We work to instill in all an understanding of how the vote is essential to every aspect of our well-being. We emphasize the links between voting justice and pathways to dismantling systems of injustice and creating equitable healthcare, living wages, decent housing, affordable education, and so much more.
We work to help people connect present social and political movements to their historical antecedents. We offer and promote education that reveals the truth about how histories of oppression and resistance created our modern world, while inspiring people to learn from the strategies and wisdom of resilient movements and foot soldiers to take action for change.
We want the reinstatement of sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act. We want everyone to be guaranteed what should be the most common power in American democracy–the right to vote–without targeted facially neutral legislation that discriminates primarily against Black and Brown people.
We want to actively undermine, through education, the current administration’s ideological indoctrination of a nationalistic narrative and culture of ignorance, misinformation, and hate. These policies criminalize and demonize the teaching of truth in an effort to promote and codify an educational agenda defined by white supremacist ideals. Their actions bespeak an agenda that erases the contributions of women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ communities out of fear of a loss of power. It messages to people who are members of these targeted communities that they don’t matter, that they are not valued.
We are dedicated to teaching truth so that educators and others are equipped with the knowledge, perseverance, and inspiration necessary to combat the threats to education. We firmly understand that you cannot understand our modern existence without exploring the historical processes that have worked to create both tragedy and triumph. We want educators on the front lines of truth-telling in our nation to be fully supported and empowered in their mission, protected from criminalization, equipped with knowledge of the past and present, and connected to an international community that supports and sustains them.
We oppose the administration’s criminalization of truth-teaching by disseminating education (via learning tours, lectures, conversations, workshops, and curriculum) that illuminates the undervalued and underappreciated aspects of our collective history, highlighting the history of marginalized groups.
We offer accessible direct pathways to engage in action, such as working with our parent organization, Common Power, to knock doors for political candidates who are challenging the mission of the current administration.
We uplift–not stigmatize and criminalize–the downtrodden, the marginalized, the disenfranchised. We want widespread understanding that oppressive societal forces —not the individuals targeted by them—are culpable and impact us all. We stand with and publicize organizations and leaders who are committed to fighting for a more just and inclusive democracy and combating efforts to erase the truth. As freedom fighter Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer said, “nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
We work to reveal the clear continuation from historical fascist leaders and movements to the current administration and its actions (e.g., the Nazi regime’s organized persecution and mass internment of Jewish people in concentration camps; the violent and inhumane seizure of Black people under the Fugitive Slave Laws; the unlawful, violent seizure, internment in privatized camps, and deportation of undocumented immigrants and citizens without due process). These historical patterns of state-sanctioned systems of racialized oppression dehumanize entire groups of people and criminalize their existence for personal gain.
We work to cultivate intentional spaces for people from diverse backgrounds to come together in community to pursue a common cause, challenge internalized biases and stereotypes that thrive in segregation and separation, and experience rejuvenation and inspiration to continue the fight.

The following set of guidelines define our current ideals, goals, and operations. We created it in honor of the history makers who have created similar lists in the past to highlight their organizations’ convictions and objectives.

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The Institute for Common Power

Ten Point Program

The following set of guidelines define our current ideals, goals, and operations. We created it in honor of the history makers who have created similar lists in the past to highlight their organizations’ convictions and objectives.

Info

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