A new paradigm is emerging about US politics. It is rooted in understanding that transformation is necessary—and that this will require the shifting and sharing of power. This vision is hardly a consensus position, even among liberal politicians. But it is coming into view—driven by organizers, activists, scholars, and others who share the goal of dismantling white supremacy and structural racism. As my colleague Felicia Wong and I detail in our recent report—titled “A New Paradigm for Justice and Democracy: Moving beyond the Twin Failures of Neoliberalism and Racial Liberalism”—today’s racial justice movement itself is converging on core values that could form the basis of a new politics rooted in freedom and liberation, repair and redress from historical harms, and material equity.
Those of us who are inspired by this vision and care deeply about achieving racial justice know that a more just economy and society are far from inevitable. Despite great strides in the mainstream narrative about racial justice, weaponizing racial backlash has become central to the right-wing agenda—and mainstream institutions and liberal political leaders continue to underestimate the very real threats it poses. At the heart of these threats is an agenda that serves a powerful few seeking to prevent a multiracial majority from governing for the common good.
Throughout US history, social movements have helped elevate a higher vision for our country, and in so doing have been part of transforming our political and economic institutions. Today, grassroots base-building organizations are doing the work of movement building, creating the conditions for this new narrative for racial justice, and delivering concrete material wins for people.
Even as federal efforts to address voting rights, the pandemic, and critically needed public investments stall in Congress, there is a lot we can learn from the base-building groups who are building sustained power—and demonstrating every day against the odds that a new politics is possible.
Base Building and Community Power
Almost every major gain in progressive policy reform has come because of ecosystems of base-building organizations and people-powered movements building the political will to enact change. From the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee launching the sit-in campaigns that advanced the civil rights movement, ACT Up bringing about investment to end the AIDS epidemic, and the United Farm Workers transforming the working conditions for immigrant workers, the disciplined work of these organizations began at the grassroots.
A base-building model of change is rooted in the understanding that politics builds on relationships at the community level. Learning and meeting local constituent needs is central to this concept. Centering community members in the work enables those most impacted by political decisions are able to affect those decisions. Base building thus advances both self-determination and democratic practice.
Today there are a growing number of base-building groups that are creating avenues for marginalized people to counter corporate, white-dominated institutions. Base-building organizations, as NPQ has noted, focus on leadership development of ordinary people into powerful agents of collective change in their communities. These organizations focus on building power with and for a particular community of people, rather than simply a focus on transactional relationships or electoral campaigns. Base building creates vehicles for people who individually may not have enough power to change their material conditions, but collectively can transform power relations.
Importantly, these grassroots organizations serve as microcosms for democracy building. As Doran Schrantz, a veteran community organizer from Minnesota, observed after the 2020 election:
[T]he majority of institutions rob us of our agency, fostering individualism, dependency, and obedience. The real reason that many grassroots leaders or union members stay involved in organizing for years is not a particular issue; it is about having power and agency, maybe for the first time.…Organizations are spaces to rehearse and practice democracy—collective action, negotiation, aligning interests, understanding power, knowing one’s social position regarding race, gender, and class, learning to be in solidarity with others who are different.
All around us there are examples of grassroots organizations doing the work to sustain movements, improve people’s lives, and transform their communities into more democratic places. The struggles happening on the ground driven by grassroots organizations offer a blueprint toward a more equitable and inclusive multiracial democracy. As Sendolo Dimanah of the Carolina Federation observes, base building is not a one-off tactic, but works in combination with other strategies such as labor organizing and electoral mobilization. As Dimanah puts it, “we need the systematic, the relational, and the scale for our people to wield the power that they need to address things, at the scale of the economy.”
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A New Politics is Possible
Over the last few years, we have seen historic examples of base-building organizations translating movement energy into power, material equity, and transformative change.
The racial justice uprisings of 2020 were the largest mobilizations in US history. Community organizations, many of which have been a part of the Black Lives Matter movement in their communities since 2014, organized to deliver policy and cultural wins that could result in concrete change after the historic protests dissipated. In Cleveland, seven years after 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed by Cleveland police, grassroots organizations like Black Lives Matter Cleveland and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative worked together with the Rice family and others who’ve lost loved ones to police violence to pass one of the strongest police oversight initiatives in the country.
A record share of eligible voters turned out for the 2020 election. Base-building organizations are transforming the way people take part in elections. They do civic engagement work in their communities 365 days a year and translate their participation into sustained power that can deliver for people.
The New Georgia Project (NGP), a grassroots organization that works to register and engage voters in the political process, is one example. Since its founding in 2014, the NGP has registered more than 250,000 new voters, especially young people and people of color. But the NGP is not just about registering voters. Organizers in Georgia and indeed throughout the South have had success connecting people to campaigns and issues that they care about—from health care access to environmental justice.
Union organizing is on the rise. Labor organizing shifts the balance of power in the workplace and is essential to a thriving democracy where power lies in the hands of the people. While union membership has been declining for decades, today a new interest is growing in unions, with union popularity higher than it has been in over 50 years. Labor unions and worker movements have delivered improved conditions for people in the midst of crisis throughout the pandemic.
Building community power and centering the care economy. A strong democracy means ensuring that everyone has a voice and the freedom of self-determination, including those who are often marginalized and overlooked in our economy and society. Campaigns like Caring Across Generations are working to bring people impacted by care—family caregivers, care workers, and others—together to transform our systems of care. These are grassroots-led, multisector collaborations that shift how society thinks about community power and have deep roots in movements for racial, gender, and economic justice.
Action That Meets the Moment: Building and Sustaining Power at Scale
The push and pull of US political structures means that organizing wins are always vulnerable to reactionary forces. When hard-earned wins are thwarted, hopeful energy can be difficult to sustain. Cynicism is deeply felt, and disillusionment is real. But base-building organizations operate with a longer-time horizon than the 24/7 news cycle, laying the foundations for a new kind of politics over a period of years. Base-building approaches create lasting power to advance agendas rooted in community demands, and there are concrete steps that all of us can take to support this work.
Philanthropy has an important role to play in helping to grow and sustain these organizations. Funders should always recognize that the people closest to the problems need to be driving policy solutions. Rather than providing short-term grants with narrow policy goals and strict reporting requirements, resources should be directed to movement organizations doing work on the ground through multi-year operating grants and long-term investments. Foundations must also reckon with the racism and discrimination that persists within the nonprofit sector, and do more to fund, invest in, and support Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and AAPI-led grassroots organizations that are often overlooked and under-resourced.
From philanthropy to policymakers to nonprofit leaders to movement activists, all of us must do the work to build a multiracial democracy. There is no silver bullet solution. It is an ongoing struggle. National politics remain important, as do state and local policy. But true transformation begins at the neighborhood level—where nonprofits and movements come together—and where the long-term work necessary to build the future that the families and communities that we come from deserve and desire can occur.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
