Educating for Action: Strategies to Ignite Social Justice

Educating for Action shares the voices of activists whose combined experience in confronting painful injustice has generated a wealth of key insights for creating social change. An engaging, practical handbook for new and seasoned activists alike, this unique organising manifesto addresses everything from community organising to direct democracy, conflict resolution, communication skills, leveraging social media and conference planning.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Foreword: Reading Peace Education Joy James Preface: Teaching Peace Peter McLaren Introduction: Peace as a Political Force Jason Del Gandio and Anthony J. Nocella II Part 1: Starting With Me 1. Personal Lifestyle Larry Albert Butz 2. Communication and Rhetoric Jason Del Gandio Part 2: Working with Others 3. Participation and Democracy Joshua Ryan Holst 4. Transformative Justice and Conflict Transformation Anthony J. Nocella II, Melissa Chiprin, Anniessa Antar, and Alisha Page Part 3: Getting into the Streets 5. Organizing Your Community Drew Robert Winter 6. Activist Guidelines and Case Studies Jason Del Gandio, James Generic, Aaron Zellhoefer, and Anthony J. Nocella II Part 4: Social Networks 7. The Politics of Planning: Conference Organizing as an Act of Resistance Jenny Grubbs and Michael Loadenthal 8. Social Media and Online Organizing Jeanette Russell Part 5: Institutional Change 9. The Laws and Lawyers of Social Change Dara Lovitz 10. The Courage to Teach Critically: Anti-Oppression and Pro-Justice Dialogues in the Classroom Rita Verma Epilogue: Thankfulness, Mutual Recognition, and Appreciation Kim Socha and Anthony J. Nocella II Resources for Peace and Justice Activists Contributors' Biographies Endnotes Index

About the Author :
Jason Del Gandio is an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Public Advocacy at Temple University. He has participated in the Global Justice Movement, the anti-war movement during the Bush Administration, the anti-RNC demonstrations of 2004, fair-trade campaigns, Latin American solidarity work and the Occupy Movement. Jason has appeared on television and radio, and regularly speaks on college campuses and at public venues. He is the author of Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists. Anthony J. Nocella is a scholar-activist, a Visiting Professor in the School of Education at Hamline University, and a Senior Fellow of the Dispute Resolution Institute at the Hamline Law School. From blockading highways against the war in Iraq to lobbying for national forest protection, Anthony has been involved with numerous movements and struggles, including dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, anarchism, Earth liberation, animal liberation, disability liberation and Hip Hop youth activism. He has co-founded several active political organizations and published more than 50 scholarly articles and 15 books.

Review :
Publishers Weekly June 2014 Del Gandio (Rhetoric for Radicals) and Nocella offer 10 accessible essays, written by themselves and other experienced activists, about the basics of organizing to promote social change. Del Gandio outlines the fundamentals of written and spoken communication: when writing, edit and proofread; when talking, speak loudly enough to be heard and maintain eye contact. Jeannette Russell, addressing the use of social media in activism, also focuses on the brass tacks: on Facebook and Twitter, keep your message brief and relevant. Drew Robert Winter offers tips for garnering broader community support. Dara Lovitz explains why it's important for organizers to get along with attorneys and encourages organizers to themselves think about getting a law degree and using it to change the world. A solid bibliography rounds out the essays. This introductory book will foster useful conversation among new and aspiring organizers and serve as a good refresher course for old hands. (Sept.) For those of us who have been kind of making it up as we go along, this book is a real resource for change-making! ---Bill McKibben, founder 350.org "Here we have a book that seeks to teach people (particularly those in ostensibly democratic societies) how to "disturb the peace." Increasingly, I'll stake my life on the idea that this is something peace education and other forms of critical pedagogy need to dedicate themselves to like never before if we are to avoid the worst of the catastrophic effects that now manifest as social and ecological crises across the face the planet." --Richard Kahn, Core Faculty in Education, Antioch University Los Angeles "Education For Action is a book whose time has returned. Del Gandio and Nocella take us forward from the days of Saul Alinsky, and do so with a fresh outlook and a recipe that is rich and promising for a more durable positive outcome than methods used by many earlier activists. The focus on transformative justice reminds the reader that peace can only be attained through truly peaceful means." --John C. Alessio, Ph.D., author of Social Problems and Inequality: Social Responsibility Through Progressive Sociology "Education for Action is a much needed guide for activist communities that provides practical strategies for both seasoned and new activists. With a variety of perspectives and authors, this text is should be on every radical's (and soon-to-be radical's) bookshelf." --Kim Socha, author of Women, Destruction, and the Avant-Garde: A Paradigm for Animal Liberation "The rhythm of activism is the beat of engaged citizenship and the pulse of a moral life: we open our eyes and pay attention to the world as it is; we allow ourselves to be astonished at the dazzling beauty as well as the unnecessary suffering all around us; we notice that next to the world as such is a world that could be or should be--a possible world. We join hands and act, we reflect and rethink, and we repeat for a lifetime. Jason Del Gandio and Anthony J. Nocella II have assembled an essential companion for both seasoned and aspiring activists. Education for Action can lend a hand as activists nourish their social imaginations and build up their courage and commitment, cultivate creativity and inventiveness, grow both their patience and their audacity, find ways to be thoughtful and passionate in the same gesture, expand their sense of genuine solidarity. Education for Action is a text to cram into your backpack alongside your water bottle and your Vitamin E--part of the toolkit for those of us working to create a world of joy and justice, a planet at peace and in balance, a future powered by love and fit for all children." --Bill Ayers, Ph.D., author of Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Anti-War Activist "In the community development and social change community, the question of good reading materials continually arises. Where to find them and how to access them? The book Education For Action: Top Ten Strategies For Peace and Justice answers that question. With chapters on Communication and Rhetoric to The Politics of Planning, Del Gandio and Nocella deliver a sound and contextual book that provides social change workers with a dense and excellent set of resources. This is the book for community development." --Daniel White Hodge, author of The Soul Of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs, and a Cultural Theology "Education for Action is an impressive compendium that offers great insight from a stellar group of scholar-activists. The text is a rare combination of "how-to guide" grounded in theoretical context. Though aimed at youth activists, this is an excellent guide for any community organization or group searching for ways to improve their effectiveness. I can also imagine it serving as an invaluable resource for my undergraduate course in public policy and community action. This is exactly the right book, at the right time." --Sandy Grande, Ph.D., author of Red Pedagogy: Native American Social and Political Thought