Saul
Alinsky
"Civil Rights is a movement,
and a movement without
organization is nothing more
than a bowel movement"
The above quote by Saul
Alinsky, which appeared in
Time magazine, aptly
characterizes the bluntness of
the self-termed professional
radical. Alinsky's special
ity is to organize people
into political pressure groups
so they casj help themselves.
Alinsky Will be speaking at
the Nebraska Union Ballroom,
10:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 17.
Alinsky has the distinction of
being a radical for nearly 40
years. He participated in the
radical movements of the 1930's
Muhammad Kenyatta fight for the young
Combine the characteristics
of a student of African history,
a poet and an activist for black
freedom and you have the
dynamic personality of
Muhammad Kenyatta.
In recent years Kenyatta has
been actively associated with
A f r o-American nationalism.
During the 1969 National Stu
dent Association Convention In
El Paso, Texas, Kenyatta
received national attention
when he and other Black
Manifesto advocates seized
control of the conference and
Martin Oppenheimer
Sociologist Martin Op
penheimer has been an activist
in the civil rights and peace
movement for the past decade.
Besides numerous scholarly
treatises in sociology, Op
penheimer has recently
published the book "The Urban
Guerrilla."
His book offers a detailed
overview of the nature and the
history of the "guerrilla
Jack Newfield SDS
Writer and journalist, Jack
Newfield, Is considered to be
one of the foremost authorities
on the New Left movement
Ills activities suggest that
Newfield stays away from
Ideology and devotes himself to
specific problem-solving.
In the past, Newfield was a
member of Students for a
Democratic Society. (SDS) He
predicted in his book, "A Pro
phetic Minority" that the SDS
movement would decentralize
from a philosophy-oriented
organization to a grass roots,
task oriented movement. His
predictions from 1966 are now
being manifested by the
action
and studied the organization of
Al Capone's gang as a graduate
student
But Alinsky is very different
than the leaders of the current
radical movement such as Ab
bie Hoffman or Jerry Rubin.
Alinsky's only ideology is
change and action. Instead of
merely talking about change
and revolution, he gets things
. done and makes things happen.
Alinsky has been in the
forefront of the activist move
, ment throughout the past
decade. In the early 1960's he
organized a black ghetto, the
Woodlawn section of Chicago,
into a successful political
pressure group. The Chicago
Woodlawn Organization was
demanded reparations from
N.S.A. for black and Spanish
speaking students.
In an unpublished essay, "A
Developing Methodology for
Social Change," Kenyatta tries
to convey a mood of urgency
concerning the sociological
problem of Black alienation in
present day America.
Kenyatta explains Afro
Americanism, or Black na
tionalism, as "the sociological
thesis that the United States is
divisible into two nations one
of them white, highly
developed, pre-cybernetic as
mystique" that now exists in
the ghetto.
Within the context of this
"mystique", Oppenheimer says
the black leader gains a sense
of virility in a historically
, recognized means of achieving
significant change.
In his book, Oppenheimer
discusses the alternatives to
correcting the problems of
urban America.
He concludes, "a revolution
Moratorium activities through
out the country, some say.
Newfield's Involvement with
SDS and the Free Speech
Movement convinced him that
President Johnson was staging
an Immoral and unjust war In
Vietnam. He then became
moved to do something about
Johnson and the war. In New
York, Newfield and some of his
associates founded the Dump
Johnson Movement in 1967.
, During 1968, the enterprising
; young journalist became a
i member of the new Kennedy
"braintrust" in the campaign
of the late Robert Kennedy.
makes movements
followed by similar Alinsky
started organizations in other
major American cities.
In 1968 the Industrial Areas
Foundation, of which Alinsky is
director, set up an Institute to
train potential organizers all
over the country including
trainees such as Cesar Chaves,
organizer of California grape
pickers.
Last year, before ecol
ogy became a nationally
prominent issue, Alinsky was -organizing
an anti-pollution
movement In Chicago.
Recently, the professional
radical has been organizing
stock owners into groups which
will exert pressure on the of
well ns profoundly racist and
exploitative of non-white
peoples; the other black, pre
technological, underdeveloped,
economically dependent as well
as profoundly victimized by
white racism and colonist ex
ploitation." Kenyatta adds that Puerto
R i c a n s, Mexican-Americans
and Indians are viewed as
being included under the same
rubric as blacks.
In 1965 Kenyatta spent time
organizing Black student
unions on white and black
discontent preludes
violent, non-violent, or both
a radical movement of black
and white to fundamentally
reconstruct American society"
is necessary.
In one of his articles, Op
penheimer has said that many
of the Black Panthers are no
more revolutionary than are
other militant groups which
have by now become partners
of the more enlightened white
establishment
and a prophetic minority
Newfield's association with
the Kennedy campaign led him
to become interested in the
relationship of the mass media
to the political and social ills of
this country.
.As assistant editor of the
Village Voice, Newfield
recently published an article,
"Media Response: Medium
Fool."
In this article, Newfield
criticizes "the over-all policy of
repression by the Nixon ad
ministration." He also condemns the
government Interference in the
media files. Newfield says that
the CBS documentary on
ficers of corporations to
become more socially con
cerned. Alinsky is also working
with student teachers in an ef
fort to improve American
education.
Other Alinsky quotes that
appeared in Time include:
Alinsky on ideology:
"When you have one, you suf
fer from the delusion that you
know all the answers. I cer
tainly don't."
Alinsky on businessmen: "I
can approach a capitalist on
Friday and ask him to make a
revolution on Saturday so that
he will make a profit on Sunday
even though he will be
guillotined on Monday."
campuses. One year later he
was the first administrator for
the Headstart program in
Mississippi which grew largely
out of the organizing efforts of
SNCC and Freedom
Democratic Party.
"Our fight is for the young
generation," he said. "We are
also celebrants and prophets of
the festival of new human
liberation."
Thursday, Kenyatta will
round off the World In Revolu
tion program with a speech at
10:30 a.m. in the Union
ballroom.
Oppenheimer is also a critic
of our archaic political system.
He has said, "the political
system appears less and less
suited to be a lever for
change."
As a result, reform elements
in society seek ways to side
step the political means pro
vided, according to Oppen
heimer In all of Oppenheimer's
writings he seems to emphasize
one point in particular.
hunger in America has recently
been subpoenaed by a House
committee.
Newfield quotes a CBS of
ficial who said, "They don't
seem to believe hunger and
poverty really exist They seem
to think they can prove we
staged these things for effect."
Newfield has proposed con
structive measures to be taken
by the public and the members
of the media, because, "As the
Nixon administration becomes
more repressive it will
naturally try to force the media
to accustom people to an in
creasingly repressive political
climate."
happen
i lHtS KV;:
turmoil
He believes the turmoil that
we have seen is only a sampl
ing of what is to come. Op
penheimer stresses that we
cannot overlook patterns of
behavior by the discontent
Americans, whoever they may
be. This, he says, must be done
before the urban guerrilla
becomes a reality and the
proto-revolutionary situations
mature to a full revolution.
u '$L1
FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1970
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
PAGE 7
