Basic Ideas

CAP, the Cooperative Action Project, is a network of volunteers in New York City that use collective action to win battles against bosses and landlords. It was founded by a group of New York City anarchists, but is open to all who are interested in our core principles:

1. We’re not a charity or a non-profit organization.

2. We are a network of people who have certain things in common—we pay rent, we work for a boss—and believe that fighting back together is the only way we can improve our lives.

3. If people want help from this network, they have to help with other people’s struggles in return. This is based on the idea of ‘mutual aid’, which says that if people cooperate with each other, they can get much better results than if they try to accomplish something on their own.

How Do We Work?

First, a person having a problem with their landlord or boss gets in contact with us. This could include their landlord trying to evict them or refusing to make repairs, or it could be their boss trying to unjustly fire them or not pay them what they’re owed.

After they call or email us, we schedule a sit down with the person to hear the whole story of their problem, and explain to them that to get help, they have to agree to help out with at least 3 other events that aren’t for their campaign. Then, together we come up with a plan of action to fight back against the boss or landlord.

The idea is that our network of people will come out in numbers to rallys and demonstrations that will put pressure on your boss or landlord, and force them to give you what you want. This could include picketing your job, going to a landlord’s office or house, or flyering around a boss’s neighborhood letting people know what a scumbag he is. More often than not, they won’t want all of that attention, and will end up giving up.

After the campaign is done, the person that we helped out will then have an obligation to help out on at least 3 other events, and will hopefully be interested enough in the project to want to come out to even more!

Interested? Get in touch!