Marshall Ganz has spent his life dedicated to the craft of organizing people to enact the change they want to see in the world. Just a few of his experiences include advocating for civil rights with Bob Moses and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 16 years organizing with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, developing the grassroots strategy for President Obama’s 2008 election campaign, and training future leaders for over 20 years at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Having trained more than 6,000 students around the world, Ganz has devoted his life to organizing and building the global Leading Change Network of organizers, educators, and collaborators committed to building community and transforming resources into the power to achieve needed change.

Now, as democracy teeters on a precarious edge in this upcoming election, and as political, economic, and technological forces have weakened nearly all capacity for collective action, Ganz has distilled a half-century’s worth of insights into an urgent call for strengthening democracy, People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal (published August 1, 2024). Written in the tradition of classics like Saul Alinsky’s 1972 Rules for Radicals, Ganz’s transformational book is at once a practical guide on how to reclaim democratic power and an inspiring manifesto for collective organizing as an essential driver of democracy.

Whether it’s a political campaign, community organization, trade union, social movement, advocacy group, or workplace, Ganz argues, that lasting and meaningful change only happens if people come together for a shared purpose, deliberate together, and act together. Through real-world examples, political theory, and illustrative diagrams, Ganz breaks down the organizing craft into six chapters that describe its essential components: relationship building, storytelling, strategizing, acting, structuring, and developing leadership. 

Today’s threats — the climate crisis, the housing crisis, racism, xenophobia, socioeconomic inequality, transphobia, gun violence, and more — demand that we go back to the basics of how to work together to achieve change and shape a better world. With People, Power, Change, Ganz compellingly demonstrates that the only way through is by building power together.

Join us for a conversation with Ganz on Friday, October 4 about how students, faculty, and staff at USC can maximize our people power for change, then stay for casual lunch and connections among those who are working for those changes on this campus and beyond.

This event has limited capacity and RSVP is required. Guests without USC ID will be emailed a guest pass QR code for campus access on the day of the event.

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