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Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky: His Life and Legacy

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This book is required reading for anyone who is interested in understanding what a "community organizer" is and what he does in Chicago. Barack Obama worked for organizations founded by Saul Alinsky and run by his proteges.
Obama never gives details of his community organizing, but this book tells what he would have been doing for his several years in the 1980's in Chicago: teaching people how to boycott, protest and threaten the economically and politically powerful in order to get what they want.
It is a unique training, to say the least, for a Presidential candidate.

Saul Alinsky was a complex and colorful man of great integrity and a civic activist with world-wide influence. Dedicated to empowering the politically weak and unorganized, Alinsky is rightly credited as the founder of community self-help. In this highly readable account, we come to appreciate Alinsky's empathic genius and his flair for showmanship. He had an uncanny personal gift for discerning which acts of protest would get attention and results, as well as an ability to teach others some of the tricks of the trade. Of all the anecdotes in the book, perhaps the most memorable concerns the time that young Alinsky was hauled before his rabbi for socking a kid who had beat up his own best friend. Alinsky excuses his behavior as "eye for an eye", and part of the "American way". His rabbi's answer is memorable. "You think you're a man because you do what everyone else does. Now I want to tell you something the great Rabbi Hillel said: 'Where there are no men, be thou a man.' I want you to remember that." And Alinsky did.

Reading the forward from the author accurately indicates that this book is more hagiography than biography. I had no confidence that this was an entirely accurate and comprehensive biography. Indeed, the author glosses over the less flattering aspects of Alinsky's life and character (of which there are a great many). Fans of Alinsky will, not surprisingly, find herein confirmations of this greatness. Those who are not fans of Alinsky can read between the lines and see the many repellent aspects of Alinsky. I doubt if this book will change many people's attitude about the man.

One of the more interesting revelations was the extent that Alinsky's success in Chicago was based on his cozy relationship to the Roman Catholic archdiocese which aided him with money and political support. On an unseemly note, Alinsky agitated vociferously for U.S. intervention against Germany in the run up to WWII. Yet Alinsky adroitly avoided military service via a deferment he got with the help of the RC church hierarchy.

However one may regard Alinsky there is no doubt that he was a modern master of political gamesmanship and manipulation. While he used these skills and techniques for his own ideological purpose they can be applied by anyone promoting whatever ideological perspective they may favor. There is no reason these techniques cannot serve the right as well as they have the left.

This fat biography of an American icon of greatness/evil (take your pick) has something to annoy everyone. Admirers will cringe to learn that their favorite Alinsky stories were mere bluster and self-promotion. Critics will droop when they learn that his references to Lucifer and Marx were deliberate provocative twaddle, not his true beliefs. Those who fell for any of that, meet the real Alinsky in the meticulous research of author Sanford Horwitz. Alinsky was street smart and ivory tower smart - sociology degree, insider studying the Al Capone mob for his PhD in criminology, criminologist for the Illinois state prison system, labor organizer for the CIO who applied union methods to communities, grant-seeker who pried tons of money from Chicago's wealtiest elite (the Marshall Field fortune), and practical idealist raging for justice for underdogs of any flavor. His books Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals don't tell you HOW he organized communties, but this superb biography does. Critics take heed: you don't know half how dangerous he really was. Admirers, this undeservedly obscure bio will geld your high-horse. Put a little reality into your Alinsky - read this book!

I approached this book having read Rules for Radicals two or three times over the past 15 years. What I knew of Alinsky, I knew from that book or from the fear and loathing he inspires to this day among reactionary corners of society. Neither of these sources are very reliable when it comes to finding out more about the nuts and bolts of community organizing through the depression on into the 1960s.

For one thing, Alinsky loved to talk himself up as a larger than life character. It's what made him so good at what he did. It's why people across the nation not only turned to him for help, but they organized themselves in order to bring him to California, or Rochester, NY or Kansas City. But as a primary source on himself, Alinsky's books require getting through some of the self promotion.

As for his critics, all I would say is this: to this day some claim Alinsky's tactics and his goals (fighting slumlords, free lunches for children, black people voting and being hired for good jobs proportionately, general self-empowerment) were somehow sinister and worthy of derision. These negative comments say more about his critics and where their intentions are at, and they ought to be ashamed.

Sanford Horwitt does a beautiful job breaking down the triumphs and tragedies of organizing in some very tough communities. He also takes a close look at the relationships required to actually bring about social change, touching on a vast network of allies from the Chicago Archdiocese to Stokely Carmichael to the founders of Marshall Field's Department Stores. When the romantic veneer that someone like Alinsky put on his own work is pushed away, Horwitt's biggest accomplishment is making the structure of community organizing absorbing and readable. That said, there are moments when I would have liked to have seen more about what the goals Alinsky fought for and won looked like in practice rather than just the process of getting there. But then, that was one of the subject's main contentions in life: the process of democracy is just as important as the end result.

One can't even begin looking into Saul Alinsky's life without finding some reference to his concept that "...power--not reason--was fundamental to the achievement of social change." While the idea isn't at all a surprise to anyone, there are still sectors of society that seem to reject it while trying to initiate change. Take the example of the Tea Party vs. the Occupy Wall Street movements. While it would be inaccurate to analogize the two too closely, the former did take power from the hands of conservative Republicans and reshape the party in furtherance of their cause by voting and contributing time/money (the sources of that money are irrelevant). The latter merely raised a ruckus and might very well be relegated to the status of an insignificant flare-up if they don't take the reins and command a bit of power for themselves at the ballot box or somewhere else. "Consciousness raising" and "awareness" of the issues means nothing if you don't have any tools to create change.

Lest anyone think Let Them Call Me Rebel is all nuts and bolts, there are some inspiring moments. One of the best ideas Alinsky actually went through with that I had never read before reading this book: African Americans who had been ignored for years by their local alderman (city councilman) raising funds throughout their own neighborhoods with cookouts and house parties, in order to load up a dozen buses full of black folks in 1960s Chicago to go downtown and register to vote at City Hall. It was a media circus, it was a shock to a complacent political system, it was fun for the participants, it was mischief making and productive, and it was people helping themselves. It was a close to a perfect Alinsky tactic as you could get.

Saul Alinsky was a very complex person, absolutely dedicated to to justice and compassion for everyone, especially those who were in a position to be taken advantage of. He is an inspiration for our time. The well-researched biography gracefully records all the aspects of Alinsky's life, to make a very good read.

Although I am only about one hundred pages into this book, it has been both and easy and interesting read so far. This sociologist/criminologist experienced Chicago from the late 1920's and I am up to the beginnings of his BYNC (Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council). I bought this book believing this to be the community organization which Alinsky started that was the organization which hired Barack H. Obama after he returns to Chicago from Havard Law School.

Let Them Call Me Rebel is a well-researched, although uncritical, biography of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky. Author Sanford Horwitt clearly shares Alinsky's leftist worldview, yet provides valuable insight into the character and historical context of one of the champions of socialism in America today. Horwitt does a fine job describing the deplorable conditions that existed in Chicago's Back-of-The-Yards meatpacking district where Alinsky developed his ideas and achieved his first success as a community organizer.

Saul David Alinsky, the subject of this biography, is oft written about but rarely presented without the bias of the writer leaking through. Alinsky's life was, by design, controversial. He maddened, inspired, angered and incited. Who can blame his critics from all sides of the political spectrum from having a last go at it now that he's gone.
That being said, Horwitt's biography presents Alinsky in the clearest and fullest light of any who have undertaken this difficult chronicling. He does not get in the way of the wonderful stories and experiences that made up Alinsky's life. He brings alive Alinsky and the world he helped shape.

I feel compelled to write my opinion as a person who works in communities and also a person who likes to know how to change our society for the better. Reading this book was an eye-opening and invigorating experience.

First, as a scientific piece of work, the biography is excellent. It is based on an enormous research, tens, maybe hundred of interviews, documents and historical evidence from the 1900s to 1970s. Every single claim in the book is backed by a reference to a document or interview. Sanford Horwitt also put great efforts to organize the variety of facts and events, which is extremely difficult, as Alinsky worked on several tracks in different places with different approaches. The personal and public life of Alinsky are also well combined in the book. In the end, the book follows a general chronological line, but the big chunks of Alinsky's experience are selected and collected quite well. The book is written with a visible positive attitude to Alinsky's cause. Nonetheless, it is very sincere, and does not omit the myriad weaknesses or failures of Alinsky. Especially for the professional reader (organizer, sociologist, psychologist, etc.), it is very informative about the details and real facts about working with people. So, in this sense, I recommend it to people interested in history, social sciences or the Humanity Sector.

Second, why read the book, for immediate practical reasons? Well, here's why. Alinsky is valuable as a rare example of a non-socialist left visionary and practitioner. (He is NOT a socialist, my dear Neo-McCarthyists). He is not a socialist in a very important sense. He embraced the competitive, every-man-for-himself democracy in USA, and he worked with underprivileged groups exploiting the strengths and weaknesses of US democracy "as it is". He wanted the weak to get power in order to turn the balance in the competitive democratic scene. Why he wanted that? He says: "I hate to see people get pushed around". No Marxism here. How is the power to get to the weak - through community organizing. This is it. What in USA is labeled as "socialist" is not the real socialist thing. Socialism means a strife for a better society, for fundamental change. Alinsky was not into ideology. He reveled in the power struggle in US democracy and took advantage of every single unfair leverage that the strong - the corporations, the Chicago Political Machine, the Government, the White Community - whoever - had. Alinsky is an alternative to the much more risky real socialist approach to reforms, which undermines traditional American values like individualism, competition, greed, aggressive fixing of the objects, etc.

Another important point I took from the book is the community approach experience. Alinsky was one of the pioneers of the true community development strategy, still written in the slogan of his Industrial Areas Foundation: "We, the people, will work out our own destiny". Rule Number One of Alinsky was: "Never do for the people what they can do for themselves". This was a tremendous progress from the charity, welfare approach to social disadvantage, which was prevalent back in the 40s, 50s, 60s (and perhaps still is). Alinsky's approach is the viable alternative to the doomed and money-wasting "war on poverty", which is to be waged by people whose salaries are for fighting it - forever, if possible. It is also an alternative to hypocritical, conscience-washing philanthropy of the superior-than-thou rich. And it is also an alternative to the liberal academia, who like to study the issues neutrally and for no practical effects. Alinsky was smart enough, empathic enough and industrious enough to actually go to the people, be with them, help them and get out to let them make their own destiny. His approach, during the city riots in the 60s, proved to be way more adequate than wars on poverty or charity.
And the last thing I want to mention from the book is the good profile of a social activist it provides. What character and what competence does it take to make a change with people? Alinsky was a good example. His traits and qualities are well-described in the book - his emotional, simple commitment; his realistic, cynical worldview; his flair for conflict and public awareness; his narcissism and self-righteousness; his wit and humour. It is a very full picture of a man, who used all his strengths and weaknesses for creating power - or - the ability to act, as he defined it.

For these three reasons - the American approach to democracy and power, the true empowering community approach and the competence profile of a social activist - I recommend this book. I am not a US citizen, but from what I see, Americans badly need democratic solutions right now. Check this book. "Let them call me rebel, and welcome; I feel no concern from it. For I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul" - Thomas Paine.