The Next Step in Building Progressive Power in Pennsylvania

We won a big victory. But the struggle is not over, either for health care or for the larger progressive agenda. I’m writing to ask you to sign up so that together we can build a force in Pennsylvania to keep America moving forward.For over twenty months, we worked together to do something that will make us proud for the rest of our lives.That victory was important. But there is so much more to do.

It took me a little time after the health care victory–and after a long delayed vacation–to figure out what I wanted to do next.So I decided that now is the time to build on the HCAN campaign and create a permanent progressive grassroots organization in Pennsylvania.

We desperately a need such an organization to work for public policies that will rebuild our middle class by creating jobs, fixing the financial system, improving education and fully implementing the health care reform we just enacted. We need to create grassroots pressure to address the looming problems of climate change, our dependence on non-renewable energy, the lack of alternatives to the automobile, and environmental degradation, including that which will be created by drilling in the Marcellus Shale. We need to work together to continue the progress we have made in securing full citizenship for women, African Americans and Latinos, and members of the LGBT community.

We created a grass roots movement in Pennsylvania for health care reform. We didn’t get everything we wanted. But we played a critical role in enacting the most important legislation in forty years. And we stood up to a powerful opposition, a growing right wing movement, and corporate interests that tried to stop us.

My first thought was to return to teaching and writing. Over the last two years, I learned that grassroots issue campaigns have a far greater impact on public policy than journalists or academics imagine. I want to tell that story.

But then I realized that America is at a turning point:  We could either move forward into a new progressive era or let the right wing and corporate interests take us back to the reactionary politics that characterized so much of the last thirty years.

Grassroots campaigns can build on one another. Or they can just come to an end. The HCAN campaign was my third statewide issue campaign. The first two were successful in leading to new state wide transit funding and an increase in the minimum wage. But they left little behind. When we started the HCAN campaign, we had to start over.

And we also need such an organization so that people at the grassroots, like you, can connect with political thinkers and political leaders in Washington. At this moment in our history, we are all uncertain about how to deal with dramatic changes in our economy. We have some clear legislative goals for the next six months to a year–fighting for extensions of unemployment insurance and more aid to the states, creating more jobs in education, opposing the extension of the Bush tax cuts on the very wealthy, saving Social Security, and implementing health care reform in the right way. But we have to figure out our long term program to rebuild our economy from the bottom up.

The leading national grassroots progressive organization, USAction, agreed with me and decided to invest a substantial amount in Pennsylvania, to give us an opportunity to re-build their local affiliate, Penn Action.

US Action asked me to become the Executive Director of Penn Action and I am now developing a plan to re-launch the organization. I’ll remain the state director of Health Care For America now and work with the Pennsylvania Health Access Network on health care issues. But Penn Action is going to be focused on the whole progressive agenda.

At the same time, USAction will soon begin a planning process that begins at the grassroots to help define the progressive agenda for the next few years. As part of Penn Action you will be invited to take part in it.

To make this vision a reality, I need your help.

Later in the month, I will relaunch Penn Action with a new website and the opportunity for people around the state to become affiliates of our organization. I’d like your help in planning for that now.

I need to know first, if you want to be part of Penn Action. And then, there are all kinds of questions we need to resolve about how we move forward.

To help find answers to these questions, I’ve created an on-line survey  at which you can express your views and, at the same time, sign up for the Penn Action email list. And I’m going to schedule a state wide conference call next week and travel around the state later in August to talk with groups of you about this effort. The survey and our conference calls and meetings will focus on these questions:

• What federal, state, and local issues should we focus on? What are our critical objectives over the next few years?
• What kind of political action do you most want to take part in? Rallies and marches? Meetings with political officials? Canvassing? Phone banks? Writing letters to the editor? Doing on-line work?
• How can an organization be most helpful in making political action effective for you? Do you need inside information? Do you need staff to help you build events and actions? Do you need a means of reaching out to other progressives in your area?
• How should we be organized? Would it be helpful to have local Penn Action chapters that coordinate actions on local as well as state and federal issues? Should we have frequent statewide conference calls? Should we create a social network website (like Facebook) so that you can easily contact one another and build relationships and actions in your localities?
• And who is going to help? Are some of you willing to take on the responsibility of being local coordinators?

If you don’t want to do the on-line survey, but want to hear more about where Penn Action is going, and about issues other than health care, you can join our email list by clicking here.

A last word

There are times when I think that my life would be a lot less stressful if I just went back to teaching and writing.on-line survey and tell me what you think Penn Action should be, or just sign up  for our email list. I’ll be in touch soon to let you know when we will hold the first conference call to discuss our future together.MarcStier@pennaction.org
215 880-6142

But this is such an important moment and what we built in the last two years is too big to just let it go.

And there is one other thing: HCAN was a labor of love for me, mostly because it brought me in contact with all of you. And I don’t want to lose that.

It was a special experience for me to work with all of you and It was important to know that there are so many of us around the state who are ready to take action again and again until our political leaders respond. It is a relief us to know that there is something we can together do to overcome the tea party folks. And, most of all, our work together has given me energy and a purpose I would not otherwise have had.

So I’m sticking with political action now not just because it is so important but because it is so fulfilling to be part of this effort. I hope that this is a reason for you to be part of Penn Action as well.

Please go to the

Marc
Marc Stier
Executive Director
Penn Action