Category: Power to the People
Rebuild the dream
This is the big activist event tonight in DC with Van Jones and the Roots that kicks off a national progressive campaign. Really, you need to watch this – especially if you’ve never heard Van speak:
Countering hate speech against unions
Here’s the panel I was on at Netroots Nation:
Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com
Today
Should be interesting, since I’ve yet to speak with anyone here who has any respect left for the White House:
The conference kicks off Thursday morning in Minneapolis. Organizers say it will be the largest Netroots Nation on record, with more than 2,200 in attendance. Speakers include Minnesota’s own Sen. Al Franken (D), former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Netroots favorite Howard Dean. The White House will also be represented, with Obama communications director Dan Pfeiffer addressing the crowd Friday morning.
Participants told TPM they expected the crowd to be “respectful” of Pfeiffer, but they also made it clear he’s not addressing a friendly crowd.
“He’s got some hard questions to answer,” Netroots executive director Raven Brooks told TPM. “It’s not going to be a bunch of softballs lobbed at him.”
Brooks said participants will likely press Pfeiffer on Obama campaign promises they feel he hasn’t delivered on and frustrations they have over the administration’s compromises on the Bush tax cuts and other matters that have left progressives frustrated.
Chief among those concerns is the economy. Progressives have lamented Obama’s focus on deficits and debt rather than stimulus to create new jobs. Pfeiffer can expect to hear and earful about that one.
“We will be out there fighting Republicans and we’re planning to fight hard for the people who work for a living in this country and the people who are trying to get their piece of the American dream and who haven’t been able to get that lately. Those people are also called Democratic voters,” said Levana Layendecker, communications director for Democracy for America, a progressive advocacy group founded out of the remains of Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign.
“What we want is for the White House to be with us in this fight.”
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), whose district includes Minneapolis and — this weekend, anyway — the epicenter of liberal politics in America, agreed. Despite his position in the Democratic minority in the House, he said Netroots needs to keep the pressure on his party to lean left whenever possible.
UPDATE: I don’t know who the interviewer was, but she was tough and snarky. (I got there late and was sitting all the way in the back.) “We’re Democrats, we’re going to vote for the president. But we’re not knocking on doors, we’re not making calls and we’re not making donations. Are we of any value to you? What are you going to do for us?”
The internet is my religion
I’ve heard lots of people talking about Jim Gilliam’s talk at the Personal Democracy Forum this year, but today was the first time I remembered to sit down and watch it. Very powerful and inspiring:
Here’s your austerity, pal
Britain is on the brink of a series of crippling co-ordinated strikes, with more than a million union members planning to bring the country to a standstill.
Key workers, ranging from teachers to tax officials, university lecturers and coastguard controllers, will walk out on June 30.
Other strikes are likely to follow over the coming months as unions vent their fury at the Government’s programme of spending cuts.
The country’s biggest civil servant union, the Public and Commercial Services Union, is today expected to vote overwhelmingly to ballot for a national strike.
To add to the problems facing the country, it is planning to co-ordinate with other unions to ensure that the walk-outs have the maximum impact.
It has already persuaded teaching unions to join its strike plan, and is continuing to try to persuade other unions to sign up. Speaking on the eve of today’s PCS conference in Brighton, the militant general secretary of the union, Mark Serwotka, said: ‘Together we can win.’
Around 1,050,000 State workers are expected to take part in the national strike next month, which could lead to widespread closures of key government services. Mr Serwotka said he was ‘inspired’ by last year’s student protests, which led to violent scenes in central London.
The unprecedented action by around 680,000 teachers will close almost every school in England.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388155/Unions-plan-million-strong-strike-bring-UK-standstill-summer.html#ixzz1P45eVELe
Florida awakes
Happy to see the Awake the State and Fight for Florida groups in Florida picking up momentum. Politicians count on voter apathy — that’s how a cretin like Gov. Rick Scott got in office in the first place. I’m also happy to see that this movement grew out of RootsCamp, which I’ve attended and highly recommend to those who want to make a difference on the local level:
Last week, about a dozen activists from various liberal groups held a news conference in front of Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio’s Tampa office, denouncing his vote in support of the Paul Ryan-Republican budget that would end Medicare as we know it.
Three weeks earlier, an estimated crowd of 150-200 gathered in front of Republican Representative Jeff Brandes’ office in St. Petersburg just days after the legislative session ended, protesting most of the bills supported by Brandes and his GOP allies.
For longtime observers of Florida progressive politics, it’s been an unusual sight — disgruntled Democrats hitting the streets on a regular basis to show their opposition to a governor and a legislature.
Continue reading “Florida awakes”
Revolution in the air
Students, as always, are on the cutting edge:
Any real revolution in Paris has to include the storming of the Bastille. Which explains why 200 young demonstrators are sitting in the shade of the trees at Place de la Bastille on this Thursday evening, wondering how to go about staging such a revolution.
Their numbers had already swelled to more than 2,000 by the Sunday before, when they had occupied the entrance to the Bastille Opera and half the square. But then the police arrived with teargas and, since then, have kept strict watch over this symbolic site.
The protestors are trying to create a movement to rival the protests in Madrid and Lisbon. They want tens of thousands of young people to march in the streets of Paris, calling for “démocratie réelle,” or real democracy. They believe that there is also potential for such large-scale protest in France, with youth unemployment at more than 20 percent, precarious working conditions and what feels like a constant state of crisis.
“Until now, our problems were always seen as individual problems,” says Julien, a 22-year-old physics student who has joined a group called Actions. “You were told that if you couldn’t find a job, it was your own fault. Perhaps we are now experiencing a change taking place, and that we are joining forces to form a pan-European movement against this system.”
If only more people here understood this.
Time sure flies
I just realized I’m leaving for Netroots Nation next Tuesday. I guess I should pack, or something… or at least figure out why my printer isn’t working, so I can print out my airline tickets (courtesy of the AFL-CIO, who invited me to one of their panels).
I’m looking forward to Minneapolis. One of my best friends lived there for a bit, and raved about it. (Although I won’t get to see much of it, probably. Between panels, workshops and networking events, I’ll be lucky if I leave the hotel.)
You shouldn’t see a huge difference in blogging, since the convention center has wi-fi.
Philly
Green infrastructure and sustainability:
Green City, Clean Waters Promo from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo.