IT FEELS IMPOSSIBLE UNTIL IT’S DONE: How Working-Class Organizing Builds Power

How do working-class communities build the power to shape their own futures? In New York City, groups like CAAAV and DRUM have spent decades answering that question with the steady work of grassroots organizing. Their long-term strategies, focused on leadership development, political education, and issue-based campaigns, offer examples of how we can build power that lasts far beyond any single political moment.

The recent political energy in New York, including Zohran Mamdani's election as Mayor, didn't come from nowhere. Lasting change has taken neighbors talking to neighbors, families in apartment buildings finding their collective voice, and communities deciding, block by block, to shape their own futures. Change does not start with elections, but with the year-round work of relationship-building and empowering everyday people. 

Through learning and strategizing with the GAR network for many years, DRUM and CAAAV have sharpened their ability to organize working-class, pan-Asian bases. By investing deeply in base building, we can get closer to a world where our working-class, pan-Asian communities have dignity, justice, and safety! On this, here’s what Sasha, Executive Director of CAAAV, and Fahd, Executive Director of DRUM, shared with GAR membership: 

THE EVERYDAY WORK OF BUILDING POWER

Enduring community power isn't built in a single campaign cycle; it is built by organizers and community members showing up year after year. Sasha shared how CAAAV was formed in 1986 to combat the rising anti-Asian violence, including the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982. After responding to crises in NYC for years, organizers developed a deeper analysis and made a strategic decision that CAAAV should make an intervention in the gentrification in NYC, which is at the root of why working-class people struggle to live their day-to-day lives.

With this clarity, CAAAV focused on building a strong membership base in Astoria, Queens, where working-class Bengali tenants are facing brutal rent hikes and gentrification. The demand for a rent freeze emerged directly from this membership, demonstrating how community-driven agendas are formed. This process of building deep trust and a clear, member-led demand is a core function of their organizing model.

BUILDING THE (NEIGHBORHOOD) BLOCK

Both CAAAV and DRUM focus on neighborhood-based organizing, a model that creates lasting infrastructure. Fahd described how DRUM, founded after 9/11 to fight deportations, shifted from crisis response to mass membership organizing to train everyday people to lead—whether in protecting neighbors from ICE or educating their community about civic engagement.

They strengthened relationships in mosques, temples, tenant associations, and other local institutions, creating a wide and resilient neighborhood network. Local businesses that had partnered with them on earlier worker safety campaigns later supported their community education efforts. This illustrates a core principle: when you organize people where they live, you build a durable network that is capable of acting collectively on a wide range of issues, from tenant rights to public safety.

CHANGE STARTS WITH MATERIAL DEMANDS

People mobilize around survival and material changes that make their everyday lives better. Demands such as rent freezes, public transit access, and childcare are what resonate with many community members. Offering concrete solutions, grounded in the material needs of their working-class membership, is what builds lasting trust and participation.

For example, CAAAV’s members voted on their top demand—a four-year rent freeze—which became a central focus of their community education and advocacy. DRUM’s work involved engaging disillusioned community members, illustrating how civic participation can be a tool for achieving material changes. This educational and organizing work is key to transforming disillusionment into active and sustained civic engagement.

The lesson from groups like CAAAV and DRUM is that people power is built through patient grassroots organizing. By investing in leadership and base-building at the neighborhood level, organizations can help communities develop the strength and capacity to advocate for their needs effectively, creating change that is both deep and durable.