Short Quiz - "Rules for Radicals" by Saul Alinsky

[johnkarls]

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1. Who is considered the “father of community organizing”?

2. About whom did Hillary Rodham write her senior honors thesis at Wellesley College?

3. Who organized the meatpackers in Chicago’s notorious stockyards – which had been described by Upton Sinclair in his classic “The Jungle”?

4. On what other causes did Alinsky work?

5. Who was the principal mentor for Cesar Chavez in organizing the United Farm Workers Union?

6. Where had Cesar Chavez received his training in organizing?

7. Did Alinsky have a pivotal influence on the civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam war movement?

8. What was Alinsky’s attitude toward democracy?

9. If “Be All You Can Be” had not been used by the Army for 20 years as a recruitment slogan, what would it have best summarized?

10. What was the “bedrock philosophy” or basic “how to” for Alinsky?

11. When Barack Obama was hired in 1985 by Jerry Kellman to leave his NYC corporate job and come to Chicago’s South Side to work on Kellman’s “Developing Communities Project” WHICH TO THIS DAY IS EXPLICITLY BASED ON ALINSKY’S PHILOSOPHY, what was Barack’s first assignment?

12. When Barack (or any Alinsky disciple who preaches “change”) is criticized for a lack of specificity, why is the criticism invalid?

13. Please name at least two reasons for learning about Saul Alinsky’s philosophy and methodology.