For those needing vaccinations, see new COVID links at the bottom.
From CNY Solidarity Coalition:
Next Meeting: Sunday, April 11, 2021, 3-4 PM. Zoom Link to come.
Upcoming Meetings:, 4/25, 5/9, 5/23. 6/6, 6/20. Committee meetings will take place, after announcements, at our second meeting each month: 3/21, 4/25, 5/23, 6/20
Invest in Our New York
Updates: The budget is due April 1. There is no way to predict if it will be done.
A big change this year has been in the composition of the Senate, with people like Rachel May making a real difference in the willingness to push these bills. (Please thank her!)
We need Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to do the same.
Take 5 minutes to CALL AND EMAIL his office RIGHT NOW!
Ask that he hold the line in negotiations with Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Carl E. Heastie, Speaker of the Assembly speaker@nyassemby.gov – 518-455-3791
Negotiations are taking place between the Senate Majority Leader, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Governor. (More about the budget process here.)
Here’s a summary of the proposed increases in the one-house budgets: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/rochester/ny-state-of-politics/2021/03/15/state-lawmakers-call-for-new-taxes-on-rich-new-yorkers
Please notice that none of these increases affect middle and working class families – only the very wealthiest, who have seen repeated tax cuts at the federal and state level over the last forty years!
Actions:
Please call and email these people NOW and demand that the tax increases on the wealthiest New Yorkers go into the final budget!
· Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Senate Majority Leader scousins@nysenate.gov 518 -455-2715
· Carl E. Heastie, Speaker of the Assembly speaker@nyassemby.gov – 518-455-3791
· Governor Andrew Cuomo – https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form – 518-474-8390
Also, please thank Assembly Member Pam Hunter and Senator Rachel May for their support!
Next IONY Planning Team Meeting: April 25, at the CNY Solidarity Zoom Meeting at 3 PM. Contact Peter (pmccar1100@gmail.com) or Keller (Keller.shelton@gmail.com)
Agenda: The long term struggle to enact fair taxes in New York
To Learn more:
o https://www.cnysolidarity.org/2021/02/02/invest-in-our-new-york/
o http://investinourny.org (scroll down past the petition to the slideshow, or keep going to the Act Summary)
Articles of the Week:
Coverage of our Invest in Our NY Rally on March 20:
War on the World: Industrialized Militaries are a Bigger Part of the Climate Emergency Than You Know
by Murtaza Hussain of The Intercept Read it here
A really interesting article with a broad perspective. He frames the piece with words from the Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), who recognized that “the same avarice and contempt that led us to war against the earth would also lead to catastrophic, endless wars among peoples.” Hussain speaks of not only the climate implications of militarism, but of it’s toxic effect on the environment as a whole. In other words, “we have been killing, dying, and polluting to ensure our access to the same toxic resource most responsible for our climate disruption.”
The filibuster’s racist history, explained. Read it on Vox
“It’s been a tool used overwhelmingly by racists,” says Kevin Kruse, a historian of race and American politics at Princeton University.
Democrats Prepare To Push Biden For A $10 Trillion, Decade-Long Green Infrastructure Plan.On HuffPost
As Republicans seek to shrink the White House’s $3 trillion package, some powerful Democrats are laying out an even more ambitious vision.
“The bill is light on specifics but sets out a general framework for directing at least $1 trillion per year over the next decade to rapidly weaning the United States off fossil fuels and replacing corroded water systems, increasing benefits for home care workers, remediating toxic industrial sites, and propping up new, localized food producers, among other things.”
Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century in The New Yorker
On a leaked conference call, leaders of dark-money groups and an aide to Mitch McConnell expressed frustration with the popularity of the legislation—even among Republican voters.
EVENTS/ACTIONS CALENDAR:
The Onondaga County Legislature Democratic Caucus unveiled their CNY Rising Recovery Plan for federal funds we are receiving from President Biden’s American Rescue Act. Read it Here, then call your legislator. If you live in the city of Syracuse, you still are represented by a County Legislator. Figure out who that is, between the Members Here and the Maps Here.
The Syracuse Center for Peace and Social Justice is accepting applications for their Board of Directors. The Center is a non-profit organization that houses Syracuse Peace Council, Workers Center of CNY, Public Citizen, Black Lives Matter, AGREE, Unchained, and NY Immigration Coalition. We also offer low cost meeting spaces for progressive organizations. We are a fully volunteer board seeking to expand our skill base. Applications can be found on our website at syracusecenter.org.
Syracuse City Redistricting Commission – apply by 3/31
This year, our city will make history with a redistricting effort that will be one of the first in the nation to have citizen led, independent, bipartisan maps. Thus far, overwhelmingly, the applicants have been white, male, and from Districts 3 and 5. UPDATE: This has changed a bit in the last week, but not enough! We need a redistricting board that represents our city. We really need women, people of color, and folks from Districts 1,2, and 4 to get involved! Please share this, and if you can make the committee more representative of the city, apply at the City Auditor’s page on the city’s website: http://www.syrgov.net/City_Auditor.aspx
You can also view a current list of applicants on that site.
Article explaining it: https://www.syracuse.com/news/2021/01/syracuse-lawmakers-unanimously-adopt-independent-redistricting-plan.html Wh0 is eligible? “regular voters who have lived in the city at least five years. People with ties to city government, like major political donors, city employees or elected officials, cannot serve.”
Immigration Reform should be a vehicle for human rights, not a cover for labor exploitation. Please join Farm Workers to oppose the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would create a long, complicated path to permanent status, expand the exploitation of immigrant labor, impose a mandatory e-verify system and require background checks that could exclude workers from eligibility for the smallest of crimes. We want a just immigration reform, legislation that continues to criminalize and exploit immigrants is not reform…it’s just more of the same. #FarmworkersDeserveBetter. Sign and share the petition.
Bi-Weekly General Meeting of Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network
TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2021 AT 5:30 PM EDT – 7:30 PM EDT
Join SIRDN for our next bi-weekly general meeting! We will be providing updates on our campaigns and the activities of our working groups, including solidarity fundraising, ongoing legislative advocacy campaigns, and other efforts to support the work of the Workers Center of Central New York. New members are always welcome. Meetings conducted in English and Spanish w/ interpretation.
For Zoom information, please send us a Facebook message or email us at sirdn315@gmail.com.
Socialist Feminists Fighting for Healthcare for All
On March 31st at 7:30pm
Event by Syracuse DSA
Join the Syracuse DSA Socialist Feminist Working Group for a virtual panel discussion on the fight for universal, single-payer healthcare featuring local socialist feminist organizers Samantha Sorensen, Jasmine Collins, and Cait Ward. We’ll discuss why winning the right to healthcare is a priority for Democratic Socialists and why this is a critical struggle for socialist feminists. Topics will include anti-racism, reproductive freedom, personal testimonies, and how to join the fight to win the NY Health Act and and national Medicare For All.
We’ll also share plans for the statewide DSA Week of Action to #PassNYHealth from April 12 to April 18.
April Events from our friends at Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE) and HeatSmart
We’re busy planning a whole series of informative online events, and sharing a few others that have caught our eye. Learn the basics, talk to people who have already taken steps to improve their homes with better insulation and heat pumps, and think big -heat pumps are the future for schools and large buildings too! These are just a few… visit our website for more events coming up in April.
In current events… the Heat Pump Demonstration Study still has funding, so if you or your neighbors qualify, there is still time to connect with this opportunity for low or no-cost insulation and heating and cooling upgrades to efficient heat pumps. As always, I am happy to help answer questions!
War and Global Warming: We Can’t Save the Planet Without Taking on the Pentagon
Sponsored by the Beyond War and Militarism Committee of SPC and the CNY Solidarity Coalition Monday, April 5 from 7-8:30 pm
Zoom presentation and conversation with environmentalist/peace activist Pat Hynes
Register here. Share the Facebook event. The talk will also be livestreamed on Facebook.
Pat Hynes is the director of the Traprock Center for Peace & Justice, a retired environmental engineer, and professor of environmental health. Pat speaks passionately about the intricate connections between militarism and climate change, and the apocalyptic role the Pentagon is taking in climate crises worldwide. Please join us in discussing important topic that is sometimes left out of climate conversations and activism.
Climate change is inevitably an issue of peace because oil is indispensable for war and militarism, the lifeblood coursing through our foreign policy veins. Since U.S. policy is based on maintaining superpower status through force, access to oil is a paramount goal to the U.S. Department of Defense. Ironically, militarism as the means to more oil is also the most oil-intensive activity on the planet, with the Pentagon being the single-largest contributor of climate change emissions in the world.
In 2016, as in previous years, an estimated $1 trillion was allocated to military defense, militarized national security, veterans, and debt from recent wars – while in that same year, only a few billion dollars were allocated to research and development for energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies (that’s a little over one one-thousandth as much).
Parole Justice Town Hall
April 15th at 6pm
RSVP on Zoom here: bit.ly/syracuse-parole-justice
Join Center for Community Alternatives, ACTS and NAN. Hear from formerly incarcerated people and families about the urgent need for parole justice in New York State. Together, we can end mass incarceration and bring our elders and loved ones home.
Policed Bodies: A Community Conversation on Race, Disability, and Justice
| April 16-17, 2021Schedule and registration: http://ow.ly/za7s50DTtO3The Lender Center for Social Justice #CDI and School of Education, Syracuse Universityfor #PolicedBodies, a two-day conversation on issues of race, disability, and justice in the policing of bodies in communities and schools including a Saturday morning session focused on community engagement and next steps in the Syracuse area and beyond. |
“Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights”
April 16, 2021 | 4 PM EST
Gretchen Sorin, Distinguished Professor at SUNY Oneonta
Ms. Sorin will discuss her new book, “Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights.” The book was also the basis of a major PBS documentary, uncovering the history of how the automobile profoundly changed African American life.
Campbell Institute, Maxwell School, Syracuse University
17th Annual Symposium on Energy in the 21st Century
April 16, 2021 – 8:00am – 1:00pm
To REGISTER or for more information go to: Www.energy21symposium.org
*Zero Emission Transportation*
*State, National & Global Initiatives*
*Environmental Equity in Transportation*
Speakers include:
DANIEL SPERLING, Ph.D.: National Center for Sustainable Transportation, UC Davis California Initiatives as a Model; ZEV mandate
MATTEO MURATORI, Ph.D; NREL, USDOE: Electric Vehicles in the U.S. – Present and future
ADAM RUDE; NYSERDA: NYS Collaboration Public/Private; Transportation
JOSHUA SPERLING, Ph.D; NREL: Environmental Justice & Sustainable Urban Living
TARA KAPILA; National Grid: The Grid’s role in EV’s and Renewables in Grid
JARED SNYDER, DEC: CLCPA; Clean Transportation Policy Initiatives
Update on Federal Initiatives
| “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present”April 30, 2021 | 4 PM EST Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor of History & Italian Studies at New York UniversityMs. Ben-Ghiat writes frequently for CNN and other news and analysis sites on fascism, authoritarian leaders, propaganda, and threats to democracy around the world and how to counter them. She will discuss her new book, “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present,” the first study to place President Donald Trump in the context of a century of authoritarian leaders that use a playbook of corruption, violence, propaganda, and machismo to stay in power.https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/stateofdemocracy/ |
DEADLOCKED AND LOADED: Disarming America Curated by Karen M. Gutfreund
February 11 to April 18, 2021
ArtRage Gallery – https://artragegallery.org Make your reservation for in-person gallery viewing HERE!
The need to address gun violence is more urgent than ever and in response, artists from across the United States have used their artistic voices to address issues related to our culture of gun violence particularly how it affects women, children and marginalized peoples.
Deadlocked and Loaded: Disarming America is a “locked and loaded” conversation through art, showcasing art in all media that addresses the culture of violence, systemic racism, police brutality and gun issues in the United States—particularly in how it affects women and children with lasting impacts.
This exhibition is presented in collaboration with Community Folk Art Center and Point of Contact Gallery in Syracuse. A catalog representing all 36 artists exhibiting in the three galleries can be viewed HERE.
VERY BUSY? BUT WANT TO DO YOUR PART? JOIN STREET HEAT!
EXPOSE KILLER DRONE TERROR: join our decade-long protests against the piloting of reaper drones over the Islamic oil lands…across from the main gate of Hancock AFB, 6000 East Molloy Rd (east of Mattydale)…4:15 to 5 p.m. every Tuesdayfrom April 6 thru the end of October.
STAND WITH PALESTINE expose IDF terrorism, Occupation and apartheid in Gaza and West Bank…intersection of Erie Blvd E and E Genesee in De Witt…4:15 to 5 p.m every Friday
BRING YOUR OWN PEACE AND JUSTICE SIGN*…opposite the Regional Market main entrance On Park ST.. every Saturday 9 to 9:45 a.m. beginning April 3 *or use one of ours. (Ann or Ed 315 478-4571 home)
*Social distancing***Legal***No meetings, no obligation, no cost***Easy parking***Rain or shine*
DONATIONS NEEDED
61 Ways to Donate in Support of Asian Communities in New York Magazine Here
“We’ve organized this list based on what each organization does, from assisting businesses impacted by COVID-19 to providing legal aid and education, so if you’d like to jump to a specific type of organization, simply click on the category.”
COVID Vaccination News:
Onondaga County – Sign up Now, scheduling for all over 16
Kinney Drugs: https://kinneydrugs.as.me/schedule.php
NYS: https://am-i-eligible.covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov/?fbclid=IwAR3Rnv3ZA95eGORIEUdcsJ0_nkgbz9BOUMOlEe-dKQPcxjxPcY_G1nQ3lwo
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Peter McCarthy
pmccar1100@gmail.com