Building Power: Organizing Working-class Immigrant Communities

How do we build lasting community/political power from the ground-up? How do organizations develop collective capacity to sustain movements power over time?  In this Kinship and Council conversation, Fahd Ahmed of DRUM (Desis Rising Up & Moving) will share lessons from more than two decades of organizing with low-wage South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrant communities in New York.   

Drawing on DRUM's organizing-first, membership-led approach, the conversation will explore how communities organize across interconnected struggles and develop the collective power to influence policy and electoral politics. We'll also hear from Fahd about the recent work of DRUM Beats, DRUM's sibling organization focused on electoral organizing, including its early support for Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign and the broader questions this experience raises about the relationship between grassroots organizing and electoral power.   

The conversation will invite reflection on what these experiences might offer community organizations in Montreal working to build power around housing, displacement and other struggles for social and economic justice.  

Register here or drop by if you are on campus.

Fahd Ahmed has been a grassroots organizer on the issues of racial profiling, immigrant justice, police accountability, national security, and educational justice over the last 16 years. He is currently the Executive Director of DRUM-Desis Rising Up & Moving of New York City, where he has served in various capacities since 2000. DRUM has mobilized and built the leadership of thousands of low-income, South Asian immigrants to lead social and policy change that impacts their own lives- from immigrant rights to education reform, civil rights, and worker’s justice.

About DRUM

DRUM - Desis Rising Up and Moving is a multigenerational, membership led organization of low-wage South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrants, workers and youth in New York City. Founded in 2000, DRUM has mobilized and built the leadership of thousands of low-income, South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrants to lead social and policy change that impacts their own lives- from immigrant rights to education reform, civil rights, and worker’s justice.   

About the Kinship & Council Series 

This event is part of our Kinship & Council series which brings together the SHIFT community with inspiring thinkers, organizers, and collaborators who are actively deepening practices of social transformation. In addition to sharing their expertise with individual projects, invited guests offer public conversations that expand our collective learning and widen our perspectives on social transformation.

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