The 13 Main Alinsky Tactics

October 11, 2009 -  alinskydefeater

1. Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
2. Never go outside the experience of your people.
3. Whenever possible go outside the experience of the enemy.
4. Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.
5. Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.
6. A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
7. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
8. Keep the pressure on with different tactics, and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.
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 Cited:
Alinsky, Saul Rules for Radicals. Toronto: Vintage Publishing 1971 - Rules for Radicals

Related:

The Alinsky Tactics – Rule by Rule

Part One:Background
Part Two: Rule #1
Part Three: Rules 2 and 3

Part Four: Rule 4
Part Five: Rule 5 is coming soon