CPD’s newest initiative, the State Power Project (SPP), is designed to build the grassroots organizational strength of nine state affiliates by engaging and recruiting the public to join as members and engage in individual and collective action. The program launched in LA last month, working with our Sustainability Initiative to train these CPD affiliates to build field membership and canvass programs that will recruit new members and raise essential funding. Organizers came to LA from New Florida Majority, Good Jobs Now, Organize Florida, LUCHA, Make the Road Nevada and Make the Road PA, One PA, New Virginia Majority, Maryland Communities United, Action NC, and CASA (MD, VA, PA).

In it’s next phase, SPP partnered with our Organizing & Capacity Building team to train affiliate staff in essential organizing skills from March 21-23. Twenty organizers and nine supervisors from Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina participated in the three-day training in Phoenix, AZ, home of CPD partner and SPP participant - LUCHA.

Trainees developed essential organizing skills, including how to follow up with leads and how to conduct one-on-one meetings to deepen their activism and turn them into leaders. The training, led by CPD national staff, also focused on the use of a new organizing database created specifically to support CPDs SPP program.

The New York Federal Reserve is choosing the second most influential monetary policymaking position in the country -- arguably the most powerful position in the U.S. that President Trump will not appoint. The next NY Fed President could be our last line of defense against another devastating financial crash, or they could let another one happen. That’s why, on March 12, ten years after one of the worst economic recessions in American history, a coalition of working families, labor leaders, and community organizations, led by CPD’s Fed Up coalition, gathered on Wall Street to tell the NY Fed that they can’t afford another crash.

This action marked the launch of the campaign’s ambitious effort at membership development and popular education, and called on the NY Fed to resist turning to Wall Street in its search for its next president. Using a report titled 10 Years After: the Financial Crisis and the New York Federal Reserve, Fed Up showed the extent of those consequences, examining the lasting impact of the crash in the NY Fed district, finding that more people in the NY Fed district live in poverty today than before the financial crash, while the top one percent of earners have captured a greater share of income.

On March 12, with this context, CPD affiliates SPACES, NYCC, Action NC, Our Walmart, One PA, New Georgia Project, Taller Salud and MORE, joined New Economy Project and New Yorkers still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis, including those who lost homes and jobs, to demand the NY Fed prioritize working people over Wall Street interests with its next appointment. In 2008, when the entire financial system was melting down, the NY Fed met behind closed doors to funnel billions to the big banks. Ten years later, the banks are more profitable than ever, but New Yorkers are still living with the consequences.

This week, news broke that San Francisco Fed President John Williams is the frontrunner to become the next NY Fed President -- another white, male, hawkish Wall Street insider. Just days after the announcement, the Fed Up campaign quickly organized resulting in Senator Cory Booker weighing in with an op-ed in Bloomberg, Senator Warren calling for federal hearings on the process, the New York Times calling the process into question, and the Wall Street Journal noting that there was a "degree of public criticism rarely seen in the relatively obscure world of regional central bank chiefs."

Following the public support, Fed Up released an unprecedented compilation of opposition to the NY Fed's process and appointment that included statements from Senator Kirstin Gillibrand, Mayor Bill DeBlasio, 17 members of the New York City Council, 35 local upstate officials, the City Comptroller Stringer, State Comptroller DiNapoli, and four public representatives from within the Federal Reserve system. Reuters described it as "extraordinary public opposition" and Bloomberg described "intense scrutiny from city hall to Capitol Hill."

The Federal Reserve has never seen anything like this -- and it isn't over yet. Take action today and tell the NY Fed to start the process over, listen to the public and appoint a zealous advocate for full employment and a tenacious regulator as president of the New York Fed!

On March 20, on the six month anniversary of Hurricane Maria which devastated Puerto Rico, hundreds of Puerto Rican families traveled across the country to demand a just recovery for the island. The slow and neglectful response by the federal government had added to the immense devastation Hurricane Maria left in its path.

#6MonthsAfterMaria, hundreds of thousands of people like Mariangely Ortiz are still struggling to survive without power, a roof over their heads, or potable water. Read about Mariangely Ortiz in the New York Times. Thousands of displaced Puerto Ricans, like Daiza Aponte, are still stranded in temporary housing across the country, having to start from scratch in a new land. Read about Daiza’s story in the New York Times.

The day of action began with a rally in front of FEMA’s offices, with families carrying blue tarps that read “HELP” under heavy rain and snow. The families also visited and held sit-ins with Members of Congress, including Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and Sen. Pat Toomey. The day ended in the Senate rotunda, where more than 20 people were arrested in powerful acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.

The rally was organized by Power 4 Puerto Rico, a coalition made up of CPD, the Hispanic Federation, the American Federation of Teachers, SEIU 32BJ, Hedge Clippers, Vamos 4 PR, and the civil disobedience organized by CPD with affiliates NYCC, CASA in Action, Organize FL, and Make the Road NY, NJ, and CT. The event was covered by Univision, Telemundo, ThinkProgress, La Opinión, EFE, Getty Images, El Nuevo Dia and many more, including interviews with Co-Executive Director Ana Maria Archila in NBC News and UPI.

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!