This is an organizational update for MarchOnHarrisburg and the launch of our $150,000 fundraising campaign. Please continue reading to learn about Who We Are, Why We Fight, How We Win, What We Do, the Need to Grow the Democracy Movement, and How to Donate. Thank you for your support.

Who We Are:

MarchOnHarrisburg is a statewide movement to get money out of politics and build democracy in Pennsylvania. We take bold nonviolent action to create a radically inclusive democracy where We The People can guarantee our needs and thrive.

Copy of march-on-harrisburg-demonstrators-reach-harrisburg-pa_34810901215_o.jpg

Over the last eight years, we have:

Marched 333 miles (five long distance marches)
Lobbied all of our 253 State Legislators (many times over)
Conducted over 40 nonviolent direct actions
Conducted two statewide 20+ town organizing tours, and built a statewide pro-democracy movement
Passed the gift ban out of its House committee twice
Helped fully pass vote by mail in 2019, helped force five House and Senate committee hearings on gerrymandering, passed open primaries through the full Senate
Passed two campaign finance and dark money transparency bills through the full House
Passed a bill through the full House to prohibit secret Super PAC spending by multinational corporations in Pennsylvania elections.

Why We Fight

We are sick and tired of suffering from policy violence, and we believe in the world of love that we can build through democracy. 800 people are dying every day from poverty in the richest country in the history of the world. California is on fire, wages are low, prices are high, gun violence is rampant, education is underfunded, we are cruel toward immigrants, we are always at war, and healthcare is not a human right.

Our elected officials make these and other harmful decisions that govern our society and shape the world we all live in.

They decide to wage policy violence on the people and the planet, not because they wake up in the morning and choose evil, but because our political process is so thoroughly corrupted that it heavily rewards obedience to big money interests and it harshly punishes dissent. They are bribed and cajoled with unlimited gifts, campaign contributions, Super PAC spending, side jobs, and revolving door / future jobs. And despite the blatant bribery and systemic corruption, accountability that is supposed to take place at the ballot box is thwarted. Gerrymandering, closed primaries, no early voting, no same day registration, no ranked choice voting, and the electoral college distort the power of the vote and protect corrupted elected officials from accountability.

Taken from a direct action at former Senate President Jake Corman’s Golf Fundraiser.

Money in politics and the subversion of democracy are the tools that billionaires and corporations use to acquire the public power that they then use to pass laws to further enrich themselves at everyone else’s expense.

We believe that if we can get money out of politics and build a government of, by, and for the people, our government will be responsive to us, and we can collectively make decisions to improve all of our lives.

We can build a world that operates not by the Golden Rule of corruption, ‘The guy with the gold makes the rules,’ but by the true Golden Rule, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

How We Win

We are a volunteer driven group of pro-democracy activists committed to winning our entire Money Out, People In Policy Platform. We build the democracy movement through base-building and leadership development, and our movement wages intense nonviolence to make corrupt politicians outlaw their own corruption and democratize power in our society.

Base-building:

Without people, we have no people power. We are constantly bringing new people into MarchOnHarrisburg and building relationships with other organizations to grow our networks and collective power.

Leadership Development:

If people don’t know what they are doing, then we will fail to achieve our goals. We develop leaders who are:

Clear about how our political system works and how we can wage nonviolence to build democracy.
Competent in carrying out our set of nonviolent tactics.
Connected locally and statewide to fellow democracy warriors, and plugged into the correct working groups and projects.
Committed to ending the horrors, suffering, and absurdity of corruption, and building a world of love through democracy.
Confident enough to know that they are a human being who deserves to participate in the decisions that govern their lives.

Wage Nonviolence:

Nonviolence is when we force the oppressor to outlaw oppression by persistently forcing encounters and disrupting the oppression until they do the right thing or go home.

As Gandhi wrote, “[Nonviolence] arms people with power not to seize power, but to convert the usurper to their own view till at last the usurper retires or sheds the vices of a usurper and becomes a mere instrument of service to those whom he has wronged.”

MarchOnHarrisburg activists doing civil disobedience in the Capitol. | Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

What We Do

We are living in a nightmare of corruption, but we are a hopeful movement because every day we take concrete steps across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to move forward together toward the dream and promise of democracy.

Building the movement and developing leaders:

Taken at a recent “Rank the Coffee” event at the Steel Cup in New Kensington, right outside Pittsburgh.

We tenaciously organize.

Screenprinting over 100 t-shirts for the Majority Against Corruption March, a 3-day 30 mile long distance march from York to Harrisburg.

We do consistent outreach events, including our Rank the Blank events to promote Ranked Choice Voting, art-builds and screen-printing workshops, and virtual events and in-person presentations at colleges, houses of worship, and community centers.

We meet people through flyering and canvassing, we usually have 4-6 summer interns and a year-round college intern and rabbinic intern.

We help people find their home in the movement.

When someone joins MarchOnHarrisburg, they are assigned several experienced leaders who meet with them often to build a relationship and plug them into the proper leadership development opportunities (and eventually into action and the ongoing organizing work).

We prioritize political education.

The MarchOnHarrisburg Ranked Choice Voting team meeting on zoom to plan a political education event for “Ranked Choice Voting Day”.

We conduct courses including ‘Researching Your Legislators,’ ‘Ranked Choice Voting 101,’ ‘How to Make a TikTok,’ ‘How to Advocate for the Gift Ban,’ and ‘Writing a Letter to the Editor.’ We hold in-depth five week courses on nonviolent direct action and lobbying/civics. And we connect our people to a wide network of learning opportunities through our allies in the Poor People’s Campaign, justice-oriented religious organizations, and other organizing, democracy, or policy groups across the country.

Forcing the Encounter with Nonviolence:

Everything we do is rooted in nonviolence and is designed to force the encounter with corruption in increasingly disruptive and creative ways. From less disruptive to most disruptive, our tactics include: Emails, letters, faxes, phone calls, social media pressure, media pressure, lobbying, yard-signs / flyers / canvassing, billboarding, marching, non-arrestable protest, arrestable nonviolent direct action.

“A long-serving State Representative called us “The most effective group in the Capitol.”

We do research, we write bills and amendments, and our lobbying work rivals big lobbying firms in terms of capacity and the complexity of our operation. We strategically pull the proper levers of power to advance our agenda. We open doors that have been shut to pro-democracy activists for generations in one of the most corrupt and hostile State Legislatures in the USA. We shepherd our bills through a hostile legislative process and make corrupt politicians choose to do the right thing (either because we’ve opened their heart or they just want to get rid of us).

We sit down and negotiate with House Speakers and Senate Presidents, and we also disrupt their campaign fundraisers and occupy their offices.

We challenge and change the culture of corruption in Pennsylvania. I’ve been nicknamed “The Rabid Rabbi” by Harrisburg mega-lobbyists and a “Militant Hebrew School Teacher” by the House Majority Leader. MarchOnHarrisburg was called “A pack of spoiled two year olds” by a white nationalist committee chair whose 12 year reign we ended, a grizzled State Capitol journalist commended our ability to “play hardball and hit them where it hurts,” and a long-serving State Representative called us “The most effective group in the Capitol.”

Movement Infrastructure:

MarchOnHarrisburg conducting a day-long workshop and project of survival with Haverford College Students back on their “Disrupt The Corrupt” organizing tour in 2023.

We organize across all lines of division and build broad coalitions with deep relationships. We regularly consult for other groups and help with campaign strategy and leadership development. We maintain our 501c3 and 501c4 nonprofits and we fiscally sponsor three smaller mission-aligned organizations.

We communicate with the public through email, phone calls, and text messages, our (newly redesigned!) website, our impressive social media presence, and our frequent appearances in traditional media. We communicate internally through Slack, where we have over 1,000 members. And we move all of our work forward in a coherent and organized way through our board, our staff, and our volunteer driven working groups.

Growing the Democracy Movement

MarchOnHarrisburg is eight years old. We operate with a small staff and a miniscule budget, and we punch way above our weight. We raised less than $25k in our first two years. We raised about $100k per year for the next three years. And for the last three years, we have raised about $200k per year. We fundraise through grants, big donors, and small donors, and we are expanding our fundraising goal to $300,000 for 2025.

GIVE TODAY

Our major expense is our staff, and our two and a half person staff (Rabbi Michael Pollack, Andrea Pauliuc, and our rabbinic intern Léah Miller) needs to add one more person. We are a volunteer driven organization, but even so, we need a small number of full-time workers to hold it all together. We have much more volunteer energy than we can handle, which is a great problem to have! And the simple solution is hiring a third person to focus on development and communications. We need to build up our fundraising capacity, and we need to offload communications work from Andrea so she can fully focus on her exceptional ability to organize more people and organizations into the fight.

We need to grow the movement to win the democracy that we deserve.

We need to raise $150,000 by June 1st. Please donate. Please ask your friends, family, and community to donate. Democracy needs all of us.

GIVE TO THE MOVEMENT

For Love and Democracy,

Rabbi Michael Pollack, Executive Director of MarchOnHarrisburg and Pennsylvania Poor People’s Campaign Statewide Tri-Chair

Donation Information:

Our tax-deductible 501c3 is March On Harrisburg Education Fund
EIN: 85-0791124

Donate online and learn about other ways to give: www.march-on-harrisburg-education-fund.org
Please mail donations to:
March On Harrisburg Education Fund

PO Box 243

Cheltenham, PA 19012-9998

Our 501c4 is March On Harrisburg Inc.
EIN: 82-2598652

Donate online and learn about other ways to give: www.mohpa.org/donate

Please mail donations to:
March On Harrisburg Inc.