The next step in our campaign to take on the big banks pay and win relief for homeowners is to disrupt business as usual at shareholder meetings across the country. The goal of these actions is to build off the fall mobilizations and the Occupations to keep up the street heat holding the 1% and bank executives accountable – Continue reading
The case challenging the Affordable Care Act has a lot in it to think about. Much of the public debate and the stories in the press are about the requirement that everyone have insurance – the individual responsibility requirement. But there also is a challenge to the Medicaid expansion.
Photo by ToGa Wanderings A couple of days ago, the New York Times reported that the super PACs backing President Obama had fallen far behind on fundraising, and it’s not clear they’re going to catch up with their Republican counterparts. According to the Times, “Mr. Obama’s backers on Wall Street are leery of their money being used for attacks Continue reading
Alliance for a Just Society bank teams in Washington, Texas, Colorado and Idaho had a busy week, making headlines with everything from birdogging presidential candidates to passing city ordinances. Romney Action in Seattle – Washington CAN and Working WA teamed up to greet a fundraiser for Mitt Romney in Bellevue yesterday. Protestors mocked the $2500 photo op fundraiser by taking Continue reading
From the Main Street Alliance Website:
Main Street Alliance of Oregon has been surveying business owners throughout Oregon and is finding strong interest in electoral reform. Currently around eight in ten business owners feel the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, freeing corporations to spend unlimited sums of money in elections, is bad for small business. And seven in ten would support a constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are not people and money is not speech. Continue reading
From Ron Williams, Executive Director, Oregon Action
Alliance for a Just Society affiliate Oregon Action testified in front of the Portland City Council on May 9th in support of a local ordinance that would divest money out of Wells Fargo and into local community banks and credit unions. Continue reading
The interest rate on subsidized Stafford Loans is set to double. If Congress doesn’t sort out its differences, seven million Americans will see their student loan rates double, creating further drag on the economy. Continue reading
Bill Daley is the Federal Issues Policy Director at The Alliance for a Just Society.
May was Minority Health Month and a couple of things happened that deserve a bit of attention. And it’s also important to note that not enough happened and more attention is needed. Continue reading
In a recent report on immigration released by the Department of Homeland Security, statistics overwhelmingly show that immigration officials are not evenly applying new enforcement guidelines in deportation cases. Continue reading
Student loan interest rates have taken center stage in the latest partisan political debate. In response to the economic crisis, the federal government reduced the interest rate for Stafford Loans from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. But that was only temporary. Continue reading
It’s tax season. And that means tax policy is at the center of the public debate. So are claims about how changes to the tax code will affect small businesses.
To separate fact from fiction, the Main Street Alliance released a pair of new “straight talk” fact sheets addressing topics relating to small business and taxes. Continue reading
In the United States, the secret ballot is a long-standing tradition. But that refers to our choices as voters remaining secret – not to the idea that we don’t know who we’re voting for.
But now we’re living in the world of Citizens United, in which outside groups can pool rich people’s millions with corporations’ millions to influence elections, all without disclosing whose interests they’re promoting. Continue reading
An internship with the Alliance is an opportunity for personal development and to expand your horizons, on issues — like social justice, income inequality, health care access, immigration — that impact millions. Interns will have the chance to work on important, tangible public policy products that will have immediate impacts.
The Alliance seeks candidates with passion and pride in their abilities, and who yearn to make a difference. Continue reading
Throughout most of our history the Supreme Court has been accorded a special place as a fair and impartial arbiter of legal issues. Sometimes the Court has failed in this role, but, for the most part it has been an important force in the unity of the nation because seemed to deserved respect.
The current Supreme Court majority has become so partisan that it is systematically undermining the principle of law and injecting in its place a radical corporate elitism that threatens our political stability by undergirding extreme economic inequality.
Latinos are growing fast in both numbers and voting strength in Idaho. With over 11 % of the state’s population concentrated in specific counties, Latinos are the swing voters for some state races and the 1st congressional district.
This power will only grow with time as age eligibility and naturalization rates increase for Latinos in Idaho. Continue reading
Small business leaders in the Main Street Alliance network stood up to be counted on health care over the last ten days as the Affordable Care Act’s two year anniversary led into oral arguments at the Supreme Court. Continue reading
Rural Organizing Project Cara Shufelt (2nd right) joined AJS Executive Director LeeAnn Hall (3rd right) and Gary Delgado (right) in honoring Marcy Westerling (left) founding Director of the Rural Organizing Project.
The Alliance for a Just Society hosted our third Institute for Pragmatic Practice symposium on March 28-30. The Institute for Pragmatic Practice (IPP) is a project of theAlliancethat brings together organizers, academics, leaders and visionaries to explore theories and innovative strategies to address public policy.
What if the Supreme Court…..?
On Wednesday, March 28th, three days of argument ended at the Supreme Court over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Given the hostility shown a number of Supreme Court Justices, there is every chance that at least the individual mandate will be invalidated.
There is a whole bunch of hand-wringing that will go on if the mandate is toasted, but let’s take a little look back at just where this mandate came from. Continue reading
In 1965, the American South was a battlefield for civil rights. A wealthy elite sought to block the rights and voice of the Black community. This battle reached a tipping point in Alabama over the basic right to vote.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Almost fifty years later, many states have launched an undemocratic attack on workers’ rights, voting rights, and immigrant rights.
