What are effective ways to create change and develop power in communities? The University of Denver’s (DU) Graduate School of Social Work hosted a timely and promiseful talk by organizing icon Ernesto Cortés Jr., co-chair and executive director of the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF).
IAF’s approach has focused on “organizing organizations,” to bring together diverse and broad-based stakeholders, such as congregations, educational institutions, nonprofits, and civic organizations to develop the capacity of community leaders to take collective and strategic action toward justice.
In his DU talk, Cortés touched on highlights of his 40-year career in organizing. He got his revolutionary start by organizing Mexican-American workers in his home state of Texas.
“I grew up somewhat angry in San Antonio, wanting to do something about what I saw as other people’s reality, but mine as well. Everytime it rained, it flooded. People drowned. People couldn’t go to school,” he said.
Cortés quest to become more effective at helping to create change was buoyed by his involvement with IAF, started in Chicago in the 1940s by the legendary organizer Saul Alinsky. Alinsky sought to impart knowledge to ordinary people about political power, how to claim and how to sustain it. In the IAF tradition, Cortés teaches and develops grassroots organizational leaders to act effectively on social justice issues that impact their families and communities. Cortés has been instrumental in the building of more than 30 grassroots organizations known for developing and training community leaders.
Highlights of Cortés talk in Denver.
View the lecture:
IAF’s approach has focused on “organizing organizations,” to bring together diverse and broad-based stakeholders, such as congregations, educational institutions, nonprofits, and civic organizations to develop the capacity of community leaders to take collective and strategic action toward justice.
In his DU talk, Cortés touched on highlights of his 40-year career in organizing. He got his revolutionary start by organizing Mexican-American workers in his home state of Texas.
“I grew up somewhat angry in San Antonio, wanting to do something about what I saw as other people’s reality, but mine as well. Everytime it rained, it flooded. People drowned. People couldn’t go to school,” he said.
Cortés quest to become more effective at helping to create change was buoyed by his involvement with IAF, started in Chicago in the 1940s by the legendary organizer Saul Alinsky. Alinsky sought to impart knowledge to ordinary people about political power, how to claim and how to sustain it. In the IAF tradition, Cortés teaches and develops grassroots organizational leaders to act effectively on social justice issues that impact their families and communities. Cortés has been instrumental in the building of more than 30 grassroots organizations known for developing and training community leaders.
Highlights of Cortés talk in Denver.
In Colorado, IAF is working to build an infrastructure for training leaders of grassroots organizations and community institutions that support people in effective actions to achieve social justice. To learn more or to get involved, consider attending the event “Making Democracy Work: Relational Organizing & Social Change,” which will be held on Wednesday, May 3, at Washington Park United Church of Christ, 400 S. Williams St., in Denver. It’s an opportunity to learn more about IAF’s approach and connect to local IAF organizers. Register here.
- Two qualities required of organizers: Develop the kind of anger that could sustain you over a lifetime. The kind that you develop in your teens, then it grows stronger … then reaches a stiletto and stays with you in your ‘70s and ‘80s. If you’re good enough to do enough to do that, you also have to temper that anger with a sense a humor.
- There’s nothing so boring as a self-righteous revolutionary.
- Look for organizers who really have the revolutionary patience to be attentive and thoughtful to try to figure out the context that people are living in, working in, and dying in. That requires a tremendous amount of humor and perspective.
- Real politics is about debate: it’s about deliberation, arguing, confronting, and challenging, but it’s also about negotiation. It’s about being able to listen attentively to what the other person is saying and understanding their context, so you can come up with a negotiated settlement that both sides can live with.
- Organizing is teaching. The best organizers have the patience, generosity, imagination and curiosity of a great teacher. Teaching people to understand the exercise of power.
- Live by the ‘Iron Rule:’ Never do for anyone what he/she can do for themselves.
View the lecture: