Thank you for making 2018 an exciting and transformative year for ONE DC:

1. A special Emancipation Day ceremony at our newly purchased building for the Black Workers & Wellness Center (BWWC).

2. ONE DC members help get the BWWC space ready for use

3. 100,000+ signatures dropped at the HUD office to reject rent hikes

4. Cooperation DC day held at the BWWC in August

5. ONE DC members attended a training in Oakland hosted by the National Black Worker Center Project

6. Our 1st Annual Juneteenth Festival in Anacostia

7. Community artwork goes up at the Black Workers & Wellness Center

8. The idea of the Creative Reconstruction emerges at the Shared Leadership retreat

These are only a few of the incredible moments that made up 2018. Please make a tax-deductible donation today to help us continue our work in 2019 and beyond! Click here to donate.

You can also mail a check to PO Box 26049 (check must be dated 12/31/2018).

Happy New Year!

What are we doing to build power?
National Black Worker Center Project Convening - Raleigh, NC

 By BA Cockburn & Maurice Cook

November 14, 2018 in Raleigh North Carolina, the NBWCP held its annual convening with representatives from seven worker centers from across the country: Baltimore, Bay Area, LA, New Orleans, North Carolina, Chicago, and DC. The convening centered around connecting to the other centers, telling our collective story, and building power. “It’s not just about the local struggle but how we build a broader and more powerful movement.”

It was an insightful two days, where discussions and workshops included an overview of black economic history insights, the dangers of a single story, story telling, working while Black videos, and the benefits and challenges to being a part of the national network. Steven Pitts, NBWCP’s Board Chair, and Tanya Wallace Gobern, NBWCP’s Executive Director, welcomed the group and set the tone for the convening – “What are we doing to build power? We are the embodiment of survival and winning. There is power in our union, there is power in the entire working class. Our north star is the national movement to change the world to build power as a collective.”

This was not the usual gathering. Tanya had a very unique and meaningful introduction process. She randomly invited 8 to 10 attendees at a time to sit in a semi-circle at the front of the room. She asked each person to say their name and to tell the story of an ancestor’s work experience or moment of pride - to share who your people are, which says something about who you are. For one, it was a dad who always paid his unions dues so when they went on strike, the family had food. For another, it was an enslaved great grandmother who held on to her baby during a forced march at the end of the civil war; holding on meant that her child survived to grow up free and inspire a new generation.

To think about how we got to this moment in time and to remind ourselves of some key collective moments in the black economic history, we participated in a gallery walk. We walked around the room contemplating posters that depicted historical scenes such as Black Wall Street, Tulsa riots, and others. We talked about systems built in racism, public resources used to exploit people of color, strategy of wealth extraction, and cyclical issues and practices. The group brought up the need to remember positive key moments in history as a source of inspiration such as the 1892 New Orleans general strike, where the workers held strong against racism and gained most of their original demands. The group agreed that we need to celebrate ways that workers have overcome oppression. We want to remember that there has been a lot of pushback to force change throughout our history.

To frame the discussion around Black economic history, we watched Robert Reich’s video, “The Big Picture.” Robert Reich is an economist and his video depicts his views about the policies driving the U.S. economic wealth gap from the 1940’s to today. It’s his view of how we got into this mess. NBWCP challenged the group to see what was missing from the Black worker’s point of view. The video’s perspective was from a white male. Black people were left out. The role of racism in the economy was left out. Anything that predated the 1940’s was left out.

So, how do we tell the Black economic story? What is the black workers’ story?  And, we need to be mindful of the danger of a single story. From the group, a theme came out of action and struggle, over and over again. Those in power tell one story but it’s not the only story. It’s just as important to tell the other story. By limiting the other story, we put people into boxed without realizing that we do. By being left out of the story, we are indoctrinated with antiblackness and it is hard to build solidarity. Black people are more than one story. Stereotypes develop when there is only one story. Repeating the myths robs people of their dignity. We need radical agitation – don’t run away from those difficult conversations. Stereotypes are tools of power. People buy in and internalize the stereotypes. We need to create new stories that are positive. To build a national movement of black workers, a wide variety of stories will help people connect to the movement. We have to win the hearts and minds of the masses to build our power.

So from the convening, a question rose: In 10 years from now, what is the impact that the BWWC will have on Washington DC? What is our big, audacious goal beyond supporting the economic survival of our people? How are we radically inspiring workers to imagine a world where we are in Power?

Ignite Talk - Making the Just City

By Mindy Fullilove

In 2016, Dominic Moulden, Derek Hyra and I launched our IRL project, “Making the Just City: An Examination of Organizing for Equity and Health in Shaw and Orange, NJ,” a neighborhood-level study of gentrification.

For years, we have each been aware of the gentrification of specific neighborhoods in key American cities: Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant in New York, Shaw in Washington DC, Downtown in Los Angeles, and Five Points in Denver.  In some cities, like Hoboken, NJ, it had been going on long enough that we have seen its slow but inexorable transformation from a factory city to a bedroom community housing financiers who work on Wall Street. In other places gentrification was just beginning and we wondered what might be done to prevent the seemingly inevitable displacement of people and the annihilation of local culture. It was this neighborhood-level view of gentrification that inspired our study.

Soon after we started, however, a slew of reports emerged that made it clear that not only was the process of gentrification was affecting cities everywhere: Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Durham, Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Minneapolis, Houston, San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, and Portland.  In fact, the National Low-Income Housing Coalition 2017 report noted that there was no state in which a person working fulltime at minimum wage could afford a two-bedroom apartment at the fair market rate.

Barry Farm, SE	Encampment in Houston, TX

In 2017, a graph from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development showed the vast gap in available, affordable and adequate for people making less than 110% of area median income, with the gap widening at the lowest income levels.  What are people doing?  One solution is pay more of one’s income in rent. Between 2001 and 2015, the percent of low-income households shelling out half or more of their gross earnings towards rent rose from 34 percent to 43 percent. With such high housing cost burdens, millions of low-income people are struggling to provide their families with essentials such as food, medicine, heat and educational resources.  Though many criticize the method HUD uses for its point in time estimates of people who are homeless, the agency’s data suggests in 2017 there were 600,000 homeless people, including many young children.

ONE DC Member Appreciation Event - December 8th

The member appreciation Event is our annual end-of-year event to celebrate the wins, actions, and accomplishments of our members, donors, supporters, and volunteers. This year we will celebrate the member appreciation event on Saturday, December 8 from 3pm-6pm at the Thurgood Marshall Academy ( 2427 Martin Luther King, Jr Ave SE). It will be followed by a community after party featuring some of the most talented local artists at the Black Workers & Wellness Center from 6pm- 9pm (2500 Martin Luther King, Jr Ave SE).

Click here to RSVP

A Right to City: The Past & The Future of Urban Equity

By Samir Meghelli

On October 26^th, the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum hosted a one-day symposium, “A Right to the City: The Past & Future of Urban Equity,” that brought together scholars and organizers from around the country, including ONE DC’s Dominic Moulden and Rosemary Ndubuizu. The symposium featured panel conversations about such topics as “From Urban Renewal to Gentrification: Planning, Housing, & Neighborhood Change,” “Neighborhood Power: Organizing in the Aftermath of Civil Rights,” and “Facing the Future: Working Toward Equity in Our Cities.” The keynote conversation featured Dr. Scott Kurashige, author of “The Fifty-Year Rebellion: How the U.S. Political Crisis Began in Detroit” and co-author (with Grace Lee Boggs) of “The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century.”

The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum hosted the symposium in conjunction with its recently opened “A Right to the City” exhibition, which features ONE DC’s work and will be open until April 21, 2020. The museum is also home to the archives of ONE DC—which documents the work and activities of the organization dating from when it was Manna CDC–and those archives are being made available to the public for research and study.

ONE DC Creative Reconstruction: A Period of Collective Learning, Healing and Transformation - Update

By Nawal Rajeh

ONE DC's Shared Leadership Team is continuing our Creative Reconstruction work with energy, gratitude, and support. We have heard from many members and partner organizations about the importance and need for all of us involved in this work to take time to reflect and look inward. During the past few months, we have done internal political education in racialized capitalism and in participatory democracy. We have also engaged in healing and wellness activities to help us take inventory of our own wellness as individuals, and as group. As we move forward, we are working with a Coordinating Team to plan a set of trainings for 2019, to make a road map of both where we've been and where we are going, and creating a plan for opening up this process to more of our membership. There will be an update about our current Creative Reconstruction work at our Annual Membership Meeting on December 8, 2018.

The Guatemalan Social Movements

By Clara Lincoln

We sat on Fausto Sánchez’s front porch, my French comrade and I, listening to Fausto update us on his recent meetings and his concerns about safety.  In turn, we told him about the situation of the four political prisoners we had just visited in prison. We sat on plastic chairs on his concrete balcony as his daughter played in the hammock in front of us and ate rambotanes—also known as liche-- a red, hairy fruit with a sweet core that looks a little like an eyeball. Fausto’s eyes dart between us, the road, his daughter, and back to the road. His house overlooks the main road leading into a cluster of 35 indigenous Maya Mam communities in western Guatemala. He’s in a perfect position to see everyone who comes in and out of the communities. As we talk, he involuntarily turns his head and looks through the holes in his fence whenever a car or motorcycle passes.


Click here to learn more about NISGUA

Fausto is a community leader in the municipality of San Pablo in the western department of San Marcos, Guatemala. For nine years, he has been involved in the struggle to protect this territory against a proposed hydroelectric dam where the three rivers that run through the communities converge. The company who wants to build the dam has not conducted the legally required community consultations of the indigenous people who would be affected by the project. In the US, I usually think of the word “territory” as possessive—not necessarily a liberatory perspective on land. But here, it means something like the land that gives life to a people. And it’s constantly under threat.

I had the opportunity to serve transnational movements for liberation as a human rights accompanier with NISGUA,  the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala. As a DC native, I couldn’t help but relate my experiences there to the struggles I’ve been a part of here. Displacement is pervasive in this global moment—  from communities of color in DC to poor people fleeing their countries and facing violence at the border. The patterns are similar in rural Guatemala and urban US. Poor people who have their roots and communities in a geographical space are run off—by the military, by police brutality, or by rising rents—and the economic elites act like the land was theirs all along.

The owners of mega projects in Guatemala, huge-scale extractive industries like mines and electricity-producing dams, are usually Canadian, US or European transnational corporations. These corporations  use a variety of strategies to to repress the human rights defenders trying to protect their land.  Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, which Guatemala has ratified, states that indigenous people have the right to free, prior and informed consent about megaprojects that affect their land. Officially this also applies to Afrolatinx groups, who in Guatemala largely identify and are seen as indigenous. However, these rights are rarely protected. There are many documented cases in which the military and private police forcefully displaced people from their homes, sometimes using sexual violence and other tactics historically used in Guatemala’s internal armed conflict (or “dirty war”). And activists are criminalized and even murdered for their involvement in struggles to protect their rights.

Workers Rights Clinic - The Washington Lawyers' Committee 

The Washington Lawyers' Committee offers free legal advice on Employment matters for law-wage workers. They offer clinics in different locations of the district and on different times to accommodate different schedules. 

Wednesday Clinic in Shaw (NW)
Every Wednesday evening, 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Sign-up between 5:00pm-7:00pm, first come, first serve
Bread for the City NW
1525 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20001

Friday Clinic in SE
1st and 3rd Friday of the month, 12:30pm to 3:30pm, By appointment only
Call 202-319-1000 x138 to make an appointment
ONE DC Black Workers & Wellness Center
2500 Martin Luther King Jr Ave, SE Washington, DC 20032

Saturday Clinic in SE
Last Saturday of each month, 10:00am to 1:00pm
sign-up between 9:45am-11:00am, first come, first serve
Bread for the City SE
1540 Good Hope Rd, SE Washington, DC 20020

Upcoming Events

National Reentry Network Fundraiser 
Thursday, December 6 - 6:00pm to 9:00pm

Josephine Butler Parks Center 2437 15th Street NW
The National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens, Third Annual Fundraiser and Awards Celebration will recognize unflagging leadership an advocacy from members of our community. 
Click here for more Information

ONE DC Happy Hour Fundraiser at Madam's Organ
Thursday, December 13 - 5:00pm to 9:00pm

Madam's Organ 12461 18th St NW
Come out to support ONE DC's work at a fun and lively night at Madam's Organ
$1 from every drink or food item sold during the happy hour benefits ONE DC.
Click here to RSVP and for more information

ONE Bit of Good News - Luci Murphy ONE DC member
ONE DC member and Director of our Black Workers and Wellness Center Chorus, Luci Murphy, was awarded the Culture Award by DC Jobs with Justice, this November at their annual I'll Be There Awards. Luci is a native of D.C. where she is a vocalist and a long time community activist. 

 

Community Celebration & Fundraiser at the ONE DC Black Workers & Wellness Center

On Saturday, October 20, Resource Generation sponsored a community celebration and fundraiser as a kick-off event to raise $300,000 for renovations to the ONE DC Black Workers & Wellness Center. The event lasted from 5:00 to 11:00 PM, with a program featuring performances by the Black Workers Chorus, SAMAI.YAH, Twin Jude, BYP100's The Black Joy Experience, Pontiannà Ivàn, Yon Cové, and Ras Lidj & Deep Band. Food was catered by Oohs & Aahs.

SAMAI.YAH	Twin Jude

At the event, we received word that Live to Give Foundation will grant a matching donation for up to $100,000 raised through the end of the year. With another $25,000 pledge and $8,000 in donations received through the course of the event, we are on our way to meeting our goal of $300,000!

Help us reach our goal by donating today.

New temporary banner at the BWWC	Community artwork welcomes members to the space

The Right to Stay Put

Circle-Keeper Training for Returning Citizens Hosted at the BWWC

By Myra Woods
The National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens is holding a series of five training sessions to prepare the participants, many of whom are returned citizens, to become Circle-Keepers. The instruction is taking place at the ONE DC Black Workers & Wellness Center. We took advantage of the open space to create our relationship development circles, and explore a deeper understanding of traditionally indigenous tools and ceremonies for communicating. Our goals include assisting Returning Citizens in rebuilding their family and community relationships. We also intend to assist those participants in giving voice and offering respectful listening to every member of the Circle.

Circles begins with an expression of the values that participants bring to the circle. Some of the values expressed by our circle include respect, time, honesty, non-violence, self-awareness, integrity, strength, commitment, equality, and self-enlightenment. We have all agreed to adopt these values every time our circle comes together in support of Returning Citizens.

Values expressed by the circle

Each training session builds on the previous class. The traditions of Circle Keeping are discussed. Circle Keeping practices, building trust, identification of trauma, planning for Reintegration Support Circles and support circle processes are included in the learning plan. There are opportunities for practice, role play and sharing feedback.

The National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens is thrilled to be able to conduct these classes in a space that has a long history of safety and building power with Black residents of the District of Columbia.

Grassroots DC Media Collective Moves into the Black Workers & Wellness Center

By Liane Scott
In October, the Grassroots DC Media Collective moved it’s headquarters into ONE DC’s Black Workers & Wellness Center. The Media Collective is a project of the nonprofit Grassroots DC and is an adult education and training program that combines the acquisition of marketable skills with political education, connecting progressive activists and advocacy groups with individuals who are directly impacted by the policies these organizations are working to change.

The Grassroots DC Media Collective provides production services to local nonprofits, advocacy and activist organizations. In the last year, we’ve produced two documentaries and more than two dozen short videos in support of issues such as police brutality, affordable housing, gun violence and street harassment.

Having relocated to the BWWC from We Act Radio, where we were welcomed but short on space, we plan to expand our classes and media production services. For more information about the work of the Media Collective you can visit our website at GrassrootsDC.org, our Youtube Channel, or contact Liane@grassrootsdc.org.

Miheema and John Goodine, two Grassroots DC Media Collective Members already at work at the BWWC.

ONE DC Members Learn Grassroots Organizing Skills at Center for Third World Organizing Training

By Patrick Gregoire
On October 5 through 7, 2018 over 15 ONE DC members, as well as other local organizers, activists, and tenants participated in the Center for Third Organizing's (CTWO) Community Action Training.

Over the course of two and a half days, we went over the five different types of community change organizations (service-based, advocacy, community economic development, electoral, and direct action/organizing) and their relationships to altering the power structure.

We learned about messaging and the importance of framing a narrative. We learned about the power of symbols and messaging. Popular brands are instantly recognizable, elicit specific emotions, and transmit specific messages. This is due to the deliberate efforts that go into crafting the stories about them. We learned how choice of words, perspective, and framing and crafting narratives can impact voiceless and disenfranchised communities.

To that matter, we learned what questions to ask ourselves when crafting our messaging as community organizers. What forms of communication work best? What is the current landscape surrounding an issue that we hold important? What audience are we trying to reach? What is our audience’s relationship to this issue? How do they engage with it? How do we get the message out? What are markers of success? These questions are important because they allow us to not only tailor our messages to our audience, but also better ensures that they receive our messages and that those messages stir folks to action.

We learned how to make a power map and from there, formulate a campaign. We learned which entities to consider (Decision Makers, Organized Opposition, Allies and Potential Allies, Unorganized Constituencies,etc) and what factors to look out for. This framework is vitally important for organizers to get a better sense of the influencers of a given target. Ultimately, it helps us leverage our relationships and networks to determine who needs to be influenced, whom we can actually influence, and exactly who can influence these targets.

Lastly, we were given a list of 198 methods of nonviolent action; tactics that are crucial for the groundwork of any direct action campaign. These are the tools necessary in order to drive, elevate, grow, and ultimately realize our campaigns and get our demands met legitimately.

Stop Police Terror Project-DC Launches #NoMoreStopandFrisk Campaign

It’s important we continue to highlight the inherently racist nature of law enforcement as we observe an increase in the widely discredited “stop-and-frisk” tactics here in DC. This thinly veiled practice of racial profiling entails police stopping and illegally searching people at random on the “suspicion” they have or may commit some crime. Unsurprisingly, these tactics are often aimed at Black and Brown people.

Stop-and-Frisk does not keep people safe and is rapidly becoming the most discredited policing practice in the United States. Exclusively targeting Black and Brown people, it leads to racially-biased harassment and violent intimidation and does not keep people safe. Stop-and-Frisk has become code for a mass dragnet of racially-biased harassment aimed at using intimidation as a “crime fighting” tool.

Court opinions and activism in cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia and others have pushed city governments to declare parts of stop-and-frisk unconstitutional, not to mention its clear racial bias and extremely low effectiveness.

If you want to help Stop Police Terror Project-DC fight against stop-and-frisk in DC, there are a few things you can do:

• Fill out our online petition declaring this harmful practice should come to an end.
• Join us on Thursday, November 8 for a canvassing orientation, where you can learn more about our campaign and sign up for specific canvassing shifts in different areas of the city to build support for the effort to end stop-and-frisk in DC. To RSVP, please email info@sptdc.com.
• Donate to and support our campaign by giving to our PayPal.
• Show social media support around our campaign by using the hashtag #NoMoreStopandFrisk.

Please visit www.sptdc.com/nomorestopandfrisk to learn more about our campaign.

Upcoming Events

Workers Rights Clinic
Friday, November 2 - 12:00 to 3:30 PM, By appointment only
ONE DC Black Workers & Wellness Center - 2500 MLK Jr Ave SE
Hosted by the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
Free legal advice on employment matters for low-wage workers, including unpaid wages/overtime, discrimination, sexual harassment, illegal termination, and more.
Contact 202-319-1000 or clinic@washlaw.org to set up an appointment.

D.C. History Conference
November 1 - November 4
University of the District of Columbia - 4200 Connecticut Avenue NW
The annual D.C. History Conference, formerly known as the Annual Conference on D.C. History, is a collaboration between the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., George Washington University, DC Public Library, and DC Office of Public Records. Since 1973, the mission of the conference has been to provide a friendly and rigorous forum for discussing and promoting original research about the history of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The 2018 conference explores themes related to “Mobility, Migration, and Movement,” including the creation of Metro, the impact of migration to the region, and the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Douglass, a man for whom mobility meant an escape to freedom.The conference will explore the complex meanings of mobility, migration, and movement in a city that has witnessed the Great Migration of African Americans and has the second-largest community of El Salvadoran residents in the United States.
Click here for more info & to register

Beloved Community Incubator: Fundraiser & Crowdfunding Launch
Monday, November 5 - 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Fathom Creative - 1333 14th St NW Washington, DC
Hosted by Beloved Community Incubator
Beloved Community Incubator is a newly incorporated non-profit incubator for cooperatives and social enterprise in Washington, DC. Join us for a special event to launch our fall fundraising campaign by raising $10,000 to support our 2019 programs, which include: Launching our first cooperative, Dulce Hogar Cleaning Cooperative, city-wide; Providing subsidized administrative and customer service support to all of our cooperatives; Providing a trained cooperative developer and leadership coach to train and support worker-owners; Engaging in a listening campaign to discern our second project; Obtaining a feasibility study to ensure the project's success; Convening a second team of worker-owners and beginning training; Providing stipends for worker-owners to participate in training, offsetting childcare, transportation costs, and any lost wages. We are committed to a more equitable economy in Washington, DC.
Click here to RSVP

DC JWJ’s Lunch With Justice: What's Next? The federal landscape post-elections
Wednesday, November 14 - 12:00 to 2:00 PM
Institute for Policy Studies - 1301 Connecticut Ave NW
Hosted by DC Jobs with Justice
At our next Lunch with Justice, the 2018 midterms will be behind us. A lot may have changed on the federal level... or not. Whatever the outcome, it will affect how we do our work here in our communities.What will the federal landscape look like post elections on November 6th? What should we be prepared for? Let's talk about it! DCJWJ invites you to our monthly Lunch With Justice November 14th from 12pm-2pm! Bring your lunch and lets chat!
Click here to RSVP


Book Talk: Barbara Ransby, Making All Black Lives Matter
Monday, November 19 - 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Busboys and Poets - 14th St & V
Join activist and writer Barbara Ransby to discuss her new book, Making All Black Lives Matter, a historical analysis of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The purpose of the book is to stimulate discussion about the Black Freedom Movement, Black feminist influences in it, and the best ways to build coalition and movements for social justice and a new society. 
Click here for more information

Concert Featuring Watoto Choir from Kampala, Uganda
Wednesday, November 21 - 5:00 to 6:45 PM
Congress Heights Campus - 421 Alabama Ave SE
Hosted by Brighter Day Ministries


Summit on Peace with Iran
Saturday, December 1 - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
First Congregational UCC - 945 G St NW
Hosted by CODEPINK
The purpose of the Iran Summit is to highlight the Trump administration’s hawkish policies on Iran that could lead us into another war, and examine how to reverse course. We will also have Iranian art, calligraphy, music, photo booth and other cultural activities. The Summit comes at a time where tensions between U.S and Iran are escalating. The reimposition of sanctions following the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is causing tremendous hardship for the Iranian people. The Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban is making it difficult for Iranians to travel to the United States, separating thousands of families.
Click here for more information

D.C. Labor Chorus Annual Concert 
Saturday, December 1 - 7:30 PM
Tommy Douglas Conference Center - 10000 New Hampshire Ave, Silver Spring, MD  
The D.C. Labor Chorus will be celebrating their 20th Anniversary Concert on December 1st at the Tommy Douglas Conference Center in Silver Spring, MD in honor of the founder Elyse Bryant.
Click here for more info

ONE Bit of Good News - BWWC Hoodies!

By popular demand, Black Workers Center hoodie sweatshirts have been ordered! Come by the office to pick yours up for $30. They'll also be for sale at our Member Appreciation event on December 8!

 

“We have to transform ourselves in order to transform the world” - Grace Lee Boggs

At our annual retreat this past July– members, staff, volunteers, and Shared Leadership team members sat under the shade of a large oak tree reflecting on the last years’ work and the many years before. 2018 marks the 12th year of ONE DC’s organizing efforts for racial and economic equity in Washington. As with every annual retreat, we reflected about the state of our organization. As we did so, a recurring question arose from the group. What would it look like for ONE DC to turn our work inward for a time of deep learning and reflection?

We heard feedback from our members during our shared leadership listening sessions in the Spring, and took these conversation into account while wrestling with questions about prioritizing the direction of our work for the coming year. At the end of our discussions, dialogues, and through a process of consensus building, it became clear that there was energy in the room to take on this internal work of reflection and transformation.

We see this as a time set aside to actively practice, shape, and reshape our organization- to do collective healing, and learning with ourselves and our membership.  

We are living in especially toxic times- pressing up against the systems of oppression that destroy our universal rights to housing, income and wellness. And yet, how do we live, work, and organize in this space and not replicate the systems of oppression in our relationships with ourselves and others? How do we, as an organization, uphold our values in all the spaces we traverse? The answer, we believe, is in intentional practice.

Intentional Practices are those that we choose to do in order to transform the way we show up in the world. Through new practices we increase choice and alignment with our values. …Organizationally we want to ask similar questions: What practices do we need to be in as a staff and organization? What practices do we want to support in our member base to align with our vision and political commitments? ("The Transformative Power of Practice" by Ng’ethe Maina and Staci Haines)

What does it mean for ONE DC to take on this period of internal reflection, practice, and transformation?

At our retreat– members, staff and SLT members defined the major areas of internal work and growth that they saw as priorities for the end of 2018. We are now organizing ourselves, with a Coordinating Committee to take on this challenging work of growth. During the next several months, we plan to make a full plan of orientations, re-orientations, and a 2019 training schedule for our full membership. We want to tackle issues like gender equity, power, and popular education. We will be re-examining staff roles, treatment and expectations. We have also created a Healing and Wellness committee that will be working diligently to create a code of responsibility, processes for ONE DC to deal with conflicts, and ways to help upkeep the internal health of our organization at all levels.

For the next three months, this means that ONE DC will not be engaging in new organizing work or campaigns. We will be paring down our level of coalition work, panels, and outside engagements. This opens up opportunities for members to join us in envisioning what it means for us as a community to do this work and what it will mean for our external work in the future.

The Road to Transformation

"In order to see where we are going, we not only must remember where we have been, but we must understand where we have been." -Ella Jo Baker

Members of ONE DC will be an integral part of our growth. We invite you to reach out to us directly if you feel called to take on parts of this journey with us. And we invite you to engage in opportunities to practice, learn, and grow as part of this community in the months and year ahead! Those involved in campaigns and other active members will be receiving calls and emails about trainings and workshops that we hope you will choose to participate in.

We are looking forward to what this intentional time will do and mean for our community. And we look to our movement ancestors before us who knew deeply that the “work” is both in how we treat each other, how we organize ourselves, and how we fight for justice around us. We draw inspiration from them and from all of you, who have been showing great support for this time ahead. We hope to continue our radical imaginations for what is possible, and to deepen our connections to one another during this time.

In Community,

ONE DC Shared Leadership Team

“in community, our potential is truly realized. what we have to offer to each other is not merely critique, anger, commentary, ownership and false power. we have the capacity to hold each other, serve each other, heal each other, create for and with each other, forgive each other, and liberate ourselves and each other. these are not new thoughts, this is what beloved community means. it is what we all long for, and what we all need.so in this context i ask you to ask yourself – who are you in relationship with, and how can you go deeper, be more present, and offer more of your whole self?” -Adrienne Marie Brown, author of Emergent Strategy

Community Celebration & Fundraiser at the ONE DC Black Workers & Wellness Center

We invite you to join us with your family and friends on Saturday, October 20th between 5:00 PM and 11:00 PM for a community celebration at ONE DC’s Black Workers and Wellness Center, located at 2500 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE. While enjoying a night of free music, food, and fun, take the opportunity to explore our space and hear from ONE DC members and organizer about how the BWWC supports ONE DC in its goal of creating and maintaining racial and economic equity throughout DC. Sponsored by Resource Generation - DC.

Click here to RSVP

Click here to donate the Black Workers & Wellness Center Capital Campaign.

Black Workers & Wellness Center

Support the Clean Energy DC Act!

Have you noticed, amidst all this political intensity, how Planet Earth is also shouting out to be heard? Endless rain in DC. Arctic lakes bubbling with escaping methane. Temperature record after record. Fortunately, Earth has YOU on her team. You believe that climate change is real. You know that we must immediately change our ways. You are willing to fight for a clean energy economy that is healthy, respectful, and good.


Tuesday's hearing is a huge milestone in over two years of rallying for strong clean energy and climate action in DC. We need you there to show overwhelming community support for members of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment. Any Councilmembers dragging their feet will understand that delay on the Clean Energy DC Act is unacceptable.

National press recently declared Clean Energy DC as the "strongest climate bill in the country." For one, it would require 100% clean electricity in DC by 2032. The bill also includes groundbreaking energy efficiency standards for existing buildings, which are the largest source of local pollution, as well as new funding for the Green Bank and Sustainable Energy Utility.

What: Clean Energy DC Act Hearing at DC Council
When: Tuesday, October 9th 11:00am - 2:00pm
Where: John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania NW
Why: To show up in force for the Clean Energy DC Act and encourage DC Council to pass this bill!
RSVP: RSVP today! or RSVP on Facebook

We encourage you to submit written testimony in support of the Clean Energy DC Act to the committee staff, Ms. Benjamin, at abenjamin@dccouncil.us. Written testimony will be accepted until October 23rd.

Can't make it? Send a letter to Councilmember McDuffie TODAY and urge him to support the Clean Energy DC Act - his support is crucial to passing this bill!

DC Palestinian Film & Arts Festival 2018

ONE DC is proud to serve as a community partner for the 8th Annual DC Palestinian Film & Arts Festival! From October 2-7, DCPFAF 2018 features 13 films, three hands-on tatreez and painting workshops, Spotlight Artist Saleh Bakri, and stand-up comedy with Mona Aburmishan!  Several events have sold out but there are still free events open to the public:

The Palestine Pop Up
Friday, October 5, 2018
6:00 PM 9:00 PM
1615 M Street Northwest
Featuring Watan, Tatreez & Tea, Levantinian, and Threads of Palestine

STAND-UP COMEDY // Mona Aburmishan
Sunday, October 7, 2018
6:00 PM 7:00 PM
The Kennedy Center (map)
Closing out the 8th annual DCPFAF on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage with stand-up comedian Mona Aburmishan. Show is free and open to the public.

Click here for full program & tickets

#ItsNotFare - Decriminalize Fare Evasion!

Currently, fare-evasion in the District is considered a crime that can result in arrest, up to 10 days in jail, and a fine of up to $300. The Fare Evasion Decriminalization Act of 2017 (Bill 22-408) would make fare evasion a civil offense punishable by a fine of no more than $100. Bill 22-408 recognizes that no one should have to face arrest of jail time for not affording a fare. The punishment does not fit the offense, and enforcement of such laws disproportionately impacts poor communities and communities of color.

The Facts:

• Fare evasion stops and arrests target District residents. Fare evasion is not a crime in Virginia, and WMATA’s own reports show that most enforcement takes place in the District.
• Fare evasion enforcement is racist. A recent report by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights and Urban Affairs found that fare evasion in DC is enforced almost exclusively against black riders, and studies of other jurisdictions (such as New York, Portland and Minneapolis) reveal that people of color are stopped more often than their white counterparts on suspicion of fare evasion and are arrested and cited at much higher rates when they’ve been identified as evading a fare.
• Fare evasion arrests harm those who rely on metro the most. One in five District residents live in poverty, and many rely on metro transit as their primary mode of transportation. Because metro fares are distance based, these residents also have the highest cost burden because they must travel long distances to get to jobs, schools, doctors, and other services they rely upon. By continuing to criminalize fare evasion, we are saddling the most economically insecure with the threat of jail time and unreasonable fines. Someone who cannot pay a Metro fare certainly cannot pay a $300 fine.
• Fare evasion arrests are costly. A simple citation or misdemeanor arrest can affect a person’s livelihood, can lead to parole being revoked for a returning citizen, and can affect a person’s immigration status. In addition to the human cost, arresting and jailing people for fare evasion diverts critical D.C. resources from addressing serious crimes, and ultimately harms public safety efforts. Taxpayer funds would be better spent investing in underserved communities in the District.
• Fare evasion arrests are not an effective means of deterring fare evasion or of preventing other crimes. The belief that penalizing low-level crimes will prevent worse crimes, known as broken-windows policing, is a failed and discredited approach that led to the mass incarceration epidemic in this country.
• Fare evasion stops have resulted in excessive use of force against riders by police. There have been multiple news stories in recent years of Metro transit officers using excessive force on riders they stopped on suspicion of fare evasion. Interactions like this are not only dangerous, they harm community trust in law enforcement. There is also no independent civilian oversight of Metro Transit Police when riders have complaints about officer misconduct, harassment, or discrimination.
• Fare evasion arrests do not make money for Metro. WMATA makes the claim that it is losing $20 million annually from fare evasion, but it has been unable to back this up with evidence. The fact is that we don’t know how much fare evasion costs, but we do know that WMATA’s ridership has decreased over the past few years, and that has been attributed to service cuts, crashes, general unreliability, and the rise of ride-sharing companies like Lyft and Uber. WMATA should not make fare evasion the scapegoat for its shortcomings.
• D.C. would not be the first jurisdiction to decriminalize fare evasion. The District would be joining several other jurisdictions that have already decriminalized fare evasion.

A parking ticket does not result in potential jail time, and failure to pay Metro fare should not either. It’s time to change our broken system.

What Can I do?

• Contact the members of the D.C. Council’s Judiciary Committee TODAY and tell them to vote for Bill 22-408 when it is scheduled for mark-up this fall.
• On social media, tweet or share your support for the bill, using the hashtag #itsnotfare  
• Print out this sheet and post a photo of why YOU support the decriminalizing fare evasion.
• For more information, read the ACLU-DC’s testimony on Bill 22-408 here.

Occupation Free DC

For years, top officials at DC’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) have participated in trainings with Israeli military and police, institutions which enforce an illegal military occupation over the Palestinian people. As DC residents, we should oppose all police trainings that use military occupation and state violence as a model.



Take these steps to invest in our community and clear a path for real safety in Washington, DC:

1. Sign this petition demanding that the DC Council and Police Chief Newsham cease local participation in training exercises with discriminatory trainers, like Israel’s police and military, which violate DC's Human Rights Act.
   
   
2. Watch and share this video to learn more and spread the word about our local campaign to achieve real safety by investing in our community, instead of in violent and biased policing.
   
   
3. Attend Occupation Free DC Organizing Meeting. Wednesday, October 10, 7-9pm. Email info@occupationfreedc.org for location

Upcoming Events

Rally to Support the Nicholson Street Rent Strike
Friday, October 12 - 6:00 to 8:00 PM
1320 Nicholson St NW
Hosted by LEDC
The residents of 1320 Nicholson St NW have lived in terrible conditions for years: the building’s roof Leaks, ceilings are caving in, there’s mold in the walls, and many of the apartments are infested with bedbugs. The landlord has promised to make repairs but never followed through. Now tenants are ready to fight back. They’ve informed the landlord and the management company that unless repairs are made by October 1, they’re going to launch a rent strike. Tenants understand that the landlord’s neglect isn’t an accident; it’s a strategy to make money. Like many slumlords, the owner is trying to use the bad conditions to push residents out of their rent-controlled apartments so he can bring in new tenants who will pay much higher rents. Tenants have seen the same thing happen throughout the neighborhood and the city, and affordable apartment buildings are emptied and flipped into luxury condos. But they won’t allow themselves to be pushed out of Brightwood, a neighborhood that’s been their home for decades. Tenants at 1320 Nicholson are preparing to strike a blow against displacement, but they need the community’s support. Join them and show your solidarity on Friday, October 12!
Click here to RSVP


Jobs with Justice Organizing & Leadership Training
October 12 - October 14
Washington, DC - Location TBA
Hosted by DC Jobs with Justice
This three-day training is for community leaders, organizers, youth groups, unions, parent groups, faith leaders and parishioners, and advocates and activists that are not a part of an organization. The training will focus on strengthening relationships, building power, agitation, and accountability. Learn more about the training program. The fee for the training is $250.00 for the entire training per individual - scholarships are available for those individuals or organizations with financial need. For more information please contact Sequnely Gray at sequnley@dcjwj.org or 202-674-2847.
Click here to register


Days of Actions vs Wells Fargo
Friday, October 12 - Saturday, October 27
DMV - Locations TBA
Hosted by Climate First
Starting on Friday, October 12th, and continuing until Saturday, October 27th, we and our allies will run—for the 19th consecutive month in a row—"Days of Actions" against Wells Fargo bank for its funding of the Keystone XL pipeline and other fossil fuel projects. Join us for peaceful direct actions at Wells Fargo branches in Washington, DC, and possibly a soon-to-be-determined location in Virginia.
Click here for more info and to RSVP



DC ReInvest Fall Kickoff Meeting
Saturday, October 13 - 12:00 to 3:00 PM
50 F St NW (near Union Station) 8th floor
Hosted by DC ReInvest Coalition
As the campaign continues to push DC to divest from banks that invest in private prisons, racist lending practices, and fossil fuel pipelines, we now have the opportunity to push forward a concrete vision for reinvestment. DC Council is deciding whether or not to establish a public bank based on their ongoing study. It's up to us to push forward a progressive and just vision of what we do want our taxpayer money to be invested in, right here in DC. We'll also continue to build momentum for victory on the bill that would both divest DC from Wells Fargo and increase banks' accountability to low-income communities in the District! All organizations that are part of / have been part of DCReInvest AND anyone who's interested in getting involved. LUNCH will be provided!
Click here to RSVP


Cops and Queers: The History of the Police and the LGBTQ+ Community in DC
Thursday, October 18 - 6:30 to 9:00 PM
Thurgood Marshall Center - 1816 12th St NW
Hosted by Rainbow History Project
On October 18th, Rayceen Pendarvis will moderate an historical discussion with Earline Budd, Craig Howell, Mindy Daniels, Dee Curry, and Brett Parson on the intersection between the LGBTQ+ community and the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC. Tickets are free and not required for admission, but please RSVP so that we can have an accurate head count.
Click here to RSVP


Mary Church Terrell Documentary Screening
Thursday, October 18 - 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Howard University Founders Library, Browsing Room - 500 Howard Place NW
Hosted by DC Preservation League
Learn about the life of Mary Church Terrell. Free and open to the public.
Click here to RSVP

A Place to Call Home - Author Talk with Ernesto Castañeda
Friday, October 19 - 6:30 to 8:00 PM
The Potter's House - 1658 Columbia Rd NW
In A Place to Call Home, Ernesto Castañeda offers a uniquely comparative portrait of immigrant expectations and experiences. Drawing on fourteen years of ethnographic observation and hundreds of interviews with documented and undocumented immigrants and their children, Castañeda sets out to determine how different locations can aid or disrupt the process of immigrant integration. Focusing on New York City, Paris, and Barcelona—immigration hubs in their respective countries—he compares the experiences of both Latino and North African migrants, and finds that subjective understandings, local contexts, national and regional history, and religious institutions are all factors that profoundly impact the personal journey to belonging.
Click here to RSVP

National Day of Protest Against Police Terror
Monday, October 22 - 6:30 to 8:00 PM
Gallery Place - Chinatown Metro Station
Hosted by Stop Police Terror Project-DC
Since 1996, October 22nd has been marked as a national day of protest against police brutality. As the September 6th murder of Botham Jean by a Dallas police officer has reminded us, the scourge of police terror ‒ and the racist criminalization, harassment, and mass incarceration that go along with it ‒ is as acute, unjust, and outrageous as ever. Join us on the evening of Monday, October 22, 2018, as we march and rally to condemn racist police terror, remember those who have been lost, and vow to continue the fight to put an end to racist police terror, harassment, and mass incarceration.
Click here to RSVP


DECOLONIZE: A Knowledge & Skill Share Un-Conference
Saturday, October 27 and Sunday, October 28th
George Mason University - 4400 University Dr, Fairfax, VA
Hosted by La Raza for Liberation
This unique two-day event is a radical space for people of color who are ready to listen, learn, teach, engage, and build. Our goal is bring together activists across human, animal, and environmental justice movements to better understand each other, challenge each other, and create new projects together.
Please RSVP by ordering a free ticket at eventbrite.com/e/decolonize-a-knowledge-skill-share-un-conference-tickets-49744112981 Contact info@larazaforliberation.org for more information.

D.C. History Conference
November 1 - November 4
University of the District of Columbia - 4200 Connecticut Avenue NW
The annual D.C. History Conference, formerly known as the Annual Conference on D.C. History, is a collaboration between the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., George Washington University, DC Public Library, and DC Office of Public Records. Since 1973, the mission of the conference has been to provide a friendly and rigorous forum for discussing and promoting original research about the history of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The 2018 conference explores themes related to “Mobility, Migration, and Movement,” including the creation of Metro, the impact of migration to the region, and the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Douglass, a man for whom mobility meant an escape to freedom.The conference will explore the complex meanings of mobility, migration, and movement in a city that has witnessed the Great Migration of African Americans and has the second-largest community of El Salvadoran residents in the United States.
Click here for more info & to register

Book Talk: Barbara Ransby, Making All Black Lives Matter
Monday, November 19 - 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Busboys and Poets - 14th St & V
Join activist and writer Barbara Ransby to discuss her new book, Making All Black Lives Matter, a historical analysis of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The purpose of the book is to stimulate discussion about the Black Freedom Movement, Black feminist influences in it, and the best ways to build coalition and movements for social justice and a new society. 
Click here for more information

ONE Bit of Good News

Congratulations to ONE DC organizer Nawal Rajeh for being named a Baltimore Community Mediation Center's Peacemaker of the Year! Nawal is founder of the Peace Camp, a summer program in Baltimore utilizing arts, games and literacy to teach conflict resolution skills for youth. It is a project of By Peaceful Means. You can learn more abut the Peace Camp and By Peaceful Means here.

 

One Fair Wage - Initiative 77, which would raise the wage for tipped workers from $3.89/hr to $15/hr PLUS TIPS by 2025, was passed by the majority of DC voters in the June 2018 election. On July 10, the DC Council introduced a bill to repeal One Fair Wage - Initiative 77. Even though 6 out of the 7 wards voted YES for One Fair Wage, the DC Council and Mayor Bowser are siding with big industry capitalists and lobbyists who are actively working right now to overturn the initiative.

To overturn One Fair Wage effectively overturns the peoples' vote. We must show the DC Council that we will not be disrespected! We must tell the DC Council to respect and defend the will of the voters and not repeal Initiative 77.

Come out and join them at the following public events to show our power and testify to the council. Hold them accountable - Let your elected officials know why they must respect the vote and protect 77!

• Friday, September 14 - Press Conference
• Monday, September 17 - DC Council Hearing. Click here to RSVP
  
• Friday, September 28 - Ward 8 Town Hall Meeting
• Tuesday, October 2 and 16 - DC Council will vote on 2 separate days to overturn YOUR vote.

Here are the FACTS:

• Initiative 77 will raise the wage for tipped workers incrementally by $1.50/year over 7 years. So the minimum wage will rise from $3.89 to $15/hr PLUS tips by 2025.
• DC voters overwhelmingly voted for Initiative 77 by a 56% to 44% margin.
• Initiative 77 had greatest support among lower-income wards with a higher African-American population. Low to no support came from the wealthiest ward with a higher White population.
• DC Council and Mayor Bowser are trying to overturn the initiative instead of respecting the democratic process and the will of the people.
• Wards 7 and 8 had the highest support of Initiative 77, yet even Council members Trayon White and Vincent Gray have decided to ignore their constituents who voted them into office and have signed on to repeal the DC vote.

Sign up for more information and to attend. Sign up to tell your story at public events.
Contact: Latrice
email: StoneBlackDevelopment@gmail.com
Call: 202-360-1177

Black August: A Commemoration of Freedom Fighters

For our monthly People's Platform event, ONE DC commemorated Black August, as reflected in People's Platform principle #7, which calls for decriminalization, demilitarization, and prison abolition. We attended in solidarity a prison letter writing night organized by Stop Police Terror Project-DC and HU Resist, an event centered around writing letters to incarcerated people to show our commitment and support to their struggle.

During the event, we had the privilege to hear from Jihad Abdulmumit on a live phone call. Jihad is chairperson of the National Jericho Movement and was a political prisoner for over 20 years, targeted by the state for his activities with the Black Liberation Movement. Jericho is a "movement with the defined goal of gaining recognition of the fact that political prisoners and prisoners of war exist inside of the United States, despite the United States’ government’s continued denial...and winning amnesty and freedom for these political prisoners."

Support the Nationwide Prison Strike

The Black August People's Platform occurred in the midst of a nationwide prison strike.

Men and women incarcerated in prisons across the nation declare a nationwide strike in response to the riot in Lee Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison in South Carolina. Seven comrades lost their lives during a senseless uprising that could have been avoided had the prison not been so overcrowded from the greed wrought by mass incarceration, and a lack of respect for human life that is embedded in our nation’s penal ideology. These men and women are demanding humane living conditions, access to rehabilitation, sentencing reform and the end of modern day slavery.

Demands:

1. Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women.
2. An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor.
3. The Prison Litigation Reform Act must be rescinded, allowing imprisoned humans a proper channel to address grievances and violations of their rights.
4. The Truth in Sentencing Act and the Sentencing Reform Act must be rescinded so that imprisoned humans have a possibility of rehabilitation and parole. No human
   shall be sentenced to Death by Incarceration or serve any sentence without the possibility of parole.
5. An immediate end to the racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and parole denials of Black and brown humans. Black humans shall no longer be denied parole because the victim of the crime was white, which is a particular problem in southern states.
6. An immediate end to racist gang enhancement laws targeting Black and brown humans.
7. No imprisoned human shall be denied access to rehabilitation programs at their place of detention because of their label as a violent offender.
8. State prisons must be funded specifically to offer more rehabilitation services.
9. Pell grants must be reinstated in all US states and territories.
10. The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences, pretrial detainees, and so-called “ex-felons” must be counted. Representation is demanded. All voices count.

Learn more about you can support the Nationwide Prison Strike by clicking here.

ONE DC is Hiring!

ONE DC is expanding our team to continue the fight for racial and economic equity in the District. The positions are:

• BWC Co-op Organizer (Part-time)
• Right to Housing Organizer (Part-time)
• Right to Income Organizer (Full-time)

Additional information can be found at the links above. To apply, please submit resume and cover letter (including salary expectations) electronically to onedcjob@gmail.com. Additional questions can be directed to our Hiring Committee at onedcjob@gmail.com Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until September 5, 2018. Please also share this with people you know who may be good candidates for the open positions.

ONE DC Shared Leadership Team Holds Annual Retreat

From July 27 to July 29, a group comprised of ONE DC Shared Leadership Team members, staff, and members gathered for our annual Shared Leadership Team retreat. The annual retreat is a time for visioning, reflection and self-critique, strategizing, and team-building.

We're looking forward to sharing with membership in the coming months the reflections and goals set at the retreat, and engaging with membership to build a stronger ONE DC moving into 2019 and beyond.

ONE DC members review reading material at our annual SLT retreat

Summertime Cooperation: Co-op Community Cookout

On August 4, the Black Workers and Wellness Center (BWWC) hosted ONE DC’S first Co-op Community Cookout event of the year. Following up from a successful People’s Platform event in February, Cooperation DC held a summer cookout event in order to engage in popular education about cooperative economics while gathering community and enjoying food with one another. The Black Workers and Wellness Center was a full house that day! We spent our time reviewing the Seven Cooperative Principles and understanding how they work to address shortcomings experienced in the workplace. We explored how Cooperation DC’s work fits into ONE DC’s overall vision for building people-driven power in Ward 8 and throughout the District.

ONE DC members learn about the 7 cooperative principles

As use of the Black Workers and Wellness Center expands through building renovations and new staff organizer positions, we look forward to building on the growing excitement around our co-op work by hosting more events like this in the coming year! Stay tuned for fall updates from our two partner cooperatives: Dulce Hogar Cleaning Cooperative and Co-Familia Child Care Cooperative, and from the Working World Cooperative Organizing Retreat.

7 Cooperative Principles

1. VOLUNTARY AND OPEN MEMBERSHIP
   Co-operatives are voluntary organizations, whose services and membership are open to all due to having minimal barriers of accessibility.
2. DEMOCRATIC MEMBER CONTROL
   Co-operatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Co-operative members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote), and are typically structured in a way that does not resemble traditional business leadership.
3. MEMBER ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION
   Members contribute equitably to collectively own the money and assets of their co-operative. Members put profit towards any of the following purposes: developing their co-operative; benefiting members based on interaction with the co-operative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.
4. AUTONOMY AND INDEPENDENCE
   Co-operatives are autonomous, self-maintaining organizations controlled by their members. Agreements that may be made with other organizations and institutions and any funds they get from outside of the co-operative are processed in a way that keeps democratic control and ownership over the co-operative.
5. EDUCATION, TRAINING AND INFORMATION
   Co-operatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, and worker-owners so they can contribute effectively to the development of their co-operatives. They inform the general public, especially in the communities they occupy, about the nature and benefits of the cooperative movement and other popular and political education topics.
6. CO-OPERATION AMONG CO-OPERATIVES
   Co-operatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the Co-operative Movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures. Co-operatives are conscious about how their decisions may affect other co-ops and are concerned for the well-being of those co-ops.
7. CONCERN FOR COMMUNITY
   Co-operatives work in the best interest of the communities in which they reside. They are open to providing support and resources for community members in need.

Black Workers & Wellness Center Clean-up Days

Making the Just City Project Continues Participatory Action Research in Shaw

By Raheem Anthon

As part of the Making The Just City project, Team Shaw, DC and Team Orange, NJ have both been finishing up the last of their interviews with key players within each community. Shaw, which is studying late-stage gentrification, has been studying the effects that gentrification (ie. displacement) has had on residents and business owners in Shaw. Orange, NJ  has been focusing on the effects of early stage gentrification (ie. divestment) on their community. Both sets of interviews will be transcribed and analyzed for the purpose of policy work, and also will be archived into the Anacostia Community Museum.

Making The Just City is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is led by the Interdisciplinary Research Leadership team: Mindy Fullilove, Dominic Moulden, and Derek Hyra. Each team is paired with two local community organizers: Serita El Amin and Raheem Anthon from Shaw, DC; and Aubrey Murdock and Molly Rose Kaufman from Orange, NJ.

Making the Just City leaders conduct a focus group in Shaw

Making The Just City has been meeting two times a year to discuss what occurrences have happened in each groups’ location. Discussions ranged from building developments and new policies that have helped to reallocate funding away from public housing into the hands of developers, to reports about what type of feedback we are getting from the interviewees. Orange has made trips to DC to see the ongoing displacement that has taken place in the 7th Street corridor and were actually able to speak to some Washingtonians about the oppressive conditions of gentrification. One individual actually approached the group, explaining how she has faced harassment from DC police and developers. The Shaw team also made a trip out to Orange to see the ongoing development divestment of the communities. In Orange, the Shaw team learned how a community feels and looks while still connected to its roots. Through both tours each group was able to gain a deeper understanding of what gentrification looks and feels like in its different stages.

The Shaw team has also been meeting with Marisela Gomez, who is one of the coaches for the RWJF IRL team. She is part of Social Health Concepts and Practice, a community health organization that offers the opportunity for individuals, communities, organizations, and institutions to identify and understand the bridge between the health of the individual and society. Within her class, the Shaw team has taken a look at intersectionality and how that plays a role in power dynamics. The Shaw team has also learned that from interpersonal to institutional to structural oppression is how capitalism continues to use these avenues to oppress and exploit the working class. At the end of this training, RWJF is hoping that the Shaw team has a better understanding of how to discuss racial equity.

IRL Leaders take a learning journey to Portland, OR

Making The Just City is a study on gentrification and its adverse effects on communities. Gentrification leads to multiple problems, such as displacement and mental and physical illnesses. Both teams have been studying gentrification through the ethnographical method which is conducting interviews, doing on the street observation, and other methods used in what would be considered a routine community immersion study. Our aim is to get as much information from the people truly affected by so-called "urban development" to give a channel to those who have had their voices circumvented by politicians, developers, and others who benefit from having these communities voiceless. We also hope this program will highlight the systemic problems that displacement has on poor communities (majority whom are Black and brown) and place this as a local to national outcry calling for EQUITABLE AND ACCESSIBLE HOUSING FOR ALL!!!

D.C. Residents Shut Down White Supremacist Rally

On the anniversary of last year's violent neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville VA, ONE DC joined forces with ANSWER Coalition and other local organizations to defend Black and Latinx communities in DC against white supremacist and fascist violence in Lafayette Park.

Approximately 15,000 counter protesters in Washington, DC took to the streets to oppose around 40 white nationalists and the broader white supremacist and fascist ideologies. We sent a clear message to neo-Nazis and the Trump administration that DC is not a playground for such hateful people and movements.

Thousands of counter-protestors gather in Lafayette Park. Photo Credit: ANSWER Coaliton

Although WMATA told the public they would not be giving the Unite The Right rally special accommodation, Jason Kessler and his group were still granted a "special" Metro car with police accompaniment. Just as the state facilitates the violent destruction of public housing and displacement of working class DC residents, so too we see our public resources used to protect the KKK and other hate groups gathering in DC. Regardless of all the accommodations, few showed up for the Unite The Right rally and ultimately the rally was ended early.

Upcoming Events

ANSWER Coalition Happy Hour Fundraiser
Thursday, August 30 - 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Barcode - 1101 17th St NW
Hosted by the ANSWER Coalition
Join the ANSWER Coalition in taking time to relax and enjoy ourselves while also building the movement. We'll be joining together for a happy hour fundraiser, and Barcode will have late-night happy hour specials just for us. Given that this event is taking place during 'Black August' we especially want to honor and remember those who have fought for justice in the past as we contribute toward building a stronger movement today. This event is 21+. Suggested donation of $5 at the door.
Click here to RSVP


Amp Up and Show Up: Demand Mayor Bowser #StopDCGDemo
Friday, August 31 - 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
John A. Wilson Building - 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Hosted by Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless
Join us to demand Mayor Bowser stop demolition on the DC General campus until all the families have moved out and that she follow the highest standards for health and safety when demolition resumes for the sake of the nearby women at Harriet Tubman shelter and residents of the jail. Despite 1100 individuals, 47 organizations and 8 DC Council members asking Mayor Bowser to delay the demolition until all the families have moved out, Mayor Bowser plans to start up the external demolition of Building 9 again any day now, and has not committed to using any higher standard for the health and safety of DC residents.
Click here to RSVP

Celebrate #BlackLaborDay with the National Black Worker Center Project
Monday, September 3 - All Day
Hosted by the National Black Workers Center Project
This September 3, 2018 the National Black Worker Center Project invites you to join us as we celebrate Black Work. Labor Day, an annual celebration of workers' achievements, originated in the 1800’s during one of our country’s most challenging times for workers: 12-hour work days, poor working conditions, pay so low families couldn’t make ends meet – Wait, that sounds a lot like 2018! Join us in thanking Black Workers who against the odds, keep showing up and never give up! You can join in the celebration by:
-Promoting Black Labor Day through your social media accounts
-Add “Celebrate Black Labor Day #thankaBlackworker” to your email signature line
-Send a “Thank You” to the Black workers you know and those you don’t
-Join the #thankaBlackworker twitter storm on September 3, 2018
Click here to follow National Black Workers Center Project on Twitter


Venezuela's Revolution: The Fight for Socialism & Independence
Saturday, September 8 - 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
The Real News Network - 231 Holliday St, Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Hosted by the Party for Socialism & Liberation
For more than two decades, Venezuela has been undergoing a period of profound change and transformation known as the Bolivarian Revolution. Under the leadership of Hugo Chavez and now President Nicolas Maduro, the people of Venezuela have fought to preserve their country's independence and build a socialist society where poor and working people have the power. But the revolution is under intense attack from both the U.S. government and the country's own wealthy elites. The corporate media presents the hardships and conflict in Venezuela as a failure of socialism, but this couldn't be further from reality. We'll discuss the truth about the situation in Venezuela. Special guest speaker Eugene Puryear was the 2016 Vice-Presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. He is the host of the radio show By Any Means Necessary and an organizer with Stop Police Terror Project - D.C.
Click here to RSVP

Lunch With Justice: September
Wednesday, September 12 - 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Institute for Policy Studies - 1301 Connecticut Ave NW
Hosted by DC Jobs with Justice
Join the DC JWJ community for a lunchtime discussion of issues that matter to the DC Jobs With Justice community with at our monthly Lunch With Justice series.
Click here to RSVP

Empower DC's 15th Anniversary!
Thursday, September 13th - 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
African American Civil War Museum - 1925 Vermont Ave NW
Hosted by Empower DC
Put on your dancing shoes and join us for a night of great food, cocktails, and music! On September 13th, Empower DC’s members, supporters, funders, Board & staff will gather to celebrate their accomplishments and commemorate our organization’s 15th Anniversary.
Click here to purchase tickets


DC Council: Respect The Vote! Protect 77!
Monday, September 17 - 10:00 AM
John A. Wilson Building - 1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Hosted by One Fair Wage DC
Join us in welcoming back DC Council from recess and letting them know DC voters cannot be silenced. DC has spoken. It's time for tipped workers to get a raise! #Protect77 #NoRepeal #DCVotesMatter #OneFairWage #RespectTheVote! If you would like to sign up to testify, please email: candace@rocunited.org
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Art Brings Us Home: Street Sense Media Celebrates 15 Years of Impact
Tuesday, September 25 - 6:00 PM
Big Chef - 2002 Fenwick St NE
Hosted by Street Sense Media
Join us to celebrate 15 years of Street Sense Media! Our talented artists will present a multimedia gallery that shares their stories through photography, illustration, interactive art, poetry and writing, theater, film, and audio production. Attending guests will have the opportunity to meet the artists and purchase displayed pieces which will be on sale for donation to support the artists and grow our media center where the work is created. All support for this event will advance engagement and education between our vendor-artists and the public.
Click here to purchase tickets

NAARC: Cure the Streets!

ONE DC in the News - Washington residents join forces to sidestep rising rents

By Carey L. Biron
originally published in Place, August 21, 2018

With its prime location and rapid development over the past decade, the Columbia Heights neighbourhood commands among the highest rents in the U.S. capital — already one of the most expensive cities for housing in the country.

But resident Linda Leaks pays only about $1,000 a month, half the area's average in Washington, D.C.

She lives in a housing cooperative in which members collectively own the building, pay a low "share price" - of $2,000 to $3,000 - to move into their unit and then pay a small amount each month to cover utilities and management of the building.

Leaks created the Ella Jo Baker cooperative over a decade ago for community activists "who did not have a lot of money".

"When people move in, they are here for a long time," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from her flat on a quiet, rowhouse-lined street.

This model - also known as a limited-equity cooperative (LEC) - is an attractive proposition for many in fast-developing Washington, which is experiencing one of the worst shortages in affordable housing in the country, according to the U.S.-based National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Latino Cooperative sits just north of downtown Washington, D.C., August 1, 2018. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Carey L. Biron

The approach is similar to the "mutual aid" housing model in Latin America, housing cooperatives in Europe, and the coops that are redeveloping informal neighbourhoods in Africa and Southeast Asia, said Bea Varnai of urbaMonde, a Geneva-based housing charity.

In the United States, such cooperatives are not unique to Washington: New York City leads the country in total number, and the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, a nonprofit group, has documented about 166,000 such units across the nation.

Amid this mix, however, Washington hosts the second-highest concentration of limited-equity cooperatives in the country - an achievement made possible by the Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), a local law enacted in the 1980s, said Dominic Moulden from community development group ONE DC.

The law requires landlords seeking to sell a residential building to first offer the sale to the property's tenants.

"In D.C., coops are a way to keep very low-income people in the city and create very long-term, low-cost housing," Moulden said.

Most of the cooperatives he has helped create were "developed in crisis" to stop residents being driven away from the area by gentrification or eviction.

Click here to continue reading on thisisplace.org

ONE Bit of Good News - A little note from an anonymous donor

Hey ONE DC

I've been an admirer and supporter of your work for a few years now, and plan to continue to be.
Please use this contribution as you see fit - including as part of a matching challenge or whatever else makes the most sense.

Peace!
Anonymous

Click here to make a tax-deductive contribution to ONE DC

 

By Haley Cureton, Interdisciplinary Research Leaders Minneapolis

On June 7-8th, I visited ONE DC to learn about Making the Just City, a research project on gentrification and displacement in Washington, DC and Orange, NJ, led by Dominic Moulden, Mindy Fullilove and Derek Hyra with support from Interdisciplinary Research Leaders (IRL).


A story I heard from a ONE DC member especially struck me on my visit. It was about a family member pressured to move out of her home by developers. She described the overwhelming number of phone calls, notes on the door, and uninvited developers who came knocking and made offers to buy the property claiming that they were giving her a “great offer.” She said the process continued with building intensity. The story struck me because first-- how is that legal? And second-- it took me out of my mind and into my heart very quickly to show me that the issue of gentrification is not abstract, it is immediate, pervasive and deeply personal. The mission of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is to build a culture of health in the US—and the ONE DC member’s story made me think, what does development look like in a culture of health? Definitely not that.

In a culture of health, people have a right to the city where they live. A home is a place to lay down roots, a safe place that is free of outside pressure to move or sell or relocate before a family is ready for any reason. In a culture of health, residents and neighborhoods benefit from development rather than being displaced by it.

The research findings from Making the Just City will be useful to cities around the US dealing with a crisis of affordable housing and questioning how to slow development and address gentrification. Additionally, so will the model of HOW this research project is being co-led by researchers, organizers and community members. It reminds me of a core teaching in eastern philosophy: actions are examples as much as they are actions. Making the Just City is a research project, and it is also an example of the power of research partnerships in addressing shared concerns about the wellbeing of our communities.

Thank you for having me, ONE DC! Peace from IRL in Minneapolis.

By Brook Hill

Between July 18th and 22nd, ONE DC members Keisha Harden, Janice Underwood, and myself attended the Homes for All Assembly convened by the Right to the City Alliance in Atlanta. The assembly brought housing justice organizers together from across the country to discuss housing challenges, share solutions, and plan how to react to those challenges nationally and regionally. The assembly was also an opportunity to introduce attendees to and invite comment on a training tool that includes a blueprint for building a grassroots group and an articulation of shared values. The ONE DC delegation was able to establish ties with groups working in nearby cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Newark, and to strengthen ties with folks from D.C. that we were already familiar with.


The first full day of the conference was spent discussing the current state of our housing work and collectively planning what we would need to do over the course of the next decade to achieve our goals. Despite the fact that the group included people from east, west, north and south, many of the problems they faced were surprisingly familiar. Low-income communities of color face displacement fueled by commercial and residential real estate development not only in cities that have been earning reputations as expensive places to live like DC, New York and the Bay Area, but also in places like Lincoln, Nebraska; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Nashville, Tennessee.

The solutions they are seeking to implement are familiar too; just cause eviction, right to counsel, tenant opportunity to purchase, and rent control. Even though these tenant protections have not solved all of the problems facing tenants in cities where they exist – such as the District of Columbia – tenants’ rights would be a lot more elusive without them. It was inspiring to hear about serious campaigns to pursue them in so many places. If tenant protections become common outside of DC it will be easier to push for even stronger protections in DC. Folks were serious about what it would take to accomplish these things, as much of the plan for the next ten years included spending a lot of time door knocking, making phone calls, recruiting members, building coalitions and raising funding. 

The second day of the conference was about what it would take operationally to achieve the plans that were laid out the day before. Appropriately the day began with a direct action because after we do the work of bringing people together, disrupting the status quo with protest is important to bring about change. However, the rest of the day was spent discussing the less glamorous work of building a group that can fight for housing justice in a meaningful way. To that end, the Right to the City Alliance introduced the Homes for All Handbook, movement DNA. It is a pamphlet with a dozen or so pages that lays out the shared values of the Homes for All Coalition along with step by step instructions on how to build a group. The techniques reminded me of what I had learned as an organizer at ACORN and New York Communities for Change and they were packaged in an inviting and digestible fashion. The Homes for All Handbook has the potential to be an invaluable tool for new organizers and tenant leaders.

On the third day, everybody attended a training session. The one I decided to attend was about development without displacement and community control. We participated in an exercise where we imagined that we were planning our ideal community and the facilitators would approach us and try to offer us things that would ‘improve’ our communities – we’d have to think about the consequences and reject or accept the offers. It was a great exercise. After that, we heard about how one Bay Area community group teamed up with a community development corporation to successfully fight for an alternative vision of development in their community.

ONE DC members Janice Underwood, LaKeisha Harden, & Brook Hill

All in all, the conference was a great experience. We were able to deepen our ties with other DC organizers, networks with other organizers in the region, do some reflection on our work in recent years and begin planning the future. The other ONE DC members and I left Atlanta inspired and anxious to continue building at home.