Roger Hickey Archive

Join The Stand For Justice Feb. 8 In Raleigh, N.C.

Roger Hickey Co-Director, Campaign for America's Future

I’m writing to ask you to join us in Raleigh, N.C., on February 8 to fight for justice.

In 2012, right-wing Republicans took over the North Carolina state house and governor’s mansion. They launched attacks on voting rights, education, the environment, health care and women.

Reverend William Barber II, head of the North Carolina NAACP (and the latest recipient of the Campaign for America’s Future Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award) organized the Moral Mondays movement and rallied North Carolinians to fight back. They staged protests in Raleigh and across the state. Nearly a thousand people were arrested.

On February 8, tens of thousands of people of conscience will answer Rev. Barber’s call and join in a “Moral March” on the North Carolina General Assembly in Raleigh.

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Posted In: Allied Approaches

If You Care About Inequality, Fight for Full Employment

Roger Hickey Co-Director, Campaign for America's Future

Praise the Lord! It looks as though Democrats are starting to act like populists as we go into 2014. A few weeks ago, President Obama declared economic inequality has become the “defining challenge of our time.” Bill de Blasio, sworn in on January 1 as mayor of New York City, won by promising to fight for the forgotten majority of working families, for whom rising inequality has meant a real struggle to survive. And Sen. Elizabeth Warren is leading the charge to reform the financial system and to fight back against conservatives who would cut Social Security.

The politicians have been educated and prodded by years of organizing by progressive activists. And now even the most cautious Democrats are gearing up to campaign to extend unemployment insurance and to raise the minimum wage, two issues they think will motivate the young people, people of color, and women – the new American electorate – to get out to vote in the 2014 congressional elections.

But Democrats need to beware: While aggressive fights to help the unemployed and lift the minimum wage will show voters which party cares more about average Americans, the number one issue on the minds of voters is jobs. And Democrats ignore this populist issue at their peril.

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Posted In: Allied Approaches

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