Cuomo and BlackRock Can’t Hide

We launched a new campaign for a Green New Deal in New York and blocked the entrance to BlackRock’s HQ, in a busy October! Alongside allies at DSA-NYC, Food & Water Action and the Sunrise Movement, the Movement for a Green New Deal that we’re building is a state level campaign to activate a multiracial, movement-driven effort to make Governor Cuomo take on the climate and inequality crises. We’re off to a phenomenal start! Nearly 200 people attended the campaign kickoff training and over 80 picketed Governor Cuomo’s big money fundraiser during the campaign’s first demonstration. On October 29th, the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, NYCC members and allies carried out a high energy action at BlackRock’s headquarters, demanding the massive Wall Street finance vehicle, which is the world’s top investor in fossil fuels and forest destruction, stop destroying the climate. BlackRock controls nearly $7 trillion and owns about 5% of virtually all the Fortune 500 companies. Amidst a raucous rally of hundreds of people, 10 activists risked arrest by blocking BlackRock’s entrance with a giant, mural-like image. Check out this great video from the action here!

Solidarity with Puerto Rico #CancelTheDebt

The Puerto Rico Campaign organized a huge action on October 21st - the day of the grand reopening of the Museum of Modern Art. The MoMA has on their Board Of Trustees a man named Steven Tananbaum. Tananbaum is the founder of a hedge fund company called GoldenTree Asset Management which currently owns 2.6 billion dollars of the debt of Puerto Rico. After Hurricane Maria, Tananbaum came in like a true vulture and started buying COFINA (The Puerto Rico Urgent Interest Fund Corporation), PREPA (Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority), and Commonwealth bonds at pennies on the dollar knowing very well the fragile state the island was in before the hurricane, and then the total devastation after the hurricane. The closing of 400 schools and extreme cuts on retiree pensions and of services have not fazed this man. So on the 21st, we marched and blocked the entrance to the MoMA on their grand reopening demanding that Tananbaum be removed from their board. Speakers from the Puerto Rican community highlighted the issues and then we took to the street and blocked traffic and as a result, seven activists were arrested. This is the first of what will be many actions against MoMA until Tananbaum is removed from the board and the people of Puerto Rico are free of debt.

Housing Justice for All 2020 Platform

Long Island had a busy October. NYCC LI members Mary Crosson and TJ Shivers were featured in Essence magazine on how mass incarceration wrecks the economic potential and stability of communities of color. Mary and TJ are true champions in the struggle to abolish prisons! We continued to meet with tenants around issues in their building at 100 Terrace Avenue in Hempstead. We sent tenants to the Housing Justice for All downstate meeting which solidified our 2020 platform. One of our members, Peggy Perkins, helped to facilitate that meeting. We held an education meeting with Hempstead parents to push Governor Cuomo to sign legislation to bring monitors to Hempstead. We also held a Tenant Talk in Long Beach to review what we won in the housing campaign last June and agitate tenants to fight for even more this coming year. We continue to build a close relationship with Nassau County DSA. They met in our office on October 12 and we started to form a smaller group to address homelessness on Long Island along with Poor People’s Campaign. We also met with Nassau County Land Bank to explore the possibilities of getting homeless folks into housing. We also linked up with a group of tenant in Islip that are beginning to organize their building around unreasonable rent increases.

What’s Happening with Industry City?

On Oct 3rd, NYCC Sunset Park members testified at the Community Board 7 meeting to demand that the board and Council Member Carlos Menchaca reject the rezoning of Industry City that would give away massive benefits to the developers while exacerbating gentrification. Following this, NYCC members co-hosted and attended the Protect Sunset Park planning meeting on Oct 14 where local activists and groups planned how to continue building increasing opposition to the Industry City Rezoning. On Oct 28th, Industry City Developers moved forward with the petition for ULURP to rezone industry city against the wishes of the community. NYCC members and Protect Sunset Park rallied outside of the community board 7 meeting to demand the rejection of the proposal.

The Fight for Fair Elections

On Oct 22nd—NYCC Long Island members rallied and attended the Long Island Public Financing hearing where they demanded strong statewide financing so that we can get big real estate and Wall st money out of politics. Following that, on the 31st, NYCC members visited State Senator Zellnor Myrie, Kevin Parker, and Assemblyman Erik Dilan’s offices calling on them to sign on to a letter to the public financing commission as we are increasingly seeing the commission move to implement a weak system.

Language Justice

The NYCC ESL Program is back in action for the 2019/20 program year! Our 12 classes serving about 250 students are up and running in Flatbush, Sunset Park, and at three locations in the Bronx. We encourage our students to participate in NYCC actions and events, and many students have learned a lot more about the various issues we work on as a result.

Tomorrow is Election Day! Don't forget to vote!


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