This week in Iowa organizing…
Our Des Moines city council candidate forum last Wednesday, and the ongoing dysfunction in Washington, D.C., reminded me yet again the importance of voting and electing candidates from our movement and rooted in our communities.
So please check your voter registration, polling place, and more here, then make a plan to vote in the upcoming November 7 elections. Early voting begins this Wednesday, October 18.
That's about that for today! Please read on for ways to take action for our people and planet,
Matthew Covington (he/him)
Strategic Operations Director
Take action
This Thursday: October 19 - lunch & learn with the Power of Participation!
Participation means different things to different people. We’re inviting you to join us as we take a deep dive into one important form of participation—voting.
Please join us for a Lunch & Learn! And together we will unpack the Power of Participation, Voting Edition:
Thursday, October 19
From 11:45am to 1:00pm
At the Iowa CCI office (2001 Forest Ave, Des Moines)
They say time flies when you’re having fun, and the Power of Participation sessions are highly interactive, energizing, and a lot of fun. And we’ll enjoy lunch while we learn! You have the option to BYO or place a brown bag lunch order when you RSVP.
Please come for this great community-building event! Let us know if you can join by RSVPing here.
This weekend: October 20-22 - Buffalo Rebellion Climate Justice Summit
Big polluters like MidAmerican Energy and Summit should be paying for a just transition toward clean energy and regenerative ag practices, not taking public tax dollars for greenwashing scams like CO2 pipelines!
We need more people like you to join the movement to get real climate solutions implemented that uplift everyday people, not big corporations.
**Registration closing soon!** RSVP HERE for our second annual Climate Justice Summit in Des Moines, October 20th-22nd!
During the summit you can expect to develop your organizing skills, learn about key issues we face here in Iowa, and discuss our next steps of action! Meals provided to attendees during the summit.
This Sunday: October 22 - moving the Dubuque People's Housing agenda
Renters are on the rise! Our Dubuque People's Housing Forum was a success, and now we got to keep moving.
If you caught the forum, you probably know there’s two main questions we need to wrestle with: 1) how are we going to make an impact on the issues at Table Mound Mobile Home Park, and 2) how are we going to move forward The People's Housing Agenda?
Oct. 22nd from 1-2:30pm at Carnegie Stout Public Library, we're meeting to brainstorm further on both those questions and continue charting our course of action. We're going to need all hands and brains on deck. If you plan on joining us, please take time to register here.
Summit Carbon Solutions - our water is not for sale!
Last week we sent nearly 200 comments to Carmily Stone and Michael Anderson at the Iowa DNR, telling them to say NO to water permits for CO2 pipelines – thank YOU for taking action!
If you haven’t sent a comment you can do so here. We oppose water permits for Summit Carbon Solutions because it would:
Use massive amounts of water for a greenwashing scheme that doesn't protect our environment or tackle the climate crisis
Create a strain on nearby rural Iowans who depend on well water for daily use
Prop up unproven "technology" that overpromises and underdelivers
Extract up to 120 gallons of water per minute so the pipeline profiteers can line their pockets
The DNR is having a public hearing on these water permits on Tuesday Oct 24 at 7 PM on zoom. To RSVP for the virtual public hearing email Kelli Book at the DNR with your name, email, and that you’d like to make a comment opposing Summit’s water permit. You can send that email to Kelli here.
There's still time to join Clean Water Book Club
Book clubs started meeting and discussion is lively! Check out these groups in Des Moines and Iowa City. There are still a couple opportunities to join an Iowa CCI Clean Water Book Club to connect with others and discuss what we're reading. Finishing the book is not required for joining a club, or for joining the author call on Oct 26 to hear directly from Chris Jones!
Oct 16 @ 2pm - in person at the Cedar Valley Unitarian Universalist church in Cedar Falls
Oct 18 @ 6:00pm - on Zoom - REGISTER HERE
Oct 26 @ 7:00pm - author call with Chris Jones - REGISTER HERE
There's still time to join the book club! Visit www.iowacci.org/book to sign up, get the book, download our hosting guide, book club discussion questions and more.
Updates
Our Des Moines City Council endorsement!
At CCI Action we believe in doing politics differently. That means using elections to advance our key issue campaigns and supporting candidates who believe, like we do, that we need to put people and the planet first, and supporting candidates who understand that change comes from the bottom up.
That’s why we’re excited to announce our endorsement of Chelsea Lepley for Des Moines City Council Ward 2!
Lepley (they/she) has been organizing with her neighbors and with CCI Action for many years to uplift the voices and the stories in her community, and we know she’ll take that energy into office with her.
Early voting begins on October 18. If you want to elect a people's champion, help us get out the vote by making calls or knocking doors:
Wednesday, Oct. 18 door knocking, 4-7pm
Wednesday, Oct. 18 virtual phone bank, 4-7pm
Saturday, Nov. 4 door knocking, 1-4pm
Health insurance companies on the run...
On October 12, CCI members went to the downtown Cedar Rapids office of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield as part of a national 'Care Over Cost' day of action. Check out coverage of the action here!
It was only fitting that we were met with locked doors and lights turned off. Wellmark was as physically inaccessible as health insurance companies are all too often inaccessible when we try and get the care we need by appealing unjust claim denials.
But that didn't stop us from delivering our message that an industry that denies nearly 250 million health insurance claims a year isn't providing care - it's generating profit for CEOs and shareholders at the expense of our health.
And it's why we need Congress and the Biden administration to take action to rein in the abuses of the health insurance industry and their unjust claim denial scams. Join folks across the country by clicking here to make a quick phone call to your Representative.
What We're Reading
These are a few links that are informing our work - we've shared them so that you can read, too!
The forgotten history of American populism [Jacobin]
Beyond the myth of rural America [The New Yorker]
Any antidote to climate anxiety involves organizing [Waging Nonviolence]
There's trouble in the city of refuge [Bleeding Heartland]
Revealed: how a little-known pollution rule keeps the air dirty for millions of Americans [The Guardian]