Building a Progressive Economic Vision
Lunch will be served to attendees during this session
It's clear that we need serious financial reforms. People across the country have lost their jobs, their homes and their security because of Wall Street greed and misconduct. But to address these problems, we must first lay out a vision for the future through big ideas. Bold ideas. Progressive ideas.
Each of our speakers are thinking big and will come to the table with big ideas and long-term solutions addressing all facets of the economic debate, from building a green economy to democratizing corporate power to building a movement to make it happen.
Don't miss your chance to hear from six true progressive champions.
Time magazine calls her the Sheriff of Wall Street. Since taking the reigns overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Elizabeth Warren has pushed back against one of the most well-connected, well-funded industries in DC -- big banks.
As the chief advocate for new consumer-finance regulations that banks have spent millions to oppose, she's created stronger protections for American families, in turn leveling the playing field between Main Street and Wall Street.
At the same time, Richard Trumka rallied workers across the country to march on Wall Street to protest financial sector greed and lending practices by big banks. And on Capitol Hill, Rep Alan Grayson led a campaign to audit the Federal Reserve that passed 96-0 in the Senate.
These three leading thinkers and fighters of progressive values—along with Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins of Green for All and George Goehl of National People's Action—will join us at Netroots Nation to discuss their vision for a 21st century economy.
All of our speakers have led the charge in fighting back against Wall Street abuses and pushing for real economic reform. Bhargava has spoken out for fair economic standards including higher wages; Ellis-Lamkins has fought for (and secured) job training and broad access to clean energy jobs for low-income people and people of color; and in the past year, Goehl and his organization have organized mass grassroots actions against Wall Street, protesting bank lobbyists and demanding increased transparency in lending.
Deepak Bhargava is Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to develop the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to change the policies and institutions that affect their lives.
During his tenure as Executive Director, Mr. Bhargava has sharpened the Center's focus on grassroots community organizing as the central strategy for social justice and on public policy change as the key lever to improve poor people's lives. He conceived and led the Center's work on immigration reform, which has resulted in the creation of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), a leading grassroots network pressing for changes in the country's immigration laws. He has spearheaded the creation of innovative new projects like Generation Change, a program that recruits, trains and places the next generation of community organizers, and the Community Voting Project, which brings large numbers of low-income voters into the electoral process.
Mr. Bhargava has provided intellectual leadership on a variety of issues including the future of the progressive movement in the United States, poverty, racial justice, immigration reform, community organizing, and economic justice. He has written on these issues for a range of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, and The American Prospect. His groundbreaking article co-authored with Jean Hardisty, "Wrong About the Right," influenced how many progressives think about the strategies necessary to achieve lasting social change.
Prior to his appointment as Executive Director of the Center in 2002, Mr. Bhargava served as the Center's Director of Public Policy. He also directed the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, a coalition of grassroots groups established in 2000 to give low-income people a voice in the reauthorization of the federal welfare law and other areas critical to poor people.
Mr. Bhargava currently serves on the boards of the Discount Foundation, the League of Education Voters, The Nation editorial board, the National Advisory Board for the Open Society Institute, and Democracia Ahora.
Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is the Chief Executive Officer of Green For All. Under her leadership, Green For All has become one of the country's leading advocates for a clean-energy economy, and one of its most important voices on the intersection of economics and environment.
Phaedra has led Green For All to several groundbreaking policy victories at the federal, state, and local levels. At the federal level, she led a successful effort to include two key provisions in the House's climate and energy bill: securing funding for job training, and guaranteeing broad access to clean-energy jobs. She is now leading the same effort in the Senate.
Under Phaedra, Green For All has helped states like Washington and New Mexico pioneer state-level green jobs and energy-efficiency programs. And the organization is helping cities like Portland and Seattle craft groundbreaking energy-efficiency home retrofit programs that use innovative financing mechanisms and community agreements about job standards to cut energy bills, create green jobs, reduce pollution, and expand business opportunities.
Green For All is redefining the face of environmentalism. Through partnerships with popular artists such as The Black Eyed Peas, Drake and Wyclef Jean, Green For All is reaching new audiences about the benefits and opportunities of going green.
Prior to joining Green For All, Phaedra was a leader in California's labor movement, heading both the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and Working Partnerships USA.
2009, Essence Magazine named Phaedra one of the 25 Most Influential African Americans, and Ebony included her in its Power 150 for 2009. In 2010, the World Economic Forum selected her as a Young Global Leader. She has been featured in various outlets, including: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and on ABC, BET, CNN, MSNBC, and NBC.
George Goehl is the Executive Director of National People’s Action, a network of metropolitan and statewide community organizations working to advance economic and racial justice. Under his leadership, NPA has helped build a broad coalition and campaign to hold banks accountable, with an eye toward forging movement-level alignment around a vision of a more just and sustainable economy. Over the last year NPA has spearheaded a series of mobilization targeting big banks and their lobbyists as part of a broader effort to give voice to everyday people impacted by the financial crisis.
Congressman Alan Grayson was born and grew up in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City. He graduated with high honors from Harvard College. Congressman Grayson worked as an economist after college, but returned to Harvard. In four years, Alan earned a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School, and a master’s degree from the Harvard School of Government, and Alan finished all of the course work and passed the general exams for a Ph.D. in Government. His master’s thesis focuses on gerontology. He went on to be a founding member of the Alliance for Aging Research.
In the early 1990s, Alan took leave from the practice of law, and started a business. Alan was the first President of IDT Corp., a telecom/internet company, which is now a Fortune 1000 company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Congressman Grayson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008.
Alan Grayson lives in Orlando with his wife, Lolita, and their five children, Skye, Star, Sage, Stone and Storm.
Richard Trumka was elected President of the AFL-CIO in September 2009 after serving as AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer from 1995–2009. The son and grandson of Pennsylvania coal miners, Trumka worked in the mines through college and law school and became active in the United Mine Workers union, where he ultimately was elected president in 1982. As AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, he spearheaded the union movement's capital stewardship effort, creating investment programs for union pension and benefit funds and fighting excessive corporate profits. Trumka urged creation of, and chairs, the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, a consortium of manufacturing unions focusing on key issues in trade, health care and labor law reform. He chaired the AFL-CIO’s Strategic Approaches Committee, active in its problem-solving role of assisting affiliated unions in achieving their strategic goals through collective bargaining. Trumka, who was out front in opposing racism and prejudice in the 2008 elections, strongly backs reform of our nation's broken immigration system.
Professor Elizabeth Warren is the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University and the Chair of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel. She has written eight books and more than a hundred scholarly articles dealing with credit and economic stress. Her latest two books, The Two-Income Trap and All Your Worth, were both on national best seller lists. She has been principal investigator on empirical studies funded by the National Science Foundation and more than a dozen private foundations. Warren was the Chief Adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, and she was appointed as the first academic member of the Federal Judicial Education Committee. She currently serves as a member of the Commission on Economic Inclusion established by the FDIC. She also serves on the steering committees of the Tobin Project and the National Bankruptcy Conference. The National Law Journal has repeatedly named Professor Warren as one of the Fifty Most Influential Women Attorneys in America, SmartMoney Magazine designated her one of the SmartMoney 30 for 2008, Time named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2009 and 2010, and the Boston Globe named her the Bostonian of the Year in December 2009. She was also one of eight law professors to be named on the Leading Lawyers in America list compiled by Law Dragon. As a law professor, she first developed the idea for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency and has been one of its leading advocates.
