Square 1 Show

This time, we talked to national and local organizers about the fight for reproductive freedom and the access to abortion services. First, we chatted with Travis Ballie, a national organizer focusing on the Mid-Atlantic region with NARAL Pro-Choice America. Then, we brought things down to the local level by highlighting the good work done by the DC Abortion Fund (DCAF). Dee Srivastava and Emily Crofoot explain how DCAF helps women in need to afford abortion coverage in the DC area, and why their work is so important to the communities they serve. Stay up to date with DCAF by following them on Facebook and Twitter. In between, we featured the great song “Heir to Nothing” from local band Coup Sauvage & the Snips, who unfortunately held their last show in June. You can still find them on Facebook and Twitter, and can still buy their art on Bandcamp!

Call to Action

We have two simple calls to action for you this time:

Donate to DCAF, and if you’re able set up a recurring donation. The recurring donation helps the group budget and accurately identify the number of abortion service grants they will be able to provide in a given year. They are 100% volunteer run, so every dollar sent their way goes directly into providing care to a woman in need.

If you’re looking to get involved in the Virginia elections this summer and fall, NARAL has you covered! Get a head start by joining their monthly action on Tuesday, July 25 to phone bank for Gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, a strong champion for women’s health and abortion access. You can sign up to volunteer for NARAL Pro-Choice America and follow the NARAL Virginia Chapter at NARALVA.org and on Facebook and Twitter for more updates!

Full show notes: http://bit.ly/2q0rwSw

To help us explore the paid leave issue in the district—the legislation as it’s passed, the coalition that came together to fight for it, and what’s coming next—we spoke with Hannah Weilbacher, previously a community organizer with Jews United for Justice who worked on the DC Paid Family Leave Campaign.

Call To Action

This is our clearest call to action yet: go to the DC Paid Family Leave Campaign website and volunteer. Seriously, they make it so easy for you to contribute however you can—showing up at events, making phone calls, shooting out tweets, or even just talking to your friends about the issue. You can also show your support by signing this petition or sign up directly to make weekly phone calls to targeted council members demanding full funding for program startup costs in the 2018 budget being debated now throughout the month of May. It took a popular movement to get to this point. Now we need to keep the pressure on so that the Council and the Mayor know that we’re watching, and we won’t accept anything less than full implementation of this paid family leave program.

On Sunday, April 30, over 60 workers and community members picketed outside the Whole Foods Market at P and 14th St. NW to demand the reinstatement of Julia Flores, a worker fired in September 2016 after 15 years of service in retaliation for collectively organizing in the workplace. The protest was part of a whole slate of activities organized by Many Languages, One Voice (MLOV) and others for #DConStrike, culminating in coordinated actions of business closings, rallies, and marches of striking workers and accomplices on May Day.

We spoke with MLOV organizer Hannah Kane and Julia Flores about the Sunday Whole Foods picket, #DConStrike, and why the broader struggle for worker justice is so vital today.

With Earth Day and the Science Marches around the country in the rearview mirror, and the People’s Climate March right around the corner on Saturday, April 29, we wanted to focus this episode on the environmental justice movement. We tried out a new format this time, conducting only one interview so that we could have a more indepth conversation. And we needed more time with this conversation, because a guy like Jeremiah Lowery has a lot to talk about.

Follow Square 1 on Twitter at @Square1Show!

Part 2 of our interview with Paola and Yasemin from MLOV DC.

Listen to the 6 demands that the organizers of Many Languages One Voice and the #DayWithoutImmigrants march have for Mayor Bowser and the city government.

To learn more about how you can support MLOV and the Sanctuary City movement, visit www.mlovdc.org.

Show Notes

In this episode, we focused on organizing for immigrant rights in D.C. and the fight to keep the District a sanctuary city. First, we sat down with Celina Marquez, a third year law student at George Washington University studying immigration law and helping DMV residents navigate the complexities of the immigration system at the GW Immigration Legal Clinic. Our second interview featured Yasemin Zahara and Paola Perez, two community organizers from Many Languages, One Voice, a Mt. Pleasant based grassroots organization working to build power in D.C.’s immigrant community. Sandwiched between the interviews, we heard “Cathedral” by Flavor Wasters. You can find more of their music on Bandcamp, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter to stay in the loop on upcoming performances.

Call to Action

Immigrants make up 25% of our city's population, and play a huge role in keeping the District a vibrant, healthy, and beautiful place to live. To keep D.C. safe for all of us, we must stand in solidarity with our immigrant brothers and sisters and demand that our city upholds its promise of sanctuary and freedom for all residents. Here’s what you can do:

Support Community Based Organizations

Provide your time, treasure, and talent to www.mlovdc.org/, Sanctuary DMV, or other partners in your community. They need money to support their operations, volunteers to help with the behind the scenes work of organizing, and people in the streets to help the movement grow.

Tell the Mayor and DC Council To Keep DC a Sanctuary City

As Yasemin and Paola discussed in our interview, the D.C. government has not yet taken a strong enough stand in favor of keeping the city a sanctuary, despite several public pronouncements in support of our immigrant community. Make your voice heard by telling the Mayor and Council directly to put their money (our money!) where their mouth is.

You can find contact information for your Council Members and the Executive Office of the Mayor by following the links. Call, tweet, email, or Facebook stalk, but whatever you do, let them know that you stand with D.C.’s immigrant community.

Other Resources

Check out our write-up about why D.C. must remain a sanctuary city: bit.ly/2mOL1sY

Read more about MLOV’s work organizing D.C. immigrant communities in support of sanctuary:

bit.ly/2nYit0a

Watch community members confront Mayor Bowser to demand stronger action following November’s election: bit.ly/2nMpjXw

Learn more about D.C.’s immigrant population, by the numbers: bit.ly/2kGwnlv

Yup, there’s an Indivisible Guide for that too: bit.ly/2lMs1gP

For our first show, we discussed political parties and how they impact our political system from the ground up. Our first interview is with Dave Kaib, a researcher at American University and the organizer of DC Jacobin and related activities in the district. Our second interview is with Kip Malinosky, a middle school civics teacher who also works as the chair of the Arlington Democrats. In between, we played the song “Mindhead” from local punk band Puff Pieces. You can find their latest album “Bland in D.C.” on Bandcamp and can follow them on Facebook to learn about upcoming shows.

Call to Action Resources

Local political parties are ultimately made up of small groups of activists who show up to meetings, organize canvassing and phone banks, and help to create party priorities through by influencing internal actions through their engagement. Our first call to action is a simple one: get involved with your local political party! Here are some resources to help you engage with political parties in the area. Don’t see the political party that represents you? Remember that Google is your friend!

A listing of state affiliates of the Democratic Party: http://asdc.democrats.org/state-parties/

Virginia local Democratic Parties: http://vademocrats.org/localities/

Arlington Democrats: http://www.arlingtondemocrats.org/

D.C. Democrats: http://www.dcdemocraticparty.org/

Maryland Democrats: https://www.mddems.org/party-organization

A listing of state and local affiliates of the Democratic Socialists of America: http://www.dsausa.org/chapters

A listing of state and local affiliates of the Green Party: http://www.gp.org/state_parties

Finally, while most of our shows will focus on specifically local calls to action, we wanted to highlight the viral guide to influencing Congress that’s been making the rounds. The Indivisible Guide is being used to progressive activists around the country to make their voice heard and to make life hard for GOP (and Democratic) members of Congress who choose to ignore them at their own peril. Download the guide, read up on what you can do, and join in the fun of exercising your rights to lobby your representatives.