Kitchen Table: Basebuilding School Application

Kitchen Table: Basebuilding School is for organizers in autonomous tenant unions who organize at the building and neighborhood level. Over recent months, Unions affiliated with ATUN have demanded more explicit training on how unions can go deeper with their organizing and developing a base of active poor and working-class members. We challenge active ATUN-affiliated unions to apply with at least two organizers from your union or from each Local chapter. It's crucial that participants are already involved in organizing so that ideas discussed in the school can be applied directly in the context of your union. The school will help tenant organizers who want to take the struggle to the next level of building up community leaders in apartment buildings and neighborhoods. Basebuilding School will center popular education praxis for building community power from the experiences and analysis of the union’s base members.

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This will be the Basebuilding School's second cohort - following Spring 2026!

Sessions will occur every first and third Sunday of September, October, and November.

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The first session of each month will feature contributions from ATUN union organizers who have experience in the given topic of the month. Since all School participants are actively engaged in organizing, these sessions will provide lessons for organizing that participants will experiment with over the subsequent two weeks. Graduates from previous cohorts are expected to share their experiences.

The second session of each month will focus on School participants discussing their experiences in applying these lessons to their local context. These reflections will then inform future meetings.

Each session will build on the previous to allow participants to develop a deeper understanding of lessons as they play out across time, across different unions, and across diverse geographical areas.

September: Defining a base for your union & base-building strategies

(Session 1) 9/6 - 4pm PT

(Seccion 2) 9/20 - 4pm PT

October: Developing strong local organizing

(Session 3) 10/2 - 4pm PT

(Session 4) 10/18 - 4pm PT

November: Rapid Response - ICE defense, mutual aid, & tenant unions

(Session 5) 11/1 - 4pm PT

(Session 6) 11/15 - 4pm PT

Full Name

First NameLast Name

Email Address

example@example.com

Preferred Language

What union are you a member of?

How long have you been organizing with your union?

Participation requirements are that at least 2 members from your union (per Local / chapter participating) are present at every session for continuity in the cohort. Are you, or others from your union, able to meet these requirements?

In a few words, describe what the place-based organizing looks like in your union (e.g. apartment building associations, block associations, neighborhood committee, Local/chapter, etc.).

Tell us briefly about an organizing effort that you either recently attempted or are currently engaged in

e.g We helped build a tenant association at X building / We have a local chapter with weekly meetings in Y neighborhood / We are knocking on doors at Z property in order to organize against an eviction

What organizing methods does your union currently use?

e.g Rank-and-file / Labor for Power strategy, relational organizing, know your rights workshops, popular education, open door meetings, cold canvassing, service providing, mutual aid, etc