STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR LOCAL UNIONS

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STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR LOCAL UNIONS

• MIDWEST ORGANIZING SUMMIT
• DECEMBER 7, 2002

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Do these words describe what you do as an
Organizer?
Explore
Dream
Create
Invent
Imagine
Pioneer
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Are you organizing the way that you do because
that is the way we have always done it?
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THE ART OF REVOLUTION

• What is organizing?
• To form a functioning whole.
• To persuade workers to join a union.

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STRATEGIC THINKING

• What is it?
• A strategy is the overall plan for a campaign.
• Why is it important?
• It is the idea that all tactics are tested
  against.

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STRATEGIC THINKING

• Who should do it?
• Every organizer.
• When should it be done?
• Before the first worker is contacted or the first
  employer targeted.

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WHAT CONSTITUTES A CAMPAIGN

• Politics
• Timing
• Turf
• Leadership
• Philosophy

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ORDER OF STRATEGY

• Employers strategy
• Customer base
• Bottom up

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WINNING PREDICTIONS

• An organizer who knows when to conduct a campaign
  and when not to will win.
• An organizer who knows how to measure the
  strength of an employer and how to utilize that
  knowledge will win.
• An organizer who knows how to unite activists
  around a set of issues will win.

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WINNING PREDICTIONS

• An organizer who is well prepared and waits for
  the employer who is not well prepared will win.
• An organizer who is talented and interfered with
  by the Business Manager will win.

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ELEMENTS OF A REVOLUTION

• Know where the battles are to be fought.
• What are our resources?
• What is the strategy and what tactics will be
  employed.
• Compare the alternatives.
• What are the chances of winning.

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CHANGING TACTICS BY SUN ZI

• Do not seek shelter on unsafe ground.
• Do not ignore diplomacy when moving on open
  grounds.
• Do not overstay in situations where movement is
  difficult
• In a dangerous situation, plan for an escape.
• In a desperate situation fight till the end.

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CHANGING TACTICS BY SUN ZI

• Some paths must be avoided to turn adversity into
  advantage.
• Spare the enemy when necessary though they can
  squashed.
• In order to prepare for a total destruction of
  the enemy forces, one may have to forgo an easy
  siege of the city.
• If the rulers orders do not favor the ongoing
  war, ignore them.

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RULES FOR CAMPAIGN TACTICS BY SAUL ALINSKY

• Power is not only what you have but what the
  employer thinks you have.
• Never go outside the experience of the workers.
• Whenever possible go outside the experience of
  the employer.
• Make the employer live up to its own rules.
• A good tactic is one that the workers and their
  supporters will enjoy.

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RULES FOR CAMPAIGN TACTICS BY SAUL ALINSKY

• A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
• The threat is usually more terrifying than the
  thing itself.
• The price of a successful attack is a
  constructive alternative.
• Pick your targets, freeze them, and polarize
  them.
• The degree to which workers are successfully
  mobilized has a direct relation to the amount of
  time you spend listening to them.

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ALINSKYS IRON RULE

• Never do for other what they can do for
  themselves.

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Its complete folly to keep doing the same things
in the same way and expect different results!
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Are you doing this this way because this is
the way it has always been done?
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We must stop expending resources to maintain
things that no longer contribute value and no
longer produce results.