Resolution 75A-15-3
Millions of Americans are joining together to strengthen and renew American democracy. People from diverse backgrounds, including labor, civil rights, environmental, good government, and other like-minded organizations, are coming together convinced that we need to restore the promise and reality of our great democracy in order to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to realize their full potential and economic well-being.
We are working together to turn around the tide of attacks that have been waged on the rights of workers to form a union and bargain collectively, on the rights of all Americans to vote, and we are fighting back against measures that allow the top one percent to own our democracy.
Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have spent 40 years working to strip workers of bargaining rights and to enshrine the power of the top one percent. They have twisted our democracy to cement their power, making unlimited money available to fund their private interests and disenfranchising voters who do not support their agenda.
To restore the promise of the American Dream, we must eliminate the corrupting influence of big money in politics, which allows the top one percent and corporations to buy elections and set our nation’s public policies. Candidates, parties, and outside groups spent nearly $4 billion in the 2014 elections. Outside spending on elections by organizations that hide the names of their donors soared to $219 million in the most recent election cycle. In the 2014 election campaigns, money provided by business interests had a 15 to 1 advantage over union workers’ contributions to political action funds and other labor contributions. Members of Congress spend 30 to 70 percent of their time fundraising and talking to the top one percent, rather than engaging with their constituents. This donor class has vastly different priorities than those of working Americans. They prioritize tax cuts for the wealthy and reduced spending on programs that help working people rather than policies that would create a living wage, strengthen collective bargaining, improve public investments in education and other vital public services.
We must stop the attack on voting rights in our country. Several states have made it more difficult for citizens to exercise their right to vote by eliminating early voting, enacting restrictive voter identification laws, and making it more difficult to register to vote. Fifty years after the historic victory of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, U.S. citizens face a return to the obstructionist and discriminatory practices that block access to the most fundamental right of our democracy, the right to vote. In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted key provisions of the landmark Voting Rights Act legislation in its decision in Shelby v. Holder. Today, we cannot even get Congress to hold a hearing on legislation to redress that deplorable ruling that makes it far easier for states to enact discriminatory voting practices.
CWA, with the NAACP, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Common Cause, AFSCME and a network of 55 other organizations have joined together under the banner of the Democracy Initiative (DI) to build a movement to halt the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics, prevent the systemic manipulation and suppression of voters, and create a democracy where all Americans have an equal voice.
CWA, the Democracy Initiative, and its member organizations are building coalitions for public campaign financing and putting limits on the size of campaign contributions. These are important steps to restore the voice of ordinary citizens in politics. We are making progress in places such as Chicago, Albuquerque, Seattle, Montgomery County MD and the state of Maine.
CWA, the Democracy Initiative, and its member organizations are also actively building a movement to eliminate restrictions on voting and to make voter registration easier. Our broad coalition came together to pass automatic voter registration in Oregon and to support full citizenship rights, including the right to vote, for formerly incarcerated people.
CWA, the Democracy Initiative (DI), and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR) are helping to organize a large demonstration on June 25 in Roanoke, VA to push for movement on federal Voting Rights legislation. Roanoke, VA is the home jurisdiction of Congressman Bob Goodlatte, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, who is blocking any federal progress to strengthen voting rights and move forward on immigration reform.
Using the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 2015 as its lynchpin, this movement will hold actions and events across the country throughout the summer to bring much needed attention to the corrupting influence of money in politics and the attack on voting rights as we continue to build a mass movement to restore democracy in our nation.
Resolved: CWA, with lead partners NAACP, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, Common Cause, AFSCME and 55 other organizations, will expand and deepen the work of the Democracy Initiative to eliminate the outsized influence of the top one percent in our politics and to create an inclusive election system that gives all eligible Americans the right to vote.
Resolved: CWA will continue to work with partner organizations to mobilize for the demands of the civil rights community to restore the promise and protections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act to protect every citizen’s right to vote.
Resolved: CWA members, locals, officers and staff pledge to work in our communities to build effective organizations that will stand up to the top one percent and fight for universal voting rights and getting big money out of politics. We will find common ground with our allies and move those issues forward.
Resolved: CWA will continue to educate members to understand how the barriers to democracy disempower working Americans and block progress on our core issues of good jobs, health care, retirement security and bargaining rights.