I gathered some photos and videos from the populism 2015 conference, which took place over the weekend. This is a for the record diary to gather material for you to do further research on the participants and organizers of that conference. I have my own videos, but can't get them edited and uploaded and til I am ready to do so, the event is news from yesterday. I am also tired of the issue, as I don't see, what it will bring.

The conference was an effort to network of grass root groups under the umbrella of their National People's Action platform. I came out of the conference with asking myself what is new about that platform, and how will any of these points get into the legislative bodies. I couldn't get into workshops and so far I don't find material about them. Here again the platform's points. Other than the images you see in here, a NY based group called VOCAL was very active and Black Lives Matter as well. I feel it's a bit unfair not to cover them in here. But other than my own material, I couldn't find anything online. I might add them at a later day. I decided to not cross post this on dailykos. I just am out of steam and think it's not worth it.

1. Rebuild America for the 21st Century and Create Jobs for All.
America’s public infrastructure—from roads to rail to water and energy systems – is increasingly dangerous to our health and a drag on our economy. National investment in rebuilding America will create millions of high-quality jobs, bid wages up, help close the racial jobs gap, and make America a better place to live and work.

2. Raise Wages, Empower Workers and Reverse Inequality.
Inequality has reached new extremes, as more and more jobs become contingent and part-time, with low pay and few benefits. We should lift the floor under every worker by guaranteeing a living wage, paid sick and vacation days, and affordable health care. We should empower workers to form unions and bargain collectively. We must curb perverse CEO compensation policies that give executives personal incentives to plunder their own companies.

3. Invest in a Green Economy.
Catastrophic climate change is a clear and present danger. The United States should lead the global green revolution that builds strong and resilient communities. Public investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency can create jobs and opportunity, particularly in communities of color that have borne the worst consequences of toxic corporate practices.

4. Eliminate Institutionalized Racism to Open Opportunity to All.
In a society of increasing diversity, ending systemic racial disparities is vital to building economic prosperity. This begins with comprehensive immigration reform, expanded voting rights and an end to mass incarceration and the systematic criminalization of people of color.

5. Guarantee Women’s Economic Equality.
We will ensure that women are guaranteed the same pay, protections and opportunities as men in the workplace and in society. Families must have access to high-quality child care and paid leave from the workplace for childbirth, illness and vacation. Women must also be guaranteed affordable health care and a secure retirement – with Social Security credit for work in the household.

6. Provide a High-Quality Education to Every Child
Every child must have the right to high-quality, free public education from preschool to college. This requires providing the basics—preschool, smaller classes, summer and after-school programs, and skilled teachers. Free four-year, post-high school education should be available for all who seek it. We must also provide relief to the generation now burdened with a student debt that they may never pay off.

7. Expand Shared Security for the 21st Century.
No child should go hungry in America. Health care should be a right, not a privilege. Every worker deserves a secure retirement. A job should be available to everyone willing and able to work. We will strengthen and expand America’s shared security programs – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, food support and housing assistance. Greater shared security makes the economy more robust by enabling entrepreneurs and workers to take risks, knowing that they can survive failure.

8. Enforce Fair Taxes on Corporations and the Wealthy.
Our tax code rigs the rules to favor the few. Multinationals pay lower tax rates than small domestic businesses. Billionaire investors pay lower rates than their secretaries. Top income tax rates have been lowered even as working people face ever-higher sales taxes and fees. It is time for the rich and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes so that we can invest in an economy that will work for all.

9. Forge a Global Strategy that Works for Working People.
Our global trade and tax policies are rigged by multinational companies to drive down pay and worker protections while harming the environment. We need more but balanced trade, global standards that protect the rights of workers, consumers and the environment. That requires a crackdown on tax havens, currency manipulation, and deals that allow corporation to trample basic labor rights here and abroad.

10. Make Wall Street Serve the Real Economy.
Financial deregulation has devastated our economy and protected banks that are too big to fail, too big to manage and too big to jail. The financial casino fosters ever more dangerous speculation, while investment in the real economy lags. The resulting booms and busts devastate families and small businesses. We need to break up the big banks, levy a speculation tax, and provide low-income families with safe and affordable banking services. We should crack down on payday lenders and other schemes that exploit vulnerable working families.

11. Change Priorities to Address Real Security Needs.
Our current national security policies commit us to policing the world. The result costs lives and drains public resources. We need a real security policy that makes military intervention a last resort, and focuses on global threats like climate change, poverty and inequality. We should reduce military budgets and properly support humanitarian programs.

12. Fight for Democracy and Curb the Power of Big Money.
From big-money politics to the assault on the right to vote and a corrupted lobby culture in Washington, our democracy is under assault. It is no accident that the assault has escalated as a new majority of people of color, young people and working women has begun to emerge. We need to close the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, and expose the entrenched interests that buy our legislators. We need public financing of elections that bans corporate and big money. We must guarantee the right to vote, with easy access to registration and the polls.

Ok, as I have that out of the way, the only thing that came to my mind is that these platform's points are so common sense (like in d'oh) that I wonder why they had to be formulated. All of them should be a given in a democratic republic. None of them are apparently part of your current one.

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Jim Hightower, Syndicated Columnist

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George Goehl is Executive Director, National People's Action 810 N. Milwaukee Chicago, IL 60642, Tel.:312.243.3035

“We’ve come to D.C.,” Goehl said, “to let folks in on a little secret: inequality is not new. … What’s new is that the issue is front page news. What’s new is that it’s not about charts and graphs. This isn’t about numbers. This is about human lives. This is about dreams deferred, hope diminished, and stripping away of people’s human dignity. And that ain’t right.”

What progressive populists are looking for - By George Goehl -April 18, 2015, 08:00 am

3.

LeeAnn Hall, Executive Director, Alliance for a Just Society
HQ: 908-A Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20003 - T: 206.568.5400

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Fred Azcarate, Executive Director, USAction

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Robert Borosage, Co-Director, Campaign for America's Future

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If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
“One question,” Borosage asked, “are you ready to submit quietly?” The answer was a resounding, “No!”
“We’re going to build a movement, and make that demand,” Borosage continued, “We have the people to drive that demand into the political process … we have the plan to move than program … and to shake the boardrooms of corporations and the bordellos of Wall Street.”
“We’re not talking about redecorating here, but challenging organized money with mobilized people” Borosage said, and “making finance serve the people instead of savaging them.”

Hillary Is In: The Challenge for New Populism - by Robert L. Borosage (Thanks to praenomen, who wrote about the meaning of this article here).
Progressives Ratify The Populism2015 Platform - April 20, 2015

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Booby Tolbert, VOCAL-NY and Vice President, NPA

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Janice "Jay" Johnson, Treasurer, Virginia Organizing/AJS

10.

Angelica Rivera,
Education Chair, Action NY Push Buffalo/ USAction (Alliance for Quality Education)

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Rev. Dr. Eugene Barnes, Metanoia Centers for Innovation, President of NPA

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Brianna Tong, IIRON Student Network / NPA

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Barb Kalbach, Iowa Citizen's for Community Improvement

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Rep. Keith Ellison spoke at the Populism 2015 conference in Washington D.C. Sunday. Representing the Fifth Congressional District of Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives, his commitment to consumer justice led him to write legislation that was included in the Credit Cardholder’s Bill of Rights of 2009. This law prevents an unfair practice called “universal default,” which allowed lenders to increase their customers’ interest rates if they had late payments with another lender. In response to the foreclosure crisis that began in 2008, Rep. Ellison also wrote the Protecting Tenants in Foreclosure Act, which requires banks and other new owners to provide at least 90 days’ notice of eviction to renters occupying foreclosed homes.

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Bob Cook from PUSH Buffalo

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Vien Truong, Environmental Equity Director of the Greenling Institute

Truong related her experience working to make polluters pay in California, yielding millions of dollars to help low-income communities “green up.” “We’re not waiting for DC to change,” Truong said, “we’re waiting for them to catch up to us.”

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VOCAL NY Brooklyn Images

Today's Rally

Above Video shows Soundbites and Images from Today's Bold Actions with Trumpka and Sen. Sanders - TTP rally