News from America’s Political Revolution!
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Announcing The April Lineup for our National Organize to Win Calls!
On Monday, April 12th, Sen. Jeff Merkley will kick-off our first call of the month with the latest on For the People Act and the fight against the filibuster. And on the following Mondays, don’t miss Nina Turner, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen and other powerful progressive rock stars!
RSVP NOW!
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IN THIS ISSUE - OUR PLAN IN ACTION!
Find out how our local groups are organizing to end fossil fuel subsidies, defend the right of workers to organize unions, stop the criminalization of homelessness, elect progressives to top Dem Party posts and MORE!
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Movement Builders - members who give $5 a month or more - help us bring the REVOLUTION REPORT to your inbox every week. Will you pitch in and keep our organizing work going STRONG?
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Our special Monday National Organize to Win Call focused on Our Revolution’s new campaign to end fossil fuel subsidies.
The burning of fossil fuels - coal, oil, and gas - is the single largest contributor to the climate crisis. Yet we give the fossil fuel industry billions of our tax dollars every year in subsidies, in a rigged system that favors polluters over renewable energy sources. President Biden campaigned on ending fossil fuel subsidies, and his Build Back Better plan is our best chance to get it passed in Congress.
Our Revolution Board member Jane Kleeb led the discussion about the urgency of this issue with Bill McKibben, Annie Leonard, Erich Pica, and Rep. Ro Khanna. Read the highlights below:
Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, discussed extreme weather tied to climate change and said one of the most important steps we can take is to end fossil fuel subsidies. “Government subsidies allow the fossil fuel industry to destroy the planet without paying a price for it. They are a rogue industry that has gamed our political system and used our atmosphere as an open sewer to pour emissions into it that raise the seas, melt the ice, change the seasons, and set forests on fire.”
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Annie Leonard, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, said the fight to end fossil fuel subsidies isn’t new, but we have new opportunities to win it right now - with Bernie’s End Polluter Welfare Act, President Biden’s executive order directing federal agencies to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies and his Build Back Better infrastructure plan. “It’s our job to organize to make sure it happens. Subsidies will not disappear on their own. We can't sit back and count on Biden and Congress to deliver. We must push them. Now is our moment, and if we organize we can make it happen.”
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Erich Pica, President of Friends of the Earth, explained how almost every aspect of fossil fuel production is subsidized by the federal tax system, dating all the way back to 1916. “We need a whole U.S. government divestment strategy, and it has to start with the tax code. We now have a narrow window to do it through budget reconciliation.” That means pressuring committee chairs in the House and Senate to include a repeal of fossil fuel subsidies in President Biden’s Build Back Better plan. “This isn’t going to be an easy fight. The fossil fuel industry gives millions to politicians every year to maintain their billions in subsidies. We’re going to have to push, and we need you to lean in.”
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Rep. Ro Khanna, Chair of the House Subcommittee on Environment, announced that on April 22nd - Earth Day - his committee will hold a hearing on eliminating fossil fuel subsidies and insist that it be included in Biden’s Build Back Better package. “This has to be part of how we pay for infrastructure - by putting the money we give to the fossil fuel industry in subsidies into clean energy development and infrastructure.” He said it’s past time that we allow elected officials to say, ‘We’ll get it done, just not right now,’ because later never comes. “The infrastructure bill is our best chance. It’s our moment when we have to strike. President Biden campaigned on it, and we need to make good on our promise.”
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TELL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS TO SUPPORT ENDING FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES!
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With the ballot count now underway in the Amazon union election in Alabama, Our Revolution Board Chair Larry Cohen applauded President Biden’s willingness to publicly stand in solidarity with workers. “We haven’t seen this level of elected support for organizing since Franklin Roosevelt,” he told The New York Times. Still, despite the pro-union political rhetoric, Larry predicted that union membership was likely to shrink further without passage of the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would overhaul our broken labor laws.
The PRO Act just passed the US House, and Our Revolution members recently rallied at the Capitol to call on the President and Senate Democrats to fight the filibuster and pass the bill.
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ORGANIZING UPDATE!
In response to mounting pressure from Our Revolution and other groups calling on President Biden to use executive action to cancel $50,000 student debt, the President formally asked Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to determine whether he has the legal authority to do so. Mr. President, it’s a no-brainer. Even Chuck Schumer agrees with us - “You don’t need Congress. You just need the flick of a pen.”
TELL BIDEN: STAND WITH AYANNA & BE BOLD!
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Our Revolution Texas’s March Organizing Call featured Austin City Councilor Greg Casar who talked about how progressives are fighting against Prop B - a measure that criminalizes homelessness in the city. A Repubican front group initiated Prop B to impose hefty fines and jail time on the homeless instead of providing housing and social services. “As rents rise, we need to address the lack of affordable housing - we need homes, not handcuffs,” Greg said.
Greg also noted that he’s an official member of Our Revolution because, as an elected official, he understands how important it is to organize and build power locally.
Will you join Greg and become a $5 a month member so Our Revolution can fight for change from the bottom-up?
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Newsy reports that progressives are already pointing out the political risks facing establishment Dems ahead of the 2022 election cycle, noting that the president's concessions to moderates and conservatives in Congress — on student loan forgiveness, a $15 minimum wage and income limits for stimulus checks — could haunt Democrats in the midterms.
"If people aren't seeing real relief coming through a Democratic Congress and a Democratic administration, the risk is real," explained Paco Fabián, campaigns and communications director of Our Revolution. "There's going to be some pain coming because folks aren't seeing the benefit of voting for Democrats."
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The truth is that the Democratic centrism isn’t the only electoral threat we face … In his latest commentary, Our Revolution Board member Jim Hightower breaks down how the GOP plan to beat progressives in 2022 and beyond: “They’re banking on a blitz of bureaucratic bills they’re now trying to ram through nearly every state legislature to intimidate, divert, and otherwise deny eligible voters their most fundamental democratic right. Their main targets are people of color, but they’re also pushing to keep students, senior citizens, union households, and poor communities from voting.”
READ MORE IN THE "HIGHTOWER LOWDOWN!"
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Our Revolution Pennsylvania’s March Organize to Win Meeting featured three Democratic U.S. Senate candidates running in 2022. Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman noted that the Democratic Party has moved to the left because of the progressive activists energized by Bernie’s 2016 and 2020 presidential bids, and he’s running to keep the party moving in the left direction. State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta insisted that he’s the best candidate because “we need leaders that understand the issues faced by poor and working families in their bones.” And Alex Khalil said she’s running because she’s a mother who understands that our kids need the popular policies Bernie championed to achieve their full potential.
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MOMENTUM! In the tight race for Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District, Karen Carter Peterson - the Our Revolution backed candidate - continues to pick-up new support! The latest high profile endorsements include US Rep. Katie Porter, progressive activist Gary Chambers, Black Lives Matter PAC, and Roots Action. If Karen wins against her establishment opponent, she will become the first Black woman to represent Louisiana in Congress - and she’ll be another YES vote for Medicare for All, the Fight for $15, the Green New Deal and other progressive priorities! The election is April 24th.
KATIE'S HELPING KAREN WIN - WILL YOU? Election Day is in exactly 3 weeks - join our community every Wednesday night to Get Out the PROGRESSIVE VOTE!
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AMEN, SISTER! Check-out this In These Times piece on the work Our Revolution volunteers are doing to help Nina defeat her establishment opponent!
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Our Revolution California held a forum this week featuring six candidates running for top posts in the California Democratic Party. Delaine Eastin, who’s running for state party chair, said that she’s in the race because she’s “concerned for the party. People do not know what we stand for. Some are disenchanted because they don’t see us as championing the issues that we profess to care about, be it Medicare for All or the environment. Most Democrats in California want to move the party in a more progressive direction.”
Agree with Delaine? Our California members can sign-up here to phonebank to elect candidates like her who will fight to make our party a truly progressive party!
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Our Revolution Massachusetts held its March Organize to Win Meeting to discuss the challenges of passing progressive legislation in the Democratic-controlled State House. Speakers from the Sunrise Movement, Act On Mass, and the Young Democrats described an archaic system where the Speaker wields nearly unfettered power either to reward or punish representatives.
Our Revolution-endorsed State Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven spoke about why she’s challenging the Democratic establishment: “The State House should be the people’s house. But because leadership operates behind closed doors, it serves merely as a rubber-stamp and mouthpiece for corporations.” The representative urged progressive activists to support the Transparency is Power campaign and only to support Democratic legislative candidates who commit to transparency.
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ANYONE IN PHILLY SURPRISED? The Philadelphia Democratic Party declined to endorse incumbent District Attorney Larry Krasner - an Our Revolution endorsed criminal justice reformer who we helped elect in 2017 - in the upcoming May 18th primary. This suspicious move comes as the police union is organizing its Republican members to vote for Krasner’s Democratic opponent - who Krasner correctly labelled a “fake Democrat.”
Enough is enough. Will you chip in and help Our Revolution take-out "fake Democrats" and take-over the Democratic Party?
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Our Revolution Iowa will be kicking off their organizing efforts in the state with Misty Rebik, Iowa native and Chief of Staff to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Iowa Bernie 2020 Co-chair Stacey Walker, and other special guests.
RSVP HERE
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Join Our Illinois Revolution for a talk with US Rep. Robin Kelly - the new Chair of the Illinois Democratic Party - about her vision for the future, and talk about our upcoming elections and endorsements!
RSVP HERE
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