Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40966 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-10-22

Amazon.com
The Democratic Promise: Saul Alinsky & His Legacy, narrated by actor Alec Baldwin, examines the life and legacy of the controversial community organizer Alinsky and his modern-day legacy. The first half of the program chronicles the Chicago-based organizer Saul Alinsky and three key Alinsky organizations to show how his techniques developed over time including The Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, in Chicago's blighted stockyards in the 1930's. By forming an unprecedented coalition between the Catholic Church and the Meatpackers Union, Alinsky was able to force several landmark concessions from the meatpacking industry. These three organizations show how Alinsky's ideas, in turn, influenced the civil rights movement, the farmworkers struggle and many Vietnam era political protests. The second half of the program jumps forward to the late 1990's and examines two contemporary 'peoples organizations' that are part of the Industrial Areas Foundation-a national network.

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Customer Reviews

Organized money vs. Organized people
This documentary is a good introduction to the work of legendary organizer, Saul Alinsky. Narrated by Alec Baldwin, and featuring interviews with many people Alinsky worked with, "The Democratic Promise" shows how people learned to get together and lobby their government and workplaces to promote their welfare. Starting in meat-packing plants, moving on to struggles for housing, and being picked up by Vietnam war protestors, Alinsky's guidance has helped countless people to pressure for their causes.
The story of a community group working for housing in East Brooklyn is one of many inspiring stories in the film. There's a wonderful scene when Mayor Rudolph Giulianni comes to their church and announces that he will support their cause and that they will receive the funding they need for their project.

Alinsky's Rules for Radicals continues to be widely read by organizers. Hillary Clinton's Wikipedia biography mentions that she did a paper on Alinsky, and Saul's ideas also influenced activists like Cesar Chavez and Stokely Carmichael. Alinsky also pioneered "shareholder activism" The Emperor's Nightingale: Restoring the Integrity of the Corporation in the Age of Shareholder Activism Making Waves and Riding the Currents: Activism and the Practice of Wisdom (BK Currents).
Alinsky's life was a testament to what Frederick Douglass said about how power concedes nothing without a struggle. This film is a much needed reminder of the need for that struggle, and the power that people do have when they organize.

See also This Is What Democracy Looks Like and What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy by radio host Thom Hartmann.
And for an international perspective on organizing Cocalero.

Strenthening our Democracy
Robert Putnam has traced for us the symptoms of the decline of our democracy as we fail to vote, fail to register to vote, fail to know the names of our neighbors, fail to join clubs like Kiwanis or Rotary, fail to connect with those nearest us. Saul Alinsky proposed an alternative years ago in community organizing. As goes the strength of our local communities, so goes the nation. This film recounts the efforts of Alinsky and his proteges in community organizing.

Alinsky made a difference, and, perhaps, we too might make a difference in our world today.

Truth be told... a waste of time...
Saul Alinsky was a child...Alec Baldwin a failed socialist wannabe with a career destined for the re-runs on late night TV, (analog).