Blog
On February 14, CPD’s Fed Up campaign released a new report: Working People Still Need a Voice at the Fed: 2018 Diversity Analysis of the Federal Reserve Bank Directors. It analyzes the gender, racial, and occupational diversity of the 2018 appointees to the twelve Federal Reserve Regional Bank Boards of Directors. The analysis finds that while the Federal Reserve has made modest progress in gender and racial diversity, Fed directors from business and banking continue to dominate leadership positions and fail to represent the interests of labor and consumers.
When people of color, women, labor representatives, consumer advocates, non-profit professionals, community activists, and academics are underrepresented within the Fed’s leadership, policymaking at the Federal Reserve ends up skewed towards the interests of bankers and businesspeople. To ensure that its policy is maximally inclusive and truly takes into consideration economic conditions for all regions and demographics, the Federal Reserve must hear from people of color and women, workers and not just employers, debtors and not just creditors. Read the full report on our website!
On the day after the deadline for the expiration of DACA, we invite you to join historians, activists, and experts including Dr. Mae Ngai, Professor of Asian American Studies and History at Columbia University; immigration rights activist and leader Ravi Ragbir; activist leader Ana Maria Archila of the Center for Popular Democracy; and Bitta Mostofi, Acting Commissioner of the New York City Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, to contextualize the current climate for immigrants in New York against the city’s historic identity as the nation’s melting pot. This event will be moderated by WNYC reporter Matt Katz. The program accompanies an ongoing exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York called Activist New York.
Get your tickets today with the discount code CPD for the Museum Member rate of $10!
In Pennsylvania, the underfunding of schools has led to a lack of resources and the criminalization of young people. On February 22, OnePA premiered an incredible documentary film by Chris Ivey called “Parents Take a Stand for Education Justice,” a story of parents fighting back in Pittsburgh and beyond. The premier included an interactive live panel discussion with students and parents who fought to win a ban on suspensions from PreK to 2nd grade for non-violent conduct in Pittsburgh Public Schools. Thanks to the hard work of the parents and students featured in Ivey’s film, the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board become the first school district in Pennsylvania to prohibit suspensions for minor, non-violent conduct before third grade.
Check out the livestream of the film premiere and panel discussion on OnePA’s Facebook page!
On February 12, CPD launched a two-week Canvass Director Boot Camp in Los Angeles for our largest-ever training with trainees from ten CPD affiliates from across the country, including Good Jobs Now in Detroit, UNE in Denver, Working Washington in Seattle, Organize Florida in Tampa and Orlando, OnePA in Philadelphia, ACCE in Los Angeles, Make the Road PA in Allentown, and VOCAL-NY.
At the boot camp, the canvass directors spent a week in the field learning the tools developed by our partners at Membership Drive, and learning from the canvass training manual developed by our own National Field Lead, Tiffany Cruz. During this first week, our trainees canvassed in Los Angeles on behalf of our CA affiliate, ACCE. Trainees signed up members and supporters for ACCE's work on education justice for students in the LA school district. Canvass directors trained on best practices for directing canvass teams in the field, from practicing the script to learning how to change course when events happen on the ground.
During the second week of the boot camp, canvass directors participated in an intensive in-office management training. Training topics included recruitment, how to give feedback and conduct assessments, how to run team meetings, and how to manage personnel. The CPD training team also conducted a series of one-on-one meetings with each canvass director to set individual goals for their respective canvass programs. The canvass directors will now head back to their communities to build their membership in the field and raise essential funds to help them move progressive policies forward at the local level.
Please help us welcome BLOC from Wisconsin to our growing, powerful network of affiliates! In a state voted the worst place in United States to raise a Black child and bearing the highest incarceration rate for Black men in the entire country, BLOC is building grassroots power on the ground to try and create the conditions in which Black families can fully thrive.
Since its launch in December last year, BLOC’s team has already knocked on over 8,000 doors, engaging community members on the issues that matter most, and pushing themselves to dream big for a new Wisconsin. In the aftermath of Wisconsin’s rightward shift in 2016, BLOC is ensuring that Black Wisconsin votes are not merely chased for national electoral gains, but rather, that high turnout through transformational engagement, deep political accountability, and new, representative leadership is the true path forward. We’re thrilled to welcome BLOC, led by Executive Director, Angela Lang into the CPD network. Be sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date with their incredible work!
During the first week of February, Congressional Republicans gathered for their annual retreat at the Greenbrier, a five-star luxury resort in White Sulphur Spring, West Virginia, with both President Trump and Vice President Pence, to plan their agenda for the year. They were met by over 500 activists kicking off a month of direct action. Many of the community leaders receive public assistance and Medicaid and traveled from nearly a dozen states to send a message that any proposed cuts will be met with a fierce fight. Medicaid, the nation’s public health insurance program for low-income children, adults, seniors, and people with disabilities, covers 1 in 5 Americans, including many with complex and costly needs for medical care and long-term services. Over 80 million people in our country get their health insurance from Medicaid.
From March 12-18, CPD affiliates across the country will keep up the momentum and engage in a week of action to fight new requirements being imposed on Medicaid, particularly those requiring recipients to pass a drug test and/or show evidence of employment.
From New Hampshire to Arkansas, CPD affiliates will take action to show how these new requirements would hurt low-income communities and exacerbate the opioid crisis. Affiliates involved include Hoosier Action, Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement, VOCAL-NY, Maryland Communities United, West Virginia Health Kids and Families, Rights & Democracy NH and VT, and Ohio Organizing Collaborative.
Our affiliates and communities coming together to fight back on this issue illustrates a real policy agenda that will help low-income communities facing the opioid epidemic thrive. For example, the Ohio Organizing Collaborative is canvassing for a groundbreaking ballot initiative that would turn drug-related felonies in to misdemeanors, allowing people who had been caught up in the war on drugs to get their lives on track. Other affiliates are holding town hall events to listen to the voices of their members who are impacted by this issue.
Our message continues to be clear: Congress needs to protect the essential benefits American families count on each day to survive. If you’re interested in joining this fight, please email cpd@populardemocracy.org.
Six months ago Trump ended the DACA program. This decision left hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, who grew up in this country, uncertain about their future. With Trump’s March 5thdeadline fast approaching, Congress has taken no action. And Trump is demanding a white nationalist wish list in exchange for legislative protections for Dreamers – effectively torpedoing all bipartisan proposals. That is why we’re heading back to Washington, DC on March 5 to demand Trump and Congress resolve this crisis. Will you join us on March 5?
Dreamers and their allies have countered hatred and intimidation with a vision of justice and dignity for all immigrant communities. For the past six months, CPD affiliates have been on the forefront of the fight to pass a clean DREAM Act – they have organized dozens of protests, held countless meetings with elected officials, elevated powerful personal stories from Dreamers, and filed lawsuits that led to a temporary court injunction blocking Trump’s decision to end DACA.
After an open debate in mid-February, the Senate was unable to advance any bipartisan proposals. Now conservatives in the House want to use Dreamers as political pawns to advance Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda – the Goodlatte bill would make enormous cuts to family-based migration, attack cities that act to protect immigrants, and fund a deportation machine that tears families apart.
On March 5 (pending a temporary injunction by the courts), hundreds of young immigrants could start losing their DACA status every day – leaving them without work authorization and vulnerable to deportation. CPD is joining forces with a broad coalition to organize another day of action on March 5. Please join us to tell Trump and Congress to resolve this crisis! You can join us in Washington, DC or take action in your own city or state. And please call your Congressional representatives to demand a legislative solution for Dreamers without criminalizing our communities or tearing our families apart.
As the CPD Network continues to take a leading role in the national resistance movement, we partnered with a strong cohort of progressive organizations and artists for a nine-day celebration of community power and cultural resistance in Downtown Los Angeles. From January 13-21, INTO ACTION brought together hundreds of our nation’s most prolific and talented visual artists, young activists, musicians, poets, policymakers and community leaders to face the pain and beauty of the past year, while we plan and organize for the year to come.
CPD’s Racial Justice and Public Affairs teams played an integral role in bringing this event to life. CPD and our partners, including ACCE Action, Initiate Justice, BYP100 Bay Area, and Mobilize The Immigrant Vote produced panel discussions, provided a civil disobedience training, and sponsored the opening night’s headliner with CPD favorite, Sarah Jones. As Sarah performed for a packed house, her calls to defend DACA, fight gentrification, protect our environment and get involved with local politics echoed throughout the space.
On MLK Day, we curated a discussion on the Beauty of Civil Disobedience, followed by a practical training on bird dogging elected officials. This training helped to connect the dots in the local fight against a $3.1 Million LA Jail Expansion that INTO ACTION partner, Justice LA is leading. CPD also organized a panel on the State of Hate: A Discussion on Dismantling White Supremacy that focused on the 118-mile march from Charlottesville, VA to Washington, DC last year. Looking forward, we discussed how to address white supremacy in 2018 through policy changes and elections. Check out the livestream of this riveting panel discussion here!
Last year presented tremendous challenges and struggles for racial justice. State-sponsored attacks on immigrant and Muslim communities coupled with brazen endorsements of white supremacy across the country left leaders needing a space to regroup and strategize about how electeds are leading in a powerful way. Local Progress, a national network of progressive elected officials, and the CPD Racial Justice team organized a strong group of elected and community leaders, with 60 Local Progress members and executive directors of Black-led community organizations across the CPD Network coming together last month in Baltimore, MD for a conversation on racial equity.
This group dug into Local Progress’ police reform work - discussing everything from asset forfeiture and use of force, to officer training and bans on profiling. We also spent time thinking more broadly about what safety means in communities, learning about CPD’s Freedom to Thrive framework and the ways in which budgeting processes can bring about equity in our communities. Ultimately, leaders grappled with how to shift the narrative on what public safety is and what communities really need to succeed.
This convening allowed elected officials and community leaders across the country to share resources and learn from each other. In two days, leaders built strong connections and community to sustain the work on racial justice and equity in the long term. People left the convening, a space full of collaborative spirit and shared learning, energized and ready to go back to their communities to carry the work forward. You can see photos from the convening on Facebook!
Nearly four months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, incredible numbers of people are still without power, major segments of the population have no access to clean running water, roads are destroyed, and impacted people continue to die. The most vulnerable communities, as always, have been ravaged the worst.
Yet in the midst of this darkness, there has been light. Thanks to major online giving, significant foundation donors, support from celebrities, and dozens of locally organized fundraising events throughout the country, the Maria Fund -- a hurricane relief and rebuilding fund for Puerto Rico housed at CPD -- has raised nearly $4.8 million since Hurricane Maria made landfall of September 20, 2017. Already supporting an impressive 33 grassroots, community-based initiatives focused on vital relief and rebuilding work throughout Puerto Rico, the fund has supported vital community organizing, provided food, cleared roads, connected residents to essential services, and more.
The Maria Fund is deeply committed to supporting community organizing work that will build an equitable Puerto Rico over the long-term. As in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, in the months and years after climate disasters like Maria, vulnerable communities are largely left out of rebuilding initiatives. Too often, the destruction is used by developers and corporations as an opportunity to turn a profit, privatize public services, and displace communities. Support for community organizing in this context is critical to support a Puerto Rican future of equity and sustainability rather than displacement and deepened inequality.
Guided by a committee made up entirely of Puerto Rican leaders, focused on transforming the root causes of the crisis, and committed to the development of a new sustainable and equitable Puerto Rico, the Maria Fund will continue to drive vital support to frontline social change initiatives and transformative change projects in Puerto Rico over the coming months. Please donate today!
