The Opposition has Fundamentals Too with Mike Evans
When we challenge the status quo, expect those in power to deflect, delay, deceive, and deny.
Thirty years ago a group of us in Southern Indiana began to organize, but we were not winning. Then we met Mike Evans at a tenant organizing meeting in Indianapolis. As he talked organizing it was clear he knew things we needed to know. A few weeks later he came down and introduced a group of us to secrets of the craft. We ate it up, and soon were on our way to winning.
Mike recently turned 70 and is still organizing, now in Three Rivers, Michigan, fifteen miles from the farm he grew up on in Northern Indiana. He started his organizing there by listening for the most widely and deeply felt issues in the community - something he taught us to do. In Three Rivers, that issue is polluted water, and residents are now in a big fight to win water testing, water filters, and new water lines.
Mike's first taste of winning was with the United Auto Workers, winning an National Labor Relations Board election, and raising wages from $5 an hour to $9.25. He has been at it ever since, organizing tenants in Seattle, working-class neighbors in Indianapolis, and congregations in Louisville. Later, he joined the Michigan Organizing Project and organized a campaign to win a Housing Trust Fund in Kalamazoo County.
We got together a couple weeks back to talk organizing.
What fundamental do you feel is especially essential to teach right now?
The one on one meeting. So much is possible in a good one on one meeting! We aren’t always conscious of it, but we as people are hungry to talk about our lives, to understand our lives. A one on one provides a rare chance for people to do that.
If we listen, we begin to see where the person feels pushed around by our culture and what it is telling them about who they are and how they are supposed to act.
When I worked with CLOUT, organizing congregations in Louisville, the organization was very clear that a one on one is not two people having a casual conversation. It is planned in advance, we make clear that we want 45 minutes of someone’s time to get to know them. There is a structure to it, and we document it, so we have notes that we can come back to. These are very honest and professional conversations.
In a one on one we're not selling. We're listening and building a relationship.
What else are you hoping to accomplish in a one on one?
We want to discover the passion in the other person. What is the thing they go back to again and again? Is it a pocketbook issue, the health of the community, something else? We usually find the common thread in the stories people share. Also, if we are serious, a one on one isn't just a one off. I believe we have to do two or three one on ones with a person, say over five, six months. We can delve a bit deeper each time. But, more than anything I want to know what is the passion that drives a person.
Were there pamphlets, books, or trainings that were essential for you when you were getting started?
My first exposure to real organizing materials was in 1981 when I got a job working with the United Auto Workers. We were fighting a campaign by an employer to decertify the union.
This is when I was first exposed to the idea that we weren't “a movement” and we weren't “a cause.” This was a specific campaign. So, as organizers, we went from house to house, sitting with workers and their families, helping them understand the benefits of the contract. We were also preparing them for the counter attacks and lies that would come from those trying to crush the union. It was the best training you could wish for. And there were organizing materials readily available in the union hall and those materials along with the coaching of more senior organizers is how I first learned to organize effectively.
Now, we talk about the fundamentals of organizing, but we should also understand the fundamentals, or the playbook, of the people we are up against. One of the likely things to happen when we challenge the status quo, and we are dealing with this in our fight for clean water right now, those who stand in the way of progress will deflect, delay, deceive, and deny.
Can you break those down for us?
Again and again, four tactics are used by the targets of our organizing to stop us.
Deflect. We are told by the person who has the power to give us what we want that we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. We should educate ourselves before making public demands.
For example, in our clean water campaign the mayor immediately told us that we need to talk to our state representatives, or the state department of environment and health or the EPA. The mayor would not acknowledge any responsibility to act.
Delay. Stall, stall, stall. Creating committees to study the problem. Again, an example from our Clean Water Campaign: the city has a 20 year plan! The city will replace 5% of the public water system every year for 20 years. That is 20 years of public exposure to lead, copper, industrial solvents and e-coli.
Deceive. Just plain out lie. Twenty years ago I was organizing for affordable housing and we demanded that city Community Development Block Grant funds be used to build housing for low-income people. The city held a press conference to announce that 100% of all CDBG money would be spent on low-mod housing! According to HUD, low-mod housing was targeted to incomes of $45,000 to $100,000 per year. In fact, the city was using CDBG dollars to build $250,000 condominiums. It was all lies.
Deny. They just say “no, you are wrong. This is not actually a problem. End of story”
I think we should teach organizers to recognize these tactics and be able to name them and adjust when they show up, because they always do.
You won’t find Mike on social media, but you can bet he’s somewhere doing a one on one or preparing people for the next phase in the fight for clean water.
To join the conversation, you can get copy of the Fundamentals of Community Organizing pamphlet here. And for those who prefer an audiobook, listen for free here.
