Also see: Organizing From Below in New York City and Globally Challenging Displacement From Above
Highlighted in this film are community members of El Barrio — women, children, whole families — as they take their struggle against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s unfair and destructive policies of displacement from community meetings to press conferences to the streets. This new film documents the struggle of East Harlem residents — predominantly immigrant women of color, members of Movement for Justice in El Barrio — actively opposing an unfair and destructive rezoning plan that the mayor is attempting to impose from above and which, if enacted, will cause widespread displacement of long-term low-income community members.
Broad community opposition to the rezoning plan came out of the East Harlem community’s extensive Consulta — organized by Movement for Justice in El Barrio — a community-driven democratic consultation about themayor’s rezoning plan which took place for nearly a year where they developed both a position — unanimous opposition to the mayor’s entire upzoning plan by the thousands who participated — and a 10-Point Plan to Preserve Rent Stabilized Housing.
This is the powerful story of immigrants of color, led by women, coming together to protect their community and culture from the harmful rezoning plans being imposed by the mayor and other local officials.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
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