Grassroots Organizing Across the Nation

This page includes information regarding grassroots movements in a general contextss and about 10 grassroots organizations across the country fighting against gentrification and its subsequent displacement within their communities. From Boston, MA to Queens, NY to Chicago, IL to Santa Fe, NM, individuals and families are rallying together to gain autonomy over their homes and neighborhoods and to fight against residential displacement and loss of community control.

What is grassroots organizing? What is the importance of grassroots organizing within communities, especially those affected by gentrification?

Grassroots organizing is a movement involving only members of a community for political, economic, or social equality. A key feature of a grassroots organization is the exclusion of outsiders; by that, I mean  grassroots organizing does not rely on outside, private groups to aid them, monetarily or politically, in its fight for equality. In doing so, the grassroots organization is able to maintain full autonomy over the group and the community goal. By controlling its voice, a grassroots organization can use its collective agency to spark needed change in its neighborhood.

This quality of “full autonomy” inherent to grassroots organizing mirrors the goal of many grassroots organizations fighting against gentrification. Because low-income families and families of color experience a loss of control over their communities following gentrification, it’s especially important for these groups to protect their rights in the face of this adversity and keep this internal control of the organization. Just as original neighborhood members want to take back community power after gentrification, grassroots organizing is most powerful when it’s self-governing. By uniting an organization around a communal goal, neighbors can fight for what they know to be best for their community. And in the fight against gentrification, that’s protecting housing as a basic human right and eliminating the systemic racism inherent in the housing system.

 [This photograph was found as the header picture on the Housing Justice League’s Facebook page; you can access the page by following this link.]

The actions of these grassroots organizations protect the character of urban neighborhood schools while simultaneously eliminating the harmful effects of segregation and stratification within these schools. Please enjoy these summaries and explore their websites afterwards! 

BANGentrification – The Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network, or BANGentrification, demands an end to high rent values and luxury development within Brooklyn, New York City, NY.BANGentrification holds meetings focusing on community solidarity and organizes rallies and protests against the Department of City Planning in New York City. In two weeks, the grassroots organization will host a meeting to plan a Brooklyn-wide march against Gentrification, Racism, and Policy Brutality.1 If you would like to find out more about BANGentrification and its upcoming events, click on the link to access its Facebook and page: Facebook!

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Causa Justa Just Cause – Based in Oakland, CA, Causa Justa Just Cause believes in creating unity between African Americans and Latino communities through their shared struggles to better their neighborhoods and begin a larger wave of multi-racial liberation from systemic oppression. Causa Justa Just Cause envisions an end to minority displacement from gentrification and a self-control over African American and Latino communities by the individuals that inhabit them. By bridging the African American and Latino communities throughout the Bay Area, Causa Justa Just Cause believes it can use this collective power to gain reforms, develop leaders from these groups, and carry forth a broader liberal agenda.2 To access Causa Justa Just Cause’s Facebook and Twitter pages, select the following links: Facebook | Twitter!

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Chainbreaker Collective – Based in Northern New Mexico, Chainbreaker Collective seeks to make affordable transportation, environmental sustainability, and economic support more readily accessible for low-income families, individuals, and communities. By giving neighborhood members direct autonomy over community development, the Chainbreaker Collective envisions an end to gentrification and its subsequent displacement. The Chainbreaker Collective has successfully improved transportation services for low-income individuals through its “Training Wheels” project, its membership within the Transit Riders for Public Transportation grassroots coalition, and its creation of a Resident’s Bill of Rights which was eventually approved by the Santa Fe city council3. Click on the following links to check out the Chainbreaker Collective Facebook and Twitter accounts: Facebook | Twitter!

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City Life Vida Urbana
City Life/Vida Urbana is a grassroots organization based in Boston that is committed to push back against racial, social, and economic discrimination embedded in society through individual empowerment and developing community leaders to bring about systemic changes. For forty years, City Life/Vida Urbana has built anti-displacement organizing, movement organizing, cultural organizing, and leadership development training within urban communities to enact larger, societal change in Boston. This past March, City Life/Vida Urbana organized a group to attend a Boston City Council hearing on the Jim Brooks Community Stabilization Act and show support in front of the city’s government.4 Follow these links to view City Life/Vida Urbana’s Facebook and Twitter pages: Facebook | Twitter!

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Equality for Flatbush – As a multi-national, people of color-led grassroots organization, Equality for Flatbush (E4F) in the Flatbush and East Flatbush communities of Brooklyn, NY organizes community meetings and protests regarding police brutality, affordable housing, and gentrification within the neighborhoods. E4F creates unity across the community by serving as a news base for its community members and by fighting against influxes of wealthy businesses and individuals in the area. The grassroots organization has run Police Accountability Workshops and held outside businesses liable for damages done to neighborhood homes.5 To find out more about some of the present work being done by the Equality for Flatbush, click on the following link to visit the group’s Facebook page: Facebook | Twitter!

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FUREE  Families United for Racial and Economic Equality is a Brooklyn-based grassroots organization led by mostly women of color that gives low-income families a sense of agency and empowers them to fight against racism and systemic oppression, like gentrification, in their daily lives. By using direct action, leadership development, community organizing, and political education, FUREE hopes to grow and change its community.6 Some campaigns currently being fought for by FUREE include community-run political development training, public housing and anti-displacement campaigning, and the Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice. You can check out FUREE’s Facebook and Twitter pages to learn more about the grassroots organization by clicking on the following links: Facebook | Twitter!

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Housing Justice League -The Housing Justice League grassroots organization based in Atlanta, GA helps renters and homeowners to organize and fight eviction in the metro-Atlanta area. By working with tenant associations, hosting leadership development sessions across Atlanta, and launching campaigns locally against the housing crisis, the HJL work to preserve affordable housing, prevent gentrification from continuing within the area, and build self-autonomy in communities across Atlanta.To see upcoming events hosted by the Housing Justice League, check out its Facebook page!

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Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson – Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, located in Poughkeepsie, NY, fights to end racial and socioeconomic oppression caused by systems of power and privilege, including evictions and emigrations resulting from gentrification. This grassroots organization believes that through its public fights against utility companies, community-driven leadership development training,  partnerships with legal professionals, membership with the Right to the City Alliance and, perhaps most important, the intimate support system embedded within the group, community members can end systemic pressures, like gentrification, in their neighborhoods. The group has helped individuals both at the local and state level in fighting against foreclosures, evictions, and gentrification.8 If you want to look at Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson’s Facebook platform, please use the following link: Facebook!

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Queen’s Anti-Gentrification Project – The Queen’s Anti-Gentrification Project fights to stop gentrification and its subsequent displacement in Woodside, Jackson Heights, Sunnyside, and all of Queens, NY. The group organizes around unaffordable real estate and argues against public-private partnerships. Queen’s Anti-Gentrification Project is currently involved in three campaigns against different private urban revitalization projects, including one against streetcars at the waterfront due to their resulting increase in land value.9 Click on the following Facebook link to visit Queen’s Anti-Gentrification Project’s page: Facebook!

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Springfield No One Leaves – Based in Springfield, MA, Springfield No One Leaves empowers residents most heavily effected by the housing crisis to organize, fight displacement, and win long-term control over their housing and community. This grassroots organization believes that through direct action campaigns, building solidarity amongst disfranchised groups, and political education, all community members can unite and spark larger social change across society. Since its founding, the Springfield No One Leaves organization has created a SNOL Peoples School to spread political education in Springfield, MA, completed a Bank Tenant Organizing Campaign, and established a Movement Leaders Academy to train its leaders within the SNOL organizaiton.10 Follow this link to visit the group’s Facebook page: Facebook!

 

 

 

References:

1 Home | BANgentrification on WordPress.com. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2017, from https://bangentrification.org/

2 Unity is Power. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2017, from https://cjjc.org/

3 Chainbreaker Collective. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2017, from https://chainbreaker.org/

4  City Life/Vida Urbana, Stand Up, Fight Back. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2017, from http://www.clvu.org/

5 E. (n.d.). Equalityforflatbush. Retrieved May 14, 2017, from http://equalityforflatbush.tumblr.com/

6  FUREE – Families United for Racial and Economic Equality. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2017, from http://furee.org/

7 (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2017, from http://www.housingjusticeleague.org/

8 People Over Profit | Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson on WordPress.com. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2017, from https://nobodyleavesmidhudson.org/

9 About Us. (2016, December 23). Retrieved May 14, 2017, from https://queensantigentrification.org/about-us/

10 Springfield No One Leaves. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2017, from http://www.springfieldnooneleaves.org/