Our Approach
Organizing for Power is a global skills-based training program on the core fundamentals of organizing.
Our program is based on the radically simple notion that progressive movements can only win when they harness our greatest collective strength – majorities of ordinary people who are hungry for change.
We teach organizations and organizing groups how to build disciplined majorities in structure-based settings (such as workplaces, schools, churches, or housing complexes). A critical component of this is learning how to speak – and listen – to people who might not agree with us on every issue, and to identify common ground on which we may carry forward shared struggles for progressive change.
Building on this shared basis for collective action, O4P teaches the core methods needed to build successful campaigns.
We also run a variety of advanced courses and booster sessions for our graduates, as well as one-off public events that allow a general audience to get a sense of the rigorous work that goes into our training programs.
Organizing for Power draws inspiration from 1199’s Advice to Rookie Organizers, which was taken from the flip chart of a brainstorming session by the organizing directors and lead organizers of 1199: The National Health Care Workers’ Union during their annual meeting in 1985.
1. Get close to the workers, stay close to the workers. 2. Tell workers it’s their union and then behave that way. 3…
Continue readingWant to find out more about what organizing means at the practical level?
Read the first chapter of Jane McAlevey’s book No Shortcuts.
Does your union or organization want to take part in future O4P trainings or discuss other forms of collaboration?
