Call Voters to Pressure Senators for Impeachment
Sign up to make some calls connecting voters to senators to demand a complete and fair impeachment trial. Indivisible is halfway to their goal of calling one million constituents of the 13 senators who really need to hear from them (senators who are vulnerable because they’re up for reelection next year and folks who are retiring and worrying a lot about their legacies). They're asking you to call voters in those states to turn up the pressure on their elected officials.
H/T Indivisible
Submitted by Kristan Smith-Park, Indivisible Acton Area
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Express Gratitude for Impeachment Testifiers
Let’s join Postcards for America in sending postcards of support to William Taylor, George Kent, and Marie Yovanovitch for serving our country with courage and integrity, including by testifying in the House impeachment inquiry. Addresses here for these three.
Let's also join Postcards for America in thanking Lt. Col. Vindman and Jennifer Williams for their testmony on Tuesday. Send postcards of support to Lt. Col. Vindman:
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
1650 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20502
(Add #PostcardsforAmerica at the bottom of your cards.)
Watch the video of his opening statement here.
Jennifer Williams was limited in what she could say as the White House had classified it. But we can still write her c/o the Vice President's office. Here is her opening statement.
Here is her behind-closed-doors statement.
H/T Rogan's List
Submitted by Kristan Smith-Park, Indivisible Acton Area
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Make a Comment on Climate Change
Climate Hawks Vote is asking us to submit a public comment to tell the Select Committee on Climate Change to plan a measurable and enforceable 45 percent (or more) reduction in carbon by 2030 in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. They’ve drafted a comment for us, but please feel free to add your own thoughts to make it even more powerful--and to make sure they don't toss it. The committee has asked to hear from climate hawks! Go here to adapt and send.
H/T Chop Wood, Carry Water
Submitted by Kristan Smith-Park, Indivisible Acton Area
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Promote ACA Enrollment
Affordable Care Act Open enrollment is going on from November 1 to December 15. If you’re not hearing a lot about it, it’s because it’s not being advertised by the administration. As you know, there’s been a concerted effort since Trump took office to decrease enrollment, and with such a short window to sign up, our efforts are even more important.
Please share with your networks on social media, and ask them to share with their networks too. Go to Get America Covered for great social media assets to share, printable posters and flyers, and message guidance.
Consider printing one of their flyers to put at the local coffee shop, to put up in your own store, or to put up on the bulletin board at the grocery store. There are lots of organic ways to get the message out there, so let’s do what we can to spread the word!
H/T Small Deeds Done
Submitted by Kristan Smith-Park, Indivisible Acton Area
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Tell Congress to Defund Hate
Tell Congress to #DefundHate in the November funding bill.
There are only a few days left for Congress to fund the government before it could shut down, and the situation is still up in the air. Make sure to call your Representative and Senators to tell them not to give ICE or CBP any special increases in funding. Dial 1-844-778-3056 to be connected.
H/T Indivisible
Submitted by Kristan Smith-Park, Indivisible Acton Area
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Pack the State House for the Safe Communities Act
From an email sent by Jonathan Cohn, Issues Committee, Progressive Mass.
Every day, we hear horror stories about families being ripped apart at the border. But that's also happening right here in Massachusetts.
And we can do something about that: pass the Safe Communities Act (SCA). The SCA would make sure that we aren't deputizing state and local law enforcement to act as ICE agents; work they are not being paid to do anyway. We may not be able to stop every deportation, but we don't need to be complicit.
Last session, the SCA came closer than ever before to passing. This session, it's time to finish the job.
The hearing for the SCA is just nine days away: Monday, December 2 in Gardner Auditorium at the MA State House.
Have you RSVPd yet? If not, please do it now!
We need hundreds of advocates at the State House all day, to send a strong message that the Safe Communities Act has overwhelming support across our Commonwealth.
Getting to the State House can be difficult for our friends out in Central and Western Mass. Please consider making a contribution.
Don't want to wait until the 2nd to take action? Call or email your legislators, and urge everyone in your networks to do the same (even if you’ve done it already, a quick extra call always helps; find your legislators here.
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Indivisible MA lists the following events that may be of interest to members. Indivisible MA has not endorsed any of the mentioned candidates.
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Cambridge Event to Support Immigrant Families
Join Indivisible Mystic Valley and Jobs with Justice at an activist afternoon this Sunday to learn, listen and help Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders.
We will meet with members of the Massachusetts TPS Committee for a screening of The Last Dream. The Last Dream is a short documentary about American children ages 9-17 with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) whose parents are TPS holders. In collaboration with the Boston Experimental Theatre (BET) they created and performed a play to fight for their parents and to educate and inspire more people to support their cause and act in their defense.
Following the screening, members of the TPS Committee will do a brief presentation about TPS status, answer questions about the ongoing court case (Ramos v. Nielsen), the national legislative fight for HR 6, and the Dream and Promise Act.
The National TPS Alliance is organizing a nationwide community of 450,000 people from 13 countries to fight for a path to permanent residency for all TPS beneficiaries.
Help with Data Entry
Following the presentation, we will work with the Massachusetts TPS Committee on data entry to support their efforts. They need to capture data from thousands of supporters still on paper sign-in sheets and letters of support. Please bring a laptop.
Register here.
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/758690704596436/
Day Sunday, November 24
Time 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Place Workbar, 45 Prospect St., Cambridge
Submitted by Zayda Ortiz, Indivisible Mystic Valley
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Film Screening with Guest Speakers in Cambridge
Suppressed: The Fight to Vote is the new 38-minute documentary by Robert Greenwald. The film weaves together personal stories from voters across the state of Georgia to paint an undeniable picture of voter suppression in the 2018 midterm election where Stacey Abrams fought to become the first Black female governor in the U.S. The issues Georgians faced included polling place closures, voter purges, missing absentee ballots, extreme wait times, and a host of Voter ID issues.
After the film: Two guest speakers who are fighting voter suppression!
- Margaret Bourdeaux, sister of Carolyn Bourdeaux, 2018 candidate for Congress in Georgia's 7th Congressional District, where voter suppression led to her narrow defeat. Carolyn is running for the seat again in 2020.
- Quentin Palfrey, the 2018 Democratic nominee for Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor and Ohio Voter Protection Director for the 2008 Obama campaign. Quentin recently founded the Voter Protection Corps, a new lawyer-driven organization that is building a state-by-state playbook to combat voter suppression.
Extra Credit: Help us send postcards to voters who are at risk of being purged from the roles. Arrive at 4:00 PM for this activity.
Sponsored by Swing Left Greater Boston and TBZ Resists.
*Newsflash: We just boosted the registration limit to 100 so that more people could see this important film.
RSVP here.
Day Sunday, November 24
Time 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Place Workbar, 45 Prospect Street, Cambridge
Submitted by Susan Labandibar, Swing Left Greater Boston
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Join an Online Call to Get Ready to Register Voters in Florida
Swing Left Greater Boston is recruiting voter registration volunteers to go to Florida this winter. The Florida Democratic Party must add 200,000 additional Democrats to the rolls by October 2020, and they need our help.
Join the Field Team 6 training call this to receive a strategic overview of the state, where your time will be best spent, what hot spots Field Team 6 has identified, and for those who don't live in the state, how and when we plan to get there.
RSVP here.
Day Tuesday, November 26
Time 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Submitted by Susan Labandibar, Swing Left Greater Boston
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Support Voter Mobilization in Battleground States
You can support the Voter Mobilization Project (MVP) in Brookline on Tuesday, December 3. Join MVP Advisors Tony Mack and Tom Mendelsohn as they explain their goal to win in 2020 and build long-term infrastructure that lasts beyond the next election.
MVP funds organizations and local leaders that are organizing in their own communities year-round, not one-off campaigns that come and go each cycle. The Movement Engagement Fund supports 501(c)(3) organizations working in the key presidential battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona. Contributions are tax deductible and will be matched by a generous donor (up to $10,000)!
The groups in this fund have a track record of voter registration and mobilization that feeds on, and, in turn, feeds, the local community-building, advocacy, and issue organizing they do day-in and day-out, year-round. Find a full listing and descriptions of the current groups in this fund here.
RSVP here.
Day Tuesday, December 3
Time 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Place Home of David Klafter and Suzette Abbott, 63 Winthrop Road, Brookline
Submitted by Tom Hallock, Force Multiplier
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Warren Fundraiser in Cambridge
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Join Bees Deluxe, Boston's only acid blues band, for an after-work, let-your-hair down gathering in Inman Square. Free admission. Full bar, craft brews, food, and great music, all to benefit Elizabeth Warren's campaign.
RSVP here.
Day Friday, December 6
Time 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Place Wit's End Pub, 1248 Cambridge Street, Inman Square, Cambridge
Submitted by Carol Band, Team Warren
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NEWS FROM the BERKSHIRES to BOSTON
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Links to Local News From Around MA
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Get this free audio version of the whistleblower complaint.
This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West
By Christopher Ketcham
A hard-hitting look at the battle now raging over the fate of the public lands in the American West and a plea for the protection of these last wild places
The Mueller Report
Looking for some light summer reading or listening? Here are ways to read the Mueller Report so that you know exactly what is at stake.
Here are a couple of ways to get a quick overview:
- Read or listen to Mueller's Executive Summaries: the 10-page summary of Volume I, which deals with Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and its interactions with the Trump Campaign, and the 6-page summary of Volume II which focuses on the obstruction of justice portion of the Investigation.
- Watch Mueller's televised statement (<10 minutes) or read it here.
H/T Indivisible Acton Area newsletter
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
by Jane Mayer
One of the New York Times best books of the year.
Who are the immensely wealthy right-wing ideologues shaping the fate of America today? From the bestselling author of The Dark Side, an electrifying work of investigative journalism that uncovers the agenda of this powerful group.
In her new preface, Jane Mayer discusses the results of the most recent election and Donald Trump's victory, and how, despite much discussion to the contrary, this was a huge victory for the billionaires who have been pouring money in the American political system.
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America
by Nancy MacLean
“[A] vibrant intellectual history of the radical right . . . [MacLean] has dug deep into her material—not just Buchanan’s voluminous, unsorted papers, but other archives, too—and she has made powerful and disturbing use of it all. . . . The behind-the-scenes days and works of Buchanan show how much deliberation and persistence—in the face of formidable opposition—underlie the anti-governing politics ascendant today. What we think of as dysfunction is the result of years of strategic effort.” —The Atlantic
The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage
by Jared Yates Sexton
A first-hand account of the events that shaped the 2016 presidential election and the cultural forces that powered Donald Trump into the White House.
“Sexton grapples with the Trump campaign from the perspective of the crowds reveling in the candidate’s presence and message. It is a useful vantage point given the increasingly blatant bigotry in the months since the election.” —The Washington Post
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
by Eric Klinenberg
Eric Klinenberg is a professor of sociology and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. In this book, he focuses on how social infrastructure can help fight inequality, polarization, and the decline of civic life. "In Palaces for the People, Eric Klinenberg offers a new perspective on what people and places have to do with each other, by looking at the social side of our physical spaces." —New York Times
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
by Kurt Andersen
“The single most important explanation, and the fullest explanation, of how Donald Trump became president of the United States . . . nothing less than the most important book that I have read this year.”—Lawrence O’Donnell
How Democracies Die
by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
Both authors are Professors of Government at Harvard University. Based on years of research into the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, the authors present a deep understanding of how and why democracies die; an alarming analysis of how democracy is being subverted today in the US and beyond; and a guide for maintaining and repairing a threatened democracy, for governments, political parties and individuals.
Fascism: A Warning
by Madeleine Albright
A personal and urgent examination of fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world, written by one of America’s most admired public servants, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state. #1 New York Times Bestseller.
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Running for Office? Let Us Know!
While Indivisible-MA may not do any candidate endorsements this year, we can let other Indivisibles across the state know about your race. Use this form to tell us about your candidacy. Thank you for stepping up!
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Submit Items to the Mass Action Newsletter
Submit any events you would like to place in our online calendar and this newsletter using the this form.
Or use this form to tell us about your recent activities or current issues.
Please include a picture of your fellow activists if you have one.
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Keep in Touch - Join Us on Slack
MA Indivisibles have a place to chat and share events and ideas on Slack. If you're not familiar with Slack, don't worry, it's easy to use. Ask your group leader to send you an invitation.
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Give a Little to Keep Indivisible Growing
Both the national organization and local groups are building tools and infrastructure so that we can coordinate to have a stronger voice here in Massachusetts as well as nationally as we carry this work forward to the 2020 elections. This all takes a bit of cash. Please donate to the national organization or to your local group to help us continue this work.
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Our Mission
The Indivisible mission is to fuel a progressive grassroots network of local groups to resist the Trump Agenda.
Indivisible Massachusetts is a consortium of leaders from more than 250 local Massachusetts Indivisible groups, working together to bring our groups together for events and to leverage our numbers to make our efforts more effective.
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