INDIVISIBLE CA47

Action by action, day by day, group by group, Indivisibles are remaking our democracy.

Brought together by a practical guide to resist the Trump agenda, Indivisible is a movement of thousands of group leaders and more than a million members taking regular, iterative, and increasingly complex actions to resist the GOPs agenda, elect local champions, and fight for progressive policies.

They make calls. They show up. They speak with their neighbors. They organize. And through that work, they’ve built hundreds of mini-movements in support of their local values. And now, after practice, training, and repetition, they’ve built lasting power on their home turf and a massive, collective political muscle ready to be exercised each and every day in every corner of the country.

A real democracy -- of, by, and for the people.

Indivisible was founded in response to Trump’s election - but we know that Trump is a symptom of a sick democracy, not its cause. We face two fundamental problems: first, our democracy was rigged from the start in favor of the white and wealthy. Second, in the last few decades, an alliance of white nationalists and the ultra-rich have been actively working to further undermine democracy and cement their hold on power permanently. That’s how we ended up with Trump. 

We have to build a democracy that reflects a broad, multiracial “we the people,” one that works for all of us and is sustained by all of us. Only then will we be able to achieve a progressive vision for our future.

Defeating a multi-decade right-wing takeover of American government ain’t easy. But we’re here to win, and we have a plan. Here’s how we’re doing it:

We Are Indivisible. Our opponents depend on a divide and conquer strategy, so we treat an attack on one like an attack on all. We show up for each other, and particularly for those facing the brunt of rightwing ideologues’ attacks - often immigrants, people of color, and low-income people. We share a vision: a real democracy, of, by, and for everyone.

Strong Leaders, Strong Groups, Strong Movement. We build and sustain our movement’s power by helping individuals take leadership. They grow and lead local Indivisible groups, take independent action, and coordinate with their fellow local leaders. As a movement, our power comes from coordinated national campaigns where we act together, indivisible.

Inside/Outside Strategy. We understand systems of power - like how Congress operates - and we work inside them to get results. That complements our outside strategy of locally-based constituent pressure to demand elected leaders, regardless of political party, work for our democracy. 

A Virtuous Cycle of Advocacy and Elections. We show up to advocate for policy wins in off-years and get out the vote in election years. These efforts reinforce each other to ensure our democracy works for all of us and that the people in power do too - or we will replace them with electeds who will..

Indivisible started as the Indivisible Guide, a Google Doc guide to organizing locally to pressure your elected officials to resist Trump’s agenda. It caught fire as millions of people picked up the guide and its name - Indivisible - and organized their own local Indivisible groups to put the guide into action. These new Indivisible activists formed a nationwide movement of people taking matters into their own hands to build their own power through collective action. 

Indivisible national is a social movement organization that grew as the Indivisible movement grew, building out a professional team of organizers, wonks, campaigners, digital and data specialists, and other experts to support the movement and fight for progressive values. Like other social movement organizations, Indivisible's staff both supports and works independently of the movement itself - just as local Indivisible groups both take autonomous action and also coordinate with each other and with our national team. 

Today, the Indivisible movement is a progressive grassroots movement of millions of activists across every state, fueled by a partnership between thousands of autonomous local Indivisible groups and a national staff. Indivisible’s national team offers strategic leadership, movement coordination, and support to Indivisible activists, and also directly lobbies congress, builds partnerships, runs media campaigns, and develops advocacy strategies. Together we fight to defeat the rightwing takeover of American government and build an inclusive democracy. 

Indivisible Project (501c4) drives coordinated campaigns, powering the grassroots Indivisible movement to defeat the rightwing takeover of American government and win an inclusive democracy and bold progressive policies.

Indivisible Civics (501c3) provides movement coordination, resources, training, and tools to fuel a powerful and aligned national movement of Indivisible groups and activists to organize for change.

Indivisible Action (PAC) channels grassroots energy into electing progressive candidates who will work towards an inclusive democracy that provides for the needs of all people, and to defeat politicians who will stand in its way.

Right now, we are facing the interlocking catastrophes of rising authoritarianism, a rigged democracy, global pandemics, unimaginable and growing wealth inequality, racial injustice including the anti-immigrant nativism that animates much of Trumpism, and the escalating impacts of the climate crisis.

1. Create millions of good, safe jobs. Decarbonizing the economy is going to take a lot of work. The good news is that means we can create dignified jobs for millions of unemployed and underemployed workers and support a better life for the millions more who remain vulnerable in the aftermath of the pandemic. As we seek to make these solutions lasting, we must also build worker power. It is critical that all workers, including women and people of color who have historically been excluded, have the ability to unionize.
2. Fairness for Workers. Addressing climate change will require a massive transition away from extractive industries. This will cause shifts in communities that have for decades kept our lights on. It is critical that we take care of workers and communities that are impacted by the pandemic, climate change, and other economic shocks and shifts. 
3. Invest in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. As we know Black Brown and Indigenous communities have been intentionally poisoned and neglected throughout our history. Investments from any climate legislation must include a focus on Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities; working-class communities; and communities facing environmental injustice. 
4. Strengthen and heal the nation to nation relationship with Indigenous nations. A history of energy pilfering and pollution on tribal lands must end. This often illegal behavior has resulted in fossil fuel pipelines, a quarter of superfund hazardous waste sites, and abandoned mines polluting Indigenous communities and land. Importantly, any climate legislation must obtain the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples and their traditional territories, and must honor all treaties made and respect tribal sovereignty. 
5. Avert climate and environmental catastrophe. We must keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. This will require the largest expansion of clean, renewable energy, emissions reductions, climate resilience, and sustainable resource use in history. We must transform our agricultural industry to support family farms, build resilience, and promote healthy food for communities. 
6. Address environmental injustice and stop polluting. An important part of addressing environmental catastrophe is cleaning up the messes we have already made. The greed of the fossil fuel industry has endangered the planet we need to survive and has knowingly polluted communities, especially Black, Brown, Indigenous, and working-class communities. We must hold these companies accountable and make them pay for the harm they have caused. 

1. A robust and equitable economic recovery that creates millions of family supporting, union jobs, especially in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the current crises or the legacies of past injustices; 
2. Tax policies that require the wealthiest individuals and biggest corporations to pay their fair share, and prioritize supporting workers and families;
3. Laws that ensure prosperity is rightly shared with the people who create it through raising wages, holding corporations liable for their actions, extending legal protections to all workers, and supporting small businesses;
4. Using public money for public benefit by investing in strong, healthy communities and a comprehensive social safety net so nobody faces financial hardship through no fault of their own; 
5. Ensuring every family can thrive by expanding affordable family and dependent care, guaranteeing affordable housing, and removing economic barriers for people of color, women, and LGBTQ people.

1. Immediate, robust public health investment to contain the COVID-19 and bird flu virus, including a large expansion of public health insurance coverage, ensuring the most impacted communities are prioritized, and better equipping ourselves to mitigate future outbreaks. In order to protect the health of our nation, we must ensure every person can receive testing, treatment, and a safe vaccine, without fear of cost or discrimination. 
2. Dramatically expanded health care coverage to ensure everyone in the U.S. who has been left out or priced out of the American healthcare system will be guaranteed affordable, quality health care, regardless of income, immigration status, disability, gender identity, and geographic location. 
3. Equitable recruiting and cultural training for medical professionals to reverse the centuries of racist, homophobic, and sexist policies that have led to the health disparities and disproportionately high mortality rate in minority communities. 
4. Using the federal government’s existing authority to stop Big Pharma’s price gouging and to manufacture low-cost generic medications for the public. Big pharma and the private insurance industry have continued to needlessly jack up essential prescription drug prices amidst the pandemic, while tax-payers provided them with vital research from the NIH and other public agencies. This must stop.
5. Ending surprise billing and combatting medical debt for people unfairly strapped with thousands of dollars of debt simply for getting sick. With 79 million Americans struggling with medical debt before the COVID-19 Pandemic hit and millions losing their employment, we will most-likely see devastatingly high numbers of medical debt and bankruptcy. We must ban out-of-network surprise billing and provide much-needed financial relief to those struggling with unfair medical debt.

1. An end to immigration detention. Immigration jails are the wrong approach: they aren’t needed for a functional immigration system, violate immigrants’ basic rights including family unity and access to legal representation, and enrich private prison companies. 
2. Legalization. Immigrants are integral in our communities, as their frontline jobs and caregiving roles during the pandemic make ever clearer. As full participants in national life, they must have a path to citizenship without onerous obstacles, so our common future is based on equality of rights and mutual democratic participation. Historic discrimination, especially against Black and Brown immigrants, demands redress in access to and provision of services including healthcare and education.
3. Sweeping enforcement reforms. Along with making a proper legalization avenue available, enforcement must be fundamentally rethought and drastically reduced on a permanent basis. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) resources should never again be used to separate families or terrorize immigrant laborers. Rampant racial profiling is unacceptable as well as state or local police enforcing immigration laws. We must also curb the surveillance state’s spread to immigration enforcement that endangers everyone’s privacy and recklessly empowers corporations to use and abuse personal data.
4. Rethinking DHS. Tackling human and civil rights abuses at DHS requires calling the homeland-security framework enacted after 9/11 what it has become: a dismal, racially-biased failure. DHS’s immigration-enforcement budget is grossly excessive, creating bloated and wasteful agencies in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Obscene expenditures like the border wall must be reversed and their harms to local communities remedied.