Educational Resources for People Who Want to Change the World

Much, much more to come later. Here’s what I have so far…

Organizing

• Comments to New SDS Regional Meeting by Robert Ross
• Organizing vs. Activism in 1968 by Mark Rudd
• Remembering Tomorrow: From SDS to Life After Capitalism by Michael Albert

Communication

• Simple Framing by George Lakoff: An introduction to framing and its uses in politics
• Don’t Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate by George Lakoff
• Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think by George Lakoff

Envisioning the Future

• There Is An Alternative by Michael Albert
• Government in the Future by Noam Chomsky (audio talk)
• Parecon: Life After Capitalism by Michael Albert: A book exploring participatory economics - an equitable economic model. How could we organize economic life in a more just, equitable, and solidaristic manner?
• Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century edited by Chris Spannos
• Realizing Hope: Life Beyond Capitalism by Michael Albert

Nonviolent Action

• Strategy for a Living Revolution by George Lakey
• From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp
• The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part One: Power and Struggle by Gene Sharp
• The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Two: The Methods of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp
• The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Three: The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp

Social Epidemics / Tipping Points

• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Strategy

• The Art of Warfare by Sun Tzu
• Start Making Sense: Turning the Lessons of Election 2004 into Winning Progressive Politics edited by Don Hazen and Lakshimi Chaudhryx

Power

• The Matrix

Race

• The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Antisemitism Part of All of Our Movements by April Rosenblum
• White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise

GI Resistance & Dismantling the Military

• Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War by David Cortright
• Democratizing Defense Resource Archive by Liberty Tree, Foundation for the Democratic Revolution

Environmental Justice

• “Communicating our Vision for National Climate Policy” by Green for All
  • Podcast
  • Talking Points
  • Media Tool Kit: “Using the Media to Frame the Debate”

Education

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

U.S. Civil Rights Movement

• I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Summer by Charles M. Payne

Revolutionary Theory

• Unorthodox Marxism: An Essay on Capitalism, Socialism, and Revolution by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel

History

• A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn

Publications and Websites

• ZNet
• Z Magazine
• Democracy Now!
• Left Turn
• Liberty Tree
• Monthly Review
• Real News Network
• Rockridge Nation
• Wiretap

Blogs and Sites

• Joshua Kahn Russell
• Michael Albert
• John Cronan
• Madeline Gardner
• Pat Korte
• Meaghan Linick-Loughley
• Aric Miller
• Aaron Petcoff
• Becca Rast
• Mark Rudd
• Matt Smucker

Organizations Promoting: Leadership Development, Political Education, Vision, Strategy, and Capacity Building

An ongoing compilation of Organizations Promoting: Leadership Development, Political Education, Vision, Strategy, and Capacity Building. I will soon add links to their websites and descriptions of what they do. In the mean time, you can find them by googling their name. Want to help build the movement? Donate these groups and support their work - they are the people who build the capacity of the movement’s best organizers and leaders! Enjoy!

Beyond the Choir - Beyond the Choir is an analysis, strategy and training project serving groups and campaigns struggling for social and economic justice, peace and the environment. We are a collective of organizers, trainers and designers who seek to spread tools, skills and strategies to build movements strong enough to realize the change we imagine.

The Brecht Forum - The BRECHT FORUM is a place for people who are working for social justice, equality and a new culture that puts human needs first. Through its programs and events, the Brecht Forum brings people together across social and cultural boundaries and artistic and academic disciplines to promote critical analysis, creative thinking, collaboartive projects and networking in an independent community-level environment.

Campus Camp Wellstone - (a project of Wellstone Action) Campus Camp Wellstone trains students nationwide on how to run energized, community building, winning campaigns. We focus on campus and community organizing and young voter engagement.

The Center for Political Education - The Center for Political Education is a resource for political organizations on the left, progressive movements, the working class and people of color. It is anchored by a collective of individuals active in day-to-day struggles in the Bay Area. Our political approach is non-sectarian, democratic, and committed to a critical analysis of local, regional, national and global politics.

The Change Agency - The Change Agency is a collective of activist educators and researchers. We work with community organisers to help people clarify their purpose and develop plans that will enable them to be heard, focus their energies and achieve social and environmental justice outcomes. We research social change, activism and advocacy. What is successful and what isn’t? How can people organise and work together more effectively? Based on our ongoing research we facilitate workshops for activists and community organisers and also share many of our resources on this site.

Albert Einstein Institution - The mission of the Albert Einstein Institution is to advance the worldwide study and strategic use of nonviolent action in conflict. The Institution is committed to:

• defending democratic freedoms and institutions
• opposing oppression, dictatorship, and genocide, and
• reducing reliance on violence as an instrument of policy.

This mission is pursued in three ways, by:

• encouraging research and policy studies on the methods of nonviolent action and their past use in diverse conflicts
• sharing the results of this research with the public through publications, conferences, and the media, and
• consulting with groups in conflict about the strategic potential of nonviolent action.

Electoral Action Training (EAT) - (a project of the United States Student Association and Campus Camp Wellstone) The United States Student Association and Campus Camp Wellstone have teamed up to offer a comprehensive training to give students the skills to register, educate and mobilize their campuses for the 2008 election and beyond. With a combination of workshops, exercises, and discussions students will be equipped with tried and true electoral organizing skills (plus creative new tactics) and a sophisticated understanding of student power.

Grassroots Organizing Weekend (GROW) - (a project of the United States Student Association and the Midwest Academy) USSAF’s GrassRoots Organizing Weekend (GROW) is a comprehensive three-day training for student organizers. The GROW teaches students how to be more strategic in their fight for justice on campus and in the community. The training is a series of presentations, exercises, and discussions that teach a set of skills and concepts, which will increase the effectiveness of your student organizing. The GROW trainers are seasoned student organizers from around the country who teach by using their own personal organizing experiences. Usually 20-40 participants attend each GROW. As a participant of the GROW you will learn how to:

Highlander Research and Education Center - Highlander serves as a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the South. We work with people fighting for justice, equality and sustainability, supporting their efforts to take collective action to shape their own destiny. Through popular education, participatory research, and cultural work, we help create spaces — at Highlander and in local communities — where people gain knowledge, hope and courage, expanding their ideas of what is possible. We develop leadership and help create and support strong, democratic organizations that work for justice, equality and sustainability in their own communities and that join with others to build broad movements for social, economic and restorative environmental change.

Hollyhock Leadership Institute: A School for Social Change - The Hollyhock Leadership Institute empowers current and emerging leaders to create high impact social change. We build alliances, catalyze new visions and re-kindle inspiration.

Paul Kivel - Paul Kivel’s work grows out of three decades in community education, engaged parenthood, political writing, and practical activism all focused on one overriding question: How can we live and work together to nurture each individual and create a multicultural society based on love, caring, justice, and interdependence with all living things? Paul believes we each have a responsibility to help create a world worthy of our children. As Rabbi Tarfon wrote many centuries ago: “It is not upon you to finish the work. Neither are you free to desist from it.” This web site offers you Paul’s articles and books, links and exercises, bibliographies and videographies, all to support personal growth, community education, progressive activism, and effective organizing.

Labor/Community Strategy Center - The Labor/Community Strategy Center is a multiracial “think tank/act tank” committed to building democratic, internationalist, Left social movements and challenging the ideological, economic, and political domination of transnational capital. The Strategy Center’s work encompasses all aspects of urban life in the United States: it emphasizes class-conscious labor organizing and fighting for environmental justice and ending climate change, immigrant rights, and first-class transportation, as well as actively confronting the growing criminalization, racialization, and feminization of poverty. The Strategy Center synthesizes grassroots organizing-The Bus Riders Union and Community Rights projects-with education, policy development, and artistic culture production-Strategy Center Publications, The National Center for Transportation Strategies, the National School for Strategic Organizing, Voices from the Frontlines radio show, and AhoraNow periodical-to generate a creative and aggressive response to the growing power of the corporate-led political Right in the United States. The Strategy Center is committed to multilingual organizing, including the development of multilingual publications, productions, and visuals arts.

The Midwest Academy - Midwest Academy is a leading national training institute for the progressive movement. The Academy advances the movements for social change by teaching a strategic, rigorous, results-oriented approach to social action and organization building. The Academy provides training (introductory and advanced level) and consulting, equipping organizers, leaders, and their organizations to think and act strategically to win justice for all.

Movement Strategy Center - The Movement Strategy Center brings a cohesive plan to strengthen these emerging efforts and build the progressive social justice movement. They do this by supporting individuals, organizations, alliances and sectors to be more strategic, collaborative and sustainable.

New Tactics in Human Rights - The New Tactics in Human Rights Project, led by a diverse group of partner international organizations, advisors and practitioners, promotes tactical innovation and strategic thinking within the international human rights community. Strategic and tactical thinking, long used by business and military strategists, is an effective means for the human rights movement to expand options and possibilities of what can be done. Innovative tactics are emerging that may more effectively advance human rights and end persistent human rights problems. Many innovations have been valuable, yet are not well known outside their regions.

The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond - The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), is a national and international collective of anti-racist, multicultural community organizers and educators dedicated to building an effective movement for social transformation. The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, affectionately known in the community as The People’s Institute, considers racism the primary barrier preventing communities from building effective coalitions and overcoming institutionalized oppression and inequities. Through Undoing Racism™/Community Organizing Workshops, technical assistance and consultations, PISAB helps individuals, communities, organizations and institutions move beyond addressing the symptoms of racism to undoing the causes of racism so as to create a more just and equitable society.

Project South - Project South is a leadership development organization based in the US South creating spaces for movement building. We work with communities pushed forward by the struggle to strengthen leadership and provide popular political & economic education for personal & social transformation. We build relationships with organizations and networks across the US and global South to inform our local work and to engage in bottom-up movement building for social & economic justice.

RANT Collective (Root Activist Network of Trainers) - RANT is a small collective that formed in February of 2001. Our primary purpose is to provide training, education, and information to local, national, and international organizations, groups, and individuals working for global peace and justice. We are consensus based, non-hierarchical and collectively oriented.

Rainforest Action Network - Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is made up of 43 staff members in San Francisco, CA and in Tokyo, Japan, plus thousands of volunteer scientists, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens around the world. We believe that a sustainable world can be created in our lifetime, and that aggressive action must be taken immediately to leave a safe and secure world for our children. Dubbed “some of the most savvy environmental agitators in the business” by the Wall Street Journal, RAN uses hard-hitting markets campaigns to align the policies of multinational corporations with widespread public support for environmental protection. We believe that logging ancient forests for copy paper or destroying an endangered ecosystem for a week’s worth of oil is not just destructive, but outdated and unnecessary.

RESIST Grants - RESIST funds activist organizing and education work within movements for social change. As a foundation, RESIST is unique because we are part of the movements we fund. We do the work individual donors don’t have time to do: reaching out to activist organizations and researching their campaigns and projects. We operate on a national scale and know the big picture, and we challenge grantees to connnect their own issues with the concerns of other activists. Our frequent funding cycle means we can respond to time-sensitive organizing campaigns. RESIST is more than a foundation. We’re also a resource center, providing grassroots organizations with technical assistance and information about other funding sources. Finding Funding: A Beginner’s Guide to Foundation Research gives progressive activists a quick entry-point for grant-writing. Resist also publishes a highly respected Newsletter.

The Rockridge Institute - The Rockridge Institute is committed to the democratization of knowledge about politics. Our mission is to deepen and broaden the public’s understanding of the political world. Rockridge studies the worldviews, values and ideas behind conservative and progressive policies, issues and political discourse. Using the tools of neuroscience and cognitive linguistics — combined with decades of practical political experience — Rockridge promotes the effective articulation of progressive values. We do this by monitoring public debate and suggesting both long-term and short-term options for framing that offer a progressive perspective. We work primarily at the level of values and ideas across specific policy areas. At the level of language, we point out ineffective word choices and suggest argument forms and phrasings that better express progressive values.

Rosenberg Fund for Children - The Rosenberg Fund for Children was established to provide for the educational and emotional needs of children whose parents have suffered because of their progressive activities and who, therefore, are no longer able to provide fully for their children. The RFC also provides grants for the educational and emotional needs of targeted activist youth. Professionals and institutions will be awarded grants to provide services at no or reduced cost.

The Ruckus Society - We are living in a time of extreme challenges: stopping the war in Iraq, thwarting climate change catastrophes, reclaiming the commons from corporations, conquering our addiction to oil, and protecting human rights. In order to effectively meet these challenges, now, more than ever, environmental and social justice organizers must develop winning strategies that are creative, nonviolent, and take their lead from impacted communities. By building on the traditions of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., we, at The Ruckus Society, provide our partner organizations and activists with the tools, training, and support necessary to tackle these problems and achieve their goals.

School of Unity and Liberation - SOUL is working to lay the groundwork for a powerful liberation movement by supporting the development of a new generation of young organizers - especially young women, young people of color, queer youth and working-class young people. We believe that – in order for young organizers to build an effective movement for fundamental social change – they need support to develop the nuts-and-bolts organizing skills they need to mobilize their communities and to deepen their political analysis and their visions for fundamental social change. SOUL is a training center designed to support the growing youth sector of the social justice movement. We run political education and organizing skills training programs, designed specifically to meet the particular needs of our generation of emerging movement leaders.

smartMeme - The smartMeme collective is a group of skilled, creative and dedicated change agents who work to support grassroots movements with strategy and training resources, values based communications tools, and meme campaigning. We work to build a culture of strategy, vision, and change, connecting struggles for democracy, peace, justice, and ecological sanity.

Tools for Change - Tools for Change has been providing consulting, training, mediation and facilitation services nationwide for over 15 years. Founder Margo Adair formed Tools for Change to promote the integration of spiritual and political perspectives to promote personal, spiritual and political transformation to help bring about a just society. She and other associates around the country, have forged multi-cultural and multigenerational alliances in many different settings.

Training for Change - Since 1992 Training for Change has been committed to increasing capacity around the world for activist training. When we say activist training, we mean training that helps groups stand up more effectively for justice, peace and the environment. We deliver skills directly that people working for social change can use in their daily work.

War Resisters League - The War Resisters League has been resisting war at home and war abroad since 1923. Our work for nonviolent revolution has spanned decades and been shaped by the new visions and strategies of each generation’s peacemakers.

Z Education Online - ZEO stands for Z Education Online. It is an offshoot of the Z Media Institute that operates entirely online - and it is a component of Z Communications and ZSpace that includes (or will include in the future):

• do it at your own speed instructionals with associated forums for discussion…
• text and audio lectures
• special presentations and chat sessions
• and extensive faculty-taught courses in ZSchool with associated forums, etc.

Z Media Institute - Z Media Institute was started in 1994 by the cofounders of Z Magazine (1988) and South End Press (1977) to teach radical politics, media and organizing skills, the principles and practice of creating non-hierarchical institutions and projects, activism, and vision and strategy for social change. Classes are held around Eel Pond in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.