A Not Merely Charitable Alliance: Anti-Poverty Workers Within and Against the State

Abstract

This essay explores the insurgent practices of members of the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program from 1965–1973. VISTA is situated historically in relation to New Left community organizing projects and the War on Poverty. Testimonials of VISTA workers demonstrate that many developed political perspectives critical of the “war” in which they had enlisted. Records of collective mobilization chart how VISTA workers attempted to form a labor union and bring the program under community control. Their largest organization, the National VISTA Alliance, represented a form of social justice unionism ante litteram within and against the U.S. state.