Timmy Lu

Timmy Lu is the founding director of AAPIs for Civic Empowerment and AAPIs for Civic Empowerment Education Fund, organizations dedicated to increasing the electoral power of AAPI grassroots communities. AAPIs for Civic Empowerment Education Fund launched the first ever national AAPI Campaign School this year and is a partner of the Million Voters Project in California. He brings 11 years of experience in community organizing, political campaigns, and voter data management. Prior to this role, Timmy was the State Organizing Director at Asian Pacific Environmental Network, where he led the organization’s integrated voter engagement programs in contacting tens of thousands of voters. He serves on the board of Chinese Progressive Association Action Fund in San Francisco. A second-generation ethnic Chinese refugee from Vietnam, he's also a new father. Timmy is based in Oakland, CA.^[1]

Partner of Linda Lee.

Leadership and Executive Committee

Asian American Power Network Leadership and Executive Committee, 2024.

Program Director Alex Deormiers
Data Director Adam Metalwala
Executive Committee | Co-Chair, Mohan Seshadri, Pennsylvania
Executive Committee / Co-Chair Timmy Lu, California
Executive Committee Grace Pai, Illinois
Executive Committee Chavi Khanna Koneru North Carolina^[2]

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on “Unprepared”

Open Letter to the Biden Campaign on “Unprepared” was released May 12 2020.

":Our demands: The country’s greatest priority at this moment is to beat the COVID-19 crisis, and this requires embracing principles of antiracist solidarity and international cooperation. The Biden campaign can and should beat Trump and the GOP with a message centered on our real public health needs and the progressive values that are required to meet those needs. The “Unprepared” ad must be taken down, and all campaign messaging that fuels anti-Asian racism and China-bashing must end. We refuse to allow the Biden campaign to sacrifice our dignity in the name of political expediency."

Authors were:

Michelle Chen, Journalist
Wei Chen, Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance (Philadelphia, PA)
Calvin Cheung-Miaw, PhD student, Stanford University
Tobita Chow, Director, Justice is Global
Michelle Liang, NAKASEC Action Fund
Timmy Lu, Executive Director, AAPIs For Civic Empowerment
Laura Misumi, Executive Director, Michigan Asian American Progressives
Grace Pai, Director of Movement Politics, Asian American Midwest Progressives (Chicago, IL)

Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit

This toolkit is a project of love from the grassroots, from and by Asian American communities.

As Asian Americans, we believe that our liberation is tied to Black liberation and we continue to dream about a world where all of our people will be free. The toolkit would not have been possible without the following organizations and individuals:

Project Coordinators

Lucia Lin and Timmy Lu

Writing Consultants

Janelle Ishida and Soya Jung

We thank Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Rosenberg Foundation, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy for their generous support of this project.

Special thanks to the Friends Doing Good giving circle, National CAPACD and Cathy Cha.

Thank you to the following racial justice organizers and fighters at the grassroots who have made this toolkit possible:

Alex T. Tom, Aiden Pham, Alvina Wong, Ashley Uyeda, Cathy Dang, Chhaya Chhoum, Christopher Cara, Dae Joong Yoon, Fahd Ahmed, InHe Choi, Joshua Fisher Lee, Kabzuag Vaj, Khamarin Nhann, Lai Wa Wu, Lillian Galedo, Mia-lia Kiernan, Minh Thanh Nguyen, Nancy Nguyen, Naved Husain, Rachel Aceberos, Rishi Singh, Sarath Suong, Steven Dy, Naroen Chhin, Sandy Saeteurn.^[3]

A Townhall On Anti-Asian Racism

AAPIs for Civic Empowerment Education Fund March 25 at 9:13 AM ·

Tune into this webinar on Anti-Asian Racism, featuring AAPI FORCE-EF executive director Timmy Lu, along with other organizers and scholars!

Peoples Collective for Justice & Liberation Presents

A Townhall On Anti-Asian Racism: Race, Struggle & Solidarity in The Time of A Global Pandemic

DATE: Saturday, March 28, 2020 TIME: 3:00-5PM PST / 6:00-8PM EST

We are living in unprecedented times with COVID--19 or the Coronavirus. There has been a rise in anti-Chinese and anti-Asian discrimination and many efforts to combat it during this public health crisis.

Asian American organizers, and other people of color we are in community with, will facilitate a conversation on race, struggle and solidarity in the time of a global pandemic.

Featured Speakers:

Co-Hosted by:

Gregory Cendana, Can’t Stop! Won’t Stop! Consulting and DJ Kuttin Kandi, Asian Solidarity Collective.

Cosponsored by Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop; Asian Solidarity Collective, University of Connecticut Asian And Asian American Studies Institute, 18 Million Rising, and Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO

China

Timmy Lu February 4, 2013 ·

Gangnam Style in the Forbidden City! — with Esther Wang in Beijing.

Stanford

B.A., Asian American Studies 04/05.

Timmy Hang Lu (with honors)
Hai Binh Thi Nguyen
Eric Chien-Yu Shih (honors with distinction; English minor)

Stanford Asian American Activism Coalition

In 2003 Timmy Lu, was a sophomore and member of the Stanford Asian American Activism Coalition.^[4]

Oakland Rising 5 year birthday party

June 2013 Oakland Rising poster; ·

Our 5 year birthday party is just 10 days away! Do you have your ticket yet? — with Richard Raya, Nikki Fortunato Bas, Pamela Drake, Jahmese Kathleen Myres, Michael Riemenschneider, Andy Katz, Mimi Ho, Igor Tregub, Andy Kelley, Steven Pitts, Melanie Cervantes, Nicole Derse, Lailan Sandra Huen, Kim Carter Martinez, Nwamaka Agbo, Brooke Anderson, Mary Thomas, Kate O'Hara, Timmy Lu, Peggy Moore, Dani McClain, EO Okiwelu, Lanese Martin, Marc Philpart, Rebecca Saltzman, Alex T. Tom, Jose A. Dorado, Rachel Richman, Tonya Love, Sheryl Walton, Andrea Lee, Aimee Allison, Sharon Rose, Rebecca Kaplan, Esperanza Tervalon-Daumont|Esperanza Tervalon-Garrett, Cole B. Cole, Jessamyn Sabbag, Malcolm Amado Uno, Phil Hutchings, Michelle Matos and Maria Poblet.

Bay Area Rising!

Chelsea Boilard March 20, 2015 ·

Bay Area Rising! #building #wearethechange — with Robbie Clark, Christine Tervalon-Garrett, Esperanza Tervalon-Garrett, Jahmese Kathleen Myres, Jessamyn Sabbag, Adam Gold, Fabiana Ochoa, Neva Walker, N'Tanya Lee, Antonio Diaz, Maria Poblet, Emily Ja-ming Lee, Ayoka Turner, Timmy Lu, Linda Lee and Mario Yedidia.

LeftRoots HangOut with Willie Baptist

Please join LeftRoots Friday August 15th (2014) for our next HangOut with Willie Baptist about the importance of leadership, leadership development and understanding who the ruling class is and what their strategies are.

On May 1, 1990, the National Union of the Homeless (NUH) launched a nationally coordinated campaign taking over federally-owned houses in eight cities across the country. Willie Baptist, our guest on the next LeftRoots HangOut, was one of the organizers of the NUH.

Founded in 1985 by formerly homeless people, the Union was on the move in the late 1980s. At its height, the Homeless Union counted on 25 chapters with as many as 15,000 members. Then, through a combination of drugs, prison-sentencing and co-optation, the ruling class mounted a concerted effort to break the Union. The organization dissolved by 1993.

Willie Baptist is one of the best examples of a movement intellectual. Willie is a formerly homeless father who came out of the Watts Uprisings, the Black Student Movement and has been an organizer with the United Steelworkers as well as the National Union of the Homeless and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. Today, Willie is the Scholar-in-Residence with the Poverty Initiative.

The LeftRoots CC: Alex Tom, Alicia Garza, Cinthya Munoz, Josh Warren-White, Maria Poblet, N'Tanya Lee, Steve Williams and Timmy Lu.^[5]

LeftRoots leaders

The LeftRoots Coordinating Committee, August 2014;^[6]

Subject: Celebrate LeftRoots 1st Anniversary! Become a LeftRoots Compa! /Celebrar el Primer Aniversario de LeftRoots!

Alicia Garza, Maria Poblet, Timmy Lu, Josh Warren-White, Alex Tom, Cinthya Munoz, Steve Williams, N'Tanya Lee.

It Takes Roots People's Caravan

It Takes Roots People's Caravan took place in July 2016. Grassroots Global Justice Alliance launched the It Takes Roots to Change the System People’s Caravan from the RNC to the DNC. Nearly 40 community leaders and allies from the US and Honduras traveled in a bus from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, stopping along the way to build with communities in Pittsburgh and Baltimore fighting for environmental and racial justice.

Caravanistas included Timmy Lu, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Oakland CA.

APEN

Asian Pacific Environmental Network Linda Lee, Mei-ying Williams, Tram Nguyen, Timmy Lu.

California comrades

Nat Anderson-Lippert with Calvin Cheung-Miaw, Kayan Cheung-Miaw, Emily Ja-ming Lee, Linda Lee, Melanie Ann Tom, Owen Li, Timmy Lu and Alex T. Tom, August 20, 2013.

Dump Trump

DUMP TRUMP, DEFEAT RACISM AND MISOGYNY, BUILD THE LEFT was an open letter to the left from 47 grassroots organizers. October 17, 2016.

A lot of us see something really clearly, but few of us—radical and revolutionary organizers—are willing to say it out loud.

So we’re going to say it. Defeating Trump in the presidential election is a top priority for the left. And at a minimum, that means mobilizing voters for Hillary Clinton in swing states even if you vote for another candidate in a safe state. We’ve got to beat Trump and Trumpism while building movements that will fight, resist and disrupt a Clinton administration that will be militaristic and pro-corporate...

As we mentioned at the beginning, defeating Trump is not enough. We need movements strong enough to fight a Clinton administration on several fronts—whether Israel/Palestine, free trade agreements, climate change, a $15 minimum wage, or the prison-industrial complex. And neutralizing the appeal of the far right means we need to both strengthen our movements for racial justice and win over white workers to a progressive class politics as an alternative to Trump’s racist economic nationalism. Finally, we need to build a left that can help anchor a visionary alternative to corporate Democrats. It won’t be easy, but we’ve come this far. Let’s defend what we’ve got in this election, and keep our eye on collective liberation.

Signatories included Timmy Lu, environmental justice organizer.

Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders for Bernie

Erica Y. Lee, June 1, 2016:

Photo Credit: Arun Chaudhary — with Tulsi Gabbard, Timmy Lu, Jane Sandoval, Aparna Shah and Bernie Sanders.

Comrades

Chelsea Boilard June 12, 2016 ·

Fun times in The Town. — with Emily Ja-ming Lee, Lucia Lin, Linshao Chin, Alex Tom, Ellen Love and Timmy Lu.

Anti-Trump

Mabel Tsang wrote :Tomorrow I will be heading to DC with a #ItTakesRoots to Grow Resistance Delegation convened by Grassroots Global Justice Alliance / Climate Justice Alliance / Indigenous Environmental Network / Right to the City Alliance because I believe we can create an alternative to Trump's Terror. He stands for racist violence; aggression against women; criminalizing queer, gender non-conforming and transfolks; and detention of and war against immigrants and refugees - in the name of our future and our values.

I believe the alternative exists today. I believe it already exists in my organizing work at Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) and I believe it exists in our dreams for our collective future. This moment scares me and this moment emboldens me. This moment shows me the need and the proof for powerful actions and bold experimentation. It calls on all of us to act.

With Jane Martin, Vivian Yi Huang, Rachel Lee Holstein, Laiseng Saechao, Malcolm Amado Uono, Hyejin Shim, Sydney Fang, Amee Raval, JingJing He, Alex Tom, Annelisa Luong, Chiravann Uch, Alvina Wong, Miya Yoshitani, Ed Scott, Shina Riane, Eric Mar, Russell Wynne, Nick Mitchell, Saa'un P. Bell, Mee Jung Tsang,, Jin-kyung Kim, Megan Zapanta, Orlie Kapitulnik, Aiko Pandorf, Mei-ying Williams, Nancy Kab Xyooj, Erika Lenhart, Jonathan Ronald Tran, Jen-Mei Wu, Emily Ja-ming Lee, Nadia Khastagir, Shaw San Liu, Stacy Kono, Steve Lew, Sophia Arredondo, Cynthia Fong, Tracey Corder, Salima Hamirani, Jennifer Lee, Lucia Lin, Ellen Choy, Shannon Garth-Rhodes, Kasi Farrar, Joshua Fisher Lee, Feng Kung, N'Tanya Lee, Kenneth Tang, Geordee Mae, Maya Tanaka, Timmy Lu