Blog
It is with tremendous gratitude and pride that we write to share that we will be stepping down as co-executive directors of the Center for Popular Democracy and CPD Action in 2021. Ten years ago, CPD/A was only an aspiration. Today, it is a strong and beautiful community of action, anchored by 50 community organizations in 222 cities, 33 states, and Puerto Rico. As the organization’s co-executive directors, we are humbled, grateful and deeply proud of all that we built together. As we plan to step into different roles in the movement and pass the reins of this organization to two new co-executive directors in 2021, our optimism, commitment and urgency burn bright.
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We have built CPD/A with our eyes set on the promise of a dynamic, participatory, multiracial democracy to create the country of our dreams. When the four of us came together to lead CPD/A, we anchored our efforts in a shared commitment to nurturing leaders and organizations deeply rooted in communities. For each one of us, the experience of organizing on the ground had taught us everything we knew about building and community, with love at the center. We wanted CPD/A to serve as a national formation to advance an agenda of justice for Black, Latinx and other people of color, immigrant communities and working-class families in the US.
When we started CPD/A, we dreamed of someday being powerful enough to transform our communities and to end our people’s suffering. We could not have imagined how close our country would come to fascism and white supremacist insurrection. But we knew we had a long road to travel. The struggle for freedom and democracy in this land is as old as the country itself. The systems of white supremacy, exploitation and exclusion have been erected to resist the powerful and unwavering yearning for freedom that flows through every human and pulses powerfully in every community, in every generation. CPD/A is our love offering to all that yearn for a country where we all thrive together. We will transition the organization in a period of strength and financial stability, and in a moment when our affiliates are ascending to the height of their power, because we know this beautiful community of action is full of leaders who will pour their hearts and souls into taking our collective work to the next level.
Our work has been animated by the certainty that a new, more just nation is struggling to be born. And that her arrival becomes more possible every time immigrant youth tell their stories and articulate their dreams; every time Black women lead us to victory in a hard fought election; every time low-wage workers win dignity at work; every time someone joins a march for the first time; and every time poor and working class families win better schools, a more inclusive democracy, housing and healthcare. The arrival of a more just nation becomes more possible when the very people who have been silenced and relegated to the margins of our democracy build power together, and use that power to dismantle the structures of exclusion and exploitation from below.
We knew, too, that people’s organizations—which offer both a space to find community and exercise collective imagination and power—play a crucial role in advancing and sustaining social change. As we look back on almost a decade of work, we are most proud of CPD/A’s efforts to help nurture and support new leaders of color, and foster the creation of rooted people’s organizations in states like Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, New Jersey, Louisiana, Arizona and more. It is the patient work of people organizing with their families and neighbors, building powerful communities of action over years, that is transforming the political trajectory of these states and that ultimately helped make Trump a one-term president.
CPD/A and allies joined in protest against the separation of immigrant families at the Families Belong Together march in June 2018We are also very proud of helping to seed projects and infrastructure for the broader progressive movement, and partnering with many to win critical policy victories. CPD/A has helped win hundreds of campaigns, impacting tens of millions of people. Our fights have led to better wages, better housing, more freedom and more justice for millions. We have raised and distributed tens of millions of dollars to nourish and build strong, rooted organizing throughout this country, and in Puerto Rico.
We helped found and support Local Progress, a network of progressive elected officials, who are bringing the spirit and demands of the movement into the halls of power in cities across the US. When Hurricane Maria struck, we jumped into action to launch the Maria Fund which raised millions of dollars to support new organizing work and the Puerto Rican communities hardest hit by climate change and years of austerity. And with the leadership of our dear colleague Ady Barkan, we helped launch the Be A Hero Fund to resource a people-powered democracy in key states and build a movement to win Medicare for All.
The election of Donald Trump helped reveal the strength of white supremacy, the mainstreaming of misogynist and racist politics, and the complicity of neoliberal economic forces that benefit from gutting and hobbling our government. The last four years, though, have also revealed the resilience and tenacity of communities under attack, and our collective determination to fight and win the freedom we long for.
As we look back on CPD/A’s role during that period, we are proud of our efforts to mobilize thousands of people and forcefully elevate the voices of Black, Brown, and working-class people during critical battles in Washington, whether it was to protect the Affordable Care Act and DACA, or to fight back against the GOP tax scam, the separation of families at the border, and the shameless nominations of Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
CPD Action activists taking the message of Medicare for All to Congress in 2019Over these years of incredible movement activity, a whole generation of young people has become activated and politicized, following the lead of women of color who set the tone of the resistance, and pursuing the transformative vision in the Black Lives Matter movement. People have used art, storytelling, digital organizing and direct action to celebrate each other’s courage, to tend to each other’s pain, to elevate collective demands, and to put us on the path towards the greatest advances in generations. Community organizations have provided critical infrastructure in moments of urgent need – from mobilizing bail funds, to sharing information, moving resources quickly or providing legal support. As we look towards the future of CPD and CPD Action, we are excited for the next leadership team to continue exploring how our network can develop even further as a trusted and responsive partner in movement moments.
At every step, and with every battle, we are reminded that democracy, a truly popular democracy, is the mechanism that we have to protect one another. With each fight, we are invited to remember that democracy does not exist on its own: democracy breathes and comes alive when people tell their stories, take direct action, build community and networks of mutual support, register to vote, mobilize their loved ones to the polls, and ensure every vote is counted.
Our democracy itself is under grave attack. Our work is far from over. And this moment is a critical window to make evident in people’s lived experience that a different kind of politics can, in fact, deliver relief and opportunity. We are confident that CPD/A and our affiliates will continue to be at the forefront of the fight to win badly-needed changes on people-centered COVID relief, climate change, immigration reform, housing and evictions, defunding the carceral state, addressing the growth of white supremacist forces, and more.
As we prepare to end our tenure as co-executive directors, we are filled with gratitude for the communities that nurtured us and formed us as organizers: for Jen, Black workers in Wisconsin; for Brian, working-class Floridians; for Andrew and Ana Maria, Latinx immigrants in New York. Each one of us worked to imbue CPD/A with the aspirations of the communities that raised us as organizers and welcomed us into the long and beautiful history of struggle for justice in this country.
Leading together as a team has been a gift, and passing the baton together in a moment of organizational strength is the best way we know to support the new leaders, the organization and the network to move forcefully into the future.
We thank everyone who has worked with us—the staff, the Boards of Directors, every affiliate organization that joined and breathed life into this network, and every donor who invested in our efforts. CPD/A would not be as strong without you.
Finally, we want to to express our deepest gratitude to movement allies who encouraged us, challenged us, invited us to join in struggle, and ultimately helped us build, and become part of, a growing, rebellious and visionary movement of people determined to live with freedom and dignity, and bring the country of our dreams into existence.
In solidarity,
Ana Maria Archila Co-Executive Director Jennifer Epps-Addison Network President & Co-Executive Director Brian Kettenring Co-Executive Director Andrew Friedman Co-Executive Director
It’s now been over a year since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the U.S. and still so many families are struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over their head, after months of inaction by the government. The Center for Popular Democracy network is on the frontlines organizing to fight for what our communities need and end the deepening housing crisis, due to COVID-19. Even before the pandemic, this country was facing a historic housing and homelessness crisis – most people in this country are tenants, the majority of which were rent burdened before the pandemic began. It has never been more clear that long-term solutions are required for a genuine recovery. Donate now to support our fight for tenant rights, and to help communities most impacted by COVID-19.
Faced with an opportunity to strengthen and provide more universal eviction protections, President Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office extending the current CDC eviction moratorium. But this is a temporary measure that still leaves families without the rent and debt forgiveness they will need to recover from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 31, the CDC national eviction moratorium will expire with no national and almost no state and local protections for millions of renters at risk of eviction for non-payment of rent.
Families across the country need short-term action for immediate relief AND a long-term commitment to expand the eviction moratorium and cancel rent and mortgages. And while people struggle to pay rent in the face of mass unemployment, right now the largest corporate landlords are sitting on $470 billion in tax breaks and subsidies. What’s clear is that we CAN afford rent and mortgage forgiveness, and relief to small landlords and affordable housing providers who need it. We just need to tax the largest corporate landlords to pay for it.
From January 20 to February 1, tenants from across the country who are at risk of eviction will call on the Biden administration and congressional leadership, every day, to take immediate action to protect the up to 40 million people at risk of eviction through a universal eviction moratorium and rent and mortgage cancellation immediately. These tenants, supported by CPD network affiliates and local eviction defense networks, will defend their homes through direct action and community support—from move-ins and occupations, to online rallies, and petition deliveries. Donate now to join us in the fight to prevent more than 40 million people from losing their homes.
Last month, the Center for Popular Democracy released two new reports: Feeding the Beast: A scope of federal funding for state and local law enforcement, and Double Exposure: Retail workers nationwide hammered by the combo crisis of pandemic and private equity.
Each year, the federal government sends billions of dollars in funding, equipment, and other resources to state and local law enforcement. These federal outlays are on top of upwards of one hundred billion dollars spent by states and localities on policing each year. Federal resources have been a key way that the government has helped build and sustain police power and has influenced local, county, and state budget and policy priorities. Over the past few decades, Congress has helped build and continues to perpetuate the crisis of policing through the power of the purse. From criminalization to targeted policing, and mass incarceration of Black and brown communities to police violence and the killing of Black people, Congress has been complicit in propping up the very unjust systems we are fighting to dismantle. Download and read Feeding the Beast: A scope of federal funding for state and local law enforcement to learn more.
Private equity has had a disastrous impact on the retail industry, driving dozens of firms into bankruptcy, shutting down tens of thousands of stores, and costing hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide. Private equity is an especially predatory type of Wall Street investment firm that has taken over scores of national and regional retail chains. The private equity business model poses considerable risks to retailers and workers. Further, private equity-owned retailers have often collapsed into bankruptcy as they are unable to service the large debt loads. While the private equity firms and executives walk away largely unscathed or even profiting from the deals that led to the retailer’s collapse, hundreds of thousands of women and people of color in frontline retail jobs have lost their livelihoods, often with no severance and no recourse. Download Double Exposure: Retail workers nationwide hammered by the combo crisis of pandemic and private equity to learn more.
The Center for Popular Democracy is excited to welcome two new affiliate organizations to our growing network: Comunidades Organizando El Poder Y La Acción Latina MN (COPAL-MN) and Montana Human Rights Network (MHRN). We are proud to bring these two powerful organizations into our network and to fight alongside them to build a better world.
Based in Minneapolis, COPAL-MN operates in the twin cities and throughout Southern Minnesota. Read more about them here. Like us, they believe Latinx communities are a powerful force in the fight for environmental justice, access to quality education, and immigrant rights and more. Just last year, COPAL’s staff and volunteers had more than 20,000 conversations with community members about the importance of voting, and collected more than 18,000 pledges to vote! Additionally, COPAL provides crucial support to the community through census support, citizenship classes, consulate support, and their Navigators program, which helps connect community members to life-saving assistance during times of crisis.
MHRN was formed in 1990, after local community groups formed to counter white supremacist organizing across the state of Montana in the late 1980s. Read about MHRN’s mission here. Today, MHRN operates statewide with 10 affiliates and 10,000 members, working to expand human rights in Montana by pursuing progressive public policy, combating white nationalism, and supporting community organizing. They work to advance critical issues such as LGBT rights, economic justice, immigrant and refugee rights, and tribal sovereignty, and continue to fight bigotry—from anti-semitism to islamophobia whereever it rears its head. Last year, with far-right extremism on the rise in all corners of the country, MHRN worked tirelessly to combat far-right ideologies in Montana through public education, including publishing this video analysis of the history of the far-right in the state.
We’re incredibly excited to welcome COPAL-MN and MHRN into the CPD/A family!
Over the last month CPD has worked with affiliates to push the Biden administration to go as big as possible on all COVID-19 relief measures. To this end, we released the People’s Transition Memo – a petition demanding that President Joe Biden fight for real policy changes that will uplift and empower Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian and Latinx communities and hold all elected officials accountable for a fair and equitable government. CPD held meetings with key members of the Biden transition team to demand that any COVID-19 relief package include all people no matter their status, and provide a pathway to citizenship to essential workers, DACA recipients, and TPS holders. You can still sign and share the petition here!
CPD affiliates and other national allies also led a day of action on January 11, directed at incoming Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge, to push President Biden on rent forgiveness and eviction moratoriums. This is part of a month-long effort to elevate the need for housing protections for Black and Brown communities.
On January 27, within one week of President Biden, Vice-President Harris, and the new administration taking office and four years to the day after President Trump signed the Muslim Ban executive order, CPD joined a day of action led by affiliates CASA, Make the Road NY and national immigrant organizations in Washington D.C. and across the country to ensure that immigrants are at the front lines of any relief measure that the Biden administration proposes. That same day, CPD affiliate Action NC held a press call where they released their COVID impact survey and members shared their stories on why it's imperative that immigrants are included in the next COVID relief package.
In the coming weeks and months, we will continue to take action to push the new administration on our demands and to make the change we know is possible a reality. Make a donation today to support this critical work and demand that everyone who is struggling due to COVID-19 gets the relief they need.
Last month, over 500 people joined with Make the Road Action, CASA in Action, DelACA, CPD and allies in a car caravan with community members from Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland leading the way to Wilmington, Delaware, where we organized a rally to urge President-elect Biden to act swiftly and honor his campaign commitments on critical issues, including immigration, justice transformation, and a just recovery for Puerto Rico. Along the route of the caravan, CPD affiliates placed billboards like the picture above to make sure the message was seen and heard. The caravan was covered by local and national news outlets including USA Today, NPR, Washington Post, Telemundo, and the NY Daily News among others.
Our sister organization, CPD Action partnered with affiliates CASA in Action, Make the Road Action, to run historic voter turnout efforts, reaching millions of immigrant, Latinx, Black, and working-class voters. We knew from the start that this election would depend on turnout. CPD network affiliates are proof of what’s possible when we do the work to organize our communities over the long haul—not just in election season. Together, our affiliate network made 31,573,580 calls, sent 12,868,360 texts, and knocked on 668,668 doors. With action taken like this, an accountability caravan was necessary to hold President-elect Biden accountable every step of the way.
Looking for inspiration in the new year? Visit Transformation Talks and join us a gear up for 2021 and all the exciting new opportunities to create the future we know is possible. Hosted by CPD, we bring some of the world’s most prolific artists, community organizers, and progressive leaders together in this virtual space of national conversation and connection, seeking to explore the question: What is popular democracy?
Transformation Talks features over 70 hours of programming, including chats, debates, keynotes, and workshops, and talk forwards, and looks to center bold progressive policy, mine the intersection of arts and activism, and ask how we can truly live up to the promise of Of the People, By the People, For the People. Join us!
After Congress went on its August recess without voting on a relief package to extend the $600 weekly Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits, members of Unemployed Action, a movement by and for unemployed workers and their families, took to the streets. We held #MitchBetterHaveMyMoney protests in Kentucky, Washington D.C., New York City, and elsewhere around the country, and joined #ReliefIsDue protests to elevate the eviction crisis. In September, Unemployed Action held virtual meetings with their elected representatives to let them know that President Trump's Lost Wages Assistance order, which provides only $300 per week for 6 weeks and excludes the poorest workers, is completely insufficient and real relief is needed.
The Unemployed Action community continues to grow, with 16,000 members. This fall, they will focus on engaging voters and on mutual aid to help each other survive in the absence of federal relief. We're launching a new initiative for Unemployed Action via our Community Solidarity Fund to give small grants to unemployed workers facing hunger, housing instability, and other financial hardships. We’ve also created a healing justice workshop series to support our members through this difficult time. Click here to provide direct relief to unemployed workers!
Across the CPD network, affiliates are leading the fight against evictions and calling on decision-makers to cancel rent and mortgages across the country. Since the start of the pandemic, CPD affiliates have been building grassroots Eviction Defense Networks to respond to the potential eviction of 40 million people across the country. An eviction crisis would be a catastrophe for the people already hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Black and Brown people, immigrants, unemployed workers—our loved ones and neighbors.
On October 1, as tenants have for every 1st of the month since the pandemic began, CPD affiliates came together to demand that elected officials take action to cancel rent, cancel mortgages, and stop evictions. Local advocates shared their stories, organized safe protests, and turned the heat up on elected officials who have failed to respond to the crisis. If you believe, like we do, that everyone deserves a home in which they can thrive, then click here to join us in the fight to cancel rent, cancel mortgages, and resist evictions for the duration of the pandemic and recovery phase.
In Philadelphia, CPD affiliate One Pennsylvania launched their Eviction Defense Network called the Freedom to Stay Block Brigade to resist evictions. The Freedom to Stay Block Brigade is led by impacted Black and brown Philadelphians who have been organizing for the transformation of housing policy through their Freedom to Stay Campaign for rent control and homeowner protections. As Philadelphia residents look to the looming mass eviction crisis, they are educating people about their rights and protections, building collective power with those most impacted by the housing crisis, and preparing for rapid response direct action for when evictions occur.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has heard our call for national protections and announced a national eviction moratorium that provides some tools for tenants to resist eviction until December 31, but still ignores the central problem: our communities will not be able to pay back rent incurred since March. We need full rent and mortgage cancellation NOW. The CDC’s National Eviction Moratorium is one possible tool for tenants to be able to stay in their homes, but there is so much more to be done. For more information, check out this Know Your Rights Training hosting by CPD's housing campaigns team.
Sign the petition now to join us in the fight for a Home to Thrive.
This year has brought a host of new challenges for the 2020 Census as we continue to deal with a public health crisis on top of President Trump’s repeated attempts to cut the census short and deprive millions of their right to participate in it. In response, organizations and members across the CPD network jumped into action to do everything in their power to encourage their communities to be counted in order to shape our future for the next decade.
From phone banking to text banking, broadcast events on Facebook Live, Instagram Takeovers and car caravans, our affiliates have done everything they can to get out the word about the importance of engaging in the census to their communities. In New York City alone we partnered with Make the Road NY and NYS Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie’s office to make more than 100,000 calls to community members in Brooklyn. On a national level, we partnered with Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) to host monthly census calls for the immigrant rights movement, and collaborated on an Immigrant Heritage Week of Action in June 2020 to increase census participation digitally. We also want to give a special shout out to our partners Make the Road NV and Action NC on an impressive outreach campaign! They hosted virtual census dinner parties, and car caravans to get out the count.
In July, the Trump administration issued a memorandum in an attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census count. This is especially alarming since using inaccurate census data will affect how many representatives each state will have in Congress for the next ten years, and how much federal funding our communities will receive for roads, schools, housing and social programs. In response to this attack, our partners from Make the Road NY, CASA and others filed a lawsuit to block this directive. It was a huge victory for the immigrant community when a federal panel of three judges in New York ruled that Trump’s order was unlawful. As the other lawsuits await a hearing, we continue to pressure Congress to pass a bipartisan bill that would help ensure an accurate count by extending the deadline.
In the meantime, as we get closer to the October 31st deadline, it is imperative that all of us get counted with the current resources we have at our disposal. Completing an accurate census count now is even more critical than even in order for us to realize a full pandemic recovery, and will have an impact that will affect us for the next ten years.
Tell Congress it MUST extend the reporting deadlines for apportionment and redistricting in the next COVID relief bill to give the bureau time to complete the count, and allocate $400 Million to address other challenges caused by COVID-19. Add your name now!
