Political organizing has received considerable interest in the UK by both the Conservative and Labour parties - inspired by the 08 Obama campaign and the widespread publicity of the President's early career as a grassroots community organizer, both political parties have recognised the value of community organizing in terms of political mobilisation. Since the Obama campaign "Organizing for America" has been established as an ongoing national organizing movement for the Democrat party. I met with Autumn Sample from the Democratic National Committee for California, who is currently working on the 2012 campaign. Whilst Autumn acknowledges the success of the 08 campaign in terms of grassroots mobilisation she also recognises the challenges in maintaining a grass roots base thereafter. She suggested organizing for change is far easier than organizing to maintain. The Organizng for America campaign has therefore hooked into more tangible and topical issues such as the Healthcare Bill which seems emotive enough to engage ordinary citizens in political campaigning. The role of grassroots political organizer follows much the same approach as that of a community organizer and often involves building local committees in key areas who will employ a range of efforts such as door knocking, social events and rallying to raise the profile of their cause. Organizing seems very much to be the accepted form of grassroots mobilisation in the US.
I also got to spend some time at the Community Development Division of the Mayor's Office of Housing at San Francisco City Hall. Albeit after a long wait at reception -(1 receptionist could not deal with my appointment as it was not her "section" and the other receptionist needed to finish her call to stop the direct debit payment on her bank account). My thoughts immediately were "is this a system's thinking organisation???" given Great Yarmouth Borough Council's interventions this past year.
My counterpart Brian Cheu gave me an overview of the role of his team and its relationship with grassroots community organizing. Brian was quite clear on the difference between community organzing- which he saw as campaign-based, focused on issues of power and often directed towards government at some level and community development - which he saw as a more consensual, community building type approach. He cited some tenant leadership training they have recently undertaken (similar to Tenant Participation models in the UK) and suggested that he would like to dedicate more time to neighbourhood based activity and outreach, which he saw as the more impactive area of his team's work. Brian's team are also responsible for community buildings and the grants programme for not-for-profit organizations. Brian stated that for some organization's there is a dilemma because they adopt a community organizing approach, but then seek funds from City Hall to support their projects. His view was that organizng by it's very nature should be separate and funded independently of any form of government. Brian was also clear about the need from a City Hall perspective to validify representations put forward by organisation's stating to represent the community's views. In his view community organizing with merit is organizing which is truly representative of those it is seeking to represent and organization's need to demonstrate this. He did however, provide examples of times when the needs presented by community leader's have helped shape policy and those contributions have been welcomed. He also expressed concerns over not hearing the voices of those unable to organize. He cited the growing latino population in the city, which he felt were often not as vocal in articulating needs as more outspoken and established parts of the community. City Hall therefore needs to recognise this in both planning and consultation.
At a local elected member level - 11 Supervisors are elected to represent districts in the City, which is also consolidated as a county. San Francisco by its very nature has some very community-driven politicians - many elected directly from the city's diverse communities. I met with Supervisor Scott Wiener at a community event last weekend. He represents the Castro district, once represented by Harvey Milk and is equally driven to ensure he maintains an active dialogue with his constituents. Organizing is one of the ways in which the collective voice of residents can be heard- particularly given the size and diversity of a Supervisor's district. It is also clear that it is often advantageous for political leaders to maintain a healthy dialogue with community leaders- given the communities they can potentially galvanise.
Organizing certainly appears engrained into the consciousness of citizens and the state. It is not just about mobilisation, which is often single issued-based and time limited- it is about building communities and alliances to alter structures of power in a sustained way.
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