Domestic workers on the move!

Congratulations to Domestic Workers in California, where the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights just passed the California State Assembly. This is only the second bill of rights to pass in the U.S., following New York last year. Domestic workers have long been excluded from American labor laws, resulting in the denial of basic overtime and health and safety protections, as well as the right to organize and bargain collectively. The Bill of Rights is an important first step in granting rights that domestic workers – largely women of color – have long been denied.

Coalition building and scarce resources

You have to work together to get anything done. I’ve always known that to be true on some level, but I’ve never been so acutely aware of that imperative as I am now, working with organizations made up of some of our most marginalized communities. For grassroots organizations whose members earn very low wages, don’t necessarily speak English, or are otherwise far outside of the political establishment, working together and maintaining productive relationships with one another is an absolute necessity in order to have real impact. But this cooperation, as we all know, is extremely complicated in practice.

New York is home to a very rich network of progressive, relentless, and principled member-based organizations. They support each other in incredible ways, but differences in priorities, culture, and tactics are inevitable. The struggle to stay on the same page is hard enough when solely in terms of vision, strategy, and tactics, but it’s also important to note how competition for funding plays a role in building – or disrupting – broad coalitions. When push comes to shove, organizations are competing with one another for a limited pool of foundation money, necessarily elevating foundations’ vision and reporting requirements to the top of any group’s list of organizational priorities. Once grants are made, there will always be lingering questions and speculation about how that money was spent and where it could have had more impact.

Despite these ongoing challenges, the people that I’ve met in the NY social justice community so far have been among the most open minded, sharing, and empathetic people I’ve met. They know that working together is the only way to build power, and they know how hard it is to make that happen. More than anything, I’m looking forward to better understanding how these organizations continually navigate this challenging terrain.

Life in the atmosphere

You guys, New Yorkers live SO HIGH UP. My ears pop in the elevator. Every time. I look outside the office window, still surrounded by buildings that reach even further into the sky, and I forget for a moment that I’m still many hundreds of feet about the ground. Strange place, this New York.

Day One

Today I sat down with Alexa, the Community Development Project’s Research and Policy Director, and a Kennedy School alum. CDP works with grassroots organizations throughout New York to strengthen their capacity and effectiveness through legal and technical support as well as policy analysis and participatory action research. We ran through each of the half dozen organizations I may be working with over the course of my internship this summer. These organizations do incredible work on diverse and interrelated issues including immigrant and workers rights, tenants’ rights, LGBT youth organizing, and public health. I think this will be the perfect opportunity for me to not only strengthen my research and writing skills, but also learn more about the world of community organizing in New York. This summer I’ll get exposure to a wide range of projects employing different organizing and advocacy models, leadership styles, and with diverse and sweeping visions of what the world could look like; exactly what an internship should be.

Summer in the City

New York City is calling in just a few short days.

I'll be spending my summer working for the Community Development Project, an organization housed within the Urban Justice Center. CDP works with grassroots organizations in the region to provide legal, technical, policy, and other research support to strengthen the social justice impact of partner organizations. My work will depend on the needs of the organization, but will focus primarily on workers' rights issues, building on my background as a labor organizer and negotiator.

Before I started my Master in Public Policy degree at the Kennedy School, I worked for a labor union representing more than 30,000 long-term care workers in the Pacific Northwest. Our union didn't have the resources of the national employers sitting across the bargaining table from us, but we did have enough to support full-time researchers and policy analysts to help us make sure that our organizing campaigns were effective in achieving social justice goals.

The organizations I'll be working with don't have that luxury. They are doing incredible work organizing and advocating for the rights of domestic workers, new immigrants, tenants, and other low-income and excluded communities, but don't have the resources to support a large staff. That's where CDP comes in. I'll know more about my summer internship when I start next Tuesday, but in the meantime I'm looking forward to getting to know the inspirational folks behind some of New York's most innovative and aggressive grassroots organizations working for social justice. Many thanks to WAPPP and Nancy Klavans for supporting the Cultural Bridge Fellowship and making this opportunity possible for me.