Partnership for Working Families
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John,

These first weeks of the new year have been challenging. From the devastating brushfires in Australia, to our escalation of conflict with Iran, there is grief — both at home and abroad. Everyday people are paying the price for the corrupt decisions of their leaders.

As a lifelong organizer, I can tell you that future isn’t written yet. That part is up to us. Today, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I’m finding inspiration in something Dr. King said in his 1967 Christmas Sermon on Peace:

“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all.”

I am optimistic about the future. We have no choice but to be optimistic now, because pessimism is accepting defeat. This is hard. But 2020 is not the year we stop fighting.

I know we will win because I have seen our hope in action. Across the country, Partnership affiliates are taking on big fights for justice, dignity, and health in our communities. In 2019, we defended public goods and demanded public financing and control over our land and resources. We joined massive teacher strikes in Chicago, Nashville, Oakland, and Los Angeles. We won minimum wage hikes, affordable housing policies, and critical renter protections. We helped pass AB5 in California, the first state law protecting the labor rights of Uber and Lyft drivers. We fought back against corporate attempts to deny cities the right to raise standards for their residents, predominantly people of color. We shut down Amazon’s plan to expand its empire into New York City and extract billions in tax breaks. We exposed the misuse of non-disclosure agreements and shell companies by some of the largest corporations to prevent public oversight of their growth and its impact on our neighborhoods. We rallied for climate justice, winning aggressive standards for buildings and industries in places like New York City and Seattle. Above all, we demanded a democracy that answers to the people, not to profit. 

In 2020, our optimism is our greatest strength. Please join me. Please resolve to keep practicing hope through action—it’s the only way forward.

Remember, our optimism can be fierce, determined, and expansive. There is room in my optimism for you, friend, and everything you may be feeling about the future.

In Unity,

Lauren Jacobs
Executive Director
Partnership for Working Families



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Partnership for Working Families
1305 Franklin St.
Suite 501
Oakland, CA 94612
United States

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