[2024-12-24] Organizing Notes 48: Happy Holidays, Statewide Listening Tour, Arise and Resist and Movies!

ORGANIZING NOTES

December 24, 2024

        When We Organize We Win

The Battle for the Soul of Democracy

In the wake of the national defeat of the Democrats, party leaders are engaged in re-evaluation to determine forward direction. We have a rare opportunity to weigh in. Please sign up for the State Democratic Party Chairman, Steve Kerrigan’s, “Listening Tour” and tell him we cannot rest on our laurels as a “Deep Blue State.”  Space is limited so sign up now. Even in Massachusetts, we continue to experience a multi-year decline in Democratic voter registration. And like the rest of the country, Democratic vote totals declined in Massachusetts as many working-class voters stayed home and some voted for Trump. 

If Democrats want to regain the trust of voters they have lost and strengthen the loyalty of their base, then we must show how state and national government can and will work to improve their everyday lives by:

     *(see below for a link to coordinate with others to maximize effectiveness) 

• Raising the minimum wage to a living wage so that no one has to work two or more jobs to make ends meet;

• Ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality, free public education from pre-K to college;

• Investing in our public transportation system so that it is the world-class system we deserve; 

• Investing in innovative approaches to our housing crisis like social housing and allowing communities to stabilize rents; 

• Finally, passing Medicare for All (which has been languishing in the Legislature for decades despite repeated majority support within the Democratic Party and in dozens of local non-binding ballots; 

• Accelerating our transition from fossil fuels toward a green energy economy.

• Insisting in transparency in governance and recorded roll call votes

•  Making the party platform a roadmap for progress rather than a list of aspirations that we hope someday will happen.

Let Massachusetts redefine what being a Blue State means. Today, 60% of the American people are living paycheck to paycheck. Weekly wages are less now than fifty years ago. We can make people’s lives better. Massachusetts is the size of many Western European countries. Like them, we can provide healthcare for everyone, universal childcare, free college education, and many other necessary conditions for security and well-being. 

In the 1930s, the Democratic Party, under the leadership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the model of a pro-working class government.  We can do it again.

*To coordinate with other Listening Tour testifiers fill out this form 

Bylaws Amendments Pass By Overwhelming Majority

With 95% ‘yes’ votes, ORMA members overwhelmingly approved a bylaw change that increased the number of Representatives Unaffiliated Members elected to the ORMA Representative Council (RC). The expansion will take two years and will increase the number from two to nine, with each Representative serving for two years.  Instead of two Representatives for the entire state, there will be two for each Congressional District.  Elections will take place in Congressional Districts 1,2,3,6 and 7 within a few weeks. The remaining Districts will have elections in one year when the current Unaffiliated Representative’s terms end.  The RC encourages unaffiliated ORMA members in any of the districts holding elections this year to consider running for the RC or encouraging others to do so now. 

Homophobia or Working Class Rage?

Following the Democratic loss to Trump in November, several Party leaders advocated a move to the right to win back working-class voters.   Seth Moulton, the Congressman representing CD6 in Massachusetts, singled out the Party position on transgender issues as contributing to the defeat, “Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” Mr. Moulton said. “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

In the last weeks of the campaign, the GOP repeatedly ran an ad on sports programs that attacked Harris for supporting transgender rights. The take-home message was “Kamala is for they/them; Trump is for you.”  The success of that campaign suggests that most people, particularly working-class people have a deep-seated opposition to transgender rights If so, this could justify the Democratic Party moving to the right.

Alternatively, the slogan “Kamala is for they/them; Trump is for you” could mean that working-class people are enraged that the Party neglects economic issues while devoting itself to the concerns of a small fraction of the population.

We looked for evidence about the extent of opposition to transgender rights amongst Massachusetts voters.  We found it in the results of a 2018 state-wide ballot initiative on a proposal to write transgender rights into law.  That measure passed 66% to 31%. This showed that support for transgender rights was very popular in the state just six years ago.  As for the working class, many of the state’s largest unions endorsed the proposal.

There are three recent films, including one documentary, on transitioning.  Find details and reviews below.

Crossing From Georgia. a family story with a 97%+ critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Available on Amazon Prime and Fandango

Will and Harper   A documentary about Saturday Night Live comedian Will Ferrel and a long-time friend who transitions in his late 50s. 99%+ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On Netflix

Emilia Perez What happens when Mexico’s leading drug lord decides to transition? 76%+ on Rotten tomatoes. On Netflix

North Adams Chops Notch Forest Plan

For almost six months since the first iBerkshires article first alerted us to the awful logging plan: The Notch Forest logging plan has been stopped! Thank you all so much for helping the Friends of the Notch Forest in making this happen. The two calls-to-action had a HUGE impact, and the Mass Audubon call-to-action will have a lasting impact for the state.  Read about it HERE

      If you would like to work with ORMA Members on

• Climate Change
• Community-Based Alternative Emergency Response Teams
• Ranked-Choice Voting
• Housing For All       

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.

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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, January 7th

We’d love to have you send us your favorite pictures of Bernie here in MA!

Campaigns End, Movements Endure