Rules For Radicals - 1971

Safety Note

Do not store or supply unsafe materials for Anything Illegal, especially for "People You Trust".

In 2012-2017, the FBI has repeatedly radicalized left-wing organizations to cross strict legal barriers in perceived assistance of domestic terrorism.

If an agent knocks, federal investigators and your rights

Today, the FBI may begin a full investigation whenever there is a reasonable indication that "two or more persons are engaged in an enterprise for the purpose of furthering political or social goals wholly or in part through activities that involve force or violence and a violation of the criminal laws of the United States." The FBI has interpreted "force or violence" to include the destruction of property as a symbolic act, and the mere advocacy of such property destruction would trigger an investigation. Even without any reasonable indication, under a separate guideline on "Civil Disorders and Demonstrations Involving a Federal Interest," the FBI may investigate an organization that plans only legal and peaceful demonstrations.

Another set of rules governing federal intelligence gathering is Executive Order 12333, in force since 1981. It authorizes the FBI and CIA to infiltrate, manipulate and destroy U.S.political organizations, as well as to use electronic surveillance -- under the pretext of an international intelligence investigation.

Here is a half baked guide about what infiltrators might do.

Also in Texas, a left-wing group was infiltrated by an FBI informant who insisted that the group become violent in response to the Republican scourge. Once he convinced members to make Molotov cocktails, the FBI stormed in and made arrests.

Lastly, the FBI infiltrated middle-aged peace activists and filed trumped-up charges of them providing “assistance” to terrorists. The bogus charges were eventually dropped.

The FBI has also infiltrated Oil Pipeline Protestors using legal loopholes.

Dictionary

The book is dated in some political terminology. See the below list for clarifications.

radical means activist in 2017
revolution means political revolution in 2017
- Although, Alinsky doesn't make this strict distinction between whether violence is actually used.
reformation means reorganization of values or priorities for your political base

General Notes

Wikipedia offers a summary of the rules:

“Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood.
“Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.
“Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.
“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
“A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones.
“A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news.
“Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new.
“The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.
"The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition." It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.
“If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog.
“The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem.
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

Rules for Radicals Notes

Taken while reading the book.

Prologue

McCarthy Era

"Few [radicals] survived the Joe McCarthy Holocaust of the 1950s and of those there were even fewer whose understanding and insights had developed beyond the dialectical materialism of orthodox Marxism. My fellow radicals who were supposed to pass on the torch of experience and insights to the new generation just were not there. As the young looked around at society around them, it was all, in their words, 'materialistic, decadent, bourgeois in its values, bankrupt, and violent.' Is it any wonder that they rejected us in toto." (p. xiii)

Reader note: McCarthyism is seen now as a reactionary backlash to issues as far ranging as women's suffrage, child labor laws, and gay rights, as well as a means for certain politicians to use fear to keep power. The FBI is also implicated heavily in performing illegal spying. There are loophopes for domestic spying used by the FBI today.

Young vs. Old

Young people have seen 'activist democracies' turn into 'nihilistic bombing and murder' and there is no panacea for it as there was in the past, 'revolution in Russia and China has since become the same old stuff under a different name'.
Young people are looking for a way of life that has some meaning or sense: religion, political philosophy, science, or ideologies.
The small world of the past inspired trust, and the big world of today inspires confusion and incomprehensibility.
Generation Gap - Older people think younger people haven't learned how the world is, younger people think the old people will never get with the changing times.
Approaches to the chaotic world by the young:
1. Panic and run - "copping out"
  - Hippies and Yuppies
  - Taking drugs
  - Trying communes
  - Anything to escape
2. Sure-loser confrontations: "We tried and did our part"
  - Dying
  - Jail
  - Followed by panic and run, "copping out"
3. Guilt and "not knowing where to turn to"
  - Suicide
  - Contempt
  - "take off for Algeria"
There are no rules for revolution as there are for revelation.

There are `no rules for revolution` but there are `rules for radicals`.

"Remember we are talking about revolution, not revelation; you can miss the target by shooting too high as well as too low. First, there are no rules for revolution any more than there are rules for love or rules for happiness, but there are rules for radicals who want to change their world; there are central concepts of action in human politics that operate regardless of the scene or the time. To know these is basic to a pragmatic attack on the system. These rules make the difference between a realistic radical and being a rhetorical one who uses the tired old words and slogans, calls the police 'pig' or 'white fascist racist' or 'motherfucker' and has so stereotyped himself that others react by saying, 'oh, he's one of those,' and then promptly turn off." (p. xviii)

Communication

Throughout history, silence has been regarded as assent -- in this case, assent to the system.

If you cannot communicate in a way that your audience listens to you, you are silent no matter how loudly you scream. The inference here is that if you are not accepted in the community you wish to change, you are assenting to the system by not truly seeking a path to change that brings the community with you.

Communicate within the experience of your audience
- Pay full respect to its values
- A fool attacks the American flag: it is the establishment which has betrayed the flag while the flag, itself, remains the glorious symbol of America's hopes and aspirations
Humor and comedy are essential
- Through humor much is accepted that would be rejected if presented seriously.
- Note: People want to laugh and find joy in whatever they do. It inspires growth more than anything.
Radicalism is social
- Do it for, and with, people
If the real radical finds that having long hair sets up psychological barriers to communication and organization, he cuts his hair.
- Start your battle where the world is, not where you would like it to be.
- Work inside the system

Dostoyevsky said that taking a new step is what people fear the most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future. That acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution. To bring on this reformation requires that the organizer work inside the system, among not only the middle class but the 40 percent of American families... whose income ranges from $5000 to$10000 a year [in 1971 dollars]... IF we fail to communicate with them... they will move to the right... maybe they will anyways, but lets not let it happen by default. (p. xix)

Non-Violence

Violence is absurd when the other side has all the guns.

Just one violent incident like has happened in the US would have resulted in a sweeping purge and mass executions in Russia, China, or Cuba. Lets keep some perspective. (paraphrased)

Remember that we have the freedom to fight with our words and to build an opposition base against the administration.

Start with `the system`

There is no other place to start.

Revolution is precededed by Reformation
- Also called popular reformation of your opposition political base
People need a bridge to cross from their own experience to a new way
- Shake up the patterns of their lives
- Agitate
- Create Disenchantment
- Discontent with current values
Goal: Produce a passive, affirmative, non-challenging climate or a passion for change in the political base.
- Revolution without prior reformation will collapse or become totalitarian tyranny.
- Reformation - People are fed up with past ways. They don't know what will work but they know that the present system is hopeless. They won't act for change but won't strongly oppose those who do. Then the time is ripe for revolution.

Participation

Citizen participation is the animating spirit and force in a society predicated on voluntarism.

We are not here concerned with people who profess the democratic faith but yearn for the dark security of dependency where they can be spared the burden of decisions.

To lose your "identity" as a citizen of democracy is but a step from losing your identity as a person. People react to this frustration by not acting at all.

Hang on to one of the most precious parts of youth, laughter... (p. xxvii)

Chapter 1 - The Purpose

"The Prince" by Machiavelli is for the Haves on how to hold power.

"Rules for Radicals" is for the Have Nots on how to take it away.

Defining This Book

Purpose: Create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people.

Premise: The significant changes in history have been made by revolutions.

Content: The book proposes:

Certain general observations
propositions
concepts of the mechanics of mass movements
various stages of the cycle of action and reaction in a revolution

This book will not contain any panacea or dogma; I detest and fear dogma. I know that all revolutions must have ideologies to spur them on. That in the heat of conflict these ideologies tend to be smelted into rigid dogmas claiming exclusive possession of the truth, and the keys to paradise, is tragic. Dogma is the enemy of human freedom. Dogma must be watched for and apprehended at every turn and twist of the revolutionary movement... To diminish the danger that ideology will deteriorate into dogma, and to protect the free, open, questing, and creative mind of man, as well as to allow for change, no ideology should be more specific than that of America's founding fathers: "For the general welfare." (p. 4)

Political Sensitivity & Control Over Events

Resilient, Adaptable, and Sensitive
- "Radicals must have a degree of control over the flow of events"
  - Have a plan for each branch in the path
- Adaptable: Merge the plan, old plans, similar experiences
  - Adapt to shifting political circumstances
- Resilient: Don't back down!!
- Sensitive: find, create, and take opportunities
  - Avoid being trapped by your own tactics
  - Forced to travel a road not of your choosing.
- Keep the initiative. Do not pass the initiative.
  - Keep things in motion!!

Revolutionary "how-to" Guides Are Rare

This text is dedicated to splitting two atomic ideas: revolution from communism

Revolutionary literature is sparse!
- Literature extolling the virtues of the Haves is prolific
- Literature decrying revolution as reptilian, evil, and hellish is prolific
- To the status quo, revolution "is the only force which has no image, but instead casts a dark, ominous shadow of things to come."
A significant body of communist revolutionary literature exists
- It is embedded in the "language of communism, red and yellow"
- Tactics, maneuvers, strategy, and principles of action in the making of revolutions
Today's situation is suicidal: revolution and communism have become one in peoples' minds
- We only accept revolution if it is guaranteed to be on our side and we can't find a way out
- Revolution is associated with communism
- "The Status Quo" is associated with capitalism

Section: The Ideology of Change

Question: What, if any, is my ideology?
- The prerequisite for ideology is possession of a basic truth
  - Easy for christians, marxists
  - Hard for an organizer working for open society, who must be a political relativist
A free-society organizer is free of the shackles of dogma
- One belief: that people, given the power to act, will do the right thing in the long run, most of the time
- Politics of Change: free to focus on what matters to people now, rather than serve a dogma
- Note: This is perhaps better called the un-dogma of a free society.

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.12)

Duality of Revolution and Counter-Revolution

Accept and embrace the duality of revolution and counter-revolution. If you understand the big picture of revolution and counter-revolution then you can seek to alter the historical pattern of "two steps forwards, one step back".
Examples of the duality of revolution and reaction (p. 16)
1. Urban Housing Projects - A dream of replacing the tenements vs. a doubly segregated place.
2. CIO + AF of L - CIO reforming AF of L becomes entrenched member of establishment as AFLCIO
3. etc.

Section: Class Distinctions: The Trinity

Three Parts of Mankind
1. Haves: want to keep
  - power, money, food, security, luxury
  - determined to freeze the Status Quo
  - "When do we sleep?" - fear violent uprising
2. Have-Nots: want to get
  - poverty, rotten housing, disease, ignorance, political impotence, despair
  - jobs pay the least
  - deprived in all areas basic to human growth
  - caged by color physical or political, barred from representation
  - hate the establishment, opulence, police, courts, churches
  - Justice, morality, law, and order are mere words when used by the Haves: justify and secure the status quo
  - Power in Numbers.
  - "When do we eat?", "get off our backs"
3. Have-A-Little, Want Mores: the middle class
  - Torn between status quo and change things to get more
  - social, economic, political schizoids
  - Generally seek the safe way
  - Insist on three aces in their hand before playing the poker game of revolution
  - Majority in the US, and generally in Western society.
  - Argument by Alinksy that the greats come out of the middle class

The middle class spawns people who provoke action but Do Nothing, "I agree with your ends but not with your means." Act as a blanket for the sparks of disension. The book will examine both the Doers and the Do-Nothings. Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Alice in Wonderland: Tiger-Lily points out that the flowers that talk grow out of hard beds of ground. In most gardens, they make the beds too soft so that the flowers are always asleep. (p. 21)

Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict. In these pages it is our open political purpose to cooperate with the great law of change; to want otherwise would be like King Canute's commanding the tides and waves to cease.

Alinsky's personal philosophy is anchored in optimism. If we imagine the struggle as a mountain, we must visualize a mountain with no top.... Knowing that the mountain has no top... Why do we continue? ... because it's there...

Different than Sisyphis, doomed to have the boulder roll back down again. We see new vistas at each plateau.

The low road to morality.

If you have bread and your neighbor has none, he will kill you and eat yours.
We must accept that we rely on each other to continue a free society.
You must share some of your wealth, or lose all of it. Remember: organizations are wealth, you can't destroy everyone.
Note: Following this low road, welfare and basic income can be viewed, for better or for worse, as ransom on society's wealth.

This is the low road to morality. There is no other. (p. 23)