2011 marks five years since ONE DC's formation. On December 9, more than fifty members and supporters of ONE DC gathered at the African American Civil War Museum to celebrate five years of working for social justice in DC. The celebration included an appreciation of ONE DC's members and a shared vision of a path forward for the next five years. The theme of this year's celebration was "Another World Is Possible."

Members commemorated five years of accomplishments and participated in a collaborative exercise to orient ONE DC's strategy and goals going forward.

In 2011, ONE DC has achieved significant victories: securing a position on the oversight committee of the Marriott Hotel's Workforce Services Intermediary Committee; continuing to hold the Progression Place development accountable to DC's First Community Benefits Agreement and to former and current residents of the Shaw community; and working with participants in Occupy/Liberate DC to build broader coalitions for social justice in the city.

 All of these successes and more are possible thanks to the continued  support and involvement of our members. ONE DC members participated in a  visionary exercise, sharing what they would like to see occur in our world by 2017:

• Affordable housing for everyone
• An end to food deserts and health disparities in DC
• Quality education   
• Sustainable jobs for all
• Food cooperatives
• Credit unions 
• "abundance, not scarcity."

When we work together with a shared vision and understanding, another world is possible. We look forward to five more great years!

As ONE DC celebrates five years of creating equity, advocating justice and cultivating leadership, we assert with confidence: another world is possible! ONE DC is creating another world, and we have been doing it with you the past five years.  We have been learning that ONE DC and its allies can build an alternative world when we are the change we want to see -- when we are the leaders we have been waiting for.

Building shared leadership at ONE DC has taught us several key lessons we want to  share with you:

• Each of us has leadership qualities, and none of us has all of them
• Leadership must be nurtured, cultivated, supported, challenged and shared.
• We are all interdependent: we each bring our gifts and talents together to accomplish the work.  None of us can do this alone, and our collective effort always creates more than we can create alone.
• Individual and collective effort requires discipline and unleashes creativity.
• We build trusting relationships; speak truth with love; show compassion for mistakes; we are all growing.
• A dynamic, effective organization is a learning organization. We must be willing life-long learners.
• Accountability is essential: we hold ourselves and others responsible to honor our commitments, ask for help when we need it, and offer support to others.
• Respecting each opinion, listening with an open mind, being willing to be challenged and to change all make us stronger and more effective.
• Critical thinking is essential, but just being critical is not enough.
• Developing and practicing creative solutions and building alternatives now is the mark of leadership!  We walk the road as we make it.

 We have worked to create "liberated zones." In the past five years, ONE DC has strived to facilitate tenant-owned building conversions and cooperatives and helped lead efforts to keep buildings truly affordable housing for low-income and working families. ONE DC won the first community benefits agreement in DC, which included financial grants to community organizations. We continue to hold policy makers and developers accountable to the true meaning of the term "affordable," and we are advocating for keeping jobs in DC for DC residents and using commercial space in DC for small-business owners in DC. ONE DC nurtures community leaders who represent our values of grassroots organizing, democratic leadership, shared power and resources, 

cooperative work, collective action, human dignity, freedom from oppression, and systemic change for a just, fair, and equitable society.

ONE DC's five-year history gives a glimpse of what organized and conscious people can create together!  As you have walked with us over these past five years of activity and victory, we hope you will continue to be inspired to join us in building and expanding our community over the next five years and more. There is much more ahead with your support.

Sincerely,
The Leadership Team, ONE DC

Big victories for ONE DC - and DC residents - in 2011. ONE DC won a seat on the oversight committee for the Marriott Hotel's Workforce Services Intermediary Committee. ONE DC's Right to Live and Work in DC Campaign set its sights on winning jobs for more than 500 unemployed and underemployed DC residents at the Marriott's new hotel, which is currently under construction in downtown DC. With ONE DC on the committee, we will be able to oversee the jobs created as a result of the First Source Agreement, which mandates that 51 percent of new jobs at the hotel go to DC residents. ONE DC will launch a recruitment campaign in early 2012 to identify DC residents - particularly those who live in Wards 2, 7 and 8 - who want to organize for worker's rights and continue to pressure Marriott to make good on its commitment.

UJC, a collective of Mommy's TLC, Roots, and black leaders of DC-based organizations, is a new and dynamic collaboration between ONE DC and economic justice allies in the DC metro area. Over the summer, 35 adults and young people participated in a series of house meetings in Wards 1, 7 and 8 and identified individuals passionate about joining a grassroots movement that is addressing Black unemployment in DC.  UJC will join in ONE DC's Right to Live and Work in DC campaign focused on enforcement of the First Source Agreement, which will ensure that more than 500 DC residents are hired to work at the Marriott Marquis Hotel slated to open in 2014.

I moved to DC from California believing the myth that DC is a "chocolate city." This myth was one of the many reasons I chose to move to DC; in California we do not have any chocolate cities. Friends and family who live in or are from DC had warned me that gentrification was pushing many of the residents out. I thought, therefore, that gentrification was in the beginning stages and that I could be involved in work to resist and struggle with residents who were being pushed out of their neighborhoods.

I had a clear sense of direction for the organizing work I imagined myself doing, which gave me a naïve security. But when I   got off the plane and spent my first day in Columbia Heights, it hit me: it seemed like the gentrification of DC neighborhoods had   started and finished during my plane ride from California.

This was not a chocolate city, and the city was determined to rebrand itself as a Mecca for more affluent, lighter-skinned residents.

I cannot accurately describe the shock I felt.  For a few weeks, I was. I wondered why I was here; my sense of direction was completely lost. But thinking about Frantz Fanon's belief that that resistance can free a black person from their "despair and inaction," I joined up with the group All African People's Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP).

As a group, we participated in the Occupy DC movement at McPherson Square. I showed up with a sign that said "Gentrification = Occupation." While my sign made many Occupy participants angry, it also connected me with N'ya. From that day forward, I began building a relationship with N'ya.

When he invited me to the Black Friday workshop at ONE DC, I had to be there. Knowing N'ya, I knew ONE   DC would be an organization that had racial and economic justice in its heart. Even better, I heard the discussion and saw how ONE DC

was aware of the contradictions embedded in their organizing as a nonprofit. From there I knew I wanted   to become a member. I am also interested in helping create a broader coalition of black organizations throughout DC that can speak to the lived realities of our people. Thank you for letting me be a part of your work.

The Occupy DC Movement has firmly implanted itself at both Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square. While there may be some differences in leadership and strategy, the Occupy movement is connected to the national critique of corporate capitalism and the uneven distribution of political power and wealth in America.  On the surface, the movement extols moral and ethical principles of racial and economic equity that I individually and organizationally support. Therefore, I felt compelled to visit both sites and see how I could become part of this cadre of people who were questioning and challenging the institutions of power. Time and space does not allow me a full account of every event or a detailed analysis, but it does permit me to share my personal accounts thus far.

I first visited the Freedom Plaza site on Friday, October 6th and subsequently have attended several General Assembly meetings in the evening.  On that day, amongst the array of colorful tents, the multiracial and multiethnic groups of people, the   protest songs, and speaker after speaker, I canvassed the Plaza.

I approached a casually dressed Caucasian man in his mid-40s and asked him why he was here. He replied, "I lost my job and am living on the fringes of society."  I said, "I empathize with you, but do you know what the unemployment rate is for Black people in DC?"  He did not.  

I then approached a Caucasian woman in her mid-40s, colorfully dressed, with a sign reading "I am the 99%."  Respectfully, I told her that if she wanted to send a strong and powerful message, she should go and occupy the deplorable neighborhoods of poverty to see some of the faces of the 99% in this city in addition to occupying Freedom Plaza.  Her response was "Go and get them and bring them down here."

Two weeks later I visited McPherson Square, and again I walked around looking, listening, and reflecting on the mostly Caucasian environment, which saw a sprinkling of Black people and other people of color.  I went over to the information booth, picked up some literature,   and started a conversation with a gentleman who was working the booth.  We exchange pleasantries, and he told me more about Occupy DC at McPherson Square. I attended the "People of Color" Committee meeting and discovered that white male patriarchy and paternalism is a major issue at McPherson Square since Caucasian males occupy much of the leadership positions and monopolize the ideas, opinions, and perspectives.

Gender issues and concerns were also expressed as were the continued impact of white supremacy and domination. There was much discussion about the national and international political and economic implications of the word "occupy" to indigenous people and people of color.  The imperialist and colonialist nature of the word and its offensive tone and tenor to persons of color not only in DC but throughout occupy centers around the country.  Equally important is the occupying status of the District of Columbia by Congress, which denies proper representation in the halls of Congress. The continued occupation by a morally and ethically anemic City Council that's more interested in speaking to the needs of the privileged and connected, who promote corporate interests over the needs and interests of its entire citizenry.

A recurring theme I continue to hear in the different committees and meetings I have attended is "we want more people of color, especially Black people, involved." I cannot respond on behalf of the multitude of perspectives and opinions within the Black Community; however, my informal questioning continues to return me to the word "trust." The Occupy Movement claims to be serious in its intent to challenge the societal values of rugged individualism, privilege, selfishness, and resource access for some. The movement advocates for recreating a more inclusive space for a more diverse representation of Americans, classes of people from different walks of life, and perspectives in its challenge to corporate capitalism and the redistribution of political and economic power. Therefore, if it is indeed serious, the movement and we must be ready to engage in the true radical revolution of values that encourages the systematic and structural change that will benefit all humans. This revolution will take place in the spirit of love and authentic solidarity of human worth and dignity in true liberation of all of our souls, for we all are a work in progress.  So as the Occupy DC movement gains momentum, I strongly suggest we consider changing the name to "Liberate DC" as a profound and critical assessment of the movement's motives and aims, for we all are under occupation of societal, bankrupt values that do not honor and respect the dignity and worth of all human beings. Occupy DC, No; Liberate DC, Yes!