We are in the midst of a pandemic, social and economic crises, police killings and repression, and on the cusp of a major election. There is ample anxiety about where we are headed and where we may end up. There are an endless number of predictions, assessments, and variables to agonize over. But there is one constant that we can rely on to guide us through all circumstances: The power of our people. If we build it.

On the eve of the US presidential elections, we offer a path forward rooted in the grassroots organizing of working class immigrants. We're publishing a report on our Building Power and Safety through Solidarity campaign which we launched in response to the pandemic. Over the last 6 months, DRUM members and organizers have called over 12,000 community members to not only meet basic needs, but also to politically educate, agitate, and organize. Over 2,000 of those people have responded with a desire to continue organizing with DRUM. 

The families forced to the streets in the middle of the pandemic, the bereaved relatives, the unemployed, the hungry, the brutalized, and the struggling masses are waiting to be organized together to build the power we need. As movements, we must shift to center their development, thinking, and skills to transform their anger and consciousness and abolish the systems that do not serve us. We must build the world that we need and deserve, rooted in interdependent and mutually beneficial relationships with one another. 

This report offers for consideration the results, reflections, and lessons of our efforts through the campaign. We hope it  offers our movements a path forward based  on the necessity of building power, not on the shaky foundation of the uncertainties of the present.