|  National
People’s Action Co-Chairperson Inez Killingsworth opened the
32nd annual National People's Action Leadership Meeting in Chicago
with the announcement, “President Bush is busy waging war.
Meanwhile we’re fighting a war for survival in our neighborhoods.
So, today we have to get our NPA troops ready to organize and strategize
on our campaigns and be ready to take our issues to Capitol Hill.”
Over 150
leaders from 34 organizations and 22 states came together to develop
strategies on nine NPA campaigns. Outcomes include:
Community
Reinvestment
Groups working on NPA’s campaign to modernize the Community
Reinvestment Act are focusing on three strategies: regulatory,
congressional and media. NPA will work on getting the
district staff of the regulatory agencies to visit their cities
for meetings.
Neighborhood
Safety
Evaluation of how community groups address issues of crime and violence
in communities since Sep. 11 focused on racial profiling, mistreatment
of the immigrant community and police accountability. Leaders agreed
to the development of a new campaign called the “Standard
of Good Policing For a Secure Community.” NPA will work with
organizations to address local policing concerns and the bigger
picture of how to develop national standards for policing.
Abandoned Buildings
Eleven organizations met to strategize on how to build NPA’s
power locally and nationally on its Abandoned Buildings campaign.
Groups agreed to find out how money on housing gets spent in their
cities, hold meetings, and organize tours with Congressional representatives
to show them where the money is not going. They
also want to make sure that Federal housing dollars are spent in
NPA cities.
Immigration
Local groups strategized about getting the most out of local and
national organizing to push the Student Adjustment Act/Dream Act.
Groups engaged in a power analysis for pushing the Congressional
legislation, including a history of proposed legislation in the
Senate and House of Representatives, NPA’s role in building
support and local positioning on the committees in order to highlight
NPA’s strength and ability to impact the legislation.
Youth
Youth leaders and staff surfaced the idea of connecting the Youth
Scholarship legislation to local issues that youth confront in their
school and community. The goal is to draw a stronger connection
between the scholarship and local organizing. The Youth Team also
committed to making the scholarship legislation a year-round fight,
with consistent local and national action.
Education
The Education Team agreed that their goal is to set a precedent
by pushing the federal legislators to make a significant appropriation
to fund school construction. After going through a legislative and
power analysis, the education team began to develop a plan to build
bi-partisan support. The team also discussed more coordinated efforts
to generate media on education issues.
Jobs
The Jobs Team developed a plan to move forward on developing a partnership
with the Department of Labor and also build more power on employment
issues. The team agreed to set up congressional visits to build
towards a jobs briefing on the Senate side at NPA, and created a
media strategy to put NPA and the jobs issue center stage. The groups
also developed a calendar with local actions that tie into national
efforts, all leading up to the NPA conference.
Predatory Lending
After discussing the positive results from a national negotiating
session with Citigroup, potential next steps were discussed, including
research on a new national target. It was suggested that a list
of the top ten lenders (in terms of originations) be used to provide
a ‘menu’ of options for local fights.
Family
Farms and Rural Issues
Family farm and rural leaders explored the connections between giant
agribusiness corporations and the destruction of rural life and
family farms. Participating groups, included: Iowa, Indiana, Illinois,
Missouri and Minnesota. Urban neighborhood leaders, who also participated,
were interested connecting rural and family farm issues with urban
neighborhoods at the NPA Conference.
back
to top
|
