National People’s Action 32nd Annual Conference Resources

Posted by on June 20, 2003

On May 31-June 2, National People’s Action held its 32nd annual conference with 1,000 community leaders from across the country in attendance. The conference covered a multitude of issues, including: housing, predatory lending immigrant rights, education, youth and neighborhood safety. For more information, please go to:

http://www.npa-us.org/pressreleases/mayjun03/domesticagenda.htm

Leaders also participated in successful direct action events…Highlights of the direct action events and subsequent results included:

SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

On June 1, NPA leaders in 16 yellow school buses turned the corner at the home of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez’s and cornered him in his backyard! As the leadership team barraged Mel with how he’s been ignoring NPA and ignoring housing needs and problems in neighborhoods across the country, Martinez declared that he would not meet with NPA “under duress.” Minutes later, Mel caved to pressure from NPA and agreed to meet with 15 leaders on Monday at the HUD building! The direct action event was covered by the Washington Post. For more information, please go to:
http://www.npa-us.org/pressreleases/mayjun03/martinez.htm

At the Monday meeting, Martinez brought his two top guys John Weicher and Roy Bernardi – both of which had refused to come out to NPA’s Sunday workshop. NPA received commitments from Martinez for follow up on specific issues raised by leaders while he avoided setting a specific date to meet again. “Martinez has a responsibility to form a partnership with NPA. His job is to work with the people most affected by HUD’s decisions – we are the people,” said Marilyn Evans of Communities United for Action in Cincinnati, OH.

FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM

A diverse leadership team, including NPA’s three co-chairs, descended on the headquarters of the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) on June 2. NPA’s Immigrant Rights leaders were there to take FAIR to task for its attempts to deny immigrant youth access to higher education.

After FAIR Director Dan Stein told an immigrant student that had been in this country since she was two years old to go back to Mexico to get an education, NPA Co-chair Emira Palacios laid into Stein with a vengeance! Then, in case he hadn’t gotten the message yet – Palacios ended the action by awarding Stein with NPA’s distinguished “Horse’s Ass of the Year” award. Following the action, NPA has been flooded with calls and letters from around the country praising the direct action event as “much needed” and “a long time in coming!” For more information, please go to:

http://www.npa-us.org/pressreleases/mayjun03/immprotest.htm.

NPA’s Immigrant Rights leadership then further established their reputation as a powerful grassroots voice in Washington, DC by chairing a packed Immigrant Rights Briefing in the Capitol Building.

NPA leadership addressed over 20 Congressional staff, members of the media and immigration allies. Leaders pushed for the passage of the Student Adjustment Act for immigrant students and furthered the fight to recognize foreign identification for immigrants and called for consistent and fair treatment of immigrants by local law enforcement. NPA immigrant rights and youth leaders then held 10 meetings with U.S. House of Representatives Republicans to push for passage of the Student Adjustment Act. For more information, please go to: http://www.npaus.org/pressreleases/mayjun03/immigrationreform.htm

To learn more about the National People’s Action, please go to http://www.npa-us.org. For more information on the conference, please call Tracy Van Slyke at 312-243-3038.