Blog Archives

Duluth ESST Council Final Vote

Please join us for what we hope will be the Duluth city council’s final vote on the earned sick & safe time ordinance.

We are asking folks to join us at 6:30pm, on the steps of city hall.

We launched our Vision Duluth campaign for earned sick & safe time in the spring of 2016, it is fitting that it is spring again in Duluth and we are inching closer to seeing thousands of Duluthians get access to this essential worker protection.

This is a moment you won’t want to miss!

Please reach out to any of our staff in Duluth with questions.… Continue reading »

NEWS STATEMENT: Earned Sick and Safe Time amendment

Contact: Shawnu Ksicinski, 218-590-3408, shawnu@takeactionminnesota.org

May 14, 2018

Workers and families call on the City Council to pass the ordinance

(Duluth, MN)—The Duluth Earned Sick and Safe Time Coalition released the following statement:

“Duluth City Council members passed amendments to the city’s Earned Sick and Safe Time ordinance proposal that reduces paid time that workers can earn and delays the Council from voting on the ordinance.

This is extremely disappointing, but this is not why we showed up at the City Council meeting tonight.

We’re still fighting because we care about our families and our community. We’re here because workers and their families are hurting and because we know that as Duluthians, we can and we must do better.

Passing Earned Sick and Safe Time will improve thousands of people’s lives in Duluth. This matters to all of us. Small business owners with the Main Street Alliance spoke out for ESST today because as small business owners, they recognize that our lives and our interests are interconnected.

Like us, they know we cannot wait any longer to pass Earned Sick and Safe Time. There are human consequences if we don’t take action. It’s time to pass paid sick time.

Duluth’s Earned Sick and Safe Time ordinance is about our whole community—it’s a statement of our values and who we aspire to be.… Continue reading »

Facebook Q & A on Paid Family Leave with Sen. Susan Kent

If you could ask Minnesota Senator Susan Kent one question, what would it be? Here’s your chance!

Join us and Senator Susan Kent for a Facebook Live Q&A. We’re going to be asking her your questions and learning more about her bill supporting paid family leave. Send us your questions for the Senator by commenting below and tune in on Friday, May 4th at 1:30 p.m. for the answers.… Continue reading »

Sexual Harassment: You’re not as protected as you think you are.

*Disclaimer, I am not a lawyer. Nothing here is or should be construed as legal advice.

When I was 15, I worked at a hardware store where my coworkers were mostly older men. A few weeks into my time there, one of them, a guy in his 70’s, started to spend a lot of time standing behind me. Every once in a while, I would feel his hand brush against my butt.

He was touching my butt. At work. He was 48 years older than me and I was a minor. I wouldn’t have been able to consent to it even if he had asked. Sounds like a crime, right?

Turns out, it’s not.

Because of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements and pushback against sexual harassment in our own state Legislature, we’re finally talking about the harassment a lot of people, especially women and particularly Women of Color and LGBTQ people, experience regularly at work.

Part of the criticism against the #MeToo movement is that people should be convicted in a court of law, not the court of public opinion. Unfortunately, even with very clear proof, the courts fall short.

You may have seen in the news recently that there’s a specific exception for butt-grabbing in Minnesota law.… Continue reading »

Delegate Training in Duluth

Join us at our office in Duluth for a delegate training! In this training, you’ll learn how to have powerful conversations with your community, understand the process and what will happen the day of the convention.

Ideas Worth Fighting For: Climate Justice, Caring Economy, and Justice 4 All

This Ideas Worth Fighting For workshop is designed to introduce and relate our program areas in Climate Justice, Caring Economy, and Justice 4 All (i.e. ending Mass Incarceration). The format is interactive & relational. It’s designed to be exploratory, engaging, & creative, while still being knowledge-based, political, and pragmatic. Inspiring & grounded: that’s the goal. This workshop will feature orientations on the organization & how we campaign, policy basics on each issue area (and their intersections), our analysis on race, gender, & corporate power, and concrete next steps, if you want to go deeper on any of them. The agenda is designed to level-set between new & returning attendees. 6:00-6:30 will be an organizational orientation. 6:30-7:15 will be issue orientations. 7:15-8:30 will be workshopping time. 8:30-9:00 will be unstructured social time. Pre-readings will be emailed to registered attendees.

Click here to sign up.… Continue reading »

Collaborators w/ Womxn of Color

Collaborators with Womxn of Color is a group of white cis and trans womxn and femmes who want to see the death of white supremacy and patriarchy. We are a group connected to supporting and uplifting the Womxn of Color Table through building a community of accountability, tension, training, and processing. We’re looking for womxn of all ages who have spent time wrestling with their race and gender and want to take it to the next level.

Political Healers – WOC Caucus Training

Political healing is a center of gravity for community organizing that prioritizes womxn of color and our leadership strengths by intersecting race, gender, class, and healing in our strategy, policy, and rituals. It is a radical act of ruthless venting of womxn of color in our electoral work.

Political Healers are 100+ strongthroughout the state of Minnesota! We are building power as womxn of color to create our agenda informed by 1,000 of us from across the state.

Join us to learn more about how you ALREADY do this work!

Womxn of Color and Electoral Power

Learn how to become a community protector by caucusing for your community come February 6th. Electoral power is and always has been about having a powerful relationship with your representatives in elected office. Begin that journey here.

Womxn of Color and the Ritual of Community

Join a team of more then 100 womxn of color who are engaging their friends, family, membership of different centers of faith, to talk about how we already take political action and how we can begin taking action as a larger, bolder, and powerful collective.

Womxn of Color and Our Stories

One thing is fact: when we vote, we win.… Continue reading »

Online Caucus Training: A Future Worth Fighting For

Too many of us have experienced politics as hostile, inaccessible, dirty, or confusing. As we work together to dismantle corporate power, gender oppression, and structural racism, we will work close to home.

Caucuses are local meetings in every district in Minnesota that kicks off and holds up our party political system. Join with other TakeAction activists and leaders from across the state to fight for the state our families and communities need to live lives of joy. We’ll cover the details of what happens at a caucus and how to show up powerfully, as well as ways to create new opportunities to take power for our communities.

The GOP Tax Plan: Whose voice does it represent?

In late November, U.S. House republicans passed their tax reform bill, and yesterday, the Senate passed their version of the bill out of committee on a party line vote. The president and congressional republicans have said they hope that they will have a bill signed by Christmas.

My guiding principal is: “We all do better when we all do better,” and I believe that a government by and for the people helps us get there. I know I believe that health care for all, affordable higher education and a level playing field so that we all have the best possible chance to succeed. I also know that the money for programs that help advance those goals doesn’t come out of thin air.

So we ask ourselves: What are some of the things the GOP tax bill does, what does it tell us about their priorities, and what does this bill tell us about who congressional republicans feel they represent?

What are some of the things that the GOP tax bill does?

Permanently cuts the corporate tax rate by 15%.
Eliminates the estate tax by 2024 (costing $200 billion over 10 years), giving a massive tax-break to the wealthiest 0.2%.
Makes it harder for immigrants to file for certain tax credits, including the ones that benefit their American- born children.

TakeAction Minnesota Statement on Tax Bill Moving in U.S. House Bill

Contact: Kenza Hadj-Moussa, 612-386-9556

November 16, 2017

NEWS STATEMENT

(St. Paul) – Today, the U.S. House passed a massive tax reform bill. TakeAction Minnesota released the following statement:

“We don’t need to ask why the GOP passed this irresponsible, immoral bill. We need to ask ourselves, as Americans, why we pay taxes—what is the value of public schools, roads, water, and health care?

Taxes pay for our society to function. Plain and simple. Under no circumstances is it right to undermine the public good for the benefit of the rich and powerful few. These values are not partisan. They are questions of our democracy and who has influence in it.”

In addition to adding $1.7 trillion to the federal deficit over the next ten years, the GOP tax bill includes significant middle-class tax increases to pay for massive tax cuts. In particular, the elimination of the state and local tax deduction will affect hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans – fully 35% of all taxpayers – threatening to undermine state and local public services. Representatives Jason Lewis, Tom Emmer, and Erik Paulsen voted for the bill.

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TakeAction Minnesota is a statewide, multi-racial people’s organization. We advance democracy and equity through organizing, political action, and policy campaigns.… Continue reading »

STATEMENT: With flood of sexual harassment allegations, it’s time to end the culture of silence that perpetuates gender oppression

Contact: Kenza Hadj-Moussa, 612-386-9556

Statement

TakeAction Minnesota stands by women at the State Capitol demanding change

St. Paul—TakeAction Minnesota released the following statement in response to sexual harassment allegations made against state Legislators and news reports of the persistent culture of sexual harassment within state politics:

Every person deserves the freedom to live, work, and exist without being targeted because of their gender. We stand with every woman who bravely came forward to fight sexual harassment at the Minnesota Legislature. We demand change.

When the bodies of women are treated as bargaining chips that can be acquiesced and demanded, we collapse an opportunity to create true equity.

As an organization that actively fights to break down structural racism, gender oppression, and corporate power, we publicly and actively support any person who has suffered emotional and physical trauma due to the unchecked actions of men who believe they are above the law. The experiences of Rep. Erin Maye Quade, Lindsey Port, and every woman who has come forward at the Minnesota Legislature must be examined.

The halls and rooms at the State Capitol should be used to bring about race, gender, and economic equity. Never again should they be breeding grounds for sexual harassment.… Continue reading »

Stand with Women at the Minnesota Capitol

It’s time to end the culture of silence that perpetuates gender oppression Every person deserves the freedom to live, work, and exist without being targeted because of their gender. We stand with every woman who bravely came forward to fight sexual harassment at the Minnesota Legislature. We demand change. When the bodies of women are treated as bargaining chips that can be acquiesced and demanded, we collapse an opportunity to create true equity. As an organization that actively fights to break down structural racism, gender oppression, and corporate power, we publicly and actively support any person who has suffered emotional and physical trauma due to the unchecked actions of men who believe they are above the law. The experiences of Rep. Erin Maye Quade, Lindsey Port, and every woman who has come forward at the Minnesota Legislature must be examined. The halls and rooms at the State Capitol should be used to bring about race, gender, and economic equity. Never again should they be breeding grounds for sexual harassment.

Collaborators With Womxn of Color (CWWOC) Dinner

Welcome to the Collaborator’s With Womxn of Color Dinner (aka: CWWOC).

This is primarily a processing and action focused group for white cis and trans womxn and femmes to grow into a more authentic social justice leadership. The main focus is how to show up stronger for womxn of color by investing into their growth and moving with them towards balanced and sustainable leadership instead of challenging and becoming the systemic barrier. This space is designed for white cis and trans womxn and femmes who have already done some wrestling with their race and gender and are ready to enter a group that seeks to ground us, develop our skills, and hold each other accountable. Our path to liberation is tied together, and we’re looking for folx eager to dive in.

CARE Film Screening

TakeAction MN will host a free, open-to-the-public screening of the new documentary, followed by a discussion. The screening is sponsored by Caring Across Generations, a national campaign to transform care so that everyone can live and age with dignity.

“Although we’d rather not think about it, we’re all aging. And if we’re lucky enough to love a long life, most of us will need help. 90% of Americans want to age at home, but who will provide the care we’ll need?

CARE pulls back the curtain on the largely unseen world of home elder care. With a verité eye, it follows the stories of care workers and their clients. We meet undocumented Vilma, who lovingly cares for 93-year old Dee—long an independent businesswoman, who lives 3,000 miles away from her closest family. We go to work with Laurie, mother of 5, who tends to wheelchair-bound Larry in a tiny rural town. We meet Toni whose husband, a CBS executive, suffers from severe Parkinson’s disease. “Peter would die in a nursing home,” Toni says, but keeping him home requires 24/7 help.

CARE depicts the beauty and social importance of home-based care. It also reveals a broken system., where workers make poverty wages and families struggle to pay for the care they need.… Continue reading »