Over the course of this summer, my work with ALIGN has touched upon a modern movement which stands in opposition to the way urbanization has historically absorbed capital surpluses. New York City was once the home of robber barons, political machine bosses, and power brokers. The past century of indifference to and contempt of progressive and populist movements have allowed resulting socioeconomic inequities to fester, and today, groups working toward repossessing the city’s working class have to strive twice as hard to achieve their goals.
The work done at ALIGN by campaign organizers and associated stakeholder groups illustrates and important effort to obtain democratic control over capital surpluses. Both the environmental and labor groups of this CW4A coalition leverage their political power to enfranchise the city’s vulnerable populations, and what’s more, is each group is willing to make sacrifices pertaining to their causes for the greater good of the coalition. For example, in order to make solar panels more affordable for small clients, labor groups have created pre-apprenticeship programs that pay new workers a lower wage than their union counterparts, but with the promise that upon completing the program, those same workers will be on a fast track to long-term, protected union positions.
A discourse of working New Yorkers’ “right to the city,” in the David Harvey context, underlies a lot of the work done by ALIGN, even if not explicitly stated. In fact, my supervisor and I frequently speak about a vision for a more democratic and equal urban society. While we recognize the immense progress made by CW4A coalition members towards advancing socioeconomic justice, a major concern of both of ours are the blind spots in the mainstream progressive agenda that exist due to lack of intersectional representation. While the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities are some of the most politically active demographics in pushing progressive policies and social justice campaigns, they are some of the least represented in critical decision-making bodies. What’s more — there is a dearth of data that represents the unique experience of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities with regard to labor and environmental hazard issues. The conversations around this issue that I have had with folx at ALIGN recognize that in order to truly retake control over capital surpluses in major cities, the most vulnerable populations in our society must be represented and cared for first and foremost. Until then, distributional justice will always be uneven, and equity gaps will always exist across our communities.
Great post. I agree completely that more needs to be done in facilitating the access to power and decision making for those communities most directly impacted by historical and current injustices, and that this is perhaps the most important work in terms of creating “greater democratic control” in this context.