Our Revolution partner U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna has introduced the State-Based Universal Health Care Act!
This is a bill that would allow states to develop their single-payer healthcare plans! This is instrumental in the pathway toward a federal Medicare for All program.
State by state, we are fighting for universal healthcare, but we’re also partnering with Ro Khanna and Bernie Sanders in a push to end medical debt, stop hospital price-gouging, and lower drug prices.
This Thanksgiving, we are grateful for the solidarity of all our movement allies here and around the world.
This Black Friday, workers from around the world will stand shoulder to shoulder in a global day of action to Make Amazon Pay – pay its workers, pay its taxes, and pay for its climate damage.
Keep and eye out for strikes and protests in over 30 countries for dignity on the job and a sustainable future for all!
VICTORY! Congratulations to United Auto Workers who won tentative agreements with the BIG 3 this week after months of hard-fought negotiations and strikes.
Our Revolution members joined workers on picket lines coast to coast – from Maryland to Michigan to West Virginia and beyond.
We’ve been canvassing dealerships and distributing leaflets in our community about the UAW’s Stand-Up Strike and how Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis tried to avoid settling fair contracts with 150,000 workers after making $250 billion in profits.
Strikes work, join a union! UAW has proven that when workers organize, they can win and defeat some of the most powerful corporations on earth. This is why our working class progressive movement stands with the burgeoning unionization efforts across the country.
Barbara Lee joined fellow U.S. Reps Pramila Jayapal and Ro Khanna, and CA Assemblymand Ash Kalra at Our Revolution’s Healthcare for All Town Hall, where thousands tuned in to help chart a path for healthcare justice on every front – from ending medical debt to guaranteeing healthcare as a human right in California and nationwide.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal emphasized the importance of electing “more true universal healthcare champions to the Senate just like my friend Barbara Lee.”
“She’s someone who will build the coalitions we need and do the organizing on the inside in the Senate to get more senators to recognize what we all know: the healthcare system is broken and we need Medicare for All,” Jayapal said.
“Together, we can finally give Americans what they deserve: universal comprehensive healthcare prioritizes people not profits – with everybody in and nobody out,” she added. “I’m thrilled about Barbara Lee running and that Our Revolution is doing the organizing on the ground to help her win.”
Rep. Ro Khanna served as a campaign co-chair for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 run for President, and now he’s chairing Barbara Lee’s campaign for Senate.
He said she’s well-positioned in the race and much-needed in the seat because she has been a fearless trailblazer – not only on Medicare for All, but also on foreign policy, which sets her apart from her opponents.
“She was for Medicare for All and eliminating medical debt before anyone, and she’s been the only person who opposed the war in Afghanistan expanding,” Ro said.
“When I used to say that 2 months ago, you know that’s great, but now we NEED her voice,” he said. “She’s the only person talking clearly and loudly about the Palestinians also who are being killed in Gaza. She’s condemned the brutal Hamas attacks, but she’s also calling to end the cycle of violence.”
“This is the time that we need a candidate who is going to caution against another expanded war, and candidate who’s going to stand up for Medicare for All,” Ro stated.
California Assemblyman Ash Karl also joined the conversation – layout out the path passing his bill for CalCare single-payer healthcare, which was first authored by Barbara Lee.
“The bottom line is: CalCare is how we can get the greedy insurance companies out of our healthcare system – the same doctors, nurses, providers, they’re just funded through one source,” Ash explained. “Small businesses and individuals are getting ripped off.”
“Even with the most expensive healthcare system in the world, we have people dying and medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy for families in our state,” he said. “With our movement and a senator like Barbara Lee, we can get it done. We can’t stop, lives depend on it, so thank you Our Revolution for being the wind behind our sails to continue to push us.”
Abortion is on the ballot in Ohio, and we have a chance to shut down this new rightwing playbook to attack our rights. Our Revolution has been organizing for months to make sure Issue 1 passes, and we preserve reproduction rights in the Buckeye State and beyond.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a small but loud group of deep-pocketed extremists took to the states, determined to gut abortion laws. But the resistance has been real.
Thanks to grassroots funding, armies of volunteers, and organizations like Our Revolution, we have a real shot at enshrining a woman’s right to abortion access in the Ohio constitution.
News broke on Friday that President Biden canceled $39 billion in student debt for 800,000 borrowers through administrative fixes.
This big win comes after Our Revolution hosted a live Student Debt Town Hall with Rep. Ro Khanna where our members shared powerful stories and discussed our inside-outside push.
The President can still use his executive authority to cancel debt, pause payments, and crack down on predatory lending practices.
“The President should cancel student debt in the Higher Education Act. He should zero out the accounts,” Ro told us on Monday. “If the Supreme Court rules against us then let’s see if they actually enforce the collection of debt that has already ben canceled.”
“Congress has given the Executive the power to do this. The President needs to push and invoke these authorities and cancel it,” Ro said. “We’ve got to be assertive at a time that the other side is taking action that is unconstitutional.”
While Rep. Khanna teams up with progressive lawmakers to work the levers of power from the inside, on a parallel outside track, we’re organizing our grassroots members to flood comments into the Secretary of Education to show the strength of our demand.
Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday delivered on his campaign promise to eliminate the “subminimum wage” for tipped workers!
The new law calls for tipped workers — currently paid 60% of Chicago’s minimum wage — to receive 8% annual increases beginning next July until they reach 100% parity in 2028, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
In July, Mayor Brandon Johnson joined us to serve up food to restaurant workers and raise awareness in this fight. Our own members submitted testimony directly, and we just won!
Our Revolution organizers also testified at a hearing in Montgomery County, MD this week to build pressure for the tipped wage bill voters overwhelmingly supported to be implemented without letting restaurants shift the burden to diners under the guise of “service charges.”
And, stay tuned! In Ohio and Arizona, Our Revolution has teams canvassing for signatures for petition drives that will put a $20+ MINIMUM WAGE directly on the ballot in 2024.
Councilmembers Will Jawando and Kristin Mink joined us for Server-for-a-Day in Ocean City last week, where they served up food to promote legislation to raise the wage – and not leaved tipped workers behind!
“It was a great experience and it was fun, but it’s also hard work. I think this demonstrates why we need to do it,” Councilman Jawando told Maryland Matters.
The event included Our Revolution, One Fair Wage, and our coalition of worker activists and other state/local elected officials at On the Bay Seafood – a ‘high-road’ restaurant that pays its servers the full minimum wage.
Organizers and workers fought and won a $15 minimum wage that goes into effect on Jan. 1st in Montgomery and Howard counties, but the tipped wage is still $3.63.
Last month Mayor Brandon Johnson joined us for a similar event in Chicago, and if you’re in Ohio, RSVP now to join us this week with Mayor Aftab Purval in Cincinnati and Mayor Justin Bibb in Cleveland for Server-for-a-Day events!
Stay tuned! In Ohio and Arizona, Our Revolution has teams canvassing for signatures for petition drives that will put a $20+ minimum wage directly on the ballot in 2024.
We took a survey, and it’s clear that Our Revolution members in California want political leaders who will stand up and fight against Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Wall Street.
Members chose their top 3 issues heading into 2024, and Climate and Healthcare topped the priorities of nearly three-quarters of respondents. About half ranked defending democracy and affordable housing as their top choices.
Members are motivated to pass CalCare to create a single-payer system in the state, and they want to stop an effort funded by Big Oil to try to repeal SB 1137 – which prohibits new oil/gas wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, nursing homes, and hospitals.
More than 650,000 American workers are threatening to go on strike this summer – or have already done so – in an avalanche of union activity not seen in the US in decades.
Actors and writers strikes in Hollywood are already a once-in-a-generation event. And, Unions for United Parcel Service and Detroit’s Big Three automakers could join them.
“In terms of workers in America who still have the ability to change their conditions, these are three of the top ten,” Our Revolution Board Chair Larry Cohen told Bloomberg.
