People, Power & Change – A conversation with Marshall Ganz

You are invited to an urgent and exciting conversation with Marshall Ganz, renowned organizer, educator and academic. His new book, People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal is the book we need at this moment. Please join us on Thursday, Oct. 24 to engage with Ganz in conversation on the practice of organizing for democratic renewal.

What: Book Launch of of Marshall Ganz’s People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal

When: Thursday, Oct. 24 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Who: This session is open to everyone.

Location: Nat Taylor Cinema, N102 Ross Building

This event is co-hosted by the Department of Politics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Innovation York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit (VPRI), the Global Labour Research Centre and the Office of Sustainability.

Marshall Ganz has spent his life dedicated to the craft of organizing people to enact the change they want to see in the world. Just a few of his experiences include advocating for civil rights with Bob Moses and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 16 years organizing with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, developing the grassroots strategy for President Obama’s 2008 election campaign, and training future leaders for over 20 years at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Now, as democracy teeters on a precarious edge in this upcoming election, and as political, economic and technological forces have weakened nearly all capacity for collective action, Ganz has distilled a half-century’s worth of insights into an urgent call for strengthening democracy, People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal (published Aug. 1). Written in the tradition of classics like Saul Alinsky’s 1972 Rules for Radicals, Ganz’s transformational book is at once a practical guide on how to reclaim democratic power and an inspiring manifesto for collective organizing as an essential driver of democracy.

Whether it’s a political campaign, community organization, trade union, social movement, advocacy group or workplace, Ganz argues, lasting and meaningful change only happens if people come together for a shared purpose, deliberate together and act together. Through real-world examples, political theory and illustrative diagrams, Ganz breaks down the organizing craft into six chapters that describe its essential components: relationship building, storytelling, strategizing, acting, structuring and developing leadership.