My Role as a Have-not in the Class Activity

While we were doing the slogan activity a few weeks ago, it didn't occur to me that the activity was so closely related to the Alinsky article about the haves and have-nots.  As a member of the lower group, one would automatically assume that we were the have-nots simply because we were at the bottom of the food chain.  However, it turns out that we ended up having most of the power in the exercise.  The top group, who was considered by most to be the haves, relied on us for the slogans that would make them money.  Since they relied on us for the slogans, we had the power to influence their success.  During the activity, I feel that the top group tried to show us how powerful they were by not communicating with the lower group very much because they saw us as having no power.  As a result, they found out the hard way who actually held the power in that exercise.  When the majority of the lower groups decided to under-cut the top group and go straight to the customer, they realized that they were the ones that were more like the have-nots because without the slogans of many of the lower groups, they made very little money.