Sulma Arias
Sulma Arias is the executive director of People’s Action Institute and People’s Action. She is also the first Latina immigrant to lead the two organizations. In taking on this role, Sulma is coming home to the organization. Her prior work includes leading the country’s largest coalition of grassroots immigrant rights groups with Community Change, organizing in Kansas with Sunflower Community Action – and, once before, working with People’s Action – on a range of issues that includes healthcare, payday loans and worker justice. While on staff here between 2008 and 2011, she also helped develop and launch our long-term agenda.
Presentations from Facing Race 2024
This workshop will move participants through an analysis of the political moment and how we got here and then dig into how to maximize racial justice, power-building, and strategy in whatever post-election scenario we find ourselves in. Participants will think through the best cases for racial justice and power-building in the event of a Trump/Vance victory or a Harris/Walz victory, and the various permutations for Congress and states.
Presentations from Facing Race 2022
The opening plenary panel will set the stage for Facing Race 2022. Coming just weeks after the midterms, our political context requires our movement to be strategic, rigorous, and disciplined. This panel will discuss the just, multiracial, democratic society that is possible when racial justice is a fundamental principle of our society. The panel will focus on building collective power and strategy to root out systemic racism, to challenge and put an end to political violence and the rapid march towards white authoritarianism. Key questions will include:
- Given the midterms, what is our analysis, what do we need to be doing going into 2023-24?
- What in the last two years have we done well? What do we need to strengthen?
- What do we need to do to win? And how do we do it?