News from the Frontlines of the Political Revolution!
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FUNDRAISING BOX
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SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
There’s no better way to celebrate Labor Day than by
fighting to include the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act in Bernie’s transformative $3.5 trillion budget bill!
That’s why Our Revolution is ramping up the pressure on corporate Democrats – like Sen. Mark Warner – to strengthen American labor laws. The PRO Act increases penalties on union-busting bosses who retaliate against workers trying to win a voice on the job, and it extends basic legal protections to gig workers – like Uber and Lyft drivers – who currently are not allowed to organize unions, receive minimum wages, or even claim unemployment, Social Security and other job benefits.
As Esterphanie St. Juste explained on this week’s Monday Night Organize to Win National Call, as much as 70% of the fares she collects from ferrying passengers around town doesn’t go in her pocket but rather to the ride-sharing company she drives for. That’s because Uber and Lyft can legally deny
gig workers minimum wages and the right to unionize.
In California, Uber, Lyft, and other companies spent $200 million successfully pushing Proposition 22 to prevent their workers from organizing. A judge recently declared the initiative unconstitutional, but the companies – desperate to squeeze as much as they can out of anyone who downloads their apps – are appealing to the state Supreme Court.
The best protection for workers is a federal law like the PRO Act that will provide basic labor protections to workers like Esterphanie.
“Without the right to organize and without the right to collective bargain, we’re at their mercy,” Esterphanie said.
“The only job of a business is not to take care of us – it’s to make money. To do that they have to cut costs.
How do they cut costs? On the backs of workers.”
To learn more about the PRO Act and “the state of the unions,” Join Our Revolution Board member Jim Hightower, Our Revolution Board Chair Larry Cohen, and Communications Workers of America leader Sara Steffens for a special broadcast of the “The Hightower Chat & Chew” this
Tuesday, Sept 7th at 7p ET.
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OUR SEPTEMBER LINE-UP!
We’ve got an exciting roster of progressive champions who will be joining us for our National Organize to Win Calls this month.
Don’t miss our next call on Monday, September 13th at
8:30p ET featuring US Rep. Pramila Jayapal, US Rep. Joe Neguse and Buffalo Mayoral candidate India Walton!
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HUMANS > BRIDGES
US Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan likes roads and bridges as much as the next guy, which is why he supports the $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill. But that’s not nearly enough to fix the broken pieces of our society, he said during this week’s Monday Night Organize to Win National Call.
Bernie’s $3.5 trillion bill promises to protect a worker’s right to organize by including provisions of the PRO Act. It would provide healthcare to millions of people and expand coverage to include dental, vision, and hearing. It would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to fight the existential threat of climate change.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill does none of that. “The bipartisan infrastructure deal is fine if you want to repave some roads, and I’m for that and fix up some bridges and stuff,” Andy said. “But if you want to transform our society into a more just place with environmental justice, racial justice, and economic justice, this build back better budget –
Bernie’s budget – is the ticket.”
That’s why we’re holding “Revolution Recess” actions across the nation to demand that every Democrat support Bernie’s bill and advance our key progressive priorities.
READ MORE ABOUT “REVOLUTION RECESS” BELOW!
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ORGANIZER IN CHIEF
This week, Our Revolution Indiana members joined Bernie
to rally support for his plan in Trump country!
The $3.5 trillion budget bill will be “the most consequential bill for working families in the modern history of this country,” Bernie told over 2000 people who attended his town hall in West Lafayette, Indiana. He delivered the same message at events in Iowa and Michigan on a late summer swing through the Midwest.
Importantly, Bernie’s bill promises the biggest expansion of Medicare in 50 years – lowering the eligibility age and expanding coverage to include vision, dental, and hearing.
It also would empower the government
to negotiate lower drug prices.
This would make a real difference in people’s lives — like Our Revolution activist Larry Alexander, a retired factory worker who spoke during Bernie’s town hall in West Lafayette. Larry said the drug company that makes his wife’s medicine increased the price from $92 a month to $500 a month. That’s too much for Larry and his wife to afford, and there’s no reason for it beyond a drug company’s greed.
“Medicare expansion would put pressure on these pharmaceutical companies to bring down their prices for people like my wife,” Larry told the audience.
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GAME ON
As Our Revolution members hit the streets, corporations and their legion of lobbyists on K Street are going all-out to protect their (gigantic) slice of the economic pie.
The Washington Post reported that corporate behemoths like ExxonMobil and big business groups like the Chamber of Commerce are rallying to try to stop corporate Democrats from making life better for everyday Americans through Bernie’s budget plan.
“The emerging opposition appears to be vast, spanning drug manufacturers, big banks, tech titans, major retailers, and oil-and-gas giants,” the Post says.
We can’t say we’re surprised. “The power struggle between corporate Democrats versus progressives shows how far we’ve come in a short amount of time,” Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, told CNN in an interview. “We’ve gone from the outside to actually having a seat at the table and real power and leverage where leadership has to take us seriously.”
Our newfound power means that the corporate class will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try and defeat our people-powered movement and protect their pocketbooks.
But we’ve got something too, a voice and a vote,
and we’re in this to win.
That’s why we’ve held dozens of events across the country over the last few weeks. Our Revolution Massachusetts members rallied outside the offices of US Rep. Richard Neal, the Massachusetts Democrat who is the chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee; Our Revolution Virginia members visited the Richmond offices of Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine; Our Revolution South Carolina members met with US Rep. Jim Clyburn; and Our Revolution Illinois members held an action outside of Rep. Brad Schneider’s district office in the Chicago suburbs.
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DEMS ON NOTICE! If you want to take action, join us for our National “Revolution Recess” Phonebank on Tuesday to make sure key House leaders support the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.
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PAYING FOR BERNIE’S BILL
On Thursday, Our Revolution joined Americans for Tax Fairness and over 50 other national groups issued a statement to urge Congress to “stand with American workers and raise $1 trillion in new revenue from multinational corporate tax reform and dedicate it to strengthening our economy, communities, and families.”
International corporate tax reform would raise about $1 trillion over 10 years, nearly one-third of the $3.5 trillion proposed under Bernie’s budget bill.
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VOTING RIGHTS FOR THE PEOPLE!
Our Revolution joined other groups to mark the 58th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech by holding voting rights rallies in Washington DC, Ohio and across the country.
With Republican state legislatures across the country moving to restrict ballot access, “we need to wake up, we need to be active,” Our Revolution Ohio’s Kathleen Caffery told the local Dayton news channel. “If we’re going to change anything, we need to work to do it, especially given the timely need for the U.S. Senate to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.”
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TEXAS ABORTION BAN
Right-wing extremists in Texas aren’t just attacking voting rights, they’re also attacking a woman’s right to choose. The U.S. Supreme Court issued an unsigned order in the middle of the night Wednesday, leaving Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s radical abortion ban in place which effectively overturns Roe v. Wade and puts reproductive rights in danger across the nation.
“The court should not be so content to ignore its constitutional obligations to protect not only the rights of women but also the sanctity of its precedents and the rule of law,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
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NO WEAPONS OF WAR IN OUR COMMUNITIES
This week, Our Revolution joined nearly 100 organizations in support of an amendment aimed at restricting the transfer of military-grade weapons from the Pentagon to local police departments, through what’s known as the 1033 program.
“This commonsense amendment, which has bipartisan support in Congress, would make our communities safer by getting weapons of war and military equipment off of our streets and out of our communities,” the letter says.
The amendment was introduced by US Reps. Veronica Escobar and Ro Khanna on Wednesday in the House Armed Services Committee.
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TAKING ON CORPORATE MONOPOLIES
On Thursday, Our Revolution joined with over 30 organizations to send a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan urging the FTC to block Amazon’s purchase of MGM Studios to slow Amazon’s growing dominance.
Our Revolution also called on House leadership to support
US Rep. David Cicilline’s package of Big Tech antitrust bills.
“If enacted, these bills are a major step forward in restoring competitive markets and unlocking the potential of Americans to grow successful businesses and build an economy that is more prosperous, equitable, and innovative. Furthermore, they represent our best chance in generations to rein in the runaway power of the biggest, wealthiest, and least accountable corporations in the world,” our letter reads.
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Get your Bernie limited edition poster today, and help us build a bottom-up movement for change!
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OHIO CANDIDATES TOWN HALL
Our Revolution Ohio hosted 13 of their endorsed candidates running for local elections during Ohio’s Monthly Organize to Win Meeting. Each of the candidates reflects Our Revolution’s commitment to back progressives dedicated to improving the lives of their constituents.
Diane Morgan with Our Revolution Ohio noted that several candidates spoke about how they hadn’t thought about running for office until they were motivated to act out of frustration with the status quo. “Our movement is here to support change-making candidates,” Diane noted.
The electoral work that Diane and our leaders are doing in Ohio is what our volunteers are doing all around the USA. Over the last 5 years, Our Revolution has helped elect more than 700 progressive champions up and down the ballot from school boards to city councils to the US Congress.
Not only that, our unstoppable grassroots political campaign operation has a 70% win rate during the 2020 and 2021 election cycles. Here’s the breakdown:
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FIGHTING FOR FAIRNESS IN FLORIDA
Fresh off his primary win, St. Petersburg City Council candidate Richie Floyd dialed into our Monday Night Organize to Win National Call to thank supporters and give Our Revolution volunteers a flavor of his campaign.
Richie, a former engineer who now is a science teacher, said he wants to improve the economic conditions of working people in his city. That includes fighting for more affordable housing and higher wages, as well as combating climate change.
“More powerful storms from a warmer planet are a real and present threat every single summer and fall,” Richie said.
Richie won a majority of support in last week’s primary. But election rules require candidates to run citywide in a general election to serve on the council.
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India Walton, the Democratic nominee for Buffalo Mayor, was the keynote speaker this past Monday at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the New York Progressive Action Network (NYPAN), Our Revolution’s state affiliate. In June, she shocked the political establishment by beating the three-term incumbent, Byron Brown, who was formerly the Chair of the NY Democratic Party and a key ally of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
India described how difficult it was to win support from mainstream Democratic officials who are not used to the grassroots, populist politics which she employed so successfully.
While the party hacks are hesitant to back India, the Democratic voters have no such difficulty, as they found her pro-tenant, pro-worker positions much to their liking. To their credit, the Erie County Democratic Committee is now backing its party nominee.
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Get your Bernie limited edition poster today, and help us
ELECT MORE PROGRESSIVE CHAMPIONS!
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PROGRESSIVES UNITE!
Twenty Texas House Democrats who this summer fled to Washington, DC, to delay Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to restrict voting access have formed a Progressive Caucus “in response to the increasingly radical, right-wing laws” hurting the state.
If ever a state could benefit by having a louder progressive voice it’s Texas. In recent decades the state capitol in Austin has been dominated by Republicans, who unfortunately often export their brand of peculiar policies up to the national level. George W. Bush, the guy who brought you the Iraq War, was of course Texas governor before he was U.S. president.
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BUILDING PROGRESSIVE STATE PARTIES!
On Tuesday, Our Revolution joined the Progressive Democrats of America, Roots Action, and the Adelante Progressive Caucus of New Mexico in launching the first national meeting of state Democratic Party Progressive Caucuses. Over 30 participants from 13 states joined the meeting, and speakers included Judith Witmer, chair of the Nevada Democratic Party.
ARE YOU INVOLVED IN THE PARTY?
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GET INVOLVED IN REVOLUTION RECESS!
When Congress goes back to work after Labor Day, they will be voting on a $3.5 trillion national budget that Bernie Sanders says is “the most transformative piece of legislation” since the New Deal.
That’s why we’re sponsoring Revolution Recess – we’re holding phone banks and on-the-ground rallies to hold Democrats accountable for getting Bernie’s bill over the finish line!
On Tuesday, you can join our phone bank and help generate constituent calls to top Democrats and tell them to expand Medicare, protect worker rights and end fossil fuel subsidies!
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Our Revolution Pennsylvania will be calling on Sen. Bob Casey to support our policy priorities in the budget bill as it moves through Congress.
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Join Our Revolution Texas as we rally to call on Rep. Henry Cuellar to get with the progressive program!
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Join Our Revolution Pennsylvania as we rally to make sure US Reps. Brendan Boyle and Dwight Evans fight for working families as the budget bill moves through Congress.
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The Sunshine State is ready for action! Join Our Revolution Florida as we rally to make sure Rep. Stephanie Murphy stands up for our policy priorities.
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Join Our Revolution Maryland as we rally at Rep. Steny Hoyer’s Greenbelt office to demand he stand up and fight for progress!
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Join Our Revolution Oregon as we rally to hold Rep. Kurt Schrader accountable to his constituents!
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Everything is bigger in Texas! And so is our organizing. Join Our Revolution Texas as we call on Rep. Vicente Gonzalez to stand up for working families.
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Our Revolution Texas is also holding Rep. Filemon Vela accountable! Join us as they call on him to support our budget policy priorities.
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We also need to talk to our Senators about the budget bill. Join Our Revolution Oregon as we talk with Sen. Ron Wyden about expanding Medicare and ending fossil fuel subsidies.
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Last chance – Get your limited edition BERNIE poster!
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