USAction: USAction, TrueMajorityACTION Merge to Create New Model for Mobilizing Progressives at Grassroots, Online
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 27, 2007
11:58 AM
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CONTACT: USAction
Will Matthews
(202) 263-4541
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USAction, TrueMajorityACTION Merge to Create New Model for Mobilizing Progressives at Grassroots, Online
New hub for progressive action to lead fight for children’s health care
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WASHINGTON - September 27 – USAction and TrueMajorityACTION today announced that the two organizations will merge to create a new model for mobilizing progressives online and at the grassroots across America. The new USAction combines its capacity as the nation's leading progressive coalition builder with TrueMajorityACTION's well-established presence as one of the most effective online advocacy organizations. TrueMajorityACTION staff will join USAction's enhanced Online Organizing department.
USAction and TrueMajorityACTION have developed unique models for organizing progressives. USAction and its 24 state affiliates have coordinated powerful grassroots issue campaigns, including the efforts to defeat President Bush's Social Security plan and end the escalation and war in Iraq. TrueMajorityACTION has succeeded in energizing hundreds of thousands of progressive online activists on issues of peace, social justice and sustainability, and has worked with USAction on efforts to end the war and pass a budget that truly reflects our priorities.
"This merger will benefit the entire progressive movement by creating a potent voice for our principles with enormous reach online and at the grassroots," said Ben Cohen, founder of TrueMajorityACTION and co-founder of Ben and Jerry's. "By combining strong grassroots with strong netroots, USAction and TrueMajorityACTION are setting a new standard in progressive organizing."
"I am very excited about this opportunity to combine USAction's on-the-ground grassroots organizing with TrueMajorityACTION's online netroots activists. This merger is a perfect fit that will make us more effective in working to build coalitions, mobilize progressives and make our democracy work for real people," said USAction President William McNary.
The new USAction will take the lead in mobilizing in support of children's health care as Congress considers SCHIP this week. TrueMajorityACTION will launch an online petition signed by 20,000 activists demanding that Congress fund SCHIP and USAction will deliver the petitions to the White House this week. USAction's state affiliates will also be undertaking dozens of "no veto" events in the states to urge the Bush Administration not to block expanded children's health care and demand that members of Congress vote to override if President Bush vetoes SCHIP.
This summer, USAction and its state affiliates undertook an initiative that detailed the cost of the Iraq War in communities across the country comparing the billions of dollars taxpayers have spent on war with shortchanged priorities like children's health. For five years, TrueMajorityACTION has championed shifting a portion of wasted Pentagon spending into schools and children's health care, and this spring recruited 50,000 activists behind a House bill to move that money.
"This merger is great news for progressives. USAction and TrueMajorityACTION have demonstrated an ability to build effective coalitions and create grassroots actions that make an impact on issues like education, health care and ending the Iraq war," said MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser.
"No issue better illustrates the Bush administration's seriously wrong priorities than the contrast between funding SCHIP and continued funding for endless war, and no organization is better equipped to mobilize communities in support of children's health care than the united USAction and TrueMajorityACTION," said Betty Ahrens, Executive Director of Iowa Citizen Action Network, a USAction affiliate.
USAction and our affiliates in 24 states join together to win social, racial and economic justice for all. We connect issues to elections and policy to politics. We seek to take our democracy back from the corporate elite and the well-heeled special interests that dominate the political process today – because we believe that government has a critical role to play in ensuring liberty and justice for all.
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