On L.A.: Collective Action is the Antidote to Fear
- Belén Lopez-Grady
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
NBOP does not typically make public statements. We do the work of community organizing. But in this moment, our work is at the exact intersection of the crisis playing out in the media, on the streets, and in the fields. While I lead NBOP as the Executive Director from the back, I am called to use our platform in whatever way I can to galvanize our community. If I am feeling this way, I know many of you are too.
The North Bay Organizing Project stands in our work to build power and solidarity with immigrants, with pride and out of love. We are grieving and we are angered at the assault on civil liberties and the blatant disregard for human dignity taking
place in LA, and here, in Sonoma, Solano, and Napa Counties. But we are not surprised. This is a continuation of what we’ve experienced and it's also an opportunity to utilize what we’ve learned and what we’ve built.
If the strategy is to flood our schools, workplaces, and homes, they must not know that we’ve been flooded before. If their tactic is to set fire to our diverse streets by manufacturing a crisis, they must not know we’ve survived catastrophic wildfires before. If lodging fear in our hearts is the only way they know how to take power, they must not remember our lineages, our organized mass movements, our deep roots.
Despite the last several years of targeted intimidation, we’ve built structures, networks, and movements to keep each other safe and to advance our work. We’ve trained people- youth, religious leaders, working-class folks, to step into their leadership. Because we know that when they come for one of us, they come for all of us.
If you are feeling activated right now don’t get distracted and don’t put it to sleep. Use your agency to get involved. Get trained up and join a team. There are actions you can take that are directly impactful in your neighborhood. We know because we’ve done it before. The groundwork has been laid. So ask yourself, “what’s holding me back?” The cost of staying on the sidelines is too high right now and your community needs you.
At NBOP we do the hard work of building coalition. This means we may not always agree but we know that we are stronger when we have relationships with each other and that solidarity must be mutual. Our strength is the diversity of our community and our antidote to fear is collective action in community.
This Saturday is NBOP’s 15 year anniversary. This is a critical moment to demonstrate our pride, our diverse voices, our dignity and our right to exist free from violence. We know that joy and celebration are acts of resistance. They are antidotes to fear. A re-membering of who we are.
Cultura y Cambio is NBOP’s annual celebration, our opportunity to take a restful moment, be in community, however you are right now. Join our leaders, our 20-member coalition- representing labor unions, student groups, religious congregations and cultural organizations. Join our staff, legal observers, families, and children.
Historically this event was a fundraiser, but this week, it’s a celebration and we’ve just made it free for everyone to join. So come this Saturday from 4pm-9pm in Penngrove, eat food, dance, be the joyous resistance. You can locate the registration link at northbayop.org.
Deepen your roots, deepen our roots of community care, invest in existing structures that keep us safe. Center those who are most impacted. This is how we win.
Download 3 Movement Questions Tool – Developed by NBOP's Lead Organizer Xavier MaatRa in conversation with Liberation Coach Carmen de Jesús.
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