BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN

Saul Alinksy died in California in June 1972. He is best known for his 1971 work Rules for Radicals about how to successfully run a movement for change. He is second best known for his acknowledgement to Lucifer.

To many on the political right, Alinksy has become a hate-figure of Satanic proportions with a reputation for insidiousness allegedly personified of late by Hilary Clinton and an “America-hating” Barack Obama.

This hate for Alinsky is a bit odd as Alinsky himself was not officially of the Left (Alinsky did not join political parties) and his rules mostly work for any kind of community. Alinsky’s reputation likely somewhat outdoes his influence but it’s possible to see in his rules much of the playbook of modern day leftist entities like Labour’s Momentum and Islamist entities like Hizb ut Tahrir. A playbook that ought to be countered. Out-Alinskyed, perhaps.

These are Alinsky’s 13 Rules:

1. “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood.
2. “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.
3. “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.
4. “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.
5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defence. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
6. “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones.
7. “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news.
8. “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new.
9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.
10. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.” It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.
11. “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathises with the underdog.
12. “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem.
13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalise it, and polarise it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

Want to take the wheels off Momentum? These rules should be memorised.

To out-Alinksy the Alinskyites, like the aforementioned Momentum, the key rules to note are 1, 2, 4, 5 and 11. Putting a spanner in the works of an organisation playing big and manned by Trots should not be that hard at all.

To counter 1, conservatives (or others opposed to Momentum) need to ensure that their opponent’s funds dry up. This may be through company boycotts, court cases or political manoeuvring. Exposing the well-known Trotskyites in the group and highlighting their publicly stated views will do the trick (Thank you Guido and the like).

To counter 2, target women. The likes of Angela Rayner regularly hold recruiting sessions with women who seem likely to swallow the zeitgeist – are often unhappy in their marriages – and are gullible enough to believe that Marxism is the default moral position. Get rational ideas out to women before they are recruited. It is the women who tend to form the mainstay of these kinds of community movements. Explain to them rationally how the income gap is irrelevant, how socialism always fails, how do-gooding is most often do-badding in the medium to long run. Big Government is rarely if ever the saviour and always self-serving.

To counter 4, recognise that what matters to the likes of Momentum is the revolution (to Hizb ut Tahrir what matters is their caliphate) – emotion drives them, not sense, nor a pragmatic planning characteristic. Their shrill emotion is hugely unpopular when seen by the vast majority of the public. Record it, show it, repeat.

To counter 5, chill out. Neither Momentum nor the Islamists can take a joke let alone make a good one. Enrage them with jokes, memes, cartoons and piss-take viral videos. Again, record, show it, repeat.

To counter 11, make sure that everyone in your family and around you is woke to the radical left/islamist victim play. It’s getting increasingly transparent. Expose it. Laugh at it. Make it unattractive to be seen near.

Oh, and someone tell that imbecile Stormzy (real name Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo, Jr.) to “shut up” when it comes to talking politics.  Catchy tunes, mind … talk less, do best, Mr Owuo.