National Domestic Workers Alliance
Statement on Texas HB 2012
March 7, 2011
The “carve out” of domestic employers in a recent anti-immigrant bill in Texas affirms an American truth that domestic workers have known all along. HB 2012, A bill introduced by Texas State Representative Debbie Riddle (R-150), would make it a felony (punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 or 180 days in prison) to knowingly hire an immigrant not authorized to work in the United States, except in the case of a person hired to perform household duties such as babysitting, house cleaning, or lawn mowing.
Domestic work – caring for the home, for children, for the elderly, sick and disabled – is important work. Domestic workers are an essential part of households across the country, and help make it possible for their employers to do the work they do. In fact, millions of American families count on domestic workers to meet their basic daily needs. They are integral to the social and economic fabric of this country. [Read more]
All. Together. Now.
March 4, 2001
Community Voices Heard and VOCAL-NY were joined by allies from CAAAV, FUREE, Picture the Homeless, Queers for Economic Justice and Right to the City (NYC Chapter) in holding a protest around New York’s revenue crisis at their state capitol yesterday on March 2nd, 2011. They demanded that Governor Cuomo reverse course, stop the budget cuts, and extend the Millionaire’s Tax. Seventeen people were arrested in an act of civil disobedience in an effort to up the stakes and let people know how serious this is!
The protest further defined the choice facing Governor Cuomo between tax cuts for millionaires and investing in healthcare, education, safety net programs and other public services ordinary New Yorkers rely on. About 150 low-income New Yorkers from the five boroughs, Westchester, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, and Albany rallied while 17 were arrested for blocking entrances on the south side the capitol. Protesters held banners saying “Gov. Cuomo: People Before Wall Street, No Tax Breaks for Millionaires” and “Cuomo Inc: Fighting for Wall Street Bankers & Landlords.” [Read more]
Immediately after the November 2010 election, PLAN and allies realized that the election would mean attacks on already underfunded social services, health care and education. Two weeks after the election, PLAN convened a meeting that brought together allies around two central themes: Protect existing funding for services, education and health care; and Generate new revenue to fund state and local government.
The Nevada Values Coalition, named that day, has grown to include a diverse patchwork of groups, churches and organizations, some 100 in all. Nonetheless, as headlines in Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey and yes, Nevada, attest, the struggle to defend jobs and services is a desperate fight. Nevada’s system of higher education – two universities and a handful of colleges – may declare bankruptcy, allowing for the firing of tenured professors and the elimination of whole degree programs, effectively trashing the work of thousands of students, over many years.
The budget cuts planned by the governor threaten the existence of the region’s largest, and Las Vegas’ only, public hospital and Level One Trauma Center. Nevada’s k-12 system, already profoundly underfunded, would become the worst funded system in the United States. It is difficult to exaggerate the very real tragedies that are already occurring to seniors, to people with disabilities, and to young people in Nevada – and there is no doubt whatsoever that the tragedies will escalate with the cuts being pushed.
Nevada, despite the emaciated character of state and local services, is not a poor state. Some 80 percent of all the gold produced in the United States is mined from Nevada, mostly from publicly owned land. The mining industry, however, pays an effective tax rate on its profits generated from Nevada of less than 1 percent. It is a relic of the Gilded Age, when industrialists ran Nevada, the West and the United States.
PLAN and allies are working to change that anachronistic tax structure. Although the mining industry has more registered lobbyists in the capital than there are state senators, PLAN and friends have engaged the legislature in committee hearings, in one-on-ones, and in grassroots demonstrations. As the demos in Wisconsin are showing, the grassroots can make a huge difference.
But PLAN is also engaging the policymakers in intellectual arguments. One of the instruments that we believe will have a significant impact is a thorough evaluation and report on the state’s existing tax structure – universally agreed to be inadequate and inequitable – along with concrete, workable suggestions to address the situation.
Working with our statewide coalition and with our national allies, in particular our friends from PushBack Network, is an essential part of our work. We are stronger together – and thank you for all your efforts!
Contributed by Launce Rake, Communications Director, PLAN
FRANKFORT – Fourteen protesters emerged from their four-day occupation of the Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear’s office in protest of mountaintop removal mining before an exuberant crowd of over 1,000 people on the steps of the state Capitol.
In a statement delivered before the cheering throng of supporters, internationally-known writer Wendell Berry explained, “We came because the land, its forests, and its streams are being destroyed by the surface mining of coal, because the people are suffering intolerable harms to their homes, their health, and their communities.”
The protesters (who also included a retired coal miner, a nurse practitioner who treats miners, community organizers, a graduate student, and others) had been staying in the office since talks between them and Gov. Beshear came to a stalemate on Friday afternoon, when he finally agreed to meet with them after initially refusing to do so that morning. In the meeting, Gov. Beshear continued to express his steadfast support for both mountaintop removal and the coal industry. The citizens found his position unacceptable, and refused to vacate his office. When they declined to leave, the governor instructed his security team to inform the protesters that they were welcome to stay “as long as they wanted.” The sit-in, which the protesters dubbed Kentucky Rising, has attracted international attention, with messages of support coming in from Argentina and Germany. Leading environmental figures including Bill McKibben (350.org) and best-selling environmental writer Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) issued strong statements of support. “People across America today…are electrified by what’s going on in Frankfort,” McKibben said. ”It’s about time that people said: ‘No more business as usual, if that means leveling the mountains of southern Appalachia.’” The citizens say they will hold Gov. Beshear, who is running for reelection this year, to a pledge he made this morning: to travel to eastern Kentucky within thirty days and personally inspect damage caused by mountaintop removal. “This is only the beginning. There’s no going back at the point. The pressure will continue.”
Kentucky’s action was also the feature of an article on the Huffington Post which you can read here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/governors-sit-in-day-two_b_822327.html
(This article was copied from the Kentucky Rising blog. You can keep up-to-date on this and other great activities in Kentucky by going to their blog at http://kentuckyrising.blogspot.com/. Also follow KFTC’s blog http://www.kftc.org/blog)
New Flashmob Video Calls For Accountability of State Legislatures, 2011 Congress
The lively, grassroots video was created by the Pushback Network and partner organizations Community Voices Heard, SouthWest Organizing Project and Southwest Workers Union to put pressure on state legislatures and Congress to represent the people’s agenda 365 days of the year—not just on Election Day.
By: Brigid Flaherty, Organizational and Resource Director of Pushback Network
A lively, new political flash mob video hitting the internet today sends a message to newly elected representatives: govern in a manner that best serves the needs of all constituents, including people of color and working people.
In a truly grassroots effort, the video was conceived, produced and staged by community members themselves — people who have been hit hardest by the economic collapse and yet participate in the political process because they see the need for government to create a nation that works for all of us.
Pushback Network and partner organizations Community Voices Heard (CVH), SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP), Southwest Workers Union (SWU) created the video, which is being released through the Pushback Network youtube page (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xQc4ET1QHQ).
No “Enthusiasm Gap” in Nevada
by Kim Mack, Pushback Field Director
I had the pleasure of getting out the vote with PLAN (Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada), the Pushback Network’s awesome anchor organization in Nevada and I am stoked to share a bit of my experience!
PLAN Canvass Training
When I got to Reno I was paired up with two Latino canvassers who were knocking on doors in Reno’s Latino community. It was inspiring to hear these first time activists talk about how important it is to them to get their community involved in the political process. They are concerned about the anti-immigrant feelings of some that are out there but also motivated by those same feelings. I listened as he explained to me why he will continue to motivate the Latino and other communities to exercise their rights to make our communities a better place. [Read more]
The Good, the Bad and the Pretty: Reflections from Pushback Network on the 2010 Midterm Election
For those of us on the front lines of social and economic justice, Election Day was not something to be happy about. However, regardless of the political shifts that occurred at the state and national level, our chosen course to bring about transformation of this country has not shifted. As we survey the new political landscape wrought by the Mid-Terms, a couple of things become clear. Our visions for this country remain the same. The work we do to promote justice remains the same. What this election has successfully accomplished is that it has provided community organizers and progressives a moment of pause and reflection, with some good, some bad and some pretty lessons to bring back to our communities.
PLAN Canvassers
THE GOOD: Despite a ton of money, and a ton of free media, the electoral “tsunami of change” was more of a wave than a tidal wave. The high levels of corporate and anonymous cash resources are never a good thing, but it was matched by the voices of people of color voters in a number of states. In particular, the Latino vote made itself heard in the west and southwest, in ways that can only serve to help fight discrimination and racism against their communities. The voices against racism were loud and clear this year, and they made a difference in the tone and outcomes of the campaigns, regardless of the victor. [Read more]
Over 50 grassroots activists, lawyers, and cartographers from 20 community-based organizations met over the weekend at the Lakeover Center in Jackson, Mississippi to attend the Community Organizing Around Political Redistricting School.
The political redistricting school was organized by the Pushback Network and Southern Echo provided the training. With this experience, we sought to deepen the knowledge around the history, laws and regulations of redistricting and encourage grassroots groups to focus their organizing efforts on redistricting as a way to build broad civic participation amongst underrepresented and marginalized communities. [Read more]
“It gets into your mind, it gets into your heart,” Nick Salazar from the SouthWest Organizing Project.
After hearing personal stories from the women and men whose lives have been forever altered by the horrific practices of mountain top removal, Nick Salazar, elected official and member from the SouthWest Organizing Project, gave voice to the empathy he felt for those impacted by coal extraction in Kentucky. Having witnessed the deterioration of his own brother’s health from uranium mining in New Mexico, Mr. Salazar understood all too well how the energy companies, and those who protect them, circumvent rules and regulations that are designed to protect workers and the environment in order to maximize profit. [Read more]
Community Groups across the Nation are Mobilized to Stand with Immigrants in Arizona on July 29th
Within the Pushback Network, States are Organizing Actions and Marches in Opposition to Arizona’s anti-immigrant, racial profiling law SB1070.
On July 29th, the Arizona law SB 1070 that legalizes racial profiling, is poised to take effect. Community groups and alliances in Arizona are gearing up for a massive “Day of Non-Compliance”, to say no to racial profiling and NO! to unfair treatment of hard working immigrants and their families.
SB 1070 is not a matter for Arizona only. It is a blatant attack on fundamental freedom.
There is a growing national movement to overturn the unconstitutional law in Arizona and to challenge other anti-immigrant legislation around the country. Along with many other organizations and networks, member organizations of the Pushback Network will hold actions, marches, and engage in voter registration drives in support of the people of Arizona to protest SB1070 and unjust and inhumane immigration enforcement policies.
Pushback Network organizations plan to demonstrate our level of commitment to the struggle for full rights and respect for all immigrants. [Read more]