From the ARK,  Summer 2007”

….an excellent resource for community leaders, front-line organizers and social justice practitioners..What Brown delivers is a practical, much-n needed skills-building manual for a wide range of readers.  Beginners will fine the broad guide to the work and step-by-step instructions in everyday language.  Veteran organizers will find critical points for reflection, evaluation and re-orientation.  And those charged with training new staff and leaders will appreciate the wealth of exercises and worksheets.”

Book Review by Ron Jacobs

Hayden, Tom, Ending the War in Iraq Akashic Books 2007

Brown, Michael J., Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups That Can Solve Problems and Change the World Long Haul Press 2007

Tom Hayden' has credentials when it comes to movements opposing war and racism. From the early days of the original SDS to the Chicago 8, his Berkeley days with the Red Family collective to his time in the California legislature and today, his approaches have included confrontation, mass rallies and lobbying. Likewise, his theoretical takes have gone from ending a particular war to revolution to reform. Hayden utilizes this experience quite wisely in his new book Ending the War in Iraq, at least to a point

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A section of Hayden's book is dedicated towards organizing tactics--all of which are useful despite their brevity. If the reader wants to explore the tactics and strategies of organizing in more detail, however, let me recommend Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups That Can Solve Problems and Change the World by veteran organizer Michael Brown. This text is reminiscent of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and could play as important a role in the future as Alinsky's text did for organizers in the 1970s.

Going well beyond Hayden's brief but useful suggestions on organizing against the war in one's community, Brown's book is a veritable step-by-step guide to creating and maintaining a viable and effective grassroots organization. He intersperses ...   more »