Description

On April 10, 1966, a crowd of 10,000 farm workers and supporters gathered at the California state capitol to celebrate victory in one of the most significant strikes in American history-one that made Cesar Chavez famous as leader of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW).
In Why David Sometimes Wins , Marshall Ganz tells the story of the UFW's ground-breaking victory, drawing out larger lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural enterprises relied on migrant labor-a cheap, unorganized, and powerless workforce. In 1965, after successive waves of failed organizing attempts, the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, and the three-year-old NFWA all found themselves on the ground, recruiting members. That year, some 800 Filipino grape workers began a strike, under the aegis of the AFL-CIO. The UFW soon joined the action with some 2,000 Mexican workers. The UFW's leaders turned the strike into a kind of civil rights struggle; they engaged in civil disobedience, mobilized support from churches and students, boycotted growers, and transformed their struggle into La Causa , a farm workers' movement that eventually triumphed over the grape industry's Goliath. Why did they succeed? How can the powerless challenge the powerful successfully? Ganz points to three elements: the greater motivation of their leaders; the diversity of their community ties, information, and skills; and their creative decision-making processes. In total, the ability, or resourcefulness, to devise good strategy and turn short-term advantages into long-term gains.
As both a longtime movement organizer and scholar, Ganz provides insight unavailable anywhere else. Authoritative in scholarship and magisterial in scope, this book constitutes a seminal contribution to learning from the movement's struggles, set-backs, and successes.

Reviews

"A brilliant new book."--The Nation online

"Cesar Chavez and the UFW were beacons--inspirations for the labor movement and for the Latino and civil rights movements--and Marshall Ganz played a part in each. Through his wise, wonderful book, the legacy of the UFW lives, offering current and future organizers, political leaders, and the people of neighborhoods throughout the world the lessons to create change and pursue justice in the face of seemingly unbeatable odds. Si, se puede ."--Antonio R. Villaraigosa, 41st Mayor of the City of Los Angeles

"How does David defeat Goliath and, equally important, avoid becoming Goliath? The answer is to develop strategic capacity, an ongoing interactive process of experimentation, learning and adapting. This fascinating book shows how Cesar Chavez and the UFW created and then lost its strategic capacity--an important lesson on leadership and organization."--Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard, and author of The Powers to Lead

"This book is a must read for organizers. The analysis of how a small and poor, but motivated, group of workers triggered a social movement provides invaluable lessons on what to do and not do as we struggle with the challenges of the 21st century."--Andy Stern, President, Service Employees International Union, and author of A Country That Works

"Drawing on a lifetime of experiences in efforts ranging from the Civil Rights and union movements to grass roots organizing for Obama, Marshall Ganz tells us how the apparently less powerful can mobilize to challenge the powerful and create social change. Why David Sometimes Wins makes pivotal contributions to social movement theory and tells a compelling story about the farm workers of the 1960s. This book is a must read for all who want to learn about strategy and resourcefulness -- in real world politics and organizations as well as in the classroom."--Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University

Product Details

368 pages; 10 b/w line illus., 18 b/w halftones; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-516201-1ISBN10: 0-19-516201-3

About the Author(s)