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Put People First! PA is a grassroots organization led by the poor and dispossessed. We rely on funding from members, friends, family and supporters to see our campaign work through each year. Please click the button below to support of our statewide movement of clear, competent, committed and connected working class leaders!
 
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Put People First! PA E-News
Tonight: PPF-PA Statewide Call

 

Join our upcoming statewide membership call TONIGHT, Wednesday, April 21st from 7 - 8 pm to learn about Put People First! PA's fight across the state for the Public Healthcare Advocate. Open to brand new folks!

The Monthly Statewide Membership Call is a time for members to connect with one another across geography, to hear what members are working on in other parts of the state, to learn from one another and deepen our relationships.

As always these calls are the third Wednesday of every month from 7 - 8 pm. Join us!
RSVP for the Statewide Call here
 
Up on the blog: Pandemic Reflections

 

We've launched a new series on the Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) blog!

As we pass the one year mark since COVID-19 began to spread in the US, the Pandemic Reflections blog series looks back at the demands PPF-PA made of Governor Wolf to protect our health and economic security in the Spring of 2020. We're lifting up the many ways Pennsylvanians have struggled, suffered and are fighting for our basic needs because these demands have gone unmet. Media & Communications team will be posting reflections from PPF-PA members about our pandemic experiences and the impacts of our government's failed response to COVID-19 — not only on our health, but also on our jobs, our homes, livelihoods, our children, our incarcerated loved ones, our schools, and our organizing to fight for our human rights.

Here's an excerpt from the latest post from the series:

I am a custodian at a private liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, and therefore, I am an essential worker. I work in the residential dorms. It’s hard to put this whole year into order, so much has happened. So many of my coworkers came down with Covid-19. Some were very ill, and are still suffering the repercussions. Others bounced back ok. Some lost family members. Many of my immigrant coworkers can no longer send money back home because of the inhumane policies of the U.S. ruling class towards their countries of origin. - Chris, member of PPF-PA
Read the blog here
 
Submit to the Keystone by April 26th!

The Keystone is a biannual magazine created by and for us—the people—to lift our voices and help build our power. We highlight our understanding of our circumstances and how we can fight and unite to build our vision of a fair society. The Keystone is distributed and read by members of Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) and sibling organizations throughout the state and country!

Interested in contributing a personal reflection on why you’re in PPF-PA or some artwork? The submission deadline is April 26th! If you are interested in submitting something please contact: Fran Gilmore, frangil66@gmail.com.
 
Why we need Online Base building

In Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) we’re building the Nonviolent Medicaid Army to win our human rights! A big part of that means building our base and developing leaders. And there are a lot of us! In Pennsylvania alone there are 5.1 million poor and dispossessed working class folks of all races and backgrounds.

But it can be a challenge to connect to new leaders, especially during this time of the pandemic where social distancing is essential. That’s why we believe connecting with people online AKA online base building is an important tool for us. This past weekend PPF-PA trained current members on how to use social media as a way to connect with people to join our movement. Interested in learning more?

Find us Facebook and let’s start the conversation: https://www.facebook.com/PutPeopleFirstPA

Here's a reflection from PPF-PA member, Briann, on the online base building workshop and why we need online base building:

On Saturday, we had an amazing workshop with leaders across the state to dig into the practice of online base building. From learning the technical how-tos of using Facebook to outlining an online organizing conversation, participants came away ready to use their personal FB accounts to boost PPF-PA work online and build our organization!

Online Base building is important for us to learn — especially as our organizing efforts shifted online to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic! Just as we can connect to our base through door knocking and tabling in the community, we can reach our base and pull them into the organization with our social media! - Briann, Pittsburgh Healthcare Rights Committee
 
Projects of Survival Across the State

Projects of Survival help us meet our material needs and also are an opportunity to develop and unite leaders in Pennsylvania. In Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) we’re building our power across the state of Pennsylvania because we know that healthcare is a human right!

On Saturday April 10th, the Montgomery County Healthcare Rights Committee held its monthly "project of survival" outside of the Dekalb Supermarket and laundromat in Norristown. We gave out food, water, masks, diapers and period products and helped people sign up for Medicaid, LIHEAP (heating assistance) and food stamps, as well as with other problems with accessing their basic needs and rights.

We are helping fellow poor people meet our basic needs while inviting people to join us in getting organized to fight for all of our needs and human rights.
We know that the only thing that will really change our conditions is organizing ourselves as the poor and dispossessed across all lines of difference to build a massive movement for all of our lives, - a new Poor People's Campaign to guarantee all of our human rights and needs, in Montgomery County, in Pennsylvania, across the US and around the world. We invite everyone to join us!! Healthcare is a Human Right!! Put People First!

Other Projects of Survival took place in York, Altoona, Philadelphia, and Northeast Pennsylvania! Photo below from event this weekend in York.
 
Where do we go from here?
Justice for George Floyd requires taking the ruling class out of power

Put People First! PA joins people around the world in celebrating the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd as a long-overdue moment of accountability. We stand in outrage at the recent killings by police of Adam Toledo, Christian Hall, Daunte Wright, Ma’Khia Bryant, Stephen James Hughes, and the countless others whose names we know or will never know and whose killers have not been held accountable . We also know that the only way that we will end police killings of our people and achieve true justice is by ending the system that is killing working class people of every color across the US and around the world.

The US State that murdered them is the same US State that murders working class people of all backgrounds every day through police violence, war, militarism, deportations and detention, border closures, family separation of all kinds, and the denial of our human rights to healthcare, food, housing, water, living wage jobs, a clean environment, and more. We must fight not only against police violence, the most visible form of state violence, but also against all forms of state violence that kills working class people of every background every day across Pennsylvania, the U.S. and the world.The only way we can end police violence, white supremacy, and the structural violence of a system built on profit above all life is through solidarity across lines of division and through the leadership of the poor and dispossessed on behalf of the whole society.

Across Pennsylvania, Put People First! PA is organizing everyday people in cities, suburbs, towns and rural places across the state of Pennsylvania. In 2020 we took action 38 times across Pennsylvania to connect the dots between all forms of state violence. We know that racism is inextricable from poverty, the war economy & militarism, environmental destruction, and the distorted moral narrative of white supremacist Christian nationalism. The only way we can truly end these interconnected evils is by unifying as poor and dispossessed working class people across all lines of division to become the "new and unsettling force" which MLK envisioned when he called for the building of the multiracial Poor People's Campaign for which he was murdered by the US state.

Join us! www.putpeoplefirstpa.org

We really encourage you to take some time to read Nijmie Zakkiyyah Dzurinko's article "Where do we go from here? Justice for George Floyd requires taking the ruling class out of power." Here's an excerpt of the article:

It’s not enough to say “Black Lives Matter.”

We must ask ourselves, “What will actually MAKE Black lives matter?”

First I want to say the names of Echol Cole and Robert Walker, two Black sanitation workers crushed by a malfunctioning garbage truck in Memphis, 1968.

MLK addressed these workers on March 18, 1968, shortly before the launch of the Poor People’s Campaign – saying “Now, you’re doing something else here. You are highlighting the economic issue. You are going beyond purely civil rights to questions of human rights. That is distinct. . . . For we know, that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t have enough money to buy a hamburger?”

As I write these words in 2020 from my house in West Philadelphia there is a slow down of sanitation workers across the city, most of whom are Black, because so many are being affected by COVID19, lacking hazard pay and adequate safety precautions from the city. The echoes of the two situations give me chills.

Read the entire article here.
 
 
Upcoming Healthcare Rights Committee Meetings and Events

Please note: Due to the coronavirus outbreak, until further notice, all meetings will be held by phone and online (see information below) All are welcome at all meetings!

Akron/Ephrata Healthcare Rights Committee
Next Meetings: Tuesdays, May 4 and 18 from 7 - 8:30 pm.
Contact: Greg Fritz at greg.r.fritz@gmail.com.

Philadelphia Healthcare Rights Committee
Next meetings: Wednesdays, April 28, May 12 and 26 from 7 - 9 pm.
Contact: Iaan Reynolds at iaan.reynolds@gmail.com or Nijmie Dzurinko at nijmied@gmail.com.

Pittsburgh Healthcare Rights Committee
Next meetings: Thursdays, April 22, May 13 and 27 from 6-8 pm.
Contact: Briann Moye at moyebriann@gmail.com or Frederica Phillips at phillipsfrederica@gmail.com.

Mon Valley Healthcare Rights Committee
Next meetings: Wednesdays, May 5 and 19 from 4-6 pm.
Contact: Denyne Pollard at denynepollard17@gmail.com or Ms Jackie at jackie5396@gmail.com.

Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee
Next meetings: Thursdays, May 6 and 20 from 5:30-7:30 pm.
Contact: Michele Capobianco at mrapczyk@gmail.com or Jae Hubay at jhubay@gmail.com.

York Healthcare Rights Committee
Next meetings: Sundays May 2 and 16 from 4:30-6:30 pm.
Contact: Erica Caldwell at erica.caldwell@gmail.com or Terrell Turner at 410-736-2589.

Altoona Healthcare Rights Committee
Next meetings: Wednesdays, April 21, May 5 and 19 from 6:30 - 8 pm.
Contact: Jennina Rose Gorman at 814-215-6744.

Johnstown Healthcare Rights Committee
Next meetings: Mondays, May 3 and 17 from 7 - 9 pm.
Contact: Maddy Burrows at madelinejburrows@gmail.com, or Ron Moose at rdmoose943@gmail.com.

Montgomery County Healthcare Rights Committee
Next meetings: Mondays, May 3 and 17 from 4 - 6 pm.
Contact: Jacob Butterly at 215-908-4661 or jsjb.cwrite@gmail.com or Harrison Farina at harrisonjfarina@gmail.com.

Northeast PA Healthcare Rights Committee
Next meetings: Thursdays, April 22, May 13 and 27 from 7 - 8:30 pm.
Contact: Rose Yanko at 570-262-9327 or Ben Levanduski at 609-468-3961.

Statewide Membership Call
The Monthly Statewide Membership Call is a time for members to connect with one another across geography. To hear what members are working on in other parts of the state, to learn from one another and deepen our relationships.As always these calls are the third Wednesday of every month from 7 - 8 pm. Join us!
When: Wednesday, May 19 at 7 pm
Where: Call (646) 558-8656; then enter Meeting ID: 548-395-7623 or Join: Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/5483957623

These dates and times are subject to change. To confirm or for call-in/video information for Healthcare Rights Committee Meetings, contact the person above.
 


Our email address is:  putpeoplefirstpa@gmail.com