Chinese Progressive Association 25th Anniversary 1977-2002

To commemorate the 25th anniversary, the newsletter is reprinting past articles on the mission of the organization.

With One Heart Towards the New Era

By May Louie, 1997
Reprinted from the 20th anniversary program book. May Louie is a founding member of the Chinese Progressive Association and currently works at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative.

We opened the doors of the Chinese Progressive Association in July, 1977, a bold move in keeping with the times. The founders were patriotic Chinese immigrant workers and businessmen with a longing for news and connection to the homeland; young activists, American-born and immigrant, in the Asian American civil rights, student, and anti-war movements, who organized the community’s first battles with Tufts/New England Medical Center for community land control; and garment women who had been the backbone of the fight for educational rights for our children during busing for school desegregation.

In the spirit of “serve the people” and “dare to struggle, dare to win”, we opened the door to much more than an abandoned garment factory loft. We established what was (and is) truly “an organization of a new type,” a people’s organization. With a combination of activities, CPA sought to make a difference. CPA ran “serve the people” programs – English, Cantonese, and citizenship classes, youth tutoring programs. We first advocated and then celebrated the normalization of relations with the People’s Republic of China. We brought people together in recreational and social activities – apple picking, dinners, ping pong. We organized the community to fight for our rights – for community control of land, for affordable housing in the face of massive development, for the elimination of the Combat Zone, for justice in the police brutalization of Long Guang Huang. We built alliances and coalitions inside and outside of the community.

CPA did all this and much more for ten years on the strength of our vision and the commitment of our member-volunteers. With no funding and virtually no paid staff, we created a new way of thinking and doing in Chinatown, one based on opening up the community for the collective voice and power of everyday people. During the historic 1983 Boston mayor’s election, CPA helped to move politics from the backroom to the public places. For the first time, nine candidates appeared at a mayoral forum in Chinatown, contending for our votes by discussing the issues, not by cutting private deals.

In the second decade, CPA’s staff, activist volunteer base, membership, and capacity to organize and serve the Chinese community steadily grew. In fact, CPA could be considered a model for immigrant community organizing, combining various service, community-building, and homeland activities with organizing to fight for equality. CPA today is tackling many of the difficult challenges facing Chinese Americans, deepening and expanding the organizing and leadership of working people, creating tools and vehicles as we go.

CPA has created a unique community-based entity, a Workers Center, which organizes workers on the job and on the unemployment line. The Workers Center opened in 1987, after organizing a successful 18-month campaign for job retraining and one hundred percent job placement for the displaced P&L garment workers. The Workers Center organizes workers to take collective action, to developer workers’ voices in the policy arena, and to strengthen the leadership role of Chinese workers in the community. It has been responsible for a number of landmark victories, including the 1995 payment of $30,000 in back wages to the Lei Jing Restaurant construction workers.

The fight for Chinatown’s very existence as a viable residential community and as a regional center for Chinese and other Asians has continued. Recently, CPA helped form The Coalition to Protect Parcel C for Chinatown (now the Campaign to Protect Chinatown). In a protracted campaign, the Coalition was able to mobilize overwhelming community support to prevent New England Medical Center from building a 455-car garage in residential Chinatown. Most recently, CPA played an active role in the campaign against the Central Artery temporary and permanent off-ramp proposals.

In a city known for its history of racial strife, CPA has tried to build working relations across racial/ethnic lines. One example is the work CPA did in 1987 to help African American and Chinese residents form the Castle Square Tenants Organization so they could start organizing for cooperative control of their own housing.

As the Chinese population doubled in a decade, the attacks on and scapegoating of immigrants and minorities have also multiplied. CPA has expanded our mobilization to advocate for fair immigration policies, to protest the elimination of the social safety net, to increase access to the naturalization process, and to increase the citizenship/voter participation.

Throughout our history, CPA has helped open doors for and within our community. For successive waves of immigrant workers, we have broken down isolation by opening access to ideas, knowledge, institutions, and other people. Chinese women have defied feudal traditions to strive for full participation in community life. We have put great emphasis on developing leadership skills among working people, and putting information and power in the hands of the community. We have provided a place to begin bridging the generation gap between immigrant parents and American-born youth. We have given young people a way to “come home” and reconnect with the community.

As we look back on these twenty years, it is with a sense of amazement and pride at what we, the people, have achieved together. As conditions for immigrants and minorities get worse, we will have to get better – better at coming together to fight for our rights.

Building on our twenty year foundation, let us unite with one heard toward the new era.