Over the course of May and June of this year, I attended a set of training sessions called Organizing for Power. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation does the trainings, with Jane McAlevey serving as the lead trainer.
Overall, it’s a good training in certain practical matters of organizing. I’d recommend it. For the most part, they base the training on McAlevey’s popular books about union organizing. I’ve written about those books several times in the past, including a post on key lessons and a post on some problems and issues with McAlevey’s notion of an ‘organic leader.’
Does the course impart any key new lessons a person can’t gain by reading McAlevey’s books? Not really. But they structure the training around reinforcing lessons and practicing them. And not to mention helping people work through their ‘bias’ in favor of activists. Many of the fellow students organize within their own unions and social orgs. These things alone make the training worthwhile.
For readers looking to put theory into practice, I’d say do the training! I think the training could serve as a starting point to figuring out how to apply lessons to your own workplace or org. But I’d recommend balancing alongside astute critiques of the model.
