SOCIAL JUSTICE AND JUSTICE UNITED – HOW IT IS BEING INTRODUCED INTO OUR COMMUNITIES THROUGH OUR CHURCHES AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
This is the original report that was sent out last year (2010) by the Conservative Women’s Forum regarding Social Justice and Justice United and how it is being applied by IAF (Industrial Areas Foundation) in our local communities. Nancy
This information is being sent out because what is happening here in the Chapel Hill, N.C. area is probably happening all over our country.
In November 2009, several members of our Conservative Women’s Forum attended a meeting that was mentioned in a local church bulletin. This meeting was sponsored by JUSTICE UNITED which is a newly renamed local organization which is a spinoff of Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). At the meeting, our members became concerned about the real purpose of this group and decided to do some additional checking.
The following information is gathered from IAF’s web site, a newspaper article from the Chapel Hill News, a list of local churches and community associations that have donated money to Justice United, and the history of IAF as it pertains to Saul Alinsky:
IAF, according to their web site, develops organizations that use power – organized people and organized money- in effective ways. The secret to IAF’s success lies in its commitment to identify, recruit, train, and develop leaders in every corner of every community where IAF works. There are 59 IAF affiliates functioning in 21 states, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
Their leaders and organizers build organizations whose primary purpose is power – the ability to act- and whose chief product is SOCIAL CHANGE. (sound familiar?)
Their web site is peppered with statements such as “use those new political realities to invent and establish new social realities”. Also, “IAF leaders and organizers offer training opportunities for those with the patience and vision to create new political realities and the passion and discipline needed to generate sustained social change.” They also value “the tradition of labor organizing and worker rights”
Their web site also states “The current generation of IAF organizations began in the mid-1970’s and was the product of the insight and effort of the person who succeeded SAUL ALINSKY as executive director of the IAF, Edward T. Chambers.. The first three modern IAF groups were the Citizens Organized for Public Service (COPS), in San Antonio, Texas; Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) in Maryland, and the Queens Citizens Organization (QCO) in New York”.
Since then, 59 local organizations have emerged in regional clusters.
WHERE ARE THEY BUILDING THEIR POLITICAL BASE?
Their web site states “The IAF is non-ideological and strictly non-partisan, but proudly, publicly, and persistently political. The IAF builds a political base within society’s rich and complex third sector – the sector of voluntary institutions that includes RELIGIOUS congregations, labor locals, homeowner groups, recovery groups, parents associations, settlement houses, immigrant societies, schools, seminaries, orders of men and women religious, and others. And then the leaders use that base to compete at times, to confront at times, and cooperate at times with leaders in the public and private sectors.”
The following information was sent by one of our members who attended the meeting:
Dear Nancy – At the bottom of this e-mail is a list of the members of Justice United as listed on the front of their public program Oct 26. I suggest that for sure you google the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). I also came across another handout from this meeting, a postcard to send in to North Carolina United Power. It is part of a campaign accusing banks of certain things, payday lending and rapid tax return refunds, for example, that banks don’t normally do as well as demanding capping interest rates at 10%. It looks like another slick campaign. I could not find NC United Power but I did find United Power.com. It is another IAF org out of Chicago. Look at their 10% Campaign. That is what is also apparently here in NC.
Barbee Baptist Church North Carolina Hillel
Binkley Baptist Church Orange County VOICE
Campus Hope Parents Advocating for Children Together
Campus Y Pine Knolls Neighborhood Association
Chapel Hill Kehillah Poder de Dios Pentecostal Church
Christ Church Methodist RENA/CEER
Church of Reconciliation St. Matthews Episcopal Church
Church of the Advocate St. Paul AME Church
Community Church of Chapel Hill St. Thomas More Catholic Church
El Centro Latino SWITCH Network
Empowerment Inc. The Apprend Foundation
Grace Community Church The Chapel of the Cross
Habitat for Humanity UNC NOW
Hillsborough United Church of Christ UNC Organizing
Holy Family Catholic Church United Church of Chapel Hill
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Unity Center of Peace
Inter-Faith Council University Presbyterian Church
Justice in Action University United Methodist Church
Neighbors for Responsible Growth
Newman Catholic CenterThe following article regarding the newly named Justice United was published in the November 1, 2009 edition of The Chapel Hill News:SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1,2009
·THE CHAPEL Hill…
Activist group calls for changes
BY JESSE JAMES DECOHTO STAff WRITER
CHAPEL HilL – A new chapter of the community-organizing group that trained Barack Obama cha11enged local politicians Monday to embrace an agenda that includes increasing affordable housing, raising wages for government employees, protecting immigrant renters, closing the racial achievement gap in local schools and expanding access to health care.
Justice United formed earlier this year under the name “Orange County Organizing Committee,” a sister organization of Durham CAN and Raleigh ROAR. Together, they form Triangle CAN, part of the Industrial Areas Foundation, an activist group established in 1940 to unionize meatpackers in the Midwest.
IAF has won campaigns for living wages, affordable housing and school reform. Justice United recently participated in an IAF march in Charlotte, confronting Bank of America and Wells Fargo on high credit-card rates.
But most of the group’s goals are local: a new school bus route to keep children in Habitat for Humanity’s Rusch Hollow neighborhood from having to cross a busy road while walking home; keeping a trash-transfer station away from neighborhoods that have lived with the county landfill
since the 1970s; maintenance of sidewalks, lighting and trees in historically black neighborhoods; expanded hours and free medical care at UNC Healthcare clinics.
Justice United asked candidates for Chapel Hill Town Council, Carrboro Board of Aldermen and the Chapel Hill Carrboro school board to commit to an individual two hour meeting with group members within 90 days of the election. The group also requested a response to a recent audit in the Northside and Pine Knolls neighborhoods that found cracked sidewalks, broken lighting, litter and overcrowded student housing.
Three mayoral candidates and Town Council candidates Jon DeHart, Ed Harrison, Jim Merritt, Matt Pohlman, Will Raymond and Penny Rich attended. Incumbent Laurin Easthom and chalIenger Gene Pease didn’t attend.
Mayoral candidate Augustus Cho, a native Korean, questioned the exclusivity of organizing black, Latino and white parents to improve schools. “I’m asking myself the obvious question,” Cho said., “I’m hoping that this is
an oversight.”
The Rev. Mark Davison, pastor at the Church of Reconciliation, assured Cho the conversation would also included Asians
Mayoral candidate Matt Czajkowski used the opportunity to stump on commercial development, the centerpiece of his platform. Both Chapel Hill and Orange County are out of money,” he said. “We’re actually having to sort of cut back. We have to grow the pie. We have to find a way to bring more resources into our community.”
Rival Mark Kleinschmidt appealed to Justice United’s democratic values. emphasizing his work as a former highschool civics teacher and lawyer for indigent clients on deathrow. “You can make a difference in your lives by participating in local government,” he said.
Justice United brings together UNC students, churches and congregations, affordable-housing and social-service agencies and neighborhood conservation groups. The IAF affiliate aims to use the force of numbers to influence policy in Orange County.
“We change nothing in this community without power,” said the Rev. Thomas Nixon of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The following information was sent to us by one of the attendees of the meeting:
SAUL ALINSKY AND CHAPEL HILL’S JUSTICE UNITED GROUP
Saul Alinsky was the son of Russian Jewish parents, born on Jan. 30, 1909 in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Chicago intending to be an archaeologist, but soon fell under the spell of Marxist ideas. He was dismayed by the heavy-handed Russian and classical approach to Communism, so he changed his approach to one promoting socialism in ways designed to be acceptable to middle class Americans. He showed a talent for organizing groups, and soon founded the Industrial Areas Foundation, originally intended to improve living conditions for lower middle class residents of Chicago. He developed rules as a guide to radical organizers, which he published most notably in two books: Reveille For Radicals (1946) and Rules For Radicals (1971). Saul Alinsky died in June 1972. Two notable Democrats strongly influenced by Alinsky are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Hillary actually met Alinsky, and did her senior thesis at Wellesley on Alinsky’s ideas. Obama came under the influence of Alinsky’s ideas when he came to work for IAF after graduating from law school. The well-known organization ACORN was founded by Wade Rathke, a disciple of Alinsky. It has become well known for its questionable fund-raising and voter registration tactics, and has come under indictment in numerous states for those practices. Wade Rathke’s brother has been reliably reported as having embezzled about $1,000,000 from ACORN. The embezzlement was kept quiet by Rathke and he found donors to reimburse ACORN for the $1,000,000. To my knowledge, no criminal action was taken against Rathke’s brother. ACORN has received in excess of $50,000,000 in federal funds, plus millions in private donations. Recently, ACORN has been temporarily defunded by Congress because of widely broadcast televised coverage of flagrantly illegal practices such as supporting prostitution and tax evasion. Closer to home, the newly renamed local organization, Justice United, is a spinoff of IAF. Its lineage is evident from the written publicity available. It claims that its chief aims are “political power and money.” It is currently organizing local churches around Chapel Hill to enhance its political clout and fund-raising ability. One source has reported that Justice United has received around $38,000 mostly from local churches. At a recent “celebration” of its new name that drew over 400 attendees, it made local political candidates promise to undergo a two-hour interview each with Justice United representatives, and sign a covenant for the organization. There are also other organizations in the area. CAN in Durham, N.C. is one. There are also organizations in Charlotte, N.C. (HELP) and in Winston-Salem, N.C. (CHANGE). If the above information is troubling to you, we urge you to google Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) for additional information. Be sure to click on the sections under the headings: WHO, WHAT, WHERE AND WHY. You might also check with your church or community organizations to determine if they donate money to organizations that are affiliated with IAF. Thanks Nancy
