Amandla Project

POWER's mission is to end poverty and oppression- once and for all. We cannot do it alone. Achieving our mission will require a massive and vibrant movement of thousands of organizations and millions of people from every walk of life.

Building a movement is at its core an act of solidarity, and acting on the belief that my liberation is tied up with yours. That means that to build a movement, organizations must be willing to do some work that falls outside their immediate self-interest. It can be difficult to make that decision in the moment, but the benefits can lead to the building of a strong movement and change history.

Such a movement is possible, and for such a movement to be successful, low-income people and people of color will have to be at the center and in leadership. That's why POWER sees itself as a movement institution.

Did you know?

• As of March of 2009, the money that San Franciscans have paid in taxes to subsidize the War on Iraq could have built almost 7000 units of affordable housing. Building the movement for global justice is in the interest of working class communities of color.

• POWER is the founding member of several national efforts, including the Right to the City and the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Both of these efforts build on the strength of our local work and bring together local organization to have a voice at a state and national level.

POWERful Amandla
POWER's Amandla Project brings together the members from all of POWER's membership spaces- the Bayview Organizing Project, the Women Workers' Project and Youth in Power- to find what they all have in common and to take action together and with other people looking to build a future to reclaim our destiny.

POWERful Solutions
POWER members are to:

• Sharpen our understanding of what's going on in the world around us, in the political, economic and social systems, so that we can develop ideas that can help us in our fights for economic, environmental, racial and gender justice.

• Build alliances with other organizations and individuals who are guided by a strategic vision for the future.

• Develop the capacity of POWER member to participate actively and to lead alliance building and movement work.

• Seize on opportunities to take action which can alter the terrain on which low-income communities and communities of color live, work and play.

POWERful Approaches
POWER members are engaged in several exciting and important campaigns, including:

• Stop the War: Along with our allies in Grassroots Global Justice, POWER is working to add the voice of working class people of color in the movement for peace and justice. All of the wars of the United States should be ended now!

• Build National Alliances: POWER is a member of several national and local alliances, including Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ), the May 1st Alliance, the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and the Right to the City (RTTC). POWER will continue to help to build the strength and influence of these alliances. In addition, POWER is helping to build an alliance of several national networks, including GGJ, the RTTC, the NDWA, the National Day Labor Organizing Network and Jobs with Justice. As a part of this Inter-Alliance Dialog process, we will put the voices, experiences and aspirations of low-income people and people of color at the center of the debate around the implementation of the Economic Stimulus package.

"Solidarity is not an act of charity. It is an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains toward the same objective."
- Samora Machel