We provide links to last week’s posts along with brief summaries, so you can catch up. Also the post announces Retake’s plans for supporting Rev. Barber’s Poor People’s Campaign in Santa Fe along with a brief report on Saturday’s Town Hall.

Town Hall Report:  We will provide a more comprehensive report later this week, but about 75 folks joined us for a civil conversation about the future of the Democratic Party with first a panel discussion with Jon Hendry, Richard Ellenberg, and Paul Gibson followed by Open Mic where those in the audience could provide their ideas. We got lots of written input on the meeting, most but not all positive and we will address all input in a future post this week. But one great outcome from the meeting: about 30 people signed up to be involved in one of our action teams.

This place isn’t progressive enough. Let’s change that.

Roundhouse Advocacy Team.  Thurs. Aug 24, 6pm-8pm at IATSE Offices, 1418 Cerrillos. We have lots of new sign-ups to be in this group from our Town Hall on Saturday. We will continue to report on discussions with progressive lobbyists, begin to finalize a list of bills for a platform, ask for volunteers to write up short, one-paragraph descriptions of each bill and prepare to post an online survey asking people to prioritize the bills. I will report briefly on my meeting with Michelle Lujan Grisham. We will also begin zeroing in on specific districts with representatives who historically block progressive bills and where we want to build advocacy alliances. Join us. Click here to RSVP or email us at volunteer4retake@gmail.com.

The Poor People’s Campaign.  We announced the unanimous support from the Retake Leadership Team to work behind and in support of the Poor People’s Campaign.  We have some work to do to organizing this campaign and will be announcing a planning meeting this week. If you would like to be involved in planning our actions in relation to the campaign, please reply to this email and indicate you want to help plan. We are also planning a Town Hall for Sunday, Sept. 16 from 3-5pm at 1420 Cerrillos. At that meeting we will lay out a plan for training and discuss plans for non-violent direct actions, some of which will be civil disobedience. We will also break into groups to discuss ideas about supporting the campaign and the kinds of actions that might be implemented. To learn more about the Poor People’s campaign, click here. Click here to RSVP on Facebook (preferred) or simply reply to this email, if you plan to attend the Town Hall.

The Week in Review

Report on Meeting with Cong. Lujan & Last Night’s Rally. And Warren Decries: “Time for Liberals to Lead.” This post reported on the Monday night Rally Against Racism, challenging the City to consider changes in the Obelisk and Estrada ceremonies and identifying parallels between statues of racist heroes in the South and heroes of colonization of the Indigenous populations of New Mexico. The post also included commentary on its being time for the Dem. Party to allow the left wing of the Party to lead with a summary of Elizabeth Warren’s speech to NetRoots Nation and a link to that inspiring speech.  Click here.

Rev. William Barber in ABQ: A Life-Changing Experience. This post reported on the Reverend Barber’s stirring meeting where he launched the Poor People’s Campaign in New Mexico. The post outlines why we need a Poor People’s Campaign and what it entails. Retake is proud to announce that its Leadership Team voted unanimously to fall behind and support this campaign fully. Look for details of how you can get involved in the near future.  Click here to review this post.

Injustice & Congressional Indifference Exposed.  Click here for the full post. This post used a series of charts and very little narrative, to describe the degree to which the quality of life in America has declined in the past 40 years. Charts were presented related to income, wealth accumulation, and broken down by ethnicity and gender. It also depicted the plight of communities of color as relates to incarceration rates.  The post closed by presenting a chart showing clearly how the vast majority of Americans favor a wide range of policies that if implemented would address these injustices and asks: if America favors these policies, why are NONE of them in place?  Answers below in the next two posts.

Guest Blog From Bruce Berlin: Big Money: The Problem in American Politics.  In the first of two guest posts, Bruce Berlin describes how money influences politics and answers the question posed above about why we do not get what we want from Congress. Click here to review the full post.

Bruce Berlin, Pt.II: How We Get $ Out of Politics–2 Calls 4 Action. The second in the series from Berlin describes the strategies and specific initiatives that must be embraced to vastly reduce the influence of big money on politics. The post also notified supporters of a City Council meeting Aug 30 at 7pm where the Council will discuss and possibly vote to approve or deny a regulation that would allow cell providers to build cell towers anywhere in town without notification of neighbors, provided their plan meets pre-determined specifications. Click here for details on this bill and links to contact info for our Councilors.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

Categories: Actions, Democratic Party Reform

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