A conversation with Reverend Andrew Wilkes, a an African Methodist Episcopal pastor of young adults and social justice and leader in a black Christian community in Jamaica, Queens. Unlike some of our interviewees, Rev. Wilkes identifies as a democratic socialist, and has spent a lot of time working out those principles with his faith. He discusses why socialism is a theological commitment, what democratic socialist policies could look like in practice, why leftist politics has a race problem — and why joy is the most important feeling of Christianity. Photo cred: Huffpost.

A conversation with Reverend Khader El-Yateem, a native Palestinian and Lutheran pastor running for City Council for the 43rd District, which includes Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst. El-Yateem discusses growing up in the Greek Orthodox in Palestine, where he came to realize he was under two occupations: the Israeli Occupation, and the Greek occupation of the indigenous Palestinian Christian church. In this far-reaching interview, he talks about how being tortured by the Israeli Defense Forces taught him about faith, love and justice, what it's like to serve as a police liason for the Arab community in a time of Islamophobia and racial profiling, and why he finally decided to run for office after two decades as a pastor and community organizer in Bay Ridge. Photo cred from El-Yateem 2017.

A conversation with Reverent Ann Kansfield, pastor at Greenpoint Reformed Church and chaplain for the FDNY. Kansfield discusses how 9/11 prompted her to leave her finance job and join seminary, her feelings when her father went on trial for marrying her and her wife and had to step down as a theology professor, and what it's like to be the first woman and lesbian chaplain of the New York Fire Department. Photo cred from NYT.

A Conversation With Laura Barrett of Interfaith Worker Justice

Religion and Socialism Podcast Episode One - A Conversation with Professor Gary Dorrien

People have said nice things about their ETOC experience. The ETOC 2 Day Training is really good. After we first got trained we sent people who had missed it to subsequent trainings.

So your ATU is/was part of ETOC’s Mentorship Program. What does this mean? Your ATU is connected to the larger tenants movement.

As long as you have 3+ core TU organizers and some observable commitment to building an ATU, then we let any group join ETOC Mentorship.

ETOC stands for Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee. The purpose of ETOC is to create new autonomous tenant unions. ETOC is part of the Housing Justice Commision (HJC), which is part of DSA.

ETOC’s Mentorship Program has 5 Phases. Phase 1: Pre-configuration – consolidate working & process norms such as recurring meetings, socials, and how to onboard new members Phase 2: Inquiry – review popular outreach approaches, frame organizing convos that involve the law, and canvas as a tenant in your block or building Phase 3: TU Skeleton – minimal operations as a dues-collecting member organization with a public purpose and outward-facing materials Phase 4: Fight – conduct pressure campaigns against landlords as a mass organization where tenants lead their own struggle and not as a service org Phase 5: TU Formation – formalize decision-making procedures, define political line that unites multiple tendencies, and streamline procedures to enable new member involvement as TU grows