Adriana Jasso (Unión del Barrio) and Kimi Lee (Bay Resistance)

At a moving and inspirational ceremony on May 2 in New York City, two ALBA/Puffin Awards for Human Rights Activism were awarded to Bay Resistance and Unión del Barrio, two California-based organizations that have spent many years developing networks, tactics, and strategies to protect vulnerable populations against state and corporate abuse. The two organizations’ leaders, Adriana Jasso and Kimi Lee, held an engaging public conversation with Audrey Sasson, Executive Director of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Community, which won last year’s award.

Bay Resistance, founded a decade ago, is a powerful network of community organizations, unions, and neighborhood groups organizing to defend our communities and defeat fascism in the Bay Area. The mission of Bay Resistance is to advance racial, economic, climate, and gender justice by activating individuals and families to build a just world for all of us.

Unión del Barrio, based in San Diego, is an independent political organization dedicated to the struggle on behalf of “la raza” living within the current borders of the United States. Since 1981, Unión del Barrio has led struggles to resist migra and police violence; defend the rights of workers, prisoners, mujeres, and youth. They unconditionally uphold the right of self-determination of indigenous people, and of all poor and oppressed people throughout the world.

“While history is rife with abuses of state power and policies, it is also replete with those who have stood up, collectively, in defiance,” said Neal Rosenstein, president of the Puffin Foundation. “We salute this year’s awardees, Bay Resistance and Unión del Barrio, who organize and empower their communities to fight for a more just future.”

“Bay Resistance and Unión del Barrio are doing indispensable work,” said Jack Mayerhofer, Chair, ALBA Human Rights Committee. “They are matching the urgency of this moment with equal parts courage, resistance, and resilience. In doing so, they set an inspiring example for us all to follow, protecting human rights both within and beyond their cities to help build a more just and democratic society.”

Unión del Barrio March, 2016.

“Every day for well over a year now, our members have been meeting, patrolling, organizing, sacrificing, and resisting the most terrible repression our communities have experienced in living memory,” said Adriana Jasso, Secretary General of Unión del Barrio. “As we continue to face these attacks, your recognition, generosity, and organizational mission help to remind us that ours is a generational struggle rooted in human rights and principled working-class solidarity. We are honored to be a part of the people’s legacy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.”

May Day march, Bay Resistance, 2025.

“We are in a moment of escalating ICE violence, attacks on elections, and a billionaire-backed agenda that is tightening its stranglehold on working people,” said Kimi Lee, Executive Director of Bay Resistance. “Together, we are building the power and strategy to defend our communities and block authoritarian consolidation. As a multi-racial coalition led by communities on the frontlines of both systemic injustice and fascist scapegoating, we carry within us the same spirit of solidarity for each other that inspired the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to cross oceans. We will use this prize to scale up and deepen our organizing for a future where power is held by the people.”

One of the largest monetary awards for human rights in the world, the ALBA/Puffin Award is a $100,000 cash prize granted annually by ALBA and the Puffin Foundation to honor the nearly 3,000 Americans who volunteered in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) to fight fascism under the banner of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The late Perry Rosenstein created and established an endowed fund for this award in 2010. Since then, the annual award has been granted 16 times. This is the first time in the history of the award that two $100,000 prizes have been granted.

Photos by Alex Arbuckle: