Skip to main content

Rules for Radicals: Lessons in Grassroots Organizing Toward Social Justice

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.
  • 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. 
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.

View the lecture:

 

Popular posts from this blog

Medicine Wheel for the Planet

Jennifer Grenz, PhD       Working toward ecological healing requires awareness of how Indigenous ancestral knowledge and living ways can complement Western scientific approaches to environmental restoration and protection practices. Dr. Jennifer Grenz (Nlaxa’pamux mixed ancestry) worked for more than two decades as a field researcher and practitioner for environmental nonprofit organizations, where she worked with different levels of government, including First Nations in Canada. "Medicine Wheel for the Planet" compiles Grenz’s most potent realizations about the lack of forward movement in addressing an impending ecological catastrophe.  A warming climate impacts not only human lives but also the natural balance that relies on reciprocal relationships rooted in deep connections to the land. She uses the metaphor of the four directions of the Indigenous “medicine wheel” to invite openness to Indigenous teachings, letting go of colonial narratives, merging lessons f...

Memento - Embracing the Darkness

Dennis "Dizzy" Doan Stories about overcoming and persevering through family dysfunction, poverty, and mental health challenges offer hope and the promise of better days. Dennis “Dizzy” Doan’s memoir Memento: Embracing the Darkness is one such story, with the added complexity of being raised in an immigrant Vietnamese family. Doan’s parents dealt with the mental and emotional aftermath of war, which forcibly uprooted them from their homeland. In the United States, they struggled to create a safe and stable life for their two sons. Doan shares his journey of finding himself, his craft, and eventually a successful tattoo business in Southern California despite personal strife and run-ins with the law. Doan is best known for developing the aesthetic language to combat anti-Asian hate that erupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. His art series titled “Model Minority” went viral, sparking conversation about Asian American identities and harmful stereotypes. In Memento, Doan showcase...

Enlighten Me

Editor's Note: This review was originally published in Los Angeles Book Review . Author Minh Lê Standing up for oneself seems like doing the right thing. Binh did just that in the face of a racist school bully who was poking fun at his Asian heritage. But physically assaulting another student goes against school policy, and it was Binh who got in trouble. Binh shares a silent retreat with his family and younger siblings. Along with other children, he learns about stories from the previous lives of the Buddha. The stories are interesting, but for Binh, it is difficult to sit still and clear his mind when he misses his Gameboy. While he struggles with silence, he learns important lessons about friendship, community, and being present. In the graphic novel "Enlighten Me," award-winning author Minh Lê and bestselling illustrator Chan Chau tell the story of a boy who gains a better understanding of himself as he works on quieting the mind and reflecting on dharma. Lê and Ch...