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.”

“We at PLAN are excited and honored to affiliate with the Pushback Network,” said PLAN Board Chair Kenya Pierce. “Developing deeper relationships with some of the most innovative and powerful movement building organizations in the country will be a huge boost to our efforts here in Nevada. PLAN seeks to achieve social justice, deepen democracy and transform power–we now have a model, tool and powerful ally in the Pushback Network.”

Nevada is a Western state with a changing demographic. Alongside its powerful union allies, PLAN is the most influential progressive social and economic justice organization. “PBN is focused primarily on deepening our work at the state and local levels while strategically expanding onto new states. Nevada, with work anchored by PLAN, is a crucial and very welcome addition to our mix,” said New Mexico-based PBN Chair Robby Rodriguez. “Each partner in our Network brings a tremendous amount of value to each other and to the larger progressive movement. I am excited that PBN, our folks here in New Mexico, and our five other founding PBN State Alliance Partners (in Alabama, California, Kentucky, Mississippi, and New York) have the opportunity to work with our Western neighbors at PLAN to increase the impact of our work, build upon our tools and resources, and strengthen the alliances needed to move the achievement of an authentic participatory democracy from vision to reality.”

Go to our Media Center to download this release in full.

Go to Our Network’s page on Nevada to learn more about this exciting new State Alliance.

That’s exactly what took place the weekend of April 5-6, 2008, when over 25 community and labor activists, including PBN reps, gained the skills needed to run an efficient electoral field program at this year’s Campaign School.

The Campaign School successfully engaged and activated everyone who attended through helpful skills-building trainings facilitated by staff and leadership from the LA County Federation of Labor, UCLA Labor Center, LA Trade Tech Labor Studies Center, and PBN California partner, SCOPE.

The School then developed the skills of participants by providing trainings in the following key areas:

• The Big Picture: Understanding the political landscape surrounding our work: What is the issue? Why do we do what we do? Why is it important? What will it take to win?
• Developing Campaign Strategies and Plans: Understanding the basics components of effective electoral field programs including strategy development, key staff roles, recruiting allies and volunteers, overall timelines, and action planning.
• Audience Targeting: Who will receive our message?
• Message Development: How do we move our target audience?
• Message Delivery: Overview of the most effective methods such as one-on-one trainings, door-to-door outreach, phoning, and worksite visits.
• Volunteer Recruitment and Management: How to recruit volunteers and keep them engaged and active.
• Logistics: What are the mechanics of a campaign? What are the technical components?
• Training Volunteers: How to train for precinct walks, phone banks, presentations, worksite activities, etc.
• Results Tracking: Why is it so important? What are the important pieces for tracking? What tools & techniques are needed for effective tracking and evaluation of results?

The 2008 Campaign School proved to be an invaluable experience, not just for myself, but for everyone involved. Campaign School fulfilled its goal of increasing the internal political capacity of statewide alliance-affiliated labor unions, community organizations, and other partners left feeling confident that they could successfully train and deploy teams of field organizers, telephone campaigners and canvassers, and more, during volunteer mobilizations.

(Pictured above: Sharon Delugach, Staff Director of UCLA Labor Center, presenting at 2008 Campaign School.)

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.

Check out the event here.

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.

At the heart of the Tax Fairness Amendment is the repeal of the 4 percent state sales tax on groceries. Alabama is one of only two states – the other is Mississippi – to tax groceries fully with no discount or rebate. For a family of four with a $200 weekly food bill, the tax cut would represent a savings of more than $400 a year at the grocery store.

The Alabama Grocers Association has endorsed the proposal. “As grocers, we see day to day the struggles families have paying for necessities such as groceries and want to do something to help our customers,” said Greg Gregerson, chairman of the association’s legislative committee. Grocery stores across the state will post signs in the coming weeks to educate shoppers about the plan and urge them to ask their legislators to support it.

The amendment also would raise the state’s income tax threshold for a family of four from $12,600 to $20,000 a year by increasing standard deductions and personal exemptions. And it would end the state’s full deduction for federal income taxes, which is worth thousands of dollars for the highest earners but less than $100 for most people who make under $100,000. Ending this deduction would allow the measure to be revenue-neutral, meaning the bill would neither increase nor decrease revenues for the state’s education budget.

The committees’ actions are promising, Alabama Arise state coordinator Kimble Forrister said, and a strong core of support for the measure exists in both chambers. But he cautioned that the next step will be a challenge.

“In lining up commitments for a floor vote, the closer you get to a majority, the harder you have to work,” Forrister said. “We’re excited to get the committees’ endorsements. The committee debate highlighted both the growing support for modernizing the tax structure and a lingering reluctance to correct the imbalance. We hope this will be the year the people of Alabama get a chance to vote for tax fairness.”

ACTION ITEM:
Get your legislator on board!

Call or write your House and Senate members and urge them to support HB 274 and SB 431. Then let us know what they say!