Ayanna Pressley is an advocate, a policy-maker, an activist, and a survivor. On November 6, 2018, Ayanna was elected to represent Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, making her the first woman of color to be elected to Congress from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Ayanna believes that the people closest to the pain should be closest to the power, and that a diversity of voices in the political process is essential to crafting more effective public policy.
The wealth gap in this country is a serious and immediate challenge – especially in Massachusetts and Boston, which have some of the highest levels of income inequality in the nation. While those at the very top amass enormous fortunes, everyone else gets left behind. For workers in the middle class, stagnant wages cannot keep up with the rising cost of expenses like child care and rent, let alone allow families to save for retirement or other priorities. And those unemployed or underemployed are too often forgotten altogether. We have to fundamentally change a system that sends nearly all new wealth created in our economy to the top one percent, and leaves only crumbs for the vast majority of Americans.
On the Boston City Council, Ayanna heard time and again about archaic laws that grew out of discrimination generations ago and made it nearly impossible for business owners in certain parts of the city to obtain a liquor license. As a result, neighborhoods like Dorchester and Mattapan hadn’t seen new sit-down restaurants in decades, meaning fewer jobs and a lagging local economy. Ayanna worked to change the outdated laws, and now dozens of new restaurants have opened, creating hundreds of jobs and boosting our economy.
In Congress, Ayanna will take a similar approach that builds economic development from the grassroots level, working to promote the strengths of the 7th District and connect residents in our communities with available jobs. As part of this effort, Ayanna supports major investments in workforce training, including apprenticeships and vocational education in advanced manufacturing and technology, to help young people find careers and develop the highly-skilled workforce that will attract employers to every corner of the district.
To help ensure that economic development benefits every community, the Federal government should be a model of real inclusion demonstrated through procurement and purchasing processes and procedures.Ayanna will look to scale up ordinances she co-sponsored on the Boston City Council that set goals for minority and women business enterprise (MWBEs) participation in City projects and updated the Boston Residents Jobs Policy to require developers on city-funded construction projects to make best faith efforts to hire 50% people of color, 25% minorities, and 10% women. We should expect our government contracts to contribute to a fairer economy and create opportunity for wealth building for everyone.
Access to affordable early education is essential to empowering children to achieve in school, and it supports working families who otherwise struggle to find affordable child care options. Too many families in Massachusetts and beyond work non-traditional hours, participate in the gig economy, and lack access to childcare services. Ayanna supports universal, high-quality early education that will give all children a head start and ensure equal access for all families.
Currently, funding for early education is not enough to ensure that center- and home-based providers can pay their workers a living wage while still keeping costs affordable for families, even with available subsidies. We must ensure that public investments in early education reflect the demonstrated importance of early learning to a child’s future success.
Donald Trump and the Republican Congress are continuing their efforts to dismantle Obamacare, legislation that enabled millions of Americans to obtain health care and no longer worry about going bankrupt if a family member gets sick. Ayanna believes that we must defend the gains made under Obamacare, and that we must push further to implement a Medicare for All system that will make healthcare even more accessible.
There are also significant changes we can make to our existing system to improve service delivery for patients and control costs. On the Boston City Council, Ayanna pushed for additional investments in mental health clinicians and also supported a program that links services and resources between local health networks to address the causes of poor health. It’s through innovative thinking that Congress can bring a practical approach to preventative care that ensure better health, intervenes before crisis, and brings down cost.
Congress must act to strengthen gun control laws in our country – the deaths, injuries, and trauma associated with gun violence are simply too significant to ignore any longer. At the very least, comprehensive background checks on ALL gun sales and banning anyone on no-fly lists from obtaining guns should be passed immediately. These are common sense policies supported by the vast majority of Americans – it is the NRA that is preventing their passage. Now is the time to stand up to the gun lobby and protect our communities.
Ayanna believes that we must take additional steps to reduce the numbers of guns in our communities. Banning assault weapons and accessories like bump stocks is a first step. We must also raise the age limit to buy guns from 18 to 21. How can we restrict young people from purchasing alcohol before the age of 21, but allow them to easily purchase military-style assault weapons?
And Ayanna will work in Congress to require the CDC to study the epidemic of gun violence as a public health issue, because that’s what it is. Beyond those killed and injured, gun violence leaves an indelible mark on others in the affected community. As a Boston City Councilor, Ayanna convened the first-ever listening only hearing where she and her fellow Councilors heard from more than 300 surviving family members of homicide victims. This hearing, along with her work across Boston, has led Ayanna to consistently advocate for wrap around trauma support services for victims, their families, and community members.
Our immigrant communities across the 7th District and our nation are a critical part of what makes this country special. Most immigrants work here, pay taxes, and contribute immensely to our civic life, culture and economy. They should not live in constant fear of deportation and separation from their families – we need representatives in Congress who will fight for them.
Ayanna opposes any funding for a wall along our border with Mexico. She will demand a clean DREAM Act and will fight to reinstate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). We are a country founded by and made great by immigrants. Rather than demonizing immigrants, we should be working together on fair and comprehensive immigration reform that will enable law-abiding immigrants to seek a path to citizenship. Additionally, Ayanna will fight to make permanent the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the many TPS recipients contributing to communities across our country.
When I was a young girl, my mother Sandra – the person most responsible for making me who I am today – made tremendous sacrifices to send me to a good school near Lincoln Park on Chicago’s North Side. It was my first real experience outside of the neighborhood in which I was born and raised, and I learned quickly that my daily life was very different from that of my classmates. Their neighborhoods had banks. We had check cashers. They had supermarkets. We had corner stores.[1] It opened my eyes to the fact that communities separated by mere miles can, in many ways, be worlds apart.
Today, when you board the MBTA’s number 1 bus in Cambridge, it’s less than three miles to Dudley Station in Roxbury, but by the time you’ve made the 30-minute trip, the median household income in the neighborhoods around you have dropped by nearly $50,000 a year.[2]/[3] As the bus rolls through Back Bay, the average person around you might expect to live until he or she is 92 years old, but when it arrives in Roxbury, the average life expectancy has fallen by as much as 30 years.[4] A student riding the bus home to Dudley is, on average, nearly 20 percent less likely to graduate from high school in four years than a peer living just across the Charles.[5]
These types of disparities exist across the 7th District, and they are not naturally occurring; they are the legacy of decades of policies that have hardened systemic racism, increased income inequality, and advantaged the affluent. We have seen moments of progress, but we are now, once again, confronted by an administration in Washington that is working to roll back the clock – implementing cruel, draconian policies that strip away critical rights and sow further division in our communities.
The job description of our representatives in Congress has changed. Now, more than ever, we need representatives who will be proactive partners with our communities, and who will not shy away from difficult political fights. My career has been defined by tackling the issues that are important to the communities I represent, even when they are not popular or easy. That is part of my mother’s legacy, making sure that I understood not just my rights, but my responsibilities – my responsibility to speak up and lead, especially for those who have heard their own voices silenced too often before. Those closest to the pain should be closest to the power – that is the mantle I will carry with me to Congress.
When we consider the root causes of inequities that exist in our communities, it is critical that we consider the impact of violence and resulting trauma. The epidemic of gun violence - and particularly mass shootings - has dominated the national conversation about violence and how we respond to it, but the violence impacting our communities takes many forms, including sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and violence against immigrants and the LGBTQ community. And violence, regardless of type, invariably results in trauma - for those directly impacted, family, friends, and others in the community.
As a survivor of sexual violence, I understand, on a personal level, the lasting challenges associated with trauma; research from the Violence Policy Center tells us that trauma as a result of exposure to violence can lead to a range of negative outcomes, including “symptoms expressed both internally, such as depression and anxiety, and externally, such as aggressive and violent behavior.”[1] For communities disproportionately impacted by violence - including women and girls, minority communities, and low-income communities - the collective impact of violence-related trauma can create significant inequities in health outcomes, educational attainment, and economic opportunity. While violent crime rates in the City of Boston have fallen from historic highs, neighborhoods like Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan still experience a disproportionate amount of the violence that takes place in the City,[2] and communities like Chelsea have some of the highest violent crime rates in the state.[3] It is no coincidence that these communities are also dealing with greater challenges than some of their neighbors when it comes to public health, educational attainment, and economic opportunity.
On the Boston City Council, I have been intentional about shining a light on the experiences that lead to trauma, and challenges faced by those who are continuing to deal with it - including families impacted by gun violence, children who are exposed to violence at home or at school, and women and girls who are victims of sexual and domestic violence. At the federal level, we need policies that seek to prevent the kind of violence that leads to trauma - including gun violence, sexual violence, and hate crimes - and we need policies that support those who have been impacted by violence, in order to break the vicious cycle of trauma that perpetuates further violence and corrodes opportunity.
There are more than 250,000 foreign-born residents living in the 7th Congressional district today. Immigrants make immense contributions to the economic, social, and cultural vibrancy of our communities. However, the cruel, inhumane policies being implemented at the federal level mean that our immigrant brothers and sisters continue to live in fear of profiling, deportation, and separation from family and loved ones. Whether they are indigenous, Afro-Latino, African, Southeast Asian, or Muslim, we must stop the criminalization of these communities and lead from a place of compassion and dignity.
During the nine years I have served on the Boston City Council, I have fought shoulder-to-shoulder with our diverse immigrant communities - not just as an ally, but as an advocate. I have worked to ensure that police focus on protecting immigrant communities, not deporting them; I have helped expand English language learner (ELL) resources for students; and I’ve worked to prevent diverse residents from being displaced from ethnic neighborhoods like Chinatown.
But now, what progress we have made is under siege. Ever since Donald Trump declared his candidacy for President with a racist rant directed at Mexican migrants, he and his Administration have, in large part, been defined by their intolerance and discrimination against immigrants. From the “Muslim ban” to the decision to end DACA protections and, now, the devastating policy that has led thousands of immigrant children to be separated from their parents - the Administration in Washington has worked, without pretense, to make our country a more hostile place for immigrants.
The actions of Donald Trump and his administration have sparked a profound sense of fear and mistrust in our communities - feelings I experience on a visceral level when talking with immigrants and advocates. It is incumbent upon our elected representatives to create a united, unbending bulwark in defense of our communities; to fight the Trump Administration’s horrific policies by every means possible. At the same time, we must acknowledge the foreign policy decisions that fuel the emigration of so many diverse communities, and work side-by-side with immigrants, advocates, and other stakeholders to lift up our communities - to make our public education system more inclusive, create greater economic opportunities for immigrants for whom English isn’t a first language, and address issues of sexual and domestic violence in immigrant communities. We must ensure that our efforts are inclusive, intersectional, and respect the many different ethnic identities that make up our vibrant immigrant communities. To prioritize defending immigrant communities or working for their advancement is a false choice - we must do both.
In Congress, I will be a fierce advocate for the rights of immigrants - both documented and undocumented - and will not treat the future of young immigrants or their parents, as a political bargaining chip. We need activist leadership that will help us both resist Donald Trump and make real progress for immigrant communities. Over the long term, we must develop a more humane immigration system, in partnership with the native countries of our nation’s diverse immigrant communities. As Vanessa Calderón Rosado wrote in a recent WBUR op-ed, “Having people in our highest offices that have actually experienced trauma and inequality, would bring greater empathy, understanding and urgency for change.” In Congress, I will elevate immigrant voices from all corners - immigrants from Central and South America, from Asia, from Africa, members of the Afro-Latino immigrant community, migrants from European countries, and others - to advance policies that will meaningfully support our communities and create greater opportunity for all.
Ensuring that all residents have access to safe, reliable, and efficient transit options is an essential part of building vibrant communities in the 7th District. Our transportation infrastructure - including roads and bridges, commuter rail, subway, buses, bike paths, and sidewalks - connect residents to opportunities and critical services, in the forms of jobs, school, child care, the grocery store, the hospital, recreation, and more. This opportunity, however, is not equitably distributed across our district, and the problem has been exacerbated by the absence of national transportation policy leadership and the lack of regional coordination related to transportation infrastructure.
We can, and must, do better. Broken trains, shuttle buses, and traffic congestion have become the new normal. Until we have authentic, bold and strategic Congressional leadership we will continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. Disparities in access to reliable transportation options contribute to growing income inequality and persistent opportunity gaps between different communities. For example, Black and Latino transit-commuters in Boston “experience longer average travel times than their white counterparts,” potentially as a result of “historical patterns of discrimination that results in lower-quality service being provided to minority neighborhoods.”[22] For workers living outside the urban core who rely on their car, the average driver in Greater Boston can expect to sit in more than 150 hours of traffic each year - the equivalent of nearly a full week.[23] These challenges are not merely annoyances - they are tied directly to gaps in economic opportunity and access to critical services. Lack of access to reliable, efficient transportation infrastructure means the single mother in Chelsea has to leave earlier and comes home later, increasing costs for child care; it means the commuter in Everett loses hours of productivity every week getting to and from work; it means the senior in Cambridge struggles to get to the grocery store or the doctor’s office without a car.
Existing federal policy and funding supports the development of mega projects like Somerville’s Assembly Row, Boston’s Seaport, and our interstate highway system, but ignores critical maintenance and expansion projects like the 111 bus to Chelsea, the 99 bus from Everett to Wellington, or the Fairmount line. The current administration has set us back even further by threatening federal funding for transit projects that are critical to communities like those in the 7th District. Federal policy and investment in transportation has not reflected its tremendous importance and, too often, transit-dependent communities have been left out of the transportation planning process.
On the Boston City Council, I have championed strategic, multi-modal transportation projects that have improved conditions for everyone in our city, including piloting bus rapid transit, passing an ordinance to better protect bicyclists, and expanding access to public transit. In Congress, I will work with advocates, residents, and private and public stakeholders in every community to champion the development, adoption, funding, and maintenance on a 21st century regional multimodal transportation and infrastructure plan. I will work to modernize funding and structure at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), and will be intentional about linking infrastructure investments with local economic development efforts and smart housing policy across the district. By making comprehensive community input central to the development and maintenance of our regional transit system, we can help ensure equity in planning and outcomes.
Environmental conditions are an element of equity that is too often overlooked. Low-income communities and communities of color bear a disproportionate burden of the hazards created by air and water pollution, lack of access to open space, and extreme weather. At the same time, every community in the 7th District is struggling to deal with the increasingly pronounced impact of climate change, including flooding, drought, and extreme temperatures.
Without proactive steps, the environmental challenges facing our district will only intensify. Within the current century, global sea levels are expected to rise between two and six feet,[1] threatening parts of Chelsea, Everett, Winthrop, Cambridge, East Boston, Back Bay, Downtown Crossing, Roxbury, the South End, and other neighborhoods with persistent flooding, impaired water supplies, and building damage.[2] As the climate continues to shift and temperatures continue to rise, “urban heat islands” like Boston will experience more sustained, dangerous heat waves. Too many residents continue to be exposed to dangerous levels of pollution in their air, water, and homes.
Environmental conditions do not exist in a silo - they are critical determinants of public health outcomes, educational attainment, and economic opportunity. For example, seniors, especially those in low-income communities, are especially susceptible to health issues related to extreme hot and cold; children’s development can be permanently affected by exposure to lead in their homes or drinking water; and more frequent extreme weather costs residents millions of dollar a year in property damages and other costs.
However, even as the challenges continue to mount, the Administration in Washington is rolling back critical environmental protections and gutting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And policymakers too often fail to consider environmental factors when developing policies in related areas like housing, transportation, and economic development. The 7th District needs leadership in Washington that will not only resist efforts to undermine existing environmental protections, but who will work proactively to address environmental challenges, prepare for the impacts of climate change, and expand access to clean air, clean water, and green space.
Ayanna has long supported the rights of the LGBTQ community to be treated fairly in partnership rights, in marriage and in equal treatment under the law. On the Boston City Council, she co-sponsored the Gender-based Discrimination and Hate Crimes bill, known as the Transgender Civil Rights Bill, co-sponsored a city ordinance that requires city health insurance to cover gender reassignment surgery, and held a hearing to examine the challenges facing LGBTQ youth of color in the city of Boston. Ayanna believes that equal rights for the LGBTQ community is non-negotiable.
Individuals who have been incarcerated often face tremendous obstacles when they are released, in terms of finding housing, securing employment, and accessing healthcare. Willfully ignoring these individuals is an admission that our criminal justice system is intended to be only punitive, and not rehabilitative. As we think about policies related to education, housing, and economic development, we must consider how we can include incarcerated individuals and those recently released, so that they are able to access stable housing and employment, significantly reducing the chance of recidivism.
As a sexual assault survivor herself, Ayanna has worked to raise awareness and address this issue throughout her career. And, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, she has also sought to examine sexual harassment policies and procedures within our political institutions, an effort she believes is long overdue in Congress. In fact, her first act on the city council addressed violence and trauma against girls and women. Ayanna continues to chair the Committee on Healthy Women, Families and Communities and will make this area of work a major focus in Congress.
For too many residents of the 7th District, lack of access to safe, affordable housing contributes to negative health outcomes, shrinks economic opportunity, and severely restricts social mobility. As affordable and market-rate housing stock - particularly in urban districts like the 7th - is increasingly concentrated in shrinking areas, we see greater stratification and segregation between and within communities, limiting opportunity and hardening inequities. Housing instability impacts residents at all stages of life - from children who develop chronic health conditions as a result of unsafe conditions, to families who are unable to build wealth by purchasing a home, to seniors who unable to age in place because they can no longer afford to live in their homes.
The problem is widespread - thousands of individuals and families in Massachusetts are experiencing homelessness or significant housing cost burden on any given day, burdens that fall disproportionately on low-income and minority communities. Nearly half of low-income families in the Commonwealth spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs (cost-burdened), and nearly 1 in 10 spends more than 50 percent of their income on housing (severely cost burdened), according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition; among middle-income families, those earning between 80 and 100 percent of the annual median income, 1 in 5 is cost-burdened. At the same time, a one day count in January 2017 showed that nearly 18,000 people in Massachusetts were experiencing homelessness, including more than 11,000 in families with children.
To solve this challenge, we not only need to think creatively about how we can increase the supply of affordable and market-rate housing, but also how we can be intentional in linking housing with public transit, walking and biking infrastructure, open space, healthcare, opportunities to purchase healthy food, and access to great schools - in order to ensure that opportunity is not limited.
On the City Council, I have fought to increase the percentage of affordable housing units under the City’s Inclusionary Development Policy (IDP) and supported efforts to protect tenants and homeowners from discriminatory or unreasonable evictions. In Congress, I will work with my colleagues to stand up against the harmful steps being taken by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under Secretary Ben Carson, and to advance policies that increase equitable housing access for every person and family in the 7th Congressional District.
The deep disparities in our nation’s criminal justice system are not new. They are not secret. For me, they are deeply personal. For years, policymakers, advocates, and community members have known that our criminal justice system disproportionately punishes black and brown people, yet we have seen too little progress made towards addressing this inequality.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, 23,000 people are currently incarcerated in Massachusetts. Of those currently in prison, more than a quarter are black - despite the fact that black residents make up only seven percent of the Commonwealth’s population; hispanics comprise 27 percent of inmates, but only 10 percent of the population. Black residents in the 7th Congressional district, on average, are incarcerated at 6 times the rate of white residents. Communities that have a significant number of low-income households and minority residents account for an incredibly disproportionate number of those currently behind bars.
I have talked throughout this campaign about the fact that many of the disparities we see in the 7th District are not naturally occurring - they are the result of previous policy decisions; the issues in our criminal justice system are no exception. The disastrous consequences of the war on drugs, the incarceration that results directly from the imposition of cash bail and exorbitant court costs, the perverse incentive of the for-profit prison industry - each of these is a policy decision that has led to the disproportionate imprisonment of people of color. Addressing each of them will require intentional work to roll back decades of inequitable policy.
Moreover, we must end the profitization of free and forced labor by inmates. Today, nearly 700,000 inmates hold jobs in prisons, ranging from mopping floors and serving food to GED tutoring and office filing, oftentimes earning little to no pay for their work. It’s imperative that inmates be given better living conditions, fairer wages, and the basic human dignity that they deserve. While front and back-end reforms to our prison system are desperately needed, so too are changes that impact the experiences of men and women already inside of it.
We must also be cognizant that criminal justice challenges cannot be addressed only by focusing on what happens between the moment an individual becomes court involved and the moment they are released from prison. Social determinants like housing, education, health, and economic opportunity play a critical role in whether young people end up on a trajectory towards court-involvement, and whether individuals who were previously imprisoned remain at risk of re-incarceration. We must be committed to a criminal justice reform approach that recognizes the importance of both early intervention and comprehensive support for those who have been previously incarcerated.
On the City Council, I have been committed to addressing the social conditions that lead to the disproportionate incarceration of black and brown men and women. I’ve worked to reform school discipline policies that lead to the pushout of minority students. I worked to increase access to housing among non-violent individuals with CORIs. And I filed a resolution in support of legislation that would create a review panel to make recommendations on gender responsive and trauma informed approaches that address specific needs for justice involved women, including family visitation, reproductive health care, and pretrial services. This is the same kind of intentional, impactful leadership we need on these issues in Congress.
When I began my first campaign for the Boston City Council, I made advocacy on behalf of women and girls a central element of my platform. Many people told me that a campaign focused largely on lifting up women and girls couldn’t succeed, but it did, and eight years later, the City of Boston has made important progress on issues of critical importance. Now, more than ever, the 7th District needs a representative in Congress who is steadfastly committed to highlighting the role women and girls play in our communities, addressing the inequities they continue to face, and resisting efforts to roll back critical protections for women’s health and civil rights.
As a member of the City Council, I founded - and continue to chair - the Committee on Healthy Women, Families, and Communities. My colleagues and I have the opportunity to listen to women and girls in our community and work on the issues impacting their lives. Their voices are the reason I have worked with young women and school officials to address the discipline policies that lead to disproportionate push out of young women of color; they are the reason I have shared my own experience and worked with survivors of sexual violence to heal and create awareness; it is why I have fought for the intentional inclusion of women in City of Boston contracting; and why I have supported the repeal of archaic statues that impinge on a woman’s right to choose.
We must resist, with everything we have, efforts to roll back critical protections like those enshrined in Roe v. Wade, but if we want to build thriving communities and achieve real equality, we must apply the same passion to closing the wage gap, ensuring equal educational opportunity, supporting expecting and new mothers, providing gender-responsive conditions for female inmates, and empowering senior women to age as they wish. That is why it is so important to have an intentional, activist leader in Washington, D.C. who sees these issues as central and work diligently with community to identify the key levers of progress.
My approach to foreign policy is grounded in the same values that inform my domestic priorities – empathy, inclusiveness, and a belief that the solutions to our most important challenges should be informed by the people most impacted. The people closest to the pain, should be closest to the power, driving and informing the policy making.
When it comes to foreign policy, my goals are to:
Our immigrant communities across the 7th District and our nation are a critical part of what makes this country special. Most immigrants work here, pay taxes, and contribute immensely to our civic life, culture and economy. They should not live in constant fear of deportation and separation from their families – we need representatives in Congress who will fight for them.
Ayanna opposes any funding for a wall along our border with Mexico. She will demand a clean DREAM Act and will fight to reinstate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). We are a country founded by and made great by immigrants. Rather than demonizing immigrants, we should be working together on fair and comprehensive immigration reform that will enable law-abiding immigrants to seek a path to citizenship. Additionally, Ayanna will fight to make permanent the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the many TPS recipients contributing to communities across our country.
When we consider the root causes of inequities that exist in our communities, it is critical that we consider the impact of violence and resulting trauma. The epidemic of gun violence – and particularly mass shootings – has dominated the national conversation about violence and how we respond to it, but the violence impacting our communities takes many forms, including sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and violence against immigrants and the LGBTQ community. And violence, regardless of type, invariably results in trauma – for those directly impacted, family, friends, and others in the community.
As a survivor of sexual violence, I understand, on a personal level, the lasting challenges associated with trauma. For communities disproportionately impacted by violence – including women and girls, the LGBTQIA community, communities of color, and immigrant families – the collective impact of violence-related trauma can create significant inequities in health outcomes, educational attainment, and economic opportunity. We must be intentional about shining a light on the experiences that lead to trauma and the challenges faced by those who are continuing to deal with it, and we must pursue specific policy to deal with the root causes of trauma, including legislation that removes weapons of war from our streets, supports survivors, and stokes the public consciousness about the impact of trauma.
A job that provides good wages, strong benefits, union protections & safe working conditions should be a legal right in America. The people deserve true economic justice, and that is why Ayanna Pressley filed an historic resolution calling for a federal job guarantee.
The idea that all people should have a right to employment that ensures a dignified standard of living has deep roots in American history and remains an unfulfilled demand of the civil rights movement. Amidst the unprecedented pandemic, the employment crisis and a resounding demand for a more equitable economy, the need to affirm the right to meaningful, dignified work and a livable wage has never been clearer.
The right to a “useful and remunerative” job was the first and most fundamental right in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposed Economic Bill of Rights. Sadie Alexander, the nation’s first Black economist, advocated a job guarantee to address racial discrimination against Black workers while improving labor market conditions for all workers. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for guaranteed jobs, and Coretta Scott King led a grassroots movement in support of a federal job guarantee.
A federal job guarantee would provide every person with an enforceable legal right to a quality job on projects that meet long-neglected community, physical and human infrastructure needs, such as delivering quality care for children and seniors, building and sustaining 21st century transit systems, strengthening neighborhoods, and protecting the environment. Funded by the federal government and implemented locally in partnership with communities, the program would provide public jobs for all adults seeking employment.
By ensuring everyone has access to a good job with dignified wages, safe working conditions, health care and other benefits—including full worker rights and union protections—a federal job guarantee would address the current jobs crisis while laying the foundation for an equitable economic recovery. It would create a pathway to stable employment and begin to close the gaping income and wealth gap for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous workers who continue to face discrimination and are often the “first ones fired, last ones hired” during economic crises. It would also ensure economic inclusion for those experiencing discrimination in the labor market, including people with disabilities, transgender people, caregivers, and people with criminal records or involvement with the criminal legal system. And it would enable the just transition of workers in unsustainable sectors.
A job guarantee would set a new standard for quality jobs, pressuring low-wage employers to increase wages and benefits. By hiring workers in the midst of a downturn, a permanent job guarantee would operate as an automatic stabilizer, maintaining consumer spending and protecting us from prolonged recessions and jobless recoveries — making the economy more resilient as well as more inclusive.
A federal job guarantee is a long-overdue policy that will help us reach true full employment, increase economic security, and reduce racial and gender inequities. It prevents the many social and economic costs of unemployment and invests in people, our communities and the planet. And it is the most powerful reform we can implement to create an equitable, resilient, and sustainable economy that delivers prosperity to all.
We are confronted with a climate crisis. The dangerous, destructive impacts of climate change are already our reality and, disproportionately, vulnerable communities are bearing the brunt of more frequent, prolonged storms, unprecedented natural disasters, more extreme temperatures, and worsening air and water pollution. Climate change threatens to undermine our national security, create millions of refugees, endanger public health, and further exacerbate economic inequality.
The Administration in Washington, DC is intent on denying the impact of climate change while simultaneously gutting critical environmental protections, opening public lands for private exploitation, and placing corporate profits above the health of our planet. The time for small steps and half-measures is over.
It’s time for a Green New Deal, which will fundamentally transform our political and economic systems to prioritize the preservation of our planet and mitigate the worst impacts of climate change in our communities.
And we cannot pretend that the challenges facing our environment exist in a silo – that environmental justice is not intrinsically linked to racial justice, economic justice, and health justice. Our response to the climate crisis must be rooted in the understanding that entrenched disparities and inequities make certain communities less resilient in the face of climate change, and that the destructive impact of climate change on those same communities is magnified. We must take a comprehensive approach to addressing environmental challenges, preparing for the impacts of climate change, and expanding access to clean air, clean water, and green space that centers our most vulnerable communities.