Ep 335 Cynthia Peters on All of US and Trump

Episode 335 of RevolutionZ notes that when millions took to the streets after Trump's first election victory, a crucial question arose: "What can people do next?" and how can they connect with it? The new All of Us Directory (at allofusdirectory.org) creates easy means for everyday people and seasoned activists like to connect with grassroots organizations where they can exercise their collective power.Longtime community activist Cynthia Peters shares with RevolutionZ the vision behind this searchable database of grassroots organizations that she and other conveners including myself have recently created to assist resistance to Trump and beyond. Peters shares compelling stories from her years of organizing tenant associations in Boston. She describes how tenants shift from isolated individuals with their only option being to beg landlords for concessions to unified groups capable of wielding real power as in a tenant association that stands together to prevent eviction of one of their members, even when the landlord had legal grounds, demonstrating how collective power can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.From the directory project discussion that addresses the challenges now facing nonprofit organizations, the tensions between preservation and growth, and how fear of repression can lead to self-censorship Peters describes  the discipline required for effective organizing while acknowledging the necessity of creating spaces where people can make mistakes and grow together.Throughout this discussion runs a powerful optimism—not naive optimism, but informed hope grounded in concrete experiences of what people can accomplish when they organize effectively. As Peters puts it, using a powerful metaphor from a kayaking experience: sometimes we need to "paddle as if our lives depend on it," and we're much more likely to succeed when we paddle together.So please visit allofusdirectory.org to find organizations and projects you might wish to work with. Search among hundreds of options filtering to find those that match  your location, issues you care about, and the kinds of work you would like to contribute. And then tell others about it! This is the first public mention of the option. Help it along. As Peters notes, our future depends not just on what "someone else" might do, but on what all of us do together.Support the show