INSIDER NEWS FROM THE FRONTLINES OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION
HEADLINES: Jamie Raskin & Greenpeace Defend the Right to Protest | Bernie Rallies w/Brandon Johnson in Chicago | CPC Executive Action Push | Missouri Votes Tuesday | Dems Must Deliver Ahead of 2024 | & MORE!
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Don’t miss our next LIVE National Organize-to-Win Call with Philadelphia mayoral candidate Helen Gym and other progressive leaders on Monday, April 10th at 8:30 pm ET/5:30 PT!
RSVP
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The brand-new Our Revolution Store is now open! We’ve got lots of new items — from hoodies to coffee mugs, even a baby onesie! Now is a great time to grab some gear, make a statement, and help fund the movement.
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LET’S GO! Our Revolution-endorsed Brandon Johnson is SURGING in the Chicago Mayor’s race, and progressive voter outreach could clinch a powerful win for the city and our movement.
On Tuesday, the 55th anniversary of MLK Jr.’s assassination, Chicago has a choice to make: elect a former public school teacher and union organizer Brandon Johnson, or a school privatizer backed by real estate speculators and police unions.
Brandon’s opponent Paul Vallas calls himself “more of a Republican,” shut down public schools in cities across the country, and looted $1.6B from Chicago public schools to benefit wealthy banks.
“They have the money, but we have the people, and when the people stand united, the people win,” Bernie told a packed house at Thursday’s Rally with Brandon, MLK III, and US Reps. Delia Ramirez and Jonathan Jackson.
Brandon said to the crowd: “This moment has been brought to us by a profound struggle of our ancestors. And, our dream is the nightmare of these large corporations who don’t want to see this day come.”
“Chicago, we’re not going to let extreme right-wing greedy profiteers turn us around,” he said. “They said they didn’t know my name, didn’t know about a progressive movement bringing transformation — well, if you don’t know, now you know!”
CHIP IN TO FUND OUR VOTER OUTREACH IN CHICAGO!
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Also in Illinois, Our Revolution is backing Suzanna Ibarra for Joliet City Council! District 5 needs a change, and Suzanna is committed to better public safety, water affordability, and equal representation for all residents. Suzanna is also a leader of Will County Progressives, the Our Revolution group in Joliet!
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Tuesday is also Election Day in St. Louis, where Our Revolution is supporting a powerful progressive slate including Mayor Tashaura Jones, Board President, and former Bernie delegate Megan Green, and a total of 9 ward candidates!
Our movement has been working for multiple election cycles in St. Louis. Now, we’re looking to strengthen our progressive majority, which passed a Basic Income trial in the city this year.
Our team is making 150k voter contacts in the city ahead of April 4th, and we’re hearing a lot of excitement on the ground! Let’s bring home these wins.
PHONEBANK FOR ST. LOUIS!
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And, Our Revolution Kansas City has a progressive slate on the ballot for City Council, including Jenay Manley, Eric Bunch, Justin Short, Michael Kelley, Johnathan Duncan, and Brandon Ellington!
Kansas City has become a hotbed of progressive activism with groups like Jobs with Justice, KC Tenants, and the Missouri Workers Coalition — but, Missouri is also becoming a testing ground for extremist right-wing legislation.
This election is a chance to shift the balance of power and push back against the gerrymandered legislature that controls the state!
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Power is up for grabs in major cities nationwide, and we are investing our time and resources to elect progressives in Chicago, St. Louis, NYC, Philly, Nashville, Dallas, and more. Get involved to help us build local power!
JOIN OUR ELECT PROGRESSIVES TEAM
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The fight for progressive policies is ramping up with the Congressional Progressive Caucus releasing its 2023 list of executive actions for President Biden to deliver for people and the planet.
Lately, Biden and Democratic leadership have been tacking to the right ahead of 2024 — a risky gamble that Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese told The Guardian will backfire.
“The base isn’t overly enthusiastic about Joe Biden being the 2024 standard bearer,” Joseph said. “Moving to the right on issues like fossil fuel extraction might not just dilute enthusiasm, but engender active opposition.”
“You’re going to see progressives mobilizing to hold Biden’s feet to the fire,” he said. “We’re not going to pull our punches in this moment.”
Biden has the power to raise wages, strengthen unions, lower healthcare costs, and more. It’s time to prove that Democrats and democracy can work for the people.
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BERNIE VS. STARBUCKS
HELP Chair Bernie Sanders put billionaire Howard Schultz in the hot seat this week — grilling him about Starbucks’ illegal union-busting activities and showing that big corporations and wealthy CEOs are not above the law.
Under oath at the hearing, Schultz admitted unionized workers were being excluded from higher pay and benefits provided to the rest of the company.
Starbucks is facing 80+ NLRB complaints and 500 unfair labor practices charges, and judges found the company has broken the law 130x across 6 states since workers began organizing in the fall of 2021. More than 360 stores unionized but have yet to see a contract.
PROTECT THE RIGHT TO PROTEST
“SLAPP stands for Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation,” US Rep. Jamie Raskin told Our Revolution Monday. “It’s when a big corporation brings a lawsuit against people for exercising their First Amendment rights.”
“They don’t have any real cause, they’re just trying to drive a community action or a civil liberties group into the ground with litigation costs,” he said.
Rep. Raskin will be reintroducing his landmark bill to protect free speech from baseless legal attacks and combat SLAPP suits — building on the success of legislation in 32 states and DC.
As Robert Reich explains in this video, corporations are using “SLAPP” lawsuits to tie up organizations’ resources — some originally filed by a former member of Trump’s personal law firm!
This is a coordinated attack, but we are organizing with a broad coalition of groups and elected allies to protect the right to protest.
Call your representatives and tell them to cosponsor Rep. Raskin’s bill in the House!
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Also joining our Live National Call was Greenpeace USA’s Deepa Padmanabha, who dug into the impact of SLAPP suits on movements.
“Behind every SLAPP suit is a story of resistance and speaking truth to power,” Deepa said. “The goal is to scare people into silence and drain time and money otherwise spent on protecting our planet and communities.”
She said we don’t hear about most SLAPPs because they are usually filed against ordinary people advocating to protect fundamental rights threatened by corporate greed.
“SLAPPs are driven by fear. Our movements are growing stronger, and these corporations are feeling the force of people power,” she said. “They’re desperate to put a price tag on First Amendment-protected activity.”
We need both federal anti-SLAPP legislation and anti-SLAPP laws in every state. As Deepa told us: “Absent these laws, the cost of a SLAPP suit is nothing compared to the benefit of silencing a powerful critic.”
Our movement must send a loud message refusing to be silenced. Add your voice to demand federal protection of the right to protest. Call your Reps!
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“With anti-protest bills popping up around the country, we’re seeing a resurgence of efforts to crush progressive movements,” Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Partnership for Civil Justice Fund executive director, told us on our Monday Call.
In the past 6 years, there have been 39 anti-protest laws in 20 states — ratcheting up punishments from misdemeanors to felonies, penalizing protests near pipelines as “critical infrastructure,” and more.
In the wake of the movement for black lives, new laws penalize marching on the streets and even eliminate liability for cars that drive into protestors, she said. Another law, enacted after the WV teacher's strikes, eliminates police liability.
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Ariel Moger, Government & Political Affairs Director of Friends of the Earth as House Republicans called on us to fight HR1 — the newest version of the Dirty Deal introduced by House Republicans this week.
“Thank you to the activists who mobilized to defeat the Manchin’s Dirty Deal multiple times last year,” Ariel said on our Monday Call. “That’s almost unheard of — Manchin usually gets whatever he wants.”
“The new version is even worse than Manchin’s so we need to show up in full force to make sure it dies in the Senate,” she told us. “It is full of handouts and loopholes to oil, gas, and mining industries, giving them more incentives to pollute the planet and our communities.”
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Our Revolution’s newest local group SF Education Alliance has had some early successes, including restoring English as Second Language (ESL) classes at a community college after a petition drive.
The Alliance is also leading the fight to have the San Francisco Board of Supervisors pass a resolution to protect Trans rights, which will be voted on Tuesday. So far, all 11 supervisors have signed on!
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Don’t miss our next LIVE National Organize-to-Win Call with Philadelphia mayoral candidate Helen Gym and other progressive leaders on Monday, April 10th at 8:30 pm ET/5:30 PT!
RSVP
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Half a million Americans go bankrupt every year from Medical Debt — a foreign concept to countries with single-payer healthcare. We’re compiling stories to bring pressure and we need folks to stand up and speak out!
SHARE YOUR STORY
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WHEN WE ORGANIZE, WE WIN!
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