Organizing from the bottom up…
We understand that there are many methods and theories about organizing and all of them have their beneficial and their problematic components. We do not subscribe to any particular method per se. We draw our methods from the history of organizing not only in the United States but in Latin America and beyond. Our approach to organizing is simple: from the bottom up. This means that it is the base that we work with, those who should not only be the voice, but the leaders of the work we do. In this approach to organizing, the organizer (and in fact the entire organization) is a tool for the base to reach their fullest potential as agents of change in a world with many challenges. The organizer is not a leader, (s)he is a tool for the base to become the best leaders possible utilizing all the available tools.
Allow us to use a pop culture reference for clarity. The mainstream film ”The Matrix” provides a good analogy. The organizer is the ”Morpheus” character with the task of finding and training “The One” (Neo). In our case, no single person is ”The One”. Instead, the whole base is that “one” character that can change the world for the better.
How we do this…
2 approaches and 3 glues. The approaches are what we’ll simply call Organic Organizing and Strategic Organizing and the glues are art, popular education and direct action.
Organic Organizing
Organic Organizing is when an affected group comes together to analyze their present situation, their history of how they got to be where they are now, and to arrive together with a vision that challenges their oppression by attaining their dreams. It is organic because it usually initiates when a group of people realizes that all of them have been oppressed under the same circumstances and decide to take action. This realization usually happens with what we’ll call an internal activator (one or more individuals from the affected group) or by an external activator (an organizer who facilitates the dialogue for the group to arrive to their common present situation). The goal of the group/organization formed by this approach is that the members become the decision makers in creating their vision into a reality.
Strategic Organizing
Strategic Organizing simply means that whatever action the group/organization takes has to take into account the present political situation and the vision/mission of the group/organization. What this means is that the group cannot just go protesting or boycotting just because it is the first think that comes to mind. Instead, the group analyzes the best approaches to either move a target or attain the desired goal. The best place to find this type of organizing is in short term campaigns where the group/organization does a power analysis, base building and escalation plan. Strategic organizing helps the group to get rid of obstacles that are in the way of the organic vision or to create a momentum of building political power in their community. One must be careful of this type of organizing since one can only be so successful at winning short term campaigns that forget to reflect and go back to the the organic vision that the group should ultimately be accountable.
the 3 glues…
The project promotes and uses both types of organizing, however we facilitate this by using art and popular education. This means that we use games, visual arts, Theater of the Oppressed, film, photos, poetry, music, reflection dinamicas, and icebreaker questions to help us focus and reflect during our organizing meetings. We also use direct action as a tool to achieve political goals outside of normal social/political channels.
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