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Friend --
Check
out our ACCE Institute in 2023 Annual Report!
Wow! What
a year of organizing and winning for everyday Californians. This
report contains dozens of successful organizing campaigns, policy
fights, and infrastructure growth, but the reality is that ACCE
members won so many more victories in 2023 than can fit in this brief
summary. We took meaningful steps toward our north star of winning a
housing system built on the value that everyone deserves a safe and
affordable place to call home. We began to organize around climate
justice and pension divestment from Blackstone. We launched two new
movements in Rise Up/Levantate CA and California Common Good, and we
helped incubate Movement Legal (formally ACCE legal) to add to the
state’s tenant movement infrastructure. Our staff and budget grew as
we took on new challenges and issue areas, and we engaged in the
struggle, together with allies at the local and state level, to create
more alignment and capacity for our movements.
This next
year comes with its own challenges and opportunities that we are
gearing up for. The national election gives us the chance to
“campaignize” the election -putting our member’s issues and solutions
front and center while exposing the money and agenda that big real
estate and big oil are moving through our democratic processes. It
also comes with the threat of a violent and bigoted base of
anti-black, anti-immigrant, anti-lgbtq+ individuals and groups being
activated as the country battles between creating a true democracy and
falling into fascism. All of that while we continue to make progress
on creating a housing system that works for us all, and saving the
planet from climate disaster. That may sound daunting, but what we at
ACCE know is that the only thing that can save us, is US. We are the
ones we’ve been waiting for. So, we will roll up our sleeves and keep
working to construct the California, the country, and the planet we
deserve.
On a
personal note, 2024 marks my 20th anniversary as an organizer, which
both begs the question - when did I get so old? and generates a desire
to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m headed. I can think of
many successes and defeats, regrets and moments of pride, but when I
put the last 20 years together, one thing that I can say for sure is
that I have met the most dedicated, courageous, righteous, and special
people in my life through my work at ACCE. Many of those people are
ACCE members and staff, some are mentors, and some are allies and
supporters. Every one of them has left a mark on me - made me wiser,
more strategic, more caring, more steadfast. So, thank you all for how
you have changed me, and for how you’ve changed the course of history!
I’m still in this fight, in part, because of you, and I’ll keep
fighting hasta la victoria.
With Love
and Solidarity,
Christina
Livingston, ACCE Executive Director
ACCE Action
https://www.acceaction.org/
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