Community Services Organization

…organizer was provided by the Community Services Organization (CSO) in California, a creation of Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Areas Foundation. In 1958 Chavez became general director of the CSO, but he resigned four years later to cofound the NFWA. In September 1965 he began leading what became a five-year strike by…

…Mexican-American self-help association called the Community Service Organization (CSO), Huerta lobbied California state legislators to enact such progressive legislation as old-age pensions for noncitizens.