community organizing

Ronn Jordan

Ronn Jordan — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:38:54 -0400

A proud Akwesasne Mohawk, Ronn is a lifelong Bronx resident who is a product of NYC Public Schools and knows the importance of community involvement. Since his son Christopher was a kindergarten student Ronn has been in the spotlight of both political and educational issues in the NW Bronx, a leader in a school construction campaign that won 6 new schools and provided 3000 much needed seats through a NYC Capital Budget Amendment. Ronn has been appointed to Mayor Bloomberg’s task force to develop the Kingsbridge Armory, a 565,000 square foot Armory that has been left almost empty for 15 years into a $350 million dollar multi-use facility to provide much needed economic development and 4 schools in one of the most overcrowded school districts in the state. Ronn serves on the Board of the Alliance for Quality Education, a statewide coalition of education advocates to bring about fair and equitable funding for public schools. Ronn also serves as both a mentor and colleague to the youth affiliate of the NWBCCC, Sistas & Brothas United (SBU).While serving on the design team of Leadership Institute, Ronn worked tirelessly with youth leaders and parents to design the first small HS in the country that was designed by youth for youth. Leadership Institute is a NYC public school whose 3 themes are Leadership Development, Community Action and Education for Social Justice. Ronn has been dubbed “The Man, The Myth, The Legend” by the youth of SBU a title that he accepts with hard work and blushing cheeks. Ronn is currently leading the fight for schools to be built throughout NYC with a campaign title that he came up with NY S.E.A.T.S. (Schools Exploding At The Seams) that seeks to build over 26,000 new seats citywide with 10,000 of them going towards Bronx High Schools. Ronn is also the host of a weekly internet radio show called “Ronnagade Radio ~Warrior for Justice~” that discusses Social Justice issues that affect our country.

Honors For Three Fighters For Economic And Social Justice

Isaiah J. Poole — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:02:56 -0400

A theme that seemed to run through the three acceptance speeches of the award recipients at the America's Future Now! gala dinner Tuesday night was that people who have been left out or left behind in the move toward the American Dream are due their chance for prosperity, and now is the time for the progressive movement to take the lead in making that happen.

All three Gala Award recipients—John J. Sweeney, outgoing president of the AFL-CIO; Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus; and Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change—know a lot from first-hand experience about the left out and left behind. Sweeney, before leading the nation's largest labor federation, grew up in a working-class family in New York City, where his father was a bus driver and transit union member. Lee was a single mother on public assistance when she went to Mills College in Oakland, Calif., and began getting active in the area's left-wing political scene. Bhargava has for more than nine years made organizing low-income people, people of color and immigrants his life's passion.

All three used their gala speeches to challenge progressives to ensure that the movement works to have a substantive impact on the daily lives of working families.

One of the worst aspects of the conservative era is that "poverty and racial justice were not only not addressed, but were actively taken off the table," said Bhargava, the winner of the Paul Wellstone Leadership Award.

Now that we are at the beginning of a new political era, progressives have to move beyond merely pressing for legislation and ensure that low-income people and people of color have a voice and are empowered, "This is the moral test of progressive politics," he said.

Lee, in accepting her Progressive Champion Award, spoke of "the progressive promise," which she said includes a
commitment to economic justice, peace, empowerment of the disenfranchised and "equal justice for all." She added that wherever there are disparities between the well-being of the society as a whole and hat of people of color, "progressives and people of color must come together to eliminate those gaps."

"Serving working people is the biggest honor I could have," said Sweeney, the recipient of the Lifetime Leadership Award. During his remarks, he recalled a recent visit to the White House in which he was able to reflect on how he, a son of Irish immigrants, found himself in the presence of two other children of immigrants: President Barack Obama and his Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. It is a positive sign, he suggested, of how far this nation has come.

Sweney, who will soon retire from the AFL-CIO to become "a labor activist at large," quickly pointed out the struggles ahead for the movement to better the lives of workers—specifically singling out "health care for everyone and the ability of every worker to join a union"—but he did it with a note of optimism. "We will turn around our economy and make it work for everyone," he said.

Defending Community Organizing

Sally Kohn — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:54:07 -0400

In her Republican convention speech, Gov. Sarah Palin said:

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.

If the candidates are going to start attacking each other personally, why can't they leave hard working community organizers out of it? It's ironic that as both parties are focused on change, community organizers --- the ones who actually patch the holes and our democracy and help Americans demand change --- are now a political football.

I have the privilege of working everyday with community organizers across the country who wake up everyday burdened by the very real responsibilities of the people in the communities around them for whom our economy and our government isn't working, and hasn't worked, for a very long time. This election, the ranks of poor people, communities of color, factory workers, single moms, elderly Americans, janitors is swelling to include the vast majority of Americans who now realize that our economy and our democracy just is designed to benefit an elite few rather than all of us. The change voters are talking about this year builds on the shared problems community organizers have been helping people identify for decades. The change voters want builds on the solutions community organizers have been nurturing and putting into place, building the leadership of everyday Americans all across our country to demand that America work for everyone.

I thought I'd share this statement, released today, by Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director of the Center for Center for Community Change:

When Sarah Palin demeaned community organizing, she didn't attack another candidate. She attacked an American tradition --- one that has helped everyday Americans engage with the political process and make a difference in their lives and the lives of their neighbors.

All across the country, in every state and every community, there are community organizers helping people find shared solutions to the shared problems they face. The candidates for President and Vice President should be working to solve our shared problems, too, rather than attack others who trying to do the same.

From winning living wages to expanding affordable housing to improving the quality of public schools to getting health coverage for the poor and elderly, community organizers have made and will continue to make our communities and our country better for all of us.

The values that community organizers and grassroots leaders represent are not Washington values or Wall Street values but American values, that we care for each other and look out for each other and know we're all interconnected and have a valuable role to play in making our country work for all of us. Candidates should be courting these Community Values, not condemning them.

How's about instead of debating the relative merits of community organizing, the candidates take a cue from community organizers and start talking about the real problems Americans are facing and the real solutions we need? Maybe then candidates could make as valuable of a contribution to our nation as community organizers are making every day!

Sally Kohn

Sally Kohn — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:23:54 -0500

The Movement Vision Lab explores bold ideas that make the world a better place for all of us. It is the online home of Sally Kohn, who posts here on topics of radical ideas, grassroots movement building and how to change America and our globe for the better.

Sally is also blogger with the Huffington Post and her writing regularly appears in AlterNet, Common Dreams and other news sources online and off. Her op-eds have been published by the Christian Science Monitor, the American Prospect, the Orange County Register and the Tucson Citizen, and Sally is a regular guest on talk radio shows nationwide and the online video series GritTV. Sally is a frequent speaker at progressive conferences and gatherings on topics of movement building and the need for big picture vision.

For more, visit http://movementvision.org/about