Baltimore residents are mobilizing to protect their immigrant neighbors from ICE

Honor the Earth is an anti-data center coalition monitoring the construction of hyperscale data centers in or near indigenous land. Through their efforts, town halls, doorknocking, attending tribal council meetings and more, they’ve formed a community with people in agriculture and beyond, working to push back against data center construction and enact protections for communities. As a result of their efforts, the Tulsa City Council signed a 9-month moratorium on data centers, and the Seminole Nation also unanimously passed its own moratorium.

Residents of Montour County, Pennsylvania rallied opposition against a proposed data center by gathering information about the project through public records requests, showing up to board meetings and hearings in the hundreds, making T-shirts and signs with protest messages, and circulating a petition that garnered more signatures than the number of people that voted there in the 2024 election. County commissioners ultimately voted against rezoning land to let the proposal move forward, but the company behind it is still pursuing potential sites elsewhere in the area.

For the past year, community organizers in Baltimore have been going door to door to share Know Your Rights materials, as well as hosting trainings to help residents get involved in rapid responses against ICE operations in the city. Hundreds of people have been trained so far and the effort has led to the formation of about a dozen community-based ICE watch groups.

Black Lives Matters protests have been sustained by an autonomously organized mutual aid network providing a range of services for protesters and community members. Requests for information and assistance are sent using encrypted communication. The groups provide medics, public protest art, legal and financial aid, and even mechanics to service protesters’ cars and a group that helps protesters replace glasses that were damaged or lost due to police encounters. The extensive mutual aid network enables flexibility to respond to a diverse set of changing needs, sustaining protests longer than in other cities.

For many activists, gathering in mass protest is their most powerful tool in their toolbox, but social distancing threatens this ability. But activists in Boulder County, Colorado are not letting the pandemic stop their mission. To stay compliant with social distancing, they are taking to Zoom to organize during the crisis.

The Town’s Equity Task Force works to advise the town on equity and inclusion strategies, specifically for the Latino population in the community. The task force presented seven recommendations to the Jackson Town Council in December, which were accepted, including recommendations like translating town signs into Spanish. Similarly, several local nonprofits have stepped up to serve Latino community members from literacy to food aid.

Philadelphia’s Chinatown remains authentic and keeps its position downtown by organizing together to preserve the community through activism.

After decentralized protests in Sudan successfully ousted a 30-year dictatorship, nonviolent civic action in the country continues to grow, with highly localized demonstrations calling for everything from greater security against cattle theft to the resignation of corrupt public officials. The protests have been fueled by better exposure via social media, more collaboration among activist groups, and the proliferation of neighborhood-level "resistance committees" that grew out of the movement to topple the dictatorship in 2018 and 2019.

51 for 51 is an advocacy group fighting for DC statehood by educating people about DC residents’ taxation without representation and training advocates in other states, mostly young people, to lobby their senators to support a statehood bill. Organizers also bird-dogged democratic presidential candidates for a public pledge of support for statehood, which 18 did. The group has also gained new support for ending the filibuster, which is needed to pass a statehood bill in the Senate. Support for statehood is at its highest, with a bill passing the House of Representatives for the first time in June 2020.

After tense negotiations and protests, the Coalition for a CBA (Community Benefits Agreement) and the mayor of Chicago agreed to an ordinance guaranteeing a percentage of affordable housing for tenants making below 50% of median income. The coalition expects gentrification to accelerate due to the nearby $500 million Obama Presidential Center, making housing unaffordable for current residents. In addition to negotiations, the coalition organized a blockade of the mayor’s office and set up a “tent city” to emphasize their message. Not all residents want the ordinance and neither side got everything they want.