I read a Playboy interview with Saul Alinsky around 1971 or 72. [View all]

[MarianJack]

I was around 16 or 17 qnd he impressed me as one hell of a good guy.

He spoke extensively of the "shit-in" and the "fart-in". His point was that the threat of an action was frequently all that was needed to get the other side to cave.

For the "shit in, he was going to send about 5,000 people to O'Hare airport in Chicago. He knew that 5,000 people marching there would barely be noticed. What he did was get 1 woman for each stall in the ladies' rooms and 1 man for each stall in the mens's rooms and about 6 guys for each urinal. The people in the stalls would bring books and magazines and just stay there. Each man would stand at the urinal for 15 to 20 minutes and go to another rest room and get in line there. According to him, Mayor Daley started negotiating after just hearing of this.

For the "fart-in", it was to get Eastman Kodak to the negotiating table. The mere threat of the "fart-in" did so.

The interviewer related how Saul ended every evening by saying "We're really gonna fuck 'em tomorrow" as a way of getting people to stay psyched up.

One of the stories was how a city council, upon hearing that he may come to town, passed a resolution and sent him a length of rope suggesting that he hang himself. He sent them a box of diapers.

It IS typical of the rethugs to make a dead person their target. Saul Alinsky has been gone for nearly 40 years. Of course, someone that very few people are aware of is MUCH easier to demonize!

Of course, the rightists indignation fits perfectly into my general rule of thumb stateing that if someone pisses off all of the right people, they've got to be good!

I hope that this gives a little bit of info. I'm sorry that I have so little to share.

PEACE!