Must-Read for Activists (even if only so you can recommend it to less experienced people)
5 stars
This was a fantastic book. It's a clear, concise, but thorough overview of how practical organizing works and how to do so effectively.
A lot of it wasn't new to me, so I assume it won't be for many people with at least some experience organizing, but it's useful to have it all in one place. It puts names on key concepts, explains their importance, and gives real-world examples (both good and bad).
I'm not sure I agree with everything McBay says, but most of it seems correct or approaching correctness. I particularly appreciated the (relative) lack of judgement about various tactics and the strong stance against tolerating harmful behaviors and worldviews within the movement.
If the book has one weakness, it's that it strives very hard to source everything it says and give practical real-world examples. This is essentially a good thing, but might put restrictions on what can …
This was a fantastic book. It's a clear, concise, but thorough overview of how practical organizing works and how to do so effectively.
A lot of it wasn't new to me, so I assume it won't be for many people with at least some experience organizing, but it's useful to have it all in one place. It puts names on key concepts, explains their importance, and gives real-world examples (both good and bad).
I'm not sure I agree with everything McBay says, but most of it seems correct or approaching correctness. I particularly appreciated the (relative) lack of judgement about various tactics and the strong stance against tolerating harmful behaviors and worldviews within the movement.
If the book has one weakness, it's that it strives very hard to source everything it says and give practical real-world examples. This is essentially a good thing, but might put restrictions on what can be said (tactics or groups that might have been successful but have relatively little written about them in English might be glossed over) and how McBay judges certain practices. For now, this is mostly a hypothetical criticism until I find the time to look into his sourcelist some more.
The bottom line is that I enjoyed reading this book and would absolutely recommend it to others. I've already got several people lining up to borrow my copy and I look forward to being able to discuss it with them.