342 Ecological Restoration and Design
Chicago in the 1930s in a Polish neighbourhood known as Back of the Yards. By
working with the residents in the working-class community to identify their griev-
ances, the organizers helped them make specific demands of the city government.
This methodology has been expanded to black organizing in Chicago, Illinois;
Rochester, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Kansas City, Kansas; and Kansas
City, Missouri. It has been the basis of organization of the United Farm Workers,
since Cesar Chavez had trained with Alinsky’s group. The Association of Com-
munity Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), founded by Wade Rathke in
1970 based on Alinsky’s organizing principles, has worked hard to implement and
refine the conflict methodology. Many community organizers around the country
continue to use and modify the approach, including the Land Stewardship Project
that organizes farmers in Minnesota and the Industrial Areas Foundation in the
colonias along the Mexican border.
Alinsky says that the world and hence any community is ‘an arena of power
politics moved primarily by perceived immediate self-interests’ (1971, p12).
Whereas the technical assistance approach views the existing power structure as
having the interests of the community at heart, the conflict approach is deeply
suspicious of those who have formal community power.
The conflict approach assumes that power is never given away; it always has to
be taken: ‘Change means movement. Movement means friction’ (Alinsky 1971,
p21). And friction causes heat. The goal of a conflict approach is to build a people’s
organization to allow those without power to gain it through direct action. Since
organizations of the powerless do not have access to significant monetary resources,
they must rely on their numbers. Their numerical strength is only realized through
organizational strength.
Such organizations must be democratic and participatory. Alinsky believed
that downtrodden people (whom he called the Have Nots, as opposed to the
wealthy Haves and the Have Some, Want Mores, the middle class) acquire dignity
through participation. Experiencing denial of participation is central to their being
Have Nots. He saw democracy and participation instrumentally: as means, not
ends. The overall ends of community organizing should be such things as equality,
justice or freedom. But in an open society like that of the US, undemocratic organ-
ization by the Have Nots can negate those ends. He also placed emphasis on the
learning process. Organizing should be accompanied by a conscious effort to
broaden horizons. Such education then helps prevent the Have Nots, once they
become Have Some, Want Mores, from acting in their immediate narrow self-
interest.
Generating Community Change
Now that the basic assumptions and characteristics of each approach have been
discussed, we turn to how the three approaches are implemented.