PNN Newsletter: "Hands Off!" Rally, Become an Election Captain, More
- tim621396
- Apr 4
- 5 min read
PNN’s mission is to engage, educate and empower our neighbors to make our City a better place to live. Here’s what’s coming up in each of these areas:
Engage: "Hands Off!" Rally at City Hall, "Time to Stand Up" Meeting,
Educate: Watch "The Strike" Movie, Education Town Hall
Empower: Become an Election Captain in Your Neighborhood
"Time to Stand Up" Rally & Planning Meeting
Tuesday, April 22nd, 6PM-8PM, 1328 North 19th St
The Coalition to Defend Democracy, of which PNN is a founding member, is conducting a rally/planning meeting at the Tenth Memorial Baptist church located at 1328 N. 19th Street on April 22nd. You'll hear from organizing leaders about the key issues we're facing right now and, more importantly, you'll take part in the planning of actions to fight back against this fascist regime.
Because this event will focus mostly on budget issues at the state, federal and local levels, it will also be a follow-up to our own meeting on these issues earlier this month. It will have us doing outreach to our reps right there at the meeting, which reflects our philosophy of finding ways to amplify our voices collectively at particular points in time when pressure can be most effective.
Click the link below to learn more.
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Get Training to Become a Neighborhood Leader
Sign Up Now for the Election Captain Program
Philly is the linchpin to win Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the dominant political party has refused to put in the work necessary to build a strong voter base. Every election, we fall further and further behind the rest of the state.
It is left to us to do this work. PNN has teamed up with the Working Families Party, on whose Board PNN serves, to provide leadership to build this base by focusing on neighborhood-centric work.
Their idea, much like our original organizing model, is to train volunteers to be the connectors ("Election Captains") in their own division, focusing their energies within walking distance of their homes. We would like you to be part of this work.
Election Captains will be offered stipends of up to $600 dollars per election cycle. In-depth training on deep canvassing techniques will be offered. You will also be trained on how to become a trusted community messenger between elections so that neighbors will naturally look for guidance from you when election season rolls around.
If you are interested in becoming an Election Captain, please click the link below to get started.
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"Hands Off!" National Day of Action
Saturday, April 5th, 12PM-3PM, City Hall North Apron
Join our allies at Indivisible Philly and WFP for a National Day of Action to say "Hands Off!" to the billionaires who are trying to take from us what is rightfully ours - Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, public educations, and everything else they can get their greedy little hands on!
The rally starts at City Hall at noon and will proceed with a march to Independence Mall, where we'll hear from politicians, activists and leaders about what is being done and what we, together, can do about it.
Meet up with the Philly Neighborhood Networks team at 11:45AM at the Dilworth Park Information Center located on the North Apron of City Hall; look for our banner!
Want to Go to Washington instead? There are busses going out of Philadelphia to the "Hands Off!" Rally in D.C. for the rally there. There is a $90 cost for the round-trip. Click Here
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NW Philly Education Townhall
Sunday, April 6, 2:30PM, 8000 St. Martins Lane
Join our allies at POWER Interfaith to speak with State Reps Andre Carroll, Tarik Khan and Chris Rabb about the urgent need for fair public school funding. The event will be held at Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
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Watch "The Strike" Documentary
Monday, April 7th, 6PM, Online
This Monday, Amistad Law Center will be hosting a screening of the documentary "The Strike," an in-depth look at the men who organized a hunger strike to protest their indefinite solitary confinement. This documentary is a must see for the general public, and people who would like to know more about solitary confinement.
The movie will be followed by a discussion with some amazing leaders of the movement that the film details. The documentary covers the hunger strike against solitary confinement that took place at Pelican Bay prison in California in 2013, and also follows some key characters from the strike since then–including our guests for the night, Dolores Canales and Jack Morris.
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Sign the Petition to Fight Corporate Tax Cuts in Philly
As Democrats rail against Republican plans for deep corporate tax cuts, our Mayor has stepped on that message by promoting deep cuts in Philly’s corporate tax rates benefiting mostly the biggest firms in our City.
The Mayor defends her proposal with typical trickle-down rhetoric. However, trickle down – also known as voodoo economics - doesn’t work locally any better than it does nationally. Compelling research by the Penn Policy Center, spearheaded by PNN co-founder Marc Stier, convincingly demonstrates that. The Center found that the elimination of business taxes would add only a small number of jobs over ten years at enormous cost.
New jobs are mostly created by small businesses and startup, most of which DO NOT PAY business taxes in Philadelphia now and would get no help from this proposal. On the other hand lost revenue from the elimination of business taxes would lead either to deep cuts in services or steep increases in property taxes, which would also raise rents.
By causing an increase in property taxes, the Mayor’s proposals would place a greater tax burden on working people and the middle class and a greater tax burden on Black people than white people, all for no significant gain in jobs. Sign this petition to send the message to the Mayor and Council that we reject the idea that tax breaks for the ultra-rich, and wealthy corporations trickle down to working people and the middle class.
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This Week in History
April 4, 1968 – MLK Murdered. Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered as he stood on a hotel balcony in Memphis. He was in town to support a sanitation worker's strike.
April 5, 1933 – FDR Creates CCC. President Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), an innovative federally funded organization that put tens of thousands of Americans to work during the Great Depression on projects with environmental benefits.
April 8, 1993 – Latina in Space.
Astronaut Ellen Ochoa became the first Latina in space when the shuttle Discovery lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center.
April 9, 1947 – First Freedom Ride. The Congress of Racial Equality sent 16 Black and white activists on a bus ride through the American South to test a recent Supreme Court decision striking down segregation on interstate bus travel. The so-called Journey of Reconciliation, which lasted two weeks, was an important precursor to the Freedom Rides of the 1960s.
Tim Brown, Organizing Director
Thanks for your activism!
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