Undergrad Invites Obama Organizers

For part of his social studies tutorial final project, Joshua J. Nuni ’10 brought nearly 200 people who worked for the Obama campaign to the Kennedy School last night to discuss how to preserve the grassroots movement that developed over the course of the two-year election process.

Nuni’s conference—called Organizing for Change—sought to “digest the experience of working on the Obama campaign,” as well as to “talk about what’s next,” Nuni said.

Social Studies and Government Lecturer Marshall L. Ganz, who teaches Nuni’s tutorial, opened the discussion by talking about the significance of the grassroots campaign.

“This is the first time in American history that an electoral campaign has birthed a movement,” he said. “The question is, how does that movement move forward?”

Ganz, also the architect of Camp Obama—a place where young adults gather to study basic political and organizational skills—added, “We have to learn to move from a politics of disappointment to a politics of hope.”

Paulette Aniskoff, currently the national deputy director of the Post-Election Task Force in Chicago, talked about how Obama will keep organizers and staff in communities nationwide to continue promoting the community activism that developed during the election.

“There’s so much energy that’s ready to still do more,” she said.

The conference came as the Obama campaign is encouraging supporters to hold house parties to continue their political involvement—Aniskoff said that 4,000 such parties were held this weekend.

Nuni invited community organizers and volunteers from around the area, including several people from the grassroots initiative Cambridge-Somerville for Change, though few undergraduates attended.

The conference broke into action groups to discuss issues ranging from “Rebuilding the Democratic Party” to “Student and Youth Organizing.”

Though Nuni said the action groups did not develop concrete ideas as he had hoped they would, he said that the continued discussion was only part of the process.

Elizabeth C. McKenna ’08, who worked for the Obama campaign in Ottawa County, Ohio, led the action group on youth organizing.

“Why did you come today?,” she asked to spark discussion. “The election was a month ago.”

Josh J. Wolf, a graduate student at MIT, replied, “I’m here because I want to see what comes next.”

—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.