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FEATURING UNAI MONTES-IRUESTE - Our nation and our world is overrun by billionaires and bigots, but they are few and we are many. On this series, exclusive to subscribers of Rising Up With Sonali and viewers of Free Speech TV, we’ll hear from organizers in the movements for social justice, and dig into the nuts and bolts of values, strategies, tactics, narratives, and building power. 

This week, Unai Montes-Irueste, the Media Strategy Director for People's Action and People's Action Institute joins us. Prior to taking on this role, Unai consulted for /ˈmantrə/, (a.k.a. mantra strategy group) a public affairs firm he co-founded. He also served as Narrative and Strategic Communications Director for Housing California, and many other roles.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: People’s Action is an organization that many might have heard of. I understand it’s a coalition of groups around the country and in many, many different states. It's been around for 50 years. And from what I gather, it is focused on issue-based fights, particularly through the electoral process, but not necessarily exclusively. Is that relatively accurate? How, how do you describe People’s Action? 

Unai Montes-Irueste: Yeah, Of course. Well, thank you again. yeah, People’s Action and our sister organization, our C-4 Sister People’s Action Institute are national networks. And those networks consist of what we like to call power building groups or grassroots affiliates. And so, we're basically starting where folks are in more than 80 organizations all across the country. And in those communities, folks are identifying the issues that matter most to them. And what of course we've seen, as you've indicated in your introduction, is that there are some common threads throughout. 

A lot of challenges with affordability, a lot of challenges with healthcare, a lot of challenges with climate justice and housing. And those things have helped build out robust issue campaigns and those robust issue campaigns live through local organizing and then also national organizing. 

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