PLATFORM : Organizing to Change the Balance of Power

I’m very conscious of the working-class roots of my family. My grandpa was a migrant farm worker and hopped freight trains all over the Southwest to pick beets and onions. He also worked in a steel foundry and developed emphysema. It’s very painful to watch someone you love die of emphysema, because they have to struggle to breathe.

Workers are not treated well in this society. Basically what’s happening is government and big business are saying, “We’re not going to provide for your needs. But we don’t want you to complain about it.” Poor people suffer the brunt of whatever injustice there is. So that’s where I want to focus my organizing efforts.

The Latino community is very diverse. A lot of efforts toward unity have sort of sputtered because people have been unable to address that question. My opinion would be that the class issues would be the unifying force. The fundamental thing is: Whose needs are being provided for and whose needs are being neglected? We need to force those kinds of issues.

The joy of my work is to watch real democracy. Where the people being impacted by the policies actually help make the policies. We’re seeing that happen. For example, when people come to the (Air Quality Management Board) and testify and watch the board listen to what they say.

The kind of organizing I envision is one that has a lot to do with changing the way people look at their world. That means, yeah, they’ll pick up a sign and go and scream if that is deemed necessary. But they’ll also read through a 500-page environmental impact report to understand the science and technology--to be able to debate it in hearings, to be able to say, “This is what’s wrong with this policy, this is what’s right with this policy. This is in my interest, this is not in my interest.”

You’re talking about developing a grass-roots movement that has an ability to affect industrial decision-making; to change the balance of power in this society.