Positive News for Progressives: "WE RISE"

[KoKo]

(Photos I couldn't get to post here are at the LINK)

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/11/we-rise-actions-aim-challenge-rightwing-takeover-state-governments

Wednesday, March 11, 2015
by
Common Dreams
'We Rise' Actions Aim to Challenge Rightwing Takeover of State Governments

Protesters take to the streets and state capitol buildings to declare: 'our statehouses and our cities belong to us'
by
Deirdre Fulton, staff writer
3 Comments

An effigy of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, who supports a $1.5 billion cut from Medicaid and other massive cuts to social services, being marched from the state Capitol Building to the governor's mansion. (Photo: @fancykaitlin/Twitter)

With working families, women, the environment, people of color under attack in state legislatures and city halls around the country, people are stepping up to say: "No more."

To make their message heard by local governments on Wednesday, supporters participated in more than 20 events—including rallies, sit-ins, and acts of civil disobedience—in 16 states as part of the "We Rise" national day of action.

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"Politicians working primarily on behalf of big corporations are making it harder and harder for families to get by," said Ana María Archila, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, which helped organize Wednesday's events along with National People's Action and USAction.

She added: "Our families won’t stand for this, and today thousands of workers and families raised our voices in state houses across the country to demand that elected officials join us in leveling the playing field so that each and every family can thrive."

With the right wing currently in control of more state legislatures than at any time since the 1920s, state houses offer "the right wing's best chance to enact the most extreme legislation," wrote Bernie Horn, senior adviser for Progressive Majority Action and the Public Leadership Institute, in an op-ed last month.

"Apparently conservatives believe they have a mandate to give big corporations another free ride on the backs of everyday people," said George Goehl, executive director of National People’s Action. "But they’re wrong. They have no such mandate. Instead, as we can see in the resistance to draconian policy or Chuy Garcia’s campaign to unseat Rahm Emanuel as Mayor of Chicago, there is a new brand of populism taking root in America. People are fed up with politicians doing the bidding of big money. They’re ready for leaders who will work for, not against, people and the planet."

To that end, close to 2,500 people packed the Illinois Capitol Building in Springfield on Wednesday, where some were arrested for acts of civil disobedience and others chanted, "Tax the rich, now!"


Meanwhile, a parade snaked its way through Albany, New York, with about 1,000 marchers calling for increased funding for public education.
http://twitter.com/calbanetti/status/575698608802168832/photo/1

And in Topeka, Kansas, approximately 200 activists piled into the office of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback to demand that elected officials put people and the planet before profits and polluters.
http://twitter.com/njtann/status/575713010821435392/photo/1

Other actions were taking place in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania (seven different events), West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Follow the activity on Twitter under the hashtag #WeRise.

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http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/11/we-rise-actions-aim-challenge-rightwing-takeover-state-governments

[daleanime]

1. K&R.....

[misterhighwasted]

2. Organize to defeat the Right Wing is the only way to do so

Great to see this. It is powerful.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

4. The people need to be told in clear simple language

who their right wing enemies are and it needs to be repeated over and over.

It is time for a real progressive populist movement, but the message needs to be clear and not overly complex and it needs to be repeated over and over to drive it home into the minds of the people.

[hopemountain]

5. k & r

it takes a whole lot for many of these working people to take time off without pay, find sitters, someone to come stay with an elder, find gas money, carpool, telephone/twitter organizing, meetings, etc., etc.,

the grassroots are the sustenance of america. speaking as a former grassroots community organizer, these people are marching because they are rising to take back the power. join them or make way.

[aspirant]

6. "We Rise"

A slogan that encompasses our SPIRIT. "We live above you" belongs to the 1%.

It can be sung, whispered and shouted and more importantly remembered.

I don't see donation plugs everywhere like the multi-million people strong progressive groups

It really starts here.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU !!!

[rhett o rick]

7. The is another piece of the Populist Movement. Help spread the word.

Thanks for posting KoKo.

[Eleanors38]

8. From the list of actions, the time may be near to call for...

a national meeting or shared social media site from which a large single movement can emerge. Do you see any indication or calls for this?

[aspirant]

9. "shared social media site"

Would this be existing or created anew?

[Eleanors38]

10. I don't know. My knowledge of this area dates to Forbidden Planet's computer...

In my day (1968), a group sprung for a $600/mo. 1-800 number so activists in Gainesville could talk to those in Ann Arbor, talk to Berkeley, talk to Boston, talk to Madison, etc. Unless folks think this is obsolete or unnecessary, I suggest moves toward a unifying umbrella group need to be made soon. Society still recognizes social legitimacy through its mass basis.