In 1997 I applied to the second Summer Of Unity and Liberation, a summer school and internship with a social justice organization that was started by Harmony Goldberg and Rona Fernandez who were inspired by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee’s Freedom Summer. I was really excited to be accepted and spend the summer studying movement history and the struggle against globalization, spending four days a week working with People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) in San Francisco. I helped with their General Assistance Rights Union’s project to unionize General Assistance (GA) workers who had to work a certain amount of hours to receive their check. The GA workers were being exploited as cheap labor and POWER was organizing workers to get better treatment and build a union to protect their rights. It was a great experience, I learned so much that summer the study group was great and looking back now i realize how important those conversations were to my political development.
I was asked by SOUL to create a poster to celebrate their 15th Anniversary and am really happy to produce this print for them and give back a little for everything they have given our community.