Camp Wellstone - Storytelling for Political Action!

I will be attending a weekend training in grassroots political action for citizen activists - Camp Wellstone!

This is an excerpt taken from their article on 'How Good Storytelling Can Save the Left'

Wellstone Action, the progressive training institute created after the death of Senator Paul Wellstone, tries to [heal the divide of 'head' and 'heart']. Wellstone used to say, “Electoral politics without community organizing is a politics without a base; community organizing without electoral politics is a marginalized politics. And community organizing and electoral politics without a clear, progressive public policy agenda is a politics without a head, without a direction.” Wellstone Action combines all three and now trains out of this model, which it calls the “Wellstone Triangle.”

Changing the world requires both organizing and mobilizing. Organizing is about building relationships, finding common cause, and developing new leaders. Mobilizing is about moving self and others to collective action around common cause. The power is in bringing these together. If all we focus on is mass mobilization, we will quickly find a fractured and oftentimes dwindling following behind us—if there is any following at all. This is the classic challenge of large organizations that try to create nationally driven “movement” campaigns, which seldom have anything moving on the ground more than slogans and heaps of cash. Conversely, if we build relationships and fail to move people to action through a pragmatic analysis of power, we will have a really good holiday card list and large Facebook following, but will not shift power or deliver real policy outcomes.

Let’s go beyond the head and the heart and flesh out the whole body. In this analogy, issues are represented by our head. Most of us think and care about lots of issues; we take action on far fewer. We choose to act on those issues that connect most directly with what matters to us, our interests (or gut) and our values (or heart). Until an issue touches our heart, we may still “care,” but we will not act. Personal narrative sharpens motivation by connecting head, heart, and gut.

Let me know if you have any questions you would like me to ask the Camp Wellstone trainers! Tomorrow they will be doing a whole segment on 'telling your story with new and traditional media'