 It’s
that time again. The buses are rolling out and the policy- makers
and corporate heads are ducking for cover.
On May 31, 1,000 community leaders from around the country will
be traveling to the annual National People’s Action (NPA)
Conference in Washington, DC for the opportunity to bring victories
back to their communities. Whether it’s fighting to stop rampant
foreclosures in their neighborhoods, campaigning for quality education
for all students or creating access to quality jobs – everyone
at NPA is ready to do battle.
As the
country has been consumed with thoughts of a war halfway across
the world, community leaders have continued to fight for the improvement
of their neighborhoods. Through organizing in their communities
and joining with other leaders across the country, significant steps
have been taken to create a better place to live for themselves,
their families and their neighborhoods.
With the cry “Neighborhoods First,” community leaders
will put themselves on the front line once again to organize and
combat the issues continuing to plague their neighborhoods. Below
is a summary of issues and events taking place at the 2003 NPA Conference
under the heading of “Operation Neighborhoods First.”
 NPA’s
Department of Homeowner Security
This year’s housing and banking leaders are coming together
to form NPA’s Department of Homeowner Security. Foreclosures
and abandoned housing threaten neighborhood investment that community
groups have worked for 30 years to get and to protect. Many foreclosures
and abandoned homes are the result of high priced, predatory loans
that fill the gap when good loans are not available. These foreclosures
have produced hundreds of thousands of abandoned homes owned by
banks, absentee owners and HUD. This abandonment often makes communities
unsafe and unattractive.
NPA has invited the four Federal banking regulators, including the
Office of Comptroller Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision,
the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
and key Department of Housing and Urban Development representatives
to join leaders at a special extended workshop to help solve this
problem before it destroys neighborhoods. Organizations will share
what they have been doing locally on the Community Reinvestment
Act, predatory lending, foreclosures, abandoned housing and efforts
to increase the community development money coming into neighborhoods.
Leaders will demand that officials form a partnership with NPA to
protect homeownership.
Predatory
Lending
Over four years ago, community organizations joined together to
fight the destructive and abusive practices in the name of providing
loan products to high-risk borrowers. Nationally, NPA went after
Citigroup, one of the largest predatory lenders in the country.
During that time groups also engaged in local fights with predatory
lenders in their communities such as Ameriquest and Conseco.
At this year’s workshop, NPA will announce a series of victories
and reforms to the abusive lending practices of these corporations
from across the country. The biggest victory is the announcement
of a partnership between NPA and CitiFinancial and the corporation’s
decision to change many of its lending practices.
“We had several positive outcomes this year as a result of
our predatory lending efforts. We’ve kept last year’s
NPA theme alive and carried it through the year! Strike 1!
- Citigroup: Reinventing Redlining was released, Strike 2!
- FTC record settlement against CitiFinancial for the practices
of the Associates, and Strike 3! - Agreement
with CitiFinancial to change its lending practices! We’re
looking forward to stirring it up for predatory lenders at NPA this
year,” said Inez Killingsworth, NPA Co-Chair.
 Fighting
for Workplace Rights and Training
The NPA Jobs Strategy Team has been fighting locally for workplace
rights of day labor and temp workers and securing access to training
for better paying jobs with benefits.
The day labor and temp industry is riddled with wage and hour violations,
illegal paycheck deductions (such as transportation, uniform and
safety equipment), and discrimination. They work under deplorable
conditions where health and safety violations are commonplace. Government
job placement and training programs, like the Workforce Investment
Act (WIA), provide under and unemployed workers a path away from
poverty by offering career opportunities and job security.
At its workshop, the NPA Jobs Team will speak to the problems that
workers face daily. In addition, workers will highlight community
solutions that provide safer work environments and how community
involvement in WIA at the local level increases access to training
and better paying jobs. Mario Johnson, from the San Lucas Workers
Center states, “As somebody who’s been in and out of
day labor for twelve years, it’s like a never ending nightmare.
It feels like there’s no way out. The way the system works
is that day labor agencies have no respect for workers and no respect
for the law. At NPA, the Jobs Team is fighting for better opportunities
for low-wage workers.”
The Jobs Team will issue a report at NPA on the state of low-wage
workers in the U.S. and community solutions. The report will be
released at Senate Briefing on Low-wage Workers and Youth Issues
on Monday, June 2 hosted by the NPA Jobs Team. The report will call
for Congress to invest more money and to support innovative community
solutions that increase access to job placement and training programs
and ways to stop abuses in the day labor and temp industry.
Standards
of Good Policing
NPA will kick off a national campaign called “Standards of
Good Policing,” where local organizations will share how they
have already jumpstarted neighborhood safety campaigns in their
own communities. Leaders will also learn how their organizations
can become part of the new national campaign.
“I was one of the first community leaders involved in community
policing in Chicago. The police district in my neighborhood was
one of the first to implement the program,” said Bennie Meeks,
of the South Austin Coalition and Community Council in Chicago,
IL. “What we soon learned was that the city didn’t really
want the community to direct how the policing was done. They wanted
us to rubber stamp what they were doing with no questions asked.
I’m excited about this campaign because I think NPA can have
an impact on how policing is done in this country,” Meeks
concluded.
The workshop will also focus on police profiling stemming from a
regulation under the U.S. Patriot Act which allows police officers
to stop people of color and request that they prove they are U.S.
citizens. This law could allow police to stop and hold any person
of color, homeless or persons recently released from jail that might
not have identification.
“To me this is a direct hit on the poor, homeless, and people
of color. The government is intentionally discriminating against
us in their so called ‘War on Terror,’” stated
Carletta Connor, a member of Grassroots Organizing in Mexico, MO.
Urban
and Rural Versus Corporations
NPA groups have a history of taking on big corporations who have
either written off or have policies that destroy neighborhoods.
NPA continues to “get the crooks” through organizing
and winning.
This campaign will start with a workshop which will build on the
lessons learned by urban leaders who have been involved in corporate
campaigns and won reinvestment agreements with big banks along with
agreements with former corporate loan sharks to review and repair
predatory loans of neighborhood residents. The workshop will focus
on the organizing efforts in mid-western states of rural and family
farm leaders to stymie giant corporations who are trying to control
the food supply. These corporations are attempting to shove factory
farms down the throat of rural residents and deny fair market access
to family farmers, by trying to own hog production and the meat
packing industry. These corporate practices are also creating dangerous
health risks in the meat which are then sent out across the country
for anyone to consume.
On Monday, the rural and urban leadership will be meeting with members
of Congress on Capitol Hill to push for legislation which would
prevent these agribusiness monopolies from controlling the food
supply and denying fair-market access to the family farmers by owning
hog production and the packing houses.
“At NPA, over 1,000 community members educate each other on
what’s happening in their neighborhoods, leading each other
through confusing mazes of other worlds and vocabularies…For
the farmer, industrialization of the food business takes his business
away and puts it in the hands of corporations. Turns out, the same
corporations stealing from the farmers are the corporations bringing
illegal immigrant workers into the US to work in the chicken and
hog factories,” said Margot Ford McMillan of the Missouri
Rural Crisis Center.
 Promoting
Security and Opportunity for Immigrants
At this year’s NPA, immigration leaders will continue to lead
the way in passing the Student Adjustment Act (U.S. House) and DREAM
Act (U.S. Senate), legislation that would allow access to higher
education for undocumented students who qualify. In addition, immigration
leaders will speak out on national policy issues such as safe neighborhoods
and access to documentation and citizenship. NPA immigration leaders
are committed to promoting national security and building power
to work for a broader legalization in the coming years. NPA leaders
are determined that immigrants' rights will be a pivotal issue in
the 2004 elections.
NPA immigrants' rights leaders will hold a workshop on the Student
Adjustment Act and Dream Act, national immigration policy and safe
neighborhoods, and access to identification for foreign-born Americans.
Invited guests include the office of the Mexican Embassy and important
allies in the fight for access to higher education for undocumented
students.
On Monday, June 2, NPA immigrants' rights leaders will hold a briefing
for U.S. House members and staff on the Student Adjustment Act and
present their vision of what a safe and secure America would like
look in regard to national immigration policy. At last year’s
NPA, a Senate briefing resulted in the Dream Act passing the Senate
Judiciary committee two weeks later. As NPA immigrant rights leaders
work to win access to higher education nationally, they will also
be presenting broad expertise on other issues and building power
for the future.
“I am excited to see everyone at NPA this year and can’t
wait to see what we will accomplish on all our issues. I see every
issue as a stepping stone. Every year at NPA, we are more knowledgeable
and powerful. Every issue we win gives us hope to move forward toward
something bigger and greater. Our work shows that what immigrants
need is what our country needs. At NPA we let people know who we
are and why we are important,” said Emira Palacios, NPA Co-Chair
and member of Sunflower Community Action.
 Building
a Voice for Youth-led Change
At this year’s NPA, youth leaders will continue to build support
for the Youth Service Scholarship Act (YSSA). The YSSA is the nation’s
first ever piece of federal legislation written by and for youth
dedicated to creating positive neighborhood change. In addition,
youth will take leadership roles in workshops and briefings addressing
neighborhood safety, immigrant rights, education, and job development.
NPA youth will hold a workshop to educate potential allies for the
YSSA. Youth will also be telling their local campaign victory stories
and connecting those positive examples to the importance of the
YSSA. Youth will also be addressing their collective issues to national
allies and decision-makers and building a voice for youth-led change.
On Monday, June 2, NPA youth will participate alongside jobs and
workforce development leaders in a briefing for Senate Congressional
members and staff. The briefing will feature a community-driven
approach to addressing the issues of low-wage workers and tomorrow’s
future workers, today’s youth. Youth will use the opportunity
to build Senate momentum for the Youth Service Scholarship Act (YSSA),
which last year enjoyed bi-partisan support in the House and Senate.
“Last year was my first NPA. It was a great experience working
with youth from around the country. I learned that other youth around
the country are all in it for the same reasons. Before, I didn’t
know that the problems I had in my community, other youth in other
states have too. Most of all, I enjoyed boarding the buses and knowing
we’re making a difference,” said Aaron Garcia of the
Albany Park Neighborhood Council’s Project Y in Chicago, IL.
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