El Centro Obrero de Detroit (Detroit Workers’ Center, CO) reclaimed May 1 this past year as Labor Day with the radical action of opening a center for workers, by workers, on this day that the U.S. refuses to recognize as the official day of labor. Since then, we filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of marginalized workers at a parts plant, helped dislocated workers find union jobs at a plastics plant, participated in an organizing drive, held Know Your Rights workshops, and provided education on labor rights and economic realities in Detroit for immigrant, people-of-color and low-wage workers.

Across the country Workers Centers have been created as grassroots initiatives to empower workers and communities to confront their adverse conditions. In Southwest Detroit, the Centro Obrero was formed in that vein. The CO seeks to provide equal protection for citizens of the U.S. and immigrant workers by defending workers’ rights, addressing workplace abuses, organizing labor unions, and educating workers on community issues that impact their lives. This work that the CO engages in is not new. This is anti-racist work, low-wage work, labor work and community organizing work that people have been doing for decades.

The Centro Obrero exists as an organizing space for all workers and for all who are interested in the reality of labor, race, class and oppression. However, the CO has initially focused on working with undocumented immigrant workers. The exploitation of these workers can be extreme, as workers are not paid for the work they perform, do not have access to Workers Compensation, receive no benefits or overtime pay, and are constantly threatened to be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by their employers when they attempt to address their workplace issues or when they attempt a union organizing drive. In short, these workers endure severe exploitation because they are threatened not only with losing their job, but also with losing their opportunity to support their families by having jobs within the U.S. Their very survival is attacked. The CO has focused on this work because these workers approached us for guidance and solidarity with their collective initiative to confront their employers.

Immigrant workers have an immense potential power as a class of workers, but because of their vulnerability this potential is often not seen. For immigrant workers, consequences of action can be life threatening. We now live in a country where non-citizens can be indefinitely jailed without charges. It is not a stretch to wonder if organizers and activists in the immigrant community may be next on the list. However, when engaged as a mass movement, as during the immigrant rights marches earlier this year, we saw this potential power unleashed when they successfully evaded arrest (not all, but the vast majority) and were able to quash the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) that would have made it a felony to be an undocumented worker.

The Centro Obrero offers afternoon and evening ESL classes taught in the popular-education style of Paulo Freire, wherein students direct their learning and participate in the teaching process by sharing their knowledge. This effort recognizes that every person has valuable contributions to make to the whole of the group, and it also helps to build community leadership. Our other projects include the inception of biweekly legal clinics, assistance in organizing, and addressing workplace abuses through wage-and-hours claims or protests addressed towards abusive employers. The CO is more than a service organization. We address pressing bread-and-butter needs while building political consciousness for long-range self-determination and social changes. We recognize that people have basic needs that must be met, even as we work to organize into a base that can eventually claim its potential power.

The Centro Obrero formed with the realization in mind that workers hold the power because they are at the point of production. This includes immigrant workers who are at the point of production in the construction, auto, landscaping, service, cleaning and restaurant industries. Our job as workers, as activists, as anti-racist people is to address this question of power. And we do so by organizing and educating and standing in solidarity with those whose very survival depends upon the recognition of their relationship to this economy. This discussion of power is at the heart of organization in oppressed communities, because it is not a question of sharing power or asking to share power, but a question of seizing power. The seizure of power by workers and oppressed groups will force the systemic changes that are necessary for liberation and equality.

Jessica LaBumbard is a Detroit activist.