ORGANIZING NOTES
March 18, 2025
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MAKE POLLUTERS PAY LAUNCHES 2025 CAMPAIGN WITH SUPPORTERS AND ALLIES
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“This campaign takes on the oligarchs who are
burning our future for a quick buck”
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Over a hundred community members, advocates, and legislators gathered Monday (March 16) at the Arlington Street Church to launch the Make Polluters Pay campaign. The campaign seeks to pass H.1014/S.588, “An Act to Create a Climate Superfund”. The bill (more info here), introduced by Sen. Jamie Eldridge, Rep. Steve Owens, and Rep. Jack Lewis, would require the biggest carbon emitters to contribute to a Superfund to pay for climate-related damages in Massachusetts.
Participants included representatives of the 20 organizations supporting the bill, including faith, youth, labor, public health, environmental justice, and climate groups.
“The air in our community is heavy with injustice. Bad air quality, heat waves, and asthma are killing us,” said Tristan Thomas, Director of Policy with Alternatives for Community and the Environment. “We are proud to support this bill and provide long term funding to the threats facing Roxbury and environmental justice communities across the state.”
“This campaign directly takes on the oligarchs that are burning our future for a quick buck,” said Dan Zackin, Legislative Manager with 350 Mass. “We are going to pass a bill right here in Massachusetts to establish the climate superfund, and make the biggest oil and gas companies pay billions of dollars over the next two and half decades. They lied for years; blocked solutions, and in the last year alone, just 36 of them were responsible for HALF of our global fossil fuel emissions. The money that they pay into the Climate Superfund will help our communities thrive in the face of the now-inevitable impacts of climate change.”
The MPP petition is live on Action Network!!! Sign here: https://bit.ly/MAPollutersPayPetition and please distribute to your networks! We’ve started with a modest goal of 5K signatures — lets see if we can kick it up to 10k in the next couple of months!
Write a letter to your Senator and Representative asking them to co-sponsor the legislation. Please click HERE to send your legislator a letter asking them to cosponsor the Make Polluters Pay bill.
To learn more and get involved contact: Daniel Zackin, 350 Mass, dan@betterfutureproject.org
To learn more about ORMA’s Climate Crisis Working Group contact climate@ourrevolutionma.com
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Support the Community Land and Water Coalition,
Stop Strip Mining in SE Mass!
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Stop the Destruction of Native American History HINT: This Struggle Isn’t About Cranberries!
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Southeastern Massachusetts is ground zero in the sand wars playing out across the globe. A world-wide shortage of “silica sand” has a network of mining interests vying for supplies and markets according to reports from the United Nations Environment Program.
This region of Massachusetts has ever-dwindling supplies that are being strip mined at a frantic pace. There are no environmental studies. This mining industry is unregulated. The trees, sand and gravel are critical to protection of the public’s drinking water aquifer but it is being permanently removed and hauled away with no oversight and monitoring.
This mining strips the forests and ancient topsoils, and leaves the land in a condition where nothing can grow again in a human timeframe. Gone is the biodiversity, plants, animal habitat and ancient Native American archeological sites that make this region unique. Residents suffer from emissions of toxic silica sand, noise, dust and vibration.
CLWC has asked the Governor for assistance, now we need your voice – Sign the Petition here
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Where Did 3.5% Come From?
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The recurrent refrain in resistance strategy sessions, protest planning and in political organizing meetings is “….build the opposition to 3.5% of the population” willing to oppose Trump and MAGA in the streets.
Where did this number come from? Did someone make it up?
Actually, the origin of this number is based on analytical research done by a political science professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, Erica Chenoweth who says, “The best study on the subject in my opinion suggests that in the long term, institutions really can’t save us; that civil society and mass mobilization are a more potent check on a backsliding democracy in the long term than relying on institutional checks and balances alone.”
Studies over the last 40 years show that while momentum, organization, strategic leadership, and existing institutions are critical in overthrowing an autocracy, mobilizing 3.5% of the population to consistently engage in oppositional actions is often a precursor to regime change. Professor Chenoweth’s 2014 Ted Talk.
Read more about her relevant research.
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This week is Sunshine Week (timed with the upcoming equinox). Sunshine Week is a nonpartisan collaboration among groups in the journalism, civic, education, government and private sectors that shines a light on the importance of public records and open government.
(1) Sign-on Letter: Scotia Hille from Act on Mass drafted a sign-on letter calling on State House Leadership and Conferees to adopt a robust package of transparency reforms as soon as possible so that joint committees can get to work. We were the last state house in the country to get committee assignments, and those committees will likely put off hearings until they know the rules governing them. We will be accepting signers through next Friday, March 28.
(2) Event: We are planning a “Live Every Week Like Sunshine Week” campaign update next Tuesday at 6 pm. If you would like to join the event as a co-sponsor, let us know!
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On April 5, national and local organizations are comming together across the country for Hands Off!, a national mass activation in defiance of the Trump-Musk billionaire takeover and the Republican assault on our freedoms and out communities. Hands Off! is an all-in moment for pro-democracy, pro-worker movement – a demand, a warning, and a rallying cry that responds to the primary reasons for our mobilization. Sign Up HERE
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Mass-Care’s Medicare for All Lobby Day, is set for April 1, 2025 from 10 AM – 3 PM! We will be on Beacon Hill and rallying to let our legislators know that Massachusetts health care is failing and we need Medicare for All SD2341 and HD1228 to fix it!
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As part of the Vocational Education Justice Coalition (VEJC), PDM has long advocated for a fairer admissions process at MA vocational/technical schools, which have annual waiting lists of more than 8000 applicants. This month’s virtual forum will focus on who is chosen to attend these schools that launch hundreds of careers in well-paying jobs for their graduates
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Vocational Education in MA: Who Needs it Most?
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PDM and the Vocational Education Justice Coalition (VEJC), in which PDM is an active
participant, have long advocated for a fairer admissions process at MA
vocational/technical schools–whose value and excellence are demonstrated by
the annual waiting lists of more than 8,000 applicants—to offer their educational
opportunities to students who would benefit the most.
This month’s virtual forum will focus on who is chosen to attend these schools that
launch hundreds of careers in well-paying jobs for their graduates. Our expert panelists
will discuss the importance of vocational schools to students who can benefit from its
hands-on pedagogy and to the state’s economy as a pipeline into critical in-demand
“middle-skills” careers. They will review the proposed changes to the admissions policy
being considered, the experience of being a MA vocational student, and the
discriminatory consequences of the current selective admissions policies.
This conversation is especially relevant since the Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education (DESE) is in the process of changing admissions standards and
invites comments on their proposed regulations. Suggestions for anyone who would like
to submit a comment will be provided. Our panelists include Dalida Rocha, who is the
ED of Neighbor to Neighbor MA, a current member of the Board that oversees
DESE, and herself a graduate of a MA vocational school, and Mirian Albert, an attorney
with Lawyers for Civil Rights and part of the VEJC.
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Finding Resistance Activities!
Would you find a calendar of local and statewide events useful?
Let us know HERE
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Boston’s International Women’s Day Rally and Tesla Protest Draws Massive Crowd
On March 8, 2025, the Boston’s International Women’s Day rally drew over 2,000 participants advocating for women’s rights and opposing policies associated with President Donald Trump. The event commenced at the State House steps, proceeded to Boston Common, and culminated on Boylston Street, temporarily halting traffic between Massachusetts Avenue and Charles Street. A notable moment occurred when demonstrators staged a flash mob dance outside the Tesla showroom in Back Bay, protesting Elon Musk’s affiliation with Trump.
This action underscores a progressive emphasis on holding influential figures accountable for their political associations. The flash mob not only showcased unity but also highlighted the community’s commitment to reproductive justice and broader social issues.
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Update on Bernie Sanders’ Fight the Oligarchy Tour
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Senator Bernie Sanders’ Fight the Oligarchy tour continues to draw large crowds as he campaigns against wealth inequality and corporate influence in politics. Since launching in Omaha, Nebraska, and Iowa City, Iowa, Sanders has traveled to key battleground states, including Wisconsin and Michigan, where he spoke at packed town halls in Kenosha, Altoona, and Warren.
The tour’s momentum suggests a growing appetite for progressive policies, even as Sanders has ruled out another presidential run. With each stop, he emphasizes the need for a political revolution to curb billionaire influence. As the tour progresses, turnout continues to grow, signaling strong grassroots enthusiasm for his movement.
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If you would like to work with ORMA Members on
- Climate Change
- Community-Based Alternative Emergency Response Teams
- Ranked-Choice Voting
- Housing For All
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ORMA depends on your support to continue Bernie’s Political Revolution to create a society, a politics, and an economy that works for everyone, not just billionaires, corporations and the political elite.
If you value Organizing Notes and its twice a month distribution schedule, please make a donation to ensure its continued existence.
Invest in Change Now!
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Please send requests for action items, articles or upcoming events
for the next Organizing Notes to
beccobrien.orma@gmail.com by Thursday, March 27th
We’d love to have you send us your favorite pictures of Bernie here in MA!
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Campaigns End, Movements Endure
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