Labor/Community Strategy Center

As the “Tea Party” Right rises in U.S. politics and the U.S. Empire continues to reach around the globe, there is an urgent need to build a new left that roots a creative, explicit, anti-racist, anti-imperialist politics inside working-class communities of color. In this session, Ai-jen Poo (National Domestic Workers Alliance), Steve Williams (POWER), Cindy Weisner (Grassroots Global Justice), Patrisse Cullors (Labor/Community Strategy Center) and other prominent organizers will discuss with Eric Mann how his Transformative Organizing Theory, as outlined in a new pamphlet, can help guide and strengthen our work toward this goal. Drawing from Mann’s experience as a veteran of CORE, SDS, the UAW, organizer of the Bus Riders Union and director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles, Transformative Organizing Theory identifies 7 core elements of social movement building that have powered grassroots organizations on their way to winning historic struggles against slavery, war, apartheid and empire. The 7 Components of Transformative Organizing Theory is a companion to Mann’s forthcoming book, The 21 Qualities of the Successful Organizing: A Journey in Transformative Organizing (2011).

From the buses and trains of NYC to Chicago to LA, Transit Riders for Public Transportation (TRPT) is advocating for an 80% public transit and 20% freeway funding formula in the next $500 billion Federal Surface Transportation Act (FSTA) currently under discussion in Congress. Since the 1950’s the FSTA has locked federal funds 80/20 in favor of highways. Reauthorized every six years, the current act is being hailed as the next “six year stimulus.” TRTP is organizing to ensure that the next re-authorization of the FSTA prioritizes the needs of transit dependent riders in low-income communities of color who form the backbone of urban transit ridership. TRPT seeks to re-establish Title VI Civil Rights protections in all FSTA-funded projects and to create truly green jobs. The TRPT brings together the Bus Riders Union in Los Angeles, WEACT in Harlem, Little Village for Environmental Justice Organization in Chicago, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights in New Orleans, Urban Habitat in Oakland and many others across the country to organize and call on the Obama Administration and Congress to break with the last two decades of toxic highway expansion by making massive investments in a clean-fuel, world-class transportation systems that meet both the needs of transit riders and international emissions-reduction targets. Join us in this workshop to engage with organizers of TRPT from across the country about the campaign, it’s challenges and breakthroughs.

Across the country, school systems are shutting the doors of academic opportunity on students and funneling them into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The combination of overly harsh school policies and an increased role of law enforcement in schools has created a “school-to-prison pipeline,” in which punitive measures such as suspensions, expulsions, tickets, and school-based arrests are increasingly used to deal with student behavior, and huge numbers of youth are pushed out of school and into prisons and jails. This is more than an education crisis; it's a racial justice crisis, because students pushed out are overwhelmingly Black and Brown. This PMA will consider: • What are “school-to-prison pipeline” conditions across the country in different regions and communities? What is happening locally, statewide and nationally that creates such conditions? • What examples of organizing victories exist in dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline and winning alternatives? How can we learn from and amplify these victories? What organizing challenges exist and how can we overcome them? • What kinds of demands should we place on school systems, law enforcement agencies, and local, state and national governments to weaken and dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline? • What are new ideas and strategies for addressing the school-to-prison pipeline as well as broader strategies to address the national attack on students of color and public education? With many organizations and communities across the country working to challenge these conditions, this PMA hopes to provide a space to learn from one another and discuss opportunities for national action and organizing.

As the “Tea Party” Right rises in U.S. politics and the U.S. Empire continues to reach around the globe, there is an urgent need to build a new left that roots a creative, explicit, anti-racist, anti-imperialist politics inside working-class communities of color. In this session, Ai-jen Poo (National Domestic Workers Alliance), Steve Williams (POWER), Cindy Weisner (Grassroots Global Justice), Patrisse Cullors (Labor/Community Strategy Center) and other prominent organizers will discuss with Eric Mann how his Transformative Organizing Theory, as outlined in a new pamphlet, can help guide and strengthen our work toward this goal. Drawing from Mann’s experience as a veteran of CORE, SDS, the UAW, organizer of the Bus Riders Union and director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles, Transformative Organizing Theory identifies 7 core elements of social movement building that have powered grassroots organizations on their way to winning historic struggles against slavery, war, apartheid and empire. The 7 Components of Transformative Organizing Theory is a companion to Mann’s forthcoming book, The 21 Qualities of the Successful Organizing: A Journey in Transformative Organizing (2011).

From the buses and trains of NYC to Chicago to LA, Transit Riders for Public Transportation (TRPT) is advocating for an 80% public transit and 20% freeway funding formula in the next $500 billion Federal Surface Transportation Act (FSTA) currently under discussion in Congress. Since the 1950’s the FSTA has locked federal funds 80/20 in favor of highways. Reauthorized every six years, the current act is being hailed as the next “six year stimulus.” TRTP is organizing to ensure that the next re-authorization of the FSTA prioritizes the needs of transit dependent riders in low-income communities of color who form the backbone of urban transit ridership. TRPT seeks to re-establish Title VI Civil Rights protections in all FSTA-funded projects and to create truly green jobs. The TRPT brings together the Bus Riders Union in Los Angeles, WEACT in Harlem, Little Village for Environmental Justice Organization in Chicago, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights in New Orleans, Urban Habitat in Oakland and many others across the country to organize and call on the Obama Administration and Congress to break with the last two decades of toxic highway expansion by making massive investments in a clean-fuel, world-class transportation systems that meet both the needs of transit riders and international emissions-reduction targets. Join us in this workshop to engage with organizers of TRPT from across the country about the campaign, it’s challenges and breakthroughs.

Across the country, school systems are shutting the doors of academic opportunity on students and funneling them into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The combination of overly harsh school policies and an increased role of law enforcement in schools has created a “school-to-prison pipeline,” in which punitive measures such as suspensions, expulsions, tickets, and school-based arrests are increasingly used to deal with student behavior, and huge numbers of youth are pushed out of school and into prisons and jails. This is more than an education crisis; it's a racial justice crisis, because students pushed out are overwhelmingly Black and Brown. This PMA will consider: • What are “school-to-prison pipeline” conditions across the country in different regions and communities? What is happening locally, statewide and nationally that creates such conditions? • What examples of organizing victories exist in dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline and winning alternatives? How can we learn from and amplify these victories? What organizing challenges exist and how can we overcome them? • What kinds of demands should we place on school systems, law enforcement agencies, and local, state and national governments to weaken and dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline? • What are new ideas and strategies for addressing the school-to-prison pipeline as well as broader strategies to address the national attack on students of color and public education? With many organizations and communities across the country working to challenge these conditions, this PMA hopes to provide a space to learn from one another and discuss opportunities for national action and organizing.