An interview with organizer Siobhan Ring by Todd Matthews Siobhan Ring is regarded by many as one of the most talented young organizers in Seattle. As a student, Ring worked at the Women's Resource Center of Winona, Minnesota - the first women's shelter in that state to open its doors to battered lesbians. Soon after, Ring was selected to attend the Organizing Apprenticeship Project, where she received some of the best organizing training available. Real Change met with Ring at the Tenants Union offices in the Rainier Valley. The Tenants Union is so cool because we bring together low-income folks from all walks of life and help them take charge of their lives.
Some members are on welfare and some are working families and some are senior citizens.
There is an incredible scope of people. Organizing at the Tenants Union is about challenging the economic structure that makes it so hard to meet your basic need of shelter. As an organizer, it is amazing because we get to bring these folks together from different places, with different experiences, and channel those experiences of economic suffering into understanding and using one's power to change the world in small ways. And when I canvassed in college, I had some unsafe moments. Also, there are certain realities about how people in power respond to women as opposed to men.