Goals of Right to the City Alliance

We are building our power through:

• Strengthening Local Capacity
  Urban land struggles are being fought at a local level. We will strengthen our local grassroots campaigns ability to win concrete demands that make the Right to the City a reality by providing technical support, policy development, and campaign research.
• Building Regional and Cross-Regional Collaboration
  Across the country, our cities are being targeted by the same policies, developers and financial institutions. Through organizational dialog and exchanges, we can learn from and support each other’s struggles, tactics, and victories.
• Advancing a National Platform
  The policies affecting our local conditions are being generated at a national level. The Right to the City provides a vehicle to shift the national debate from land as a commodity to land and community as a right.
• Supporting Community Reclamation in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
  The devastating negligence of the US government response to Hurricane Katrina created the worst displacement of urban working class Black, Latino, and Asian communities in recent memory. We understand that the defense of the Black Belt South is an essential battleground for an urban movement to develop in the US. We are committed to pulling our collective resources in solidarity with grassroots struggles in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Principles of Unity for the Right to the City Alliance

We believe the right to the city is the right for all people to produce the living conditions that meet their needs. This includes:

• Land for People vs. Land for Speculation
  The right to land and housing that is free from market speculation and that serves the interests of community building, sustainable economies, and cultural and political space.

• Land Ownership
  The right to permanent public ownership of urban territories for public use.
• Economic Justice
  The right of working class communities of color, women, queer and transgender people to an economy that serves their interests.
• Indigenous Justice
  The right of First Nation indigenous people to their ancestral lands that have historical or spiritual significance, regardless of state borders and urban or rural settings
• Environmental Justice
  The right to sustainable and healthy neighborhoods & workplaces, healing, quality health care, and reparations for the legacy of toxic abuses such as brown fields, cancer clusters, and superfund sites.
• Freedom from Police & State Harassment
  The right to safe neighborhoods and protection from police, INS/ICE, and vigilante repression which has historically targeted communities of color, women, queer and transgender people.

• Immigrant Justice
  The right of equal access to housing, employment, and public services regardless of race, ethnicity, and immigration status and without the threat of deportation by landlords, ICE, or employers.
• Services and Community Institutions
  The right of working class communities of color to transportation, infrastructure and services that reflect and support their cultural and social integrity.
• Democracy and Participation
  The right of community control and decision making over the planning and governance of the cities where we live and work, with full transparency and accountability, including the right to public information without interrogation.
• Reparations
  The right of working class communities of color to economic reciprocity and restoration from all local, national and transnational institutions that have exploited and/or displaced the local economy.
• Internationalism
  The right to support and build solidarity between cities across national boundaries, without state intervention.
• Rural Justice
  The right of rural people to economically healthy and stable communities that are protected from environmental degradation and economic pressures that force migration to urban area.

Right To The City Alliance Members

For more information
about
Right to the City
contact:

Valerie Taing, National Organizer
vtaing@righttothecity.org
Right to the City Alliance c/o CAAAV
191 East 3rd St. #1A
NY, NY 10009
212.473.3032