PNN Newsletter: Today Is Blackout Friday, How to Save Our Social Services, More
- tim621396
- Feb 28
- 6 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: How to Save Our Social Services, Stand Up for Science Rally
Educate: Prison Oversight Board, Tenant Organizing Conference
Empower: Blackout Friday Is Here, Workforce Learning Session
____________________________ Philly Neighborhood Networks Projects ______________________________
How to Save Our Social Services
(And Keep Our Heads from Exploding While Defeating MAGA Extremists)
Thursday, March 6th, 7PM, via Zoom
The Musk/Trump presidency is rampaging through our government in an attempt to destroy our social safety net and make all of us less secure. It's time to fight back.
Please join us for the PNN Social Services Action Group meeting on Zoom on March 6th at 7 PM where we'll discuss how to fight back in a manageable and strategic way.
Our focus will be on budget fights because defense of all our vital social services requires robust budget appropriations, not tax cuts for billionaires. Want to know how to raise your voice for humane and adequate budgets?
What to Expect
First, we'll hear from three experts on City, State, and Federal budgets who will update us on the challenges facing us at all three levels of government. Their presentations will identify specific pressure points where our mobilization efforts can generate results.
For example, Congress must act by March 14th to enact a budget for the current fiscal year and prevent a government shutdown. How should we encourage our local representatives to respond? Should we press them to simply prevent devastating cuts, or should we urge them to take stronger action, such as shutting down the atrocity known as DOGE?
We will strategize on that question and examine similar pressure points coming up later. We will keep our eye on the ball, whether it’s being pitched by the Mayor, Governor, or whomever the real President is. The next pitch may be coming from the Mayor in the form of proposed tax cuts for large corporations—cuts that would severely limit the City's ability to manage potential budget reductions from Washington.
Later, we'll also address the state budget process, where similar battles will occur to maintain social services funding despite the push for austerity that the Orange One is seeking to usher in.
Working Together Across Issues
Our primary goal is to ensure we're all working together in each fight. We cannot afford to work in silos. Some of us may prioritize housing, education, healthcare, senior issues, food security, climate protection, or other concerns. However, as progressives, we care about all these inter-related issues, even if we have our individual priorities.
To maximize our impact, we need to stand together on all these concerns at their point of intersection: budget time. If we collectively raise our voices when all these programs face cuts, our impact will be exponentially greater than if we each focus solely on our individual causes. Join us as we figure out how to hang together, not separately.
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Help Make the Prison Oversight Board a Reality
In December, City Council passed legislation allowing Philly voters to authorize a citizen-run, investigation-based Prison Oversight Board for all of Philadelphia’s prisons. This spring, it will be up to the residents of Philly to make this Board a reality by voting to make it part of our City Charter.
But, a lot of folks don't know about the Board and what it will do for the people, many awaiting trial, who are sitting in jails that have become uninhabitable. Human decency requires us to provide a clean, safe environment to those being detained. If enacted, this Board will shed a much-needed light on what happens inside Philadelphia’s carceral facilities.
If you'd like to help spread the word to put this Board in place, sign up below.
_____________________________________ Actions with Our Allies ____________________________________
Stand Up for Science Rally!
Friday, March 7th, 11AM, City Hall North Apron
PNN is joining Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier, Nina Ahmad, and Nicolas O'Rourke—alongside scientists and medical researchers—for the national Stand Up for Science rally next Friday, March 7th at City Hall. In this time of cost-cutting, we must raise our voices and make it clear: science is for everyone and science benefits everyone!
Philadelphia has always been a city of firsts—the first science museum, hospital, lending library, zoo, and university. Science and innovation are at the heart of our history and the foundation of a healthy people and a thriving democracy.
But today, science is under attack. Executive orders are threatening funding, DEI programs, and critical research efforts, putting lives and livelihoods at risk. In Pennsylvania, NIH funding brought in over $2.23 billion in 2023, supporting 21,000 jobs and generating $5.23 billion in economic activity. This investment strengthens our economy and fuels scientific progress—yet it’s being gutted to fund massive tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.
Join us on March 7th to stand up for science, our communities, and our future. Science matters. Let’s make sure our leaders hear us.
You can also sign this petition to Protect Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Philadelphia’s Scientific Community, calling on the leadership of our local universities and research institutions to defend DEI efforts. Together, we can fight for the future of science!
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It's Blackout Friday!
Friday, February 28th
Using Our Money as an Organizing Strategy
It's time to withhold our money from craven corporate honchos who are bowing to a bully's demands to remove Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives. They readily obey because they are afraid of losing customers, even government contracts.
Now, it's our turn to apply pressure to these corporate bros in the only language they understand - money. Keep your money in your wallet or spend it supporting local businesses. Joining Target among the DEI cowards are Amazon, McDonald's, Pepsi, Walmart, GM, Ford, Meta, and Lowe's.
Today, we start withholding our money in a one-day strike against the oligarchs. Let's see what kind of financial penalty we can inflict on the boardroom boys to make them more afraid of us than they are of Donny & Elon and their band of fascists.
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Decarceration Hearing at City Hall
Tuesday, March 4 from 10-1PM at City Hall Rm. 400
Speak your mind at City Hall when Councilmember Nic O Rourke's office holds a Decarceration Hearing this Tuesday in Council Chambers. We need our councilmembers to hear from the community about the importance of reducing the jail population.
This is a tremendous opportunity to let City Council know WHY decarceration is necessary — and how we can get people out immediately. The first two hours will be panelists giving testimony about reducing the jail population (community orgs and Parker administration).
The last hour will be public comment. That's where we come in. The speeches are limited to 2 minutes, so think about creating succinct, powerful remarks. Sign up below to get a slot to speak at this hearing.
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Tenant Organizing Conference
Saturday, March 8th, 9AM-3PM, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut Street
Join with tenants, lawyers and organizations from across the city for a conference designed to bring us all together to make plans to fight to put an end to the current housing crisis. We'll share information and strategies on how best to organize to protect ourselves, our families and our communities.
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Workforce Development Learning Session
Friday, February 28th, 3PM, 2221 W Venango St.
Join city allies at the Neighborhood Resource Center located at 2221 W. Venango Street for a Workforce Development & Adult Learning Information Session. This event is an opportunity for justice-impacted people to explore educational resources, career support programs, and services provided by Graduate Philadelphia. Enter on Hunting Park Avenue.
If you know of anyone who might be interested in this, have them click the link to fill out an Interest Form.
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This Week in History
March 1, 1961 – Peace Corps. President Kennedy issued an Executive Order establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency within the Department of State. The week after its creation, thousands of letters poured into Washington from young Americans hoping to volunteer.
March 4, 1933 – FDR's New Deal. On this day, Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced his "New Deal" for economically battered Americans at his inauguration as 32nd President, where he proclaimed, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself".
March 7, 1965 – "Bloody Sunday." John Lewis was among 600 marchers who were assaulted by state troopers and local police as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Selma, to prevent them from reaching the Alabama state capital.
Thanks for your activism!
Tim Brown, Organizing Director
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