News from the Frontlines of the Political Revolution!
HEADLINES: 2022 Priorities, You Decide! | Keith Ellison on Criminal Justice | PRO Act Holiday Tour | Buffalo Starbucks Unionize | M4A Update | 2022 Electoral Strategy | & MUCH MORE!
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As we look to 2022, take a moment to think how far we’ve come. Our work over the past 5 years has rooted our movement in a position of strength — with an organized grassroots army and growing bloc of elected allies. Become a sustaining member today to help build - and wield - actual progressive power.
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As 2021 draws to a close, Our Revolution is taking stock of how far we’ve come and charting our course for the year ahead — and we want your input!
We’re advancing the fight to fix or nix the filibuster for voting rights, the PRO Act, and criminal justice reform — and, we’re committed to getting Build Back Better through the Senate — but we must do more!
Democrats must deliver. Folks across the country are facing great hardship, and time is running out to earn voters’ trust.
Our efforts to transform the party and elect progressive champions all come down to our deeper mission: build power to enact policy that improves lives.
That’s where YOU come in! We want to hear from you as we set out our priorities in the new year. Tell us your top issues and help define our 2022 National Organize to Win Platform.
Our Revolution is crowd-sourcing our policy platform for 2022! Take our survey to pinpoint the top issues you want candidates seeking our endorsement to champion!
With midterms coming up, we also need your voice in choosing the next generation of progressive champions.
All monthly members get a vote in deciding our 2022 endorsements!
Cycle after cycle, Our Revolution keeps building the bench — from city halls to the halls of Congress, and this election cycle will be no exception.
Read on to learn more about our strategy to navigate the current electoral landscape. When we organize, we win.
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Become a member to help determine who we endorse in this monumental election year. You could choose who becomes the next Cori Bush or Ilhan Omar!
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Tune in at 8:30p ET/5:30p PT on Monday with the Our Revolution family for our last Live Monday Night Broadcast of 2021!
The indomitable Nina Turner will reflect on the past year and where our movement goes from here. We’ll ask her what makes a good movement candidate and strategize for another year in the struggle for justice.
We’ll also hear from Indira Shuemaker, an inspiring activist who won her race for city council in Des Moines, Iowa!
Make sure to register now so you’ll be notified to hop on the Zoom call when we go live!
RSVP HERE
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WINNING CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM
Our Revolution is gearing up to elect new criminal justice reform champions in 2022 by teaming up with Minnesota Attorney General and Our Revolution Board member Keith Ellison.
We’re honing our messaging and advancing our strategy to overcome the bad faith reactionary attacks and clear a path for effective solutions and candidates.
“Politicians always want to demagogue crime, it’s an age-old thing,” Ellison said on our Live Monday Night Broadcast. “We should, as a movement, talk about public safety. All human beings crave security, all human beings want to be safe.
“It’s not ‘tough on crime,’ it’s ‘smart on crime,’” he explained. “When society fails to meet the material and psychological needs of the people, and it robs them of dignity, people will lash out at each other.”
Ellison acknowledged that many kinds of violence are up as a result of the “traumatic experience of Covid” we are all navigating.
“We can’t just write it off,” he said. “You create safety for people by creating a just society — by making sure people have a place to live, enough to eat. We need to fight for a well-resourced society.”
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PASS THE PRO ACT HOLIDAY TOUR
Our Revolution is hitting the road for the holidays — heading cross-country for our Pass the PRO Act Holiday Tour! Instead of a sleigh with reindeer, you might catch a glimpse of our PRO Act pickup truck, spreading solidarity in the fight for worker power!
Unlike Santa, we can’t be everywhere in one night, but we hope you’ll meet us at one of our many stops along the 3,000-mile journey! Follow along at #PassthePROAct on Twitter, and spread the word to urge President Biden to make a filibuster exemption.
CWA and the Worker Power Coalition helped us kick off the tour in Phoenix and Tucson to demand Sen. Krysten Sinema support the bill.
On Wednesday, we stopped in El Paso with a rally to thank Rep. Veronica Escobar for being an original cosponsor of the bill and standing with workers across the country!
In recent days, we’ve been in Texas shaming Rep. Henry Cuellar in San Antonio, the only House Democrat in opposition, and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in Austin and Dallas.
Register to join us in Milwaukee at noon Monday outside the office of Sen. Ron Johnson. By 6 o’clock that evening, we’ll be in Chicago outside the office of Sen. Dick Durbin.
Other stops include Dayton and Cleveland, Ohio, and Buffalo, NY before we wrap things up with a rally at the office of Sen. Chuck Schumer in New York City.
“We have workers standing up all across the country, but we need Democrats to stand up,” Our Revolution National Field Director Mike Oles was quoted in Common Dreams.
“We’ve seen time and time again — when Democrats don’t deliver quickly for their base and for labor, bad things happen, and you’re approaching that precipice again,” Oles told Politico.
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ORNJ PASSES M4A RESOLUTION
Our Revolution New Jersey is proud to announce they’ve got a 12th NJ municipality on board with Medicare for All!
Now, Hoboken, NJ and more than 75 municipalities nationwide have issued resolutions in favor of implementing a single-payer universal healthcare system.
Other New Jersey towns that have expressed support include Trenton, Dover, West Orange and Highland Park.
Town by town, city by city, state by state, we are muscling through Medicare for All to guarantee healthcare as a human right in this country.
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CANCEL STUDENT DEBT NOW
Gabriella Ambroise of Our Revolution New Jersey wrote an op-ed in NJ.com this week, arguing the moral and economic merits of canceling student loan debt.
Ambroise emphasized the benefits student debt cancellation would have in reversing the racial wealth gap and providing wealth equity opportunities for Black women — who make up the majority of student borrowers in the United States.
“Canceling student loan debt is not a policy choice that takes away responsibility from the student,” Ambroise said. “It’s a policy choice that recognizes the impact that disinvestment in public higher education has had on the children of working-class Americans.”
If Biden sticks to his plan to restart student loan payments on Feb. 1, more than 18 million borrowers will take a collective hit of roughly $7B per month — draining $85B from the U.S. economy in 2022, according to new analysis by the Roosevelt Institute.
On Wednesday, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley cited the study in a letter urging President Biden to immediately cancel $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower.
Biden has the legal authority to do it, and doing so could add more than $173B to the nation’s GDP in the first year alone, Common Dreams reports.
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BUFFALO STARBUCKS UNIONIZE!
Our Revolution salutes Buffalo Starbucks workers who on Thursday celebrated a hard-fought victory to establish the company’s first-ever unions.
On Monday, Bernie hosted four of the inspiring women leading the union drive for a livestream, where they talked about why they needed a union and the company’s anti-union tactics.
Starbucks instituted mandatory anti-union meetings and flooded the stores with new workers unfamiliar with the union drive. Despite these efforts, two of the three locations, who fought to unionize for months, succeeded.
India Walton may not have won her Buffalo mayoral race, but her working class campaign and these union drives are not unrelated. As we organize, we catalyze progressive energy in blue-collar cities like Buffalo. India said she couldn’t be more proud of the organizers.
Meanwhile, Kellogg’s announced this week that, following a contract rejection, it will move 275 jobs to Mexico and permanently replace most of 1,400 workers who went on strike in October over a new system that cuts newer workers’ pay and benefits, The Guardian reports.
President Biden’s National Labor Relations Board could make this illegal without Congress, but without the unfair labor practice provisions in Build Back Better, it won't have the teeth.
Workers reported 16-hour shifts and 80-hour weeks during the pandemic when, as essential workers, they were hailed as “heroes.” Bernie condemned the company’s actions, and many progressives are calling for a boycott of Kellogg’s products.
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STEVEN DONZIGER UPDATE
After 45 days in prison, Steven Donziger was released on Thursday to serve the remainder of his 6-month sentence at home.
Donziger’s conviction on a trivial charge came down from a Chevron-connected judge after being prosecuted by a private Chevron-connected law firm — 10 years after winning a $9.5B judgment against Chevron for poisoning Ecuadorian Amazonia and killing thousands of indigenous people.
Nina Turner, Rep. Chuy Garcia, and many progressive allies, including star power from Lucy Lawless, Susan Sarandon, and Roger Waters, joined forces for a livestream Wednesday to raise awareness and money for Donziger’s legal defense fund.
Nine progressives in Congress issued a joint statement to President Biden and US Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging the immediate release of Donziger.
Reps. Chuy Garcia and Rashida Tlaib also spoke at a press conference last month calling on the Department of Justice to take over the case from the private prosecutors.
Our Revolution activists have joined rallies in support of Donziger in NYC. We must all fight against the corporate capture and privatization of our justice system.
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KAMAU’S UPSET WIN FOR MAYOR
Our Revolution-backed khalid kamau pulled out a come-from-behind-victory in last week’s special election to become mayor of South Fulton, GA, the self-proclaimed blackest city in America.
Running on a bold progressive platform, khalid made it through to the run-off election coming in second behind the incumbent, then overtook him to win the general election held last week.
He believes his message broke through because he directly addressed voters’ economic concerns and welcomed them into a participatory city budgeting process.
“Showing what we were spending on policing people versus developing economic opportunities - that just woke so many people up,” khalid said. “They’d never looked at their city budget. It’s not something that you see on the nightly news, so that really resonates.”
“When people find out things like that about how their money is being spent at the local level - it really ignites a fire,” he added.
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2022 ELECTORAL STRATEGY
At Our Revolution we want our members with us every step of the way as we strategize to take power in 2022. This means assessing the political landscape and targeting our efforts to maximize our chances for victory and replace corporate Dems and Republicans wherever possible.
One course of action will be to target open seats left by nearly twenty House Democrats leaving Congress, as well as new seats created by redistricting.
Our Revolution Executive Director Joseph Geevarghese told The Daily Beast: “There’ll be a greater opportunity for progressives to prevail in these races given that the incumbent Democrat and the establishment machine isn’t necessarily going to be united early on behind one candidate”
Joseph said one challenge for progressives is to coalesce quickly around the most viable progressive in order to not split the base and let a corporatist win by a plurality.
He says that corporate interests are already gearing up because “it’s not in their interest or the establishment’s interest to have a stronger Congressional Progressive Caucus.”
“I anticipate the primary season is going to get pretty nasty pretty soon between the two wings,” Joseph forecasted. “I think you’re going to see a lot of big money get involved.”
We’ve seen the lengths they’ll stoop to, and we continue to hone our strategy with every election cycle. We’re organizing to win, which means galvanizing our volunteer army, but it also means choosing the right candidates and the right races.
“We’re looking for candidates who will partner with us, who are committed and adept at the inside-outside strategy,” Joseph said. “That’s our theory of winning.”
One thing is certain: We refuse to let the corrupt party machine choose successors.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE TO SEE OUR 2021 ENDORSEMENT WINS
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BUILDING PROGRESSIVE POWER IN TEXAS
CONGRATS to Councilman-Elect Jeff Casper for Mesquite City Council District 1, who pulled off a win for the people by 18 votes. Casper won 51% of the 600 votes, defeating his opponent in a hard-fought runoff.
“We’re ready to serve,” Casper declared. After five extra weeks of campaigning for the runoff, the teacher and former District 2 council member said he enjoyed the time encouraging his friends and neighbors to engage in city politics.
THANK YOU to all our members for their hard work in making phone calls, sending texts, and knocking on doors to get out the vote for the December Run Off!
Living in this tumultuous time can be daunting, frustrating.. even painful. The remedy is taking action, getting involved, and knowing you’re making a difference.
Together, we are powerful.
As more people like you become sustaining members of Our Revolution, our movement and our impact grow. Knowing what we’re up against only serves to harden our resolve and make our victories along the way that much more motivating.
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OH AND NY LEADING ON
DEM PARTY REFORM
Earlier this month, Our Revolution Ohio and state organizational allies held a workshop to debut an effort - Transform the Party Ohio. The discussion focused on rural outreach, as well as the need to build a progressive caucus within the Ohio Democratic party. Coming out of the workshop, Our Revolution Ohio will focus on streamlining the process to form a caucus, as well as creating tools and a support network to run winning campaigns in the Buckeye state.
In New York, over 70 activists from across the state joined a workshop convened by Our Revolution New York - NYPAN to learn about how they can run for various positions within the Democratic party. From State Committee to County Committee, Judicial Delegate, and District Leader, those positions can play an influential role in the direction the party takes on our policy priorities.
The activists were joined by progressive allies and current elected members of those positions and together, we will be running a slate of candidates to take back the Democratic party in New York from the corrupt leadership that is currently in control.
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Our Revolution is the largest grassroots-funded political action organization in the country. We encourage each of our members to make a New Year’s Resolution to find at last one person in their life — a friend, coworker, or family member — to join in this movement with us and become a sustaining member of Our Revolution.
Let’s double our impact in 2022.
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TRAININGS IN DECEMBER
Join us Wednesday, Dec. 15th at 8:30p ET/5:30p PT for our 2022 Endorsement Process Review! Before making endorsements in any 2022 federal races, all Our Revolution chapters need at least one member to join us for one of these sessions.
We will discuss best practices for making endorsements, what to do once an endorsement is made, and how we can best work together to win in 2022!
RSVP HERE
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Our Revolution and our allies are leading a mega road trip this holiday season in support of the PRO Act — starting at Sen. Krysten Sinema’s office in Phoenix and ending at Senator Chuck Schumer’s office in New York.
It’s time for U.S. Senate leadership and President Biden to enact the PRO Act, and for Democrats to utilize the federal government's power to protect and empower workers and build the labor movement.
FIND AN ACTION NEAR YOU!
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Join Our Revolution Maryland on Dec. 16th at 7p ET for our Progressive Candidates Fundraiser.
Ben Jealous will moderate this event that will include progressive candidates Ed Burroughs, Candidate for Prince George’s County Council; Brandy Brooks, Candidate for Montgomery County Council; Robbie Leonard, Candidate for Baltimore County State’s Attorney; and Michele Gregory, Candidate for MD State Senate.
RSVP HERE
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