The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

We can be contacted at (213) 387-2800 or school@thestrategycenter.org. Thanks for your help, Eric Mann, Manuel Criollo, Damon Azali, Tammy Bang Luu, Francisca Porchas, Cynthia Rojas, Lian Hurst Mann National School for Strategic Organizing Committee Labor/Community Strategy Center
The Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles is recruiting participants for the National School for Strategic Organizing,
a training program in the strategy and tactics of building a Left social movement.

With an amnesia hanging over a nation's history of racism and national oppression, violence against women and colonization, building a grassroots independent social movement is a necessity. At the Strategy Center, an environmental and social justice "think tank/act tank," we are training organizers to face this challenge.

Organizers-in-training for the Strategy Center will participate in the Bus Riders Union, challenging corporate-driven transit policy and engaged in direct organizing to build a multiracial, multi-lingual organization on wheels. Through the BRU and other projects participants in the School will help build economic, political and cultural alternatives towards concrete victories that build a new community while transforming the organizer. The emphasis is on theory-driven practice taught through on-the-bus organizing, mentoring with senior organizers, and classes on political and organizing theory to:

• Develop a new generation of class-conscious, antiracist, antisexist, internationalist organizers • Teach organizers to initiate demands, build a leadership core, develop community allies • Build campaigns to organize new, independent social movements • Learn to assess different phases of a campaign: when to escalate, when to retreat, how to consolidate gains and victories • Understand the relationship of short-term tactics to long-term strategy•

We are looking for activists who want to forge a union between Left politics and organizing. We want people who understand the flexibility and patience needed as organizers. We appreciate humility to learn from experienced organizers, bus riders and communities. At the same time, we need people with the initiative and confidence to contribute constructive, innovative ideas to the organization. Participants will be involved in the following:

• Bus Riders Union Fight Transit Racism, Billions for Buses Campaign • Clean Air, Clean Lungs, Clean Buses Campaign - making a link between toxic pollution in communities of color and participating in an international movement to reverse global warming • Community Rights Campaign - challenging the criminalization of Black and Latina/o communities • Classes on political and organizing theory •

Other work in which organizers-in-training may be involved include:

• Community Graphics and Make History Media Project • Organizing Through Political Theatre • Agit-props, web and electronic organizing • Publication distribution and promotion•

For further information on applications, deadlines and all aspects of the school please contact Tammy Bang Luu or Cynthia Rojas.

Applications can be downloaded from www.thestrategycenter.org and are due on April 30, 2005. The program runs from July 1st through December 23, 2005.

National School for Strategic Organizing
3780 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1200; Los Angeles, CA 90010
voice: (213) 387-2800 fax: (213) 387-3500
e-mail: school@thestrategycenter.org

www.thestrategycenter.org
www.busridersunion.org

The National School accepts classes of up to 5 students. Women and Black, Mexicano/Chicano/other Latinos, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and other people of color are strongly encouraged to apply. Applicants with Spanish and/or Korean language proficiency and prior organizing experience are also strongly encouraged to apply. We also encourage those with book distribution, website development, and outreach, administration and fundraising skills to apply.

Assistance is provided in the form of:

* A weekly stipend >

* A limited number of housing scholarships

* Passes for public transportation

* Healthcare for the duration of the program

The National School for Strategic Organizing is a project of the Labor/Community Strategy Center,
a multiracial, antiracist, anticorporate think tank/act tank, based in Los Angeles.

The School is rooted in the Strategy Center's long-term organizing campaigns that demand comprehensive, structural and increasingly international solutions to the problems of urban poverty, racism, national oppression, environmental degradation, and the escalating attacks on workers, women, peoples of color and immigrants.