On September 4th, 2024, United for a Fair Economy had the incredible privilege of hosting the Apache Stronghold in Durham, North Carolina on their national prayer journey leading up to their Supreme Court fight on September 11th.

Community members, organizers, and UFE staff join the prayer ceremony with the Apache Stronghold at the Avila Center for Community Leadership. Photo credit: Apache Stronghold

On July 25th-28th, 2024, members of Boston Neighbors United For a Better East Boston (NUBE) joined UFE for a Civil Rights tour led by our Director of Southern Inclusive Economies, Ana Delia Espino. Developed in collaboration with NUBE, UFE designed and hosted an Alabama Civil Rights Tour and analysis using our newest workshop, Racism in the Mind, Skin, and Action. The 4-day event centered on teaching economic justice through a racial lens.

From June 26 to 29, 2024 the city of Durham, North Carolina hosted the Southern Summit, a gathering organized by the Southern Vision Alliance along with numerous partner organizations.

The Summit centered around the theme of "Reclaiming Democracy and Defeating Fascism by Worker and Community Organizing," aiming to foster resilience and progressivism in the South.

United for a Fair Economy (UFE) and our Responsible Wealth (RW) project are proud to join other national advocates in supporting the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act (AHEM), introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Emanuel Cleaver, is aimed at strengthening the federal estate tax. It is poised to raise approximately $500 billion and invest that money in creating affordable housing.

On Saturday, June 22, UFE and other partner groups of the Avila Center for Community Leadership in Durham, North Carolina hosted our first Political Education Training. The day was filled with learning, collaboration, and a shared commitment to building a better North Carolina and fighting for a more just world. 

We are excited to announce that our Executive Director, Jeanette Huezo, will be representing United for a Fair Economy at the 32nd annual conference hosted by the International Association of Feminist Economics in Rome, Italy. This year’s theme focuses on feminist economics responses to the digital revolution and a crisis of democracy of the current economic and political landscape.

We are excited to welcome three interns this summer — one from Student Action with Farmworkers and two from the Social Justice strand of Brandeis University's World of Work (WOW) internship. Please join us in welcoming them!

UFE participated in the Southern Workers School with the Southern Workers Assembly (SWA) in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 17-18, 2024. This powerful gathering of over 170 workers and organizers across the country displayed the power of an organized multiracial working class. 

(Photo credit: Southern Workers Assembly)

Durham city workers organizing with UE150 — a member group of the UFE-coordinated Raising Wages NC coalition — are out in the streets and testifying at City Council for fair pay. UFE is there with our movement supports.

We are still shining from our annual Spring Training of Trainers — at our beautiful Avila Center for Community Leadership in Durham, North Carolina — where emerging and seasoned leaders from Alabama, North Carolina, and beyond came together to build, dream, heal and grow.

 GOSA 2024 cohort members, facilitators, interpreters and children 

UFE’s Grassroots Organizing School of Alabama (GOSA) – co-founded with the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice –  is developing organizer-leaders from Alabama’s Black, Latinx, and immigrant communities to advance base-building initiatives that promote economic justice. 

UFE's Eroc Arroyo-Montano, Director of Cultural Organizing, speaks about the value of “working small” to build our movements.

Should movement organizations prioritize scaling up, or is there value in operating on a smaller scale within social movements? Gabrielle Dominique, UFE's 2023-2024 Tisch Scholar, sat down with Eroc to explore this question.

We recently re-watched UFE's webinar on Personal & Collective Healing for Liberation, and fell in love with it all over again.

Featuring UFE's own Eroc Arroyo-Montano, Director of Cultural Organizing, and frequent UFE collaborators Luana Morales and Lawrence Barriner II, the conversation has us reflecting on agency, joy, boundaries, rest, family and ancestral legacies, breaking spells, and so much more. Give it a listen!

The UFE-coordinated Raising Wages NC (RWNC) coalition converged with the NC Families Care (NCFC) coalition at the Avila Center in Durham, NC from Wednesday, January 10th, to Thursday, January 11th, 2024.

This powerful gathering of organizers, workers, and revolutionaries was used to analyze the political, social and economic landscape of North Carolina and strategically plan for the new year.

by Gabrielle Dominique

United for a Fair Economy hosted our annual Fall Training of Trainers (ToT) at the Highlander Research and Education Center from Thursday, November 9th to Sunday, November 12th, 2023. 

Fall ToT 2024 participants, Gabrielle Dominique at the far left

In this personal recount, Gabrielle Dominique, UFE’s Tisch Scholar, shares her experiences of learning popular education, making connections, and being in a fully bilingual space.

UFE welcomes the newest member of our team - Victor Urquiza, Workers' Rights Organizer. Based in our Durham, NC office, he will coordinate the Raising Wages NC coalition and support worker organizing statewide.

Following a months-long development process, UFE and Equipo Maíz launched a new training curriculum – “Racism in the Mind, Skin, and the Action” – earlier this year.  A resource for learning and reflection about anti-Blackness in Latinx communities, the curriculum debuted in an epic month of trainings and workshops in each of UFE’s geographic hubs: North Carolina, Boston, and Alabama. We are now ready to bring it to a wider audience.

UFE is delighted to welcome two recent/new program staff and one new intern to our team. Together, the three span each of UFE’s home bases - Boston, North Carolina, and our newest addition, Alabama. Please join us in welcoming them!