Reform

Aligning House And Senate Single-Payer Bills: Removing Medicare’s Profiteering Incentives Is Key

December 4, 2018 Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, Healthaffairs.org Strategize! Electoral Politics, Health Care, Reform

Single-payer reform is in the news—and in the U.S. House and Senate. One hundred twenty-three Congresspeople have signed on as co-sponsors of H.R. 676, the single-payer legislation in House of Representatives, and 16 Senators have formally endorsed S.1804, the Senate version. (Disclosure: H.R. 676 was closely modeled on the Physicians for a National Health Program reform proposal published in JAMA, for which we served as lead authors). While both bills would cover all Americans under a single, tax-funded insurance program, they prescribe different provider payment strategies. The Senate version largely adopts Medicare's current payment mechanisms; the House bill's is modeled on Canada's single-payer program...

Rescuing Our Schools From The Corporate Goliaths: Lessons From Indianapolis

November 23, 2018 John Thompson, Livingindialogue.com Strategize! Corporations, Education, Reform, Schools

The theme of my previous post on the 2018 Network for Public Education conference was: How Was I Wrong? Let Me Count Some Ways. As I explained, the 2014 NPE conference in Austin hit a nice balance in terms of messaging and research that allowed us Davids to defeat the corporate reform Goliath. I was slow in facing hard facts about privatizers and mostly focused on civil ways to confront opponents in the search for truth. Previously, I overestimated how much of Goliath’s failure was due to the arrogance of power. Today’s Silicon Valley Robber Barons’ hubris can match that of their 19th century counterparts, but their control of data makes them uniquely dangerous.

Washington’s I-1631: A Chance To Choose Hope, Not Fear

November 6, 2018 Adrienne Alvord, Blog.ucsusa.org Educate! Climate Change, Electoral Politics, Reform, Washington

It has been a tense and tragic time in the runup to the midterm election next week, and voters nationwide have reasons to feel fear about what may happen next, but we need to remember that there are also opportunities for great hope in the election next Tuesday. For example, few issues have generated as much excitement for climate action as the Washington State carbon pricing initiative, I-1631. This initiative, developed after a painstaking and highly inclusive planning process that has garnered enthusiastic support from a large, diverse coalition of constituencies, would create a groundbreaking carbon fee on polluters that would be reinvested in Washington’s communities, businesses, and clean energy industries.

Busload Of Activist Nuns Log 5,600 Miles For Tax Justice

October 31, 2018 By Sarah Anderson, Inequality.org Resist! Activists, Reform, Taxes

Look out Mar-A-Lago. The renowned activists known as the “Nuns on the Bus” are headed your way. And they’re just as ticked off about the Trump-Republican tax reform as they were when they launched their cross-country “Tax Justice Truth Tour” in California over three weeks ago. President Trump will most likely be out on the hustings when the nuns roll up to his Palm Beach playland just days before the mid-term election. But by picking his members-only Florida resort as their final stop, they’ll make a powerful point about the new tax law’s big winners. In their words, Mar-A-Lago is “the pinnacle of economic inequality and hoarding of wealth.”

More Americans Than Ever Want Marijuana Legalized. Lawmakers Should Listen.

October 27, 2018 By Paul Armentano, Otherwords.org Create! Legislation, Marijuana Legalization, Reform

Over 60 percent of Americans — including majorities of Republicans, independents, and Democrats — believe that the adult use of marijuana ought to be legal. And an estimated 20 percent of Americans now live in a state where cannabis use by those over the age of 21 is permitted. Nonetheless, newly released FBI data reports that, nationwide, marijuana arrests rose for the second consecutive year — and significantly outpace the total number of annual arrests for all violent offenses. Of the nearly 660,000 marijuana-related arrests made by law enforcement in 2017, the last year for which data is available, 91 percent (599,000) of them were for possession violations—– not trafficking, cultivation, or sales.

The Housing Revolution We Need

October 18, 2018 By Thomas J. Sugrue, Dissentmagazine.org Create! Housing, Reform

Are we on the brink of a revolution in housing policy? In the three-quarters of a century since Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised Americans “the right to a decent home,” the housing market has remained both a cause of America’s racial and economic inequality and a woefully inadequate solution to it. Today, a decade after the financial crash of 2008, even in a period of rapid economic growth, the home-finance and rental markets are failing millions of Americans. But, as in the Depression, a new generation of politicians are putting housing inequality at the center of the national agenda. Congressional candidates ranging from Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar to Hawaii’s Kaniela Ing have called for “Housing for All,” including rent-stabilization programs and a new infusion of federal subsidies for the construction of affordable housing.

Net Neutrality Activists Plan To Educate Millions Of Voters About Candidate Stances Ahead Of Midterms

September 26, 2018 Staff, Fightforthefuture.org Resist! Electoral Politics, Net Neutrality, Reform, Revisionism

Kicking off on National Voter Registration Day, one of the most prominent open Internet advocacy groups, Fight for the Future, has launched Vote For Net Neutrality, an explosive campaign that seeks to educate millions of people about where Senate and House candidates stand on restoring net neutrality ahead of the midterm elections, enlisting the entire Internet in the mission of pressuring incumbent lawmakers who are facing tight races to do the right thing or face the Internet’s wrath on election day. The campaign makes use of cutting edge mobile technology, including a chatbot flow that allows Internet users to register to vote, sign up for voting reminders, and find out where candidates in their area stand on net neutrality, all from their phones using SMS messages.

Demanding Wide-Reaching Reforms And An End To Slavery, Inmates In 17 States Plan Prison Strike

August 20, 2018 By Julia Conley, Commondreams.org Resist! Prisons, Reform, Slavery, Strikes

The Nationwide Prison Strike is planned for August 21, the day Nat Turner led an uprising of slaves in 1831, until September 9, the 47th anniversary of the Attica prison rebellion in which more than 40 people were killed. Organizers of the action, which is endorsed by Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), have released a list of ten demands for improvements to their living conditions, sentencing policies, and laws that allow for prison slavery. "All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor," reads the list of demands. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allows for "slavery or involuntary servitude...as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."

Ending Police Brutality Starts With Firing Dangerous Cops

August 14, 2018 Chris Burbank, Huffingtonpost.com Create! police brutality, Reform

This week is the fourth anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri, and the protests that spread across the nation after that tragedy. In the years since Ferguson placed police behavior under the national microscope, confidence in the police has risen and plummeted. Overall mistrust in some communities is a constant, especially among African-Americans. And recent incidents of white people calling the police on black people for simply living their lives haven’t helped the situation. Our nation is in the midst of a volatile moment, and it’s crucial ― literally a matter of life and death ― that we identify how we got here and how we can get out. I’m a former Salt Lake City police chief. I believe we should start with the officers. In the last four years, we’ve learned an undeniable truth: America’s police departments do not always hire and retain the best officers.

Venezuela’s Marching Campesinos Meet Maduro, Denounce Corruption & Revolutionary ‘Reversals’

August 7, 2018 By Paul Dobson, Venezuelanalysis.com Resist! Agrarian Reform, March, Reform, Venezuela

After 20 days walking 435 kilometres, the marchers held a fiery televised meeting with the president, finally being able to present their proposals to the nation. Merida, August 2, 2018 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuela’s campesino marchers achieved their immediate objective Thursday, holding a public meeting with President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, where they presented proposals for far-reaching reforms to state agrarian policies and institutions. Scenes of tears and cries of joy dominated the live televised meeting held in Miraflores presidential palace, in which the multitude of small farmers, who had marched 435 kilometres from Guanare, Portuguesa state, were given the opportunity to address the nation and draw the president’s attention to a series of popular grievances, including land evictions, corruption in state bureaucracy, and paramilitary violence.

The Democratic Party Cannot Be Reformed

August 7, 2018 Staff, Socialistorganizer.com Strategize! Electoral Politics, Reform

Over the past several months, The Organizer newspaper — through its Unity & Independence open-forum section — has been promoting a two-pronged campaign to advance the struggle to build a new mass labor-based political party in this country. The campaign calls for the formation of (1) a Labor-Party Advocates-type committee in the labor movement (taking its cue from the October 2017 resolution of the AFL-CIO on independent politics), and (2) committees (or coalitions) in cities across the country to run independent labor-community candidates around a platform that embraces the workers’ and oppressed communities’ pressing demands.

Grassroots Activists: “Abolish ICE” Means Disband, Not Reform The Agency

July 4, 2018 By Mike Ludwig, Truthout.org Create! Activists, ICE, Reform

After weeks of controversy over the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrant and migrant families, the call to “abolish” US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is generating plenty of headlines, but it did not go mainstream overnight. Over the weekend, “Abolish ICE” was heard in protest chants and scrawled on banners across the country as thousands of people took to the streets to rally against the separation and incarceration of migrant families. Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who rocketed into the spotlight after beating an establishment Democrat in a New York City congressional primary, famously ran on a platform that included abolishing ICE. Democratic stars like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand are embracing the idea, at least in name, and progressives in the House are reportedly crafting legislation that would end ICE’s role in immigration enforcement after a commission identifies an “alternative.”

Demand An Overhaul Of The FERC Pipeline Review Process—Submit Comments For FERC Reform!

May 16, 2018 Delaware River Keeper, Go.pardot.com Resist! FERC, Pipelines, Protests, Reform

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) operates as a rubber stamp on the pipeline infrastructure projects that come before it for review, with FERC approval being a foregone conclusion once the project goes before the FERC Commissioners for their vote. In addition, FERC commits a number of offenses that are too numerous to list here, that overall, sacrifice the safety, and health of people, communities, and the environment to advance the agenda of the pipeline companies. On April 25, 2018, FERC opened a 60-day public comment period regarding how FERC carries out its review and approval of natural gas pipeline infrastructure. This is a critical opportunity to demonstrate to FERC, the press, elected officials and the world, the massive outpouring of concern with FERC’s biased review process and the critical need for reform.

Nicaragua Regains Its Balance After Social Reform Protests

May 3, 2018 By Tortilla Con Sal, Telesurtv.net Resist! Nicaragua, Protests, Reform

Recent disturbances in Nicaragua have served as a kind of who's who, separating anti-imperialists from cynical phonies both inside and outside the country. The tsunami of disinformation has swamped the usual suspect mainstream corporate media outlets and their alternative accomplices, but also other news sites that are generally anti-imperialist on issues such as Syria and Palestine, Russia and Iran. Like Venezuela, Nicaragua is in the crosshairs of the Western elites and their governments because its Sandinista President Daniel Ortega and his team have successfully implemented socialist-inspired policies while also defending the principles of a multi-polar world based on international law.

Nicaragua Strives To Cope With Protest On Social Security Reform

April 25, 2018 Chuck Kaufman, Afgj.org Resist! Nicaragua, Protests, Reform

Nicaragua underwent an unprecedented spasm of violence over the past week that was sparked by the government announcement of increased social security withholding rates for business, workers, and a larger government contribution but reductions in pension amounts for some recipients. The protests, which started peacefully, turned violent and some police are accused of disproportionate use of force. Over 20 deaths have occurred including one journalist, and the rioting and looting, which continued into the weekend appeared to expand beyond the original social security demands to incorporate broader grievances and opportunistic vandalism and looting unrelated to demands.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources