Reform

In Defense Of Ilhan Omar, Again

March 8, 2019 Jeffrey C. Isaac, Publicseminar.org Educate! Anti-Semitism, Reform

Ilhan Omar is again at the center of controversy, this time for remarks she made last week at a panel discussion at Busboys and Poets, a Washington, D.C. bookstore and restaurant. Omar’s “offending” comment was a reference to “the political influence in this country that says that it’s ok for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” She was immediately accused of feeding centuries-old anti-Semitic tropes about the nefarious influence of a Jewish cabal. A chorus of denunciations have ensued, a number of prominent House Democrats, most of them Jewish, have taken particular offense...

The English Diggers, The “Commons,” And The Green New Deal

March 7, 2019 Ed Simon, Historynewsnetwork.org Educate! Green New Deal, Reform

In April of 1649 a group of radicals, some veterans of the recent English civil wars, occupied a bit of common grass on a plot known as St. George’s Hill in Surrey and they began to grow vegetables. These radicals called themselves “True Levellers” to distinguish themselves from another, more moderate political faction, but everybody else called them “Diggers” in reference to both a scriptural passage as well as their literal activity on the hill. In a spirit of communal fellowship, they invited the people of Surrey, then suffering under exorbitant prices food prices, to “come in and help them, and promise them meat, drink, and clothes.”

The Keys To The Sunrise Movement’s Momentum? A Bold Idea, A Visionary Narrative, And Organising Best Practices

March 7, 2019 By Climate Advocacy Lab, Mobilisationlab.org Resist! Climate Change, Green New Deal, Reform

Over the last year and a half, the Sunrise Movement and its allies have promoted an energy infrastructure plan known as the Green New Deal so effectively in the US that the policy now features on most pundits’ “2019 climate items to watch” lists. The team at Climate Advocacy Lab wanted to highlight some of the key public engagement and movement-building aspects of this policy and campaign. We are a project that supports climate and clean energy advocates to develop evidence-based best practices for mobilising Americans...

Lake Erie Just Won The Same Legal Rights As People

March 1, 2019 By Sigal Samuel, Vox.com Create! Ohio, pollution, Reform, Water

It started in a pub. A handful of people, hunched over beers in Toledo, Ohio, were talking about a water crisis that had plagued the city in 2014. The pollution of Lake Erie had gotten so bad that it had taken a serious toll on their lives. The government, they felt, wasn’t doing enough to protect the lake. And so they wondered: What if the lake could protect itself? The idea they hatched that night ultimately resulted in a special election, which had the citizens of Toledo voting Tuesday on a very unusual question: Should Lake Erie be granted the legal rights normally reserved for a person?

The Green New Deal Can Work – Here’s How

February 28, 2019 By Jeremy Brecher, Labor Network for Sustainability Create! Electoral Politics, Environment, Green New Deal, Reform

Global warming has rightly been called history’s “greatest market failure.” Correcting it cannot be left to the market. The GND will need bold economic planning, industrial policies, and public investment to guide and facilitate the process. It will need full-employment macroeconomic policies that prevent unemployment, assure prosperity, and encourage full use of economic resources during the transition. And it will need public mobilization and redirection of human and material resources that are required for the transition. Therefore the GND requires government institutions specifically designed to implement the transition to climate protection.

A Wolf In Electoral Reform, Medicare For Some & Healthcare’s Front Lines

February 21, 2019 Staff, Occupy.com Resistance Report Electoral Politics, Health Care, Medicare, Reform

First off, some GOOD NEWS! From the environmental justice front lines and the streets of Queens, here's some inspiration to fuel your activism. Next, could it be true that the House introduced progressive legislation to address our painfully corrupted electoral system? Well, kinda. Here's a look at HR1 and why WE need to look beyond the veil of sweet-sounding reforms. Next up, a similar problem with the recently passed War Powers resolution that aims to cut our support of the genocide in Yemen.

City Council Approves Bill That Could Shut Down Massive Trash Incinerator

February 13, 2019 Dharna Noor, Therealnews.com Create! Baltimore, Legislation, Reform, Waste

Baltimore City Council unanimously passed a bill on Monday that would force the city’s Wheelabrator trash incinerator to dramatically reduce its emissions of pollutants or shut down. 14 of 15 council people voted yes; one, Councilman Kris Burnett (D-8), was absent. The bill, co-sponsored by 13 of 15 council people, will now go to Mayor Pugh’s desk for final approval. “Mayor Pugh is 100% for clean air but she will need to review the legislation,” said a representative from her office. The incinerator burns most of the city’s trash, and also burns trash from surrounding localities.

Flurry Of Fake Net Neutrality Bills Are More Smoke And Mirrors From Cable-Backed Republicans

February 8, 2019 Timothy Karr, Freepress.net Educate! Electoral Politics, Legislation, Net Neutrality, Reform

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, Reps. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), Cathy Anne McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington) and Greg Walden (R-Oregon) announced at a Subcommittee on Communications & Technology hearing that they would introduce separate pieces of legislation they falsely claim will protect the open internet. Full text for all of these bills was not immediately available or public when Republican members referenced them at the hearing. If passed in reported form, these bills would legalize numerous harmful and discriminatory practices while preventing the Federal Communications Commission from adopting and enforcing rules to protect internet users going forward.

Millionaire-Driven Education Reform Has Failed. Here’s What Works.

February 5, 2019 By Lynn Parramore, Ineteconomics.org Create! Education, Reform

Economist Peter Temin has noted that when societies like the United States split into separate economies of haves and have-nots, there remains one ticket to a better life: education. You’ve likely heard that this ticket is getting shredded. What once made America exceptional — robust investment in public education to prepare kids for life in a democracy — has faded, partly thanks to the efforts of a handful of haves whose money and influence foisted market-based makeovers onto American schools.

Officers Accused Of Abuses Are Leading Chicago Police’s “Implicit Bias” Training Program

February 4, 2019 Debbie Southorn and Sarah Lazare, Theintercept.com Educate! Abuse, Chicago, Police, Reform

SERGIO HERRERA, A Chicago police officer, was accused in a 2010 lawsuit of teaming up with another officer to mace and beat a black man for no reason. The man was sitting in his parked car when Herrera’s colleague approached the vehicle. As the man went to retrieve his identification, the officer told him to “cuff up,” at which point Herrera entered the fray, spraying the man with mace according to the lawsuit. Both officers then allegedly proceeded to throw the man to the ground, strike him in the head with handcuffs, and dig their knees into his back. When the man asked for medical assistance, his pleas were ignored. Instead, the police took him to the station.

Fighting For Justice: Why Cross-Movement Collaboration Is Essential, Center For Constitutional Rights

February 4, 2019 Joe Friendly, Riseuptimes.org Strategize! ACLU, Police, Reform

With panelists: Joo-Hyun Kang, director of Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), a campaign to end discriminatory policing practices in New York; Kayhan Irani, Emmy-award winning writer, performer, and a Theater of the Oppressed trainer, creating art to build community, and offering spaces for healing; and Carlton E. Williams, lawyer, Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Cornell University, Political Research Associates Research Fellow and former staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. January 30, 2019.

Fighting Climate Change With A Green TVA

January 25, 2019 By Matt Bruenig, Peoplespolicyproject.org Educate! Climate Change, Reform, Tennessee

In addition to these reforms to the TVA Act, the paper also proposes that the federal government authorize and appropriate money to the TVA so that it can subsidize the price of its carbon-free electricity in order to ensure that it is competitive with carbon-based energy sources. This would ensure that electricity ratepayers do not directly shoulder the costs of the proposed clean energy build out. The TVA, which was originally established during FDR’s New Deal, is the largest public power company in the country. In the last fiscal year, it produced and sold 160 billion kWh of electricity, which generated $11.2 billion of revenue and $1.1 billion of profit.

Single Payer Gold Standard HR 676 Rest In Peace

January 23, 2019 Russell Mokhiber, Singlepayeraction.org Educate! Electoral Politics, Health Care, Reform, Single payer health care

The House Democrats have decided that their single payer Medicare for All bill will not carry the HR 676 number. They let that number go this week to a bill that reiterates “the support of the Congress of the United States for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).” Some in the single payer movement see the abandonment of HR 676 as a betrayal of years of grassroots activism, activism that drew 124 co-sponsors to HR 676 in the House last year. Now, with Democrats in charge of the House, the Medicare for All single payer bill is being rewritten, watered down and renumbered.

Chicago Police Forced To Respect People With Disabilities

January 22, 2019 Nissa Rhee, Chicagoreporter.com Create! Chicago, People with Disabilities, Police, Reform

When Eric J. Wilkins was pulled over by the Chicago police in the spring of 2002, he was on edge. His older brother was sitting in prison at the time, a victim of Jon Burge-era police torture. And Wilkins, himself, says the police had roughed him up after he had been shot in the back and leg, just three years prior. The officers who pulled his car over in 2002 told him to get out. Wilkins asked them if he could get his wheelchair from the backseat. The officers, Wilkins says, told him there was no need. And then they picked him up like a baby.

A Call For The Food Movement To Get Behind The Green New Deal

January 16, 2019 Ronnie Cummins, Organicconsumers.org Strategize! Environment, Food and Agriculture, Green New Deal, Reform

“The Green New Deal we are proposing will be similar in scale to the mobilization efforts seen in World War II or the Marshall Plan… Half measures will not work… The time for slow and incremental efforts has long past [sic].”- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then-candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, Huffington Post, June 26, 2018. “Just transitioning 10 percent of agricultural production to best-practice regenerative systems will sequester enough CO2 to reverse climate change and restore the global climate. Regenerative Agriculture can change agriculture from being a major contributor to climate change to becoming a major solution.” - Andre Leu, international director, Regeneration International, “Reversing Climate Change with Regenerative Agriculture,” October 9, 2018...

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