NEA Teaching Communism In Schools

NEA raves to teachers about Alinsky 'guidebook'
Recommends texts by radical community organizer who 'encouraged positive social change'
by Chelsea Schilling


The National Education Association has made a glowing assessment of radical socialist community organizer Saul Alinsky and is enthusiastically recommending American public school teachers read two of his books, including one dedicated to Satan.
On its website, the NEA dubs Alinsky "an inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer!"
It recommends Alinsky's "Reveille for Radicals," a 1946 book about the principles and tactics of "community organizing," and "Rules for Radicals," a 1971 text that articulated a socialist strategy for gaining political power to redistribute wealth from the "haves" to the "have-nots."
The NEA, the largest labor union in the United States, represents public school teachers, college and university faculty, retired education employees and college students preparing to become teachers.
The association describes Alinsky as a "master political agitator, tactical planner and social organizer" who wrote a "guidebook for those who are out to change things."
"He sets down what the goal is: a society where people are free to live, and also aren't starving in the streets. A society where there is legal and economic justice," the NEA explains to educators. "Then he sets out to say how to get there."
The NEA continues, "Alinsky's goal seems to be to encourage positive social change by equipping activists with a realistic view of the world, a kind of preemptive disillusionment. If a person already knows what evil the world is capable of, then perhaps the surprise factor can be eliminated, making the person a more effective activist. Alinsky further seems to be encouraging the budding activist not to worry to [sic] much about getting his or her hands dirty. It's all a part of the job, he seems to say."

NEA promotes books by Saul Alinsky as recommended reading
As WND reported, Alinsky, the father of community organizing, dreamed of socialism one day replacing the "jungle" of American capitalism. He wrote that he hoped "for a future where the means of production will be owned by all of the people instead of just a comparative handful."
Alinsky dedicated the first edition of his book, "Rules for Radicals," to Satan: "Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer."
Discover the Networks describes Alinsky as "an avatar of the post-modern Left" who studied criminology as a graduate student at the University of Chicago and became friends with Al Capone and his mobsters. He advocated a wholesale revolution so a supposedly oppressed population could acquire power and radically transform America's social and economic structure. He sought to foment public discontent to spark a social uprising.
"A reformation means that the masses of our people have reached the point of disillusionment with past ways and values. They don't know what will work but they do know that the prevailing system is self-defeating, frustrating, and hopeless," Alinsky wrote in "Rules for Radicals." "They won't act for change but won't strongly oppose those who do. The time is then ripe for revolution."
In "Alinsky for Teacher Organizers," a 1972 document written for use in training teachers, NEA training consultant J. Michael Arisman explained that Alinsky believed the teacher association's real power base was in the community. He advocated organizing the community by using the natural interest in the children to send teachers into children's homes
so they could develop relationships with parents.
"He would assert that if the teacher association is successful in organizing the community for education ends, it would have no problem getting or maintaining its membership," Arisman wrote. "At the same time, the allies made by a multi-issue association will be valuable at contract time."
Action is critical, especially with the white middle class, Alinsky argued, because that group is not accustomed to action and will want to quit leadership training after the first time.
"Generally, the Alinsky advice on tactics is guerilla war advice," Arisman wrote. "To win, know the enemy, divide the enemy. Know who all the players are, conduct the action on several levels and personalize the conflict."
Arisman wrote that Alinsky's strategic and tactical essence was built around conflict.
"He uses confrontation much as teacher groups have used confrontation at the negotiations table in order to buy a piece of the power," he wrote. "Alinsky does not believe you can reason away from the power groups slices of their power. He believes they will attempt to buy you off by giving you, in exchange for real power, apparent power. Confrontation is then a way to apply pressure until you get real power."
The NEA's recommended reading excerpt states, "Alinsky was hated and defamed by powerful enemies, proof that his tactics worked. His simple formula for success ... 'Agitate + Aggravate + Educate + Organize.'"
Alinsky founded and trained community organizations to follow his methods, including organizations in South Chicago, where President Obama credits his political beginnings. As the Washington Post reported, Obama was hired shortly after graduating from college by a group of Alinsky's disciples to be community organizer on Chicago's South Side.
As WND reported, Obama approached Northwestern University professor John L. McKnight – a loyal student of Alinsky's radical tactics – to pen a letter of recommendation for him when he applied to Harvard Law School. Under the tutelage of McKnight and other hardcore students of Alinsky, Obama said he got the "best education I ever had, better than anything I got at Harvard Law School."
How deeply the radical leftist Alinsky actually influenced Obama has proven a point of controversy, as demonstrated by the stir caused after Michelle Obama's alleged use of Alinsky's words at the Democratic National Convention last year and by the war of words between the Obama campaign and authors like Jerome Corsi, who have pointed to Obama's connections with radical socialists and communists in his early years.
As WND reported, in a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, Alinsky's son praised Obama for stirring up the masses at the Democratic National Convention "Saul Alinsky style," saying, "Obama learned his lesson well."
The letter signed L. David Alinsky closed by saying, "I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being applied successfully."