Community-Based Groups Protest Exclusion at Corporate Party

Our grantees are working across the country to address the impact of the economic crisis on women, families and communities. They're holding policymakers and other key actors accountable for their role in creating it and advocating for the inclusion of community voices and solutions that will stem the crisis and create economic justice for all.

For example, on Tuesday, Ms. Foundation grantees FIERCE, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities and other members of the Right to the City Alliance protested the "Future of New York City," a meeting held between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and corporate leaders to address the role of the city's business elite in ensuring economic recovery. Chanting, "This is what democracy looks like!" they called attention to the fact that this $249-a-seat gathering represented the systematic exclusion of low-income people, people of color, women, immigrants, youth and others from decision-making tables. Because they've been most affected by our current economic crisis and bear the brunt of harmful policies generated by the business and political elite, the leadership of these groups, protesters demanded, must figure prominently into how this crisis is solved.

Watch this video of the protest. Rickke Mananzala of FIERCE and Esther Wang of CAAAV speak fiercely towards the end (starting around 2:50).



FIERCE and CAAAV are both members of Right to the City (as are other Ms. Foundation grantees in Providence, RI and New Orleans), an alliance of community-based organizations, academics, lawyers and others from across the country working to build a national urban movement for housing, education, health, racial justice and democracy.