“Meaningful change can only happen with organizing that puts ordinary people at the center of their own struggle: there are no shortcuts to lasting social change.” A scholar and longtime organizer in the student, environmental and labor movements, McAlevey makes a compelling case that the gains of the two most successful social movements–labor and civil rights–gained their power from mass organizing, a strategy today’s progressives have mostly abandoned in favor of shallow mobilization or advocacy.  In order to win, progressive movements need strong unions built from bottom-up organizing strategies that … Continue reading Book Discussion: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age