Maine People's Alliance

Victory on Financial Reform!
MPA Canvassers have been criss-crossing the state to build support for federal financial reform legislation with new consumer protections. It looks like their efforts have paid off, as Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have now agreed to support the bill.

MPA Fights to Protect the Penobscot
The Portland Press Herald recently featured our work to ensure a full cleanup of the mercury at the contaminated HoltraChem site in Orrington.

(MPA Environmental Organizer Ryan Tipping-Spitz and MPA Board Member Tim Conmee on the shore of the Penobscot in Orrington)

MPA Says Thanks For Health Care Reform
MPA members in Portland and Bangor visited the offices of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and Congressman Mike Michaud to thank them for voting in favor of federal health care reform.

MPA Endorses Immigration Principles
MPA Federal Issues Organizer Ben Chin and representatives of other groups gather in Portland to support fair, comprehensive immigration reform:

Snowe Vote Is A Small Step Forward
MPA Health Care Organizer Ali Vander Zanden responds to Senator Snowe's vote for the Senate Finance Committee health care reform legislation on WMTW: video

Anthem's Greed
MPA Health Care Organizer Ali Vander Zanden and MPA members star in this new short documentary from BraveNew Films:

Nancy's Health Care Story

To tell your own story, visit healthcareformaine.com.

MPA Penobscot Cruise

Thanks for making our fundraising cruise on the Penobscot River a rousing success and for helping us in our fight to protect the river from mercury and our other environmental and social justice campaingns.

MPA Organizers Meet With Senator Snowe
Three MPA organizers met seperately with Senator Snowe on Tuesday, August 18 2008 to discuss different aspects of the health care debate. All urged Senator Snowe to support real reform and a strong public option.

Maine Small Business Coalition Launches Ad
The Maine Small Business Coalition, together with the national Main Street Alliance have launched a new TV ad in Maine making the case for health care reform.

MPA Faults Hannaford for Anti-Union Tactics
MPA members and former Hannaford employees gathered in Bangor on August 12 to stand against the anti-union tactics used by the grocery chain and to advocate for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Maine Public Radio Coverage

MPA Organizes Maine's Largest Health Care Rally
On July 18, MPA, along with the SEIU, AFSCME, The League of Young Voters and others organized the largest health care rally in Maine's History. More than 500 Mainers attended and made a strong statement in favor of universal coverage and a public health care plan.

Health Care Radio Ads
MPA now has radio ads airing around the state supporting a strong public health care option and urging Mainers to contact Senators Snowe and Collins. Listen below.

MPA Rallies for Universal Health Care
Hundreds of MPA members in Bangor, Portland and Augusta held rallies over the past week to support a strong, federal public health care option.

MPA Members Lobby on Health Care in D.C.
49 Maine activists recently visited our nation's capitol to make their voices heard in favor of real national health care reform including a public plan to provide an alternative to expensive private insurance.

Thousands of other local lobbyists from all over the country joined the Maine contingent to make June 25th the largest health care lobby day in American history.

Maine small business owners Melanie Collins and Adele Ngoy meet with Congresswoman Chellie Pingree.

Politico article on the rally for a public plan.

New Report on Maine Health Care Affordability
The Maine People's Alliance, as part of the Health Care for America Now campaign, released a report on the affordability of health care in Maine on Monday, June 22nd in Bangor.

The report finds that health care premiums have increased more than 90% from 2000 to 2007 and that without reform health care costs will equal 58% of median houshold incomes in Maine by 2016. The report also cites the results of an independent poll that finds 83% of Americans support health care reform that includes a public option to bring down costs and provide coverage for everyone in America. Read the report.

Read a front-page story on the report in the Bangor Daily News.

MPA Protests BPA in Children's Products

On June 16, MPA members held a press conference in front of a 20-foot tall inflatable baby bottle outside of a Bangor Rite-Aid in order to bring attention to the sale of consumer products containing bisphenol-A and other dangerous chemicals. MPA members helped to pass the Kid-Safe Products Law in Maine and are working to pass strong federal regulations to prevent exposure to toxins.

Bangor Daily News article
WVII TV video clip

MPA Portland Dinner
Thanks to everyone who helped to make the annual Portland MPA dinner such a huge success.

More than 275 members and supporters gathered on Friday, June 5th to honor progressive leaders and volunteers including Jacquie Murphy, Betsy Smith and Equality Maine, Rep. Tim Driscoll and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree.

Congratulations to Kevin and Judy
MPA members Kevin and Judy Simpson are being honored at the Maine Initiatives dinner on June 17th for their long and ongoing committment to progressive values. Below are some of their experiences, in their own words.

"For many years, we've volunteered our efforts and donated financial resources to organizations which encourage and facilitate greater self-determination for marginalized or exploited people.

Back in the 60's, living in Boston, we worked with the NAACP, and the Congress of Racial Equality, protesting school segregation and housing discrimination, and registering people to vote

Returning to Maine in the 70's, we worked on the grape boycott, and started financially supporting the United Farm Workers. And when the meat packers, construction workers, paper workers, and electrical workers asked for support of their union activities, we showed up. Kevin took over leadership of an effort to unionize a printing company he worked for, but the protracted election process enabled the loss of too many supporters through aggravated attrition, and the campaign was defeated. If we had Employee Free Choice that would not have happened.

We vigorously protested the Vietnam war.

Working in the Lewiston-Auburn Coalition on Central America, and leading the local chapter of Neighbor to Neighbor, we lobbied against U.S. Government supported violence against workers and union leaders in Central America.

Trying to expand our effectiveness, we became active in the Democratic Party. Kevin was elected chair of the Auburn Democratic City Committee in 1974 and 5, and Judy was elected to a place at the state convention over the then mayor of Auburn.

Later we joined the Maine Peoples Alliance, with Judy becoming chosen a member of the board, and Kevin chosen chair of MPA Campaign Vote.

In MPA we work on many campaigns, telephoning, going door-to-door, and lobbying legislators. We have been especially active in support of Universal Single Payer Health Care, equal rights campaigns, and opposition to TABOR. We help sustain MPA with monthly donations, which we also did for George Lakoff's Rockridge Institute until it was disbanded.

We feel we're being honored not so much for how much we do, but for continuing to do it. Motivated by a sense of fairness and moral outrage, and armed with the knowledge that injustice is not a universal and permanent feature of our world - that's an illusion created when people become convinced of their powerlessness - we just keep at it, and along the way have managed to inspire others to also continue in the struggle for more justice in the world."

Mainers cry "Mayday!" on health care
Hundreds gathered in cities throughout Maine on May 1st to visit the district offices of Senators Snowe and Collins and urge them to lead the way in support of a national, public health care plan.

MPA Lobby Day 2009
More than 100 MPA members visited the legislature this April to speak with their representative about important issues facing the state. They lobbied on a variety of bills, including the equal marriage law, a ban on racial profiling and bills supporting single-payer, universal health care.

MPA Recieves Maine Initiatives Grant for Change
MPA is proud to receive a three-year, $75,000 grant from Maine Initiatives, a community of donors and activists working together to tackle the root causes of economic, social, and environmental problems. This is the first time Maine Initiatives has made a grant of this size to any organization.

MPA will be using these resources to continue to pursue an agenda of change on a wide range of social, economic, and environmental justice issues in Maine with a focus on grassroots organizing and civic engagement.

MPA Members Protest Anthem Rate Hikes
MPA members visited Anthem Insurance's offices in Augusta recently to oppose the 18% rate hikes that have been proposed on Mainers' health insurance plans.

Visible Community Movie Premieres

For more information: Movie website, Lewiston Sun Journal article.

MPA Works For Health Care Transparency

The Maine People's Alliance was proud to help launch the Maine Voices for Coverage legislative agenda. Ten of our members from all over the state traveled to Augusta to announce our support for two bills that will increase transparency in the health care system. These bills, sponsored by Rep. Sharon Treat and Senator Phil Bartlett, will increase transparency in cost and quality information for both insurers and health care providers. This legislation will open up insurance company books, require them to be transparent in their requests for rate increases, and tie premium costs to the actual cost of health care, all important steps in our fight to institute a single payer health care system in Maine.

All of us will benefit from the passage of these bills by having the information we need as health care consumers to make meaningful choices about our health and how we spend our money.

For more information regarding these transparency policies and how they will improve health care in Maine, see the report: A Transparency Imperative: A Consumer's Guide to Public Policies that Will Lower Costs and Improve Quality.

Feel free to contact Senator Bartlett and Representative Treat to thank them for sponsoring this legislation.

Work for MPA!

We are a looking for summer phone and field organizers! Get a job you can feel good about, apply today!

Maine People’s Alliance—Organizing for a Better Maine!

565 Congress St., Suite 200, Portland, Maine 04101; (207) 797-0967; mpa@mainepeoplesalliance.org
27 State Street, Suite 44, Bangor, Maine 04401; (207) 990-0672; jesse@mainepeoples alliance.org
145 Lisbon Street, Suite 201, Lewiston, Maine 04240; (207) 782-7876; kate@mainepeoplesalliance.org