I don’t usually write book reviews. I don’t even usually buy books, but I do read! My wife makes fun of me because I get excited when I see the public library in a new city and I carry multiple library cards in my wallet. So you know that if I couldn’t wait on the library and bought ten copies of a book online, then that book must be damned special and important. Eric Mann’s Playbook for Progressives: 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer is that book.
Before reading a single line, I ordered ten copies online and I wasn’t disappointed. Though I hadn’t read the book, I do know Eric Mann as the Executive Director of the Labor Community Strategy Center. I interned at the Strategy Center for what turned out to be the most formative six months of my life as an organizer and concerned human being. Back then, I had some familiarity with Eric’s work prior to his role at the Strategy Center but I didn’t really know about the extent of his work as a social justice leader. Reading this book, I was able to traverse Eric’s 45 years of experience as an anti-war, racial and environmental justice and labor organizer.
Eric distills his experience into moving stories that explain what it means to be a successful organizer, a mover of people toward social justice, or as he puts it “the smallest human unit around whom you can build a project, a campaign, an organization.” Eric does so humbly and often self-critically, drawing on the experience of organizers we’ve all heard of, like Dolores Huerta, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
In addition to giving you words of wisdom on building organizations that challenge our society’s prioritization of profits over people, the book is a quiet reminder of what it means to be the most successful “human unit” you can be.
With the recent passing of luminaries like Derrick Bell, Fred Shuttlesworth and Steve Jobs, more people are asking themselves ‘what I am doing with my life?’ That’s never a bad question to reflect upon. If you see what’s going on around you and think we need change, what prevents you from acting? If you are acting, how could you be more successful?
Playbook for Progressives has something to offer if you are asking yourself these questions, or if you were recently inspired by mass movements in Egypt, in Greece and on Wall Street, if you have been on the front lines of fighting oppression for decades or if you don’t consider yourself an organizer at all.
I was most moved by Eric’s description of the work of present day organizers who you may not yet know, like Andrew Terranova and Barbara Lott-Holland, who have work as full-time teachers and accountant and organizers. Eric’s description of their work reminded me that as difficult as these times are, the work of organizers like Andrew and Barbara is creating opportunities to make our world a fundamentally better place for we the 99%.
I bought ten books so I could share that inspiration. You should buy at least one. You can get the book on Powells.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com, Kindle, and Nook.
Zachary Norris, Co-Director, Justice for Families