in the last real grassroots movement was 1994 and it was on the other side, on my side. i don t think that s true. i think the real grassroots mobilization, the million moms march, it s hard, believe me, it s hard, dude. believe me, try to go get 100,000 or 200,000 people legislatively, mattered to what, nothing. i agree, but part of that is there have been a lot of victories in the 90s, had been a lot of victories in the 90s. the countermobilization the last ten years has been the story on capitol hill, absolutely. that s where the grassroots energy has been. this deal today, as tentative as it may be, as small as it may be in some ways, shows that balance of power has shifted. the gun control supporters don t go where there s support on the other side. new york does a smart thing, puts people in jail for handgun violations, you go to jail for two years and new york enforces the law. chicago has a similar law, doesn t enforce. you get caught with a gun in chicago, bound
i m interested, there was a bit of a mixed bag for unions. michigan there was a bit of a loss, particularly around this, i think it was called the working families amendment that would have put collective bargaining in the state constitution. but there were other big wins especially for education unions. i was saying we had the push back against voter suppression. was this the push back against the wisconsin scott walker behavior since 2010? i think so. i think also that we re hearing all this talk already that labor unions are back. i think more than anything it speaks to the absolute need and how vital it is to have that grassroots mobilization. it s not enough to say i have a union with 10,000 members. that means nothing if those people are not willing to get up there and vote and discussion the issues, to talk to people. it speaks to the grassroots efforts like ohio, lesser extent in wisconsin. in the midwest they were able to energize their members and base
commissioner, who has been cracking down on private possession of marijuana, especially among young african-american men who are stopped and frisked by the nypd, now says he and the mayor support new york s governor. mayor bloomberg totally supports this legislation. he hopes that it passes in this session as do i. joining me now is the founder and executive director of the drug policy alliance, an organization promoting an alternative to the war on drugs. this is a major breakthrough to see the governor of new york now and to see ray kelly, it s kind of really surprising, to see new york city police commissioner, who s been really, really tough, really crack down on this with the support of mayor bloomberg. to see them coming around like this, it s a historic event. it really is. miss organization and other ally groups have been, you know, making this a major issue the last few years with grassroots
drug policy alliance, an organization promoting an alternative to the war on drugs. this is a major breakthrough to see the governor of new york now and to see ray kelly, it s kind of really surprising, to see new york city police commissioner, who s been really, really tough, really crack down on this with the support of mayor bloomberg. to see them coming around like this, it s a historic event. it really is. miss organization and other ally groups have been, you know, making this a major issue the last few years with grassroots mobilization. but the police chief, the mayor, the district attorneys in new york just kept resisting. so cuomo coming on board now and saying i m introducing my own bill on this. we re going to move this thing forward. then whatever he had to do to get the police chief and the mayor and the d.a.s on board, this is a major change. this is going to result in thousands or tens of thousands of young african-american men being arrested needlessly.
739,886 votes. the margin is 204 votes. on a wisconsin election law, prosser has three days after the official results have been tallied to request a recount. wisconsin election chief kevin kennedy believes a recount will be completed by may 15th. the reason, of course, the eyes of many activists are glued to wisconsin is because of the historic assault on collective bargaining rights launched by the state s republican governor scott walker and his legislative allies. and the remarkable progressive grassroots mobilization that s come together in response. walker s law, which was finally passed last month is being challenged in state court and will very likely end up in front of the state supreme court. which is part of the reason activists on both sides in the state and outside focused their energy on this race.