It’s Time for Al Giordano to Write a Book

"Every memoir reminds us of the faraway and long ago, of loss and change, of persons and places beyond recall."

- Abigail McCarthy

We at the nonprofit Fund for Authentic Journalism have supported the work, publication, translation and training of hundreds of independent journalists and communicators for sixteen years.

One of those journalists who has especially afflicted the comfortable and comforted the afflicted is Al Giordano.

We celebrate that Al recently passed the five-year mark after chemo and radiation treatment and today is cancer free.

And we’re thrilled that he’s finally ready to write the book we’ve all been urging him to write.

We’ll tell you more about this book, but if you’re one of those who already know you want to read it, please hit that donate button now.

Al Giordano has published thousands of his own investigative reports, news stories and cutting-edge political analysis — and he’s made it possible for so many others to publish thousands more — at Narco News and elsewhere. And there’s a story behind the stories.

For the past seven years, Al has brought readers of his América newsletter behind the scenes to share secret histories of the epic community organizing battles, political campaigns, and frontline reporting around the world he has organized and reported. Stories that can only come from the lived experience of winning political and organizing campaigns, and of how an authentic journalist rights wrongs “and actually makes things happen,” as the late journalist Gary Webb described Giordano, “like real journalists are supposed to do.”

Some of us have known Al for more than 45 years. He arrived in the hills of New England as a teenager from New York already experienced in political organizing in the streets of the South Bronx, with a national presidential campaign, and other grassroots organizing under his belt. He quickly emerged as l’enfant terrible of a local No Nukes movement that shut down an operating nuclear power plant. It was Al’s penchant for telling us stories of those campaigns, their tactics, of what worked, and of what did not, that inspired so many of us to get off our asses — and learn how to win real change.

The world could use a book like that right now.

The goal is to raise $50,000 to support the writer, top-shelf editing, transcription of more than 100 interviews Al has done with eyewitnesses and participants along his road, layout, design, and promotion of the book.

We’ve followed and supported Al’s work for decades. Here are just a few highlights that we hope he’ll recount in a book or books:

Political Campaigns: As an organizer and, later, a journalist Al has now reported or participated in a dozen US presidential campaigns. He also managed and staffed 27 electoral campaigns — 26 of those were victorious. Al knows politics — and that’s just one part of his unique experiences.

Nonviolence in Action: In the No Nukes movement of the 70s and 80s, Al was arrested 27 times for nonviolent civil disobedience, which brought a whole new set of stories for him to tell of his times behind bars (in one jail he and his high school buddy, Jon, and the rest of the inmates caused so much trouble inside that the two 18-year-olds were kicked out of jail after 20 days). Elder organizers trained him and he in turn has trained hundreds of activists and organizers around the world in the tactics and techniques of smart nonviolence.

Organizing Battles: Abbie Hoffman met Al in 1981, wrote about him as “the best under-30 political organizer in the United States,” and made Al his righthand man in organizing battles from Pennsylvania to the Great Lakes to Nicaragua to New York City. We’ve heard some of those war stories. We want the whole world to be able to read them.

Journalism and Media: In his late twenties, Al started in journalism as a staff reporter for the Valley Advocate and later at the Boston Phoenix. He was also a daily AM talk radio host, Internet journalism pioneer and, later, a pirate radio broadcaster. “For much of the ‘80s and ‘90s,” The Boston Globe reported, “Al Giordano cut a wide swath among Massachusetts journalists and political junkies.”

Conflict Zones and Revolutionary Movements: In Al’s thirties, he left the USA for Mexico, lived in, and reported from the rebel indigenous communities of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Throughout Latin America, Al reported from conflict zones, coups d’etat, and in defense of human rights and social movements throughout Mexico, Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, Honduras and other lands. He was in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt during the Arab Spring, interviewing the youths who toppled a dictator. Few journalists have Al’s experience in community organizing and social movements to be able to find the lessons in their stories — of what worked, and what did not — for future activists, organizers and the media that cover them.

Internet Press Freedom Pioneer: At 40 he launched the online newspaper Narco News and was quickly sued by the National Bank of Mexico for reports on narco-trafficking by its owner. Al, Narco News, and his codefendant Mario Menéndez, won that case. That landmark New York Supreme Court decision established First Amendment rights for all Internet journalists as the law of the land.

A “Paradigm Shift” in Political Reporting: Al’s seminal work reporting on Barack Obama’s 2007 and 2008 presidential campaign from six swing states gave readers the inside look at the campaign’s training for organizers like no other. He later accepted invitations to the White House and attended the first-ever Obama Summit in Chicago. Only his newsletter subscribers have so far read that story — Giordano and Obama, in the same room — and not surprisingly another great story ensued.

Chef and Songwriter: Al also sings and he’s an award-winning chef. We’ve attended his concerts, sung along with his songs, and dined at his table. We imagine there will be plenty of food and song in this book, too.

We’ve been with Al throughout his cancer, his chemo and 35 radiation treatments, and a difficult recovery. We were there: He nearly died. We worried for him — and that his knowledge could have died with him. He spent the last five years away from public life, declining to make major plans to find out, first, if he’d reach the five-year milestone, and to focus on getting healthy again. We’re excited that he’s finally ready to take on a new project and that he’s making it this book.

If anyone doesn’t like what Al writes or anything else about him, and demands “to speak to the manager,” we don’t know who, if anyone, that might be but it’s not us: We are not the manager of Al or of any other journalist. You can read more about our press freedom philosophy here.

We vouch for Al Giordano. His honesty and courage carry receipts. His sense of ethics and shared humanity are exemplary. But that’s not why we’re supporting this book.

We’re backing this book because Al Giordano is a generational writer and storyteller who has gone out and lived the stories he tells, and has the skill to put them into words like few others.

Knowing many of his stories, we believe this book is going to be as Al’s life has been as a relentless voice for the underdog: Unable to be put down.

Please join us in welcoming Al back to work and consider whatever donation you can afford to make it so. Thank you in advance for becoming a ground-floor supporter of this book.

Have an idea, suggestion or offer of another kind of support (not all donations are monetary) to promote this work? Send us a message here.

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