Hi John,

I’m excited to share a new four-part mini-series on power building that I am co-hosting with Steven Pitts on his podcast “Black Work Talk.” 

In our first episode we spoke with organizer and writer Linda Burnham, who talked about building power beyond elections to win meaningful change. Among the many kernels of wisdom that Linda shared, her vision of Black freedom has stayed with me. In her words, “Black freedom is not having to hear stories of white supremacy or violence and its impact on communities. Those burdens have been let loose. There’s a side of Black freedom that is not imaginable to those of us living today. It’s hard to imagine a time where you are not carrying the weight of your ancestors.”

Her words speak to the need of being visionary and remind me of important lessons from Black feminism and Afro-futurism—we have to dream up the worlds we wish to see, because they don’t exist yet. 

There’s a lot of work to do between building people's power in the here and now, and achieving our vision of freedom for our communities. It involves strengthening the institutions, organizations, and structures that support people as they contend for power. Here at PowerSwitch, part of that means growing our team and building our capacity to get involved with local fights and campaigns happening across the country (you can meet our newest team members here). 

Linda’s vision of Black freedom – being free of legacies of violence – may seem inconceivable to us right now, but this kind of dreaming and ideating is how we begin to create new systems and structures that truly serve our communities. We owe it to ourselves, our ancestors, and future generations to lay the groundwork for a free, thriving, and abundant world. 

When we rolled out our new Long-Term Agenda, we realized that in order to achieve our vision of multiracial feminist democracy, we would need to grow and scale up. As we continue to build people power in cities across the country, we know that strengthening our team will enable us to drive transformative campaigns alongside our affiliates. Over the past few months, we’ve welcomed six new team members to help us do this work: 

• Alonso Hernandez, Creative Lead
• Elizabeth Brownlow, Communications and Research Strategist
• Jessica Vollmer, Campaign Director - Stop Corporate State Interference
• Rodney Brown, Base Building Manager 
• Silvia Saldivar, WILL Empower Apprentice
• Vincent Acuña, Campaign Coordinator for Worker Power and Corporate Accountability

In a win for renters, ISAIAH organized with residents to call on the St. Paul City Council to side with renters over landlords. They successfully pushed the council to vote down a harmful amendment that would have allowed landlords to make unlimited rent increases any time they changed tenants.

OCCORD is supporting Kingspan workers as they unionize with SMART (the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers) to improve their working conditions. OCCORD became aware of an immigrant worker who was fired for updating their personal information. Under California law, employers cannot retaliate against workers for doing so. On top of this, the working conditions are harming employees' health and are hazardous to the environment. OCCORD has delivered a letter to Kingspan Light + Air and created a petition for community members to voice their support for workers at the factory.

United for a New Economy (UNE) members in Aurora met with City Councilor Angela Lawson to analyze the city budget, advocate for investment in the housing plan, and dig into the problems that renters have with landlords failing to maintain and fix serious issues in rental properties. “This was my first meeting with a public official and I felt powerful,” said UNE member Christina Morales. “Seeing other tenants sharing their story with our local elected official makes me hopeful we can make change. We have work to do to protect our tenants’ rights!”

During last month’s intense heatwave in California, students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) tried to keep cool despite the severe lack of green spaces and shade. Rudy Gonzalves, Education Campaign Director at Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), spoke to the LA Times about the importance of greening LAUSD. “This crisis demands a comprehensive approach that involves parents, students, educators and the community at large.” 

Co-hosted by Steven Pitts and Lauren Jacobs

In this four-part series, Steven and Lauren talk with guests about the nuances, strategies, and challenges of building power in cities across the US. Two episodes have been released so far. Listen here.

Co-authored by Lauren Jacobs and George Goehl 

This article is part of Countervailing Power, a joint series by The American Prospect and The Forge that explores the ways organizers can use public policy to build mass membership organizations to countervail oligarchic power. Read their piece here.

Together with BIPOC-led community organizations across the city and county, Puget Sound Sage has released a set of recommendations to the City of Seattle for its Comprehensive Plan, centering around their Community Stewardship of Land framework as the only antidote to unending cycles of displacement for BIPOC communities. Read the full post here.

We are seeking experienced individuals to join our team! If you know anyone who would be a great fit, please send them our way. The ideal candidates will have a deep commitment to social, racial, gender, economic and environmental justice.

• Chief of Staff

You can check out open positions across our network here!

PowerSwitch Action
1305 Franklin St.
Suite 501
Oakland, CA 94612
United States

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