Citizen Action Weekend E Newsletter, September 8th – 10th
Citizen Action is hiring an Organizing Director.
Citizen Action is hiring Deep Canvass Field Organizers in Green Bay and Milwaukee.
For more information contact Priscilla Bort at [email protected]
Welcome our new Movement Political Field Organizers.
You may recognize Julia and Kristin’s names as the top canvasser for the Spring 2023 and Fall 2022 election – we are excited to have them join our team!
Meet Julia Bennker
Julia Bennker was born in Richland Center, WI and grew up in southern Wisconsin. After graduating from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2005, she served as a VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) in the AmeriCorps program. Through this, she served as the Service-Learning Coordinator at UW-Waukesha. Julia then worked for Justice 2000 as a case manager helping people in Milwaukee get their driver’s licenses back.
After this, Julia lived in several countries including Spain and Costa Rica to learn Spanish and teach English. In 2020, Julia joined her family in Eau Claire where she cares for children in her home.
Meet Kristin Deprey
Raised in La Crosse, Kristin moved to the Tampa Bay area of Florida at age 19. For 22 (long) years, Kristin lived in Florida and within the last 2 years has moved back to her beloved Wisconsin.
Whether it be a campaign or a social justice issue, Kristin is passionate about making positive, lasting changes to better our communities. She is particularly interested in long term solutions to our healthcare crisis. Being a fibromyalgia and chronic pain patient herself, she knows how difficult it can be to navigate our current healthcare system and how patients have been put in positions to be their own advocate in many (most) situations.
Kristin has a robust resume of volunteer and paid campaign experience including being a former organizer and volunteer coordinator for Indivisible Action Tampa Bay, former Communications Director for now School Board member Jessica Vaughn’s Hillsborough, FL Seat 3 campaign, former Organizer for School Board Member Asher Edelson’s Vermont School Board and Select Board Campaigns, former Social Media coordinator for Mom’s Demand Action Tampa Bay and a former Organizer for Andrew Gillium FL Governor’s campaign.
In addition Kristin is equally as passionate about mental healthcare. She believes that by helping keep conversations around mental health care open, it will help to break down the stigmas that surround it. She is a volunteer and Board Member of NAMI Chippewa Valley (National Alliance of Mental Illness) and former Contributor to Mental Health and Invisible Illness Resources Social Media Sites.
In her spare time, she enjoys being in nature, creating art and spending quality time with her friends and family.
Citizen Action says Goodbye and Thank You to Organizing Director Kate Felton this week.
This Friday is Kate Felton’s last day at Citizen Action of Wisconsin, as our Organizing Director.
We all wish Kate Felton well in her new business venture running Eau Claire Outdoors, an outdoor outfitter with an emphasis on creating unique opportunities for people to experience Wisconsin natural settings. “At Eau Claire Outdoors, the outdoors is for everyone. No matter who you are or what’s in your wallet, everyone deserves the opportunity to have fun, exercise, meditate, and find community in the outdoors.”
However, Kate will continue to be an active member of the Citizen Action Northwest Organizing Cooperative and serve on the Eau Claire City Council.
We are excited for her new adventure.
Thank you Kate!
Listen to special interview with Dave Zirin
We interview Dave Zirin, the sports editor of The Nation Magazine and an award winning journalist. Dave Zirin discusses the current effort by the owner of the Brewers to get half a billion dollars in public money for stadium repairs with nothing in return other than the privilege to have the team stay in Wisconsin.
Zirin explains how what is happening here is part of an orchestrated effort by Major League Baseball and other major professional sports leagues to extract significant public dollars with few or no concessions and reminds us that community organizing is the secret to cutting a much better deal with teams that center protecting the public’s interest, not the owner.
We Energies seeks another rate increase charging residential customers twice as much as a commercial customer.
Residential rates will increase 15% in two years!
We Energies is asking for another rate increase for residential ratepayers after a massive 11% increase on January 1, 2023.
The 15% increase over two years will directly impact our black and brown communities in Milwaukee who are living in older housing with poor energy efficiency, a legacy of deliberate redlining and forced segregation.
Please sign and share our Energy Burden petition stating that you don’t want another increase and support creating a test region in Milwaukee where no one pays more than 2.1% of their annual income for energy costs. You can put in your own comments or just sign. Comments section is open until October 16, 2023.
The Public Service Commission will be hosting 2 public hearings on October 9th, at 2pm and 6pm at the Clinton Rose Senior Center, 3045 N. Martin Luther King Dr. Milwaukee.
For more information and to get involved contact, Keviea Guiden, Citizen Action Energy Burden Organizer, (414)-841-3839 or [email protected]
Citizen Action North Side Rising organizes at LaborFest 2023.
The Citizen Action North Side Rising co-op attended Milwaukee’s LaborFest this Monday.
Our organizing team had great conversations and took lots of photos. One thing they couldn’t do was beat the heat. Boy was it a scorcher Monday!
A shirt from LaborFest said it all. “None of us are well off if most of us are underpaid.”
Wisconsin’s minimum wage is $ 7.25 per hour for adults and minors. Tipped employees can be paid a minimum of $2.33 per hour. Without tips the employer must pay the difference between $ 7.25 and $2.33. How do people survive on these wages? BadgerCare, rent assistance, social security, WIC, energy assistance, free school lunches all make up the difference.
A livable wage would benefit us all. A livable wage allows us all to take better care of ourselves and each other.
North Side Rising is always looking for new members, volunteers, supporters and donors. To learn more please contact Valerie Ricks (414-885-5640, [email protected]) Maletha Jones (414 676 5516, [email protected]) or Keviea Guiden at 414-841-3839/ [email protected]
Citizen Action in the News
Citizen Action’s Robert Kraig was on the Earl Ingram radio show for the full hour to discuss the state of American democracy and the path to restoration.
Listen to the full interview here.
Listen to “It’s all about power!” Battleground Wisconsin Podcast
We start with the GOP threat to lawlessly impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz in a desperate attempt to hold on to gerrymandered maps. Will the latest Republican attack on democracy succeed? We dig into the latest GOP attempt to secure massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and freeze them in place with a constitutional amendment. Meanwhile, new GOP child care bills show their inability to address major social problems due to their anti-government absolutism.
We review the latest MAGA Republican power play in Georgia, the RICCO indictments by the State Attorney General of social justice advocates opposing the building of the giant Cop City police training complex.
Finally, we have a news maker interview with award-winning sportswriter Dave Zirin, the sports editor of The Nation Magazine. Dave discusses the public shakedown by the Brewers to get over half a billion dollars in public money for stadium repairs, without anything in return for the public benefit. Zirin explains how what is happening here is part of an orchestrated effort by Major League Baseball and other major professional sports leagues to extract significant public dollars with few or no concessions. Ziren reminds us that community organizing is the secret to cutting a much better deal with teams that center on protecting the public’s interest, not the windfall profits of billionaire owners.
Listen to the show!
SIGN & SHARE Petition demanding an equity share of the Milwaukee Brewers, guaranteeing the public will get a return on our investment.
Social media post of the week
