LeBlanc & Kauffman on Grassroots Goals in the Digital Age

The digital era offers exciting new ways to empower and mobilize ordinary people to work together at the grassroots for change. Yet digital tools are no panacea, and can even pose serious problems for organizers if not used wisely.

The annual Organizing 2.0 conference offers digitally-minded organizers, fundraisers and strategists an opportunity to compare notes, learn how to effectively use digital tools to strengthen on-the-ground efforts, and plan for the future.

This year's conference, sponsored by The Murphy Institute for Worker Education (CUNY), New York State AFL-CIO, New York City Central Labor Council, and the New York Civic Engagement Table, drew participants from across the country to New York April 7 and 8 for hands-on workshops and trainings as well as panels and plenaries on pressing issues for trade unions and progressive nonprofits using digital tools.

A highlight this year was the exchange between Judith Le Blanc and L.A. Kauffman. on the development of organizing over the years, the role of women and challenges today. Click below to see and hear their full conversation.

Le Blanc is the Director of the Native Organizers Alliance, and Kauffman wrote the new book Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism. Both were leaders of United for Peace and Justice, the main coalition against the U.S. war in Iraq in the 2000s.