Blog
In a video launched on social media on February 4, CPD announced that our Co-Executive Director, Ana Maria Archila, would join Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as an invited guest at the State of the Union. Like millions of others, we are inspired by Alexandria’s fierce leadership and her bold, hopeful vision.
Members of Congress get to bring one person each to the address. Ocasio-Cortez chose Ana Maria for the courage and leadership she showed while confronting Senator Jeff Flake in an elevator on Capitol Hill during Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. The choice was symbolic in a moment when immigrants and reproductive rights are under attack, and we are all called upon to stand up.
Ana Maria understood the invitation was not solely for her, but really was an invitation for people across the country to tell their stories, to join in protest, and to breathe life into our democracy by ensuring the people’s demands and aspirations are at the center for our debates. Stand with Ana Maria, AOC and the CPD Network by giving $5 or whatever you are able. Donate today.
Archila is a longtime community organizer, outspoken sexual-assault survivor, and a constituent of Ocasio-Cortez’s district. Ana Maria’s invitation to the State of the Union was covered on MSNBC with Rachel Maddow, CNN with Dana Bash, ABC , Univision, and Democracy Now!, and made headlines across major outlets like The New York Times, CBS News, Vox, Teen Vogue, Business Insider, The Intercept, and Huffington Post among many others. Archila was also included in Jezebel’s list of Most Inspiring Women of 2018 last December.
On December 6, with a 14-3 vote and a packed chamber, the Philadelphia City Council passed a fair workweek ordinance impacting 130,000 service workers throughout the city. The policy guarantees predictable hours, opportunities for full-time work, adequate rest between work shifts and a voice for workers in crafting their schedules. The victory in Philadelphia follows New York City, Seattle, Oregon, San Francisco, Emeryville, and San Jose in delivering a fair workweek for hourly workers in the hospitality, food service and retail sectors.
CPD affiliate One Pennsylvania ran a powerful public education campaign, working closely with chief sponsor (and Local Progress co-chair) Councilwoman Helen Gym (@HelenGymAtLarge) and the Fair Workweek PHL coalition, which included Unite Here 274 and UFCW 1776. The campaign overcome strong industry led opposition, garnering extensive positive media coverage with over 100 press hits. Check out this video and One PA member Madison Nardy's account of her transformational experience with the Fair Workweek campaign.
On December 15, the Center for Popular Democracy, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera), and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) published “Advancing Universal Representation: A Toolkit.” Immigrants in US court proceedings, who are often detained and face deportation, do not currently have the right to government-funded lawyers. Instead, they must navigate the notoriously complicated and ever-changing labyrinth of immigration law alone against a trained government attorney. The report highlights that universal representation—publicly funded legal counsel for all—is more urgent now than ever before. Expanding universal representation programs in communities across the country is crucial to upholding due process for all people at imminent risk of deportation.
CPD, NILC, and Vera are working in close coordination to expand the national movement for publicly funded universal representation. CPD and NILC provide strategic support to local and state advocacy campaigns. In 2017, Vera launched the Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Network in partnership with a diverse group of local jurisdictions, providing strategic support to government partners, legal service providers, and advocates. Collectively, CPD, NILC, and Vera also coordinate at a national level, creating resources and space for advocates advancing universal representation to share, strategize, and learn from one another.
This report is the first component of a three-part toolkit (Modules 2 and 3 forthcoming in 2019) informed by CPD, NILC, and Vera’s experiences advancing the universal representation movement. These experiences have been guided by the expertise of advocates, organizers, legal service providers, and policymakers across the country who have led publicly funded deportation defense efforts. The toolkit is intended to equip these same stakeholders with strategies to make the case for implementing and sustaining universal representation programs. Download the full toolkit on our website.
Throughout the month of December, CPD Network partners and affiliates joined the Families Belong Together Coalition members to fight back against proposals from the federal administration for a border wall and increased enforcement funding. The first of these actions was a lobby day hosted on December 6 by CPD affiliate CASA in Washington, DC, who teamed up with the National Domestic Workers Alliance and CPD staff members.
A week later, on December 12, to continue our efforts to build pressure, members of United We Dream, FIRM, Make the Road New York and CASA went inside a subcommittee hearing on the migrant caravan and walked out silently to protest the racist rhetoric of the federal administration. While this happened, members of the Birddog Nation waved pictures of migrant children at the hearing eventually getting arrested for civil disobedience.
Finally on December 20, members of CASA, Make the Road NY, United We Dream and The National Domestic Workers Alliance conducted a silent walk-out at hearings in Congress while Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen was testifying in order to condemn the continued push for wall funding and family separation. Following the walk-out, CPD Network members went to congressional offices and sang Christmas Carols that reinforced the need for immigrants to be welcomed in our communities, bolstering the resolve to reject any attempts to build a wall. At the same time, the Make the Road family, including Make the Road PA, Make the Road CT, Make the Road NJ and Make the Road NV, held actions in their states during the budget negotiations.
On Wednesday, February 6, Instacart, a Silicon Valley upstart that delivers groceries and other household items to customers through an app, reversed a tipping policy that cheated workers out of rightfully earned wages. Workers took to social media and CPD affiliate, Working Washington, quickly organized to collect more than 1,500 signatures and helped spark a national media sensation. As a result, Instacart, a $7 billion corporation, gave in, retroactively compensating workers for lost wages and transforming its pay model for thousands of workers across the country. The story made headlines in The New York Times, Buzzfeed, NBC News, and other local outlets.
Late last year, Instacart changed its method for paying its contract workers. Workers began to notice that for some orders, tips that customers had added during checkout were being counted toward their base pay rather than in addition to it. In effect, Instacart was using the tips that workers earned to offset the wages that workers were due.
The Instacart story is victory, but also a lesson and warning. In the rising gig economy–a free market system in which companies contract with independent workers for short-term engagements–it is crucial that both workers and consumers hold corporations accountable for compensating their employees fairly. This is a step in the right direction but there is still a long way to go. If you are interested in getting involved to support this campaign, sign up for a Working Washington national organizing meeting by clicking here, or by reaching out to Executive Director, Rachel Lauter at rachel@workingwa.org.
After being diagnosed with ALS two years ago, I’ve been grappling with a lot of things. I’ve been figuring out how to communicate without the easy flow of words, and how to move without the simple use of my legs.
I’ve been thinking about my family. But I’ve also been thinking about the work I’ve devoted my life to – and the future of our democracy, which is also as deeply personal as it is political.
I spent six weeks this summer traveling across the country in a wheelchair-accessible RV talking to other people’s families, to citizens and activists about their experiences and hopes. In every state I visited, communities were asking the same questions: What will our children inherit? And what can we do now to impact our future, and theirs?
These are difficult questions in difficult times. We’ve seen outrage after outrage. Just last week a Texas judge ruled that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate was unconstitutional. This decision risks throwing the nation’s health care system into turmoil, the one we fought so hard last year to protect, the one that is helping me and some 20 million others to survive.
I am willing to give my last breath to protect our democracy. What are you willing to give?
The CPD Network is rising to the moment and standing up with working families across the country. With the power of 53 partners and allies across 131 cities and 34 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, we are fighting against hate with an increased massive push for healthcare for all, and we are fighting for justice and for the chance for our children to thrive.
Social justice means creating a stable floor beneath our feet and then putting a safety net under that: universal healthcare, affordable housing, unemployment benefits, community safety. Being part of a progressive movement is about fighting back and building toward a better future.
The stakes have never been higher. Join me to fight back and fight forward. Make a year-end donation at populardemocracy.org/ourdemocracy.
In solidarity, Ady BarkanSenior Campaigner, CPD & CPD Action
I’m proof that each of us has the power to make a great difference – if we work together.
I began as an organizer for CPD affiliate the Delaware Alliance for Community Advancement (DelACA), where I learned to bring people together on the issues they care about most. I decided to run for higher office with the hopes of tangibly impacting DelACA members on issues of criminal justice reform, voting rights, healthcare, and the opioid crisis – all truly national issues that disproportionately affect communities of color like mine.
I won 35% of the statewide vote in my very first run for US Senate against an incumbent who has been in office for 42 years. My message of progressive transformation in Delaware resonated with tens of thousands of people waiting to animate our democracy through action. Now, as a member of DelACA, we are working to galvanize this excitement into a broad progressive base of activists to build real and lasting power in Delaware with the CPD Network.
I started alone. But I quickly learned that when communities act together, they build power. And when people in grassroots organizations from all across our country raise their voices in unison, they exert that power to win change. And that is why the CPD Network exists – to build power that cannot be ignored, power that is winning change with a real impact on people’s lives.
And we need your continued support more than ever. Please become a monthly sustainer and make a tax-deductible donation today.
Every person who joins us becomes more powerful and powers us. Your generosity truly helps us to go door to door, neighborhood to neighborhood.
Since 2014 the CPD Network has improved the lives of nearly 30 million people on issues of immigration, taxation, healthcare, education, climate justice and so much more.
So I ask you to continue to raise your powerful voice. Please give as much as you can to make this next year our most powerful and groundbreaking yet.
My story is just one of many within the CPD Network of working to realize our shared vision of equity and opportunity. When we join together, we know that change is on the horizon. We must not back down until it is a reality!
In solidarity, Kerri Evelyn HarrisMember, DelACA
On December 19, the Center for Popular Democracy released the timely report “Bad Deal, Bad Company, Bad Billionaire: How Proposed Taxpayer Subsidies for Amazon HQ2 Can Still Be Stopped.” Co-released with ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York, Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change, and Partnership for Working Families, the report outlines New York State and City’s proposed $3 billion in corporate giveaways to Amazon in the form of tax credits, capital grants, land-use fast-tracking, and property tax abatements.
The report highlights key ways that Amazon’s proposed second headquarters (HQ2) in Long Island City, Queens would harm New York communities and exacerbate inequality in the city. Amazon’s HQ2 will threaten affordable housing, accelerate gentrification, and strap struggling public infrastructure.
The report concludes with concrete ways that elected officials in New York can stop one of the largest corporate giveaways in the state’s history. And just last week, State Senator Michael Gianaris, a vocal supporter of worker’s rights who has been critical of the proposed Amazon giveaways, was appointed by the NY State Senate to the powerful Public Authorities Control Board, which holds key approval authority. Read the full report on our website.
“Prison.”
That was the response a 5-year-old Black girl gave at a community meeting I attended at a church in New Orleans, more than a year ago. The question: what do you and your friends call school?
It was a devastating and unforgettable moment that animated the deep and often hidden psychological impact of the school-to-prison pipeline. What does it say about the values of society (and our education system), when such young children think of their schools and education in this way?
Every day, tens of thousands of young people of color go to schools that feel like jails. From in-school police presence to alarmingly high suspension rates, harsh disciplinary policies rooted in racial discrimination disproportionately affect Black and Brown children in our public schools. Indeed, the resulting school-to-prison pipeline is one of the most egregious manifestations of systemic racism in the United States.
The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) continues to support Black and Brown youth from all across the country who have a clear vision of safe, inclusive, and supportive schools. Young people who are part of the CPD youth network, Youth Everywhere Rising and Resisting (YERR), have joined youth from all over the country calling for an end to the school-to-prison pipeline and police-free schools.
Youth of color reject so-called ‘school safety’ measures that criminalize them and the CPD Network is standing behind them. We are supporting the youth in demanding a focus on learning, guidance and the freedom to thrive.
Thousands of people, including many of you, showed your support for the #YouthDemand message and sent messages to the Federal Commission on School Safety demanding that it listen to this vision. Instead, the Commission has advocated for the rescission of the federal civil rights guidance on school discipline, provided a roadmap for how schools can bring more guns into school by arming personnel, and is entrenching the school-to-prison pipeline by advocating for “hardening” schools with more metal detectors,police, and military personnel.
Will you send a message to Congress that we need them to use all of their powers to end the school-to-prison pipeline now?
Young people from all across the country are saying enough. School safety is about their lives; about their daily experiences. They are calling for divestment from school policing, increased funding for more guidance counselors, mental health support and restorative justice, as well as increased pay for their teachers, among other things. They have a clear vision for their schools and they are demanding that their voices be heard.
This fight is far from over. We need your support now to continue elevating the voices and experiences of youth of color in their fight to end the school-to-prison pipeline.Your generosity allows us to work with young people and support them in realizing their vision of safe, inclusive, and supportive schools in our communities and beyond. I urge you to please make a donation to ensure that youth of color are central to the conversation about school safety.
The future of our democracy will be driven by these young visionaries. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation before the end of the year to join young people in dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline.
In solidarity,Dmitri HoltzmanDirector of Education Justice Campaigns, CPD
