Gathering Power: The Future of Progressive Politics in America [Hardcover]

Paul Osterman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 2003

How an interfaith community organization is revitalizing our democracy

Democrats are looking for the right national message that will attract the most voters, leaving progressive politics to operate from the margins. Paul Osterman argues that political change lies not in crafting a better message to
beam from Washington but rather in effective local action. Gathering Power explores the most successful and promising organization to enable local activism and strengthen our democracy: the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF).

Osterman focuses on the successes of Valley Interfaith, a progressive multiracial coalition founded by the charismatic Ernesto Cortes. It is
based in the Rio Grande Valley, which straddles the border between Texas and Mexico and, since the passage of NAFTA, has been one of the fastest growing regions in America, as well as one of the poorest. With the help of the IAF, and working primarily through local churches, Valley Interfaith has brought together Latino residents to improve their communities. They have fought for, and won, reform in their schools and improved wages—but most important, the members of Valley Interfaith have been transformed into activists, ready to take on future battles as a community.

Gathering Power shows how the IAF teaches people to become activists, and argues that religious values have an important place in progressive
politics. Paul Osterman is professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with joint appointments in the Sloan School of Management and
the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He travels extensively throughout the country and abroad to speak to business groups, community
organizations, and government and public policy organizations. He lives in the Boston area.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Osterman, an MIT professor of management and urban studies, offers a template to reenergize the American progressive movement. He believes that progressive politics is the best antidote to the top-down decision making of party politics, which he views as a danger to democracy and responsible for the well-documented alienation of voters. His progressive politics poster child is the Industrial Areas Foundation, or IAF, a network of community organizations whose mundane name belies the local political power it has built through grassroots campaigns. Readers familiar with Saul Alinsky, whose seminal work in the 1930s defined community organizing, will find the IAF's methods familiar but modernized. In particular, the IAF actively courts women and places an emphasis on involving religious institutions. Osterman makes a strong case that grassroots organizing can create real political power and improve the lives of many. In McAllen, Tex., for example, Valley Interfaith, an IAF member, successfully backed a change in the city charter that directs political power to neighborhoods. Those sympathetic to the progressive movement's goals will be heartened by this mix of stories of ordinary citizens transforming themselves into effective community advocates and case studies of grassroots successes, but Osterman may not convince more skeptical-some would argue more pragmatic-readers that the progressive movement can be adapted to national politics, gather power and reach its goal of "rebuilding civil society."
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Osterman spent seven years getting an up-close look at a multiracial interfaith community organization on the border between Texas and Mexico and using that group as a means of exploring how and why citizen participation has declined so dramatically in our democracy. The Valley Interfaith group is part of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a national organization that is the successor to efforts by Saul Alinsky, the pioneer of community organizing in the U.S. Using Valley Interfaith as a focal point, Osterman explores the current status of the progressive movement and the disconnection between politics and economics. Osterman explores how Valley Interfaith organized around churches, schools, and other local institutions to win school reforms and to improve wages for area workers. He explores the broader lessons to be learned from that experience in creating a more engaged American citizenry and reigniting a progressive political agenda. Readers interested in political activism and progressive politics will appreciate this in-depth look at successful political organizing. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (January 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807043389
• ISBN-13: 978-0807043387
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,756,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Paul Osterman is the NTU Professor of Human Resources and Management at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and the Department of Urban Planning, M.I.T.

Osterman's books include: "Good Jobs America: Making Work Better For Everyone" (Russell Sage, 2011); "The Truth About Middle Managers: Who They Are, How They Work, Why They Matter" (Harvard Business School Press, 2008); "Gathering Power: The Future of Progressive Politics In America" (Beacon Press), 2003; "Securing Prosperity: How the American Labor Market Has Changed and What To Do About It" (Princeton University Press, 1999); "Employment Futures: Reorganization, Dislocation, and Public Policy" (Oxford University Press, 1988) and "Getting Started: The Youth Labor Market." (MIT Press, 1978). He is also the co-author of "Working In America; A Blueprint for the New Labor Market"; The "Mutual Gains Enterprise; Forging a Winning Partnership Among Labor, Management, and Government", and "Change At Work", and the editor of two books, "Internal Labor Markets", and "Broken Ladders; Managerial Careers In The New Economy". In addition, he has written numerous academic journal articles and policy issue papers on topics such as the organization of work within firms, labor market policy, and economic development.

Osterman has been a senior administrator of job training programs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and consulted widely to firms, government agencies, foundations, community groups, and public interest organizations. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sweat Equity as the key to political power, May 10, 2003

By 

Royce E. Buehler "figvine" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gathering Power: The Future of Progressive Politics in America (Hardcover)

I picked up "Gathering Power" in the hope that it might be a prescription and prediction for progressives on how to take command of the country again, something like an update of Kevin Phillip's "The Emerging Republican Majority", only for the good guys. What Osterman lays on the table is something quite different.

Specifically, it's a handbook on how to do effective local political organizing, in the mode that was pioneered seven decades back by Saul Alinsky, and has continued ever since. It's kept the same basic shape but acquired a few bells and whistles (such as respect for women as leaders) along the way. Sticking to "write what you know", Osterman draws all the book's examples from his experiences with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in the American southwest, especially in the Rio Grande valley.

The principles behind this style of organizing are simple, hard headed, sometimes a little surprising. And the book makes a convincing case that they really do work. But there would seem to be two caveats.

The first is that it takes an awful lot of really hard work from an awful lot of people. And most of that hard work consists of trolling for and recruiting "leaders" (the volunteers who are the public face of the movement) and "organizers" (the paid staffers who provide training and continuity for the leaders). It feels a bit like those charities that end up spending 80% of their effort on fundraising. But (sigh!) no one's discovered a more efficient way to get to IAF's results - improved streets and schools on the unimproved side of the tracks, living wage laws and branch libraries. So we might as well grit our teeth and roll up our sleeves.

The second problem is that, cheerful as Osterman tries to be about it, it doesn't appear as if his model scales up any further than (at most) the state level. For one thing, the techniques have been around for a lifetime, and haven't hit the big leagues yet. In which case, all this work would have only a secondary effect at the national level: namely, the demonstrable fact that people who've been touched by local organizing get turned into voters.

Why no scale-up? As Osterman justly observes, the only sources of political power are "organized money" and "organized people". Organized money works from the top down, and exercises its influence through capitol lobbying and mass media. In the IAF system, organized people work from the bottom up, and exercise all their influence in face to face meetings - first with each other (with agenda items percolating from house meetings up through quarterly caucuses of the entire local membership), and secondly with politicians (who are supported if they commit to agenda items, then carefully tracked, and who lose support if they don't follow through.) It's unclear how agenda formation could add the needed couple of layers, and remain both coherent and genuinely bottom-up. And it's unclear how a membership too large to fit in a room and too dispersed to confront the politicos face to face could hold "responsibility sessions."

Still, there's indispensable wisdom here for anyone wanting to extend political power to the disenfranchised on local and regional levels, and plenty of food for thought if you're wondering how to re-engage the swollen ranks of nonvoters so as to gain some progressive traction on national issues.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important book for progressives, February 12, 2003

By 

Timothy J. Bartik (Kalamazoo, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gathering Power: The Future of Progressive Politics in America (Hardcover)

Osterman's book makes an important contribution to developing a political base in the U.S. for more progressive economic policies. The book argues that such a political base must be developed locally. More importantly, the book then shows how such a local political base is being developed by a network of local community organizations, the Industrial Areas Foundation. In addition to describing IAF, Osterman goes beyond the organization's rhetoric and does some critical analysis of what makes the organization successful. The IAF and similar networks are succeeding by: building coalitions of local institutions, particularly churches; patiently engaging in conversations and meetings to find out what local residents want and develop local leaders, before engaging in political action; holding political leaders accountable for fulfilling the platform of these local coalitions; developing and presenting political positions that are compatible with American values, particularly values associated with religion; focusing on bread-and-butter issues of adequate public services for all neighborhoods, living wages, and access to training and jobs. The book will be of interest to anyone concerned with issues of economic justice, and seeking to get involved in local actions to promote economic justice.