Love & Solidarity Series: Kafui Attoh and the Uber/Lyft Revolution!

Love & Solidarity Series: Kafui Attoh and the Uber/Lyft Revolution! March 28 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm CDT East Side Freedom Library’s kick-off event for the Love & Solidarity Series with Kafui Attoh, co-author of Disrupting D.C.: The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City. Register to join us in-person or virtually at the event site. Join us for the first event in our spring Love & Solidarity series. Co-author Kafui Attoh will be in conversation with local Minnesota activists to discuss the rise of Uber and Lyft, how it impacts cities, and the work of rideshare driver/agitators across the U.S. The book, Disrupting D.C. chronicles the movement in Washington D.C. as the first city to fight back against Uber, and the blueprint Uber employs in cities across the United States.

Learn more about the event here!

 Kafui Attoh Professor Attoh received his B.A. from Macalester College and his Ph.D in Geography from Syracuse University. His broad interests are in the political economy of cities, the politics of public space and debates in and around the idea of the “right to the city.” His research has focused on three areas: 1) the role of transit within the political economy of cities; 2) the economic impact of limited access to transportation on disadvantaged communities and 3) the role of urban social movements (including the labor movement) in shaping mass transit policy. He is the author of Rights in Transit: Public Transportation and the Right to the City in California’s East Bay (University of Georgia Press 2019). His work has appeared in Urban Studies, Society and Space, Progress in Human Geography, New Labor Forum, The Journal of Cultural Geography, The Geographical Bulletin, ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, as well as in a number of other both academic and popular venues. Event moderator: Jennings Mergenthal is a former student organizer for Proud Indigenous Peoples for Education who does community centered public history and mapping related work. They have done several historical research projects for Macalester College, the Metropolitan Council, the Lake Street Truth Collective and the Science Museum of Minnesota. In 2020 they authored an anticolonial historical atlas of Minnesota. They currently do collections-related community engagement work at the Science Museum and also, occasionally, puppet shows. Panelist: Eid Ali is the founder and president of the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association (MULDA). MULDA is an advocacy organization that fights for the rights of Uber and Lyft drivers. In 2023, Eid and MULDA advocated for state-wide legislation in Minnesota that would have set minimum pay rates for Uber and Lyft drivers and provided them with protections against termination. Their state-wide effort failed after Governor Tim Walz vetoed the bill. Similarly, Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed a proposal for a Minneapolis city ordinance. Governor Walz then created a task force to make recommendations on regulations, and Eid became a member of the task force. With the threats from Uber and Lyft leaving the city of Minneapolis, in early March of 2024, the Minneapolis City Council passed a veto-proof ordinance, increasing the pay rates for drivers. Alfonzo Galvan is a reporter for Sahan Journal, covering work, labor, small business, and entrepreneurship. Before joining Sahan Journal, he covered breaking news and immigrant communities in South Dakota, specifically highlighting the challenges experienced by people in the criminal justice system. Alfonzo is fluent in Spanish and has experience working in radio, television, magazines, and newspapers. He is a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Monroe and a member of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Alfonzo is a first-generation Mexican American. FREE AND OPEN TO EVERYONE FOR THE CAUSE OF SOLIDARITY!