SNAP Notes

Dear Friends and Supporters,

When we last wrote you, it was to inform you of Students for a New American Politics PAC’s commitment to expanding the progressive majority in Congress in 2008. The decision to forgoe the energy and buzz surrounding the presidential campaign was not – as you might have realized – one we took lightly.

This choice was about how we can best realize the progressive vision of America that we laid out at SNAP’s inception in 2005 in our statement of principles, a vision that we still believe to be “motivated by the best of traditional American values.” If you haven’t done so in a while, take a look at that statement – you can find it at www.snappac.org/principles.php. That is the vision and the commitment we as progressive students have brought and will continue to bring to the work we do, and the critical choices we make as an organization.

Starting this week, we’ll be highlighting the ways in which the choice to work toward a stronger progressive majority relates to each and every one of our principles – and in doing so, we hope to show you why funding as many students as possible in 2008 to do this work is more important than ever.

We’d like to begin by highlighting one of the principles that matters most to us: “We believe that ordinary people should be rewarded for hard work, and that everyone should have the right to organize to ensure recognition of their work.”

Two weeks ago, a majority of the U.S. Senate upheld their belief in this value as well by voting in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act, a piece of legislation that would restore the right to organize to millions of American workers for whom it effectively does not exist today. By mandating that employers recognize the right of workers to unionize through majority sign-up processes and strengthening government oversight and enforcement of worker’s rights, the EFCA would have a tremendous positive impact on the ability of workers to form unions and create good jobs to sustain them and their families.

Yet because anti-worker legislators countered the EFCA by preventing a vote on the bill’s final passage, and because the progressive pro-worker majority was so small – 51 votes instead of the required 60 to go forward – the measure was defeated.

Why is this an issue that’s important to SNAP PAC? For two key reasons: first, a clear majority of American workers indicate in poll after poll that they would join a union tomorrow if they could, and yet the obstacles created by employer intimidation and lack of enforcement have left the vast majority unable to realize this prospect. Second, we believe the progressive movement will never recover its former strength without a stronger labor movement, which can only be a reality if more workers are able to form and join unions.

We ask you to stand up for workers’ rights by standing with us for a stronger progressive majority in Congress. Please contribute to SNAP PAC today in whatever amount you are able and help us realize the dream of an America where every worker has access to good pay and benefits and a voice at work.

Passage of the most important labor reform in decades could be just around the corner. Let’s not wait any longer than necessary. Please contribute today.

Thank you for everything you do.

In solidarity,

Hugh Baran & Margaret Sharp

Executive Directors, Students for a New American Politics PAC