The Center for Popular Democracy is excited to welcome two new affiliate organizations to our growing network: Comunidades Organizando El Poder Y La Acción Latina MN (COPAL-MN) and Montana Human Rights Network (MHRN). We are proud to bring these two powerful organizations into our network and to fight alongside them to build a better world. 

Based in Minneapolis, COPAL-MN operates in the twin cities and throughout Southern Minnesota. Read more about them here. Like us, they believe Latinx communities are a powerful force in the fight for environmental justice, access to quality education, and immigrant rights and more. Just last year, COPAL’s staff and volunteers had more than 20,000 conversations with community members about the importance of voting, and collected more than 18,000 pledges to vote!  Additionally, COPAL provides crucial support to the community through census support, citizenship classes, consulate support, and their Navigators program, which helps connect community members to life-saving assistance during times of crisis.

MHRN was formed in 1990, after local community groups formed to counter white supremacist organizing across the state of Montana in the late 1980s. Read about MHRN’s mission here. Today, MHRN operates statewide with 10 affiliates and 10,000 members, working to expand human rights in Montana by pursuing progressive public policy, combating white nationalism, and supporting community organizing. They work to advance critical issues such as LGBT rights, economic justice, immigrant and refugee rights, and tribal sovereignty, and continue to fight bigotry—from anti-semitism to  islamophobia whereever it rears its head. Last year, with far-right extremism on the rise in all corners of the country, MHRN worked tirelessly to combat far-right ideologies in Montana through public education, including publishing this video analysis of the history of the far-right in the state. 

We’re incredibly excited to welcome COPAL-MN and MHRN into the CPD/A family!