Gathering Power: The Future of Progressive Politics in America

How an interfaith community organization is revitalizing our democracy

Democrats are looking for the right national message that will attract the most voters, leaving progressive politics to operate from the margins. Paul Osterman argues that political change lies not in crafting a better message to
beam from Washington but rather in effective local action. Gathering Power explores the most successful and promising organization to enable local activism and strengthen our democracy: the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF).

Osterman focuses on the successes of Valley Interfaith, a progressive multiracial coalition founded by the charismatic Ernesto Cortes. It is
based in the Rio Grande Valley, which straddles the border between Texas and Mexico and, since the passage of NAFTA, has been one of the fastest growing regions in America, as well as one of the poorest. With the help of the IAF, and working primarily through local churches, Valley Interfaith has brought together Latino residents to improve their communities. They have fought for, and won, reform in their schools and improved wages—but most important, the members of Valley Interfaith have been transformed into activists, ready to take on future battles as a community.

Gathering Power shows how the IAF teaches people to become activists, and argues that religious values have an important place in progressive
politics. Paul Osterman is professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with joint appointments in the Sloan School of Management and
the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He travels extensively throughout the country and abroad to speak to business groups, community
organizations, and government and public policy organizations. He lives in the Boston area.

Osterman, an MIT professor of management and urban studies, offers a template to reenergize the American progressive movement. He believes that progressive politics is the best antidote to the top-down decision making of party politics, which he views as a danger to democracy and responsible for the well-documented alienation of voters. His progressive politics poster child is the Industrial Areas Foundation, or IAF, a network of community organizations whose mundane name belies the local political power it has built through grassroots campaigns. Readers familiar with Saul Alinsky, whose seminal work in the 1930s defined community organizing, will find the IAF's methods familiar but modernized. In particular, the IAF actively courts women and places an emphasis on involving religious institutions. Osterman makes a strong case that grassroots organizing can create real political power and improve the lives of many. In McAllen, Tex., for example, Valley Interfaith, an IAF member, successfully backed a change in the city charter that directs political power to neighborhoods. Those sympathetic to the progressive movement's goals will be heartened by this mix of stories of ordinary citizens transforming themselves into effective community advocates and case studies of grassroots successes, but Osterman may not convince more skeptical-some would argue more pragmatic-readers that the progressive movement can be adapted to national politics, gather power and reach its goal of "rebuilding civil society."
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Osterman spent seven years getting an up-close look at a multiracial interfaith community organization on the border between Texas and Mexico and using that group as a means of exploring how and why citizen participation has declined so dramatically in our democracy. The Valley Interfaith group is part of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a national organization that is the successor to efforts by Saul Alinsky, the pioneer of community organizing in the U.S. Using Valley Interfaith as a focal point, Osterman explores the current status of the progressive movement and the disconnection between politics and economics. Osterman explores how Valley Interfaith organized around churches, schools, and other local institutions to win school reforms and to improve wages for area workers. He explores the broader lessons to be learned from that experience in creating a more engaged American citizenry and reigniting a progressive political agenda. Readers interested in political activism and progressive politics will appreciate this in-depth look at successful political organizing. Vanessa Bush
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