Base Building & Direct Organizing

Use the metaphor of drilling, mining, or pumping resources out of the ground to show how wealth is pulled out of communities and how organizing can stop the drain.

We know what extraction looks like when we see an oil well, mine, or fracking operation: something valuable is pulled out of a place, carried somewhere else, and turned into wealth for someone else. Face-to-face communications can use this familiar image to explain what happens when corporations extract value from people’s labor, housing, land, and public resources and position collective action as a way to interrupt that process.

See it in action

Instead of:
Rent keeps going up. Are you concerned about rising housing costs in the neighborhood?

Try at the door:
We’ve been talking with neighbors about where all this rent money is going. Corporate landlords keep raising rents and pulling more wealth out of this neighborhood almost like drilling into the community and carrying away what’s valuable. We’re organizing tenants across the neighborhood to stop that drain and keep more of what we create here. What are you seeing in your building?

For a quick canvassing opener:
We’re talking with neighbors about how rising rents are pulling wealth out of our community and what we can do together to stop it. What have you been seeing?

Show how race was created to justify taking land, exploiting labor, and concentrating wealth and power and how those systems continue to shape inequality today.

Even short mobilization messages can make this history visible. Our research suggests showing how race was used to justify exploitation and dispossession, then connecting that history to the policies and systems shaping who holds wealth and power today. This helps show that racial inequality was made and that organizing can help remake the systems that sustain it.

See it in action:

At a community meeting:
“The inequalities we see in our neighborhood didn’t just happen. Race was created and used to justify taking land, exploiting people’s labor, and deciding who could build wealth and power. Those ideas were built into policies about housing, jobs, schools, and public investment, and we can still see their effects today. Understanding that history also reminds us that these systems were made by people. But together we can fight to change them.”

Discussion prompt:
Where do you see this history shaping our community today and where are people organizing to change it?

Use the language of fighting, pushing back, and winning to show that organizing is about building enough collective power to force change not simply making our voices heard.

Organizers already use the language of fights and victories. The research suggests leaning further into this language can help people understand what organizing does: people come together, build their numbers, take on powerful opponents, and fight to change who gets what and who gets to decide. An email or text can position each action as part of that larger fight.

See it in action

Instead of:
The council votes Thursday. Make sure they hear your voice.

Try:
We’ve been fighting for months to stop corporate developers from taking control of this land. On Thursday, the fight comes to the City Council. Three members haven’t committed and over the next 48 hours, we’re organizing 500 calls to build the pressure we need to win.

Use joy, care, creativity, and belonging to bring people together, strengthen relationships, and build the base.

Our research suggests that talking about joy as a source of community power can strengthen stories about collective action. Joy doesn’t have to sit outside the fight or simply provide relief from it. Celebrating, gathering, creating, and caring for one another can build the relationships, trust, and solidarity that help people organize and fight together.

See it in action
Instead of only talking with people at the door about what’s wrong, invite them into the relationships and joy that make the community strong. Ask what they love about the neighborhood, share what neighbors have accomplished together, and invite them to a gathering where people can connect, celebrate, and get involved in the next fight.

At the door:
“We’re talking with neighbors about what we love about this community and what we want to protect and build together. We’re getting together Saturday for food and music, celebrating what we’ve already won, and getting ready for the next fight. We’d love to have you there.”

Pair the immediate campaign goal with a concrete picture of what winning can make possible.

Base building requires urgency, but urgency doesn’t have to be rooted only in threat. Giving people something tangible to move toward can make participation about creating a different future, not simply stopping something bad.

See it in action
Imagine our neighborhood five years from now: families can afford to stay, public land belongs to the community, and the people who live here have a real say in what our community looks like. Tuesday’s vote won’t get us there by itself. But winning it moves us one step closer.

Sign for a community meeting:
We’re not just stopping what we don’t want. We’re organizing for what comes next.