Citizen Action Southeast Organizing Cooperative

09/28/2026

"The upcoming G20 ministerial meeting in Milwaukee from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 will feature leaders from around the world coming together to discuss these matters, especially trade, making Wisconsin the stage for discussing global policy on everything from artificial intelligence to fuel prices. World leaders including Trump will have the opportunity to hear from working people, especially those who will take to the streets...

Under the current global trade regime, workers find themselves between a rock and a hard place. For instance, workers at CNH Industrial in Racine and Burlington, Iowa, went on strike in 2022 for 260 days and gained a new contract in 2023. But then, workers at the Racine plant found their company announcing layoffs and plans to shift some production to Mexico in 2024.
Iconic firms in Milwaukee like Master Lock had their workforces depleted in the 1990s after NAFTA was passed and production moved south. Master Lock totally closed in the city in 2024.
Workers fed up with being treated like pawns by their corporate employers and elected political leaders will convene in Milwaukee before and during the G20 talks...

Free trade deals have cost Wisconsin considerably. Thankfully, the working people hurt by these deals still have the strength to make their voices heard. It’s time for our lawmakers and the other leaders at the G20 to listen to them, and start making deals to benefit working people instead of harming them."

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2026/09/28/g20-summit-in-milwaukee-gives-working-people-a-platform-to-demand-change/
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Join us to learn what a worker-centered trade policy could look like.

TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 29 @ 6PM
📍 UWM | 3243 N. Downer Ave. | Curtin Hall, Room 175
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th, 10AM

Milwaukee G20 Rally: Fair Trade for Working Families, Meet at: 941 E. Wisconsin (The bright orange sunburst sculpture in Milwaukee, officially titled "The Calling"

The G20 meetings in Milwaukee this week are an opportunity for farmers and workers hurt by global trade deals to speak out

09/26/2026

The whole goal is getting that Democratic trifecta, and we talked about that throughout the campaign as well, that it is really important that we retain the governor’s office,” said Becky Cooper, Hong’s campaign manager and now oversees “We Make Better Possible,” which aims to engage people with progressive policies and candidates.

The tour will launch in Milwaukee Saturday, with stops in Beloit, Stevens Point, Menomonie, Green Bay, Oshkosh, Madison and Ashland over the course of the next month. At the events, supporters can connect with local community groups, and will also hear from Hong about supporting Crowley and other Democrats.

“Throughout the course of the campaign, we saw how passionate people were about making things right in Wisconsin,” Francesca Hong said in a social media post announcing the tour. “It was never about just one candidate. It was about our neighbors, families, and future.”

https://www.wpr.org/news/francesca-hong-democratic-trifecta-crowley-campaign-tour

See you tomorrow in Milwaukee at Black Husky, 909 E Locust St, 3:00pm

Francesca Hong, the progressive state legislator who narrowly lost the Democratic primary for governor, is hitting the road over the next month to rally her supporters around other Democratic candidates this November.

09/25/2026

Much of the media debate about the 2026 elections presumes voters are making ideological choices between moderate and progressive Democrats, and democratic socialists. This presumption that voters bring strong ideological commitments to the ballot box is refuted by over 70 years of voting research.

In this Special Edition of Battleground Wisconsin Podcast, Robert Kraig interviews political scientist Nathan Kalmoe, the Executive Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal at UW-Madison, on what truly influences the voting behavior of most Americans. Kalmoe is the co-author of Neither Liberal Nor Conservative: Ideological Innocence in the American Public.

Listen now >> https://soundcloud.com/citizen-action-of-wi/bg759

09/22/2026

Corporations derive their power from the states where they are chartered. For that reason, virtually every state can curtail the corporate domination of politics. Tom Moore, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, is the mastermind behind the “Corporate Power Reset,” a legal framework for states to leverage their existing authority to end the era of corporate and dark money in politics—all without amending the Constitution, or waiting around for the Supreme Court to reverse its decision in Citizens United.

“If business corporations and nonprofit corporations are destroying our democracy through a bunch of unregulated, undisclosed spending, we have the authority … to haul them back in, chop that power off, and send them back out,” said Moore...

“I’m never ever going to convince the Supreme Court that they’re going to enjoy eating the spider,” Moore, opting for vivid imagery, told the Prospect, “but I will convince them to eat the spider if the alternative is drinking a glass of battery acid.”

And by the time this case would reach the Supremes, there may be more than two state laws with which the justices would have to grapple. “The path that we should be taking in fighting Citizens United is to get lots of states picking this up so that we create an unmistakable groundswell, and then force federal action on this,” Sam Guckenheimer, lead organizer at Indivisible Hawaii’s Kona chapter, said. Should the Court’s conservatives strike down such state laws, the mobilizations around those laws could prompt federal action, including constitutional action, to strike down Citizens United.

Read more >> https://prospect.org/2026/09/22/oct-2026-can-the-states-stop-corporate-domination-of-our-politics/

Attend "Working Families vs. Oligarchs: The Stakes of the G20 Trade Summit In Milwaukee."

Join us Tuesday, September 29th, 6:00 pm, 175 Curtin Hall, 3243 N. Downer Ave., Milwaukee.

On the evening before the G20 trade ministers hold their summit in Milwaukee, join experts and activists speaking about the global trade regime and a real alternative.

Multinational corporations and Wall Street investors created the global trade regime, which has devastated workers, farmers, the environment, and democratic governance.

For the first time in decades, a new forward to an alternative ordering of global trade rules is possible. But only if working people name it and organize around it.

This teach-in will feature a panel discussion led by John Nichols, Washington editor of the Nation Magazine, associate editor of the Madison Capital Times, interviewing Wisconsin and international voices,

Please RSVP in advance (so organizers can properly plan for attendance) >> https://tinyurl.com/G20MKESept29

States giveth corporations the right to exist, so the states can taketh away their political spending power—or at least, Hawaii and Montana are trying.

09/22/2026

Medicaid enrollees from five states and leading medical organizations filed a lawsuit Friday challenging new Medicaid work requirements.

The broad tax and spending law that President Donald Trump signed last summer, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, established work, school or community service requirements for low-income adults who receive Medicaid under expansion provisions and waiver programs across 44 states. The law exempts people who are medically frail from work requirements, but the lawsuit argues a new administration rule severely restricts who qualifies...

“Creating barriers to healthcare coverage for the most vulnerable needlessly puts people’s lives at risk and inevitably drives up the cost of care for everyone,” Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said in a news release. “These are folks who should be focused on getting the help and care they desperately need, not overcoming even more obstacles.”

Read more >> https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2026/09/21/repub/medical-groups-patients-sue-trump-administration-over-medicaid-work-requirements/

Learn more about how you can get involved with Citizen Action's Healthcare for All organizing, contact: [email protected]

Medicaid enrollees from five states and leading medical organizations filed a lawsuit Friday challenging new Medicaid work requirements.

09/21/2026

Medicare for All is a winning policy supported by the vast majority of Democratic voters that can give the party a boost, including in battleground states, according to a new survey from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and her political action committee.

The Medicare for All PAC survey found that not only do 94 percent of Democratic voters support a universal public health insurance program, but so do a majority of moderate and independent voters. It also found that Medicare for All is a winning issue in battleground states, where Jayapal said progressives are constantly told to moderate their messaging on universal health care.

Overall, 60 percent of participants said they favored Medicare for All, up from 54 percent in a similar but not identical survey last year. Even in the more conservative battleground districts, support remained at 55 percent, “well ahead of partisanship in those districts,” Jayapal told reporters on a call last week.

Read more >> https://prospect.org/2026/09/21/medicare-for-all-universal-health-care-jayapal-democrats/

Learn more about Citizen Action's Healthcare for All organizing, contact: [email protected]

Even more people want Medicare for All than did last December, a new poll shows.

09/18/2026

Citizen Action Northeast Organizing Cooperative members met with state State Senator Jamie Wall in support of a BadgerCare Public Option, members rally in Washington, D.C., G20 rally in Milwaukee, and more!

Read the new Citizen Action Weekend '26 Newsletter >> https://citizenactionwi.org/.../weekend26newsletter-sept18/

Have great weekend Wisconsin!

09/18/2026

The brilliant Lori Wallach, the Director of Rethink Trade, joins us to discuss why the G20 is coming to Milwaukee September 30th.

Lori is the leading voice critiquing the global trade regime and articulating an alternative.

Lori educates us on how Wall Street and multinational corporations rigged the system to reconstruct our political economy to extract and funnel wealth upward.

We discuss the real opportunity ahead to create a new trade regime that centers our communities and our people.

Listen now >> https://soundcloud.com/citizen-action-of-wi/bg758

09/17/2026

There are 800,000 Wisconsin workers who make less than $20/hour, 30% of workers (50% make less than $25), and yet in every area of Wisconsin the living wage, the amount needed to afford the basics of life, is over $21 per hour for a single person!

The affordability crisis is caused by a double whammy of artificially depressed wages and skyrocketing cost of essentials, such as gas, health care, housing, utilities, groceries, and everything else we need to thrive.

The stagnant minimum wage is not an accident, it is not natural, it is a sign of the corruption of our democracy. The economy has been rigged against working people to benefit the wealthy and the powerful through the lobbying and political might of exploitative employers like fast food chains and big box stores, and big corporate lobbying interests like Wisconsin. Manufactures and Commerce (WMC). 95% of workers making below $20 work for large corporations.

Corporate and wealthy voices are heard more loudly than the people at the State Capitol. Democracy is broken when elected officials act on behalf of powerful economic interests rather than the people they are sworn to represent.

As a result, working people have lost their bargaining power in the economy. Without a reasonable minimum wage, and with few unions (due to rampant legalized union busting), workers are left at the mercy of the greedy and the powerful.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2026/09/17/gas-in-wisconsin-jumps-23-cents-overnight-diesel-breaks-records-again/91805725007/

Take action to support the $20/hour minimum wage bill (Assembly Bill 1158 and Senate Bill 1123) by State Representative Angelina Cruz and State Senator Kelda Roys >> https://secure.ngpvan.com/ay2gKXWeqEaTXBquBV61qQ2

To join our $20 Wage organizing, contact: [email protected]

A second gas price spike in as many weeks has pushed Wisconsin gas up 61 cents over eight days. Diesel smashes all-time record for 6th day in a row.

09/17/2026

An Interview with Lori Wallach on the new Battleground Wisconsin Podcast!

Lori Wallach, the Director of Rethink Trade, discusses why the G20 is coming to Milwaukee on September 30th and how working people are organizing in response.

Lori will be a featured speaker at a teach-in the night before the G20 meeting starts.

Lori educates us on the history of the neoliberal global trade economy, its failure to protect working people, and the opportunities to create a new trade regime that centers our communities and our people.
.. And of course a Tick Report!

Listen to and share the show!

Following the latest Tick Report where the explosion of ticks and involuntary veganism rages into fall, we take a deep dive into the state of our economy. First: We talk about the Fed’s raising of in