YADStack #3: Reclaim our homes, reclaim our lives!
What’s the latest? The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) recently appointed a new President, Michael E. Lee, who just so happens to be a board member of the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC)—one of the biggest home care agencies forcing workers into consecutive 24-hour shifts. Of course MOCA and CPC would both love Michael Lee, because these two organizations share the same values! The values of Chinatown? No, lmfao! The values of racist exploitation and displacement!
How come in NYC, people of color don’t get the same rights when it comes to the ability to live where you want to live and to work in normal working conditions? It’s because the city is constantly colluding with developers and sweatshop bosses to enact racist violence on workers and residents. No one is more familiar with this than Michael E. Lee. CPC, despite being a Chinese agency, forces its Chinese workers into 24-hour shifts for only 13 hours’ pay, robbing them of sleep and causing permanent damage to their health, all while they raise the “Stop Asian Hate” banner to get a lot of funding from the government.
We know this scheme all too well, because MOCA does the same thing. They pretend to represent the community and put up an Asian face to collude with developers. MOCA took $35 million as part of the city’s plan to build the world’s tallest jail in the heart of Chinatown. Just as CPC is one of the biggest exploiters in the homecare industry, MOCA board member Jonathan Chu is one of the biggest racist developers in Chinatown–during the pandemic, he evicted the beloved Jing Fong dim sum hall! These elites look down on their own people, turning workers into slaves and turning neighborhoods into tourist traps, all the while lining their pockets with stolen wages and mega-jail bribes.
Politicians who collude with them use the same trick, wielding identity politics to justify selling out their own communities. Case in point: Adrienne Adams. As the first African American woman Speaker leading the first women-majority City Council, she claims that her top priority is women’s health. Ha! Adrienne Adams has been blocking the No More 24 Act for the last two years–this bill would end the racist violence of the 24 hour workday, mandating split shifts for home care workers in New York City who are mostly immigrant women of color. Last month, more than two dozen home attendants and supporters went on a hunger strike right outside City Hall, demanding Adrienne finally put the bill to a vote. Not only did she ignore these demands, but she sent the NYPD to harass the hunger strikers and force them to take down their rain shelters during a flash flood! Adrienne is perfectly fine with letting seniors starve and freeze outside her door as long as she can continue protecting the profits stolen by insurance companies and home care agencies like CPC! Just as MOCA pretends to represent Chinatown and CPC pretends to provide good jobs to Asian workers, here we have Adrienne Adams pretending to help women while upholding a brutal system which robs them of their time, health, and labor.
So, how can we fight this racist system which displaces us from our homes, robs us of our health, and seems to always get away with it? We must unite and fight! There are more of us than them ;) The hunger strike united thousands of workers across all trades, just like our picket line unites people across the city! Join us to fight this racist displacement and exploitation agenda together—to reclaim our homes, our communities, our time…our lives!
Join the MOCA picket line, Thursday through Sunday, 11am to 2pm rain of shy at 215 Centre St! Rally with us on May Day, Wednesday, May 1st, rain or shine at City Hall!