Industrial Areas Foundation

The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) is a Chicago-based community organizing network established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky. IAF provides training and consultation, furnishes organizers, and develops national strategy for its affiliated broad-based community organizations. There are currently 57 IAF affiliates functioning in 21 states, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany. It describes its chief purpose as power and its chief product as social change.

History

Alinsky's first organizing project was the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, founded in 1939 as the Packinghouse Workers union was organizing Chicago's meatpacking industry. [Horwitt, "Let Them Call Me Rebel", ch. 7, pp. 67-76.] Based on his work with Back of the Yards, Alinsky laid out his vision for "People's Organizations" in his book "Reveille for Radicals" in 1946. After World War II Alinsky met Fred Ross in California, and in 1949 agreed to back his plan to organize the Community Service Organization in Mexican-American communities. Ross introduced house-meetings as an organizing technique, and built a network of 30 CSOs in California with energetic young organizers Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. [Horwitt, "Let Them Call Me Rebel", pp. 222-238.]

In Chicago, Alinsky developed a team of organizers including journalist Nicholas von Hoffman, ex-seminarian Edward T. Chambers, and Tom Gaudette, who developed such groups as the Organization for the Southwest Community (1959 – 1972), The Woodlawn Organization (1961 - present), and the Northwest Community Organization (1962 – present). ["IAF: 50 Years Organizing for Change", p. 8.] The Woodlawn Organization (TWO) received national attention through Charles Silberman's best-selling "Crisis in Black and White" in 1964, which traced the roots of oppression and violence in northern inner city areas. In his concluding chapter, "The Revolt Against Welfare Colonialism," Silberman portrayed TWO as an example of poor blacks reclaiming their dignity through self-organization. [Horwitt, "Let Them Call Me Rebel", ch. 24, pp. 425-449.] Alinsky's experience in Rochester, New York from 1965 to 1969 with the organization FIGHT and its battle with Eastman Kodak company was more controversial and less successful. [Horwitt, "Let Them Call Me Rebel", ch. 25, pp. 450-505.]

In 1969 Alinsky was able to establish a formal IAF organizer training program, run by Chambers and Dick Harmon, with a grant from Gordon Sherman of Midas Muffler company. [Horwitt, "Let Them Call Me Rebel", pp. 516-518.] Alinsky published a successful book, "Rules for Radicals", in 1971, updating his earlier vision. Alinsky died unexpectedly of a heart attack in June 1972. [Horwitt, "Let Them Call Me Rebel", p. 539.]

After Alinsky

Since Alinsky's death, his long-time associate and designated successor Ed Chambers has been executive director. Chambers began to place systematic training of organizers and local leaders at the center of IAF's work. He also began to shift the organizing model of "the modern IAF" ["IAF: 50 Years Organizing for Change", p. 7.] toward the congregation-based community organization developed in San Antonio, Texas by Ernesto Cortes, Jr. called Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS). [Rogers, "Cold Anger", pp. 33-78, 93-126,157-182.] Cortes recruited lay leaders, including many women, from the Catholic parishes that were members of COPS. Relational meetings or "one-on-ones" became an important technique of exploring values, motivation, and self-interest of potential leaders. Chambers and Cortes emphasized a long-term relationship between IAF and such groups as COPS, in contrast to the "three years and out" that Alinsky had once imagined. [Horwitt, "Let Them Call Me Rebel", p. 545.] As IAF began to expand to other cities in Texas, it moved to develop multi-racial, broad-based organizations spanning metropolitan areas, and including African American, Latino, and Anglo churches. Eventually its network of local groups in Texas linked together as Texas Interfaith to have an impact on state government. [Warren, "Dry Bones Rattling", pp. 30-71.] [Greider, "Who Will Tell the People?", Ch. 10, "Democratic Promise," pp. 222-241.] In 1979 Chambers moved the IAF headquarters to New York after the Archdiocese of Chicago cut its support for IAF. [Warren, "Dry Bones Rattling", p. 47.] In 1996 IAF moved its national headquarters back to Chicago to develop a new affiliate in that metropolitan area and expand its work in the Midwest. [Warren, "Dry Bones Rattling", p. 7.]

IAF developed successful projects along the East Coast with East Brooklyn Congregations, which pioneered the affordable housing project called Nehemiah Homes, and BUILD in Baltimore which also developed Nehemiah housing for low-income people. ["IAF: 50 Years Organizing for Change", p. 12.]

The "modern IAF" has been an influential model for other networks of broad-based community organizations, including PICO National Network, Gamaliel Foundation, and Direct Action and Research Training Center (DART).

Governance

IAF's legal authority rests in a Board of Trustees, which functions more as an advisory body, recently including such notables as Jean Bethke Elshtain and the late Monsignor John Joseph Egan. IAF's first Board of Trustees included Catholic bishop Bernard Sheil, Kathryn Lewis (daughter of coal miners union leader John L. Lewis), and philanthropist Marshall Field III. ["IAF: 50 Years Organizing for Change", p. 7.] [Horwitt, "Let Them Call Me Rebel", pp. 102-103.] The actual day-to-day decision-making body is the national cabinet, consisting of Chambers and the senior regional organizers, including Cortes, Arnold Graf, and Michael Gecan. [Warren, "Dry Bones Rattling", p. 265, endnote 5.] [Horwitt, "Let Them Call Me Rebel", p. 545.]

Current program

IAF claims responsibility for the success of the first living wage law in Baltimore in 1994, followed by New York City in 1996.

Training

The national IAF conducts 10-day intensive leadership training programs several times a year, and also has a 90-day organizer internship program. IAF's "iron rule of organizing" ("Never do for others what they can do for themselves") ["IAF: 50 Years Organizing for Change", p. 17.] emphasizes developing new leaders from within local organizations.

Affiliates

IAF affiliates with web pages are listed below.

East

* [http://www.gbio.org Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO)] – Boston, Massachusetts
* [http://www.industrialareasfoundation.org/ico Interfaith Community Organization (ICO)] – Hoboken, New Jersey
* [http://windc-iaf.org/index.html Washington Interfaith Network (WIN)] – Washington, DC
* [http://www.aim-iaf.org/ Action in Montgomery (AIM)] – Silver Spring, Maryland
* [http://www.buildiaf.org/ Baltimoreans United for Leadership Development (BUILD)] – Baltimore, Maryland
* [http://www.path-iaf.org/ People Acting Together in Howard (PATH)] – Columbia, Maryland

South

* [http://www.durhamcan.org/ Durham Congregations, Associations, and Neighborhoods (Durham CAN)] – Durham, North Carolina
* Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment (CHANGE) – Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Midwest

* [http://www.dupageunited.org/ DuPage United] – Glen Ellyn, Illinois
* [http://www.lakecountyunited.org/ Lake County United] – Libertyville, Illinois
* [http://www.united-power.org/ United Power for Action and Justice] – Chicago, Illinois
* [http://www.otoc.org/ Omaha Together One Community (OTOC)] – Omaha, Nebraska
* [http://www.danecountyunited.org/ Dane County United] – Madison, Wisconsin
* [http://www.commongroundwi.org Southeastern Wisconsin Common Ground] – Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Southwest

* [http://www.jeremiahgroup.org/ The Jeremiah Group] – New Orleans, Louisiana
* [http://www.dallasareainterfaith.com/ Dallas Area Interfaith (DAI)] – Dallas, Texas
* [http://alliedcommunities.org/ Allied Communities of Tarrant (ACT)] – Fort Worth, Texas
* [http://tmohouston.net/ The Metropolitan Organization (TMO)] – Houston, Texas
* [http://www.arizonainterfaith.org/ Arizona Interfaith Organization] – Phoenix, Arizona

West

* [http://onela-iaf.org/ One LA – IAF] – Los Angeles, California

Northwest

* [http://www.macg.org/ Metropolitan Alliance for the Common Good (MACG)] – Portland, Oregon
* [http://www.soundorganizing.org/ Sound Alliance] – Tukwila, Washington
* [http://www.spokanealliance.org/ Spokane Alliance] – Spokane, Washington

International

* [http://www.greateredmontonalliance.com/ Greater Edmonton Alliance] – Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
* [http://www.cof.org.uk/ Citizen Organizing Foundation (CDF)] – London, England, United Kingdom

Notes

References

* Alinsky, Saul, "Reveille for Radicals" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1946).
*Alinsky, Saul, "Rules for Radicals" (New York: Vintage Books, 1971). ISBN 0-394-71736-8
* Chambers, Edward T. and Michael A. Cowan, "Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice" (New York: Continuum, 2003). ISBN 0-826-41499-0
* Gecan, Michael, "Going Public: An Organizer's Guide to Citizen Action" (New York: Anchor Books, 2002). ISBN 1-4000-7649-8
* Greider, William, "Who Will Tell the People?" (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 1992). ISBN 0-671-86740-7
*Horwitt, Sanford D., "Let Them Call Me Rebel: Saul Alinsky- His Life and Legacy" (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989). ISBN 0-394-57243-2
*Industrial Areas Foundation, "IAF: 50 Years Organizing for Change" (Franklin Square, NY: Industrial Areas Foundation, 1990).
*Rogers, Mary Beth, "Cold Anger: A Story of Faith and Power Politics" (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1990). ISBN 0-929398-13-0
*Sanders, Marion K., "The Professional Radical: Conversations with Saul Alinsky" (New York: Harper & Row, 1970).
*Warren, Mark R., "Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy" (Princeton University Press, 2001). ISBN 0-691-07432-1

External links

* [http://www.industrialareasfoundation.org Industrial Areas Foundation homepage]