The Alinsky organising tradition and questions of interest and identity

Speech delivered to Citizens UK Guild of Organisers on 1 March 2022

For nine years I worked with the global community organising network called the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), as the instigator and Lead Organiser of the Sydney Alliance. I was attracted to the IAF for its bigness. It had a big history reaching back 80 years to the work of Saul Alinsky. It’s website promoted its massive 10 day national training in all things organising. It made big claims about its method — contending to have identified…