Reading Group: “No Shortcuts”, Chapter 1. 6/25 🌹

Join Central Indiana DSA comrades and fellow-travelers as we read through Jane McAlevey’s “No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age”. We’ll read and discuss one chapter every two weeks, starting with chapter one on Thursday, June 25th, at 7pm. Please RSVP here for meeting details and the syllabus: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/central-in-dsa-reading-group-no-shortcuts-organizing-for-power-in-the-new-gilded-age

From the publisher: “In No Shortcuts, Jane McAlevey argues that progressives can win, but lack the organized power to enact significant change, to outlast their bosses in labor fights, and to hold elected leaders accountable. Drawing upon her experience as a scholar and longtime organizer in the student, environmental, and labor movements, McAlevey examines cases from labor unions and social movements to pinpoint the factors that helped them succeed – or fail – to accomplish their intended goals. McAlevey makes a compelling case that the great social movements of previous eras gained their power from mass organizing, a strategy today’s progressives have mostly abandoned in favor of shallow mobilization or advocacy. She ultimately concludes that, in order to win, progressive movements need strong unions built from bottom-up organizing strategies that place the power for change in the hands of workers and ordinary people at the community level.”

If our wonderful socialist libraries were open, we’d recommend checking out a book there. Feel free to ask on our Facebook page, if you’d like to borrow a copy; there may be someone who has one and is willing to lend it (taking appropriate precautions to sanitize the cover, etc.) Otherwise, you can order a copy directly from the publisher here (instead of giving Amazon any more $$$): https://global.oup.com/academic/product/no-shortcuts-9780190868659