Rules for Radicals

The inspiration for Rules for Radicals was drawn from Alinsky's personal experience as a community organizer. It was also taken from the lessons he learned from his University of Chicago professor, Robert Park, who saw communities as "reflections of the larger processes of an urban society". Alinsky believed in collective action as a result of the work he did with the C.I.O. and the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago where he first began to develop his own, distinct method of community organizing. Additionally, his late work with the Citizens Action Program (CAP) provided some of his most developed practices in organizing through the empowerment of the poor. Alinsky saw community structure and the impoverished, together with the importance of their empowerment, as elements of community activism, and used both as tools to create powerful, active organizations. Also he used shared social problems as external antagonists to "heighten local awareness of similarities among residents and their shared differences with outsiders". This was one of Alinsky's most powerful tools in community organizing; to bring a collective together, he would bring to light an issue that would stir up conflict with some agency to unite the group. This provided an organization with a specific "villain" to confront and made direct action easier to implement. These tactics as a result of decades of organizing efforts, along with many other lessons, were poured into Rules for Radicals to create the guidebook for community organization. On the 4th fly-leaf page, after a dedication to Alinsky's wife Irene and quotes from Rabbi Hillel and Thomas Paine, is the following text: 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 least won his own kingdom — Lucifer On the academic side, Alinsky quotes Tocqueville more than any other writer in both Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals. He uses and descends from Tocqueville both in his conceptualization of freedom and equality in his focus on the importance of the middle class, quoting Tocqueville himself to define it: the "have a little, want some more class." ==Themes==

Rules for Radicals has various themes. Among them is his use of symbol construction to strengthen the unity within an organization. Alinsky would find an external antagonist to turn into a "common enemy" for the community within which he was operating. Often, this would be a local politician or agency that had some involvement with activity concerning the community. Once the enemy was established, the community would come together in opposition of it. This management of conflict heightened awareness within the community as to the similarities its members shared as well as what differentiated them from those outside of their organization. The use of conflict also allowed for the goal of the group to be clearly defined. With an established external antagonist, the community's goal would be to defeat that enemy. Symbol construction helped to promote structured organization, which allowed for nonviolent conflict through another element in Alinsky's teaching, direct action. Direct action created conflict situations that further established the unity of the community and promoted the accomplishment of achieving the community's goal of defeating their common enemy. It also brought issues the community was battling to the public eye. Alinsky encouraged over-the-top public demonstrations throughout Rules for Radicals that could not be ignored, and these tactics enabled his organization to progress their goals faster than through normal bureaucratic processes. Lastly, the main theme throughout Rules for Radicals and Alinsky's work was empowerment of the poor. Alinsky used symbol construction and nonviolent conflict to create a structured organization with a clearly defined goal that could take direct action against a common enemy. At this point, Alinsky would withdraw from the organization to allow their progress to be powered by the community itself. This empowered the organizations to create change. The Rules • "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have." • "Never go outside the experience of your people." • "Whenever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy." • "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules." • "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage." • "A good tactic is one your people enjoy." • "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag." • "Keep the pressure on." • "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself." • "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition." • "If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative." • "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative." • "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." ==Criticism==

Alinsky received criticism for the methods and ideas he presented. Robert Pruger and Harry Specht observed that much of his instruction has only been effective in urban, low-income areas. The authors also criticized Alinsky's broad statement that Rules for Radicals is a tool for organizing all low-income people. Further, Alinsky's use of artificially stimulated conflict has been criticized for its ineffectiveness in areas that thrive on unity. ==Legacy==

The scope of influence for Rules for Radicals is a far-reaching one as it is a compilation of the tactics of Alinsky. It has been influential for policymaking and organization for various communities and agency groups, and has influenced politicians and activists educated by Alinsky and the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), and other grassroots movements. Direct impact After Alinsky died in California in 1972, his influence helped spawn other organizations and policy changes. Rules for Radicals was a direct influence that helped to form the United Neighborhood Organization in the early 1980s. and the Communities Organized for Public Service. Another student of Alinsky's, Ernesto Cortes, rose to prominence in the late 1970s in San Antonio while organizing Hispanic neighborhoods. His use of congregation-based organizing received much acclaim as a popular method of Alinsky's by utilizing "preexisting solidary neighborhood elements, especially church groups, so that the constituent units are organizations, not individuals." The book was disseminated by the Tea Party conservative group FreedomWorks during Dick Armey's tenure as chairman. Hillary Clinton wrote her college thesis regarding Alinsky's mobilizing model but found the strategies of only limited use to the conflicts of the time. The book also informed the rhetorical strategy of the white supremacist Andrew Anglin. == Publication data ==

• Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971) Random House, (hard cover); (1971) Vintage Books and Random House of Canada Limited, (paperback); (2015) Brilliance Audio, (unabridged audiobook, read by Scott Lange) ==References==