Build a Foundation in the Theory and Practice Labor and Community Organizing

The Labor & Community Studies department offers courses that explore working class history, and prepare you for careers in labor and community organizing. We offer an 18-unit Certificate in Labor and Community Organizing, and will offer a revised Social Justice Associates of Arts for Transfer, Labor emphasis in Fall of 2025.

Our Courses

Who Built America? From the Colonial Era to the Civil War and Reconstruction (LBCS 70A) and From Reconstruction to the Present (LBCS 70B), Organizing for Economic and Social Justice (LBCS 81), Labor Relations in the Modern American Workplace (LBCS 96C), Shaping Public Policy for Labor and Community Organizations (LBCS 114), Workforce Development & Land Use For Labor & Community Groups (LCBS 115), California Labor History (LBCS 88),Latin American Workers in the Americas (LBCS 15/LBCS 15), Social Justice Work Experience (IDST 300)

Specialized Training and Curriculum Development

Through our Extension and Contract Education Departments, we can help your organization design specialized training and curriculum development for your members, staff and volunteers. We have worked with Community Housing Partnership, SEIU Local 87, the San Francisco Bike Coalition and many others to help meet their education and training needs. Contact the Chair to discuss your organization's needs.

Meet Our Instructors

Keane Chukwuneta is a seasoned political strategist and organizer, currently serving as the Senior Campaign Coordinator at Jobs with Justice SF, along with a deep commitment to labor rights and political advocacy. He is a former organizer with the National Union of Healthcare Workers. From directing field operations for congressional campaigns to spearheading voter engagement initiatives, Keane's expertise has been pivotal in shaping progressive campaigns and policies across California.

Lisa Feldstein's work and activism have included equitable land use policy, affordable housing development and policy, the labor movement, food justice, and equity. She served under two mayors in the Mayor’s Office of Housing, participating in the creation of hundreds of units of housing for low-income people. A former San Francisco Planning Commissioner, she has served on numerous boards of directors, including SPUR, the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, and Episcopal Community Services, as well as the Steering Committee for the Howard Zinn Book Fair. Lisa is currently working on a book about the concept of innocence in the American criminal justice system and is the author of numerous articles on housing and urban planning. Lisa has a J.D. from U.C. Berkeley and is a former candidate for a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in City & Regional Planning. Prior to City College San Francisco, she taught at U.C. Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and the University of San Francisco.

Jacqueline Ramos is a poet, educator, community organizer, and public health researcher—born and raised in San Francisco’s Mission District. She is first-generation, with ancestral lineage rooted in the Philippines, Mississippi, and the Chickasaw Nation. For over two decades, she has led research at the University of California, San Francisco, to combat health and social disparities among people of color affected by poverty, the prison industrial complex, and gentrification. She immerses herself in radical storytelling through poetry, grassroots initiatives, and movement work that advocate for the youth and people’s right to home. She designed and facilitated a healing program for justice-involved youth and transitional-age youth that infuses critical resistance pedagogy, poetry, and intergenerational mentorship to cultivate sacred spaces for youth to thrive in their agency.

John Hayakawa Torok is the San Francisco Chapter President of the Service Employees International Union 1000. He has extensive experience in movement and labor organizing, including with the Oakland Livable Wage Assembly and the World Association of International Studies. He has served as a Shop Steward in his union. He holds a Juris Doctorate from City University of New York School of Law and a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

James R. Tracy is the Chair of the Labor and Community Studies Department at CCSF. He has three decades of experience in community and political organizing. He has supported residents of public housing organizing for the right to return in the HOPE VI process, co-founded the San Francisco Community Land Trust, and worked with the Coalition on Homelessness and Community Housing Partnership. He is the past Political Director of the American Federation of Teachers 2121. He holds an M.A. in Public Policy from Empire State College SUNY.