MV's Fall Fiesta!  

Every year we gather post election for good Tex-Mex food and fellowship to celebrate all the hard work over the past months. Our post-election celebration is part of making political activism in the Mohawk Valley local, bite-sized and fun.   Please join IMV for our Annual Fall Fiesta on Saturday, Nov. 19th, 3:30-5:30 pm.  We're meeting at the Jewish Community Center 2310 Oneida Street, Utica.  See you there!

Action from IMV’s Climate Crisis Working Group

Yesterday was a big day for the climate justice movement in New York State.NY Renews launched the Climate, Jobs and Justice Campaign! There were seven events around NY including one in Syracuse attended by five IMV members. Maggie Reilly spoke at the press event about the importance of passing this package of bills which is the roadmap to implementing the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the law passed in 2019 requiring NYS to transition to green energy. IMV members will also be advocating for this package with legislators AM Marianne Buttenschon and Senator Rachel May. Read Maggie’s speech here. And...

A Climate  Action for All IMV Members to Take

In the last legislative session, New York passed an important climate bill that would enact a moratorium on the buildout of fracked gas power plants for the purposes of energy intensive crypto-mining. This was a significant victory for the climate movement in New York.

The bad news is, the bill which passed in early June, has been on Governor Hochul's desk for nearly 6 months and she still has not signed this critical bill into law.

Burning fracked gas for Bitcoin mining undermines New York's ability to meet our climate goals and pollutes the communities where the plants are built. Already, two plants, Greenidge in the Finger Lakes and Fortistar near Buffalo, are threatening our climate and communities.

Governor Hochul needs to hear from us that she must halt this dangerous practice.

Call Governor Hochul at 877-235-6537 & urge her to sign the moratorium on fracked gas power plants for bitcoin mining.

Save the Date for IMV's December Meeting

IMV Steering Committee is planning our December 2022 meeting: Tuesday, Dec. 13th, 7-8 pm
Please save the date and time. It will be a Zoom meeting, and you won't want to miss it because we'll be discussing our electoral and issue priorities for 2023 and making plans.

Stay Connected with CAFE Fridays

The next few weeks are a rare time in the year for political activism in which there is actually some R&R.  But if you are available on Friday mornings and don't want to lose the connection with your IMV political activism community, be sure to put CAFE Fridays on your calendar, and pop on the Zoom when you can.  That includes today, the day after Thanksgiving, and all through December. 

Thank you to those IMV Steering Committee members and other attendees who host weekly, including Jennifer Geiger, Jill Farnham-Us, Kathy Wojo and others.  See you at the CAFE!
Fridays, 9:30 am-10:30 am,  Zoom link HERE.   PW: 607973   

Notes from Last Night's Indivisible OneNYS Call

Hopefully you were on the Zoom last night, but if not, here are some highlights:

Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, kicked off the meeting with an overview of what happened in this midterm election. There was lots of winning for Democrats, and an outright rejection of MAGA extremism. Even the slight majority that the Republicans will now have in the House is the result of gerrymandering more than actual votes. Indivisibles were vindicated in our strategy of focusing on abortion, democracy, and calling out MAGA extremism. Just before the election, even President Biden focused his speeches on these priorities.

Ezra noted that since Indivisible formed in the aftermath of the 2016 election, we have saved the ACA even with Republicans in charge of everything in DC, won back the House with candidates like Anthony Brindisi and Antonio Delgado in NY, impeached Trump (twice), elected Joe Biden President, and in New York, evicted the IDC and eventually voted in a super majority in the State Senate. With these achievements we have shown that:

1) People power works
2) There are more of us than them (MAGAs)
3) When we organize we win.

Invest in Our New York We also heard from Ricky Silver (Empire State Indivisible) about the Invest in Our New York (IONY) coalition's campaign launch for 2023. We are launching early this year with press conferences across the state on Dec. 5th, well before the Governor's state of the state speech so that we can set the agenda.

In 2020, IONY succeeded in pushing through $4B in new public funds in NY, and in 2021 we won new funding for childcare and public schools. But we have a long way to go to become a state where every person can thrive. Currently, New York is THE most inequitable state, with the biggest wealth gap between the rich and the rest. The wealth of billionaires in NY continues to skyrocket. We need to educate the public about the state budget, and push our legislators to raise the public funds needed for pay for critical public infrastructure including climate, health, education, and housing.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joined us at 8:30 pm and provided updates (from his location just off the Senate floor) on the Respect for Marriage Act, the Electoral Count Act, and many other top priorities. As always, Sen. Schumer answered questions from NY Indivisibles and listened to our perspectives.

Why do we get to meet on a Zoom with Sen. Schumer so often? Because Sarah Reeske, as our state organizer has direct access to his office based on our critical role in organizing people, reaching voters, and electing Democrats. Sen. Schumer works hard on good, progressive legislation because it is the right thing to do. He allows us to hold him accountable because we do the work too. In other words, he's a fighter, and respects us because we are fighters too. We wished him well on his birthday--Thanksgiving Day!

It was wonderful to see so many IMVers on the Indivisible OneNYS call last night. Hope we see even more of you at our Fall Fiesta on Saturday at 3:30 pm!

Democracy is not a spectator sport.
It's a team sport.
We’re glad you’re on our team.

Follow us on Twitter using @indivisiblemv and of course our Facebook page and IMV Activism Group.