People Power Breaking Out All Over

My belief in people power has been renewed in recent months by the grassroots response to so many challenges and outrages - from the hamlet of Jackson Heights, Queens to the forgotten community of Pikalevo, Russia.

If you missed it, Ellen Barry had a great piece in The New York Times on June 5th about the people power that brought "Prime Minister-for-Life" Vladimir Putin to Pikalevo to "publicly chastise" the three businessmen who own the only local factory where the workers who had not been paid for three months.

While Putin condemned their actions, it was hard to argue that the middle aged women factory workers weren't justified in organizing protests and a blockade of the local freeway. In addition to unpaid wages that left people eating only cabbage soup, the local utility workers turned off the lights when they went unpaid. At that point, the women had had enough.

Barry reported that "As they celebrated, [Pikalevo's] citizens...said they could never have attracted Mr. Putin's attention if it were not for the protests."

Talk to any of North Star Fund's many vital grantee groups, and they will tell you the exact same thing.  From the vendors of VAMOS Unidos and Street Vendor Project who have fought the criminalization of vendors and attempts to privatize the right to be a vendor, to Families Rally for Empowerment and Emancipation (FREE) who kept the pressure on the pols this spring. Their protests and advocacy along with the Correctional Association and other great New York City groups resulted in the Legislature and Governor Paterson finally scaling back the draconian and discriminatory Rockefeller Drug Laws (see below GRITtv segment with FREE's Prison Famz Productions). These are two of many examples where North Star Fund's grantee community made New York a better, more just and livable place.

When you give to North Star, you ensure the flow of resources to uphold that most cherished of democratic ideals: the right to protest and redress.

Finally, do show your support for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and our good friends at Latino Justice/PRLDEF via their website.

And check out the excellent Sotomoyar For Justice website set-up recently by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund.

If you want a great take on the far right assaulting President Obama's distinguished pick, check out Ellis Cose's commentary in Newsweek.