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Great Reads & Reading Groups for Organizers!

Know you need to read more to deepen your organizing wisdom, but finding it tought to get to? Looking for a reading group and supportive community?
If so, SMT’s Reading Groups for Organizing Wisdom may be for you. Reading Groups are once-a-month online meetups to discuss a particular book.


Join the intro session December 5, 2024 to learn about 2025 Reading Groups you can join. 

If you have very young activists-to-be who you’re raising up, A is for Activist​ is an absolutely beautiful board book. And it’s also available in Spanish!

If your children are a little older or early teens, Bread and Roses Too​ is wonderful.

For us adults, here are our top 3 picks for organizers and activists.

And, if you’re a unionist and haven’t yet read Jane McAlevey’s books, it’s time.

These books are engaging to read, thought-provoking, and grounded in a sophisticated intersectional analysis of racial justice and other movements.

Below are great how-to classics on organizing – books that all organizers might find useful – and recent releases. Got a book to recommend? Let us know.  And please vote on books you’ve read to help fellow organizers find their way to good reads.

Sort by: Year | Votes | Title | Spanish
Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox for Liberation
(vote!)
People Power Change - Organizing for Democratic Renewal
1 (vote!)
How To Be An Anti-Racist
(vote!)
Let This Radicalize You - Organizing and the revolution of reciprocal care
3 (vote!)
Occupation: Organizer - A Critical History of Community Organizing in America
(vote!)
Practical Radicals - Seven Strategies to Change the World
3 (vote!)
Rules to Win By - Power & Participation in Union Negotiations
0 (vote!)
#HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice
3 (vote!)
Campaign Strategy: People Power Manual
(vote!)
Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter
3 (vote!)
Shut It Down: Stories from a fierce, loving resistance
2 (vote!)
New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--and How to Make It Work for You
4 (vote!)
Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition
3 (vote!)
The Art of Gathering - How we meet and why it matters
4 (vote!)
Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook
20 (vote!)
Beautiful Rising, Creative Resistance from the Global South
47 (vote!)
Insurrección creativa: La caja de herramientas para la revolución
15 (vote!)
No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need
7 (vote!)
Re:Imagining Change:
27 (vote!)
Resistance Guide: How to Sustain the Movement to Win
16 (vote!)
Secretos de un organizador exitoso
10 (vote!)
The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi
6 (vote!)
Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
10 (vote!)
Analytic Activism: Digital Listening and the New Political Strategy (Kindle Edition)
9 (vote!)
Community Organising: People Power Manual
(vote!)
No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age
29 (vote!)
Rules for Revolutionaries:
24 (vote!)
Secrets of a Successful Organizer
24 (vote!)
This Is an Uprising: How Non-Violent Revolt is Shaping the Twenty-First Century
34 (vote!)
Blueprint for Revolution
9 (vote!)
No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
5 (vote!)
Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate
(vote!)
How to Jump-Start Your Union Lessons from the Chicago Teachers
16 (vote!)
Beautiful Trouble
50 (vote!)
The MoveOn Effect: The Unexpected Transformation of American Political Advocacy
6 (vote!)
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
24 (vote!)
Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell (and Live) the Best Stories Will Rule the Future
9 (vote!)
Fundraising for Social Change 6th Edition
9 (vote!)
Playbook for Progressives: 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer
13 (vote!)
Small Acts of Resistance: How Courage, Tenacity, and Ingenuity Can Change the World
(vote!)
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
18 (vote!)
The DeMarco Factor: Transforming Public Will into Political Power
14 (vote!)
The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
6 (vote!)
Activism, Inc. : How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America
4 (vote!)
Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements
6 (vote!)
Organizing for Social Change: Midwest Academy Manual for Activists
38 (vote!)
The Purpose Driven Church: Every Church Is Big in God’s Eyes
6 (vote!)
Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
19 (vote!)
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