News and Blog Posts from Wellstone Action

Tuesday's Triumphs and a Halloween Tale

sbmueller — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:48:29 -0600

A week or so ago – Halloween weekend, actually – The New York Times stepped up its holiday spirit with a very scary story. The kind you tell while aiming a flashlight at your face.

It gave frightening new details about a group of ultra-conservative Tea Party stalwarts who meet in Washington, D.C. each month. They share polling, opposition research, and voter contact strategies. They preview media pitches and advertising angles. And they coordinate the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars they plan to raise and spend between this November and the next.

Hundreds of millions. Like, one of these organizations – American Crossroads – is going to spend $240 million all by itself.

Because progressives aren’t terrified enough about next year’s election odds. Happy Halloween, y’all!

It’s no secret that those of us working to take back our progressive vision for this country have been plenty afraid about our chances for success. We’ve watched the rise of a re-energized conservative movement, backed by billionaires, that believes in everything we don’t. And Tuesday’s elections, with everything from voters’ rights to workers’ rights to women’s rights laid bare before a not-so-metaphorical grim reaper, were watched by all of us with at least as much fear as there was hope.

But then, my facebook feed began to blow up. Posts from my pals about victory in Ohio, then Maine, then Mississippi, and then a late-night left-fielder about an undoing in Arizona.

These wins – for justice, for fairness, for all of us – were the lift our spirits sorely needed. While these zealots with cauldrons whipped up their witches’ brew in legislatures across the land, the people resoundingly refused to take a drink.

And this wasn’t anything magical, right? It was the result of months of focused work, of good, old-fashioned organizing. Of these four achievements, Wellstone Action! had a hand in two of them. And we’re not even close to finished.

In the face of extremist politics, the people of Ohio proved their collective power. Wellstone Action! has a deep history in Ohio, with years of offering our Camp Wellstone, Advanced Campaign Management, and Labor trainings to citizens, campaign workers, and candidates. And as things heated up this past year, we were pleased to partner with the Ohio Democratic Party, Ohio Education Association, and We Are Ohio to train Ohioans how to mobilize and organize at the grassroots. We also joined with Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, developing a voter engagement plan and supporting their efforts to beat back this most recent assault on workers. And, as of Tuesday, two more of our Camp Wellstone alum – Grant Hutcheson (City Council) and Yvette Simpson (City Council) – join fellow Camp Wellstone alumnus Armond Budish (House Minority Leader) as elected officials.

Wellstone Action! also had the privilege of working in Maine to restore voter’s rights, alongside our friends at National People’s Action Electoral Power Cohort and the Maine People’s Alliance, who collected 71,000 signatures through Maine’s “People’s Veto Ballot Initiative Process”. What was a neck-and-neck race just one week ago turned Tuesday into a 20-point landslide. Wellstone Action!’s role in this win actually began this spring, when we teamed up with Maine State Employees Association (a member-run organization of SEIU) working intensively with campaign leaders to develop member engagement, mobilization, and lobbying strategies that would ignite voters against a number of anti-union, anti-public worker initiatives.

Our campaign in Maine was strategically positioned to not only defeat this spooky public policy, but also to serve as the springboard for this week’s victory on voter registration, and the means for taking back our progressive power in this state. And, in the spirit of what we teach at Wellstone Action! – that building power and winning change requires a serious, strategic, and sustained investment – our work isn’t even close to over. In fact, it continues next week, when we team up with Engage Main to train folks from their labor and community-based organizations and recruit candidates for next year’s legislative elections. And after we recruit those candidates? Well, Wellstone Action!’s going to train them, too.

The tricky thing about nightmares – be they on Elm Street or Main Street – is that we’re sometimes not sure whether they’ve ended. After all, there’s a whole lot of money to be made in drawing them out: you can remake the original film using different actors, you can conjure up a crossover showdown between two epic villains from two different franchises, and your pockets can stay full as long as the antagonist’s defeat is always ambiguous.

So while Tuesday’s triumphs don’t exactly let us roll the closing credits on this conservative, national nightmare of ours, they absolutely signal how we the people can shift the plot when the “good guys” stick together – when we progressive protagonists stand up, keep fighting.

This story’s not over yet. And I’m already excited for the sequel.

Sara Beth Mueller is the Director of Communications and Marketing at Wellstone Action!. She hates scary movies but is awfully fond of metaphors.

How Good Storytelling Can Save the Left

Erik — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:05:19 -0500

This is cross-posted from Dissent Magazine's Symposium: Organizing and Therapeutic Politics
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We have asked a number of organizing scholars and practitioners to comment on Zelda Bronstein’s “Politics’ Fatal Therapeutic Turn” (and exchange with Marshall Ganz) from the Summer 2011 issue of Dissent. The responses were written either before or during the incipient stages of the occupations now taking place across the United States—events that carry with them the potential for a remobilization of the American Left. We hope that the arguments below will help carry forward discussions about where (and how) to go from here.

How Good Storytelling Can Help Save the Left

Zelda Bronstein begins her recent article “Politics’ Fatal Therapeutic Turn” with a timely and compelling question: Why, at a time when bold organizing and activism are needed more than ever, are “the partisans of democracy…largely demobilized and defensive?”

Her answer is less satisfying: individuals and organizations on the left have turned politics into therapy “as a source of personal validation and emotional succor” rather than the “strenuous citizenship essential to democracy.” Her claim rests on two case studies, but her broadside against MoveOn and Marshall Ganz is the more interesting and most troubling part of her article.

MoveOn and Ganz, Bronstein writes, “use techniques of mutual self-disclosure to propel individuals into a politics where aggravation is alleviated by the balm of righteous sentiment.” Yet, her problem appears to be more with MoveOn than with Ganz. Bronstein uses Ganz to critique MoveOn, then blames him for MoveOn’s failure to follow his model of organization.

The more provocative challenge in Bronstein’s piece is not her misreading of Ganz or his organizing model; it is her rejection of organizing as “creating relationships through public narrative” and her dismissal of the importance of community and collective story in the formation of collective action. She writes that “community grows out of trust, and trust out of shared action, not shared stories.” Then she quotes Christopher Lasch —“the concept of ‘community’ evokes ‘intimacy and togetherness’ [while]…political life thrives on controversy,” suggesting that a focus on community building is not the same (nor presumably does it support) something more “strenuous.” Bronstein clearly places herself on the side of action and controversy—what she refers to as “grubby politics.”

Bronstein’s caricature is a classic example of the false “either/or” dichotomy that has plagued left politics for generations and western civilization for a lot longer. It’s head versus heart; the same lines drawn between the “hard” Old Left focus on direct action and class and the “soft” New Left emphasis on culture. Is the choice truly between pragmatic “politics” and the theoretical, idealistic, intimate relationships of “community?” When are we going to learn we need both and more?

In fairness, I think Bronstein would probably agree. But so does Ganz. Even a cursory reading of Ganz’s writings, or a brief conversation with him, would make clear that he practices both “head” and “heart”—action and strategy deeply rooted in relationship. Bronstein’s claim that Ganz “gives priority to personal affect and motivation” gets us nowhere. Changing the world requires healing this divide.

Wellstone Action, the progressive training institute created after the death of Senator Paul Wellstone, tries to do this. Wellstone used to say, “Electoral politics without community organizing is a politics without a base; community organizing without electoral politics is a marginalized politics. And community organizing and electoral politics without a clear, progressive public policy agenda is a politics without a head, without a direction.” Wellstone Action combines all three and now trains out of this model, which it calls the “Wellstone Triangle.”

Changing the world requires both organizing and mobilizing. Organizing is about building relationships, finding common cause, and developing new leaders. Mobilizing is about moving self and others to collective action around common cause. The power is in bringing these together. If all we focus on is mass mobilization, we will quickly find a fractured and oftentimes dwindling following behind us—if there is any following at all. This is the classic challenge of large organizations that try to create nationally driven “movement” campaigns, which seldom have anything moving on the ground more than slogans and heaps of cash. Conversely, if we build relationships and fail to move people to action through a pragmatic analysis of power, we will have a really good holiday card list and large Facebook following, but will not shift power or deliver real policy outcomes.

Let’s go beyond the head and the heart and flesh out the whole body. In this analogy, issues are represented by our head. Most of us think and care about lots of issues; we take action on far fewer. We choose to act on those issues that connect most directly with what matters to us, our interests (or gut) and our values (or heart). Until an issue touches our heart, we may still “care,” but we will not act. Personal narrative sharpens motivation by connecting head, heart, and gut. Bronstein may call this therapy; I call it Organizing 101, and it has long preceded either Ganz or me.

Moving people to action always begins with the recognition that there is something wrong. This is the beginning of a story that connects the challenge we face with our ability to change it. But this story cannot end with self-realization. Collective action requires a collective story, and, as organizers, we learn to elicit individuals’ experiences and weave them together. We create spaces—literally—for people to recognize in another a piece of themselves. This begins building community, and is the way we find common cause in the collective challenge we now recognize together. It is one way to break out of the relentless isolation and individuation of social experience that has occurred over four decades of a neoliberal economic regime with its story of market fundamentalism.

Identifying shared challenges gets us started; it does not change the world. We need to lay out a clear choice, an agenda worth fighting for. The Left has been relatively successful at defending the New Deal 1.0, but has not developed our New Deal 2.0. We have not succeeded in developing a new collective story, a point I believe Bronstein and Ganz would agree on. We need to provide a credible alternative and then create opportunities for people to act, and to act now. This is how movement-building power and change begins to happen. To succeed, we must first believe that story, narrative, and community matter to politics.

The diagram below illustrates this type of movement-building change and is inspired, in part, by Marshall Ganz’s work on “strategic capacity.” Put simply, change happens when enough people are motivated (have the urgency and commitment) to develop an effective strategy and deploy their resources (their capacity) to act on the right target (where we choose to spend our resources within existing power relationships) at the right time (where we find and create political opportunity).

What Ganz calls strategic capacity depends on the right combination of leadership and organization to “turn what we have into what we need to get what we want.” Sydney Tarrow calls these resources our “repertoire of contention,” which every social movement requires along with common purpose and sustained collective action. These resources include

• motivation (what compels and sustains our action)
• cultural knowledge (the salient information from particular communities)
• training and education (what others have taught us)
• financial resources (available money and infrastructure)
• community networks (our personal and organizational relationships)
• experiences (the stories of what has been done before)

Using these resources, we develop campaigns to win organizing, electoral, and public policy outcomes. But our campaigns need to be more than instrumental means to a victorious end. Movement building measures success by whether our campaigns and victories also create more organizing opportunities, reorganize existing power relationships, shift the narrative frame, develop new leaders, build stronger organizations, and expand our repertoire of contention.

Organizers are critical to making this change happen. Effective organizers have the ability to see and to experience the pain of a person and the world as it is, in all of its “grubby politics,” and at the same time imagine and ignite in others the imagination of what is possible and necessary. Walter Bruggemann calls this the “prophetic imagination;” Saul Alinsky calls it the “schizoid” nature of organizing. Ganz defines this complex relationship of leadership and organizing as “accepting responsibility to create conditions that enable others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty.”

We come back to where we began: to a both/and rather than either/or approach. Seen through this lens, any particular aspect of organizing (whether it is building a collective story or mobilizing for action) or a given training (whether leadership development, campaign skills, or governing as a progressive-movement elected official) can be evaluated for the particular need it meets at a particular moment over the course of building a movement. Bronstein calls for mass mobilizing yet dismisses real organizing. She characterizes storytelling as therapeutic, rather than recognizing it is as the principal way we create a collective public narrative, imagine an alternative, build the power and motivation necessary to challenge existing power relationships, sustain our campaigns, and deliver progressive public policy at the end of the day. In short, she calls for a bolder, more expansive organizing at the same time she narrows its focus and drains it of its heart and soul.

Click to read "Zelda Bronstein Responds".

Erik Peterson is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Wellstone Action and is an assistant professor in the Masters of Advocacy and Political Leadership program at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He has over thirty years of community, labor, and electoral organizing experience.

We Stand with Wisconsin!

sbmueller — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:14:04 -0500

We'll be watching this fight along with all of you. Friend us on facebook and follow us on twitter for the latest on the progressive movement (in Wisconsin and elsewhere!).

"Let's do more than just honor and miss our friend...let's continue his work".

sbmueller — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:51:26 -0500

Immigrant community gets 'ready to lead'

Jhaut — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:06:12 -0500

Thirty-five Latino, Polish, Arab, African and Asian immigrants and children of immigrants were selected to participate in a statewide non-partisan immigrant candidate training program Saturday, July 9th. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and the New American Leaders Project (NALP), in partnership with Wellstone Action and DePaul University, held the "ICIRR Candidate School," the first program of its kind in the country at the DePaul University Center.

This weekend's training, Ready to Lead, is a signature program developed by NALP for first and second generation immigrant leaders. This is a training program for potential candidates and other immigrant leaders who want to learn in-depth electoral skills. Training program guest speakers included Illinois' first elected Latino, Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, as well as State Representative Edward Acevedo, state and national organizations and official Illinois candidates. "Having leaders as diverse as our population sends a message to the rest of the world about a founding principle of our democracy," said NALP's Founding Director Sayu Bhojwani. "NALP focuses on building a network of elected officials who can more accurately reflect and respond to our country's diversity. This Ready to Lead class represents the ethnic diversity of Illinois and is a window into future leadership."

ICIRR has run the largest non-partisan voter registration and turnout operation in Illinois for the past four election cycles. In 2010, the organization's multiple-contract program reached 133,128 immigrant voters. In that time, the Latino and Asian populations have increased by 32 and 38 percent, respectively. In 2008, ICIRR held a pilot training program that produced viable candidates for Alderman, State Representative, and local School Council elections. As such, immigrants have become increasingly aware of their political power and are ready to run. "This program marks great progress towards our goal of empowering immigrants in Illinois," said Lawrence Benito, ICIRR Deputy Director. "Now it's time to take it to the next level by prepare immigrants to run for public office."

The success of this weekend's Ready to Lead training program demonstrates that ICIRR and NALP in partnership with Wellstone Action and Depaul University are providing an opportunity for Illinois. "The energy and desire to lead is growing within the immigrant community," said Rudy Lopez, Wellstone Action co-lead trainer. "We are here to provide the necessary tools for all of this amazing potential to be achieved." For more information about ICIRR, visit http://www.icirr.org/. For New American Leaders Project, visit http://www.newamericanleaders.org/.

How Minnesotans Can Get Government Working Again

sbmueller — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:58:04 -0500

July 2011. The state is in shutdown mode. Some people miss meals, some people miss camping, some people miss getting their first Minnesota driver's license. No one is better off, though some of us are worse off than others. Enough, already, of the false starts and the blame games. We Minnesotans are long overdue for some good-faith negotiations and sensible solutions for tackling the enormous state budget deficit. Why is this proving to be such a challenge?

We are the public that expects more from our leaders. We Minnesotans think about our elected officials as public servants. We elected them to represent our individual and shared interests. They are the stewards of our "public life," and they are responsible for our common good. The most privileged among us and the most frail; the most politically engaged and the most apathetic; the urban, suburban and rural farm dwellers; the young and the old — all do connect around the public structures that make our lives "civilized."

Shared values, shared benefits
We turn on the water and drink. This is safe because we have a shared investment in a government that protects and delivers our water, a government that keeps our food and water and streets and homes and businesses safe.

Education creates opportunities for individuals and a thriving economy that benefits all. So we have "public" schools that are available to support each child in learning and striving.

We value work and are a hard-working state. So we get in our cars — some with chauffeurs, others with cracked windshields — and we drive on roads that have paving (more or less), names and numbers, and are mapped to get us to our jobs, our meetings, our conferences, our job training. That, too, is because government works to serve the public. Sometimes government even enables us to get to work via public transit!

And there is more. No one is totally safe from crime, whether in a gated community or a rundown neighborhood. But government acts on behalf of all of us, enforcing the rules that we have set for protecting all of us from domestic assault, sexual violence, robbery, fraud, murder and more.

You get the point. We do have a public life, and all of us are part of it.

Only losers, not winners
We deserve to have those public servants whom we choose at the polls keep the structures working so that we can thrive and survive. We've seen the impact of the first days of a shutdown on the private, public, and nonprofit sectors — jobs, wages, opportunities, profits. It isn't pretty. And there are only losers, not winners. How did we let this happen?

This is where the truth comes into question. In the last urgent meetings to try to avoid the shutdown, we now know that the governor made concessions, even on his most clearly stated commitment to raise taxes on the few high earners who pay a relatively low portion of their income in taxes. Gov. Mark Dayton sees increased revenue, raised fairly, as the only way to avoid such deep cuts that our public structures and shared quality of life would be permanently harmed. In hopes of keeping government in the public-service business, he moved from his initial budget proposal on multiple counts, even offering to narrow the field of taxpayers who would be impacted by an increase to those making over $1 million. Still no deal? How can this be?

'Poison pill' deal killers
Well, the story is out now, and it seems that in those last efforts to keep the lights on in Minnesota, the GOP leaders made offers that included clear and obvious "poison pill" deal killers. They added non-budget issues to the budget negotiations.

Now Minnesotans have a wide range of opinions about abortion rights, photo ID at the polls, and the political impact of political redistricting, but we all should be able to see that raising these already debated lightning-rod issues in the last hours of negotiation made any pretense at serious budget solutions a mockery! It is not possible that anyone is fooled into thinking that those were offers designed to get to an agreement about how to solve the budget crisis.

So now what? The consequences of resolving the budget problem just with cuts will mean deeper problems than we have now. Minnesota needs to be a highly functioning state, able to make strategic investments in structures and amenities that make ours the most livable communities. Otherwise we cannot thrive in a global and national economy. That's a reality.

It is a political choice to be at a stalemate. GOP leaders have been focused on their loyalty to an old "no new taxes" slogan, not loyalty to their state. We deserve better. The more we allow elected leaders to avoid real compromise, to lie with impunity, to tell us that they are working for us when they have rigged negotiations to fail, the more all of us will find our shared public life diminished.

Citizens can play essential role
Again, the question. How did we let this happen? Citizens can play the most essential role in determining the quality of our public life. Every one of us needs to let our elected officials know that we thank them and respect them for good public service. And we must also tell them that we will no longer tolerate turning our public life into a political game. In the spirit of walking my talk, I thank Gov. Dayton for holding firm for a balanced approach to using both revenues and cuts to keep the state as strong as possible in this economic crisis. I urge Sen. Amy Koch and Rep. Kurt Zellers to be public leaders for all Minnesotans, not just partisans, and get serious about common sense solutions to our problems.

Fellow Minnesotans, now it's your turn. Be a voice for honest, workable budget solutions, for keeping Minnesota strong in our 100 percent shared self interest, and for getting government back to work. Call, email, join with others in demanding accurate information and sensible solutions. And if our public servants have forgotten what public service is, help them remember in the next election!

Marcia Avner, of St. Paul, is a consultant to nonprofits and other institutions engaged in public-policy work. She is the author of two books, "The Lobbying and Advocacy Handbook for Nonprofit Organizations: Shaping Public Policy at the State and Local Level" (2002) and "The Board Member's Guide to Lobbying and Advocacy" (2004).

Budgets are moral documents-progressives must frame the moral choices

Erik — Thu, 19 May 2011 10:19:31 -0500

We hear the same story repeated across the country.

The mythic couple sitting around their kitchen table - not able to pay their bills - making the tough choices about what to cut.

‘Government needs to act more like that couple, tighten their belts, and make the tough choices,' opine conservatives.

But is this really how the mythic kitchen table conversation goes?

Does this couple really sit around talking about which of their children - little Jimmy or Jane - eats on Tuesday, as many conservatives suggest? Or the water dripping into their living room from the damaged roof will just have to continue to drip until it pours? Or they just won't fill the tank with gas even if it means they can't get to work?

Really? This is the conversation?

I think not.

Rather, I think this mythic couple starts out being pretty mad about being put into this situation in the first place. And once they have cancelled cable TV and their trip to Disney (which sets off another rage), this mythic couple focuses on how to get more money, not on calmly deciding which of their children will eat.

I think they talk about how to pick up extra hours, a better-paying job, or other ways they can get more money so they can pay for Jimmy, Jane, the roof and the gas - not about which of these need to be sacrificed.

And if they are forced to make the impossible choice, I don't think they describe it as a ‘tough choice,' but rather as a horrific and tragic one.

I think most Americans understand - just as this mythic family does - that their lives will not improve by making more cuts, but rather by finding the resources to pay for what they need.

The problem in most of the current budget debates raging across the country is this conversation about new revenue is barely mentioned; even many progressives concede the point as lost before the fight is even waged. The debate, then, devolves into how much to cut, how deep to cut, and which cuts hurt the least.

Paul Wellstone used to say "Progressives make the mistake that people are galvanized around ten-point programs. They are not! People respond according to their sense of right and wrong. They respond to a leadership of values."

Wellstone Action teaches that all campaign messages must present a clear values choice. Effective campaign messages need to name the problem - the challenge that connects deeply with people's lives - then define the choice and present a credible alternative and opportunity to act.

Our progressive messages around the budget need to show this same clarity and discipline.

Laying Out a Progressive Budget Values Choice.

Budgets are moral documents.

They are our values in numbers.

They reflect the choices our communities make together through our government.

The Republicans in Congress have already laid out a crisp choice. They say the budget deficit and out of control spending is the problem. They say the choice is between the Democrats and their class warfare and politics of envy and the Republican focus on jobs and renewed prosperity.

It's a clever choice they lay out. And it is defining the budget debates across the country.

And what has been the response so far from many Democrats?

"We need to come together. Now is not the time to draw lines in the sand," Senator Harry Reid deadpanned on the Sunday morning talk shows last week.

Really?

Surely we do not need more political polarization and gratuitous gamesmanship. But all politics is about choices, and if we lose this essential point in some gauzy effort to all get along and be bipartisan we have lost the essence of why politics matters.

As progressives we need to lay out our clear choice. People are hungry for an alternative.

We need to clearly identify who benefits through our budget decisions at the expense of whom?

Who can afford to sacrifice and who simply gets sacrificed?

We need to make clear that the current Republican budget and tax code that accompanies it benefit Wall Street and the wealthy class at the expense of Main Street and the rest of us.

Going Beyond the Politics of Scarcity.

There are a few brave voices in Congress making this case. In April, the Congressional Progressive Caucus under the leadership of Representatives Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) presented "The People's Budget."

This budget combines new revenue with strategic spending cuts. It ends the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and creates a truly progressive income tax for the highest earners. It cuts Pentagon spending that even the Pentagon doesn't want, and it gets us out of two wars with their $1.1 trillion price tag. The budget then directs these resources to creating jobs, strengthening social security, healthcare, education, and rebuilding our country's infrastructure.

The People's Budget is not fantasy but a real alternative. It has also gotten little attention from Democrats, or even from many progressives.

It's time for more progressives to define the clear choices we face.

We need to reject the politics of scarcity.

In the richest country on earth we have plenty of resources. Our problem is not the amount of resources but their distribution. We need to name those who enjoy a disproportionate share of our commonwealth - not to blame, but to point out that such accumulation comes only at the expense of many, many others. To point out this choice about how we will distribute the wealth we have created together.

We cannot fall into the trap of balancing budgets through the tired mantras of redesigning and streamlining government or cutting government inefficiencies and waste.

Certainly there are always better, even cheaper ways of delivering critical services and meeting our collective needs. But there is no magic bucket of government fat out there just waiting to be cut - certainly not enough to even come close to what is needed. Even our opponents concede the cuts are hand wringing ‘tough choices' that have to be made.

Hubert Humphrey used to say that we can judge the quality of a society by how it prepares its young, provides for its elderly and protects its most vulnerable citizens.

These are moral choices and need to be framed as the stark moral choices they represent.

As progressives we need to avoid the message frames that portray our public budgets as wasteful and bloated. We need to frame our choices about who will have jobs and who will not. Who will eat and who will not. Who will have heat and housing and who will not. Who will have health care and who will not. Who will have a decent school and chance at college and who will not.

These are moral choices and they speak to our moral values.

Our Choice: Corporations and Wall Street or the Middle Class and Main Street

Warren Buffet once famously remarked that if there is class warfare in this country, his class was winning.

Seldom has this been on such prominent display as the Senate testimony last week from the five CEO's of the largest oil corporations. With a straight face these five CEO's insisted that $32 billion in profits for the first three months of 2011 was not enough. They still needed that $2 billion in government subsidies if they were to thrive and continue to grow.

It is wrong to protect billions of dollars in subsidies to oil companies and propose cuts to energy assistance for low income people who need to pay for heat.

Thankfully Senator Schumer (D-NY) framed the moral choice the Senate faces: Are the handouts to the five wealthiest corporations in world history more important than the equivalent cuts Republicans propose for student loans? Which makes us a stronger and better country?

Conservative defenders and their oil company patrons frame the choice as investment, energy independence and jobs versus class warfare and the arbitrary punishment of a few successful businesses. They decry any progressive alternatives as "un-American."

But buried in the Senate testimony was the admission that nearly $30 a barrel - 30% of the price of oil - comes from market speculation, not the real cost of producing that barrel of oil.

As progressives we need to lay out the stark choice: do we use our tax dollars to subsidize market speculators and price gougers, or do we invest in educating the next generation of entrepreneurs?

These are moral choices.

And budgets are filled with these choices.

No society or business has ever cut its way to greatness. Greatness comes from hard work and coming together to make wise choices and investments in our future.

People are hungry for straight talk and clarity about what progressives stand for, and what their alternatives are. With laser focus we need to make clear the values behind each and every choice.

We believe budgets should not be balanced on the backs of workers, the middle class, or those who are most vulnerable when the most fortunate contribute less than their fair share.

We believe that we have collective responsibility for one another and all must share the burden in times of distress and challenge. And for those who have been extraordinarily blessed, as the Bible teaches us, much is to be expected.

We believe that it is wrong that the wealthiest corporations are sitting on over two trillion dollars in cash reserves, are earning record breaking profits, and are still not hiring American workers. And it is intolerable that we continue giving these corporations even more subsidies and tax breaks.

We believe the tens of billions of dollars in tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthiest taxpayers are not a higher priority than K-12 education, or health care, or housing, or any number of the myriad of public purposes we spend money on.

We believe that it is wrong when many of the largest U.S. corporations pay little or no taxes, and the wealthiest Americans - the multi-billionaires and millionaires - pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than the teachers, firefighters, janitors, nurses, small business owners and snow plow drivers now under attack.

We believe it is wrong when those who are doing really well ask for even more, and elected leaders support them.

Dan Cantor of the Working Families Party has said: "Of course we want government off our backs. We want it off our backs, and on our side. And not on the side of the banks."

In short, as progressives, we need to offer a choice of a government that works for our interest not against it. A budget that meets the needs of our very real families so none of us have to make the impossible choices facing our mythic family sitting around their kitchen table.

That is the moral choice before us.

Photo on flickr by RambergMedialImages

Governor Scott Walker--A shining example of how NOT to lead

Jblodgett — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:37:45 -0500

The assault on working people by the Wisconsin Governor and his allies reminds us that our movement must stand for the development of leaders who have both the right values and the skills to lead--to bring people together and create positive change for the most people possible.

Gov. Scott Walker is an example of an appalling failure to lead. Stubborn and inflexible, having set his mind to his goal of gutting public unions, he refused to budge, and used juvenile and mendacious tactical stunts to get his way. The result: he has divided his state in a deep and destructive way. This is a dramatic display of how NOT to lead - no matter what your political stripes are or at what level you are exercising your leadership.

Wellstone Action's work is all about helping new waves of progressive leaders-leaders who reflect our values--win elected office and start turning this country back around. Finding the right people as candidates, however, is not just about what values they hold. It is also about having the ability and the will to lead in a skillful, mature, and sophisticated way.

There are some universal qualities and skills of good leadership. Here are several to consider:

Self-Awareness - Know thyself is the first charge of all good leaders. Know your strengths and weaknesses, solicit feedback and coaching from others, always work on growth and development.

Empathy - Leading is all about moving a people from point A to point B, and to do that, you need to know people. Empathic leadership is about understanding the concerns and circumstances of others, and then leading accordingly.

Deep Listening - Related to empathy, you know other people by listening deeply. This is an acquired skill, but few do it well. It takes awareness and practice to listen well.

Accountable -- Accepts responsibility for actions, and communicates back and stays connected to the people they're leading.

Empowering - Include others in the work, and turns the spotlight off them and on to people. Is always talent scouting for emerging leadership, and actively builds their replacement.

It is important now for the progressive movement to work on a mass scale to find, train and support a new wave of candidates to run at all levels of public service. But as we do, let's make sure these are candidates with the leadership skills to unite and govern effectively toward the common good.

Washington educators start recruiting school board candidates

Jhaut — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:56:35 -0500

Wanted: school board members who understand what it means to work in a school, or who will at least listen to those who do.

With that ideal candidate in mind, educators and union leaders in Washington state in 10 areas, including three of the state's largest cities - Seattle, Vancouver and Spokane - set out to recruit school board candidates for 2011 and 2012.

The program, initiated by the National Education Association, works in partnership with Wellstone Action and Progressive Majority, groups dedicated to electing progressive candidates. It's been used previously by the Ohio Education Association and participants with the Washington Education Association are seeing interest from colleagues in other states.

"We have a real opportunity here to engage and support our locals and change the shape of policy at their level," said Simone Boe, political coordinator for the Washington Education Association.

The need to focus on a local level of political activity became clear to Johnathan Knapp, vice president of the Seattle Education Association. During the last three years, the superintendent there proved to be problematic for educators, and six new board members were elected who were quickly molded in her anti-educator "reform" image, Knapp said.

"We teachers have been sort of hemmed in here and our voice is not even considered to be a legitimate part of the debate anymore," Knapp said. "How do we push back on that? Getting involved in school board politics is one of the ways to do that."

The key is getting people in positions to make decisions that are pro-public education and pro-teacher, Knapp said, not just electing those who will steamroll a path toward privatization.

"Increasingly too many educational policy decisions are being made by people who have little or no experience actually teaching," said Erik Peterson, Director of Education and Labor Programs for Wellstone Action. "If educators don't step up to the responsibility of making the policies that shape education we will continue to see an erosion of public education and an attack on the teaching profession."

The Wellstone Action program trains participants to work in recruiting teams. Frank conversations encouraging people to run for office can be difficult, but role playing ahead of time helps them prepare.

Even though the Washington state effort is fairly new - having just started with 36 people being trained in early March - they've already got one candidate recruited and another potential recruit for the 2011 school board elections. One is a parent and the other is a former teacher.

"Finding candidates is like finding a needle in the haystack," says Boe. "You have to find the right person and one who doesn't mind being put through the ringer."

But continuing that search is crucial. Perhaps nowhere are educators more immediately affected than at the level of the school board, which in most cases bargains contracts with the union.

"This is where our members absolute total working conditions are impacted," said Boe. "When our worker conditions are impacted - positively or negatively - affects the kids."

High praise for the Alberta Party

Jhaut — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:53:46 -0500

Jeff Blodgett knows a thing or two about grassroots community and political organizing.

He helped organize American farmers during that country's farming crisis in the 1980s, worked as a senior aide to the late U.S. senator Paul Wellstone, served as Minnesota state director for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential run, and now runs the successful leadership training centre Wellstone Action.

But even this high priest of progressive politics has a few lessons to learn about community organizing. And, oddly enough, he's learning it from this province's newest player on the political scene: the Alberta Party.

"I'm really interested in what the people organizing the Alberta Party are doing," says Blodgett.

Alberta Party organizers flew Blodgett in to have him share his knowledge and experiences in organizing effective grassroots political movements and conduct an intensive training session for 80 of its party members.

The Friday evening before the training session, Blodgett stood inside Calgary's Knox United Church, Alberta Party banners looming in the background, delivering a grassroots sermon and dissecting Obama's 2008 campaign to more than 100 party supporters who listened intently while sitting in painfully uncomfortable pews.

Yet, Blodgett seems equally enthralled with the Alberta Party's efforts to develop a community-based party using community-organizing principles. "That's just a very different idea than what we see in the U.S.," he told Fast Forward Weekly before his Friday evening speech.

"There's very little opportunity for an alternative party to create itself in the U.S.," he says. "Since the possibility exists up here, I'm interested in seeing the Alberta Party in action and sharing my experience in the U.S. and people can draw the lessons from it."

It's a strong endorsement for a party that emerged from the political wilderness just over a year ago. In early 2010, the Alberta Party and Renew Alberta united under the Alberta Party banner.

With about 50 volunteers, the reinvented party began organizing hundreds of kitchen-table style meetings - coined the Big Listen - across the province. These informal meetings and a steady stream of promotion on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have raised the party's profile significantly over the past 12 months.

The party's membership has grown more than tenfold to 1,200 (most of whom joined after the party's November 2010 policy convention, says acting leader Sue Huff).

In the past year, party organizers have established more than 40 constituency associations across the province and raised a modest $91,000 - a drop in the bucket compared to the millions the Conservatives and Wildrose Alliance have at their disposal.

It's also managed to attracted people from across Alberta's political spectrum. Former Alberta Green Party members are at the core of the party. Liberal turncoat MLA Dave Taylor, who sat as an independent after leaving that party, joined the Alberta Party in January. Ron Wood, a former Tory supporter and former press secretary to Preston Manning, writes on his blog that he now supports the Alberta Party, in part because the provincial Tories have a "talent pool so shallow you wouldn't get your socks wet if you waded in it," and the Wildrose are just "siphoning" out of that shallow pool.

Several players from Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi's campaign team are intimately involved with the Alberta Party, as is his chief-of-staff Chima Nkemdirim, who has been a driving force in the party since its reinvention last year.

"Most of the people who were involved in Nenshi's campaign are either board members or hyper-engaged volunteers with us now," says Huff. "It's great to have that experience because they've done it."

While much ink has been spilled on Nenshi's use of social media during his mayoral campaign election, there was much more to his campaign's success than simply tweeting 140 characters at a time - namely winning over the politically hyper-engaged and influential community members, and watching the "wave of interest" infect the typically politically apathetic.

That's exactly what the Alberta Party is setting out to do: targeting the huge number of voters who didn't cast a ballot in the last provincial election.

"I don't know what other parties are doing in terms of engaging that 60 per cent of Albertans who didn't vote in the last election," Huff says. "But we are actively targeting them and seeking those people who have been either turned off or tuned out from politics."

Yet there's more to just winning over these "passionate participants" than sending out tweets, says Blodgett. The key is to keep them intimately involved with the inner machinations of the party, give them active roles and the proper supports to fulfil those responsibilities. "Don't mistake the online component for real life engagement," he says.

The Alberta Party has an opportunity to be "first and foremost a community organization and then a political party that puts forward candidates and tries to win its share of power," says Blodgett. "If it does its work right then people are first committed to the values, idea and the practise of this new approach. If you do that first and build those relationships deep and broad then you can withstand the ups and downs of the political process. That's what's very different from what's here in terms of the existing parties."

It's also very different than the codified two-party political system in the U.S. where the Democrats and Republicans have "clustered around... the safe political middle," he says. "There are not a lot of choices, so people get pretty cynical about politics in the U.S.," he says.

Meanwhile, other provincial political parties, observers and pundits have derided the Alberta Party's supposed inclusive and non-partisan ethos touted, and tweeted, by its members.

However, Huff says people are "really tired of negative politics" and looking for a political alternative that seeks solutions. "We work very hard to identify the problems, of course, but then always move to solutions rather than getting stuck in this complaining victim mode, which doesn't help anyone," she says.

It's that mindset that is attracting people like 32-year-old Matt Youens, who drove eight hours from Fort McMurray to attend Blodgett's training session.

"I've always been engaged passively, but it wasn't until the Alberta Party came along that it pushed me from being a political prisoner to a participant," he says. "I'm here to learn what has worked in starting a community-based political organization," he adds.

Glenn Taylor, the mayor of Hinton and Alberta Party leadership hopeful, joined the party after attending a Reboot Alberta conference in November 2009. "In this province it seems to be about power brokering and influence," says Taylor. "It needs to be more about the citizens."

MLAs have for far too long acted as little more than obedient couriers sent out to deliver the government's message. "We need MLAs to be the citizens' voice to government, not government's voice to us," he says.

Training draws activists from around state

Jhaut — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:50:48 -0500

(ATLANTA, GA.) -- Last weekend, nearly 90 campaign activists from across the state gathered at Georgia State University for a nationally-recognized political training workshop.

The Red Clay Democrats organized Camp Wellstone in partnership with Wellstone Action, a nonpartisan training and leadership center named for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The three-day workshop combines lectures from experienced trainers with interactive campaign simulations. Camp Wellstone is divided into three tracks: An activist track geared toward those who are interested in community organizing; a campaigns track to teach operatives how to be more effective staff or volunteers; and a candidates track for people who have made the decision to run for public office.

Red Clay Democrats President Jeff Romig said he was excited that so many people had the opportunity to round out their political resumes, just as he did two years ago as a participant in Wellstone's Advanced Campaign Management School. He was particularly impressed by the turnout in a non-election year.

"The training and advice I received helped prepare me to manage the only Georgia campaign to unseat an incumbent Republican," said Romig, the lead organizer of the Atlanta workshop.

Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, Red Clay Democrats is Georgia's leading organization for engaging young professionals in Democratic politics. The group endorses candidates through its political action committee and hosts monthly events around metro Atlanta.

Red Clay Democrats Chairman Howard Franklin said last weekend's Camp Wellstone is one of many ways the organization is helping to build the state's future political leadership.

"As one of Georgia's most active democratic organizations, we are committed to investing in the state's progressive infrastructure," said Franklin, who currently serves as deputy communications director for the Georgia House Democratic Caucus.

Franklin also organized Georgia's first Camp Wellstone in 2005, targeted towards budding political operatives in the Atlanta University Center. State Sen. Jason Carter, D-Decatur and State Rep. Elena Parent, D-Chamblee, attended Sunday's session to offer words of advice to participants in the Candidates track. In addition to leading several courses over the weekend, Franklin and Romig, respectively, managed the freshmen lawmakers' 2010 campaigns.

"As one of the founders of Red Clay Democrats and a newly-elected state senator, I am proud of the progress we've made over the past decade," said Carter.

Since Wellstone Action's founding in 2003, the nonpartisan organization has trained more than 40,000 activists across the globe.

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Representative Keith Ellison testifies against hateful bigotry

Pflanagan — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:53:02 -0600

This blog is cross-posted from Sojourners. In addition to serving as Director of Wellstone Action's Native American Leadership Program, Peggy Flanagan also serves on the board of directors for Sojourners.

During my Lenten journey this year, I will be looking to my Muslim brother, Congressman Keith Ellison, to understand what it truly means to live a life grounded in love, respect, inclusivity, and justice. Yesterday, I watched Rep. Keith Ellison testify at a hearing on the "radicalization of American Muslims" on Capitol Hill. I felt sadness, anger, and an incredible sense of pride.

Watching my friend Keith tear up while telling the story of a young man who sacrificed his own life in service to others tore at my heart. He described Mohammed Salman Hamdani as an individual with an All-American story. He was a man who loved Star Wars and worked part-time driving an ambulance in order to pay for school. Mohammed's story is one that reflects the very values that America professes to be built upon. Unfortunately, due only to his ethnic and religious background, some questioned his motivation when he rushed to the aid of others. It wasn't until his body was recovered that the murmurings of him being associated with terrorists ceased. Mohammed Salman Hamdani was a hero, but unfortunately, he needed to make the ultimate sacrifice for some to believe him.

Keith Ellison didn't need to testify today. He didn't need to stand up in the face of ridiculous, racist sweeping generalizations of an entire ethnic group. Too often, those of us who are Native American, people of color, or identify as a member of a religious or ethnic group end up speaking on behalf of our entire community. It can be exhausting to speak truth to power in the face of injustice, but Rep. Ellison does it all the time. No one asks him to do it. He does it because it is the right thing to do. He stood up to the hate, the fear, and the racist assertions of Rep. Peter King. He stood up for you. He stood up for me. He stood up for all of us.

Watch video of Rep. Keith Ellison's testimony here.

From the day he first started campaigning, Keith Ellison was labeled by some as radical, extreme, and even a terrorist. When he first arrived to the United States Congress, he was sworn in using Thomas Jefferson's Quran. Then Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia called on Congress to support immigration reform to ensure that no more Muslims were elected to Congress. Keith Ellison never lashed out or fired back at those who spewed racist and hateful rhetoric. He simply educated those who were willing to listen and did the best he could for those he represented.

I remember door-knocking with Keith in the summer of 2004 when I was running for the Minneapolis school board, and he was seeking re-election to the Minnesota House of Representatives. We knocked on the door of a woman who was apprehensive to vote because of her religious beliefs. I spoke to her for a long time about my own personal faith and how Catholic social teaching is deeply tied to my progressive politics. Keith spoke to her about needing every voice in the community to be part of the process if things were to improve in our neighborhoods and state. We walked away from that house as a team united in our shared values of love, respect, inclusivity, and justice. These are the values that I have seen Keith Ellison demonstrate every day.

As we reflect on our faith and grow closer to God and to our community, let us also remember what it means to be American, to live out the values of justice and inclusivity. I will reflect upon the fact that only in America could a Catholic Native American be represented by a Muslim African American in Congress. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Corporate reforms will not create excellent schools

Erik — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:00:38 -0600

Increase competitiveness.

Focus on maximizing short-term output over long-term investment.
Layoff workers.
Squeeze more productivity from the remaining beleaguered workforce.
Demonize unions that oppose the changes.
And when the enterprise collapses, shut it down and outsource the work.

Sound familiar?

This is not just the recipe for the current global financial crisis and economic meltdown. It is the same corporate model that is driving much of what passes for education reform these days.

It is a corporate model that prioritizes short-term production and profits - call them higher test scores - over long term investment.

A model that focuses on outputs and accountability more than inputs - the economic, social and cultural context within which we try to educate children.

A model that equates workers joining together to negotiate fair contracts with their employers in good faith as something evil and to be feared, rather than the fundamental foundation for democratic debate and cooperation.

A model that lays off workers at the same time insisting that they are the most valued ‘asset.'

And it is a corporate model that deskills education and applies economic rationalization (Taylorization) to pedagogical practice, rather than supporting and promoting what creates a team of highly motivated, collaborative, and skilled educators.

This model hasn't worked so well for our economic well-being, nor do I suspect it holds much promise for our educational health, either.

This is not to say that there are not real problems facing our public schools. Too many students fall through the cracks. The achievement gap between white students and students of color is alarming. And too many students (although it must be said it is still a relatively small percentage overall) leave school ill-prepared to succeed. But these are merely descriptions of impact, the symptoms caused by a problem, not the problem itself. And as Dr. Lowell Levin has said, "Whoever defines the problem controls the range of solutions."

On a flight to Boston this past year I sat next to an apparently high priced lawyer who was flying home after representing a student at a private school. We started to talk about education and quickly shifted to education reform. This attorney complained that it was incomprehensible to him why teachers opposed being tested on their subject matter to determine whether they were competent to teach. "If they are scared to be tested because they will fail, no wonder we are having such problems in the schools," he lamented.

There are so many things wrong with his statement, but what I asked back was whether he thought the reason we were having "such troubles" in the schools was because the third grade teacher didn't know as much as her third graders. He admitted they knew more. "Why then," I asked, "did they need to be tested on content?"

Many of the current reformers define the problem as a lack of accountability, inadequately trained or incompetent teachers, a public school monopoly that restricts competition, recalcitrant unions, or poorly structured schools.

The solutions then become almost self-evident: deliver rewards and sanctions based on increased testing and reporting; fire teachers or proscriptively prescribe how they should teach; break public school "monopoly status" through charter schools and vouchers; attack unions and either cow them into silence and acquiescence or put them in the impossible situation of choosing to defend their members (their legal obligation) over securing desperately needed "reform designated money"; restructure schools by centralizing control and imposing draconian personnel reshuffles with the same layoffs, job insecurity, job combination, increased workload, dislocation, instability and stress that accompany draconian restructurings in any private sector business.

And for what real end?

Test scores may go up in the short term, perhaps - but so do short term profits in most corporate restructurings.

The question is whether there is better teaching and learning? Are students better equipped to lead successful lives in a rapidly changing world? Are they more engaged democratic and global citizens? Have they grown and developed into more full human beings? Have they learned critical thinking and content other than literacy and math? Beyond the anecdotal, heroic individual success stories the answer is almost always "no."

The problem with many education change initiatives are that they adopt unquestioningly the basic tenets of free-market fundamentalism and its corporate model that focuses on maximizing outputs without attention to making sure the inputs are right. They narrow the focus of education just at the time it needs to be broadened. And they erase the act of teaching and the culture that supports and nurtures it, just as corporate America routinely erases the lives, work, and communities of the workers who make our products. (If you doubt this, recall how vociferously labeling laws and anti-sweatshop monitoring are fought by industry.)

So what is the problem?

What truly impacts a child's ability to learn?

And what is currently working?

Certainly there are teachers that shouldn't be teaching, and there are unions that are stuck in models of operating that no longer make sense, just as there are incompetent and self-serving elected officials that shouldn't be in office, CEO's who shouldn't be running a business, parents who shouldn't be parenting, and foundations that promote extreme self-interest under the guise of the public good.

The problem is not poorly skilled teachers or obstructionist teacher unions. Poverty, violence, a culture of hopelessness and underachievement, lack of parental support - or no parents at all - the lack of health care, racism, deteriorating schools, and teachers and principals who have given up hope after having been asked to do the impossible are all far more likely to impact teaching and learning. Schools are being asked to mitigate a series of social ills that are far beyond their scope or ability to address. They are asked to heal catastrophic illness with Band-Aids.

Rather than deal with these larger economic, social and cultural issues, which are far messier and could severely challenge the economic and political powers that created them, many of the corporate education reformers are content to focus on finding someone to blame, or on building intricate systems of goals and accountabilities, or simply restructuring the enterprise.

So what creates better learning outcomes and a culture of success? A drive to learn and teach? A sense of optimism and hope?

There are a number of lessons that we can learn from Finland, whose schools are now vaunted as some of the most successful in the world after languishing in mediocrity for much of the last century.

Their magical turnaround relies on no magic at all: Finland addresses poverty, lack of housing and health care as part of a national provision of social benefits. Then they start with what drives a child to want to learn (for every kid is born hard-wired wanting to learn) and what inspires teachers to excel at teaching.

Hint: It isn't through narrowing the curriculum to focus more rigorously on core subjects. Nor is it to create more structured days, or more accountability to a unified curriculum, or more testing, or performance pay for teachers, or any of the myriad of other palliatives being offered up in the United States.

Rather, elementary school children in Finland play a lot. They spend 75 minutes a day in recess, compared to about 25 minutes a day for American children. They do mandatory art, music, and crafts classes, which become venues for learning math, science and reading. Class sizes are small, and in high school science they are kept to 16 students to emphasize lab based activities. Finnish children learn by doing. Learning is exciting and fun, not the relentless drills on how to take multiple choice tests that many U.S. children endure.

Teaching is not only a highly respected profession in Finland, but a highly sought after and competitive one. Teachers must achieve the equivalent of a Masters degree before being hired and then they are paid well. Finnish teachers are almost 100% organized in strong unions and they make about 105% of what their non-teaching counterparts earn with the same education, compared to about 70% for the United States.

Finland uses national core standards as guidelines (rather than prescriptions) for teachers planning their curriculum, and schools are staffed so teachers have time during their day to create curriculum, plan collaboratively and discuss challenging questions around teaching and learning.

Students are tested, but tests are used diagnostically, instead of being wielded as high stakes judgments to reward or punish schools and instructors.

This creative teaching and learning environment is the high octane juice that fuels excellence. The result: highly qualified, highly motivated, highly innovative teachers who are allowed to do what they do best - teach kids.

Is this approach to reform cheap? - No. But we have already seen the results of the cheap corporate turnaround models applied to public education: the quick grab for instant results, consultant driven panaceas, and the myopic narrowing of learning to higher reading and math scores.

This is exactly the same short-term focus and restructuring that corporate America has pursued for the past three decades - merge, restructure, privatize, layoff, scapegoat and outsource - with dismal consequences.

Free market fundamentalism didn't work for our economy or for workers and our communities; there is little reason to hope that this same corporate approach will produce anything better for our schools and children.

Carleton alum channels Wellstone, inspires students

Jhaut — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:55:52 -0600

Jeff Blodgett, the founding director of Wellstone Action, a national center for training and leadership development, opened his convocation speech last Friday by recalling his own experience of studying with Paul Wellstone at Carleton College during the early 1980s. He described Wellstone's admiration for strong individual conviction and the view that one's work should involve what one really believes in. Blodgett thus described the model of leadership and change embodied by Wellstone, noting that although it was not unique to his philosophy, it certainly made him a distinctive force in leadership development.

In emphasizing the issue of power and more importantly "social power" - being able to accomplish collectively with people holding similar interests - Blodgett referred to the principles of the Wellstone triangle, which embody three core concepts: community organizing, electoral politics, and public policy change. He emphasized that all three of these "realms" must be present in order to have great social power, stating that he associates "every successful social movement to this model", citing the Civil Rights Movement as an example. The importance of organizing the community lies in strengthening numbers and building bonds; electoral politics involves "deciding who decides" and who is the representative; public policy change presents the fundamental vision that the movement embodied.

Blodgett highlighted the two key players involved in the successful social movement. The first, the leader, is someone "with a following, who moves a gathering from A to B, to gather social power for some end." He pointed out that we mostly focus on the leaders - usually the party candidates, the spokespeople - and do not know about the other essential component: the organizer. These people "are where the rubber hits the road" - in essence helping to identify, support, and guide leaders. Blodgett said that emerging leaders should master qualities of both these players, arguing that the result would be transformational rather than transactional leadership. He defined the latter as simply "doing deals with a focus on maintaining the status quo as opposed to changing it," while the former entails an inspiring force that "taps into people, empowers leadership, and takes the spotlight off you as the leader and instead on others, harnessing the energy of your following." He stated that Obama was a great example of both a leader and an organizer, and attributed his recent drop in political performance to the faltering of his transformational energy; he "chose to lead with politics of compromise rather than advocacy," in the process neglecting his followers because "he turned the ‘Yes We Can' into ‘Yes I Can.'"

Blodgett focused on three essential qualities that the Wellstone leadership development model fosters. The first, authenticity, requires candidates to "seem real" to their voters. The second is strategy, the act of actually reconciling these two groups of people to a common ground of experiences and values. Blodgett emphasized how essential this is - that "without strategy, authenticity is just about you" and does not focus on the constituents. These two qualities would be worthless, however, without the third quality, "hard work." Blodgett stated that this may be the most important, that candidates need to understand the superhuman efforts that leadership demands. In the constant need to empower leadership by harnessing grassroots power, galvanizing the voters, and properly channeling their energy, the successful leader must be willing to work hard.

In conclusion, Blodgett highlighted Paul Wellstone's embodiment of authenticity. He recalled that "for some of his voters, they didn't necessarily agree with him, but liked that they knew where he stood," summing up how Wellstone effectively built up and then channeled his social power. By stressing that "authenticity is good politics," Blodgett returned to his strong admiration for conviction, urging us as Carleton students to use our time here to determine our true beliefs, and then head out into the world and work for them.

Opportunity knocks as the conservatives start to overreach

Jblodgett — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:39:50 -0600

Earlier this month, I wrote about the 2010 legislative and governor takeovers in many states by very conservative forces. They've wasted no time pushing their ideologically extreme agenda. In Wisconsin for instance, while Governor Walker disingenuously claims that he is budget cutting not union busting, the fight is exactly about the taking back of worker rights generally. We are proud that many of the thousands of our Wisconsin alumni of Wellstone Action trainings are part of the fight back in Madison. This is what the Tea Party looks like as a governing entity: radically conservative on economic issues, interested in fundamentally shifting power away from workers and toward business owners, and a desire to gut our public sector.

Count on these forces to overreach, as they've already begun to, and invite a backlash by a public that does not buy in to their radical agenda. It is this backlash that provides enormous opportunity for progressives to win back broader public opinion and swing the pendulum back in our direction in the 2012 elections.

While the priority now for the progressive movement is to mobilize to stop these measures from passing, we must keep an eye on getting ready for the 2012 elections. And the getting ready part right now is to begin to talent scout for strong candidates who can run for legislative seats in 2012. Just as the conservative forces pushed forward a huge new wave of candidates who won in 2010, we must generate a similar wave of candidates who can start to take back power in 2012.

We must pick our candidates carefully. They should be well-grounded in their communities, and able to connect with voters by articulating a strong alternative vision to what the current governing majority is doing. As with all good candidates, the candidates of 2012 need to be authentic to voters by being straight and clear about what they believe and why they are running for office. The candidates of 2012 need to be up for the hard work it takes to run a winning campaign.

At Wellstone Action, in partnership with other great groups, we are ready to start training this new wave of 2012 candidates to run winning campaigns as well as training teams of people who help each of these candidates win. Through Camp Wellstone, our Advanced Campaign Management School and custom trainings, we are one part of the effort to re-build progressive power starting with the election of 2012.

Attention Scott Walker and John Kasich: We all do better when we all do better

Erik — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:05:42 -0600

The rallying cry of the labor movement is "an injury to one is an injury to all." The bible teaches us that "I am my brother's keeper." Benjamin Franklin implored his wavering fellow delegates to sign the Declaration of Independence saying "we must hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately." And Paul Wellstone used to always say "we all do better when we all do better."

This progressive story of community, collective rights and responsibilities is starkly different from the conservative story of competition, winners and losers, and individual choice and risk.

We hear this conservative story nightly on FOX news, right wing talk radio, and most recently in the halls of power in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states around the country. This conservative story says "you're on your own, good luck. You're alone - make it work."

Wellstone Action teaches that our stories matter.

The conservative story tries to convince us that free markets, deregulation, limited government, no unions, no taxes, and turning a blind eye and deaf ear to those unemployed or less fortunate (or blaming them for bad life choices) will solve all of our problems.

This conservative story says that the most fortunate - the wealthiest individuals and corporations - deserve what they have taken from the rest of us, and that it is okay that their wealth is derived from the greatest redistribution of wealth in the history of the world, because that is what competition and free markets are all about.

This conservative story pits one group of workers against another. It demonizes immigrants, Muslims, and any opinion that challenges free market fundamentalism. It says if I have been hurt, you should hurt as well.

So when Governor Scott Walker from Wisconsin refuses to accept public worker concessions until they also give up their collective voice and rights - or when Kerri Miller from Minnesota Public Radio asks this morning "why should public sector workers enjoy rights and protections that other workers do not?" - we hear the same conservative story, a story that drives our politics and community life to the lowest dominator.

At Wellstone Action we believe in and train out of a progressive story that says all workers deserve a right to join together for collective voice - whether private sector workers or public sector workers, whether through a union, a co-op, or an association.

This right is the law of our land, enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act, passed in 1935. This law protects the collective right of most private sector workers to engage in "concerted activity" - the right to act collectively as a group to negotiate in good faith and secure decent wages, benefits and working conditions without fear of reprisal. This is not a "union right," but the right of all workers to create or join a union.

Over the past 50 years, many states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana have extended this collective right to public sector workers, as well. And now radical conservative governors and legislatures in many states are trying to strip this fundamental right away.

At Wellstone Action we believe in a progressive story that says we all have collective responsibility for one another and must share the burden in times of distress and challenge.

Budgets should not be balanced on the backs of workers, the middle class, or those who are most vulnerable when the most fortunate contribute little or nothing.

The wealthiest corporations are sitting on over two trillion dollars in cash reserves, are earning record breaking profits, and are still not hiring American workers. Last week, Forbes magazine showed that many of the largest US corporations paid little or no tax in 2009. General Electric made $10.3 billion in pre-tax income and paid no taxes. Exxon Mobil recorded a record $45.2 billion yet paid the IRS no federal taxes. The wealthiest Americans - those uber-millionaires - pay less a percentage of their income in taxes than the teachers, firefighters, janitors or school bus and snow plow drivers under attack in Wisconsin. We believe those who are blessed with the most need to share in the burden as well.

We believe in a progressive story that respects the dignity of all people and says that all children matter.

We should be able to love who we want, freely worship the God of our faith, and be able to pursue the American Dream regardless of where we come from without being told that if you are gay or Muslim or an immigrant you do not matter and should have your rights taken away.

Wellstone Action trains thousands of progressive activists to build power, win elections, and govern from this progressive perspective.

And now more than ever we need to tell the age old story that each of us matters, to live by the golden rule to do to others what we would want done to us, and to remind the world that indeed "we all do better when we all do better."

Photos on Flickr by aperture_lag and Nickolas Nikolic.

Take action: Support state workers in Wisconsin

Jhaut — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 12:10:15 -0600

This past Friday in Wisconsin, Governor Walker made good on his promise to try to strip away worker's rights in the state.

He has turned Wisconsin, known as the birthplace of public sector union organizing, into ground zero in the battle over whether we will protect and uphold the democratic right of workers to bargain for and secure a fair deal or whether we will strip these rights from workers, just as corporations have attacked private sector workers and their right to organize for years.

Wellstone Action urges our partner organizations, union members, alumni, and friends across the state of Wisconsin to stand up against this unprecedented and undemocratic power grab. The radical proposals on the table include ending collective bargaining, raiding health programs, and selling state assets to benefit businesses.

Make no mistake, this so-called budget-repair bill has nothing to do with saving the state and taxpayers money; it is free-market fundamentalism gone to the extreme, where the Governor and his corporate allies are using the budget crisis to try to push through their radical political ideology and agenda.

Collective bargaining is a right, not a privilege. We support the lawful right to bargain for health care and a living wage and safe and decent working conditions. Wisconsin is not alone in this threat: we are seeing similar attacks in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and other states across the country.

Stand now and take action. Please visit One Wisconsin Now, and demand yo ur legislator to vote against this bill.

Our partner, Wisconsin Voices, is involved in two rallies happening this week at the State Capitol in Madison: Tuesday, February 15^th and Wednesday, February 16^th, both at noon. Contact Jorna Taylor for more information at jtaylor@infoservicesgroup.net.

Egypt's social media revolution

Louis — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:21:38 -0600

We all have seen the impact of social media, but have we ever seen it done in the likes of Egypt's revolution? The brave women and men on the ground reported back to the rest of the waiting world moments of sheer terror, confusion, empowerment, and pride for the Egyptian people.

Imagine the greatest achievement in open, free communication is shut off. When the Egyptian government realized the level of protest that was literally ballooning in the streets, they did just that. Internet and social media site access were disconnected, or severely limited for most people. Like many of us, I know I would have a hard time going about my normal routine without internet access. From my home computer, to my smartphone, to Minnesota Public Radio via an app, I subconsciously demand to see and hear the whole story on what is happening in my midst and across the world.

"Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted," by Malcolm Gladwell, predicted the opposite of what happened during Egypt's revolution. Gladwell wrote about how the civil-rights movement of the 1960s in the South "happened without e-mail, texting, Facebook, or Twitter." He argues that the "new tools of social media have reinvented social activism," but social change cannot be brought on with social media. This article appeared in The New Yorker October 4, 2010. On January 25, 2011, the Egyptian people and media collaborations working on the ground throughout the uprising began to prove Gladwell wrong. Social change can be achieved through social media.

To be fair, Gladwell was right that a revolution will not be tweeted. Just 140 characters at a time is not enough to encompass the whole situation, or tell an entire story of such magnitude. But Twitter is exactly how I first heard about the events in Egypt. By that first weekend of protesting, I saw articles by major international news sources, many of which were exploding with hits and comments on social media and news-sharing sites like Reddit.com. The first responders to Egypt's revolution came from Al Jazeera, the news source that has been viewed as unfavorable in the United States, for reasons such as their graphic reporting on the invasion of Iraq. Al Jazeera was also the only news source reporting live during the start of the war in Afghanistan, from their station inside the country. Over the course of Egypt's revolution, Al Jazeera remade its image in the eyes of many Americans through streaming online the news of Egypt that no one else was reporting. During the first few days of the revolution, Al Jazeera's Twitter view numbers skyrocketed by more than 1.5 million people in the US alone. It's Facebook page numbers doubled overall.

We live in a 24-hour news cycle no matter how often we engage, revile, or dislike it. The morning paper and evening broadcast are becoming past tense. I would say that the term "new media" is already outdated. Every few moments a new tweet streams down my computer or phone screen, many of which are lost in the endless challenge to be rated as the "latest news tweet." How can I be constantly aware of the next revolution, when so much of what passes for news are gossip blips? Regardless, I believe that by taking away our instantaneous sources for who, what, where, when, and why, the pulse of social media is disrupted.

Today, President Mubarak left office. Two days earlier, Al Jazeera English commented on how "Social media has been dubbed the new tool for revolutionaries," but also acknowledged that of the people involved with the protests, "many on the ground...[had] little or no access to the internet." Gladwell perhaps said it best: "Where activists were once defined by their causes, they are now defined by their tools."

Where will you be when the next revolution happens, and how will you tell your story? The world is eagerly watching, listening, and commenting.

Photo 1 from Ahmad Hammoud on flickr.
Photo 2 from yamaha_gangsta on flickr.

2010 year in review

Jhaut — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:56:10 -0600

A look back at our training numbers from 2010. We're gearing up for an even busier year in 2011!

Readying the movement for 2012

Jblodgett — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:55:42 -0600

Since the move this month to a new "Founding Director" position at Wellstone Action with Ben Goldfarb now our Executive Director, I've had more time to read and reflect. I've been looking closer at the results of the 2010 elections, especially at the state legislative level. Two conclusions are clear: indeed the election was a deep setback for progressives in many of our key movement states; and given the extent and depth of the legislative losses, there is now an enormous demand for large numbers of quality progressive candidates to step up and run in 2012 for all those seats lost in 2010.

First, the results, displayed in living (red) color here:

See the National Conference of State Legislatures for more details.

Six states saw both houses of their legislature change from Democratic to Republican control: Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In Ohio and Michigan, Republicans added the House to their control of the Senate, and in Colorado and Iowa, power is now balanced with new Republican majorities in the House. You add to this list new Republican Governors in New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Iowa, and you get quite a picture of new conservative power and control in many of the key states that just two years ago were moving in a solidly progressive direction.

So it's a bad situation-and we find ourselves planning defensive strategies to stop a conservative assault against advancing the common good. Not to mention lost opportunities to influence redistricting. But in this volatile political time we live in, there is no reason that in 2012 the pendulum cannot swing back in our direction as dramatically as it swung away in 2010. Of course, many things have to fall in place, but here are some potential positive factors: Improvements in the economy; President Obama's base turns out in massive numbers as in 2008; Likely overreaching by the new conservative activist legislative leaders elected in many places in 2010.

In other words, we had better be ready in our key states to push back hard with our own wave of new, strong candidates, running excellent campaigns, communicating an alternative to the return to conservative dominance. That means concerted, state-based efforts to recruit, train, develop and support large numbers of candidates for the legislature as well as large numbers of campaign workers and activists who help these candidates win their races. Quality candidates running quality campaigns can be the difference, especially when elections are close!

To be ready for 2012, the training task ahead of us is enormous. Wellstone Action is ready for the challenge. We are working with other progressive organizations in key states throughout the country to make sure we've got the large new wave of candidates we need. Stay tuned for more news about this effort!

New Year, new leadership at Wellstone Action

Jblodgett — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:21:32 -0600

Each New Year brings the chance for renewal, opportunity, and positive change. It is in this spirit I am sharing exciting news for Wellstone Action and myself. Starting this month, my role at Wellstone Action will be changing from Executive Director to Founding Director.

It is hard to believe that it has been eight years since we lost our friends Paul and Sheila. Out of that tragedy, together, we created Wellstone Action, which has grown from an idea born in grief into the preeminent training center for the progressive movement. Helping build this organization has been the most fulfilling work I have ever done, and it has been a rare privilege to work with a fantastic staff and with smart, passionate, and committed organizers and leaders like you. But just as Wellstone Action began with the motto "Carry it Forward", now is the right time for a new leader to carry the organization forward.

I am thrilled to announce that Ben Goldfarb, Wellstone Action's Director of Training Programs, is our new Executive Director! In Ben Goldfarb, Wellstone Action gets a leader who is energetic, passionate, experienced, visionary, and creative. Over the last three and a half years, Ben has designed, managed, and grown many of our programs. Before coming to Wellstone Action, he founded and ran other successful nonprofits and is a dynamo political manager who has ran and won major statewide election campaigns. Most of all, Ben brings a deep commitment to creating social change and advancing a progressive agenda the "Wellstone Way."

I will continue working at Wellstone Action in a new role, doing what I like most--more of the actual training, teaching, and high quality leadership development that Wellstone Action delivers on a grand scale.

You will be hearing much more from Ben (and me, as I will continue to help with online communication) in the coming days, weeks, and months as we roll out our ambitious plans to increase our training and candidate development work in response to the 2010 elections.

From all of us at Wellstone Action, may the New Year be filled with rebuilding and renewal as we reignite a progressive movement in the spirit of Paul and Sheila and work together to advance our progressive values.

Governing as a pro-labor progressive

Maralyn — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:12:00 -0600

Local and state elected officials from across the country gathered at SEIU International in Washington, DC, for the first-ever Governing as a Pro-Labor Progressive Workshop. Wellstone Action facilitated conversations around what makes a vote "tough" and the best advice on how to work through balancing your values and the interests of your district and party.

Participants developed goals for their next term and discussed how to best engage the community and go beyond just representing their interests. Progressive values were put to the test when individuals had to work in teams to balance a state budget that was in the red.

Over two intensive days, newly-elected officials and incumbents developed new approaches to how they will serve. More importantly, how their work can help shape their governments into a transformative body rather than a place of transactional politics.

While this was the first governing training, Wellstone Action is gearing up to offer many more in 2011.

"I know how important it is to be willing to listen and make smart compromises for the future. This [experience] helps us be more effective at governing--it's an additional set of tools to build a base and support the progressive movement." Mayor of El Monte, CA, Andre Quintero

All photos by David Sachs / SEIU

Wellstone Action goes down under

Louis — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 11:07:28 -0600

Here at Wellstone Action's headquarters, we're finally accepting that winter is sticking around. On the other side of the world, summer is heating up in Australia, where the training organization Campaign Action, inspired and modeled after Wellstone Action, officially launched on November 23. They kicked off with a 2 1/2 day weekend training on November 26. The training included two tracks: Being a Candidate: How to run and win the progressive way, and Working on a Campaign: Tools and tactics for success. Our own Erik Peterson, Jeff Blodgett, and frequent team member Sujata Tejwani were there to help out.

When we say that Campaign Action is modeled after Wellstone Action, we really mean it. Although the United States and Australia have different political processes (for example, every resident of Australia is required by law to vote), we share one major issue in common: training and developing candidates to win and lead authentically with passionate conviction. So while by law you have to vote in Australia, at least you'll know you have an option to elect someone who promises to stand up for your beliefs.

The birth of Campaign Action and its relationship to Wellstone Action boils down to a shared hunger for authenticity in politics, developed on a grassroots model. Our international mutual partnership began when Campaign Action's founder, Damian Ogden, came to the United States to study Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. There, Damien met Wellstone Action's Executive Director, Jeff Blodgett, who was responsible for running the Minnesota Obama campaign efforts.

Wellstone Action's work is strengthened by having the opportunity to train in Australia and implement the teachings of Paul Wellstone through fresh eyes and a different worldview. Campaign Action benefits from Wellstone Action by undertaking the challenge of practicing our brand of grassroots politics. Since 2009, Wellstone Action has had five trainings with the leaders of Campaign Action.

Proving the pundits wrong, mobilizing the immigrant vote

Louis — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:27:45 -0500

If you're paying attention to the 2010 elections, you probably heard about the Pew Hispanic Center's recent survey that indicated voter enthusiasm among Hispanic voters was way down from historic levels in 2008 - something that's been echoed by tons of media pundits. Specifically, the Pew survey said:

"Hispanic registered voters appear to be less motivated than other voters to go to the polls. Just one-third (32%) of all Latino registered voters say they have given this year's election ‘quite a lot' of thought."

What you didn't hear in media reports about the survey was the clear connection between engagement on issues and enthusiasm about voting:

"Nearly six-in-ten (58%) Latino registered voters who have discussed the immigration debate say they are absolutely certain they will vote in November, compared with just four-in-ten (39%) of those who have not talked about the immigration debate."

That's where groups like the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) come in. A national leader in the fight for the right of immigrants and refugees to full and equal participation in American life, ICIRR has fully embraced electoral engagement as a tool to build power and realize its vision. Focusing its electoral efforts in building support for comprehensive immigration reform as part of its One Nation One Dream campaign, ICIRR is working to turn out more than 130,000 immigrant voters to the polls on Election Day in Illinois.

With the election nearing, Wellstone Action's Movement Building Project had the privilege of training over 100 of ICIRR's member organizations' leaders in Get Out The Vote best practices in Chicago. The participants were from an incredible diversity of immigrant and refugee background, but with a single mission: connecting voting with the issues facing their communities and making sure elected officials see and feel that power.

Ashley Moy-Wooten, the New Americans Democracy Project Director for ICIRR, and a graduate of Wellstone Action's Advanced Campaign Management School, had this to say about the training and the campaign:

"When we [ICIRR] collaborate with Wellstone Action, we know we are bringing top quality trainings and trainers to our communities. 105 grassroots leaders entered the room on Saturday morning with vague ideas about how to get out the vote, but they left understanding the ins and outs of a GOTV operation, and best of all, with concrete plans and lots of energy and enthusiasm! Our leaders are ready to rock and roll come November 2nd. Everyone says that immigrants won't vote. We're ready to prove everyone wrong!"

Given the energy in that room, ICIRR's proven ability to deliver, and the momentum the campaign has picked up in recent weeks, we have no doubt that they will prove the pundits wrong on Tuesday.

Latina Leadership Academy

ccampos — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:37:32 -0500

Wellstone Action recently partnered with the Institute of Community and Civic Engagement at DeAnza College to train 20 DeAnza College staff members, students and community members in Santa Clara County. The Latina Leadership Academia was envisioned as a four-part training series for Latinas who are considering a run for office in the next two to four years. Wellstone Action offered the fourth and final training in that series, and designed the two-day, pre-candidate curriculum for Latina leaders who are considering a run for local or state legislative office in 2011 or beyond.

The goal of our pre-candidate curriculum is to get participants to explore their core rational and motivation for a potential run for office as well as giving participants the opportunity to practice communicating that core rational. At the Latina Leadership Academy, our trainers provided a framework and reflection process for participants to understand what leadership qualities are key to effective candidacies and what skills they need to develop. Finally, all participants were required to draft a "Candidate Development Plan" with concrete next steps and a timeline for critical activities in preparing a run for office.

The pre-candidate curriculum was born out of the sheer desire from our partner organizations. Many of the groups we have worked with in the past are hoping their members will run for office one day. And while our candidate curriculum is generally too advanced, the notion of pre-candidate training provides resources and skill building to begin preparing or thinking about running for office. For example, the training consists of several sessions that focus on developing and delivering your stump speech, self reflective exercises that allow the participants to focus on their reasons for running for office and workshops that teach the participants to develop their personal networks and their base in anticipation of running for office.

After the Latina Leadership Academy training, participants reported feeling inspired and equipped to take the next step to explore which office they should run for and when. Mayra Cruz, Chair of the Child Development and Education Department and San Jose Evergreen Community College District Trustee, summarized the general feeling this way, "Latinas in Santa Clara county understand their role and power to create change in our community. The pre-candidate training was an amazing tool to ground us, commit and act."

The women who participated in the training were truly inspiring, and we can't wait to catch up with them over the next few years as they make the decision to run!

The founders and participants of the Latina Leadership Academia created a YouTube promotional video for this training which you can watch at:

Our partnership with the Latina Leadership Academia is a natural outgrowth of our past collaborations with organizations such as Democracia U.S.A, Mobilize the Immigrant Vote and Center for Community Change. If you would like Wellstone Action to offer leadership development trainings to your organization or community, please contact Cynthia Campos at cynthia@wellstone.org.

Photos by Jose Aguirre.

High-kick that closet door wide open!

sscanlon — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:04:56 -0500

Today is National Coming Out Day, and I want to make it clear to the world, beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am a lesbian and there are others like me who live in this world.

I have always thought that it was important to be honest about our identities. Not because I believe we should put boundaries around them, but because it is important for the world to see us as we are - not as they think we should be.

In September, my heart was broken by the news of 10 suicides in different parts of the country by teens and adults who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Queer. The idea that in this day and age, people feel alone and despondent enough to take their lives as a relief to misery that they are feeling because they are LGBTQ is incredible to me.

I grew up in a small Arkansas town. I have known I was gay/different from an early age. I was terrified that someone in my school, my church or my community would find out and I would become the center of every joke or the target of harassment. I stayed silent and even denied it more times than not. I started dating boys when I was in 11^th grade simply to keep people from asking questions. I ate lunch in the Civics classroom so I wouldn't have to hang out with people who I knew wouldn't like me if they really knew me. I was miserable and spent many nights crying - but let me tell you, it got a lot better!

I was a lucky one. I didn't have the emotional energy to take my life. There are many out there who feel like they are at the end of their hope or who are in so much pain they can't take it anymore and I can tell you - hang on, it gets better.

In September of this year GLSEN (the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) released a report titled 2009 National School Climate Survey and here were some of their findings over the last ten years:

84.6% of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 40.1% reported being physically harassed and 18.8% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation.
63.7% of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 27.2% reported being physically harassed and 12.5% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their gender expression.
72.4% heard homophobic remarks, such as "faggot" or "dyke," frequently or often at school.
Nearly two-thirds (61.1%) of students reported that they felt unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation, and more than a third (39.9%) felt unsafe because of their gender expression.
29.1% of LGBT students missed a class at least once and 30.0% missed at least one day of school in the past month because of safety concerns, compared to only 8.0% and 6.7%, respectively, of a national sample of secondary school students.
The reported grade point average of students who were more frequently harassed because of their sexual orientation or gender expression was almost half a grade lower than for students who were less often harassed (2.7 vs. 3.1).
Increased levels of victimization were related to increased levels of depression and anxiety and decreased levels of self-esteem.
Being out in school had positive and negative repercussions for LGBT students - outness was related to higher levels of victimization, but also higher levels of psychological well-being.

Senator Wellstone spoke often about the connection between grassroots organizing, electoral politics and good public policy. There have been two bills introduced in Congress; The Safe Schools Improvement Act (H.R. 2262/S. 3739) and the Student Nondiscrimination Act (H.R. 4530/S. 3390). Please contact your elected officials today about co-sponsoring this legislation. Realistically it won't be brought up this year but with enough attention these pieces of legislation can be reintroduced and addressed in the next Congress. It can get better for kids who are currently in our public schools but it is up to us to make sure it does get better for them.

My wife and I (legally married in California and a few other states at least) live in Little Rock Arkansas now. We are expecting our first child in April of next year. I won't sit by and allow that child to be a potential victim of harassment and I won't stop living my life out in the open. The only choice we have is to work toward the most accepting and safe environment we can in our public schools.

If there are people who currently feel like they are at the end of their rope, there are resources for you. My friend Dan Savage recently launched It Gets Better Project on YouTube:

This is a video library of people who have lived through bullying in school and have gone on to create a better life. Another resource for those who care about LGBT youth there is the Give a Damn Campaign. Both are recent resources for LGBT people and allies.

Photo by BayerNYC on flickr.

Camp Sheila Wellstone for Men

Jhaut — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:19:10 -0500

This past month, our Sheila Wellstone Institute, in partnership with United Way Greater Twin Cities, presented a historic, first-ever Camp Sheila Wellstone just for men. The training was targeted to men who are already working on preventing domestic violence towards women, but was open to the general public. Nearly 50 men attended from across the state of Minnesota and even some from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The goal was to get men talking to each other about what they can do to prevent domestic violence and how to better form coalitions so they can work together on this issue.

The training was organized by a coalition of over 17 domestic violence agencies and organizations, including the Domestic Abuse Project, Asian Women United, Beyond ToughGuise, and the Sheila Wellstone Institute. The months of planning culminated in a two-day training in St. Paul focusing on teaching organizing and advocacy skills to build power and end violence as well as provide education on the issue and effective models of prevention.

Ted Bunch, the co-founder of A Call to Men, was the keynote speaker on the first day. Bunch, an expert in organizing and educating men in the effort to end violence against women, delivered a powerful speech on the key theme of the training: men must talk to other men to advance their role in the movement to end domestic violence. As Bunch stated, "An overwhelming majority of violence against women is men's violence against women, but the majority of men are not violent, but we are silent about the violence that these other men perpetrate." He introduced the 75-25 concept: 75% are well-meaning men and should be responsible for talking to the other 25% who are not.

Bunch also introduced the "Man Box" where he showed images of athletes, rappers, wrestlers, cops. etc. He stated that men are restricted, confined, and boxed in. Not all men fit this description. Men are part of the solution and part of the problem. When Bunch showed a video where several men were interviewed on camera, the overwhelming majority responded the same way when asked what they would do if violence occurred with men in their community. Most men said they would stay out of it-it wasn't their business to be involved in.

Bunch compared this lack of response situation to drunk driving. He commented that in the last 15 years we have been socialized on how to respond to drunk driving and wouldn't let someone get behind the wheel after drinking, but questioned why we cannot do the same in situations of domestic violence.

Check out this short clip from Bunch's talk on why we should formulate a community-coordinated response to end men's violence against women.

Many in the room who listened to Bunch's speech said it was powerful, and one of the best they had heard on the topic. His talk set up the rest of the evening for an organizing panel and a networking open discussion.

The second day of the training included a presentation on messaging and how to broadcast that message using new and traditional media. Participants worked in groups to come up with an anti-domestic violence message targeted towards young boys and men, the general public, and their core base.

The mood in the room was transformed later in the afternoon with the introduction of a survivor's panel. Moderated by Lonna Hunter, the Director of the Sheila Wellstone Institute, three women shared their stories. Guadalupe works with the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition and shared on behalf of her Native sisters the project she has been immersed in for over three years to tell the stories of Native women who have been abused. Tiffany is a mother and a resident of a shelter where she is seeking refuge from her abusive husband. And Chris is a writing professor and survivor of child sexual abuse and prostitution and now an activist in the movement to end domestic violence.

As each woman told her story, sharing the powerful, emotional, and painful memories, the men in the room listened and asked questions. As the women were asked what men could do to end violence against women, Guadalupe confessed, "It's not up to me to prevent violence. There's nothing I can do to stop the violence. There's a society that okays it. I can educate-I can give men a safe space to heal."

Tiffany suggested that men can become educated, be an activist, get involved--volunteer at a local shelter, and just raise your children with respect and lead by example. She said, "I refuse for our son thinking it's okay to be like him", referring to her abusive husband and son's father.

Guadalupe turned the question around and asked the men, "What jokes do you make or laugh at? When do you stay silent?" She encouraged the men in the room to talk about these things with other men. It's hard for women to say what they know men should do-because men will hear the message differently whether it's coming from a man or woman.

As the panel of survivors concluded, a pause was given to honor the stories that had been brought into the room. The training wrapped up with a final session on strategic power mapping and coalition building. This session focused on moving the issue of domestic violence into building power and winning on laws and coalitions begun to create state and federal protections for those impacted. As Lonna Hunter said while moderating the survivor panel, "We may not have been able to stop the violence, but we have the power now. I see it as an ability in society to change laws."

First-ever "camp" is just for guys-the good and bad

Jhaut — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 11:19:36 -0500

There's an intriguing camp starting at noon today in St. Paul.

No tents or campsite deposits are needed. Though it runs for two days, there's really no overnight, so you don't need to pack a toothbrush, flashlight or a sleeping bag.

This camp is designed for men to learn more about how our collective actions or inactions perpetuate the historic and perennial violence, exploitation and abuse in many forms against females in our society. I would throw in the whole freaking planet.

It's put together by the Sheila Wellstone Institute, named after the domestic-violence activist wife of Minnesota's legendary if controversial senator, Paul Wellstone. Both were tragically killed in a plane crash seven years ago. As Minnesotans, we lost a lot that day, no matter the political ideology.

I'm told it's not too late to register or attend this "camp." And yes, it's free and open to the public. But it's just for men, like the catchy slogan of that male hair-coloring TV ad.

The promotional flier lays out the goals of the first-ever "Camp Sheila Wellstone for Men."

They include building a stronger coalition of men working against violence in Minnesota, a laudable and noble cause. They also promise to "teach critical organizing and advocacy skills that build power and end violence against women and children."

I don't have a problem with that, either.

Now, I can hear women and some men applauding this effort. But I see eyes rolling and hear in my mind cynical remarks.

"This sounds like some left-wing, feminist-driven propaganda designed to further emasculate us men and make us feel guilty about this issue," is what I hear some saying.

We men love and respect "our" women, doncha know. I truly believe, deep down, most of us do. Most of us have never hit a woman in anger, even though we know - right, guys? - how they push those buttons that make us figuratively or literally put our fists through doors or drywall. They seem to be born with a gene that makes them experts at manipulating us every which way to ultimately do their will.

Right, guys?

Hey, it wasn't by accident my late stepfather called my mother "The Warden." I call my wife at times "The Prime Minister of Everything." I mean that in a self-effacing, affectionate way. But there's a grain of resigned resentment hidden by her chuckles and mine. It's almost like we men really believe we are at times the truly repressed and oppressed species.

I admit publicly now, and with much shame, that I came close one time to losing it during a heated argument. I regret it to this day. Someone - the aforementioned prime minister of everything - thankfully makes it a point to not let me forget it.

But heck, I never crossed that physical line. Emotionally? That's worthy of another column.

Yet, this Wellstone camp idea is not for me. It's for those who easily and with much malice cross that line and beat up or - four times daily in this nation - end up killing "their" women, right?

Well, no, event organizers tell me. It's actually more for those men who get it as well as us "well-meaning men," as camp keynote speaker Ted Bunch describes most of us guys.

He believes we are as much to blame for the problem as the batterer.

No way. Come again?

"I would like to believe that the majority of men are well-meaning," writes Bunch, co-founder of the New York City-based A Call To Men organization and former founder and director of the largest male batterer treatment and prevention program in the country.

"It is this group, however, that is responsible for supporting the epidemic of violence that the abusive men inflict upon women," Bunch adds in a 2005 dissertation that should be required reading for all males, boys to men. "Men who choose to remain silent constantly reinforce the abusive man's behavior. Our silence is also our permission."

Say what? Now, this is heavy stuff. I need concrete examples.

"We do this in many ways," Bunch obliges. "Sometimes, it is as simple as remaining silent when a sexist joke is told or not challenging a friend who makes a statement that degrades women or is threatening to women.

"The well-meaning man, at times, will go right up against the line of inappropriate behavior," Bunch continues. "But, as long as he doesn't cross it (or get caught crossing it), he is still considered a good guy. When men do not speak out about violence against women, they are taking an active and/or passive role in affirming the violence. When we remain bystanders, we are making a choice to support the abuse."

Wow. What's he on?

The continuing objectification of women, he argues, is manifested in the multi-billion-dollar sex-trade industry and permeates every segment of society.

I thought about this a bit. Here's the montage of images that flashed through my remaining and fast-regressing brain cells, in no particular order: Hooters. Playboy. Hustler. Girls Gone Wild. The porn industry. Women generally paid less than men. Rap and music videos that essentially demean and insult our mothers, sisters and daughters. Sports cheerleaders forced to wear sexy outfits. Taking a friend's friend, among others, to visit a "hooker" at a hotel after a bachelor's party in my early college days.

But, hey, I did not cross that line. He did.

Bunch includes in his 5-year-old essay some sobering numbers from national studies or reports that are still true today:

Roughly 4 million men severely assault their intimate female partners or spouses each year.
Men's violence against their intimate female partners is the leading cause of injury for women and the cause of at least 35 percent of all emergency room visits.
One of every four men batters a woman during pregnancy, according to Justice Department figures.
Men will rape one out of six women and commit more than 300,000 acts of rape and sexual assault every year. It is estimated that 84 percent of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported.

"Any violence, abuse or degradation committed toward a woman by a man supports the status of men as the dominating group while also reinforcing the oppression of women," Bunch writes. "There is no neutral position or stance for men to take. We can either choose to become part of the solution or remain part of the problem."

Ah, what does he know anyway? But even though I consider myself a good guy who has not crossed that "line," I may just stop by and hear him out today.

Rubén Rosario can be reached at 651-228-5454 or rrosario@ pioneerpress.com.

To read domestic violence expert Ted Bunch's 2005 essay on ending men's violence against women, go to TwinCities.com.

How do we deal with billionaire right-wing funders? Match them!

Jblodgett — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:24:54 -0500

How do we deal with billionaire right-wing funders and a surging Tea Party? Match them!

Recent media stories abound on the conservative advocacy and training group FreedomWorks--promoted by Glenn Beck--and the three bazillionaires behind the Tea Party movement, including Rupert Murdoch of Fox News and brothers David and Charles Koch.

What's particularly newsworthy are the massive resources FreedomWorks and other conservative groups are pouring into skill-based political trainings for conservative activists and candidates in this fall's key states and races.

Fifty Tea Party leaders have flown in from across the country...to learn how to take over the country, voter by voter.... This is a three day "boot camp" at FreedomWorks... - The New York Times, 8/25/10

Five hundred people attended the summit, which served, in part, as a training session for Tea Party activists in Texas. - The New Yorker, 8/30/10

Mr. Steinhauser [Chief FreedomWorks Trainer] has traveled 42 states to train local groups.... -The New York Times, 8/25/2010

The other major sponsor of the Tea Party movement is Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, which...received $12 million of its own from Koch family foundations. The New York Times, 8/28/10

The conservative movement is significantly upping its investment in building the skills of activists and candidates. This is a CLARION CALL to the progressive movement to MATCH the other side's commitment to building leaders for today and tomorrow!

We know that matching the right's resources is no small task. Wellstone Action's conservative counterpart-The Leadership Institute-has a whopping $10 million annual budget compared to our modest $2.5 million.

And far beyond the upcoming elections, our larger long-term task is to move a progressive agenda in our country over the next several years. For this election we should be fighting like hell for the values, the people, and the policies we believe in. For beyond election day, we must take stock of our capacity to make change happen, and pour far greater resources into equipping and igniting progressive activists to organize people, communicate our message, run effective issue and electoral campaigns, create and advance progressive public policy, and build our movement for the long-haul. We must continue to recruit and train OUR OWN CANDIDATES to run for Congress and other offices and win in 2012.

We can truly take on the conservative movement when we finally MATCH THE RIGHT'S COMMITMENT to training and leadership development and provide greater support for our own training organizations such as Wellstone Action, Center for Progressive Leadership, and Progressive Majority, to name a few.

Wellstone Action has trained over 40,000 activists, organizers, and public leaders since our founding in 2003. Yet so much remains to be done. We stand ready to expand this work on far greater and more impactful scale across the country. We just need the resources to make it happen.

Photo by Pablo Manriquez on flickr

Power in Coalition

Erik — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:08:16 -0500

Wellstone Action is all about building power, and the organizations we partner with are equally hungry to build power together. One critical way is by building effective coalitions.

Wellstone Action's labor program has worked with partner unions to help build strong community alliances around education reform, immigration, the Employee Free Choice Act, green jobs and health care. Locally, Wellstone Action has worked with a coalition of non-profit organizations around civic engagement and the Take Action and reNEW Minnesota efforts to build a progressive state.

While coalitions can be an important tool for social change and labor union revitalization, what makes them successful? What causes them to fail?

For the past several years Wellstone Action has been collaborating with Amanda Tattersall, an Australian union and community organizer from Sydney, Australia, around what makes for effective coalitions.

Now Amanda is in the United States having literally written the book on labor-community coalitions -- Power in Coalition.

Wellstone Action, along with an alliance of other progressive organizations, is hosting a launch of Tattersall's book on Thursday, September 2, at Common Good bookstore in St Paul (165 Western Avenue North). Other organizations sponsoring this event include TakeAction Minnesota, the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the Blue Green Alliance, Metro State Social Science Department and the University of Minnesota Labor Education Service.

Jeff Blodgett, Executive Director of Wellston Action, praises the book: ‘Amanda Tattersall's book is the most insightful study of coalitions to date. It is not your typical gauzy view of coalition building, but offers a clear-sighted, practical road map to building more effective labor-community coalitions and in turn an opportunity to transform the labor movement.'

Power in Coalition is the first international study to examine successful coalitions between unions and community organizations in three countries: Chicago's living wage campaign run by the Grassroots Collaborative, the public education coalition in Sydney and Toronto's Ontario Health Coalition fighting to save universal health care. The book explores when and how coalitions can powerful. It considers when and how labor-community alliances can simultaneously move social change, strengthen community-based organizations and renew the power of labor unions.

Power in Coalition identifies important lessons for building strong coalitions that are useful for labor and community organizers. For instance, counter to the popular belief that long lists of organizations produce strong coalitions - Power in Coalition argues that "less is more". A smaller number of powerfully committed organizations will be more successful at sustaining social change and engaging union and community members than a highly broad and diverse coalition where there is little common interest.

The book stakes the claim that coalition success has to be multi-faceted and include not only the social change victories that are achieved, but also the ability for a coalition to sustain relationships between partner organizations and develop the leadership skills and campaigning capacity of rank and file participants in the process of campaigning.

Coalitions also are more successful if they have the versatility to act at multiple scales, and move an agenda and outreach to the general public in local neighborhoods as well as across the city or state. In its Australian and Canadian case studies, the book identifies examples of where this has been done successfully through the establishment of local coalitions that have partnered with city-wide or state wide coalitions. Yet, there is an art form to multi-scaled action, and the Canadian case study cautions on lessons about balancing the need for bottom up and top down input into coalition strategy.

Over the past three years, Amanda Tattersall has been building a coalition using the lessons from her book - called the Sydney Alliance -- a diverse coalition of religious organizations, unions and community organizations set to publicly launch in 2011. The Sydney Alliance is part of the Industrial Areas Foundation.

Power in Coalition was released in August 2010 by Cornell University Press. To find out more about it, and launch locations visit the book's website.

Peace Talks

Jhaut — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:02:48 -0500

Jeff Blodgett ’83 is executive director of Wellstone Action, an organization created to carry on the legacy of the late Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife, Sheila Wellstone, by igniting the leadership in people and the power in communities to create progressive change.

Politics has become a dirty word for a lot of people. There’s a lot of corruption and dysfunction in our government today—and in elections. But to me, democracy is the finest form of governance and it needs to be cherished. Democracy requires involvement; people hold the power to actually make change. Even a small group of people who are organized, focused, and determined can make a difference. Yet people are turned off and cynical, and the result is that half of the people in the country who are eligible to vote don’t vote. Voting is critical to ensuring that democracy functions properly.

The money that powerful economic interests have channeled into elections and into lobbying for certain policies has skewed the notion of representative democracy: one person, one vote. Economic interests end up having more power than an equal number of citizens who are actively engaged, and that’s an enormous barrier to a properly functioning democracy.

We have a polarized political culture in this country currently, but that’s okay. Democracy is about the clash of different ideas, and the best ideas win with a majority of the vote. If those ideas don’t work, then the other side gets to come in. In a democracy that transference of power happens peacefully, but you also have to figure out how to function as a country with divergent viewpoints. Right now we haven’t figured out how to find common ground or compromise, and that’s another barrier to a well-functioning democracy.

But I’m hopeful, because young people see involvement as important. They connect with one another through social networking and new media, which makes them more powerful. Also, the new generations are more accepting of people who are different from them, and I think that will help shed some of this country’s old baggage. I’m optimistic that when the next generation of leaders gets into office—and part of me feels like we can’t get some of these old leaders out of office fast enough—we will see a dramatic change in this country.

For a longer interview, photos, and transcript, click here.

Energy Action Coalition: Getting out OUR vote in 2010!

Jhaut — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:03:48 -0500

It has been a non-stop summer of training here at Wellstone Action, especially for our staff and trainers of the Movement Building Project. Last month, we were in Chicago, training over 100 students and staff of Energy Action Coalition to launch Power Vote 2010.

This wasn’t our first training with the Energy Action Coalition; we’ve partnered on numerous occasions to help them build a powerful, long-term movement for change. As you might recall, St. Paul played host to Power Vote in 2008 and Wellstone Action staff trained 200 students as they were gearing up to gather pledges from peer students on their respective campuses that they would vote in the 2008 election and make clean energy a top issue.

And then there was the massive Power Shift in 2009, where Wellstone Action was part of the front-lines training and leading role-playing of lobby visits in preparation for the massive demonstration on Capitol Hill and visits with members of Congress that followed.

Now, in preparation for Power Vote 2010, the focus is again on voter engagement as a part of climate change work and translating that power into votes come November. This year’s training focused heavily on not just recruiting volunteers and mobilizing students to sign pledges to vote, but holding those students accountable to Get Out Our Vote this election. To accomplish these goals, Wellstone Action provided key training around areas of voter mobilization, practicing skills in class raps, GOTV best practices, and adapting our signature campaign timeline exercise into issue-based work, where students determined over the course of their campaign, the best times to schedule voter outreach.

In addition to the few days of training, the students also took part in events in the community, teaming up with the local environmental justice organization to protest one of the oldest and dirtiest coal plants in the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago. Check out these great photos from the training and their action at the Crawford Coal Plant.

photos by chesapeakeclimate on flickr

Cheyenne River Youth Project hosts Wellstone Action training, local teens provide important feedback

Jhaut — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:49:19 -0500

EAGLE BUTTE, SD (August 15, 2010) — In late July, the Cheyenne River Youth Project® in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, hosted a special “Native Youth Organizing Training” conference, part of Wellstone Action’s Native American Leadership Program. Twenty-nine local teens between the ages of 14 to 19 attended the daylong leadership training event.

“Our goal was to have 30 young people participate, so we were thrilled to see 29 teens sign up and offer so much energy and enthusiasm,” said Julie Garreau, CRYP’s executive director. “It was tremendously rewarding. Our staff and volunteers also were excited to experience the training, which focused on progressive leadership, citizen activism and community organizing. And in the process, we learned a lot from our kids.”One component of the curriculum, titled “Help Wanted: Finding the Leaders We Need in Our Communities,” required the teens to develop a Help Wanted ad and then work within groups to develop their own ads and standards. Some common themes emerged during the exercises.

“The teens were very specific about the qualities they seek in leaders,” Garreau said. “Honesty, responsibility, reliability, courage, trustworthiness, dependability, wisdom, generosity — these traits came up over and over again. They said they want leaders who are hard-working, who are team players, and who can be good role models. They said true leadership is about understanding what people need, not being power-hungry.”One ad noted, “Must be sensitive to others… caring.” Another emphasized, “No anger issues.” And several insisted that the ideal candidate would be drug- and alcohol-free. Laziness, poor sportsmanship and rudeness would simply be unacceptable.

In another interesting exercise, Wellstone Action trainers asked the teens to split into six groups and work within their groups to decide what they would change in the community. The groups’ biggest common concerns were suicide prevention, teen pregnancy, gang violence, alcohol and drug abuse, child neglect, reservation cleanup (in particular, they worried about property destruction, graffiti and trash pickup), animal cruelty, quality education, quality health care, good housing, job opportunities and gun control. They even discussed the merits of increasing seatbelt use on the reservation and the benefits of a dress code at school.

In addition, the teens wanted to see more strict school policies, an animal shelter, treatment programs for alcoholics and for those who attempt suicide, a homeless shelter or mission, a cleaner environment, recycling services and higher numbers of college-bound students. Some wanted even more specific things — an indoor skate park, a McDonald’s, more rodeos, more basketball tournaments, more parks for toddlers and even a new, distant location for the wastewater treatment facility. “This really showed us how aware our children are,” Garreau said. “They want a stronger community and better lives for future generations, and they see what’s necessary to get there.”

Next, the groups determined what parts of their community they’re most proud of. The top answers: CRYP’s Cokata Wiconi Teen Center, the Boys & Girls Club, the outdoor skateboard park, the local swimming pool, the local fitness center, the city park, area schools and colleges, available food in the community, Lakota culture and heritage, family, friends, school and pets. One group said it was most proud of those students who graduated every year. “This was such a great experience for everyone involved, and we hope to host Wellstone Action again in the future,” Garreau said. “Not only is it a wonderful opportunity for our teens to learn and add some weight to a resume or job application, it’s a chance for us to understand what our teens are thinking. Listening to the next generation and encouraging them to get involved is the only way to foster real and lasting change.”

CRYP provided meeting space and meals for the Wellstone Action leadership conference, as well as overnight accommodations for the two attending trainers. Garreau noted, however, that the conference wouldn’t have happened without the support of Running Strong for American Indian Youth®.

“We have a Running Strong grant that provides dedicated scholarship funding for youth-focused organizations and projects,” she explained. “Those scholarship funds support CRYP’s general operation and help bring youth-oriented programming to the teen center. In this case, the scholarship money rented our facilities for the Wellstone Action conference, and we’re grateful to our partners and friends at Running Strong for making this amazing experience possible for our teens.”

To learn more about the Cheyenne River Youth Project and its programs, and for information about making donations and volunteering, call (605) 964-8200 or or visit www.lakotayouth.org and, to stay up to date on the latest CRYP news and events, visit the youth project’s Facebook “Cause” page. All Cause members will receive regular updates through Facebook.

The Cheyenne River Youth Project, founded in 1988, is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing the youth of the Cheyenne River reservation with access to a vibrant and secure future through a wide variety of culturally sensitive and enduring programs, projects and facilities that ensure strong, self-sufficient families and communities.

Expanding the vote

Jhaut — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:29:07 -0500

SAN BERNARDINO - Call 13,000 people, and you'll talk to about 3,900. Of those, about 2,300 will like what you have to say. And of those, about 1,380 will show up to vote in November.

That's a math lesson in voter outreach taught to about a dozen local activists Monday and Tuesday through a program called Mobilize the Immigrant Vote. It's a program activists hope will help San Bernardino's Latino community flex its muscles at the ballot box in November.

"San Bernardino has an incredibly low (voter) turnout rate," said Bobbi Jo Chavarria, a community organizer with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, one of several groups that attended the outreach training event. "That's not acceptable when so many issues are being dealt with at the local level."

Chavarria's group and other organizations, including San Bernardino For Immigration Reform and the League of United Latin American Citizens, want to reach out to about 15,000 people in San Bernardino's 1st, 2nd and 6th wards - the Westside, center and airport areas - leading up to November's election.

The immediate goal is to get Latino voters mobilized to vote for Proposition 24, a ballot measure that would block a few specific tax breaks for corporations.

"That tax money is not being utilized for the betterment of California," said Joe Olague, president of the Inland Empire chapter of LULAC. "I'm hoping people understand we must put that money into our own system."

But the broader goal is to build a strategy to boost voter turnout, implement that strategy and see how well it works.

"We want to see if we can see a measurable difference in the areas we're working in," Chavarria said.

Local activists can then learn, adjust and make more long-term plans, she said.

"We want to demonstrate not only to the government structure that we have power, but also demonstrate to the people that they can make a difference," she said.

This week's training sessions, which were taught by staff from Mobilize the Immigrant Vote and the Minnesota-based group Wellstone Action, focused on voter outreach methods, including phone-banking, precinct-walking and mail advertising.

"We have to have a plan," said Pakou Hang, a trainer from Wellstone Action. "If we say we want to turn out 2,000 people, we have to have a plan to get there."

Part of that plan is knowing how many volunteers, hours and money it will take to call or visit 15,000 people and what kind of results can be expected from that effort.

Reaching out to about 13,000 mostly foreign-born and Latino voters in the city's 1st, 2nd and 6th wards could, Wellstone Action statistics say, result in about 1,400 extra voters going to the polls.

That might not sound like much, but Sergio Aguilar of Ontario - a volunteer for San Bernardino for Immigration Reform - said that that many votes would be great.

"So few people here vote, even 1,000 is enough to win an election," he said.

If groups can get more voters to the polls, Aguilar said it can shift the outcome of elections to the left.

"We know the majority (of city residents) is in favor of what we're doing, but the 10percent that do vote, they're Republicans," he said. "So few people vote that every vote we can get is a difference."

If their outreach strategies work, he said they'll try to do the same in other parts of the Inland Empire.

"We want to start in one area and then work our way up," he said.

Can Recycling Save the Progressive Movement?

Jblodgett — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:31:07 -0500

As progressives, we love to recycle. But when it comes to creating change, the dominant wisdom used to be downright wasteful. In the past, year after year, election cycle after election cycle and advocacy campaign after advocacy campaign, we were taught to remake ourselves and our plans every two years, in the process throwing away all the infrastructure, leadership, and power we've built along the way.

In 2009, we threw away that old paradigm. That's why I'm so excited to show you the Wellstone Action 2009 Annual Report. Building off of an historic election, unprecedented rates of voter participation, and partisan majorities in Congress, our movement set about pivoting that momentum into a plan for lasting power for social change.

Click here to view our interactive online Annual Report!

It was a rocky year, but it proved that politics is not about predictions - it's about what we do. There were times in 2009 when our movement struggled to move an agenda for change, hold elected officials accountable, and win elections and policy victories.

We are at a critical juncture, and the future success of the progressive movement depends on our ability to more deftly build lasting power so that we can effectively create and move progressive public policy, mobilize voters, elect truly representative leaders, and empower communities to organize for change.

In 2009, we learned that we need more of our own champions, and we need our allies to be accountable. We need to start getting concrete about what has to happen in 2010, 2011, and 2012 so we reach our goals and agenda in 2013. We need a realistic assessment of where we are now, and a clear view of the bigger picture on why we haven't been winning - we need to build great progressive political power.

Over the next three years the progressive movement will move cyclically from policy advancement into the electoral season, back into advocacy and once again into another electoral season.

So we fight hard today, while building lasting power for tomorrow. Let's get to work!

Think Three Years.

Jblodgett — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:48:16 -0500

With an unfinished agenda and tough midterm elections ahead, this is a good time to remind ourselves that politics is about what we do. Bringing change to Washington and around the country is not easy, and it takes time, but it still is in our hands. It's time to tune out the pundits and ignore the naysayers, and get back to the work of building long-term progressive power.

But, how do we really move an agenda? Despite historic rates of voter participation in 2008, a historic presidential election, and majorities in Congress, we've struggled to move an agenda for change (with a few exceptions), hold elected officials accountable, and build on a solid infrastructure to win elections and policy victories.

The answer is long-term, sustained investment in building progressive power and leadership that doesn't stop at one election cycle. Let's think three years! We need more of our own champions in elected office, and we need our elected allies to be accountable. We need to start getting concrete about what has to happen not just in the rest of 2010, but also in 2011, and 2012 and beyond to what we want to see happen in the 2013-14 Congress.

The timeline below showcases how all our efforts to elect new progressives, advance a policy agenda, and build strong organizations and communities with a critical mass of new leaders should all work seamlessly and ceaselessly throughout the next three years.

Remember, while we fight to not lose ground in this next election, we have to keep our eyes and plans on the 2011-2012 legislative cycle and off-year elections, in addition to a Presidential re-election year and another chance to surge forward. Are we ready?

Why we go to Idaho

Jhaut — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:21:23 -0500

Last month we held our third Camp Wellstone in the state of Idaho, a reliably red state since its statehood. During our organizational strategic planning last summer, the mission "to boldly go where other progressive training organizations don't go" easily became one of our priorities. We affectionately refer to this point as, "more Idahos", but we also believe in expanding the progressive base to other lesser-visited states, including South Carolina earlier this year and states such as Montana or Kentucky.

But Idaho has been different. After three trainings in four years in the state, we've now trained over 250 Idahoans. After our inaugural 2006 training just outside Boise, five participants in the candidate track were elected to office (Sue Chew, Branden Durst, Bill Killen, and Phylis King to the Idaho House of Representatives, and Paul Woods to Ada County Commissioner). Four of the five continue to hold office today. The training set a spark for the future of Idaho progressive politics and Wellstone Action has been proud to be a part of building the base. It wasn't just a coincidence that we've landed in Idaho so many times, though. The other reason we go to Idaho is because of our dedicated alumni and gracious hosts, Bruce and Sheryl Dowlin who pleaded to get Camp Wellstone to come in 2006 and have persuaded us every other year since.

Bruce and Sheryl recently shared with me why they wanted this training in their state:

"We attended Camp Wellstone in Minnesota in 2005 before retiring to Idaho that summer. We had made numerous trips to Idaho over the previous two decades because Sheri's entire family (parents, children, and grandchildren) all lived in Boise. Being very aware of the extremely conservative political and cultural climate in Idaho, we knew we would want to work to make a difference. To do that, we were eager to attend a Camp Wellstone in Minnesota. We met Paul twice at house parties in Mankato and were inspired by his vision and integrity."

Immediately after attending camp in Minnesota, Bruce and Sheryl set out contacting staff at Wellstone Action in pursuit of bringing the training to Idaho. They were met with reluctance at first, but as the two proved to be good organizers, eventually their hard work (and "bugging" the staff, as Sheryl admits!) started to become a reality.

After Bruce and Sheryl settled down in their new home in Idaho, they began working to bring Camp Wellstone to their state. They discovered an active umbrella progressive group called United Vision for Idaho, made up of 23 nonprofit organizations. Drawing from the base of UVI, they had a good starting point from which to draw in participants.

"Idaho Camp Wellstone 2006 was successful beyond our and the Camp Wellstone trainer's expectations," Sheryl said. "One hundred and thirty five people attended this camp, obviously hungry for inspiration and hands-on training. As a benefit of their Idaho training, participants were energized to keep fighting the good fight in their often-isolated locations in the West."

As Bruce and Sheryl can attest, one of the reasons the trainings in Idaho are so impactful is because "a few well-trained and inspired people have had a multiplying effect on Idaho politics," the Dowlins told me. "The Wellstone Action experience for many progressives has ignited the flame in all parts of the state."

One such group hoping to fan the flames of progressive activism are members of the National Association of Social Workers, who attended the training, led by their Executive Director and Lobbyist, Delmar Stone. The twenty participating members plan to use what they learned at Camp to more effectively promote human well-being using methods of social action.

As Bruce and Sheryl said, "We miss Paul and Sheila very much, and we believe that the remarkable communications systems we have today coupled with the outstanding training teams sent to us from around the country by Wellstone Action would make them proud of what is being accomplished...even here in Idaho!"

This past training was not just "another Idaho", and we are excited to already be planning a return in 2012 (if not sooner!) because we really do believe that progressive change can be won in places like Idaho.

How a Bill Becomes a Law - 21st Century Version

elana — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:26:19 -0500

We know and love the School House Rock version, but thanks to Sunlight Foundation's Design for America contest, we now have an updated (and much more highly detailed) resource for telling the uniquely American story of how a bill becomes a law.

The Sunlight Foundation (and its sister organization, Sunlight Labs) use a combination of data, design, and ingenuity to increase transparency and accountability in government. Their contest sought submissions for the best data visualizations in a number of categories. The winner of the "How a Bill Becomes a Law" category, Mike Wirth, provides insight into the often bewildering legislative process in Washington - and helps to de-mystify it in the process.

It's too large to display in detail here - click the image below to see it full size.

Stories from the Field

elana — Thu, 27 May 2010 09:25:46 -0500

We are fortunate to work with amazing individuals and organizations each year, providing training and capacity building for progressive campaigns and movements.

We wanted to share with you two profiles of our recent alumni and the work they are doing to build progressive power for the long term in their organizations and communities.

Jeffrey Bland is an organizer and community leader in Missouri, who took a break from his work as an attorney to run a contested school referendum campaign where children's access to good education hung in the balance. Read about his strategy to win and how he won big against the odds.

New Jersey Working Families, led by Executive Director Margarita Hernandez, is a coalition of organizations that work together for good schools, affordable health care, and an accountable government that works for everyone. These organizations realized that they could organize and lobby elected officials all they wanted, but at the end of the day, they needed to change the choices that voters were being presented with. Read more about their plan for long-term power for New Jersey's working families.

Moving the Pieces Around the Board

Jblodgett — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:34:33 -0500

In case you missed it, Politico posted this must-read look at the financing and infrastructure of the conservative movement. The bottom line: Top conservative leaders like Karl Rove, former GOP Chairman Ed Gillespie, and former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman are putting in place the key elements of a strong political movement, and getting donors to cough up over 70 million dollars to make sure they are successful.

The unofficial network of organizations (which aren't technically affiliated but in some cases share the same office space) add a whole new dimension of muscle to the current array of conservative training centers, candidate development and support efforts, policy think-tanks, and voter contact infrastructure.

Both Gillespie and Coleman cite progressive organizations and infrastructure as their inspiration, and are telling their donors (with deep pockets) that the right has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to putting the pieces in place to win. Top conservative fundraisers are making it clear that supporting this "behind the scenes" infrastructure work is a key component of the path to retaking power in Washington.

But let's put some historical perspective on all this impressive organizational development. Back in 2004, knee-deep in the Bush Administration and conservative governing majorities, it was OUR side that was impoverished in the infrastructure department. Conservatives were ahead of us in terms of sophisticated voter outreach strategies, policy development, and an apparatus for distributing research and messaging. The Center for American Progress had just been founded to provide long-term leadership, and the Democracy Alliance was formed to combat organized right-wing funders.

Even with the organizations and infrastructure keeping progressives on the cutting edge of campaign strategy, we've never been able to come close to matching the funding capacity of our conservative counterparts. And now that they are putting their fundraising muscle behind these critical ingredients to change, we should be concerned about their ability to leverage organized money and organized people to yield strong victories.

No matter which way the pendulum swings, the progressive movement needs to keep developing organizations, leaders and capacity that can continue the important work of building lasting progressive power. We can't simply continue to play leap-frog with our conservative counterparts. So while we fight hard this year, we also need long-term, significant investment with a plan for moving our agenda that looks out past 2010 to 2011, 2012, 2013 and beyond.

This recent resurgence on the right should be our reminder not to let ourselves fall behind once again.

Sometimes Polite Doesn't Work.

elana — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:57:14 -0500

In case you missed the final bow for PBS' Bill Moyers' Journal, Moyers covered examples of populism and populist movements that are mobilizing tens of thousands of individuals in opposition to powerful corporate interests at the expense of families and communities.

In this fantastic clip, Moyers showcases our partner, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, which is mobilizing everyone from family farmers to new Americans in a powerful coalition to fight big banks, factory farms, and other abuses of power in Iowa.

We agree with what Barb Kalbach, one Iowa CCI member, has to say in the video -- sometimes, polite just doesn't work. That's why we've got to do what it takes to build power and make change for our communities.

Click here to watch the video and share it with your friends.

Wellstone Action Winners Down Under

elana — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:07:02 -0500

In case you missed it, Wellstone Action had some exciting news from down under. After a series of trainings in Australia last September as part of a 3-year long partnership with progressive organizations over there, two Wellstone Action alums won seats in the Tasmanian Parliament. These races, which are equivalent to state legislative elections in the U.S., broke the mold for Australian politics. These two candidates ran and won the "Wellstone Way" and we're very excited that they're leading with integrity in Tasmania! Read all about it below.

Election night March 20 was a tough night for the Tasmanian Labor Party.

Eleven years in power and a cascade of missteps brought a 13% swing against the Party and the loss of four seats and their majority in Parliament.

But swimming against that tide, two Wellstone Action alums - David O'Byrne and Brian Wightman - ran unconventional campaigns and won convincing victories despite Labor Party losses elsewhere.

Both O'Byrne and Wightman attended a two-day Wellstone Action training in September 2009 at the LHMU office in Hobart, Tasmania. LHMU is an Australian union representing Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous workers. The training was organized by Damian Ogden, the LHMU Political Director and now Director of Campaign Action! along with Erik Peterson.

The training reignited O'Byrne and Wightman's passion for running and provided a framework for building a grassroots campaign and developing an authentic message.

Brian Wightman, a teacher and high school principal, came up after the training and said what he took away was new hope that speaking authentically is not only the right thing to do, but an effective way to run as a candidate.

Wightman said that he would apply the lessons in his own campaign because "this is about making people's lives better. That's what politics is about."

That's what politics should be about, but like many U.S. campaigns, most campaigns in Tasmania (and Australia) are top-down, tightly controlled, and less than inspiring enterprises.

"Strip-mining is the typical style of Australian campaigns and my most common experience in Tasmanian politics," said O'Byrne. "A central committee of 3-4 people would control everything and rely on a very transactional relationship with a handful of volunteers who they would flog to the point of death."

David O'Byrne, former Tasmanian Branch Secretary of the LHMU, decided to run for Parliament in late 2008 driven by both anger and frustration and a deep sense of hope that he could build a different type of campaign around a values based politics.

He was "frustrated and angry with the political debate," yet from his work as a union organizer and leader he also knew that "good people could change things."

What he found in the Wellstone Action training was an intellectual framework and language that confirmed his belief that successful, people-centered campaigns are built on developing relationships and growing new leaders who can exercise their power collectively.

"The Wellstone Action training gave me the tools to organizationally build a values- and volunteer-based grassroots campaign, and as a candidate be able to speak out of those values," O'Byrne said.

And an unusual (for Tasmania) and robust grassroots campaign they built. Tens of thousands of doors were knocked and leaflets dropped. There were thousands of conversations with voters. Where three or four volunteers would be normal for a typical campaign, dozens of volunteers would come out for O'Byrne's weekend door knocks and enjoy a barby of sizzlers afterwards.

The grassroots work paid off in the end. O'Byrne won the fourth seat of five in his district in the face of a perfect storm that would have likely knocked out most first-time candidates - a 15% swing against Labor, competing against the leaders of the two opposition parties, and vying for a seat against Labor's deputy premier (who took the third seat) and two incumbents from his own party.

"Without Wellstone Action and the power of the Wellstone triangle it just wouldn't have worked," O'Byrne admitted.

Proud as he is of his victory, O'Byrne is most proud of the new people he brought into politics. Dave, an old friend of his who is a professional engineer, had never done anything politically before. "He hadn't even joined his union, and would tell me ‘I'll get involved when they're talking my language, but right now they're not and they don't want to engage with me.'"

O'Byrne briefed Dave about the campaign and invited him to the leaders meeting to scope it out for himself. Dave was impressed and asked to go out door knocking. O'Byrne hesitated and warned him that could be tough, but Dave said he believed in the campaign and what it stood for and he "would do what needed to be done" to tell others.

"That man door knocked constantly, and he wanted to go into some of the toughest areas - and he had never done anything like this before."

There were many more stories of developing new leaders, like the senior public servant from the opposing party who had coffee with O'Byrne one day and signed on to the campaign. "She was the sister of a former Liberal member (the conservative opposition party) and she was out door knocking for us every weekend because she believed in what we were doing."

"That's what this is about," O'Byrne added. Wightman would agree.

Now they both head to the Parliament to try to build a minority government between the Labor Party and the Green Party, which will test both the need to build relationships and how to govern from a perspective that continues to develop new leaders and stays authentic and connected to the community.

Reaching the Hard-to-Count: The Census and the Undocumented

elana — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:06:38 -0500

If you're like most residents of this country, you live somewhere that's still reeling from the recession. The unemployment rate remains high; fear, anxiety, and uncertainty are palpable. This sense of foreboding can't be replaced with relief and reassurance without a complete Census count. If the Census is successful, this year's results will enable substantial reinvestment in all communities and help stabilize the economy over the next decade. But at a time of increasing disillusionment with Washington, President Obama and Congress have so far missed an opportunity to persuade Americans that the Census shapes how government provides for our shared needs. For months, they have failed to explain that the Census will inform the distribution of nearly $ 420 billion per year in federal grants to states and localities for public programs in education, income security, housing assistance, healthcare and transportation infrastructure. They have also neglected to emphasize that businesses regularly consult Census data to understand where and how to create jobs and spur growth, based on accurate representations of consumer demand and the workforce required to support an expansion of existing operations. This week, the Census Bureau has begun collecting a list of addresses from non-responsive households; from May to July, more than 700,000 Census workers will hit the phones and knock on doors. Nearly thirty percent of US residents have yet to mail in their surveys. The participation rate is lowest in large cities and rural areas. A big part of what must still be conveyed is that local and state governments are slashing budgets for public goods and services that the Census count would allow the federal government to strengthen and enhance. Lots of attention will continue to be focused on the hardest-to-count areas with specific characteristics--high numbers of renters or low-income families, for example--where millions of immigrants live and work. To reach these areas, Census offices are recruiting many bilingual workers. For some households, English language skills necessary to fill out the survey are lacking. For others, living side-by-side in subdivided apartments or basements, or in other ad-hoc arrangements, there is no clear "head of household" tasked to fill out the form. Since 2000, immigrants have flocked to cities like Phoenix, Atlanta and Washington, DC, and in the Southeast and Southwest more generally. A complete Census will offer a detailed profile of these demographic shifts so that diverse localities benefit from growing populations. Conversely, a large undercount of immigrant residents would be devastating for everyone. A PricewaterhouseCoopers study of the 2000 Census revealed that undercounting cost the largest counties nearly $3,000 per missed person; these counties not only share in overall state losses for federal programs but also lose resources to relatively better counted regions. Compared to the last Census, states and cities have set aside millions less for outreach campaigns. As a result, private foundations, nonprofit organizations and ethnic and independent media outlets have stepped up to close this communication gap, which is especially pronounced in hard-to-count immigrant communities. In an interview, Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), explained that his organization's national Census campaign has partnered with Spanish-language media and leveraged advocacy and enthusiasm for immigration reform among many Latinos to show that marching, mobilizing and being counted go together. "You may not be able to vote but you can be counted" has been a very effective empowerment message, Vargas stressed on the phone from Los Angeles. Earlier this year, NALEO and other organizations had to combat Latino evangelical leaders who called for a boycott of the Census to build pressure for overhauling our immigration system. But ultimately, the boycott fell flat: an early March survey from the Pew Hispanic Center found that over 83 percent of Latinos reported that they hadn't heard anything from religious or media groups discouraging Census participation. Many immigrants are still reluctant to answer the survey, despite the fact that all individual Census responses are strictly confidential and can't be used against them by Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) or any other government agency. Martha Chavez, coordinator of organizing and advocacy at New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) in Queens, New York, told me immigrants want to know why the Census Bureau is asking for so much information and how it will improve their lives. NICE regularly dispatches staffers to churches and day laborer sites to connect with residents where they are and underscore how the Census will boost their neighborhoods. People on the frontlines say only trusted and committed community voices can do this work well. Immigrant advocates are quick to point out that the reality of the Census is very different from the perception created by ubiquitous Census ads. "I know what didn't work. What didn't work was the '10 questions in 10 minutes [slogan],' " said Maureen Ramirez, director of the Minnesota Civic Engagement Table, which has been heavily involved with Census outreach in Minneapolis. "That's true if you are an English speaker who lives alone." Once people began receiving the Census, they started telling her it was "way more than ten questions and more than ten minutes. It's ten questions for the first person, and seven per person after that." For non-English speaking immigrants, many of whom live in larger and fluctuating households, the survey is a much longer and more daunting task to finish than the ads would have you think. This is easy to forget in a place like Minnesota if you don't talk to people doing outreach among immigrants: the state is reporting some of the highest Census participation in the country (take that, Michele Bachmann!), but significant linguistic barriers remain. Ramirez said she found more familiarity with the Census among Spanish-speaking immigrants than among African immigrants, because many more translated materials are available in Spanish than in Somali, Eritrean or Oromo--the East African languages spoken in her area. The Census Bureau, which is spending an estimated $15 billion on the count, should do everything it can in the months ahead to assist grassroots organizations and ensure that Census workers have the tools in all the relevant languages to be completely successful in the places they will be targeting. There is still time to promote the Census as a major vehicle for acknowledging that all residents are part of our economic fabric. As a country, we can't move forward if significant numbers of the nearly 32 million legal and undocumented immigrants working, running businesses, paying taxes and contributing to our growth and productivity are left out. Only a fully inclusive Census will capture how we've changed over the past ten years, and equip all our communities with vital public and private resources to plan for what comes next.

Two Wellstone Action Alum Head to Tasmanian Parliament

elana — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:12:45 -0500

New Poll on Distrust of Government Another Reason We Need Our Own Candidates

Jblodgett — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:59:37 -0500

A new Pew Research poll reports the depressing yet unsurprising news that faith in government at an all-time low. While public skepticism of leaders is part of our culture, the fact that a vast majority of Americans are so down on our political system is a threat to a well-functioning democracy.

To me, this is another reminder that Wellstone Action and our allies doing exciting candidate development are on the right track. We only get out of this mess, and we only can win on our agenda, if the progressive movement makes it a priority to run good candidates for office at all levels. When I say good candidates I mean people who can restore faith in public life. I mean people who are authentic, committed to our issues, and grounded in our communities. I mean people who communicate clearly and listen well, who are strategic, and who are willing to put in the hard work that it takes to win. Good candidate development programs mean developing campaign managers and workers who help our candidates win their elections.

Wellstone Action partners with candidate development programs in states around the country, providing training sessions for prospective candidates and campaign workers. We are also now working intensely with a number of national and state organizations that have decided to surface and develop their own members to run for various offices.

While this work goes on in earnest this year-getting ready for the elections of 2010-candidate development needs to be seen as a major long-term investment in the power of the progressive movement. The people running for local office today will be the members of congress we need in 6 to 10 years. That's right-this work will take time to achieve lasting results, so let's take the time and resources now to bring this work to scale in key states around the country.

Power Builders: Youth and the Climate Change Movement

elana — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:18:21 -0500

You may have noticed a steady drumbeat on this blog recently, talking about the need for progressive organizations, coalitions, and campaigns to take a long view to build the kind of power that lasts between election cycles.

In our trainings and work with partners around the country, we've been pushing a model of organizing that encourages multi-year plans that move seamlessly between elections, advocacy, and back to elections.

We wanted to highlight the work of organizations doing just that.

Energy Action Coalition, a coalition of leading organizations in the youth climate change movement, is a great example of this work. I was struck by this blog post last week, which outlines their plans to pivot their incredible legislative advocacy work this year into a comprehensive electoral plan to mobilize voters on environmental issues and hold elected leaders accountable.

In Vermont, students are leveraging power in the Gubernatorial race to challenge candidates to replace a nuclear power plant, already slated for shut-down, with 100% clean energy in 2012. They'll be registering voters and raising awareness throughout the summer months and getting candidates to speak on the record about their energy plans.

The Ohio Student Environmental Coalition is running an innovative campaign to "Make Green a Primary Color" by engaging young people as climate change voters in the May 4th primary.

Energy Action Coalition and their member organizations are really thinking strategically about building power during the 2010 elections to leverage their agenda and grow their organizations in 2011 and beyond.

Great news for college access!

Mweiss — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:20:14 -0500

We here at Campus Camp Wellstone are so excited about a piece of legislation that passed along with Health Care Reform, and we had to make sure you knew what was in the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA).

This is legislation that takes on some of the biggest challenges to young people being able to access and afford higher education.

The key components of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act are as follows:

Increase the Pell Grant - The Pell grant was initially designed to cover 80% of college costs; however it has been chopped overtime, so now it only covers about 1/3 of the average cost. The maximum Pell Grant offered for the current school year was $5350. SAFRA increases the maximum to $5550 in 2010 and continues to increase with inflation.
Invest $3 billion in college access- The college completion gap between high-income and low-income students is staggering. Under a third of low-income students with the highest test scores go on to complete a 4 year degree, compared to 74% of their high-income counterparts. This provision will help close the retention and completion rates of low-income students.
Make Federal loan repayment more affordable by putting a cap on the maximum monthly payment according to income - This provision starts in 2014 and will allow new borrowers to cap their student loan repayments at 10% - it's 15% for current borrowers - of their discretionary income [discretionary income is money left over after the essentials like rent/mortgage, food, etc. is taken care of].
Convert all new Federal loans into Direct Loans - There are currently many student loan programs in which the federal government lends through private or 3rd party lenders, and those lenders receive subsidies for that service. Meaning private corporations get public money to loan us government dollars, crazy, no? Well all of this is out the door! Direct Loans are loans that are given and managed directly by the federal government through the Department of Education. Moving loans to this program will ease the stress of repayment for students & reduce the country's deficit by $10 billion over 10 years!
Invest in minority serving institutions, such as, Historically Black Colleges & Universities, Tribal Colleges, and Hispanic serving institutions - This provision invests $2.55 billion in these institutions to encourage students to enter careers in S.T.E.M. majors (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).
Invest in competitive grant programs specifically for community colleges -This $10 million funding will give community college the resources needed to complete the cycle of education, preparing and moving students into the workforce.

Go Congress! Thank you to those that voted in favor of Health Care Reform and SAFRA; way to move a beautiful piece of legislation. To learn more about SAFRA you can visit our partners at the United States Student Association, who ran a campaign to pass the bill.

Keeping your promises and standing for something is good politics.

Jblodgett — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:59:56 -0500

The renewed optimism is palpable this week, after historic health care legislation was signed into law by President Obama. While by far not everything progressives wanted to see is in the reform, it is an historic step forward toward the dream of affordable health care coverage for all.

Whether you are happy with all or part of this new law or not, there is something to be said for the leadership it took to get this thing through Congress and to the President's desk. At times it seemed precarious, and pundits repeatedly pronounced it DOA, but ultimately our leaders got it done.

After of all the sturm und drang of this policy fight, the real lesson is one for our elected leaders and all those candidates out there - choosing to stand for something (and doing what you promised during your campaign) is not only the right thing to do, but it's also good politics.

A case in point: polls show this week that a majority of Americans are not happy with the new law, but President Obama's favorables have ticked up or stayed steady. In other words, people may not agree on the policy, but they appreciate a politician who sticks to his guns.

Our representatives need to move beyond the false choice between keeping their jobs and taking votes of integrity. When you stand up for what you believe in, and follow through on your promises, voters respond.

photo by m_illuminato

Thank you for helping us win!

elana — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:11:02 -0500

This week, Wellstone Action was honored by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and MAP for Nonprofits with a Dot.Org Award, given to seven nonprofits for excellent use of technology.

Wellstone Action won the E-Organizing Award, for being a leader in using social media and other Web tools to offer rapid-response commentaries on significant events in the progressive movement, and for taking information one step further by using maps and other data visualization tools to tell a story about data.

Wellstone Action is honored to be in the company of the other great Dot.Org winners and to receive this recognition of our efforts to provide our members, fans, and followers with up-to-the-minute updates and trends in the progressive movement.

We could not have done it without the fantastic support of our blog readers, facebook fans, and twitter followers who comment, interact, and engage with us. Thank you!

Photo by eecue

Wellstone Action Wins Dot.Org Award for Excellent Use of Technology

elana — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:07:01 -0500

On Wednesday, March 24th Wellstone Action was honored by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and MAP for Nonprofits with a Dot.Org Award, given to seven nonprofits for excellent use of technology.

Wellstone Action won the E-Organizing Award, for being a leader in using social media and other Web tools to offer rapid-response commentaries on significant events in the progressive movement, and for taking information one step further by using maps and other data visualization tools to tell a store about data.

Wellstone Action is honored to be in the company of the other great Dot.Org winners and to receive this recognition of our efforts to provide our members, fans, and followers with up-to-the-minute updates and trends in the progressive movement. Thank you!