Towards Land, Work & Power: Charting a path of resistance to US-led Imperialism

After years of building a fighting organization of welfare recipients, domestic workers, shoe shiners, child care workers, security guards, unemployed workers and other no- and low-wage workers, the organizers and leaders of People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) realized that we couldn’t answer some basic questions: What is the nature of the world’s political economy? How are our campaigns for racial, economic and gender justice impacted by neo-liberalism and imperialism? What will it take to build a movement in such despondent and challenging times? In 2004, the members of POWER’s Committee for Working Class Leadership and Strategy decided to answer these questions. We wanted to make sure that we had the skills necessary to develop strategy for our own organization and to help to develop strategy for the movement. This book is the result. Towards Land, Work & Power is a book by conscious organizers for conscious organizers. Rooted in our experiences building a membership organization in San Francisco’s working class communities, Towards Land, Work & Powerrepresents four organizers’ attempt to assess the racist, sexist, homophobic and inherently exploitative system of imperialism. Ending with an alternative vision for San Francisco and the world, the book attempts to equip us with what we will need to move towards land, work and power for all.

“You hold in your hands one of the most important critical analyses of neoliberalism, U.S. empire, and the impact they are having on the urban working poor and people of color. But this compact and readable book packs much more than a brilliant critique of the current economic and political crises. Instead, Towards Land, Work & Power offers a strategy-a sophisticated anti-imperialist strategy that pays attention to race, gender, culture, community, immigration, and international solidarity. Veterans of many years of community and labor organizing in the San Francisco area, the folks at POWER understand “power,” and what it means to fight back in the belly of the beast. This book ought to be mandatory reading for anyone committed to a politics of transformation.” [Robin D. G. Kelley]