ORGANIZING NOTES
September 23, 2025
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WE RESTORED THE PEOPLE’S PLATFORM!
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Dear ORMA Members,
WE DID IT!
On September 13, 2025, Massachusetts Democratic Party delegates won a historic victory. Delegates voted to substitute the entire hollow 2025 draft with the bold 2021 Platform, likely the largest amendment in state party history. This restored one of (if not the) most progressive platforms in the country and then strengthened it further with new amendments.
This platform gives us a clear message. It tells everybody: this is what we represent, this is what we stand for. And this platform is only the first step. Now we have to hold our elected Democrats accountable to it.
You can watch Alex Crowley’s floor speech from the convention here: Restore the People’s Platform Speech – Alex Crowley
The road to this victory was not easy. In just two weeks, over a thousand signatures were collected in essentially two hours. Volunteers attended virtual calls, printed copies, made graphics, sent emails, created websites, carried clipboards, whipped votes, and reached out to DTCs and DWCs. Delegates stood together in solidarity to defend decades of grassroots work.
Once restored, the platform was strengthened further. Delegates added stronger commitments on collective bargaining rights for statehouse employees, climate action, youth empowerment, and LGBTQ+ rights.
This was more than a win on the convention floor. It was proof that when Democrats organize together, we can achieve what many thought impossible. It was also about protecting our work in 2017, when grassroots Democrats pushed major planks into the party’s platform. Transparency and accountability matter, and grassroots energy has the power to shape the future of the Democratic Party.
In solidarity with Our Revolution MA, Mass-Care, Progressive Mass, Massachusetts Progressive Action Organizing Committee, Massachusetts Peace Action, Voter Choice MA, the Massachusetts State House Union, Massachusetts Bay State Stonewall Democrats, Progressive Democrats of MA, the other amendments, several Democratic Town and Ward Committees, and more, we built a coalition that made history.
We showed that democracy is messy and challenging, yet it is also inspiring and powerful. This victory belongs to every volunteer, delegate, and ally who believed in the People’s Platform.
Thank you for being part of this movement.
This is Our Revolution!
WHEN WE ORGANIZE, WE WIN!
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Volunteers Saved the People’s Platform at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention
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We did it — and we couldn’t have done it without YOU.
At the 2025 Massachusetts Democratic Convention, grassroots energy carried the day. Delegates, activists, and community members came together to protect the People’s Platform — and the result was a powerful win that showed what people power can accomplish.
How We Mobilized
From the start, this was a collective effort. We pulled together spreadsheets of delegate contacts, merged data, and launched a full-on outreach blitz. Two letters went out to delegates. Chairs picked up the phone to call their members. Volunteers texted as many people as possible.
The outrage over the 2025 Platform fueled an unstoppable wave of action. More than 200 volunteers raised their hands to defend the People’s Platform — delegates and advocates working side by side. That outrage turned into organization. And that organization turned into victory.
Boots on the Ground Made the Difference
Campaigns are won when people step up. At the convention, volunteers:
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Collected signatures, made calls, and supported delegates every step of the way.
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Served as Whips, helping their districts navigate platform votes and motions.
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Took on specialized roles — drafting amendments, analyzing delegate data, responding to questions, and making sure no detail was overlooked.
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Designed a website, built a survey, and crafted flyers for every seat at the convention.
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Sent texts and emails to all 3,800 delegates.
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Shaped overall strategy, ensured compliance with the rules, and developed backup plans to keep us on track.
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Got the message out with press releases that spread our fight beyond the convention hall.
Every single task mattered.
Every single volunteer mattered.
Together, we built the kind of campaign that cannot be ignored.
The Work Continues
This win is proof: when we organize, we win. But this is just the beginning. We are committed to keeping Massachusetts moving forward — and we need YOU with us.
If you’re ready to be part of the movement, jump in. You didn’t need to be at the convention to make an impact. We welcome everyone who’s ready to fight for a better future.
Fill out the form below to get involved. Let’s keep building. Let’s keep winning.
.https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf1z0s7zEEob6pEs3LLvZu8NZZMVhfbrQMrsoGzAVTv5BNMEg/viewform?usp=send_form
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Ravi Simon, Delegate from Sudbury
State House Staffer and organizer with the Massachusetts State House Employee Union Drive
For years, legislative staffers have sought the right to unionize on Beacon Hill. Most of us struggle to make ends meet: 7 in 10 worry about finances, and 8 in 10 say they can’t support dependents on their salary. High turnover leaves legislators, and their constituents, less well served. Most of us love our work, but in order to stay in our positions, we need to be able to sit down at the table with our employer and discuss sustainable pay and working conditions.
State law currently bars legislative staff from collective bargaining. Bills filed by the late Rep. Carol Doherty and Sen. John Keenan would change that, but they have yet to move forward. So when the draft Party Platform cut even the modest 2021 language promising “a legislative culture…that provides staff with the compensation and support they deserve,” we knew we had to act. If we were going to restore the 2021 platform, it should go further and say clearly: “collective bargaining rights.”
On Friday, after work, legislative staffers arrived in Springfield with clipboards in an old Huggies diaper box, a stack of signature sheets, and sheer determination. We collected until late at night. Saturday morning, with help from our organizer IBEW 2222 and a cadre of supporters, we fanned out again. Many delegates told us they were surprised that State House employees lacked the right to unionize.
After several hours of intensive effort, we only started to count how many we had around 10 minutes before the deadline. The tension was real: 480…490…500. We’d made it.
When the Chair announced which amendments were in compliance with Convention rules, I suddenly found myself the first at the mic. The State House Union amendment was up first. Confused, I pushed back at the mic on the order of amendments, thinking the Chair had placed the Amendment to restore the 2021 Platform last.
As the Chair clarified that the 2021 Platform Amendment was not coming to the floor at all, you could feel the hall shift. Many delegates realized, as I did at that moment, what was happening.
When the State House Union amendment came up for a vote, it passed overwhelmingly. And later, the Chair worked with us to ensure a friendly further amendment to the 2021 Platform Amendment, ensuring the language would be in the 2025 Platform.
I left Springfield hopeful. That weekend showed the power of organizing, not only to defend the people’s platform, but to build on it.
Interested in helping the State House Union Drive? We need your help! Learn more here.
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Progressive Democrats Show They Have More Strength Than They Realized
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There were 2142 delegates at the Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention on September 21. 1000 of them signed the motion to restore the progressive 2021 platform. On a voice vote, support for the 2021 platform was the majority by at least 2 to 1. What does this tell us about the views of Massachusetts Democrats?
A comprehensive picture of the Massachusetts electorate can be estimated from recent presidential votes.
Republican Democratic
2024 1.23 m . 2.072 m
2020 1.17 2.38
2016 1.09 2.00
That is, roughly, 67% of the votes were cast for Democrats, and 33% were cast for Republicans. In the two presidential primaries in which there was a competition for the Democratic nomination, the leading conservative Democrat in 2016, Clinton, won 50% of the vote, and in 2020, Biden won 41%. Thus, in 2016, the progressive Sanders got 49% of the vote, and in 2020, the two progressives, Sanders and Warren, got a total of 48% of the primary vote.
The point is that two-thirds of the electorate voted for Democrats, and half of them voted for progressives. The argument is that in the Commonwealth, while the largest group of voters is mainstream Democrats, the second largest is progressives who support progressive Democrats. We saw at the convention that when progressive Democrats unite and organize, they win. This doesn’t have to be a solitary victory; we can make it a first step on the path to the future.
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MIRA Volunteer Trainings
The next MIRA volunteer training “Learning for Action” will be held on both Wednesday, September 24 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm and on Friday, September 26 from 11:00 am to 12 noon.
The special guest is MIRA’s Access and Resources Specialist, Catherine Ramirez Mejia, who will present “Back to School Educational Rights and Resources for Immigrants.”
Register here for Wednesday’s session and here for the Friday session.
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Boston Immigration Accompanimment Network
Sunday, November 23rd
4-5:30pm on zoom
both offered in English
BJAN phone lines have been overwhelmed. They need more volunteers who can offer a few hours per week to help answer phone and text messages. Orientation is needed before folks can volunteer. Please complete the registration form at this link: https://form.jotform.com/252358517564363
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The Protect Education Equity Coalition, PEEL, a state-wide network of partners aiming to defend access to education for ALL students, with a focus on immigrant and disabled students, is holding a Protect Education Equity Law Overview on September 25 at 1 pm on Zoom. Please register here for the Zoom link
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The organization, Win Without War is buying billboards in areas where the Trump administration has deployed the national guard and outside major military bases that direct service members to NotWhatYouSignedUpFor.org, which connects them to outside organizations that provide advice on refusing illegal orders and obtaining conscientious objector status.
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Trump Just Suffered His First Loss on Offshore Wind!
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A judge has lifted the administration’s stop-work order against Revolution Wind.
A federal court has lifted the Trump administration’s order to halt construction on the Revolution Wind farm off the coast of New England. The decision marks the renewables industry’s first major legal victory against a federal war on offshore wind.
The Interior Department ordered Orsted — the Danish company developing Revolution Wind — to halt construction of Revolution Wind on August 22, asserting in a one-page letter that it was “seeking to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas.”
In a two-page ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found that Orsted would presumably win its legal challenge against the stop work order, and that the company is “likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction,” which led him to lift the dictate from the Trump administration.
-Dan Franklin
Read More Here
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Victory for Environmental Protection
Court Upholds Grassroots Group’s Case Against A. D. Makepeace Company in Sand Mining Case
September 22, 2025, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
In a landmark decision on September 19, 2025, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled unanimously in favor of a grassroots group’s lawsuit to protect the environment from the devastating impacts of sand mining by A. D. Makepeace Co. of Wareham and its subsidiary, Read Custom Soils, LLC, in Carver. The Court vacated the lower court’s dismissal of the case and allows it to go to trial. Read on
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If you would like to work with ORMA Members on
- Climate Change
- Housing Justice
- Medicare for All
- Communications/InformationTechnology
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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 Saturday, October 4th
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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