Month: November 2010

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Unemployed? Come to DC on December 1!

  By Penn ACTION, Take political action, Unemployment Insurance

Last week, the majority of Americans just celebrated the Thanksgiving Holiday with a feast. However, too many Americans, especially the 14 million who are unemployed, could not afford a feast this year. That’s why Penn ACTION has been fighting for fighting for the unemployed in many ways, including an event we did in Bucks County a little over a week ago. And it is why we are joining with the AFL-CIO and the Philadelphia Unemployment Project to take part in an event in Washington on Wednesday, December 1, to demand that Congress keep federal funding of extended unemployment benefits. If you are unemployed—or have suffered unemployment during the current recession and benefitted from unemployment insurance—please join us.  RSVP here  today or contact Robin Stelly at (203) 216-9719. (Given the short time frame before the event, we can’t guarantee you a seat on the bus if we don’t hear from you… Continue reading

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Fighting for Extended Unemployment Benefits

  By Penn ACTION, Unemployment Insurance

Last week, the majority of Americans just celebrated the Thanksgiving Holiday with a feast. However, too many Americans, especially the 14 million who are unemployed, could not afford a feast this year. That’s why Penn ACTION has been fighting for the unemployed in various ways, including an event we did in Bucks County the week before the holiday. On November 16, Penn ACTION organized over 15 Bucks County residents, including a number of people who have been unemployed during the recession, to call for the additional funding for extended unemployment insurance. We held an 11am news conference followed by an event outside Careerlink building on New Rodgers Road at which people looking for work signed petitions calling on Congress to extend Unemployment The same week we did a statewide call-in to Senators Casey and Specter, asking them to continued funding for extended unemployment benefits. Hundreds of Pennsylvanians joined in the… Continue reading

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Where do we go from here?

  By Uncategorized

Dear Friends, American had a really bad day on Tuesday. And Pennsylvania had it worse than most states. We are, as you know, a swing state and when the nation swings, we swing harder more than most states. Despite all the good work Penn ACTION did (preliminary details here), we lost five Democratic members of Congress who were strong supporters of health care reform. We lost races for Governor and Senate. And we lost the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. So where do we progressive go from here? We will be discussing this for some time, but let me share with you some initial thoughts. A referenda on the economy First, we have to see this election as what it was, a referenda on the sad state of the economy. There is little evidence that there was any substantial shift in the fundamental beliefs of Americans about politics. America is a… Continue reading

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Penn ACTION in Election 2010

  By Penn ACTION, Penn Action and Election 2010

This has been a tough election for progressives. The political winds were against us and it turns out that there was little that we could do to stem them. I’ve written here about what we do next. But the disappointing results came despte our best efforts and those of other progressive around the state. The difficult political climate made fund raising for electoral work difficult but Penn ACTION brough close to $150,000 into the state for electoral work and carried out a number of important operations. On the C4, indpendent expenditure side, where we could explicitly work for a particular candidate, we Built a major canvass operation in support of Congressman Patrick Murphy in Congressional District Eight. We canvassed over 11 days and knocked on almost 17.000 doors, including 4158 on Election Day. Phoned 25,000 voters twice in Philadelphia, Bucks County and Montgomery to urge them to vote for Congressman Murphy Produced and… Continue reading

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New Penn ACTION NE Philly Volunteer Canvass

  By Penn ACTION, Penn Action and Election 2010

At practically the last moment, Penn ACTION secured some additional resources from the One Nation Working Together march to set up an additional canvass operation. This is a non-partisan get out the vote canvass that is targeting infrequent voters among single women, African Americans and young people under thirty in Northeast Philly and Montgomery County. The NE Philly office is at 14425 Bustleton Avenue although it is at the back of a strip mall building that fronts on Philmont Avenue. It is a block north of the  the Somerton train station on the West Trenton Line. We’ll be there from 11:00 am to about 6:30 pm on Monday and from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm on Election Day. We can send you out to canvass any time, but please call ahead to let us know you are coming as we will be out of the office at times, especially on… Continue reading