Organizing and Raps for Leafleting and Petitioning

Making Arrangements

•  Best for morale and getting attention if done in teams of two or three

•  Teams with women usually do better – Co-workers – Wives – Grandmothers

•  Pick transit hubs or areas with heavy street traffic

Strategy

1.  Petitions should be addressed to an individual

2.  Better that the individual be elected than appointed

3.  The signers should be likely voters for the person being petitioned

As workers we can have power over our employers, but as citizens we have more power over elected officials.

Make them take the heat for what the people they appoint do.

If the signers of our petition never voted for the person and never will, but s/he won anyway, then we don’t have much power.

Signatures should come from the district of the person being petitioned or from parts of the city that s/he carried strongly.

The Petition Rap I Include Urgency and Self-Interest

•  If leafleting a passing crowd, you just have time to keep repeating one line such as, “Help stop transit cuts, sign a petition” or “Help us stop the fare hike, sign a petition.”

The Petition Rap II Include Urgency and Self-Interest

•  If leafleting people waiting on line at a bus stop, you have longer.

•  “Excuse me, I’m a bus driver. Did you know that the city wants to cut service on this line? You can help stop it by signing this petition. They are taking buses from here and sending them to the suburbs.”

Agitate

Call to Action

Urgency

Self Interest

Legitimize yourself “Excuse me, I’m as bus driver.

Did you know that the city wants to cut service on this line?

They are taking buses from here and sending them to the suburbs.”

You can help stop it by signing this petition. “

Sample Rap

Presenting Petitions

Rule Number 1:

Never give away original petitions. Make copies.

You can use the same petitions at many events in the campaign.

•  Don’t put so many signatures on one sheet of paper that it looks like you don’t have many.

•  Don’t deliver petitions on a flash drive. (No kidding, it happens.) Only geeks will be impressed.

Think of how many times you can use the same petitions!

A delegation brings them to an employer or elected official

Display for the media

60,000 signatures outside Philly City Hall.

Petition delivery combined with media hit

Combined with demonstrations and civil disobedience

Chicago union teachers deliver 10,000 signatures. 20 teachers

arrested shortly after

The first step in a referendum

27,629 signatures, enough to put their issue on the ballot for a referendum in Seattle.

Petitions as Testimony

Petition scroll at a rally

Wrap Around City Council

350 Foot Long Petition

Petition Marathon 800,000 signatures gathered

in just 24 hours

But look carefully at this picture and the next

Same petitions being delivered to US Senate

What is missing here?

No names of the senators who are voting wrong, and no sign that

petitions came from their states!

It is not enough to be Dramatic

We must also be Strategic

Group Exercise

1.  Write a short petition rap for a real campaign in your city.

2.  A few volunteers will read their raps to the whole class.

3.  One person at each table reads their rap to the others who make suggestions.

4.  Keep going around the table with each person reading in turn.