How Organizers Went Big in 2020

Organizers protest for rent and mortgage suspension in Los Angeles, Oct. 1, 2020 [Reuters/Lucy Nicholson]

By Sarah Leonard

2020 was a chaotic, horrifying mess due to COVID, inequality and the Trump administration, but it did have its bright spots – mostly due to scrappy, smart groups that punched way above their weight.

Looking back on the wreckage of 2020, we can see that small groups of organizers were able to do what needed to be done, while our legal and social welfare systems crumbled around our ears. These groups still need support, as well as other groups around the country.

• The summer’s uprisings brought fresh attention to bail funds, which raise money to pay people’s bail. Money bail is widely considered a travesty by organizers because it ensures that people are incarcerated simply for being poor. And bail funds don’t just bail people out – they expose the inequity of money bail and organize for its end. While many bailouts have focused on vulnerable groups – Black mothers, for instance – bailouts this summer also ensured that those who participated in the uprisings against police brutality would not languish in jail. Find a list of community bail funds here.

• As Washington waffled on COVID aid, the economic situation became desperate for millions of U.S. families. In response, mutual aid groups started to organize, emphasizing a radically neighborly approach to pandemic aid: little hierarchy, no tests to qualify for help and volunteer labor. These groups are gearing up for winter, when they will be even more essential, and they’re offering advice on how to keep local groups sustainable. And if you need a little extra inspiration, check out this story of workers who took over their city services completely after the pandemic of 1919.

• Evictions have been one of the ugliest elements of the pandemic, as people lose their income (even with a national eviction moratorium in place through the end of 2020), and a major wave threatens to sweep tenants away in the new year. In response, tenant organizers have organized rent strikes that have spread across the country, from individuals taking a stand to small groups like Moms 4 Housing in LA and a powerful coalition in Philadelphia (scroll down). An extraordinary victory in Minneapolis provides one vision for tenants still in the trenches.

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