“Power concedes nothing without a demand.” These words of Frederick Douglass are among the first lessons I learned as a young organizer, and I find them always to be true.
This insight - that the vision for a better future starts with us, and if we want the arc of history to bend towards justice, we must demand it - always applies when we engage with big corporations who make the price of food and housing increasingly out of reach, or the ultraconservatives behind Project 2025 who want Trump to be a dictator if he wins a second term.
But this is also true when we engage with those who share our values. We often call those we help elect to public office our “champions,” because they craft and enact the policies that hold big corporations to account, and direct resources to those who need them most. But whatever their party, we hold all public officials to the same high standard. We support them based on how they govern, and whether this advances the interests of working people.
Indeed, our elected officials need us as much as we need them. Members of grassroots organizations like People’s Action, who live at the front lines of our society’s greatest challenges, provide the perspective that makes policies more effective, and keeps our government honest and accountable.
This is why I especially appreciate the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, like U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal and (D-WA 07) and Delia Ramirez (D-IL 03). They are true champions who come from, and return to, our communities.
Jayapal and Ramirez joined People’s Action members for two virtual Town Halls on July 30 and August 14th. They responded to the real concerns of our members, like Franky Ecchols from Down Home North Carolina and Fátima Abarca from Firelands Workers United Washington State.
“One of the biggest issues where I live, in Johnson County, is high utility bills,” Franky told Rep. Jayapal. She explained that she and her neighbors pay more than $400 a month to Duke Energy, who hold a monopoly on utility service. “Everyone, not just rich people, deserves to live in a comfortable home where they're safe from climate change. It's a human right.”
Jayapal listened closely, then explained how she and other progressives in Congress have worked with the Biden-Harris administration to make hundreds of millions dollars available to local communities through the Inflation Reduction Act so they can adapt to climate change, and they want to go further in the next four years.
“The government has to build systems to transition away from fossil fuels, all while creating new jobs and protecting people from pollution and boosting our economy, with the benefits going directly to those most affected by climate change,” Jayapal said.
She thanked Franky for her advocacy to spread the word about climate change, and to overcome the resistance of local officials, who refuse to spend the money Congress has allocated for climate solutions.
“If we don't have champions and leaders like you,” Jayapal told her, “who know where the money needs to go, and lets people know about it, it's not gonna necessarily help us. So I really appreciate the work you're doing.”
Fatima asked Rep. Ramirez about our nation’s housing crisis and the poor living conditions caused by the neglect of corporate landlords. This directly affects Fátima, her husband and their five children.
“They’ve raised my rent three times, and this is a problem everywhere in the country,” Fátima explained. “Our children are often sick with asthma, respiratory infections and skin rashes because of mold. And even though it’s urgent, we can’t move, because it would be at least $5000 to go anywhere else. That’s too much for my family.”
Ramirez listened intently, then shared how her constituents in Chicago face the same problems with predatory landlords, and how progressive lawmakers like her are working to pass the Green New Deal for Housing and other laws to improve the conditions of public housing and protect all tenants.
“Our children can’t have the future they deserve,” Ramirez told her. “That’s why we’re declaring a new future for housing - one which is bold, progressive, accessible, and is a human right.”
Just a few days after these events, Vice President Harris outlined some of the economic policies that will be her priorities if she is elected our next president in November. These include efforts to stop corporate price gouging for food, support for first-time home buyers and permanently restoring the Child Tax Credit, which cut child poverty in half during COVID.
If policies like these are now being considered, it’s because People’s Action and other groups have been speaking up and are speaking out about what our members need. We will continue to do so.
I’m proud that People’s Action’s members have chosen to support Harris to be our next president, and that we are a part of Progressives for Harris, the broad coalition of progressive groups who have come together to support her candidacy, with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as vice president.
Because our choice is clear. We must have true champions in public office, who will listen to and respond to our priorities. We must do all that we can to build the future we need, and elect leaders who will put the wellbeing of our families before politics.
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Sulma Arias is the executive director of People's Action and the People's Action Institute.
