2010
New Movement Leadership Grants
I've spent 13 years of my life as a community organizer in New York-- the last ten with Community Voices Heard. During that period, the field of grassroots community organizing has changed and grown. The groups' approaches are more...
Paid Sick Leave: It's Good All Around
Nobody wants restaurant workers sneezing and coughing into their food. But recent inaction by Council Speaker Christine Quinn has made that almost inevitable. This is New York; people eat out a lot here. And to protect the consumer-- and...
The Prospects for Community Power in Albany
While progressives will remain in the majority of the U.S. Senate after last Tuesday's midterm elections, there is not such good news to report in New York. Control of the New York State Senate will have major consequences for...
A Decade (Plus) of Growth -- But So Much More to Do
It's been a perplexing few weeks for those of us who believe that a better, fairer and more just New York is possible. Longtime North Star Fund grantee Domestic Workers United got the Governor to sign the Domestic Workers...
Learning to Share at Netroots Nation
My grandfather worked for Harrah's Lake Tahoe, so I spent a lot of time in casinos growing up -- childcare while the elders were attending floor shows; lunch with my grandmother while she played Keno; or just trotting through...
Organizing in Color
While many of us were planning our beach getaways, North Star recently hosted a unique summer Happy Hour that reminded me why their approach to social change matters. I've always known as a donor that North Star Fund, through...
Reports from the Forum
Late this spring, North Star Fund issued travel grants that allowed groups to send representatives from New York City's vibrant social justice movement to the U.S. Social Forum held in Detroit. According to the Social Forum's website, "[The Social...
Tenants Take To The Streets For Rent-Law Reforms
The tenant movement raised the stakes in the fight for rent-law reforms in July 2010, when members of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, alongside other groups in the Real Rent Reform (R3) campaign, took part in a civil disobedience...
LatinoJustice Takes On Arizona
Though the federal government is charged with setting this country's immigration policies, states and localities across the country have begun creating their own immigration policies. Though they have done so under the guise of simply trying to aid the federal...
Reflecting the US Social Forum
Activists and artists, grassroots community organizations and unions, farmworkers, immigrants, senior citizens and youth, from the U.S. and around the world--altogether 20,000 people, gathered at the convention center in downtown Detroit, June 22-26 for the historic 2nd U.S. Social Forum. It...
From the Forum to the Streets
Detroit: On Friday June 25th, a couple of protests took place at the U.S. Social Forum. The larger of these protests, focused on the financial giant J.P. Morgan Chase, was organized by the Bail Out the People Movement. Several...
Taking Back Public Space
Just like they have been for the last 200 years, most street vendors in New York City are immigrant entrepreneurs. They do not ask for government funding or city subsidies. They pay taxes and put up with intense regulation. ...
A Pageantry of Protest
When I first arrived in Detroit on Friday the seventeenth of June 2010, I was amazed at the number of abandoned buildings. Everywhere I looked there were empty buildings and broken windows. The streets were desolate, a trickle of...
A Fair Chance for Families Separated by Prison
Co-authored by Sam Streed On June 15, incarcerated parents and their children received long sought-after and critical support in their efforts to maintain ties to each other and protect parental rights. On that day, after years of advocacy by...
On the Ground at the U.S. Social Forum
People's Production House will be reporting for the Community Blog from the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, June 22 - 25. This is their first dispatch. Detroit: Over eight hundred social justice groups from around the US, comprised of over...
Who Says You Can't Win Big in a Bad Economy?
They work for some of the deepest pockets in the global economy--Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan/Chase and other Wall Street firms. But when the stock market crashed, the commercial movers who do the heavy lifting on Wall Street got hit...
DWU Gears Up for Senate Vote on Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
For six years, domestic workers and supporters have worked tirelessly to move New York State to pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. The bill provides key protections and basic rights for nannies, housekeepers, and elder caregivers who are...
Todos Somos Arizona-- We Are All Arizona
"I hate racial discrimination most intensely and all its manifestations. I have fought all my life; I fight now, and will do so until the end of my days." -- Nelson Mandela In the last month as the state...
What Is Fair Taxation?
During this "tax season" some wealthy people are advocating to increase their own taxes. A growing network of high-income individuals and business people are calling on Congress and the President to say, "Let my tax cut go!" This dialogue...
My light bulb went on ...
Last Thursday morning I experienced an empowering shift in my understanding of what continues to motivate my work at North Star Fund--and indeed why North Star Fund needs to exist. Every year, in preparation for our Community Gala [click...
Limiting Executive Pay by Proxy
Almost everybody disapproves of the outlandish pay packages that corporations give their chief executive officers (CEOs)--except, perhaps, the CEO's with the supersized pay checks. In 2007, the income of CEOs working for corporations in the S&P 500 averaged $10.5...
Green Visions from Sunnyside
On Saturday, nearly 70 community residents, leaders and environmental experts gathered in Sunnyside, Queens to share visions of a greener future for their neighborhood. The crowed was multi-generational, and included youth as well as people who had lived in...
Affordable Housing Victory for People Living with HIV/AIDS
On January 12, the New York State Assembly passed a bill (A02565) that would help end homelessness among people living with AIDS. In a nutshell, the bill ensures that clients of the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) would pay no...
Department of Community Organizing
Kudos newly elected Public Advocate Bill de Blasio! Mr. de Blasio has announced the creation of a department of community organizing to help put the grassroots back in New York's democracy. Read the New York Times story here. With our Mayor...
