TORAH-BASED ORGANIZING FOR DEMOCRACY

Recognizing Torah as the Foundation of American Democracy

[Brit] Covenant and the American Founding: the Covenant Tradition in American Politics—Professor Daniel J. Elazar (1934-1999), a political scientist known for his seminal studies of political culture of the United States, describes the history in which the first emigrants from England “entered into a covenant of self-government,” truly an extraordinary innovation in the history of democracy. They saw themselves as new Israelites. With the compact they made on the Mayflower while still at sea, they abandoned the historical divine right of kings, covenanting together in the sight of and subject only to the will of God, with themselves sovereign over their political affairs. Each person had voluntarily agreed to the rights and obligations, the benefits and burdens, which would be shared by one and all. Elazar walks us through the subsequent history of the adoption of the characteristics of the brit described in the Torah as the participatory democratic foundation of the later New England towns, the colonies, and the newly formed national government. (28 pp.)

The Coming Dark Age—Acknowledges that the U.S. is headed for a Dark Age, marked by the wholesale moral collapse of our institutions, a slide toward authoritarianism; recognizes that the devastating assault is masterminded by a brotherhood of billionaires; laments the general lack of appreciation by the American public for the potency of the evil arrayed against our democratic form of government; itemizes the discouraging conditions which indicate we will not avoid the looming darkness; and proposes that although the darkness can no longer be avoided, it may be limited to years rather than decades if the institutions of democracy are rebuilt from the grassroots. (3 pp.)

Community Organizing Response to the Fascist Oligarchy of the Billionaire Brotherhood—Recognizes that despite resurgent American optimism in mid-2021, after a fearful year and a half of coronavirus pandemic, the faith and hope of the people remain subdued because of existential threats to our democracy, particularly Republican-led legislative assaults on voting rights and nonpartisan electoral administration. Identifies a central role in these developments of a growing fascist oligarchy, populated by a brotherhood of billionaires. Considers the tortuous path ahead for community organizing and the essential role of the profession's treasured legacy. Proposes a strategic vision to achieve institutionalized, structural empowerment of the demos, to revitalize and redirect the nation's democratic institutions. (23 pp.)

Democratic Planning—Advocates and defines a grassroots, democratic approach to planning, in contrast to rational, incremental, and mixed scanning forms. (14 pp.)

Directly Democratic Metropolitan Government: Envisioning Beyond Oppression, Rebellion, and Reform—Proposes two-tier government in urban areas, with public powers granted to directly democratic neighborhood organizations, to satisfy both political and economic empowerment needs and to stop the "endless cycle of oppression, rebellion, and reform." (18 pp.)

The End of the Beginning of the Oligarchic Empire of the United States of America—Notes the beginning of the end of electoral democracy in the U.S.; the probable effects of a 6-to-3 conservative majority-SCOTUS; the likely end of progressive legislation and policy from the federal government for the remainder of this century; the necessity of countering oligarchic power with an empowered demos; the lessons to be learned from the labor movement of the late-19th to mid-20th century; that the remaining institutions of the Congress and the Presidency will not save American democracy; and that the only hope is to build bottom-up institutional power from the grassroots. (2 pp.)

Kharakim Shirim shel Parshiot [Kharakim Songs of the Torah Readings]—This collection of Torah verses from the parshiot (weekly Torah readings), including musical chords and interpretive commentary, serve as "songs" for the kharakim, for those who seek to be openings to the light of Torah for the sake of tikkun olam (repair of the world). Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) teaches that shirim (songs) are the "visionary word, seeing the invisible ruling of God in actual occurrences." The shir (song) is an expression of what an external event reveals to the inner self . . . to counteract mistaken ideas by witnessing the truth of troubles in defection" from a Torah-guided life. Kharakim accept the challenge of an am kadosh (holy people) by their actions as visionaries, teachers, and keepers of sacred time and space in a kahal poalei tzedek (a congregation acting righteously and justly in the world). (60 pp.)

Moral-Spiritual Infrastructure: Touchstone of Movement-Building Community Organizing—Explores the failure of faith-based and other forms of community organizing to recognize the importance of integral religious faith in movement-building; the inadequacy of "self-interest" alone to sustain long-term participation in movement-building; the related origins, characteristics, and effects of moral-spiritual infrastructure; and the practice implications for organizers. (16 pp.)

Moral Spirituality and the Rescue of Democracy—Questions whether moral spirituality has an essential role to play in saving democracy; considers the current character of American moral spirituality; explores how it's possible to agree with others who have very different ideologies and interests; and asks if America is in transition and, if so, to what? (5 pp.)

New England Town Government: A Model for Popular Assembly in Two-Tier Metropolitan Government—Considers the directly democratic form of New England town government as an organizational model for empowered urban social infrastructure, based on an historical survey of the town government form from colonial to modern times. (9 pp.)

The Political Value of Torah-Based Ritual—Acknowledges that modern people often believe that much of Torah's description of ritual is irrelevant, but that there is a deep, potentially redeeming connection between Torah ritual and the social dysfunction and disease in contemporary society, particularly wrongdoing done in secret by powerful leaders; and the importance of ritual in communicating as a community with ourselves about what we value most and how to protect it. (3 pp.) [REEH]

The Promise of Radical Municipalism—Explores the current activism of radical municipalists, their conviction that they can launch a post-capitalist movement based on directly democratic municipalities linked in libertarian confederations that would supplant all other levels of government, and the strategic and tactical shortfalls of their ideological and institutional objectives. (5 pp.)

Public Powers for the Commonweal: A Challenge to Faith-Based Organizing—Explores the effects of power-inequality and the necessity to institutionalize public powers for the commonweal, with progressive faith-based federations serving as vanguard organizations. (10 pp.)

Refocusing Our Community Organizing Vision—Considers the implications of Election 2016 for community and congregational organizing, the handicap of limited funding for building a national progressive coalition, and the need to focus on democratizing metropolitan government to build permanent, directly democratic grassroots power. (3 pp.)

Remaking American Democracy I: Kick-Starting the Public Powers and Power-Leverage of Popular Assemblies 2.1—Calls for remaking American democracy from the bottom up in the face of a rising threat from reactionary White grievance, nativism, and Great Replacement rhetoric, leading toward fascist oligarchy; advocates the critical importance of introducing direct citizen participation in the exercise of public powers; posits the urban city as the locale for the establishment of directly democratic popular assemblies as the lower tier of two-tier urban government; addresses common questions and doubts about the efficacy of urban popular assemblies; explores the means of their acquiring public powers and power-leverage; and identifies the moral-spiritual essentials of a successful movement to revivify American democracy. (35 pp.)

Remaking American Democracy II: A Groundplan for the Demos to Gain Public Powers—Proposes a groundplan for the demos in virtually any urban city to gain direct control of public powers. Presents a strategic moral vision for a multi-decade movement, a replicable project model realizable in urban cities in less than 10 years, staged project funding based on multiple sources, an organizational arm to recruit, educate, and train public powers community organizers, the outline of an organizing plan for the civics education of neighborhood residents, and the outline of an organizing plan for citywide charter-reform ballot initiatives to authorize legally empowered, directly democratic neighborhood popular assembly sub-divisions of urban municipalities. (8 pp.)

Should We Revive Murray Bookchin?—Considers whether Bookchin's vision of libertarian municipal confederations (as replacements for "neoliberal capitalism") can effectively drive community organizing towards two-tier urban government decentralization and direct democracy. (7 pp.)

Tikkun Olam: Our Soul-Searching Repair of the World—Recounts a Torah-based conception of repair of the world (tikkun olam) that reflects the authors' combined 75-plus years of learning, living, and teaching Torah and community organizing and development; recognizes the critical linkage between repairing ourselves as change agents and repairing the families and communities that ideally form the foundation of our society's moral-spiritual infrastructure; examines the obstacles, challenges, and role of faith in tikkun olam; and identifies the central role of Torah in the moral vision, values and path of community organizing and development aimed to promote righteousness, truth, justice, freedom, peace, and kindness. (19 pp.)

Trump's Evil Yet to Come 2.0—Proposes Trump's likely action if the pandemic continues to have extremely disruptive effects on the economy and the health care system and if it appears he will lose the election in November; outlines a strategic vision to deal with the constitutional crisis that threatens American democracy; and acknowledges the necessity for Americans to question whether to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the Government of the United States if Trump declares himself "king." (4 pp.)

Will America Be?—Describes the recent predations on American democracy as threatening the moral-spiritual core of the nation; notes the specific reasons for pessimism about the nation's future; and proposes rebuilding the institutions of democracy at their roots by organizing directly democratic assemblies as lower tiers of metropolitan government, through which citizens could shape their own laws and policies, and ultimately hold accountable corporations and higher levels of government. (3 pp.)

Winning the War for Grassroots Empowerment: Benefits of Building a Public Powers Movement—Focuses on the value of directly democratic neighborhood assemblies with public powers to respond to local, regional, and statewide problems and issues. Describes four examples of neighborhood-based public powers to achieve police accountability, sustainable energy generation, compassionate immigration policies and practices, and low-cost entry-portal health care. (5 pp.)

You Too Can Organize A Government—Essentials for neighborhood organizations to acquire and exercise public powers as the lower tier of two-tier metropolitan government federations. Originally published by ACORN in The Organizer. (8 pp.)