Citizen Action Weekly: Friday, August 2nd
Friday, August 2nd
Milwaukee Celebrates Green New Deal Task Force Creation
Thursday evening in Milwaukee at the beautiful Wisconsin Black Historical Society, over 50 Citizen Action members and allies joined together to celebrate a 3 year effort to create a City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County Green New Deal task force to create a long term plan for the area to meet international climate targets and addresses the horrendous level of racial economic inequality in Milwaukee.
Citizen Action members from the Southeast Wisconsin Organizing Co-op are playing a very active role in leading this campaign. This work is being coordinated by the Milwaukee Economic Climate Justice Coalition (MECJC), which includes Citizen Action, Sierra Club, 350.org, and other partners. The Milwaukee Area Labor Council endorsed the task force, and there will be members of organized labor on the panel.
Task Force sponsors, Milwaukee Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton and Milwaukee County Supervisor Supreme Moore Omokunde, attended and laid out the process and timeline for the task force to produce recommendations. Both leaders also answered questions from those in attendance.
Event speakers clarified that If nothing is done in the very near future, we’re headed for a climate genocide. This disaster will disproportionately affect and impact our most marginalized communities already dealing with decades of de-industrialization and structural racism. This our opportunity to make Milwaukee a national leader on two of the biggest challenges of our time: catastrophic climate change and racial inequality.
Read more about campaign in Shepherd Express.
Save the Date: Brew Fest Fundraiser, Thursday, September 19th
Citizen Action’s annual BrewFest social and fundraiser is scheduled for Thursday, September 19th at 5pm in Milwaukee. Join us for a fun evening of camaraderie and celebrating the hard social justice work that we’re all passionate about. We’ll have a wide selection of union and locally sourced beer to sample, appetizers, and the ever popular silent auction.
Members of North Central Organizing Co-op participate in the WiLD Training
Four members of the North Central Organizing Co-op took part in the WI Leadership Development (WiLD) Training in Wausau this past weekend. At these trainings, people learn how to use their story and the stories of others to help push an issue. The Citizen Action team focused on continuing to use referendums for Fair Maps (an end to partisan gerrymandering). This is an intense, 2.5 day training.
The team joined 45 other participants.
Fair Maps Summer Kick-off for Northeast Co-op
The Northeast Co-op will be holding it’s summer kick-off for our Fair Maps Campaign on Tuesday August 6 at 6-7:30 at the Kress Family Library in De Pere (we’ll be in the Emil and Gail Fischer Room 1 in the basement). Join us to learn more about state legislation introduced this month for non-partisan redistricting and prison gerrymandering and strategize how we can take action to support these measures this year. For more information contact Jolie Lizotte at [email protected].
Driftless Organizing Co-op Kickoff: Campaign for Green Jobs
As many of you know, Citizen Action WI has been holding a series of conversations around southwestern and western Wisconsin, the “Driftless” area, about how we might build a Rural & Urban Alliance that could seek to heal that which has caused so much strife in Wisconsin – the urban/rural divide.
From meetings and deep listening in small towns and cities we discovered an opportunity to rebuild Driftless communities post-storms by urging our local utilities to apply for federal funds to create good green jobs and upgrade homes to be energy efficient. But we only have until Sept 30th until the next USDA funding deadline!
In the next few weeks, we will have multiple opportunities to meet and discuss how to advance both of these causes through the launch of a new Organizing Co-op campaign with full-time organizer to advance that as long as it takes. We welcome you to join “kick-offs” on how to (1) urge our utilities to act, (2) build a rural/urban alliance, and (3) make it an ongoing campaign able to make serious change in our communities able to negotiate with power!
Upcoming organizing events in August will take place in Reedsburg, Platteville and Onalaska! The next meetings are:
Reedsburg on Wednesday, August 7th, 6pm
Reedsburg Library, 370 Vine St, Reedsburg.
Reedsburg event details.
Platteville on Thursday, August 8th, 6pm
Driftless Market, 95 W Main St, Platteville.
Platteville event details
Onalaska on Thursday, August 22nd, 6pm
Onalaska Public Library, 741 Oak Ave Room A, Onalaska
Onalaska event details
Issue Canvassing Workshop: Black River Falls, Aug. 10th, 10am
Learn how to have those scary political conversations on the doors, or at the dinner table with that difficult family member! The training will last roughly an hour; afterwards we will put our new skills to the test and canvass the community together.
Saturday, August 10, 10 AM – 2 PM
Revolution Coffee
38 Main St., Black River Falls
RSVP via Facebook event.
If you have any questions or concerns, please email the organizer at [email protected].
“Gerrymandered” Battleground Wisconsin Podcast
Wisconsin Fair Election Project Director Sachin Chheda joins us to discuss new state legislation for fair legislative maps and the possibility GOP leadership could attempt to dodge Gov. Evers to gerrymander Wisconsin again. We also talk about Speaker Vos refusing to make accommodations for Rep. Jimmy Anderson to participate in committee meetings and Gov. Evers looks to protect water from nitrates. We also review the latest Democratic presidential news and Robert takes a first look at Kamala Harris’ new healthcare plan released this week.
LISTEN NOW – EPISODE 402
Download MP3
Wisconsin Fair Elections Projects