From June 25 – July 2, 2008, PBN’s Mississippi and New Mexico State Alliance Partners will come together with grassroots organizers from Texas to expand on South X Southwest, an ongoing project working to build Black/Brown progressive partnership across traditional cultural, geographic and political barriers. The meetings will take place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and 41 Mississippi leaders will travel by bus across the Southwest to participate.
All. Together. Now.
PBN State Alliance Partner Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) had members from all across the state participating in their non-partisan Voter Empowerment campaign. Leading up to the May 20th primary election, KFTC members registered, educated, and mobilized thousands of voters to strengthen our democracy with their participation.
Thirty-two percent of registered Kentucky voters showed up to vote in the recent Primary elections, smashing the previous record of 26.5 percent turnout in 1992. These numbers included 43 percent of Kentucky’s registered Democrats (many excited about the long presidential primary they had a rare opportunity to influence) and 18.9 of registered Kentucky Republicans.
PBN proudly announced today the appointment of innovative and experienced progressive organizing leader Jason Cooper to the new position of Program Director. As the conversation about grassroots, bottom-up change becomes a defining constituent in local, regional and national politics, PBN continues to grow as a perfectly positioned organization helping ordinary people make real contributions to the political decisions that affect their lives.
“Jason brings a fresh perspective to our growing team that is based on hands-on work tested in high profile political and public education campaigns, combined with leadership, organizational and training expertise,” said PBN Director Rodney McKenzie, Jr. [Read more]
On Tuesday, April 29th about 40 Community Voices Heard members in Yonkers spoke out against City Hall’s plans to use millions of city tax dollars to subsidize the development of luxury apartments and stores. Prior to a public hearing held by the City Council on the Steuver Fidelco Capelli (SFC) development planned for Getty Square, CVH members held a press conference demanding that the project include housing and jobs for low-income families, so that they would not be displaced. Click here to read the full article.
Long Walk to Freedom: Neighbor to Neighbor organizes a 50-mile walk to break the chains of criminal injustice
Worcester to Boston, MA — From Sunday, May 18th through Thursday, May 22nd, Neighbor to Neighbor members from across the state will join a grassroots coalition on a historic 50-mile walk for freedom. Marchers will join local officials in calling on the State Legislature to pass a package of reforms at the local and state levels to end discrimination based on criminal records, and alleviate the crisis of jobs and housing throughout the Commonwealth.
The walkers will cover 11miles a day, stopping in towns along the way to hold vigils with local community residents. Once they reach Lexington on Tuesday, May 18, the walkers will follow the route that Paul Revere rode when he organized citizens of the Commonwealth to defend their freedom in 1775.
Weaknesses in the current CORI laws allow for blanket discrimination based on the existence of a criminal record. This creates enormous obstacles for people trying to obtain jobs, housing, and acceptance into licensure and educational programs. Over 20,000 people are released from incarceration in Massachusetts every year. When criminal records prevent people from earning an honest living, families suffer, crime increases, and the State loses revenue.
With low-income single mothers as the face of criminal record reform, the movement is gaining momentum: Governor Patrick signed an Executive Order earlier this year to establish fair hiring guidelines for state agencies, and numerous cities and towns adopting similar policies.
“The overuse and misuse of CORI information traps tens of thousands of Massachusetts families in poverty and fear,” says Carmen de los Santos, Neighbor to Neighbor member and Springfield resident. “CORI is not tough on crime or criminals, only on people who are trying to work and support our families.”
WHERE / WHEN
- Sunday, May 18, 9:30 am – Send-off and Press Conference at Worcester City Hall
- Monday, May 19 5:30 p.m. – Vigil and Speak-out at Peace Lutheran Church in Wayland
- Tuesday, May 20 7:30 p.m. – Vigil and Speak-out at Church of the Redeemer, Lexington
- Thursday, May 22 9:00 a.m. – Rally at Bunker Hill Community College, Charlestown
- 2:30 p.m. – Press Conference on steps of the State House, Boston
Partial List of Supporters: The Boston Workers Alliance, AFL-CIO of Massachusetts, Action for Boston Community Development, Rosa Parks Human Rights Committee, Boston School Bus Union, City Life / Vida Urbana, Community Change Inc., Community Church of Boston, Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, Democracy Center, Dorchester People for Peace, Ex-prisoners & Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement (EPOCA), Jobs With Justice, Juvenile Justice Center, Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI (MARC), Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Massachusetts Mothers On the Move, Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery (MOAR), Neighbor to Neighbor, Massachusetts, Oiste!, Partakers Inc., Prisoner Re-entry Working Group, Rosie’s Place, SEIU Local 509 Human Service Workers, SEIU Local 615 Building Service Workers, STRIVE, Inc., Student Labor Action Movement, Teen Empowerment, Urban League of Eastern Mass., United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1445, & United Youth and Youth Workers of Boston, Veterans Benefits Clearinghouse, Inc
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Check out this important contribution to California’s No on Prop 98 campaign — addressing affordable housing, tenants’ rights, and a proposed end to rent control, shared with us by PBN partner SCOPE.
Pushback Network (PBN) is proud to announce a new State Alliance Partnership with Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts (N2N-MA). N2N-MA’s leadership as Massachusetts anchor organization makes the Bay State the eighth state in PBN’s growing coast-to-coast network. NWN-MA grew out of Neighbor to Neighbor, a national organization which focused on organizing in Central America in the 1980s, and on health care reform in the U.S. in the early 1990s. In the mid-1990s, N2N-MA re-evaluated our mission to focus on building power in low-income communities around an economic justice agenda. N2N-MA formed the Working Family Agenda Coalition and works to build a progressive majority in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
[Read more]
New Statewide Anchor Organization, PLAN, Brings 7th State into Pushback Network
PBN is proud to announce a new State Alliance Partnership with the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), making Nevada the seventh state in its growing coast-to-coast network. PLAN was formed in 1994 to bring people and organizations together to build a better Nevada and includes more than two-dozen member groups dedicated to working for social, economic, and environmental justice.
“Pushback Network’s model is centered on building progressive power from the bottom up,” said PBN Coordinating Director Rodney McKenzie, Jr., “and PLAN will contribute a great deal to our learning and strategies. PBN focuses on developing and strengthening broad-based state alliances and supporting their community organizing and voter engagement strategies to greatly increase the knowledge base, level of participation and influence of those most underrepresented in the electorate – people of color, poor and working class communities, and young people. PBN provides organizations like PLAN, that are anchoring state alliances, with critically needed financial resources, training, and technical support. We also bring together experienced and talented staff and leaders from all of our states to learn from each other, determine and shape our overall strategies, and contribute to national goals. As our other partners, PLAN is grounded in a long history of progressive achievement. We are extremely pleased and proud to now have them join with us to achieve our common vision.” [Read more]
A new Green Economy is emerging in California that will create thousands of jobs through
new technologies to clean our communities and the environment.
Join the State Lawmakers and Grassroots, Labor and Environmental Leaders to explore:
- What is the Green Economy?
- How do we ensure South LA and other inner-city communities benefit from these jobs and new technologies?
- What are best practices in legislation and programs to shape an equitable new economy?
For more information, or to RSVP, please call SCOPE at 323-789-7920.
Alabama took a step toward lower grocery taxes and a higher threshold for income tax Wednesday when legislative committees approved HB 274 and SB 431, the Tax Fairness Amendment of 2008. The House Education Appropriations Committee gave the plan a favorable report by voice vote.
Meanwhile, the vote in the Senate Finance and Taxation – Education Committee was 15-1. The bills, sponsored by Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery, and Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, respectively, now move to the full chambers for consideration. If both the House and Senate approve the amendment by a three-fifths vote, Alabamians will vote on the measure in November. [Read more]