Alliance Cross Training is Vital to Growing the Grassroots

(Post written by Alain Nahimana, posted online by David Fleishman)

Sharing resources between organizations includes putting people on the ground, side-by-side.

It gave me a sense that whether the work we do is statewide or on a federal level, the challenges we face are the same. My name is Alain Nahimana and I am an organizer with Maine People’s Alliance. A community organizer can work in all environments, not only in his/her community.

I was joined by a MPA member Sonia Irambona and Grady Burns, canvasser. The three of us were set down in some of Virginia’s toughest turf to canvass for immigration reform. Harold Folley of Virginia Organizing even made sure we had the number for the police handy. These were towns considered hostile, right in the middle of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s district. (Virginia’s 7^th District)Continue reading “Alliance Cross Training is Vital to Growing the Grassroots”

Pushing Back Against the Criminalization of Everyday Life.

In the past four decades, mass incarceration and immigration control in the United States has skyrocketed. Today, the U.S. incarcerates more of its population than any other country in the world – at rates unmatched in modern history.

More than seven million people are under control of the criminal justice system. The U.S. has less than five percent of the world’s population, but we have almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. China, which has four times more people than the United States, is a distant second in incarceration numbers, with 1.6 million people in prison.

With the increase in private prisons – driven by making profits for their investors – we are seeing an increase in the criminalization of everyday life.

Read our new report –

Communities Under Attack: Pushing Back Against the Criminalization of Everyday Life.

When Living Your Life is Called a Crime

Millions of people have become casualties of the prevailing system of criminalization. Entire communities of people must be deemed “throw-away” or “castaways” in order to gain maximum profits and drive a robust free- market that exists beyond the realm of ethics and humanity. These communities are almost always low-income and disproportionately, communities of color.

The influence of the profit-driven in our legal system and the systems that feed it must continue this trend in order to maintain their financial gains. Gains made at the expense of millions of Americans.

The Institute for Pragmatic Practice, Union Theological Seminary and the Alliance for a Just Society hosted Cell Blocks and Border Stops in NYC.Continue reading “When Living Your Life is Called a Crime”

Caldwell, ID City Council Asked to Move Payday Lenders Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Community and ICAN Push Council to Limit Industry From Preying on the Poor

“With the average payday loan in Idaho carrying an interest rate of 350% and with the average borrower taking out 7 payday loans to pay off the initial loan”, predatory loan businesses continue to swarm into our state. Last year alone, payday loans accounted for a negative economic impact of $1 BILLION! http://www.insightcced.org/uploads/assets/Net%20Economic%20Impact%20of%20Payday%20Lending.pdf This is money that our communities lost, nationwide.

Volunteers and members of Idaho Community Action Network went into the neighborhoods of Caldwell and gathered 400 signatures from families who both see and personally experience the impact of payday and title loan businesses. The canvassers met families; families who have lost their only vehicle; families who lost their home; their job and even their children, because they needed help. They learned about loved ones who died owing a debt to a predatory lender. Continue reading “Caldwell, ID City Council Asked to Move Payday Lenders Out of Sight, Out of Mind”

“Millions of Small Steps for Americans… One Giant Leap for Health Justice”

It isn’t often we want to reach out and simply congratulate everyone for a job well done. Since 2009, when President Obama held the first summit on healthcare, we have tirelessly organized millions of grassroots voices to demand affordable insurance coverage for every American.Continue reading ““Millions of Small Steps for Americans… One Giant Leap for Health Justice””

Main Street to Microsoft: “Stop offshore tax dodging”

This week, hundreds of Washington state small business owners affiliated with the Main Street Alliance of Washington sent an open letter to Microsoft calling on tech giant to stop offshore tax dodging, the Seattle Times reports.

According to BloombergBusinessweek, Microsoft tops the list of U.S. tech firms with the biggest overseas profit hauls, holding $76 billion in profits stashed offshore. In their letter, small business owners express their disappointment that Microsoft has joined in coalitions with other big corporate interests lobbying for a permanent tax amnesty on offshore profits – a so-called “territorial” tax system – while backing cuts to Medicare and Social Security that would wreak further havoc on the Main Street economy.

“Small business owners are proud to contribute our fair share. We know that in order to build strong local economies, Continue reading “Main Street to Microsoft: “Stop offshore tax dodging””

Bad Medicine Report Details Influence of Pharma in DC Budget Failure

Released to the Press

September 25, 2013

New Report Analyzes Interest Group Influence in Blocking Proposed Cost Saving Measures in Medicare

Report Finds Influence of Pharmaceutical Industry as Major Impasse to Common Sense Budget Fixes

Congress has failed to act on a commonsense, good-government approach to controlling health care costs. The significant resources the pharmaceutical industry has put toward influence and access has rendered Congress unable to act in the public interest.

Bad Medicine: Pharmaceuticals’ Prescription for Profits Over People, released by the Alliance for a Just Society details the overwhelming influence of Big PhRMA on congressional outcomes and finds that the imbalance created by industry spending harms both the interest of the American people and our democratic process.

Continue reading “Bad Medicine Report Details Influence of Pharma in DC Budget Failure”

Delaying the Vote in Immigration Reform Has Not Silenced the Movement

We have the votes. Supporters of immigration reform in the House of Representatives have said it on many occasions, even before the Congressional recess, that the votes exist in the House to pass immigration reform.

Delaying the vote seems to be the House opposition’s approach to waiting for the immigration reform movement to divide itself, disengage from the efforts, or even disperse.Continue reading “Delaying the Vote in Immigration Reform Has Not Silenced the Movement”

Risking Personal Freedom for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Marco Saavedra sacrificed his own freedom to demand the immediate release of the low-priority detainees found in detention centers across the country whom could be spared from deportation simply by applying prosecutorial discretion. He is right. Not only will releasing non-criminal to low-level offenders reunite families, it will save the United States

a ton of money.

In July 2012, Mr. Saavedra took bold and heroic actions as he and his team of freedom fighters was intentionally detained to shed light on the shortcomings of the newly implemented

Deferred Action for Child Arrivals, commonly termed, the “Dream Act.” Continue reading “Risking Personal Freedom for Comprehensive Immigration Reform”

Work, Productivity, Play and Compensation in America

Americans work longer and harder than our peers in almost every industrial nation.

On average Americans are working 1800 hours per year, beating out Germany, France, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, United Kingdom, Australia and Finland. According to The International Labour Organization American released a report stating that “workers in the United States on average produce $63,885 of wealth annually; compared to other industrialized countries of Europe, only Norway’s workers produce more wealth per hour ($37.99 in U.S. dollars) than do American workers ($35.63.)”Continue reading “Work, Productivity, Play and Compensation in America”