Every month People’s Action shares the latest victories,
campaigns and events from our member groups
“Stand up, fight back!” With these words, Citizen Action of New York organizer Jamell Henderson rallied more than three hundred tenants in lower Manhattan to demand officials address the city’s rising rents, which are three times the national average.
Read on to learn how People’s Action member groups Community Voices Heard and Citizen Action of New York demand public officials rein in housing costs and more! And watch Jamell’s powerful call to action in this video, as he reminds elected officials: “There are over three hundred voters in this room, who will spread the word to three thousand, who will turn into thirty thousand to change the outcome of this election!”
Jamell’s words are the very heart and soul of what People’s Action and our members do. Whether we’re in mobile homes in Iowa, on a farm in Alamance County, North Carolina, in Seattle or in New York City, when something’s not right, we stand up.
Then we fight back! Our members marked many legislative wins this spring, and took powerful actions to demand justice in health care, at the local level and on the national stage, taking over the lobby of United Healthcare’s HQ in Minneapolis, then confronting United’s chief executive, Sir Andrew Witty, on Capitol Hill about the insurer’s delays and denials of care.
Great action takes great preparation! That’s why we’re excited to see so many groups, including OneAmerica in Seattle, expanding their training programs for both seasoned organizers and newcomers in multiple languages.
Many groups hit the streets on May 1 to march with working people everywhere, including SF Rising, who are celebrating new leadership and 14 years of building power for people of color and working-class communities in the Bay Area. Congratulations!
Join us as we celebrate them, and read on to discover the growing power of the Organizing Revival across the country!
In solidarity,
Amanda Weaver
People’s Action
Organizing Stories
Iowa: CCI Demands Support for Mobile Home Residents Harmed by Buyouts
Residents of the Table Mound Home Park in Dubuque are taking action with Iowa CCI to fight their rising costs since a corporate takeover in 2017, part of a national wave of buyouts of mobile home parks by private equity. Read more
Colorado: CHP Takes Direct Action, Scores Legislative Victory
Center for Health Progress members took direct action to demand Colorado’s largest health provider stop suing patients, and worked with lawmakers to pass a bill that will create transparency and regulate the collection of medical and consumer debt. Read more
One Northside: Bring Chicago Home!
Create a funding stream to house the homeless? That’s the goal of Bring Chicago Home, a coalition-backed effort that seeks to help the city’s unhoused through a small tax on the proceeds from the sales of million-dollar homes. Read more
North Carolina: Rural Strategy Retreat
Members of Down Home North Carolina, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Iowa CCI and Pennsylvania Stands Up gathered with Sulma Arias in Greensboro, North Carolina to learn lessons from the civil rights movement and chart a shared course for People’s Action’s rural organizers over the next two years, as a new generation confronts modern forms of political control, disinformation and white supremacy in rural America. Read more
Recent Media
Washington Post: Care Over Cost Confronts United Health CEO Andrew Witty on Capitol Hill
“Andrew Witty, you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side!” Members of People’s Action’s Care Over Cost campaign from Rights and Democracy in New Hampshire, the Center for Health Progress in Colorado, Progressive Maryland and more confronted United HealthGroup chief executive Andrew Witty on Capitol Hill, where he was called to testify about a data breach that has affected millions of patients across the country. Read all about it in the Washington Post.
This visit to Capitol Hill caps a busy spring for members of People’s Action’s Care Over Cost cohort, which fights to help people overturn denials and delays of essential health care by privately-run insurance companies. They came from all across the country to take over the lobby of United HealthCare’s headquarters near Minneapolis on April 16, before contfronting Witty on May 1.
You can hear many of the same courageous people who participated in these actions, including Jenn Coffey and Carly Morton, as well as Sulma Arias and renowned health industry whistleblower Wendell Potter in a special livestream we hosted on March 13. Check it out!