Distributed Organizing on Medicare for All Wins Challenges

Distributed Organizing on Medicare for All: Wins, Challenges, and the Path Forward Kelly Coogan-Gehr, Assistant Director of Public and Community Advocacy, NNU Jasmine Ruddy, Medicare for All Team Lead, NNU

Nurses & Big Organizing: Building an Authentic Grassroots Movement for Medicare for All Nurses are on the frontlines of our country’s acute health care crisis Nurses see how neoliberalism kills patients. Nurses exist in a constant tension between their obligation to their licensure—their oath to their patients— and their obligation to their employer.

Our Values: Nurses partner with patients and their communities Nurses partner with their patients and communities, never with management or any corporate entity. Our partnership with patients and communities necessitates that we ascribe to the philosophy of big organizing because we believe that, in order to win, we must go directly to the people. Politicians can’t ignore thousands of calls asking them to support Medicare for All.

NNU & Big Organizing Recognizing that the scale of the challenges we face must be met with an organized movement just as large Open-sourcing the work so that mass numbers of people can easily plug in Expanding capacity beyond what paid staff can accomplish

Big Organizing or, Everybody In, Nobody Out!

NNU’s Distributed Medicare for All Campaign: A grand experiment in big organizing for an issue campaign The questions remain: Does big organizing work for issue campaigns that do not have concrete electoral deadlines? Does big organizing work to build long-term, broadbased social justice movements? San Luis Obispo Barnstorm February 2019

Seizing the Moment, or The Plan Is Centralized. The Work Is Distributed.

How Distributed Organizing Helped Us Reach New Places Birmingham, AL, Barnstorm

How Distributed Organizing Helped Us Reach New Places Super Volunteer Kent Haines

How Distributed Organizing Hasn't Always Gone Far Enough Avoiding burnout: Engaging volunteers in constant campaigning with no clear deadline The need for strategic, coordinated pressure campaigns Organizing vs. mobilizing: Reaching unorganized communities

How An Evolving, Blended Model of Distributed Organizing with Local, Grassroots, Coalition Organizing Can Help Us Win We still need maximum participation and a way to scale Distributed organizing can help create huge, visible moments Going forward, how can we do both?

Brooklyn, NY, Case Study Brooklyn, NY, People’s Assembly, NY-8, Hakeem Jeffries

Brooklyn, NY, Case Study Winning Jeffries’ Support of Medicare for All!

Where We Go from Here Continued commitment to distributed organizing Different cases for different districts, layered strategy Our next steps: o Developing blended-model pressure campaigns for key House districts o Next Medicare for All Weekend of Action in late January

Group Brainstorm Activity -Putting this model to the test Breakout into small groups Assigned target district Objectives o Review one pager on target o Discuss and brainstorm o Start to write out strategy Assign volunteer in your group to: o Read the one-pager on your assigned target o Be a note taker o Report back on the group's brainstorm (if time allows)