Every month People’s Action shares the latest victories,
campaigns and events from our member groups
This is the essential question we must ask ourselves every day. Because the challenges we face right now – when our rights and values are under direct attack – take all of the creativity, solidarity and resolve we can muster together.
Good organizing looks different in different places. For Neighbor 2 Neighbor in Massachusetts, it means working to create a statewide rapid-response team, so volunteers can spring into action to defend immigrants from ICE raids and illegal detentions. For Citizen Action of New York, VOCAL-NY and Community Voices Heard, it means calling out U.S. Representative Mike Lawler (NY-17) on Tax Day for his support of more than $1 billion in cuts to essential services like SNAP, Medicare and Medicaid to fund tax breaks for billionaires.
For Progressive Maryland, it means challenging their state to stop burning trash for cash so Baltimoreans can breathe cleaner air. For PLAN in Nevada, it means drawing attention to price gouging by fossil fuel-addicted energy companies like NV Energy. For Citizen Action of West Virginia, it means organizing an empty-chair Town Hall for no-show MAGA lawmakers. For Citizen Action of Wisconsin, it means defeating Elon Musk’s efforts to buy the state’s supreme court with million-dollar payoffs to voters.
And for Connecticut Citizen Action, as for many of us, it means answering the national call to action to support the thousands of Hands Off! protests all across the country!
“What we’re seeing is thousands of events – thousands of protests that are happening every day and in every state,” said Rachel Maddow, in her coverage of the protest at the Social Security field office in Peekskill, New York.
Yet as Sulma Arias reminds us, if we want to win, we must not only show up, we must organize.
“Good organizing, which empowers people to improve their lives through collective action,” she says, “has been the key to every successful social movement in the history of this country – from the abolition of slavery to winning the 40-hour workweek, voting rights for women, the end of racial segregation and the right to marry who you love.”
This month, we’ll take a closer look at Hoosier Action’s strategy to win: organizing in a deep-red state, they’ve helped preserve health care for 754,000 people, blocked the criminalization of homelessness, and celebrated as a lifesaving harm reduction bill was signed into law.
These, and all of your recent victories, are rooted in the best practices of power-building. That means they are achieved by you, and for you. And they address not only our immediate needs, but also lay the stepping stones we need to both defeat authoritarianism and build a better future for us all on the other side, however long that takes.
So thank you. We have only just begun to fight. And together, we will win.
In solidarity,
Amanda Weaver
Lead Story
Hoosier Action Defends Health Care, Wins Harm Reduction and Blocks Criminalization of Homelessness
Hoosier Action is celebrating multiple victories in this year’s Indiana legislative session, including a new harm reduction law and protecting health care for 754,000 in the state. Read more
Organizing Stories
Neighbor 2 Neighbor Builds Massachusetts Network for Rapid Response to ICE Raids
Neighbor 2 Neighbor is helping to activate LUCE, a statewide rapid-response network to help Massachusetts residents protect their communities from unlawful arrests and raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Read more
Community Voices Heard, CANY Call Out Lawler for Cuts to Medicaid, Tax Breaks for Billionaires
At rallies all across New York State, members of Citizen Action of New York, VOCAL-NY and Community Voices Heard rallied on Tax Day, April 15, to draw attention to the more than $1 billion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP food aid and other essential services that Republicans are trying to drive through Congress as part of their 2025 budget. Read more
Progressive Maryland Wins End to Trash Incineration
Progressive Maryland celebrates the end of “Cash for Trash,” as the state ends subsidies for trash incinerator companies like Win Waste, which will bring clearer air to areas like South Baltimore. Read more
PLAN Protests NV Energy’s Price Gouging on “Fossil Fools Day”
PLAN Nevada members gathered outside the Las Vegas offices of the Berkshire Hathaway Energy-owned utility company, NV Energy, on April 1st, which has been dubbed “Fossil Fools Day.” Read more
WVCAG Hosts “Empty Chair” Town Hall in West Virginia
Even if West Virginia’s MAGA lawmakers were no-shows, doctors, patients and West Virginia Citizen Action Group members all made their voices heard loud and clear about the harms deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will cause in their communities. Read more
Citizen Action of Wisconsin Defeats Elon Musk’s Bid to Buy Off State Supreme Court
Citizen Action of Wisconsin is celebrating their defeat of billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to buy the state’s Supreme Court, which would have given conservatives the power to redraw Congressional districts before the next federal election. Read more
CCAG Rallies Thousands in Connecticut to Protest Tax Breaks for Billionaires
Connecticut Citizen Action Group rallied thousands in Stamford and across the state on April 5 to say “Hands Off!” of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and the institutions of democracy. Read more
Recent Media
READ: “As DC Looks At Medicaid Cuts, NC Residents Worry”
Darci Guill, a member of Down Home North Carolina, talks to the Charlotte Observer about the consequences cuts to Medicare and Medicaid would have on her and other North Carolinians.
READ: “Protecting Our Promise to Seniors”
Nola Hatton, a public housing resident in Newburgh, New York and member of Community Voices Heard Power, co-authored this editorial with her Representative in the U.S. Congress, Pat Ryan (NY-18), on the consequences proposed cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security will have on those who live on a fixed income, like her, and all New Yorkers.
WATCH: The $140 Billion A Year of Waste That DOGE Won’t Touch”
Jen Coffey from Rights and Democracy Vermont is featured in this new video from More Perfect Union, which breaks down the ways that Medicare (dis)Advantage shortchanges patients while creating a cash cow for for-profit insurers like UnitedHealth and Humana.
