I just read a very long interview with Saul Aulinsky. This interview took place in 1972 (http://www.forestcouncil.org/tims_picks/view.php?id=1075)

Saul was an organizer. he organized poor communities to unite and get concessions from corporations or political groups to help the plite of the poor and helped people help themselves. The man was brilliant.

The sheer threat of action was enough for people to capitulate, he threatened to organize a Fart In in a local cultural iconic symphony house where they would bus in 100 blacks and feed them nothing but baked beans before the show and thus everyone would fart like mad. It never happened and KODAK the camera company caved in before they had to do it.

He also got church to give him their proxy shareholder voting rights and used that as a way to picket corporations. So sharp.

He also liked being in jail because it was the only time he could relax and reflect and he refused to leave, of course they would throw him in in the 60s just for showing up in a town (nothing like today where the city would get its ass sued for trying that)

He did his graduate thesis on the Al Capone mob in Chicago and was their friend and traveleved with them for a while, he managed to get them to open up all of their secrets to him, incredible.

Two random lines i pulled out from it: "Rabbi Hillel said: 'Where there are no men, be thou a man.'"

"Asking a sociologist to solve a problem is like prescribing an enema for diarrhea."