Citizen Action Weekly: Friday, July 30th
Friday, July 30th
Citizen Action member featured in a NEW documentary video on fighting CAFOs from In These Times Magazine.
As part of the Wisconsin Idea media project that Citizen Action is participating in with In These Times magazine, journalists traveled to Wisconsin’s Crawford, Polk, and Burnett counties to speak with residents about their concerns and about their struggles to defend themselves against Big Agriculture and the factory farming industry. They have produced an outstanding video documentary telling the story.
Citizen Action Driftless Organizing Co-op member, Forest Janke, is featured in the documentary!
Watch the NEW documentary.
Citizens impacted by our Healthcare System Join Sen. Baldwin, Rep. Kristina Shelton, Citizen Action, and Protect Our Care for Healthcare Roundtable
On Friday, July 23rd, Wisconsin residents Lisa Schwetschenau and Peggy McDowell shared their healthcare stories at a roundtable discussion with Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Kristina Shelton. The roundtable was organized by Protect Our Care Wisconsin and Citizen Action Organizing Co-ops in Northcentral and Northeast Wisconsin. Senator Tammy Baldwin joined to hear these stories and to discuss the Medicaid Saves Lives Act — historic legislation introduced by Senators Baldwin, Jon Ossoff (D-GA), and Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) to create a federal program to extend coverage to millions of people in states that have refused Medicaid expansion. Over 90,000 Wisconsinites would benefit from this legislation, and it would bring much needed revenue to our state. You can see the roundtable discussion here.
Welcome North Side Rising Organizer, Deon Young!
Deon Young, North Side Rising Co-op Organizer. Deon was born in a mountain state (Colorado) and raised in the great city of Milwaukee since 1987 and a proud Warhawk (UW-Whitewater class of 2004) with a BA in Political Science and minor in Geography. He is a seasoned organizer with his first organizing job in 2004 working to fight against discriminatory ballot referendums that denied civil and equal rights to LGBTQ+ Wisconsinites with the Fair Wisconsin Campaign.
Get to know Deon and connect with him to learn how you can get involved in our North Side Rising Co-op!
Your INPUT is needed to update Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s 8-year agenda platform.
Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s platform has 6 main issue areas: Criminal Justice Reform, Climate and Equity, Healthcare, Education, Democracy, and Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
We will share each overarching issue statement and then ask for your feedback to submit to the Board of Directors to guide organizational priorities regarding time and resources spent on each platform area. In the next section of the survey, you have the option to provide feedback on the goals of each overarching policy area. The Boards of Directors will review the feedback from all of you in September, and finalize the platform heading into 2022.
Thanks for all that you do and for being a member of Citizen Action of Wisconsin!
Citizen Action of Wisconsin Driftless co-op hosts its annual meeting
Last Sunday the Driftless co-op hosted its in-person, annual meeting in Coon Valley. Our own members spoke about our accomplishments and set the tone for next year! We had a great turnout of 37 people and we even gained two new members!
One of the highlights of the day was a full report about our fight against factory farms. Wed also heard about our 2020 election work, the fact that all but one of our 2021 endorsed local candidates won their election, our work to pass Wisconsin’s first Medicare for All resolution, our work to help La Crosse develop a climate action plan and our rural issue team. We even began signing members up for our climate, healthcare and social media teams!
This meet was a huge success thanks to our members! We had a full potluck filled with great food. I special thanks goes to Wisco Pop, Viroqua Food Co-op and Kvarnstrom Bakery for their generous donations to the potluck. We even had a quick hike!
This event helped to set us up to create real change, fight factory farming and elect some amazing leaders in 2022!
Southeastern Wisconsin Co-Op Members Came Together!
We wrapped up the week of annual membership meetings in Glendale, WI with the Southeastern, Health Care for All, and North Side Rising annual co-op membership meeting! Citizen Action of Wisconsin is a statewide organizing cooperative and we encourage you to learn about the campaigns each region is involved in and get involved!! Thank you to everyone who joined us, we look forward to seeing you soon!
New Episode of “Let’s talk about Health Care” Now Streaming!
We were able to catch up with Randy Bryce to discuss America’s healthcare system. Hear what we have to say about the upcoming Bernie/Biden initiative to expand current Medicare benefits, find out what he has been working on since his 2018 breakout Congressional campaign, and get an update on his mom who was featured in his first ad! Watch now!
Citizen Action in the News
Citizen Action’s Executive Director Robert Kraig was on the Earl Ingram Radio Show for the full hour to discuss the state of play on protecting voting rights, the infrastructure bills, and more. Listen here.
Robert Kraig was also on the Jeff Santos Show for for the full hour to discuss whether U.S. Senate Democrats are blowing it on democracy, infrastructure, the rest of the progressive agenda. Listen here.
Looking for a progressive source for timely, digestible Wisconsin-only news? Subscribe to the daily newsletter from our friends at UpNorthNews for the latest reporting on policy, politics, and great storytelling from around the state.”
“Infrastructure politics” Battleground Wisconsin Podcast
We discuss this week’s apparent breakthrough in the U.S. Senate on a $1 trillion bi-partisan infrastructure bill. What’s in it, and is it really on track? We then evaluate the progressives’ two track strategy on infrastructure, and the threat from moderate Senator Kyrsten Sinema to derail the entire Biden Build Back Better agenda. In the state Legislature the Wisconsin Manufactures and Commerce reveals their hand behind this week’s failed GOP effort to cut UI for workers with a veto override vote. Q Anon caucus member and Election Committee chair Rep. Janel Brandtjen embraces conspiracy theories and the “Big Lie” as she launches an Arizona-style fishing expedition of the 2020 election in Wisconsin. We review the CDC’s new recommendation for indoor masking where infection rates remain high and Sen. Johnson’s incorrect statement calling it a mandate and saying the CDC should stop making recommendations to end the spread of COVID. Finally, we celebrate Medicare and Medicaid’s 56th birthdays on Friday and Sen. Baldwin calls for rejecting Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan.
Facebook post of the week
