Fighting For Us During the Pandemic
Over the past few weeks, we’ve experienced the full range of emotions. We’ve felt immense fear about the uncertainty of how the COVID-19 crisis will develop. We’ve felt deep sadness and worry for our loved ones who are facing extremely dangerous working conditions, unemployment, or sickness. We’ve felt anger towards those who try to use this crisis to seed fear, division, and hate to advance their own narrow interests.
And yet, there are moments of light, joy, and hope. This virus makes clear how deeply intertwined our well-being, lives, and futures are. We’ve felt energized by the people working hard to love on each other, to support their neighbors, and to fight for those most vulnerable in new and creative ways.
With you, and millions of people across the world, we are fighting for a world that is better than the one before this crisis. Here’s how:
- Helping people meet their day-to-day needs
- Advancing transformative demands
- Building long-term power
We are launching a collective effort to call thousands of community members to check in on them during the crisis, connect them to resources, and ensure they fill out the census.
As we help folks meet their daily needs, we know that these will be even harder to meet if our communities are undercounted in the 2020 census. The results of this census will determine the federal funding and political representation for our communities, our hospitals, schools, and public services for the next ten years. We must continue to hold people’s day-to-day needs with our long-term vision.
You can learn how to make calls & join us here! bit.ly/callyourneighbor
We are fighting to put the needs of our communities before the profits of billionaires. We have issued demands and called on our elected leaders to take action as a member of coalitions made up of progressive organizations across New York State. You can read the full list of demands here.
We are fighting to free our people. On Sunday, we rallied (safely in our cars!) outside our local ICE detention facility to demand the release of detained immigrants and other incarcerated people to prevent a massive health disaster. Join the #FreeThemAll action week here!
We are fighting to house all our people. New York State has officially put a moratorium on evictions, but people are still expected to pay their rent now or in three months time. How will working class people losing hours and jobs be able to pay this? We are fighting to suspend rent. Sign the petition to suspend rent and house the homeless here!
We are fighting to take care of all our people. Now, more than ever the need for universal healthcare regardless of immigration status or income is clear. Tell your elected officials to cosponsor the legislation that would make that a reality.
We know that this crisis will end at some point. When it does, we must ensure that we are powerful enough as an organization and as a community to move the fight forward.
We are staying grounded in our task to build long-term power for social change so that we can realize a world where people are put before profit. So far over 120 people have signed up to volunteer for our summer fundraising team, and the number grows with every day.
We have also launched applications for a remote “Organizing Bootcamp” summer internship so we can develop the skills and leadership needed for this political moment. You can find the description and application here. Please apply or share!
Thank you for making all of this work possible. We are so grateful to share this work with you.
In solidarity,
Jonathan Bix
Executive Director
