“Winning Battles and Losing the War.” (This essay began as a talk at the conference, “From Foreclosure To Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, and the Pursuit of Equitable Access To Credit,” at the John Marshall Law School, Chicago, September 8, 2012. It became a chapter in the book of that title edited by Chester Hartman and Gregory D. Squires, published 2013 by New Village Press.) (Answers the question "Why aren't we winning?") Download
"Alinsky for the Left: The Politics of Community Organizing." Mike Miller. (Earlier versions of this essay appeared in Dissent, Winter, 2010, and as a chapter in the French language book, SAUL ALINSKY: Conflit et democratie locale, edited by Suzie Guth, L'Harmattan, 2013. (Makes the case for reconsideration by the left of its general hostility to Alinsky.) Download
“Organizing: A Map for Explorers,” Christianity & Crisis, February 2, 1987. (A review of six books on organizing.) (Overview of the strands of Alinsky tradition organizing that comprise the whole.) Download
“Renewing Labor: A Report from the Field,” Michael Eisenscher & Mike Miller. ORGANIZE! Training Center; San Francisco, 2000. (Shorter versions of “Renewing Labor” appeared in the February, 2001 Social Policy and the August, 2001 Working USA.) (A careful analysis of an effort to revitalize union locals.) Download
“The Student Movement and Saul Alinsky: An Alliance That Never Happened.” (From the forthcoming book Too Many Martyrs: Student Massacres at Orangeburg, Kent & Jackson State During the Vietnam War Era, edited by Susie Erenrich, Director, Cultural Center for Social Change.) (Both shared many things in common. They couldn’t overcome their differences and build something powerful.) Download
“Organizing and Education: Saul Alinsky, Paulo Freire & Myles Horton.” (Full text of an article that appeared in shorter versions in Social Policy (Fall, 1993), Poverty, Race & The Environment (Fall, 2007), and Educating for Equity (Fall, 2007).) (Critique of citizenship educator’s understanding of “organizing.”) Download
"Two Capitalisms: A Challenge To Democratic Socialists, Social Democrats, Progressives and Welfare State Liberals." Mike Miller (Slightly revised from CounterPunch, September 24-27, 2020.) (Ignoring small businesspeople, their interests and their values is a serious mistake!) Download
"Not Quite Right: An Assessment of An Assessment of the Sanders Campaign," Mike Miller. May 1, 2020. (Electoral politics is a necessary tactic, but not the overall strategy for social transformation.) Download
"Police and African-Americans: A Review Essay." Mike Miller. Social Policy. September, 2017. (Looks at the road for substantial change of police departments, and criticizes present strategies.) Download
"Bob Moses: Neither Victim Nor Executioner." Mike Miller. A review of Robert Moses: A Life in Civil Rights and Leadership at the Grassroots. Laura Visser-Maessen, University of North Carolina Press, 2016. (A critical review of the best biography of Bob Moses, one of the major organizers for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.) Download
"Syriza Prompted Musings." Mike Miller. Stansbury Forum. August 30, 2015. (A critical analysis of the Greek left political party’s effort to re-negotiate its international debt.) Download
HERE'S THE LATEST
"The War On Drugs,"Stansbury Forum, October 2, 2020. (A review of Chasing the Scream: The Search for the Truth About Addiction. Johann Hari. Bloomsberry paperback, 2019.) Download
"Two Capitalisms: A Challenge To Democratic Socialists, Social Democrats, Progressives and Welfare State Liberals." Mike Miller (Slightly revised from CounterPunch, September 24-27, 2020.) Download
"Not Quite Right: An Assessment of An Assessment of the Sanders Campaign," Mike Miller. May 1, 2020. Download
"The Gold Standard." November, 2019. (A shorter version of this article was published in two parts in Social Policy Winter 2019 and Spring 2020. The article answers the question, "What constitutes the gold standard for the work of small 'd' democratic people power organizers?")Download
"The Classic Organizer ~ Bob Moses," Stansbury Forum, May 12, 2019. Download
"Masterless Men," Stansbury Forum, April 28, 2019. Download
"Complicity," Counter Punch, April 5, 2019. Download
"What's Our Brand Name?" Social Policy, July, 2018. Download
"The Farmworkers and Their Allies In the Early to Mid-1960s," July, 2018. Download
"The Supreme Court In Perspective," July, 2018. Download
"Chuck McDew: An Appreciation 55 Years Later," Stansbury Forum, April 19, 2018. Download, Link to Article
E-BOOK
Mike Miller: Oral History/Interview, Volume 1: Childhood through 1967, December, 2012. Download
"The Gold Standard." November, 2019. (A shorter version of this article was published in two parts in Social Policy Winter 2019 and Spring 2020. The article answers the question, "What constitutes the gold standard for the work of small 'd' democratic people power organizers?")Download
"Report from Greece: Preliminary Thoughts," Stansbury Forum, September 28, 2017. Download
"A Small 'd' Democratic Reflection on Hurricane Irma," CounterPunch, September 22, 2107. Download
"What's Our Brand Name?" Social Policy, July, 2018. Download
“The Perfect Organizer—Almost,” CounterPunch, April 15, 2016. (A review of America’s Social Arsonist: Fred Ross and Grassroots Community Organizing in the Twentieth Century.) Download
“The Art of Negotiations,” The Stansbury Forum, April 4, 2016. Download
“New Labor’s Debt to Saul Alinsky?” CounterPunch, March 31, 2016. (A review and critique of Jane McAlevey’s The Crisis of New Labor and Alinsky’s Legacy...)Download
"Syriza Prompted Musings." Mike Miller. Stansbury Forum. August 30, 2015. Download
“The Student Movement and Saul Alinsky: An Alliance That Never Happened.” (From the forthcoming book Too Many Martyrs: Student Massacres at Orangeburg, Kent & Jackson State During the Vietnam War Era, edited by Susie Erenrich, Director, Cultural Center for Social Change.) Download
Beyond The Politics of Place: A Critical Review. Critique of Gary Delgdo’s book, ORGANIZE Training Center. Republished in COMM-ORG, 1996, 2014. Download
“The Decline and Fall of San Francisco," CounterPunch, November 7-9, 2014. Download
“Building at the Base: An Example from Brazil,” ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, May, 2014. Download
“Saul Alinsky and the Left: Why Is He So Controversial?” Chapter in Saul Alinsky Conflit et Democratie Locale. Suzie Guth, editor; L’Harmattan; 2013. Download
“Winning Battles and Losing the War: The Progressive Advocacy World,” (Chapter in the book From Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, Occupy, and the Pursuit of Equitable Access to Credit. Chester Hartman and Gregory D. Squires, co-editors; New Village Press, 2013. (From a talk given at the John Marshall School of Law, Chicago, October, 2012.) Download
“Bardacke’s Alinsky," A “deliberation” with Frank Bardacke on his understanding of Saul Alinsky as written in his book Trampling Out The Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers. May 11, 2012. At International Longshore & Warehouse Union, San Francisco. Download
“A Conversation on Building People Power for Transformational Change,” With Ricardo Levins Morales, Social Policy, Winter, 2011. Download
“What Are We Trying To Build?” ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, 2011. Download
“The Challenge.” Remarks to the Gamaliel Foundation 6-Day Workshop on Community Organizing," Sonoma, California. July 15, 2011. Download
“The Plague of the Nonprofits,” (Full text of an article that appeared in shorter versions in Shelterforce (Winter, 2010) and Class Matters (December, 2010).) Download
“Alinsky for the Left,” Dissent, Winter, 2010. Download
“Top Down vs. Bottom Up: What Do Grassroots Organizers Actually Do When They Organize?” CounterPunch, February 5 – 7, 2010. (A response to Mark Rudd’s article “When Spontaneity Fails…What It Takes to Build a Movement.") Download
“A Critique of John McKnight & John Kretzmann’s 'Community in the Eighties: Toward a Post-Alinsky Agenda,'” COMM-ORG Papers, Volume 15, 2009. Download
Can The Debate Be Resolved? Community Organizing vs Community Development. A report sponsored by The Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector Research Fund. Third printing, 2009. Download
“People Power in San Francisco,” Race, Poverty & The Environment, Spring, 2008. Download
“Organizing and Education: Saul Alinsky, Paulo Freire & Myles Horton.” (Full text of an article that appeared in shorter versions in Social Policy (Fall, 1993), Poverty, Race & The Environment (Fall, 2007), and Educating for Equity (Fall, 2007).) Download
“On Organizing.” Notes from a Talk at Noe Valley Ministry Forum of Odd Mondays, September 25, 2006. Download
“Organizing, Who Divides Whom, and the ‘Social Issues’,” Social Policy, Fall, 2003. Download
“Community Organization Vision and the Electoral Tactic,” Socialist Review. Download
RELIGION
“Lost Among Christians,” Social Policy, Fall, 2000. Download
“New Life Community Church: The Dynamics of Building a Faith Community,” With Marilyn Stranske, ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, July, 1994. Download
LABOR
"The Farmworkers and Their Allies In the Early to Mid-1960s," July, 2018. Download
"A Review of Fred B. Glass, 'From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement.'" Oakland: University of California Press, 2016. Download
“New Labor’s Debt to Saul Alinsky?” CounterPunch, March 31, 2016. (A review and critique of Jane McAlevey’s The Crisis of New Labor and Alinsky’s Legacy...)Download
“The Boycott," Social Policy, Fall, 2015. (An interview with farmworker boycott coordinator Nick Jones.) Download
“Have Mercy,” Review of With God on Our Side. The Struggle for Workers’ Rights in a Catholic Hospital,” by Adam Reich, New Labor Forum, January/February, 2013. Download
“How to be an Internal Organizer: Fred Hirsch and Plumbers Union Local 393,” Social Policy, 2010. Download
“The Farmworkers and Their Allies In the Early to Mid-1960s,” Farmworker Movement Documentation Project, UC Davis Library, 2006. Download
“Unions, Community Organizing, Social Issues and Electoral Politics,” Social Policy, Winter, 2002/03. Download
“Renewing Labor: A Report from the Field,” Michael Eisenscher & Mike Miller. (Full text of an article that appeared in shorter versions in Social Policy, Winter, 2001, and Working USA, in August, 2001.) Download
"What Labor Movement." Boston Review. Summer, 1996. Download
STUDENT NONVIOLENT COORDINATING COMMITTEE, MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM DEMOCRATIC PARTY, THE MOVEMENT IN MISSISSIPPI (Download all documents in this section here, or download documents individually below.)
"Chuck McDew: An Appreciation 55 Years Later," Stansbury Forum, April 19, 2018. Download, Link to Article
"Danny Lyon -- Message To The Future," Stansbury Forum, November 27, 2016. Download
"The Organizer's Organizer: Bob Moses and the Fight for Voting Rights," DISSENT Online, November 7, 2016. (A review of Robert Parris Moses: A Life in Civil Rights and Leadership at the Grassroots) Download
"Give Me Back My Name: Joe Rauh and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party’s 1964 Democratic Party Convention Challenge." August 4, 2014. Download
“The Student Movement and Saul Alinsky: An Alliance That Never Happened.” (From the forthcoming book Too Many Martyrs: Student Massacres at Orangeburg, Kent & Jackson State During the Vietnam War Era, edited by Susie Erenrich, Director, Cultural Center for Social Change.) Download
“Mike Miller on Freedom Summer and Beyond. Interview by Peter Olney,” Stansbury Forum, August/September, 2014. Download
"Notes of a Veteran: The Mississippi Summer Project 50th Anniversary Reunion," CounterPunch, July 11-13, 2014. Download
“Prefigurative Politics and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,” Berkeley Journal of Sociology, November 3, 2014. Download
“The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party: 50 Years Later A Time for Evaluation,” CRMVet.org, Spring, 2014. (A revised version of article that was published in the Spring, 2014, issue of Social Policy.) Download
“Freedom is a Constant Struggle,” Review of Mississippi books by Sue Sojourner, Kwame Hasan Jeffries, J. Todd Moye, Emilye Crosby, & Unita Blackwell, CounterPunch Weekend Edition, May 10-12, 2013. Download
“SNCC—the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—Gathers 50 Years After It Started: A Report on the 2010 Reunion at Shaw University, Raleigh, NC,” Poverty & Race Reports. July/August 2010. Download
“Commentary on Walter Mondale’s February, 2000, Speech, ‘Atlantic City Revisited’,” ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, 2006. Download
“Kwame Ture: Memories,” Social Policy, 1999. Download
“The Winners Get To Write History," Review of Walking With The Wind--A Memoir of the Movement, by John Lewis with Michael Orso, Social Policy, Summer, 1998. Download
“Mississippi Musings: Freedom Summer Revisited,” Social Policy, Fall 1994. Download
“Mississippi Movement Memories,” Review of Minds Stayed on Freedom, by The Youth of the Rural Organizing, Christianity & Crisis, October 21, 1991. Download
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party: "Race Has Kept Us Both in Poverty," The Movement, May, 1965. Download
Sit-in Anniversary Speech, February 1, 1964 (At the 26th anniversary meeting of the People’s World in San Francisco.) Download
“Freedom Now – the SNCC Story,” Charles McDew, with Mike Miller, the liberal democrat, December 1962. Download
WORKING PAPERS PREPARED FOR SNCC NATIONAL STAFF MEETINGS
Police and African-Americans: A review essay. Mike Miller. Social Policy. September, 2017. Download
"Detroit, the Movie," Stansbury Forum, September 17, 2017. Download
"Racism in America: Deep or Shallow? Building Solidarity and Dealing with Racism," 2013. (Shorter versions appeared in Social Policy and Class Matters.)Download
“At The Edge of Truth: A Partial History of the King Years.” Review of Taylor Branch’s At Canaan’s Edge, Social Policy. 2004. Download
“A Review of Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65, by Taylor Branch,” ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, July, 1998. Download
“An Organizer Looks at Loss of Community in the Fillmore,” San Francisco Progress, August 8, 1987. (Gentrification in San Francisco’s African-American community.) Download
“Listen to Those Blue Collar Blues,” Christianity & Crisis, 1986. (A review of Blue Collar Ministry, by Tex Sample, Judson Press, 1984.) Download
POLITICS AND IDEAS
"The War On Drugs,"Stansbury Forum, October 2, 2020. (A review of Chasing the Scream: The Search for the Truth About Addiction. Johann Hari. Bloomsberry paperback, 2019.) Download
"Report from Greece: Preliminary Thoughts," Stansbury Forum, September 28, 2017. Download
"What's Our Brand Name?" Social Policy, July, 2018. Download
"The Supreme Court In Perspective," July, 2018. Download
"Reflections on the State of the Union Prompted by the Los Angeles School Board Election," Social Policy, July 21, 2017. Download
"Response to 'Resistance to Trump Will Separate Progressives from Neoliberals,'" by Peter Olney & Rand Wilson, Stansbury Forum, February 5, 2017. Download
"Racism, Classism, Sexism and Other Isms and the Election," Stansbury Forum, November, 2016. Download
“The Left and Presidential Primaries," Review of The Primary Route: How the 99% Take On the Military Industrial Complex, Social Policy, Spring, 2016. Download
“What’s Next? Thoughts on the Bernie Sanders Campaign,” Stansbury Forum, July, 2016. Download
“The Left and Presidential Primaries," Review of The Primary Route: How the 99% Take On the Military Industrial Complex, Social Policy, Spring, 2016. Download
“What’s Next? Thoughts on the Bernie Sanders Campaign,” Stansbury Forum, July, 2016. Download
“Syriza Prompted Musings,” Stansbury Forum, August 30, 2015. Download
“Prefigurative Politics and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,” Berkeley Journal of Sociology, November 3, 2014. Download
“Tiananmen Square Repeat? Lessons Hong Kong Might Learn,” CounterPunch, October 6, 2014, and, “How Might Hong Kong’s Democracy Movement Proceed?” CounterPunch, October 21, 2014. Download
“The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party: 50 years Later a Time for Evaluation,” CRMVet.org, Spring, 2014. (A revised version of article that was published in the Spring, 2014, issue of Social Policy.) Download
“Thoughts On Obama, Progressives, The Left, and The Future.” ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, March, 2013. Download
“Winning Battles and Losing the War: The Progressive Advocacy World,” (Chapter in the book From Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, Occupy, and the Pursuit of Equitable Access to Credit. Chester Hartman and Gregory D. Squires, co-editors; New Village Press, 2013. (From a talk given at the John Marshall School of Law, Chicago, October, 2012.) Download
“Putting ‘Isms’ in Their Place," Social Policy, Winter, 2012. Download
“A Conversation on Building People Power for Transformational Change,” With Ricardo Levins Morales, Social Policy, Winter, 2011. Download
“The Plague of the Nonprofits,” (Full text of an article that appeared in shorter versions in Shelterforce (Winter, 2010) and Class Matters (December, 2010).) Download
“Alinsky for the Left,” Dissent, Winter, 2010. Download
“Commentary on Walter Mondale’s February, 2000, Speech, ‘Atlantic City Revisited’,” ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, 2006. Download
“Wedges, Dividers and Majorities,” Social Policy, Summer, 2005. Download
“Where’s the Outrage?” Social Policy, Spring, 2005. Download
“The War on Poverty: A PBS Special,” Social Policy, Spring, 1997. (A review of the PBS documentary.) Download
"Poland: Observations, Questions and Reflections," ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, September, 1996. Download
“Listen to Those Blue Collar Blues,” Christianity & Crisis, 1986. (A review of Blue Collar Ministry, by Tex Sample, Judson Press, 1984.) Download
"Why Prop 13 Won and What It Means," Just Economics, August, 1978. Download
“Notes On Institutional Change,” Social Policy. Winter, 1972/73. Download
“The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party: ‘Race Has Kept Us Both In Poverty’,” The Movement, May, 1965. Download
“How to Reach Voters: Amateurs, Pros, and a Strategy for the Club Movement,” the liberal democrat, January, 1963. Download
“On the Passing of C. Wright Mills,” Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 1962. Download
“Nixon Sets the Trap,” the liberal democrat, June, 1962. Download
“The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party: 50 years Later a Time for Evaluation,” CRMVet.org, Spring, 2014. (A revised version of article that was published in the Spring, 2014, issue of Social Policy.) Download
“The Eagle and the Worm,” In The Active Society Revisited; Wilson Carey McWilliams, Editor; Rowman & Littlefield; December, 2005. (Twenty-five year later perspectives on The Active Society, by Amitai Etzioni.) Download
“Populist Promises and Problems,” in The New Populism, Harry C. Boyte & Frank Riessman, Editors; Temple Univ. Press. Download
BOOK LENGTH REPORTS
Beyond The Politics of Place: A Critical Review. Critique of Gary Delgdo’s book, ORGANIZE Training Center. Republished in COMM-ORG, 1996, 2014. Download
Can The Debate Be Resolved? Community Organizing vs Community Development. A report sponsored by The Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector Research Fund. Third printing, 2009. Download
"Poland: Observations, Questions and Reflections," ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, September, 1996. Download
Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, Report of the Special Task Force,1993. Download
Report from Israel: Observations, Questions & Analysis, ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, December, 1990. Download
Brazil Reality Tour: Observations, Questions & Analysis, ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, 1989. Download
TALKS and SPEECHES
“The State of The City." Remarks to San Franciscans Planning for Urban Renewal (SPUR), June 14, 2014. Download
“Winning Battles and Losing the War: The Progressive Advocacy World,” (Chapter in the book From Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, Occupy, and the Pursuit of Equitable Access to Credit. Chester Hartman and Gregory D. Squires, co-editors; New Village Press, 2013. (From a talk given at the John Marshall School of Law, Chicago, October, 2012.) Download
“Bardacke’s Alinsky," A “deliberation” with Frank Bardacke on his understanding of Saul Alinsky as written in his book Trampling Out The Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers. May 11, 2012. At International Longshore & Warehouse Union, San Francisco. Download
“The Challenge.” Remarks to the Gamaliel Foundation 6-Day Workshop on Community Organizing," Sonoma, California. July 15, 2011. Download
“On Organizing.” Notes from a Talk at Noe Valley Ministry Forum of Odd Mondays, September 25, 2006. Download
VIDEOS
“Interview with Mike Miller: The Community Organizer Genealogy Project." Link to Video
“Mike Miller Talks About 'People Power: The Community Organizing Tradition of Saul Alinksy.'" Link to Video
"Kate Coleman KQED Interview with Mike Miller," 1972. Link to Video
OUT OF PRINT (Accessible through "The Mike Miller Collection," at the California Historical Society, San Francisco.)
BOOK-LENGTH REPORTS ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZING:
Report from Eastern Europe: A Trip to Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria, ORGANIZE! Training Center Publications, 1992.
RECOMMENDED PUBLICATIONS
DISSERTATIONS:
The Politics of Change: The Rise and Fall of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, by Rachel Reinhard. Download