Mission
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities organizes working class Asian immigrants and youth across New York City neighborhoods on the frontlines of gentrification and predatory speculation. Through intergenerational and multi-ethnic organizing, CAAAV develops Asian immigrant leaders to take back control over their homes and to steer the broader fight for a working class New York.
Our strategy is to:
- Defend our neighborhoods by fighting against speculative development
- Fight for more preserved and deeply affordable housing for the working class in these neighborhoods
- Build enough power to constrict our opposition, the real estate industry
History
Founded in 1986 as the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, CAAAV originally organized against rising police and white supremacist violence against Asian communities. Over time, our work broadened to fighting systemic racism and violence in Asian immigrant communities—through organizing with cab drivers and homecare workers, organizing in coalition to oppose the U.S. wars in the Middle East and the crackdown against immigrant communities after 9/11, and more.
In 2005, Chinese tenants founded CAAAV’s Chinatown Tenants Union (CTU) chapter to fight landlord neglect, harassment, and displacement. In response to years of intensified real estate speculation and luxury development in our neighborhoods, we underwent a strategy process from 2019-2021 to identify the real estate industry as the primary threat to our communities. Since then, we replicated CTU’s model to build our Astoria Tenants Union (ATU), which organizes working class Bangali immigrants across Queens. In 2025, we won a historic campaign for a four-year citywide rent freeze, building off decades of organizing and wins against luxury developments in our neighborhoods.
For more CAAAV history, check out our Archives and Organizational History Timeline.
