Generating Community Change 345potential sympathizers. The organizing process must provide opportuni-
ties to express anger and overcome fear.
3 Engage in direct action
1 Demonstrate the value of the power of a large number of people working
together to makes gains from the traditional power structure through
direct action. In particular, to retain legitimacy, people’s organizations
need to produce a stable supply of what public administration expert
Sherry Arnstein terms ‘deliverables’: wins that are quickly achieved and
yield visible benefits wrested from political and economic institutions.
4 Formalize the people’s organization
1 Develop a permanent organizational structure, with dues and a structure
that involves members in policy, financing and achievement of group goals
and community improvements.
In rural areas, particularly in the Midwest, where conflict with one’s neighbours is
viewed as disruptive and unmannerly, the most effective use of conflict organiza-
tions appears to be in mobilizing against the outside, particularly in efforts to stop
nuclear waste dumps, power lines, school consolidation, polluting industries and
the like.
An example of such an organization is Save Our Cumberland Mountains
(SOCM, pronounced ‘sock ’em’). SOCM was established in 1972 as a dues-pay-
ing, membership-based group that employs professional organizers. The organiza-
tion is centred in the Cumberland Plateau region of eastern Tennessee and in 2002
had a membership of 2000 individuals in chapters that are county or community
based.
The SOCM chapter is the primary political unit of the organization. It is a
non-profit Tennessee grassroots citizen’s organization working on a local level for
environmental, social and economic justice in areas such as forestry, strip min-
ing, toxic issues, tax reform and dismantling racism. The various chapter groups
send representatives to the larger SOCM Board or to various issue-driven steer-
ing committees, such as the legislative committee, which largely lobbies state
legislators in Nashville. The SOCM Board and the various committees hold a
great deal of power in the SOCM organization and plan many of the groups
political activities. In order to qualify for staff assistance, the chapter groups have
to show that they have been actively working on an issue that they have identi-
fied themselves, in response to some problem originating in their local commu-
nity. The staff organizer works as a ‘coach’ for the local ‘teams’. SOCM’s recent
successes include winning a ten-year battle to protect Fall Creek Falls State Park
from devastation from acidic mine drainage by designating 61,000 acres as lands
unsuitable for mining; they have also hosted their first workshop ‘in house’ to
combat racism.
The Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC), an organization with a
similar organizational structure, succeeded after many battles in stopping the strip
mining of land without allowing the surface owner any rights or say in the matter,