Dispatches Against Displacement is the former national publication for the UFAD. We seek to make exposures on a local and a national level to help clarify different questions and issues in the movement against gentrification in order to help strengthen the movement as a whole.
Also check out the new national newsletter Urban Core.
ISSUES
Articles in this issue:
- The Struggle Against Privatization in Minneapolis: Interview with Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition
- Dispatch from New York
- Dispatches from California
- Dispatch from Boston
- A Brief History of Gentrification
Articles in this issue:
- What are NGOs and non-profits all about?
- The Shifting Tides of the Struggle: Bay Area Branch Update
- Tenants Take a Stand: The Struggle in Boston
- From the Governors Office to City Hall: Organizing in NYC
A note from the Editorial Board on our first issue:
We’re very excited to publish the first issue of Dispatches Against Displacement, the official, national publication of the United Front Against Displacement. This newsletter is a big step forward for the UFAD, and we, the Editorial Board, hope that it can help to advance the struggle against gentrification all across the U.S.
Members of the UFAD decided, in Fall 2020, to begin work on this national newsletter because we saw an urgent need for it. The forces of gentrification are strong and well-organized. They operate on a national level, from the big banks to the federal government. To organize against them we need to be operating on a national level too, even if only in small ways at first. A key part of this is sharing updates from the struggle in different cities. This way we can learn from each other’s successes and setbacks, and so that we can stand in solidarity with one another.
In Dispatches Against Displacement we will feature articles about the struggle against gentrification all across the country. We’ll also be writing a lot about how we got into this situation, who is responsible, and who has been profiting from it. This is not always easy. As Malcolm X put it, “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” Some politicians portray themselves as “for the people,” even as they work with the big banks and the government to gentrify working-class neighborhoods. For the struggle to win real victories we have to see through their false promises, so unmasking the system pushing people out of their homes and neighborhoods is essential if we plan to struggle against it.
In our first issue we are including three articles about the struggles UFAD has been involved in so far in the Bay Area, Boston, and New York. Since UFAD was founded in 2018 in the Bay Area a lot has happened, and the struggle has taken many twists and turns. The Boston and New York chapters have both started more recently, but nevertheless have also seen several twists and turns in the struggle. Our hope with these articles is that readers in all three cities can get a sense of how the struggle against gentrification has developed elsewhere, and think about how experiences in other cities could relate to their own. In each city UFAD members have come up against big obstacles that they’ve had to struggle through, and similar problems are bound to crop up again in the future, so there is a lot that we can learn from each other.
We are also publishing an article about nonprofits, also known as NGOs. These organizations are often big players in the struggle against gentrification, but although they claim to serve the people they are more often than not actually working to undermine them. Since we have come up against these groups so often we decided to write about what they’re all about, since they have been a key obstacle in the struggle.
This is our first issue, of many to come! We plan to publish as frequently as we can, and we want to include articles on as many topics as possible relating to gentrification and the struggle. If you want to write an article, or just want to let us know about an idea for one, please reach out and let us know.
We also want to hear your disagreements and criticisms, about any typos we made, and generally about any way in which Dispatches Against Displacement is falling short. We are just a few people, and we are bound to make mistakes or omissions. When we do we want to hear about them so we can do better in the future.
We’re very happy to publish this first issue, and we hope that you enjoy reading it!
In Struggle and Solidarity,
The Dispatches Against Displacement Editorial Board
The United Front Against Displacement 