MoveOn Council of Marin: Facing Off Republican Attacks in Real Time
MoveOn Council of Marin: Facing Off Republican Attacks in Real Time
A new MoveOn Council of Marin, formed in the last few months, now faces a huge challenge as MoveOn groups across the country call for rallies to face off the proposed Republican national budget and block collective bargaining rights for workers in Wisconsin. The primary contact for MoveOn Marin is Bernie Stephans of Point Reyes Station following the move of founding member, Richard Gray, to start up a chapter in Washington State.
MoveOn Council of Marin is calling members and friends – via twitter, email, phone, Facebook and all other media - together at 5pm on Tues. March 15th at the Firestation, on Sir Francis Drake Blvd., College of Marin to oppose the Republican budget and support workers’ rights. The rally is one of at least 100 scheduled across the country.
MoveOn Councils are fairly new, according to Stephans. Prior to the current budget and workers’ rights crises, MoveOn focused primarily on internet communications but found there is “a lot more to be gained by showing up for our representatives. Pushing the progressive agenda throughout the country through these Councils is a new phase for MoveOn allowing people to organize locally and collaborate with other groups, unions, student groups, any group with a common progressive perspective,” says Stephans.
The rally on Tues. 3/15 is called Defending the Dream. “The Middle Class dream doesn’t have to end,” says Stephan. “When our group met most recently we made an effort to define our driver:
- Corporate power – they run our financial and political systems
- Supporting and protecting the environment - we need to make sure we start to reverse this
- General health and welfare of people – our Declaration of Independence talks about the health of people
- We plan to pursue a sort of Wikileaks approach – we need to have transparency
- March 15th is a beginning: The next rally is April 4th evening on San Rafael steps of City Hall – opposing Target – support local businesses – we will be able to respond, holding one or two rallies a month while staying on a national rhythm – nationally coordinated in over100 locations. MoveOn has infrastructure in place with 1500 members in Marin. MoveOn Council of Marin is now 50 people strong, although just 3 months old. SF had a council that didn’t succeed. Can do local stuff. Sonoma County MoveOn Council. David Walls, 707-823-7403 is current the current coordinator for Sonoma County.
Norman Solomon hosted a MarinTV interview with MoveOn Council of Marin founders, Richard Gray and Katherine de Silva Jain, available at https://marintv.mirocommunity.org/vi...nce-in-marin-e
MoveOn estimates the Republican budget would “force states to fire 65,000 teachers. Kill 700,000 jobs. And send 10,000 veterans into homelessness” based on a Washington Post report dated Feb. 28th and all federal funding for PBS and Planned Parenthood would be cut while we face the ravage of collective bargaining rights of unions in Wisconsin, giving a boost to the “conservative” ideology that the rich have a right to get richer while the poor get poorer. Goodbye Middle Class. Goodbye American Dream?
A MoveOn blogspot post claims the first “Saturday… mobilization showed us that Americans are fired up to defend the American Dream. And the public is on our side: A recent New York Times poll shows that the majority of Americans oppose Republicans' anti-worker, legislation.”
The February rally in San Francisco brought out an estimated 1-2,000 people and the cause just gets more urgent. Rallies will also take place in Santa Rosa and other North Bay cities. The Santa Rosa rally will begin at 6pm Tues. at Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa, according to Ben Boyce, President of Sonoma Valley Democratic Club.
Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, says Republicans have given the Democrats the shove needed to take the affront seriously and come together in working groups. That’s what MoveOn Council of Marin is about, says chair, Bernie Stephans of Point Reyes Station. Getting together in real time not just online petitions, donations and chat groups. “Just like protesters in Wisconsin are doing, we have to stand up right now and defend ourselves against attacks on the American Dream. Once again, Republicans in Congress are holding the middle class hostage—proposing a federal budget that would cut 700,000 to 1 million jobs from our communities and slash funding to support preschool and college students, pregnant women, unemployed workers, and much more,” says Stephans.
In the works at MoveOn Council of Marin is also a rally Monday Evening, April 4th, 6pm, at City Hall in San Rafael to speak out against the planned Target Superstore and support Locally Owned and Operated Business in Marin and to attract the San Rafael Council Members’ attention before they vote on the Target project. Across the country, Target and other Big Box stores have been shown to put local businesses out of business and they have the right to shutter their stores if not successful, leaving behind urban blight.
MoveOn lists some truly scary outcomes of a Republican-proposed budget.
Top 10 Worst Things about the Republicans' Immoral Budget
The Republican budget would:
1. Destroy 700,000 jobs, according to an independent economic analysis.
2. Zero out federal funding for National Public Radio and public television.
3. Cut $1.3 billion from community health centers—which will deprive more than 3 million low-income people of health care over the next few months.
4. Cut nearly a billion dollars in food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new moms, and children.
5. Kick more than 200,000 children out of pre-school by cutting funds for Head Start.
6. Force states to fire 65,000 teachers and aides, dramatically increasing class sizes, thanks to education cuts.
7. Cut some or all financial aid for 9.4 million low- and middle-income college students.
8. Slash $1.6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, a cut that experts say would "send shockwaves" through cancer research, likely result in cuts to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research, and cause job losses.
9. End the only federal family planning program, including cutting all federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood to support cancer screenings and other women's health care.
10. Send 10,000 low-income veterans into homelessness by cutting in half the number of veterans who get housing vouchers this year.
Members and friends of MoveOn are urgently requested to share the above on Facebook, twitter and any other social media they use. A visit to MoveOn on Facebook is a great step for most current information.
