Tacoma IWW Organizing Tip #6 - Organizing Solidarity

Part 4 of 4

Submitted by Arthur J. Miller on 08/10/08

 

P. The mass media, daily papers, tv and radio:

1. Your press release should be short and to the point but included in what you send should be a longer article.

2, The press release should have on it "PRESS RELEASE" on the top and who it is from with good contact information. A press release is the only thing I'll put a phone number on. It should include how they can get more information on you cause, wen sites are good for that.

3. The press release should state how they can set up interviews.

4. I will send out press releases about two weeks before an event, in case they want to do interviews and or find more background information. Then I will send a press release a few days before an event.

5. With solidarity events or things you know will happen you have some targets, a boss, a politician or what ever. I will often include with the press release an open letter to a target that includes the target's contact information. Then on the bottom have "Copies Sent To" and list the media it is sent to and others who would be useful. I send that letter to the target. That puts additional pressure on the target and it uses the media to do it.

5. With tv and radio you want to include a short PSA with everything else.

6. I will e-mail and smail and sometimes fax press releases.

7. Make a good media list of every media contact information you can find. Often in papers it will give a e-mail address of reporters. Every reporter you talk to get their contact information.

8. If you want bad press or no press then get on your soapbox and rant and rave about the evils of the system and so on. But if you want good press don't personally offen the reporters but rather treat them with respect and tone down your shit. Sometimes with the media where the cause is not directly threating to them and the media is not too ideological, you can get them to write and print a good story. There are some media that will never give you good coverage and there are some that will blacklist you. For example, in 14 years in a row of Leonard Peltier marches in Tacoma, the local daily paper has never covered even one march. One year we had over 400 people marching and in another part of town there were 10 people picketing a store where they said drug dealers hungout. Which do you think the local paper covered?

So deal with reporters with respect and remember reporters are working people who in reality have more in common with you than their bosses. If they are going to be the boss's fools then them do it themselves and don't help them in that.

Sometime's a reporter will look for someone to interview that would give you bad press. I remember at one rally at a park a tv reporter interviewed a drunk who happened to be at the park and made it out like he was a part of our rally and they put his drunken words on tv. Another time a reporter at a Peltier rally decided to interview someone there that the reporter thought would not know anything about what was going on. That person was my nine year ago son. Big mistake! My son went into a very good talk on Peltier that shocked the reporter, I saw her jaw drop. My son had grown up with Peltier events, seen all the videos and had his own active role in things.

How I suggest handling reporters is to have media people from your group keep and eye out for them and when they see them go up and talk to them a give them a press release and offer to set up an interview for them.

Remember reporters are humans and they do have their personal viewpoints and emotions. Try to get work on those things. Nothing like after interviewing a media spokesperson then to do an interview of someone directly effected by the cause.

Once you can get a reporter on your side you will not believe what they can do. I'll use an example of the best press I have ever been involved in. When I lived in Kansas City I was a coordinator for Big Mountian food'supply runs, had been appointed by Dineh Elders. We held a rally in support of Big Mountain and we talked about the food/supply runs. A reporter from the Kansas City Star covered the rally and went back to her editor and requested that she do a story on the food/supply runs by going on one of them with us. We had around 3 tons of food for that run and she and a photograpther spent 5 days with us. They got to see the Dineh and the conditions the government forced them to live under and how strong they resisted. On the fifth day before they caught a plane back to Kansas City she talked to me for a while. She was in tears trying to explain the effect all this had on her. Well we got back to Kansas City and that next Sunday was her article on the front page and a few pages more, with great photos and the article was much better than if I had writen the article. Then the next week we had a tour of Dineh Elders coming to town. They first had an event in Lawrence, KS that the reporter and photograpther went to cover. The next day on the front page of the Kansas City Star was a great photo of one of the Enders, a story about the event and information on the events for the Elders in Kansas City.

Another media tactic I have used when doing media work for international days of solidarity with Leonard Peltier is. After we had got rallies set up internationally we did a press statement on that which listed all the places rallies were taking place. We then sent out to all those groups that press statement and a list of all the media we sent it to. We requested that each place that was having rallies write up their own press statement, that included all the places the rallies were at, about their local rally and not only send that to their local media but also to the media list we sent them. That meant that international media not only got the defense committee's press statement, but also press statement from over 30 locations that were having local rallies.

Q. Media spokeperson and media lookout people:

Sometimes the media will look for people to talk to that will not show your event in a good way. I remember once at a Peltier rally at a part the tv media talked to some drunk who just happen to be at the park and put that on tv. Have people who look out for the media and go up to them with a press statement and offer to set up an interview. And then have your media spokespersons set up to be interviewed.

R. Information packets:

Take your fliers, statements, good articles and put them together as an information packet on your struggle. This are very good for those who want more information so that they can help. I have also found that information packets sell very good to libraries.

S. Newsletters: Having a newsletter that up-dates supporters on the struggle and has continuing donation information and information on needs helps maintain your base of support. Some send their newsletter out by e-mail and others have both e-mail and smail newsletters.

Another good use of a newsletter is to make one that is of writings by those directly involved (like strikers) and families and friends. This gives supporters a look at the more human side of things that helps them understand the issues and the hardships. And it will give those directly involved in the struggle a voice and that will make them stronger.

T. Public speaking:

A bad speaker can make a strong struggle sound dull and weak and a good speaker can make a dull struggle sound full of life. I had the opportunity of having an Old time Wobbly soapboxer teach me about speaking and then I added what I learned through experience.

1. Know your subject well or use notes that are easy to read. Nothing breaks up the flow of a speech like stopping to read what you have write and nothing comes off phoney as standing up there and just reading a speech. Some people try to memorize a speech, but that comes out bad if you have to stop and think about what you forget. The most I ever do is come up with an opening line.

2. The opening. When you start speaking people will not be in full attention of you. So don't start off telling your story giving facts and figures, get their attention first. Most of the time I'll start off with something like "I am very glad you all could come out to our event" or something like that. Other times I may use a hook. A hook is something you sau to get people's attention. Like the famous Wobbly soapboxing hook. The Wobbly would go out to a town square where there is a lot of people and start with "I've been robbed! I've been robbed! I;ve been robbed by the capitalist class! And so have you Fellow Workers!" The Wobbly would then have everyone's attention. A little less dramatic is one I used a number of times speaking about Leonard Peltier: "Image for a moment living your life in a small cell, four walls closing in on you....?(then in that manner tell about Leonard's conditions by people imaging themselves in them) and then say" Image living your life like that, not because you are a criminal but rather because you took a stand for the well-being of your people? Image the life of Leonard Peltier." With this I have gotten people's attention, I have set the tone for the story and I have drawn into the story the people hearing me by asking the questions.

3. I would strongly suggest you say what your going to say as a story. Most people communicate by telling stories. Sitting around some bar for a while and just listen or a bunch of folks at lunch break, they convey their ideas by telling personal stories or stories they heard. The news media understands this and that is why most every you read in the daily paper or see on tv news is a story. And the media is very good at this and that is how they are able to manipulate people's thinking. So tell an easy to follow story as if you are speaking to a group of friends about something. Try not to jump around in time, rather try to follow a timeline as much as possible. Don't get distracked by side trips out of your story.

4. Try not to use too many facts and figures together. Break them up throughout your talk.

5. Do not speak in the same tone of voice. That can put people asleep.

6. Do not put all the ideas you seek to convey into one part. Break them up so that they are easyer to follow and be understood. And use something that happen to reenforce the idea you are explaining.

7. In most public speaking and in reading newspapers, most people will remember at best only 10% of what they hear or read. There are things you can do that will help you determine what people will remember. You do this by highlighting something you say. For example here is something I would say about Pine Ridge: "Pine Ridge has an unemployment rate of 86%. (pause) Can you image living in a community that had an unemployment rate of 86%? (pause)" I first made a statement of fact. Then I paused to let it sink in. Then I repeted the fact in a form of a question and paused again for people to think about the question. The majority of people hearing that would remember that. You can also highlight things with a change in volume. Start off speaking in a normal volume then in crease your volume until you have stated what you want people to remember then pause.

8. Bringing people into what you are talking about. You can do this by a good desciption of something they can visualize and then pausing. You can also do this by asking questions and pausing to let them think about it.

9. Break your talk up with pauses to let people think about what you said.

10. You want to first get people to agree with you with their minds, but that alone will not get them to act. For that you must reach them emotionally, put a fire in their gut. People agree with you intellectually but they most act upon their emotions. In other words they must care about what they agree with you on to act upon it. The more they care about that agreement the more likely they will act upon it.

11. Make eye contact with people who are hearing you.

12. Body landuage: though most people will not admit it by body language has an impact on both the speaker and those hearing the speaker. Don't stand there holding your body or your hands in your pockets. That conveys insecurity. Use your hands to help make points but not too much where they can be a distraction.

13. Your ending is as important as your opening because it is the last words they will hear from you.

U. In grassroots organizing the purpose is not to create followers but rather to get people to stand with you and be active in the struggle. That means getting as many people involved as possible. Find things for people to do. Don't start people off with too much to do. It is wise to team people up with other people so that there is not the stress of single responsiblities. Rather than just push for your plan, try to include the ideas of others if possible. With that said it is needed in many things to have coordinators or organizers. Someone needs to keep track of the over all work to make sure that it is done. If you include a lot of people, a few, for one reason or another, may not do their work and that could have a bad effect on what you are doing. So as a coordinator you keep up with what everyone is doing and if something important is not being done either do it yourself or find someone else to do it. Don't act like a boss, act like you are giving help, but make sure all that needs to be done gets done.

V. Follow-up: The most important time of any event or action is not before the event or action, it is not the event or action itself, but rather the time after the event or action. Did what you did inspire people? Did it give them the tools and knowledge to get involved in the struggle? Every event and action should be viewed in part as starting points to activism. Everyone who becomes active starts somewhere, even the most famous activists started somewhere. If it were not for the action of Rosa Parks, would Dr. King have gone on to do what he did in the civil rights movement? You may never know the true sucess of your event or action because you may never know that it was a starting point for someone who goes on to do great things. So the most important part of your event or action is in creating a follow-up for people to get involved.