Dr. Yossef Ben Meir's Blog

A ‘Community Organizer’ Frame of Mind

23 September, 2008

The denigration of ‘community organizing’ by Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani at the Republican Convention could become a setback for their party if the American public came to understand the real lessons of community organizing about how to deal with recent world events.

For example, community organizers intrinsically know that successful reconstruction and reconciliation in Iraq and elsewhere require local community participation and control, and do not need years of billions of dollars wasted on foreign contractors and millions of lives made to suffer and so many die before it is finally implemented to some degree.

Community organizers would know that to rebuild after large scale humanitarian disasters like Hurricane Katrina, community meetings are needed to plan reconstruction (with displaced people, this requires innovative strategies) and that top-down management will stifle empowerment, ownership, and opportunities.

Community organizers observe the impact of global events and trends on local communities and people, and therefore understand that an essential part of free trade agreements is new and significant support to address economically dislocated families (particularly in rural areas), diversify local economies, and training.

Community organizers would identify that the Palestinian people need a more self-reliant economy (which would also in the process build sovereignty) and not an economy that is excessively dependent on Israel’s to a point of debilitating Palestinian underdevelopment (e.g., on average 90 percent of total Palestinian imports and exports go to and from Israel).

Community organizers help to create solutions that satisfy multiple needs, and therefore would likely reform the White House faith-based initiative in the direction of Senator Barack Obama’s proposals for the program: broaden access to an increase in funds for community initiatives while reducing potential areas of government-religion impropriety.

Community organizers, who regularly hear people express diverse and heartfelt interests and beliefs, would be sympathetic to the Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden’s view of abortion: that it is a personal decision to a religious degree (including when a person believes life begins) and government should not make the decision for women.

Regarding Joe Biden and Iraq, community organizers would likely agree that a high degree of federalism - which Biden proposes and involves autonomy of provinces and regions to manage their own development and affairs and the central government playing a supportive role - is necessary for the country to remain whole and stable.

Community organizers, who help people work through the struggle to reach common ground and purpose, then sincerely appreciate that the unified feeling in the world after 911 was a unique moment that afforded the chance for a new course and make a leap in a critical area of human life. Instead, the opportunity of a lifetime was squandered to fulfill a naive obsession with Iraq.

Community organizers know that public trust is generated in reaction to the empowerment people feel when their ideas for projects are implemented and the benefits are tangible; this may inform, at least in part, the approaches of community organizers to public diplomacy, the 'war of ideas', and addressing root causes of terrorism.

Community organizers would herald the incredible contributions of the Peace Corps to nations of the world, especially to its own country, which has benefitted in untold ways by the more than 190,000 Americans who community organized in 139 nations since the Peace Corps began almost five decades ago by President John Kennedy.

Community organizers know that their social purpose is 1) as inseparable to the United States as federalism, which is fused into its structure, 2) an historic mission carried forward in the 1800s by the Republican Party and later by projects inspired by the philosophers Alexis de Tocqueville and John Dewey, and 3) made contemporary in the 1960s because of urgent needs and fifty years later being implemented all over the world, by people in all disciplines, walks of life, and backgrounds due to the global explosion of civil society.

Suggestions that community organizing is subversive Marxism and that it seeks a socialist revolution are preposterous and can be intended to rouse a cultural divide. Community organizing is cross-ideological, including religions and political philosophies. Conservatism supports community organizing because of the more adapting economic environment it creates and people taking responsibility; liberalism supports it because it advances democracy and justice.

Community organizing is inclusive in its approach and often results into cross-sectoral partnerships that include government. It seeks to reform society through an evolutionary process of improving social relationships, advancing socio-economic development, and a healthier natural environment.

While trying to suggest that community organizing is separate from the American ideal, Sarah Palin and Rudolph Guiliani may have distanced themselves and their party from the 'holy grail' repeatedly found in the fantastic story of the United States. This was done by radicalizing and speaking down to a profession that makes real the quintessential American value of individual and community fulfillment within a democratic framework and a united and sovereign country.

Yossef Ben-Meir is a sociologist and has dedicated 17 years to the study and practice of community development. He is President of the High Atlas Foundation www.highatlasfoundation.org, a nonprofit organization that promotes community development in Morocco. He lives in New Mexico, USA.

Posted by benmeir 06:17 | General | Comment(0) | Permalink

Governor Palin and Mayor Giuliani Disregard Community Organizing: A Community Organizer’s Defense

15 September, 2008

At the Republican National Convention, Rudolph Guiliani and then vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin disregarded and seemed to mock Barack Obama’s background as a community organizer. Guiliani, a former Republican presidential candidate, went on to liken community organizing to something corrupt. What is the function of a “community organizer” and how did their remarks undermine central tenets of the American experience and an essential operator for community development to occur?

Community organizers help local groups develop action plans and implement local development. Community organizers do not decide for others what their most pressing needs are, but rather facilitate dialogue as people together assess their challenges and opportunities and create socio-economic projects they want. Community organizers are negotiators, conflict managers, and help build mutually beneficial and peaceful relationships.

The reality is that neighborhoods and villages of people generally do not spontaneously come together to improve their socio-economic conditions. Catalysts are needed to jump-start the process and organize meetings. Communities do not automatically work through conflicts that naturally arise when they together plan local development and consider the broad range of interests and ideas reflected among them. Third party facilitators help to ensure an inclusive, partnership-building, and productive experience. Community organizers perform these and other key functions until development initiatives are self-sustaining and people are meeting their needs through their own capabilities (material, skills, and network).

Community organizing has a deep history in the United States. Its first initiatives in urban areas in the late 1800s were inspired by Alexis de Tocqueville and John Dewey - philosophers who connected community development to the intrinsic identity of the country. Contemporary community development grew significantly in the United States in the 1960s and its political roots are in decentralization and federalism - concepts embodied in the Constitution and that the Republican Party historically championed.

So what kind of social policies come out of the community organizing perspective? None that warrant its attack at the Republican National Convention. For one, Senator Obama’s community organizing perspective had to have informed his recent proposals to reform the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives to broaden access to support while reducing unhealthy government-religion entanglements. Community organizing redresses the dislocation of families in the United States and around the globe caused by free trade or other social and natural phenomenon. People with community organizing backgrounds would likely intuitively know that for reconstruction and reconciliation in Iraq to endure, it needs to be locally-driven - a lesson finally applied by the United States after billions of dollars wasted and insecurity reigned in that country for years. In fact, community organizing is about rallying people’s participation, which is needed to deal with the range of domestic and international issues facing the United States. Most likely, the community organizing perspective of Senator Obama helped his presidential campaign put in place strategies that generated historic levels of grassroots support throughout the country for his election and enabled him to overcome significant odds to win the Democratic Primary.

Barack Obama should take advantage of this political opportunity created by the ironic remarks of Republicans Governor Palin and Mayor Giuliani and explain how community organizing directly relates to successfully dealing with the serious challenges confronting the United States, including terrorism. Facilitators of and participants in well organized community development initiatives are empowered in such a way that diminishes feelings of alienation and the kind of discontent that can lead to violence.

The Obama campaign ought to make the case that community organizing is the right kind of experience needed at the highest level of decision-making. Non-ideological, pragmatic Republicans that support their party for the very reason it was founded - to better enable the people of states and communities to manage their own affairs - may see that their priorities are better served through the community organizing experience of Barack Obama.

Yossef Ben-Meir is a sociologist and president of the High Atlas Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by former Peace Corps volunteers and dedicated to community development in Morocco. The views expressed in this article are his own.

Posted by benmeir 21:03 | General | Comment(0) | Permalink