From sharing the perspectives of the children of immigrants to calling out the Speaker of the House for his opposition to a proposed increase of the federal minimum wage, a group of a dozen emerging leaders and organizers from across the country gathered in Seattle last week to learn new ways to tell a story.
The deficit crowd cheered when the President included a concept called “Chained CPI” in his 2014 Budget. This is a proposal to change the way the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is calculated. This change is about as wonky as wonk-dome can get, but here’s a try. Currently the CPI grows based on overall increases in the cost of goods. The Continue reading
Multi-Partisan small business owners spoke out earlier this month, further distinguishing their interests from those of Big Business. Wednesday, in his post “Has the Budget Crisis Du Jour Got You Down?” Bill Daley pointed out that if Congress were to close one tax loophole on offshore accounts, it could be enough to create a ‘job stimulus’ program the country has Continue reading
A term that apparently means nothing to the banks of Colorado and the Alliance affiliate, Colorado Progressive Coalition is set to make the banks understand just what that phrase means. But for homeowners: it means a lot more. A chain of title is the sequence of historical transfers of title to a property. The “chain” runs from the present owner Continue reading
October 17-19, 2013 – New York City
Featuring: Dr. Cornel West, john powell and Pramila Jayapal
The Alliance for A Just Society and Union Theology Seminary are partnering to bring you Cell Blocks & Border Stops. A symposium to deepen and strengthen the relationships between organizing around criminal justice and immigration; develop a shared analysis of the role of race, dehumanization and disposability within both immigration control and mass incarceration; and identify new organizing opportunities and initiatives in these areas centered on personhood and racial justice. Continue reading
The Main Street Alliance is hiring! MSA is looking for a dynamic, senior level candidate to take on the role of Network Director and continue to build our small business network. Click here to review the job description on Idealist.org. Accepting applications on a rolling basis.
Max Baucus assumed the position of US Senator from Montana on December 15th 1978. For 35 years he has been making decisions that affect the lives of not only people from Montana, not only people from the United States, but people from around the world. The Senator has made many friends, to be clear on this issue he has grown quite influential during his tenure. But he made just as many enemies with his votes. For progressives in Montana, his tenure has been, as they say, a mixed bag.
Now he is leaving the Senate. Continue reading
For advocates of health equity and immigrant rights in Oregon, the 2013 legislative session has been particularly sweet,
Continue reading
Immigration reform supporters in Central Florida ratcheted up their work engaging key decision-makers with a string of events over the Memorial Day Recess. Continue reading
These were the first words from my mother to me after not seeing her for, “11 years, 6 months and 15 days.” That’s how long it took for us to reunite. Here on the cusp of immigration reform, a national policy that can take me from undocumented to citizen, from the shadows, to free and connected with the liberation of the men and women, boys and girls with whom I share so much of my experience. At the moment where I can look my mother in the eye and say for certain that the hardship and separation from my family was more than worth it. Continue reading
The Insight Center for Community Economic Development released its latest report finding the payday lending industry cost the American economy $774 million in 2011, causing the estimated net loss of more than 14,000 jobs. Add in the costs caused by an increase in Chapter 13 bankruptcies from borrowers unable to keep afloat of the draining debt cycle, and costs soar to nearly $1 billion. Continue reading
Who crashed the economy? If one turns the pages of Paul Ryan’s spine-chilling budget one sees who conservatives like himself believe to be the biggest threats to the US Economy: Hungry children and pregnant mothers. Continue reading
There’s always something going on in your nation’s capital.
This week’s big show is in the Senate Judiciary Committee where they are processing Comprehensive Immigration Reform. This is enormously important legislation and there appears to be reasonably positive progress — assuming one is willing to endure some shocking attitudes about immigrants as the price for a path to citizenship. Continue reading
Dedicated to the struggle for justice, organizers from across the country came together for the Alliance’s annual 4-day training from May 16-19, with aims to grow, invigorate and innovate. This core training is offered to new organizers from state affiliates’ staff and volunteers, with trainings on basic organizing skills.
| “I’ve seen what community organizing can do and the incredible strength that intelligent, progressive people have when united. Hearing about the changes and victories that occurred has only confirmed for me that this is the work that I want to do: I’ve found my calling!” |
Last week, Sarah Bloom Raskin, Board of Governor of the Federal Reserve System, shared increasing concern over the nations’ wealth gap. Reports by the Huffington post relay, “In my view, the large and increasing amount of inequality in income and wealth, which has been an ongoing development for decades, may have exacerbated the crisis.”
Last week, the National Journal reported that in 2011, the health insurance industry lobby group AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans) quietly funneled $850,000 to the NFIB – the self-proclaimed “Voice of Small Business” – as part of a campaign to repeal a key provision of Obamacare. Continue reading
On Monday, Alliance members from Colorado Progressive Coalition and Washington CAN! joined over 500 homeowners for a day of action targeting the Department of Justice for its continued failure to prosecute Wall Street banks and their executives for major financial crimes. In March, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee the banks were too big to jail. Continue reading
The foreclosure crisis destroyed wealth on a large scale in 2012– with a greater erosion of wealth in communities of color.”
Data show profound disparities in the rate of lost wealth in communities of color in a nationwide report “Wasted Wealth” authored by the Alliance for a Just Society.
Read the full report and see 17 city break out reports at www.wastedwealthreport.com
With our Partners Home Defenders League and the New Bottom Line we are pushing this data into the mainstream to drive home the reality that the foreclosure crisis is not over.
You can also download the national report here: Wasted.Wealth_NATIONAL“
