Category: Take Action

May Day march & rally!

By rachael_decruz | Published April 30, 2012

May 1st. is a day that reminds us of our country’s rich history of standing up for workers rights and is an opportunity for people to come together and stand up for human rights for all.

This year, it’s more important than ever for us to join together as a community. On April 3rd, “Secure Communities” became mandatory in Washington state. This program allows local and state police to check the fingerprints of an individual they are booking into a jail against DHS immigration databases. If there is a “hit” in an immigration database, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is automatically notified, even if the person hasn’t been convicted of a crime

“Secure Communities” erodes the trust between local law enforcement and immigrant families and leads to racial profiling. It tears families apart and wreaks havoc on our communities.

Join us on Tuesday, May 1st as we stand up and fight back!
Meet at 4:30pm at St. Mary’s Church (611 20th. Ave. S, Seattle)
Look for the Washington CAN! banner
Email Chris@washingtoncan.org to register or with question

In addition to protesting “Secure Communities,” this year’s May Day march and rally will target Wells Fargo for their investment in for-profit immigrant detention centers. Wells Fargo is one of the largest investors in Geo Group, Inc — the second largest private prison company in the world contracted by state and federal government agencies, and the company that owns the detention center in Tacoma. With “Secure Communities” now mandatory in Washington – profits for both Geo Group and Wells Fargo will increase as more families are torn apart.

Stand up for immigrant rights and workers rights by joining us on May 1st!

Also posted in Economic justice, Events, Featured, Immigration, Social justice | | Leave a comment

Wells Fargo tax day action

By rachael_decruz | Published April 11, 2012

Next Tuesday is tax day. As millions of people throughout the country file their taxes, we’re taking to the streets to demand that large corporations and the wealthiest 1% pay their fair share.

For too long corporations and special interests have been receiving tax breaks at the expense of the 99%. If everyone paid their fair share, we could help rebuild our economy and invest in education, health care and jobs to ensure that our communities get back on track.

Despite the fact that Wells Fargo has raked in almost $70 billion in profits over the last 4 years, the big bank is one of the worst corporate tax dodgers. With $21 billion in special tax breaks since the bailout and an effective Federal income tax rate of only 3.8%, Wells Fargo is paying far less than the 35% corporate tax rate set in law.

Wells Fargo spent $14 million lobbying in Washington DC and Olympia for special rules that let the company avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Angry yet? Good!

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Also posted in Economic justice, Education, Events, Health Care, Social justice | | Leave a comment

99% Spring Trainings

By rachael_decruz | Published April 9, 2012

The 99% Spring is coming.

Groups from every corner of our movement—inspired by the everyday heroes of Occupy Wall Street and Madison —are planning a massive campaign of bold nonviolent direct actions to make the voices of the 99% impossible to ignore.

This week (April 9-15), in small towns and big cities all across America, 100,000 people will come together for an unprecedented national movement-wide nonviolent direct action training. We’ll learn to tell the story of our economy and what went wrong, we’ll learn the history of nonviolent direct action, and we’ll learn how we can take action and create great change in this country.

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Also posted in Economic justice, Events, Social justice | | Leave a comment

Caring Across Generations

By rachael_decruz | Published March 12, 2012

In early February, over 200 care givers, care recipients, families and community members joined together at a town-hall style event to discuss the lack of affordable quality care options for older Americans and people with disabilities, and the struggle of caregivers for respect, support, and training.

The Seattle meeting was the local launch of a national grassroots campaign to transform America’s long-term care industry, called Caring Across Generations.

The campaign, made up of over 70 organizations nationally, aims to protect what we have—Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security—while creating what we need: two million new care giving jobs, training and protection for care providers, new paths to citizenship for immigrant care providers, and measures to make care more affordable for struggling families.

The event featured testimonies of seniors, family caregivers, home care and domestic workers as well as the opportunity to take action together and vision the transformation of care nationally through our Seattle Care Council. Next steps for the campaign include introducing a Seattle City Council resolution in the values of CARE.

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Also posted in Economic justice, Education, Events, Health Care, Immigration, Social justice | | Leave a comment

Sit-in on Sen. Zarelli, architect of secret, backroom GOP budget

By rachael_decruz | Published March 7, 2012

On Tuesday afternoon, over 70 Washington CAN! members held a sit-in at Senator Zarelli’s office in Olympia telling the Senator to “stop playing politics with people’s lives” and to raise revenue instead of cutting the programs that families and communities rely on.

The sit-in was held in response to the Republican budget and the undemocratic way in which it was brought to the floor last Friday. The all-cuts Republican budget was never given a public hearing (or seen by the majority of legislators) before they were asked to vote on the bill. This is not what our democracy stands for.

We targeted Senator Zarelli as being the architect of the secret, backroom budget. The Republican budget includes deep cuts to health care, education and other core programs and services. We had folks there from across the state, including Seattle, Spokane, Olympia, Tacoma and Bellevue. Everyone was fired up about the impact the all-cuts budget will have on their families and communities and ready to take action.

The Republican budget:

  • Eliminates medical coverage for more than 15,000 low-income disabled individuals, adding to the existing 1 million people without health care in the State of Washington
  • Eliminates the State Food Assistance Program, which provides food to 12,000 families a month
  • Cuts funding for our poorest individuals, those on TANF, by more than $200 million, including the loss of child care services
  • Cuts more than $40 million from the Housing and Essential Needs program
  • Cuts Homeless Assistance
  • Cuts funding for K-12 schools and higher education by more than $75 million

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Also posted in Economic justice, Education, Events, Health Care, Social justice | | 2 Comments
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