I wish there was a free equivalent resource or list of books for achieving the same thing for those of us wanting to organise politically but are unable to afford the entry fee and commit to 3 hours each evening.

Hi Deyis. I read your comment and wanted to leave my own. In brief, I thought the exact same thing and was disappointed. I've spent the last few months asking around, basically trying to find resources to help me turn my aspirations into advocacy work. I can not find anything. I have a tiny substack where I write about things, I volunteer a little in my community, all aligned to try to keep people thinking about topics important to me. Yet, nothing to actually help me train, network, and do more important organizing.

If I find anything, I'll ping you. I'm going to reach out to a few old friends who were union organizers but got burned out by the contemporary political union movement being "the man" now.

You might actually find The Ralph Nader Radio Hour helpful to some extent. There's thinkers, writers, organizers he talks to that speak to this sometimes.

There's no single book that covers all nine modules of this course, but you can absolutely assemble a reading list that maps to each topic. Here's a suggestion:

Power & Strategy

Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky (1971) is the classic foundational text. For a more modern take, This Is an Uprising by Mark and Paul Engler covers how nonviolent movements actually create change.

Organizations as Systems

Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows is the go-to primer on systems thinking and is widely applicable to political ecosystems. Prisms of the People by Hahrie Han, Liz McKenna & Michelle Oyakawa specifically bridges systems thinking and movement organizations.

Leadership

No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age by Jane McAlevey is probably the most respected current book on movement leadership that goes beyond top-down command structures.

Group Dynamics & Conflict

Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown deals with the interpersonal and psychological dimensions of organizing, including conflict. The Art of Facilitation by Dale Hunter is a more practical complement.

Money in Organizations

This is the hardest module to find a direct book match for. Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva touches on the emotional and political dimensions of money in social change contexts.

Organizational Design & Governance

Reinventing Organizations by Frédéric Laloux covers organizational design in depth. For governance specifically, Sociocracy by Gerard Endenburg or Many Voices, One Song (on sociocracy) give you practical decision-making models.

Facilitation

The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures by Henri Lipmanowicz & Keith McCandless is highly practical and widely used in activist and nonprofit contexts.

Digital Tools

Tools for Grassroots Activists edited by Nora Gallagher & Lisa Myers covers intentional tool adoption for movements.

I hope this helps, internet friend.

...full disclosure, I haven't read them yet.

Edit: formatting

https://beehaw.org/post/26628467/5917846

This is amazing and I'm adding them all to my reading list, thank you!

Thanks for this! When I finish my brain candy reading (The Last Kingdom about Uthred the Saxon if I'm being honest), I'll bump these up on my list and get started.

Oh I forgot I had a print copy of this in grad school and gave it to a student before I resigned:

https://files.libcom.org/files/incite-the-revolution-will-not-be-funded-beyond-the-nonprofit-industrial-complex-2.pdf