Here’s another review in our series on recommended reading for campaigners, community organisers, and other activists. What books have you learnt from, been challenged by, found inspiring – and what would you recommend to others?

Anne O’Brien reviews Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change by Cynthia Kaufman. Anne suggests this book for activist discussion groups – get in touch if you’d like to read this book with others.

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When asked by Holly to review my favourite activist book, I jumped at the opportunity to review Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change by Cynthia Kaufman. I had to resort to Google Books to find this one since my copy has been permanently borrowed (a sure sign of a good book – ed). I only had the introduction in hard copy. Even then I was exhilarated by Kaufman’s writing: her stories of her initial activist involvement reminded me how mesmerising and full of promise the first few wobbly steps into campaigning and radicalism can be.

“As people begin their engagement with movements for social justice, they often struggle to understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. Without some basic literacy in social theory, it is easy to be confused about what sort of issues one should be working on, how this work will ever end up making a difference, and how the things one doesn’t like in the world are related to each another.”

Kaufman’s clear style cuts to the heart of decades and layers of activist debates in the United States, which both resonate with my experiences in student activism in Sydney, and help me wrap my head around those debates I didn’t experience, showing what important values and considerations are at stake.

I think this clarity is the book’s greatest strength. Kaufman grounds her abstractions in stories to illustrate how mental models we create help us to understand experiences of oppression, organising and struggle, informing the political tendencies and strategies that emerge in the work of grassroots groups. Kaufman connects theory (e.g. conceptions of freedom, utopia, liberation, gender, sexuality, race, capitalism, nature, systems, strategy, alliances) with the day to day dilemmas that activists face in the practical work of challenging injustice.

Kaufman has an inclusive, humane and appreciative tone towards many points of view, bringing to the fore the richness and diversity of activist praxis. Rather than talking down to the reader, oversimplifying or being self righteous, she respects us and leaves ultimate judgements up to us, whilst implicitly encouraging flexibility and non-dogmatism by showing a breadth and depth of theoretical resources in the ways we can understand, educate and mobilise.

Over the last year in university circles I have often been frustrated by the lack of respect given to activists even by supposedly progressive academics. This book is a refreshing antidote. As a professor, Kaufman identifies as part of social movements and owes most of her insights to movement learning. She brings her theoretical knowledge into this book showing which areas of theory may be useful to activists, and thus is a bridge between activism and academia.

Ideas for Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change by Cynthia Kaufman is a gem: a wealth of activist knowledge and experience. It’s the kind of book I would encourage libraries to stock, educators to teach classes around, and activists to run reading groups on.

“It is easier to see how our actions can make a difference when we can see how the actions of others have made a difference in the past, and when we can understand activists are ordinary people like ourselves. Once we see the ways that the work of social change activists have had a significant impact on our lives a cynical word view that says we can’t make a difference begins to look less appealing. Why settle for a world in which we feel powerless to affect the problems around us, when we can connect ourselves to the people and movements that are responsible for making a better world?”

About the reviewer

Anne O’Brien is currently completing a PhD in Political and Social Thought at the University of Western Sydney. She is interested in organising and activism that values the diversity participants bring to groups, and has been involved in campaigning on trade justice, climate change and public transport.