Uniting and Mobilizing Communities of Color, Millennials and Working People in 2016 [Sponsored Panel]
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Friday, Jul. 15 2:00 PM (Eastern)
Ends: Friday, Jul. 15 3:15 PM (Eastern)
During this election season we have seen insults and offensive rhetoric to demean different ethnic groups and pit them against each other. And we all know that when working people are divided, corporate interests win. The wealthy few focuses on our divisions to encourage working people to attack each other instead of fighting for new rules that will level the playing field and make the economy fairer. The outcome of the 2016 election cycle will determine union rights, voting rights, campaign finance reform, free speech rights, corporate rights, and reproductive rights for many years too come.
This panel will focus on how to unite working people around an agenda that will level the playing field for all Americans and fight for a more inclusive democracy. This agenda includes restoring the Voting Rights Act, delivering on comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship, driving sentencing reforms for nonviolent drug offenses, and for an end to school disciplinary practices that push kids into the mass incarceration system.
Moderator
Gregory Cendana
Strategist, politico and coalition builder Gregory Cendana is the first openly gay and youngest-ever Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and Institute for Asian Pacific American Leadership & Advancement. He also serves as the Chair of National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, as Treasurer for the Labor Coalition for Community Action and is the youngest General Board member of the AFL-CIO. Gregory has been named one of Washington DC’s most influential 40-and-under young leaders, one of the 30 Most Influential Asian Americans Under 30 & the “Future of DC Politics”. Previously, he served as President of the United States Student Association (USSA), where he played an integral role in the passage of the Student Aid & Fiscal Responsibility Act and Healthcare & Education Reconciliation Act. In his spare time, Gregory enjoys singing karaoke, choreographing dances and trying to cook. Be a part of his journey by following him on twitter at @GregoryCendana.
Other sessions: Moving Beyond Brogressives: Ensuring Economic Justice Includes Reproductive Justice, Model Minority Mutiny: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Center Our Racial Identities and Solidarities, How to Have a Conversation About Race Without Everyone Running Out of the Room
Panelists
Neidi Dominguez
Neidi Dominguez is currently the Director of Worker Centers Partnerships and Deputy Director of Community Engagement at the AFL CIO. She migrated to the United States at the age of nine with her mother and younger sister. In 2008, she graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She served as a strategic campaign coordinator for the CLEAN Carwash Campaign in Los Angeles. She has also been a key organizer in the undocumented immigrant youth movement and lead a victorious campaign to win Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA in 2012.
Michael Podhorzer
Mike Podhorzer is the Political Director of the AFL-CIO, a Federation of 56 labor unions representing over 12 million workers. He develops and directs the Federation’s political program.
An experienced analyst, he is the lead architect of the strategy to expand labor’s political reach to all of America’s working families, whether or not they are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
Podhorzer is recognized as an early leader in data driven politics in the book, The Victory Lab. He has worked in politics for the last twenty five years. He is the Co-Chair of Catalist, Founding Chair of the Analyst Institute, and on the boards of numerous progressive organizations including America Votes, Committee on States, and the Latino Engagement Fund.