Indivisible NYS and NY Renews have had an amazing week of action mobilizing in support of the NY Climate & Community Investment Act (CCIA) and THRIVE.  IMV's "honk & wave" rally in Clinton on Wednesday (covered here by WKTV) sent a message of thanks to Sen. Rachel May, who has co-sponsored CCIA, and also lifted up the demand that Albany legislators get behind the investment in a just transition to a green NY economy. 

Tonight we'll have more than 700 activists from across the state to hear from Sen. Schumer and other legislators on our own Climate, Jobs, and Justice Town Hall.   Please sign up now if you have not already done so, and be sure to join at 7 pm.  Our numbers show our power.  Climate can't wait!
 

Next week is for DC Statehood 

IMV and the Kirkland Town Democratic Committee return to weekly Black Lives Matter rallies on the Clinton Village Green on Friday, April 16th, 4-5 pm.  This kickoff event is on DC Emancipation Day, so our focus will be on DC Statehood as a critical racial justice issue, since a majority of DC residents are black and brown, and are currently taxed without representation in Congress.  Here's what you need to know:

During the week of April 12th, there are three key dates that represent an opportunity in building the narrative around our collective fight to secure D.C. statehood for the more than 700,000 people that call the District home:

On Wednesday, April 14th, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform will mark-up H.R. 51, the DC Statehood bill. It’s an important moment in the fight for D.C. statehood and will be only the second markup of the bill in Congress since 1993.

Thursday, April 15th is the traditional tax filing deadline. This is an important messaging hook because D.C. residents pay the highest per-capita federal income taxes in the US. In total, D.C. residents pay more in total federal income tax than residents of 22 other states, but have no say over how those tax dollars are spent.

Finally, Friday, April 16th is D.C. Emancipation Day, the holiday celebrating the freeing of thousands of slaves in the District. Read up on the history of the day with these resources from DC.gov.

It’s critical for all of us to use our voices to educate others about the importance of D.C. statehood, urge them to get involved, and pressure our members of Congress to support passage of statehood in the House and the Senate (and not let the filibuster get in the way)!

1. Show up for our DC Statehood BLM rally on Friday, April 16th, 4 pm, Clinton Village Green. We're going to take a lot of photos with the 51 star flag that Sarah Reeske ordered for us!

2. Call your representative and two senators using our scripts

3. Submit a D.C. statehood letter to the editor to your local paper(s)

4. Help us spread the word on social media using our D.C. statehood graphics and the hashtags #51stars and #DCStatehood.

The House is expected to vote on HR51 on April 19th, so we need to act on all of the above next week.

MVLA Garden Cleanup This Weekend

The Mohawk Valley Latino Association and First Circle are looking for volunteers to help us clean up their future community garden and space, “La Abundancia.”  This is one of IMV's three community projects for the current year.    Please volunteer on Saturday, April 10th, 11 am- pm, 28 Scott Street in Utica.  Masks and social distancing are required.

Sonia Martinez says, "Everybody is welcome to come! In addition, if anybody has carpentry, construction, or painting skills, let us know.  Come and celebrate Dolores Huerta Day with us!   Dolores Huerta is a living legend and activist who organized workers, negotiated contracts, advocated for safer working conditions including the elimination of harmful pesticides, and fought for unemployment and healthcare benefits for agricultural workers."   See you at the MVLA Community Garden Cleanup.
 

Save the Dates: Candidate Meet & Greets

IMV Local Candidate Meet and Greets are planned for Monday, April 19th, Tuesday, April 20th, and Wednesday, April 2st, from 6:30 -7:00 pm each evening on Zoom. Please save these short slots to meet a few candidates briefly each night.  IMV is determined to provide impactful support to local candidates for town and city councils as well as county legislative seats in order to start winning for Democratic and progressive power locally.  That means getting to know our candidates and then organizing ourselves to support their campaigns with volunteer efforts.  Mark your calendars now.  
 

Building Progressive Power Works

Over the past week we have seen years of building progressive power bear fruit in Albany. Some of these fights, such as the one led by Alliance for Quality Education and Citizen Action of New York have been long and hard, but just a few days ago the fight for full foundational aid for our underfunded school districts was won.
Marijuana was legalized and in a progressive way designed to restore damage done to Black and brown communities and give those communities access to the economic potential of legal marijuana in NY. Other victories include the HALT to solitary confinement in NYS, and after three weeks of hunger strikes, the creation of a state fund for excluded workers so that undocumented New Yorkers who have lost their jobs can get access to unemployment benefits after they have long paid in through their wages.

Finally, the Invest in Our New York Coalition, which IMV joined and supported throughout the past year, saw a significant victory in the fight for progressive annual revenue increase. Read the budget highlights Here and the IONY coalition’s statement here.

"A year ago, in the midst of a global health crisis, many believed that taxing the wealthy to fund our communities was not possible. But we won. $4.3BN in new progressive tax revenue, while not enough, is a huge victory for the people of New York. Raising progressive revenue at this scale is unprecedented in recent history. This transformation has begun because working-class New Yorkers have risen up with one voice to demand equity. This transformation will continue because we stand united to demand we invest in our New York."

How did all this come about? Some will say the Governor was weakened by recent PR and ethics problems, but the truth is that the work was done by grassroots activists over the past few years. First, we helped take down the IDC and replace them with progressive Democrats like Sen. Rachel May who represents the town of Kirkland, Madison County, and parts of Syracuse. That was in 2018. Then in 2020, even more progressives were elected so that we saw a supermajority in the NYS Senate. That meant that we could push hard on funding bills, and the Governor was further weakened in relation to more progressive legislators in Albany.

Then, IONY member groups like IMV wrote letters to the editor, conducted IONY teach in zooms, texted, phonebanked, sent letters to voters in key districts, held lobby visits with their legislators, and kept going until the very last hours of the budget process. People working together in coalition build power!

Unfortunately, efforts to persuade Assemblywoman Buttenschon fell on deaf ears. She continues to oppose raising progressive revenue in NY, which means she wants working people and homeowners to continue to bear more of a tax burden while the super wealthy who have raked in tens of billions of pandemic profits in the past year continue to benefit from massive tax breaks. Luckily she did not get her way, and at least a few of the those tax breaks were stripped away this week.

We've learned that elections matter, and pressuring state legislators matters too. They matter for our children and schools, for communities that have born the brunt of oppressive and unjust criminal laws, and they matter for economic justice and investment n our state's future. The 2021 budget battle in Albany reminded us once again that democracy is not a spectator sport. Thank you for everything you do to go beyond spectating and make real change.

See you on the Zoom Call with Senate Majority Leader Schumer tonight!