**Saul David Alinsky** (1909 - 1972) was a [community
organizer](Community_Organizing "wikilink"), writer and philosopher.

## Life

Saul was born in 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, to Russian Jewish immigrant
parents, the only surviving son of Benjamin Alinsky's marriage to his
second wife, Sarah Tannenbaum Alinsky. They never became involved in the
socialist movement and were strict Orthodox Jews, with a life centered
around work and a synagogue. Although he abandoned his Jewish faith for
agnosticism at age 12, he faced constant anti-semitism growing up. He
moved to Los Angeles in the 1920s and finished high school in 1926.

He graduated with a bachelor in philosophy from the university of
Chicago in 1930, and major in archeology. He planned to be a
professional archeologist, but the [Great
Depression](Great_Depression "wikilink") put plans away for this. He
began to work as a criminologist for the State of Illinois, and began
organizing with the [Congress of Industrial
Organizations](Congress_of_Industrial_Organizations "wikilink"). But
slowly became less active in the labor movement and more with general
community organizing. He successfully organized slum communities, and
also began organizing in Kansas City, Detroit and Southern California.

He never joined a [political party](Political_Party "wikilink"), but
identified as a 'small c [communist](Communism "wikilink")' and became a
legendary community organizer. But died of a heart attack in California.
Before his death, he expressed a desire to go to hell, to organize it,
culminating in an uprising against satan.\[1\]

## Ideas

Saul developed 13 'rules' for radicals to follow in order to
successfully challenge the wealthy and power. They are:

1.  "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you
    have."
2.  "Never go outside the expertise of your people."
3.  "Whenever possible go outside the expertise of the enemy."
4.  "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."
5.  "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon."
6.  "A good tactic is one your people enjoy."
7.  "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag."
8.  "Keep the pressure on."
9.  "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself."
10. "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that
    will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition."
11. "If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through
    into its counterside."
12. "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative."
13. "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

## Works

  - [Rules for Radicals](Rules_for_Radicals "wikilink")

## References

<references />

1.  [Wikipedia](Wikipedia "wikilink") -
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky>