More about Hoosier Action, and a reminder: We Are New Albany.

Don't forget: there's an on-line petition to sign.

Meet WE ARE NEW ALBANY, and tell Jeff Gahan: No demolition of public housing without a plan to replace!

In Spring 2017, New Albany, Indiana Mayor Jeff Gahan announced his intention to demolish more than half of the town's public housing stock. Apart from vague promises of housing vouchers, residents have been told almost nothing about the plan or what will become of them. Sign the petition: No demolition without a plan to replace!

Learn more about Hoosier Action in this interview from July.

Organizing in the Heartland: Indiana Group Builds Working-Class Momentum, by Sarah Jaffe (Truthout)

Today we bring you a conversation with Jesse Alexander Myerson, an organizer with Hoosier Action who hosts an Indiana-based podcast called From the Heartland about people who are organizing in the interior of the country and in places where leftists aren't normally thought of as being.

Just a snippet.

Telling these stories is an important part of this kind of organizing, but you can also end up with people thinking that just telling a sad story is going to be enough to move their senator and then wondering why that doesn't work. I would love for you to talk a little bit more about the way this storytelling does and doesn't fit into your organizing strategy.

It is definitely integral. As you imply, it is not sufficient unto itself, but basically, the essence of the organizing we are doing is relational. The idea is that any organizing that takes place absent the building and deepening of relationships between people is going to be basically facile. It is one thing if you can get 12 people in a room to talk to us and it is another thing if you get 400 and that 400 really only comes when people have deepened their relationships with one another.

A lot of this organizing is based on having long one-on-one discussions with people, what their lives are like, what they are interested in, what they are concerned about, what they are afraid of, what they are angry about, what they are hopeful for and growing relationships that way. That is both on the doors and ideally in follow-ups after people get knocked or called. Those stories are important in the actual day-to-day organizing, talking to people and letting them know who you are and finding out who they are. As a kind of public expression, really what we hope to do is to mobilize people with that, but ultimately that mobilization should turn into becoming a dues-paying member, coming to monthly member meetings, joining a team and taking on work. That can be going and knocking on doors, it can be doing data entry, it can be helping to promote issues or taking on a shift at the farmers market or at a county fair, flyering or taking petitions, but ideally it is not a high temperature sort of organizing such as you and I saw at Occupy Wall Street where it is lots of marches, lots of heat, lots of intensity.

Really, that emotional heat is being channeled into really well-functioning systems that people can take on discrete amounts of work that make sense with their working lives and their family lives, but that they can see serving to proliferate the organization.

Meet WE ARE NEW ALBANY, and tell Jeff Gahan: No demolition of public housing without a plan to replace!

Yesterday evening I was honored to attend an organizational meeting of We Are New Albany.

In Spring 2017, New Albany, Indiana Mayor Jeff Gahan announced his intention to demolish more than half of the town's public housing stock. Apart from vague promises of housing vouchers, residents have been told almost nothing about the plan or what will become of them. Sign the petition: No demolition without a plan to replace!

Click through to watch the videos and to submit your contact information and keep informed. We Are New Albany is a project of Hoosier Action.

We believe that people—particularly low-income people —must be at the center of decision making, and their lives and their voices must be a foundational part of our shared democracy.

WHAT WE ARE ABOUT

For too long people have been left out of the political process while losing economic ground. Families are having a hard time making ends meet, and, at the same time, democracy in Indiana has been effectively eroded through gerrymandering and Voter ID. The real concerns of Hoosier families are not being met, while our political representation has been left unaccountable to the people of the state.

This being the current state of affairs, Hoosier Action was formed as a new non-profit organization working to unite people to prevent cuts to vital healthcare and access to benefits, and to promote economic vitality — building strong political awareness and participation. We believe that people—particularly low-income people—must be at the center of decision making, and their lives and voices must be a foundational part of our shared democracy. Hoosier Action emphasizes building broad-based constituencies aligned to increase voter participation, lift people out of poverty, and build a new political voice for people who have often been left on the margins.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Kate Hess Pace has worked for the past seven years as a community organizer for ISAIAH in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota) to empower people who have been left out of public decision making and to create organizations focused on building power for social justice. She led the campaign to win the Homeowners Bill of Rights, securing some of the strongest foreclosure protections in the country, she was an integral part of the successful efforts to defeat voting ID on the ballot in Minnesota, and she worked with Director Richard Cordray of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to put forward some of the first federal rules on predatory lending. Kate is a national trainer, leading training and workshops for community leaders for several years. She is a fourth generation Hoosier and deep believer in the potential of the state and its people.

You'll be hearing much more in the weeks and months to come. Those of you who recall the mayoral campaign in 2015 will recall the old-fashioned paper petitions we used to accumulate signatures and get my name on the ballot. We'll be going through a similar petition process on behalf of We Are New Albany, in order to deliver a simple message: We are New Albany, we're opposed to Gahan's hostile takeover of public housing ... and we vote.

Until then, please view the videos and get your name on the list.