Hi John,

As 2022 comes to a close, I’m reflecting on these past months. This has been yet another trying year for our communities, particularly for underpaid workers, people of color, and gender-oppressed folks. But it’s also been a hopeful one, full of powerful organizing and inspiring wins (check out our 2022 Year in Review below for some highlights from our network).

We’re living in an economic system where corporations and the wealthy extract from our communities in nearly every facet of our lives. They push us to work harder for lower pay, jack up rents while cutting back on repairs, divert our tax dollars from public goods to private profits, and poison our planet. These are not disconnected issues, and there is no path to living full lives with dignity unless we tackle all of them to transform the whole system. 

This is why we have to intentionally pick large structural fights that meaningfully shift power from corporations to our communities. Fights that are stepping stones to bigger ones. Fights that we cannot win in a year, but that we have to win to make real our vision of multiracial feminist democracy. 

This year, people across the country have faced these big fights not with exhaustion or resignation, but with action.

• At work, people are demanding better from corporations like Amazon, Uber, and Lyft.
• At home, renters are organizing with their neighbors and winning protections against abusive landlords.
• At the ballot box, millions turned out to make our elections more fair.
• In communities on the front lines of the climate crisis, people are piloting democratically-governed green energy projects.
• And throughout these campaigns, people who live at the intersections of interlocking oppressive systems — especially women and people of color — are stepping into their power and leading the way in our organizations, communities, and governing spaces. 

These are exciting victories that both make peoples’ lives better today and advance our long-term strategy. Our fights are far from over, but this is a moment to celebrate, to spend time with loved ones, and to recharge for our work to come.

This year, our network:

• Won higher standards for warehouse, retail, and construction jobs.
• Supported workers organizing against abusive treatment by corporations like Amazon, Uber, and Lyft.
• Opened doors to middle-class construction careers for women and people of color.

Our network wove grassroots alliances and brought in community members to:

• Shape government budgets.
• Make millionaires pay their fair share.
• Ensure public dollars flow to people’s needs.

Our network brought together tenants and community members to ensure renters can thrive by:

• Organizing tenant unions.
• Winning rent control and just cause eviction laws.
• Providing renters with access to legal representation. 

Our network tore down barriers that limit our voice in elections by:

• Advocating for election district boundaries that empower communities of color.
• Building coalitions that passed laws to increase voter participation.
• Reaching out to under-represented and low-propensity voters over 3.2 million times to get them to the polls.

Our network ran intensive leadership development programs that:

• Equip community members — particularly folks of color, young people, queer folks, and women — to lead with values, form authentic relationships, and navigate systems of power.
• Prepare people across all roles and levels stepping into their power as transformational leaders.

Read on-the-ground stories, explore where our network is driving change, and see how our wins this year are advancing our long term agenda.

Next year, we have big plans that build on these wins and take the next steps towards multiracial feminist democracy. And while most of our funding comes from foundations, individual donations give us flexibility to respond when new opportunities emerge. 

Can you chip in $20 to power the organizing, campaigning, and leadership development that builds governing power for working people?

We're hiring! Check out open positions across our network.

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Oakland, CA 94612
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