Alinsky, Saul D. Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals.  New York, Vintage Books October 1989 Edition, 1971.

This book was written during the unrest of the Vietnam years – Lloyd

Credits:

Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins – or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at last won his own kingdom – Lucifer.

- SAUL ALINSKY

The Purpose

p. 3. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power.  Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.

p. 9. Today revolution has become synonymous with communism while capitalism is synonymous with status quo.

p. 9, 10. These pages are committed to splitting this political atom, separating this exclusive identification of communism with revolution.  [this is] a manual for the Have-nots of the world regardless of the color of their skins or their politics.  My aim here is to suggest how to organize for power: how to get it and to use it.  I will argue that the failure to use power for a more equitable distribution of the means of life for all people signals the end of the revolution and the start of the counterrevolution.

p. 10. … a Marxist begins with the prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists.

p. 12, 13. Political realists see the world as it is: an arena of power politics moved primarily by perceived immediate self-interests, where morality is rhetorical rationale for expedient action and self-interest.

p. 23. A major revolution to be won in the immediate future is the dissipation of man’s illusion that his own welfare can be separate from that of all others.

Of Means and Ends

p. 26. first … One’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s personal interest in the issue.

p. 26. The second rule of the ethics of means and ends is that the judgment of the ethics of means is dependent upon the political position of those sitting in judgment.

p. 29. The third rule of the ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justified almost any means.

p. 30. The forth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that judgment must be made in the context of the times in which the action occurred and not from any other chronological vantage point.

p. 32. The fifth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that concern with ethics increases with the number of means available and vice versa.

p. 34. The sixth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that the less important the end to be desired, the more one can afford to engage in ethical evaluations of means.

p. 34. The seventh rule of the ethics of means and ends is that generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics.

p. 34. The eighth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that the morality of a means depends upon whether the means is being employed at a time of imminent defeat or imminent victory.

p. 35. The ninth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical.

p. 36. The tenth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.

p. 29. The eleventh rule of the ethics of means and ends is that goals must be phrased in general terms like “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” “Of the Common Welfare,” “Pursuit of Happiness,” or “Bread and Peace.”

A Word about Words

pp. 48-62. POWER, SELF-INTEREST, COMPROMISE, EGO, CONFLICT

The Education of an Organizer

p. 64. The education of an organizer requires frequent long conferences on organizational problems, analysis of power patterns, communication, conflict tactics, the education and development of community leaders, and the methods of introduction of new issues.

p. 65. The marriage record of organizers is with rare exception disastrous. … Also, with rare exception, I have not known really competent organizers who were concerned about celibacy.

Communication

p. 85. When you are trying to communicate and can’t find the point in the experience of the other party at which he can receive and understand, then, you must create the experience for him.

In the Beginning

p. 100. The job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a “dangerous enemy.”

p. 103. The organizer’s job is to inseminate an invitation for himself, to agitate, introduce ideas, get people pregnant with hope and a desire for change and to identify you as the person most qualified for this purpose.

p. 113. Change comes from power, and power comes from organization.  In order to act, people must get together.

p. 115. Our strategy was to prevent the officials from saying anything; to start banging on the desk and demanding that we get the services, never permitting them to interrupt us or make any statement.

p. 116. The first step in community organization is community disorganization. … All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.

p. 116, 117. This is why the organizer is immediately confronted with conflict.  The organizer dedicated to changing the life of a particular community must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; fan the latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expression.  He must search out controversy and issues, rather than avoid them, for unless there is controversy people are not concerned enough to act. … An organizer must stir up dissatisfaction and discontent; provide a channel into which the people can angrily pour their frustrations.  … your function – to agitate to the point of conflict.

Tactics

The rules of power tactics

p. 127. first: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks your have.
p. 127. second: Never go outside the experience of your people.
p. 127. third: Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy.
p. 128. fourth: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.
p. 128. fifth: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.
p. 128. sixth: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
p. 128. seventh:  A tactic that drags on too long comes a drag.
p. 128. eighth:  Keep the pressure on.
p. 129. ninth:  The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
p. 129. tenth: The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.
p. 129. eleventh: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.
p. 130. twelfth: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.
p. 130. thirteenth: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

p. 136.

• The real action is the enemy’s reaction.
• The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.
• Tactics, like organization, like life, require that you move with the action.

p. 137, 138. It should be remembered that you can threaten the enemy and get away with it. You can insult and annoy him, but the one thing that is unforgivable and that is certain to get him to react is to laugh at him. This causes an irrational anger.

The Genesis of Tactic Proxy

p. 176.  You could go to, say, Corporation Z, point out your proxy holding there, mention that there were certain grievances you had against them for some of their bad policy operations, but that you were willing to forget about them (for the time being) if they would use their stock to put pressure on Corporation Q for the sake of influencing Corporation X.  The same muscle could be applied to Corporation Q itself.  … This is what I would call corporate jujitsu.

The Way Ahead

p.185. Activists and radicals, on and off our college campuses – people who are committed to change – must make a complete turnabout.  With rare exceptions, or activists and radicals are products of and rebels against our middle-class society. … Our revels have contemptuously rejected the values and way of life of the middle class.