Blog
In the final week of February, CPD, the Right to the City Alliance, and PolicyLink released a groundbreaking report “Our Homes, Our Future: How Rent Control Can Build Stable, Healthy Communities,” to shed light on why rent control is a national, scaleable, and cost effective solution to the housing and renter crisis. The issue has garnered public support from major progressive lawmakers who have championed the need address our country’s affordable housing crisis and protect renters from skyrocketing prices.
In conjunction with the release, CPD affiliates and allies in New York, California, Illinois, and Florida rallied for rent control and increased tenant protections. In New York, the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance mobilized to Albany to call for #UniversalRentControl; in California, ACCE rallied with renters in Los Angeles; in Florida, Organize Florida held a Renters Speakout in Orlando; and in Chicago, the Lift the Ban Coalition held a rally at the Chicago Realtors office to call attention to the money they are spending to oppose rent control statewide. The report and actions were featured in CBS News, Fast Company, Colorlines, the Chicago Sun Times, and the Pacific Standard.
If rent control becomes reality in the six states and two cities it is currently being debated, 12.7 million renter households will be stabilized. If adopted by states nationwide, 42 million households could be stabilized. The report further highlights the unprecedented scale and breadth of families that would benefit from rent control policies with far reaching impacts, and calls for immediate action by policymakers to take action to address the worse renter crisis in a generation. Click here to read the full report as well as real stories about renters affected by the movement for rent control.
The report features CPD affiliates and allies including New York Communities for Change, MHAction, Churches United for Fair Housing (CUFFH), Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Organize Florida, Make the Road New York, One Pennsylvania, Make the Road Nevada, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), the Life the Ban Coalition in Chicago, and the Upstate-Downstate Housing Alliance in New York.
Today, JPMorgan Chase announced that they will end their practice of financially backing private prison and immigrant detention companies. This victory is the result of significant pressure from immigrants and their families participating in the Corporate Backers of Hate campaign to urge financial institutions to cut their financial ties with Geo Group and CoreCivic, the private prison companies responsible for terrorizing people of color and immigrant communities in pursuit of profit.
Roughly 75 percent of immigrants detained by ICE are held in private detention and, up until today, JPMorgan held more debt in the two main private prison companies (the Geo Group and CoreCivic) than any other lender—62% more debt than the next largest lender.
Elizabeth Chavez, member of Make the Road New York, said, “Immigrants and trans women like me have stood up to JPMorgan Chase for bankrolling private immigrant detention companies because it’s people like us who face abuse and violence in their cages every day. We have marched to the bank headquarters and branches. We have rallied outside Jamie Dimon’s home. And we will continue to work to put the private prison industry out of business as we fight for respect and dignity for every member of our community.”
“The country has seen the images of humans in cages and heard the cries of children begging to be reunited with their parents. Our immigration enforcement system is cruel and inhumane. Providing financial backing to this industry is not morally defensible”, said Ana Maria Archila, Co-Executive Director of the Center for Popular Democracy. “Today we are delighted to hear that JPMorgan Chase has decided to listen to our communities and end its harmful practice of financially backing private prisons and immigrant detention centers. This is an incredible victory for immigrant communities and for our society as a whole.”
Rachel Rivera, Board Member of New York Communities for Change, stated “No corporations should profit off the suffering and misery of those at private prisons and detention centers. All banks must end the financing of Geo Group and Core Civic.”
Since it was launched in 2017, the Corporate Backers of Hate campaign, a project of the Center for Popular Democracy and CPD affiliates Make the Road, Action NC, New York Communities for Change, and allies MomsRising, Freedom to Thrive (previously Enlace), and Hand in Hand, along with other partners, has highlighted how private prisons and their financial backers have positioned themselves to gain from Trump’s immigration crackdown. The campaign has organized powerful direct actions against JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo and has delivered hundreds of thousands of petitions to the banks. Immigrant leaders confronted JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon at the company’s annual shareholder meetings and protested repeatedly outside the company’s headquarters and Dimon’s home. Just last month, Make the Road New York members and allies held a mariachi serenade outside Dimon’s house on Valentine’s Day, asking the bank to break up with private prisons. In July 2018, immigrant New Yorkers and allies protested outside of Dimon’s home, and blasted audio gathered by ProPublica of immigrant children crying out for their parents in detention facilities.
In February, after months of pressure from the campaign, Wells Fargo announced it will scale back on its investment in private prisons.
This is a major victory for our communities. It's clear that we can hold corporations accountable for their actions. While there is much to celebrate, we must remain steadfast in our fight to keep families together and ensure our communities have the freedom to thrive. The future of our country depends on bold action from each of us. Support this critical work by making a donation today.
The people united is a powerful force to reckon with. On February 14, Amazon cancelled plans to build its second headquarters in Queens. This decision came after months of organizing by community leaders, activists, and people’s organizations who asked Amazon to allow its workers to unionize, to invest in the local community and infrastructure, to stop cooperating with ICE, and to refrain from taking a $3 billion subsidy in tax revenues.
Instead of investing in their workers and listening to the voices of our communities, Amazon chose to leave. That betrayed their real intentions for our city. This is a landmark victory for our communities, showing the power of the people, even when taking on one of the world’s largest corporations.
CPD affiliates Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change were instrumental in the fight. Their members and allies stood firm against Governor Cuomo’s taxpayer giveaways. Many allies played a key role in this historic victory including Align, RWDSU, Teamsters, Workers United, Partnership for Working Families, CAAAV, DSA, MPower Change, JFREJ, Chaya, and others. This win would not have been possible without our collaborative efforts
We can stop corporate control of our communities. Members of CPD's Local Progress network of progressive elected officials have already issued statementsfrom each of the cities that Amazon considered for headquarters demanding no corporate subsidies, and an interest in workers and the well-being and input of local community. We will continue to hold corporations like Amazon accountable – and we have proven that we can do so successfully.
Please make a donation today to support the CPD Network in our fight to keep our democracy alive. The future of our communities, and this country, depends on bold action from each of us.
Thank you for your continued support in this fight.
In a video launched on social media on February 4, CPD announced that our Co-Executive Director, Ana Maria Archila, would join Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as an invited guest at the State of the Union. Like millions of others, we are inspired by Alexandria’s fierce leadership and her bold, hopeful vision.
Members of Congress get to bring one person each to the address. Ocasio-Cortez chose Ana Maria for the courage and leadership she showed while confronting Senator Jeff Flake in an elevator on Capitol Hill during Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. The choice was symbolic in a moment when immigrants and reproductive rights are under attack, and we are all called upon to stand up.
Ana Maria understood the invitation was not solely for her, but really was an invitation for people across the country to tell their stories, to join in protest, and to breathe life into our democracy by ensuring the people’s demands and aspirations are at the center for our debates. Stand with Ana Maria, AOC and the CPD Network by giving $5 or whatever you are able. Donate today.
Archila is a longtime community organizer, outspoken sexual-assault survivor, and a constituent of Ocasio-Cortez’s district. Ana Maria’s invitation to the State of the Union was covered on MSNBC with Rachel Maddow, CNN with Dana Bash, ABC , Univision, and Democracy Now!, and made headlines across major outlets like The New York Times, CBS News, Vox, Teen Vogue, Business Insider, The Intercept, and Huffington Post among many others. Archila was also included in Jezebel’s list of Most Inspiring Women of 2018 last December.
On December 6, with a 14-3 vote and a packed chamber, the Philadelphia City Council passed a fair workweek ordinance impacting 130,000 service workers throughout the city. The policy guarantees predictable hours, opportunities for full-time work, adequate rest between work shifts and a voice for workers in crafting their schedules. The victory in Philadelphia follows New York City, Seattle, Oregon, San Francisco, Emeryville, and San Jose in delivering a fair workweek for hourly workers in the hospitality, food service and retail sectors.
CPD affiliate One Pennsylvania ran a powerful public education campaign, working closely with chief sponsor (and Local Progress co-chair) Councilwoman Helen Gym (@HelenGymAtLarge) and the Fair Workweek PHL coalition, which included Unite Here 274 and UFCW 1776. The campaign overcome strong industry led opposition, garnering extensive positive media coverage with over 100 press hits. Check out this video and One PA member Madison Nardy's account of her transformational experience with the Fair Workweek campaign.
On December 15, the Center for Popular Democracy, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera), and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) published “Advancing Universal Representation: A Toolkit.” Immigrants in US court proceedings, who are often detained and face deportation, do not currently have the right to government-funded lawyers. Instead, they must navigate the notoriously complicated and ever-changing labyrinth of immigration law alone against a trained government attorney. The report highlights that universal representation—publicly funded legal counsel for all—is more urgent now than ever before. Expanding universal representation programs in communities across the country is crucial to upholding due process for all people at imminent risk of deportation.
CPD, NILC, and Vera are working in close coordination to expand the national movement for publicly funded universal representation. CPD and NILC provide strategic support to local and state advocacy campaigns. In 2017, Vera launched the Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Network in partnership with a diverse group of local jurisdictions, providing strategic support to government partners, legal service providers, and advocates. Collectively, CPD, NILC, and Vera also coordinate at a national level, creating resources and space for advocates advancing universal representation to share, strategize, and learn from one another.
This report is the first component of a three-part toolkit (Modules 2 and 3 forthcoming in 2019) informed by CPD, NILC, and Vera’s experiences advancing the universal representation movement. These experiences have been guided by the expertise of advocates, organizers, legal service providers, and policymakers across the country who have led publicly funded deportation defense efforts. The toolkit is intended to equip these same stakeholders with strategies to make the case for implementing and sustaining universal representation programs. Download the full toolkit on our website.
Throughout the month of December, CPD Network partners and affiliates joined the Families Belong Together Coalition members to fight back against proposals from the federal administration for a border wall and increased enforcement funding. The first of these actions was a lobby day hosted on December 6 by CPD affiliate CASA in Washington, DC, who teamed up with the National Domestic Workers Alliance and CPD staff members.
A week later, on December 12, to continue our efforts to build pressure, members of United We Dream, FIRM, Make the Road New York and CASA went inside a subcommittee hearing on the migrant caravan and walked out silently to protest the racist rhetoric of the federal administration. While this happened, members of the Birddog Nation waved pictures of migrant children at the hearing eventually getting arrested for civil disobedience.
Finally on December 20, members of CASA, Make the Road NY, United We Dream and The National Domestic Workers Alliance conducted a silent walk-out at hearings in Congress while Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen was testifying in order to condemn the continued push for wall funding and family separation. Following the walk-out, CPD Network members went to congressional offices and sang Christmas Carols that reinforced the need for immigrants to be welcomed in our communities, bolstering the resolve to reject any attempts to build a wall. At the same time, the Make the Road family, including Make the Road PA, Make the Road CT, Make the Road NJ and Make the Road NV, held actions in their states during the budget negotiations.
On Wednesday, February 6, Instacart, a Silicon Valley upstart that delivers groceries and other household items to customers through an app, reversed a tipping policy that cheated workers out of rightfully earned wages. Workers took to social media and CPD affiliate, Working Washington, quickly organized to collect more than 1,500 signatures and helped spark a national media sensation. As a result, Instacart, a $7 billion corporation, gave in, retroactively compensating workers for lost wages and transforming its pay model for thousands of workers across the country. The story made headlines in The New York Times, Buzzfeed, NBC News, and other local outlets.
Late last year, Instacart changed its method for paying its contract workers. Workers began to notice that for some orders, tips that customers had added during checkout were being counted toward their base pay rather than in addition to it. In effect, Instacart was using the tips that workers earned to offset the wages that workers were due.
The Instacart story is victory, but also a lesson and warning. In the rising gig economy–a free market system in which companies contract with independent workers for short-term engagements–it is crucial that both workers and consumers hold corporations accountable for compensating their employees fairly. This is a step in the right direction but there is still a long way to go. If you are interested in getting involved to support this campaign, sign up for a Working Washington national organizing meeting by clicking here, or by reaching out to Executive Director, Rachel Lauter at rachel@workingwa.org.
After being diagnosed with ALS two years ago, I’ve been grappling with a lot of things. I’ve been figuring out how to communicate without the easy flow of words, and how to move without the simple use of my legs.
I’ve been thinking about my family. But I’ve also been thinking about the work I’ve devoted my life to – and the future of our democracy, which is also as deeply personal as it is political.
I spent six weeks this summer traveling across the country in a wheelchair-accessible RV talking to other people’s families, to citizens and activists about their experiences and hopes. In every state I visited, communities were asking the same questions: What will our children inherit? And what can we do now to impact our future, and theirs?
These are difficult questions in difficult times. We’ve seen outrage after outrage. Just last week a Texas judge ruled that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate was unconstitutional. This decision risks throwing the nation’s health care system into turmoil, the one we fought so hard last year to protect, the one that is helping me and some 20 million others to survive.
I am willing to give my last breath to protect our democracy. What are you willing to give?
The CPD Network is rising to the moment and standing up with working families across the country. With the power of 53 partners and allies across 131 cities and 34 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, we are fighting against hate with an increased massive push for healthcare for all, and we are fighting for justice and for the chance for our children to thrive.
Social justice means creating a stable floor beneath our feet and then putting a safety net under that: universal healthcare, affordable housing, unemployment benefits, community safety. Being part of a progressive movement is about fighting back and building toward a better future.
The stakes have never been higher. Join me to fight back and fight forward. Make a year-end donation at populardemocracy.org/ourdemocracy.
In solidarity, Ady Barkan Senior Campaigner, CPD & CPD Action
