(Executive Director Deepak Bhargava's guest column in the Des Moines Register)
Embedded in the moment is an extraordinary opportunity to give our communities a greater voice in shaping the policies that affect them and to restructure our economy to work for all of us.
Consider what we have to lose: All the current talk about change won't mean much if the result isn't better lives for America's communities. In struggling to revive our stumbling economy, we can't simply restore the system to its pre-crisis footing. If we merely return to the year 2000, we will have not only missed the opportunity for more sweeping reforms, but also paved the way for future crises by failing to address the fundamental failings that caused this one.
Inequality
is at the root of this economic crisis. Only by addressing inequality
can we hope to achieve fundamental change. We must pass policies to
stabilize and re-regulate Wall Street at the top, expand unemployment
benefits, create new, green jobs for workers at the middle of our
economy, and demand policies that put people first by helping poor
families, new immigrants and others at the bottom of our system.
It
is also important to note that we can't fix our broken economy without
fixing our broken immigration system. Comprehensive immigration reform
is an urgent economic priority. Without a path to legalization,
subclasses of workers who can be exploited will continue to depress
wages and conditions for all workers in a race to the bottom.
Yet the largest contribution we can make to alleviating inequality would be to transform our politics. Our democracy is wounded by an imbalance of power. Too few people at the bottom of the economic ladder vote or even attempt to make their voices heard. Too many in the middle class feel their voices are meaningless and drowned out by those with more money and access. To achieve fundamental transformation, the grass roots need to offset the voices of the powerful special interests.
Fundamentally, organizers live by the motto "The Power of Many," because we believe that all real change is the result of collective action. Collective action, in turn, requires organizing to win. Community organizations need to:
- Add to membership rolls. More members equals more community power.
- Build member participation - more active memberships brings more attention to the issues of real people and real problems in our communities.
- Put communities in a position to set the agenda and hold decision makers accountable. We must talk about community values and core beliefs. In the "battle of the big ideas," the vision of ordinary Americans is too often drowned out.Join together across the lines that divide us (politics, faith, race, issues) and fight for a better future together. For too long, powerful interests have succeeded through a divide-and-conquer strategy.
Historic
moments, in which our lives are dramatically improved, are born in
crisis and opportunity. Politics as usual will not be up to the task of
bridging the gap between possibility and reality.
Only when we
organize together in our communities, effectively and with passion,
will we be able to move everyone in America forward together.
