were “redlining” her neighborhood; the school board was sending its resources into wealthiest areas, and federal laws worked against local progress.
The two leaders have different strategies,
Chincotta  storms bureaucrats’ offices, and later at the follow-up meetings methodically uses the legislative process to control America’s lifeblood: money.  She helped write and pass the federal Community Reinvestment Act of 1976, which requires financial institutions that are being bought or sold to prove that they lend money in the communities they serve.
Booth and  Citizen Action use phone banks, a national door-to door network, constituency research, and even ”opposition research”. By knocking on 20000 doors every weeknight and making a million phone calls a year, Citizen Action affiliates raise $20 million per year and rack up impressive victories.
Booth works methodically, quickly and on 20 projects at once. “If we won enough and got Utopia, maybe I could quit,”- says Booth.(by Patric Barry)

 Community organizations in American cities are trying to help residence with issues
such as:
   -Housing
   -Government and Politics
   -Poverty
   -Health
   -Welfare
   -Police, Courts, Lawyers
   -Consumer Action
   -Education
   -Business and Industry
   -Unions and Jobs
   -Environmental Safety

All communities, both urban and suburban, are benefiting from self-organizations, but the most benefited are White Ethnic, Poor Black and Hispanic.  According to Alinsky, “change comes from power and power comes organization.”

 American cities as New York, Chicago, Seattle have developed strong Community Organizations, militant and educated, able to fight for people’s  rights.(Chicago Examples are: UNO – United neighborhood organization; SON/SOC- Save Our Neighborhoods/Save Our City coalition, NCO- North West Community Organization. )
Not only neighborhood organizations initialize the democratic activities, educational institutions such as Universities oftentimes become initiators of social change: University of Chicago and CAP- Chicago Area Project - focuses on youth and believes that juvenile delinquency is rooted not in the personality of a child, but rather in the environment. The organizers work a lot with the public school network, trying to prevent early involvement in crime. University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign works with the community of East St. Lois; University of Washington in Seattle works with Mexican migrant workers  in East Washington. Church communities, Black, White, Hispanic are the other stronghold of local community organizations. According to Barack Obama:

Black church is a slumbering giant on political and economical landscape of a city, possessing tremendous financial resources, membership, and, most importantly values and biblical traditions that call for empowerment and liberation.

The key of success of the community organization is its management to cooperate with the local government and supercede the bureaucratic force. It is easier to do on a smaller scale, as we see from the experience of Chicago Southern Suburban organizations(Bill Camp).

East St. Louis is a challenging site for community organizing. Its decline went beyond the stage of disaster, since even the local government regards the situation as hopeless by completely neglecting it. The strong community organization  that can challenge the government  is the only hope in this situation. Church community still seems to be a vital entity in the neighborhood and could become the driving force of  local community organizations.
“We want this powerful infrastructure to grow because the success of tomorrow’s city depends on it”, - said Harold Washington regarding the community organizations (Bedrock Democracy). When community organization becomes a reliable infrastructure, the root system of the community, then it can lead the community to progress.
We see our goal  in  helping to contribute in the process of  community  organization  in East St. Louis.
 
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Community Organization