For Immediate Release: Press Contact: paca@protonmail.com
(609) 954-4741
On the Precipice of Major DC Elections, Pan-African Community Action Demands Community-Based Control
The organization advances a people’s platform for collective self-determination in Southeast D.C.
March 6, 2026 — The political landscape in the District remains evershifting; Mayor Muriel Bowser announced late last year that she will not be seeking reelection for a fourth term, leaving a mayoral vacancy in DC for the first time in over a decade. DC Councilmembers are experiencing a shake-up with At-Large Councilmember Anita Bonds stepping away from a bid for reelection and the resignation of At-Large Council member Kenyan McDuffie, as he plans to run for mayorship.
As the city inches toward a heavy election campaign season, Black and working class communities in Southeast hold little power over their institutions of health, education, and safety. Pan-African Community Action (PACA) is actualizing power over community health needs in DC’s Wards 7 and 8 through the People’s Pan-African Wellness Front, which launched in late February and has received local media coverage. This survival program, providing free medical supplies, glucose and blood pressure testing, and preventive health information, is one component of organizing toward long-term self-determination and holistic community control.
PACA has, additionally, launched a new campaign to build independent, community-based power: the platform Community Control DC. This campaign acknowledges that access, representation or reform cannot adequately shape the living conditions of Black and Brown people, nor the working class for the better- only power can. The organization has issued a people(s)-centered platform that includes a list of demands to put this power into the hands of the most disadvantaged and disenfranchised. These twelve demands are:
The Youth Shall Govern Youth Resources
Our Communities Shall Have Community Control Over Policing and Public Safety
Our Communities Shall Not Be Subject to Surveillance or Military Control
The People Shall Control Public Resources
Health Systems Shall Serve the Community
The Land Shall Belong to the Community
No One Shall Be Punished for Being Unhoused
Environmental Decisions Shall Be Made by the Community
Transportation Shall Be Free and Accessible
Our Communities Shall Not Be Complicit in War and Empire
Education Shall Be Community-Controlled and Free
Workers Shall Have Power Over Their Labor
The demands establish a legitimate framework for accountability and action. Institutions would be democratically governed by neighborhood assemblies, community councils, and budgeting authorities- giving, first, Southeast residents the power and resources to mold their lives. With this structure serving as a model of self-determination that can expand across DC, residents can hold power and retain authority over funding, resources, and implementation of officials and institutions.
PACA requires that any institution, agency, official, or candidate that aligns with Community Control DC must demonstrate compliance through binding agreements, public reporting, and community oversight.
The organization, through this platform, works to organize and build independent, community-controlled power that allows the people of Southeast to reshape their material conditions and dictate how their needs are met.
About Pan-African Community Action (PACA):
Emerging in November of 2015 in direct response to the killing of 27 year-old Alonzo Smith by DC Special Police, Pan African Community Action is a grassroots group of African/Black people organizing for community-based power. This organization, based in Washington, D.C., works to actualize this through political education and participatory programs of action.
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