The Palestinian Student's Godfather: Saul Alinsky

How Immoral Organizing Got Its Start

I’ve been familiar with New Left organizing since the early 1970’s. At that time, I was the roommate with Chicago 8 defendant Rennie Davis in Washington, D.C. Remember the Chicago 8? Yes, while the trial became a movie, it was really once part of my life.

FBI agents regularly sat outside our apartment in DC’s Adam Morgan neighborhood. Years later, after filing under the Freedom of Information Act, I learned FBI agents had generated hundreds of pages about me as a result of its government surveillance. Reading it was entertaining as virtually all of it was some form of gossip and innuendo. None of it pertained to wrongdoing.

In 1971, as a member of the May Day Collective, I was asked to be the author of the “May Day Manual,” an instruction book about how to close down the nation’s capital during a particularly aggressive period of anti-war protests.

The May Day demonstrators boldly stated, “If the government won’t end the war, we’ll end the government.” Protestors flooded DC’s streets in acts of civil disobedience. Interestingly, Democrats never called it an insurrection. I myself was arrested on the Capitol Building steps with about 700 other protesters.

As Rennie was my roommate, I quickly met a ton of anti-war leaders including Chicago 7 co-defendants Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Dave Dellinger, and the notorious radical lawyer Bill Kuntsler.

Later, as a direct action civil disobedient instructor at the Republican National Convention in Miami, I taught demonstrators how to launch disruptive demonstrations. I was arrested and shared a prison cell with Allen Ginsberg.

Over time, I moved towards the right, later identifying with conservative values. But my radical upbringing brought me to view today’s pro-Palestinian encampments with a personal and informed perspective of what they’re up to.

The silent godfather of today’s aggressive demonstrations is Saul Alinsky. He authored the bible for New Left activism with the 1971 publication of “Rules for Radicals” A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals.” “Rules” was one of the most important manuals for New Left radicals.

I plan to review Alinsky’s “bible” over the next few Substacks. They expose the values of today’s pro-Palestinian radicals who we now know have been trained by New Left organizers of yesteryear.

As the Wall Street Journal reported last week, “Left-wing groups and veteran demonstrators provided guidance and support before the rise of pro-Palestinian encampments.”

The Journal notes that many organizing manuals were distributed over the last six months to a host of college radicals well before the first encampment was ever installed on campuses.

So the Palestinian demonstrations display clear fingerprints from those of my former Leftwing friends. Let’s see what original radical activists learned then - and what they’re teaching today.

Alinsky clearly had ambition. “In this book, we are concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power,” he states in his opening chapter. He refers to the “science of revolution,” and explains in detail how to create political chaos in modern societies.

His first main observation is that truth doesn’t matter. Shocking to us today perhaps. But Alinsky openly counseled his minions, “To begin with, he (the revolutionary) does not have a fixed truth - truth to him is relative and changing.; everything to him is relative and changing.” (italics is in original)

That means that the Hamas October 7 massacres of unarmed men, women, children didn’t really happen. It’s a truth for Israelis and Jews (and for the 25 other foreign nationalities who were and now are Hamas hostages). But it’s not a truth for pro-Palestinian demonstrators. This is perfectly acceptable for Alinsky-guided Leftwing activists.

It also means that for the young American women who have eagerly joined the encampments, the mass October 7 sexual assault on women never, ever occurred. This is another accepted non-truth.

Another non-truth adopted by many young American women who have joined the encampments is the daily oppression of women under Sharia law in Gaza and in Iran, who is their sponsor. Clearly, these women steadfastly ignore or are uninterested in learning about the intolerance of Sharia Law.

It also means American gay and trans activists similarly ignore the capital punishment regularly meted out by Hamas and the Iranian Mullahs against homosexuals and transgender women. Many Hamas leaders have happily thrown gay men off of rooftops in Gaza. That truth is tragically ignored.

Finally, it further means that pro-Palestinian activists can ignore the basic truth that free protest doesn’t exist in Gaza and never has under Hamas. Protest movements don’t exist there. Freedom of expression has been strictly forbidden ever since the Islamic Jihadis took over the strip after Israel gave it to the Palestinians in 2005 as part of Jerusalem’s “disengagement plan.”

Just as distressing, Alinsky’s revolutionary radicals have a particularly nasty point of view about ethics. "The rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war, the end justifies almost any means,” Alinsky wrote in his book. “Ethical standards must be elastic to stretch with the times.”

This means that attacking Jews is just peachy keen. Open virulent antisemiticism is ethically OK. But the ethics of using the wrong pronoun on a college campus can be an unacceptable gross civil rights violation. There’s a time for ethics and a time for stretching ethics.

“Generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics,” Alinsky counseled. He told activists, “you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.”

Alinsky further argues that morality of using certain tactics shouldn’t be a primary factor. “The morality of a means depends upon whether the means is being employed at a time of imminent defeat or victory,” he wrote. “In short, ethics are determined by whether one is losing or winning."

So according to Alinsky, the October 7 massacre of unarmed people could be morally justified. According to Palestinians who cheered the assault and the parade of female hostages on the street, this was a moral good.

Another Alinsky lesson is that if change doesn’t come quickly, violent escalation can be an acceptable next step. Could we see the next step at the Democratic National Convention this summer?

As the anti-war and Black Power movements petered out, violence replaced peaceful demonstrations. The Weather Underground was born out frustration over a largely peaceful anti-war movement. For Alinsky, violent escalation is perfectly fine.

“If weapons are needed, then are appropriate weapons available,” he asks without qualms. The state of the struggle is dictated by circumstances. “Availability of means determines whether you will be underground or above ground; whether you will move quickly or slowly; whether you will move for extensive changes or limited adjustments; whether you will move by passive resistance or active resistance; or whether you will move at all.”

This is scary stuff.

In my next installment, we’ll take a closer look at Alinsky and the lessons learned by today’s radicals. Stay tuned!