National Nurses United

"I've never met anybody like the nurses. You took nurses to whole another level. Traveling the entire country. Making it known that we need to have single payer healthcare in this country and nothing less, and we will not accept anything less." —Former Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner "How cool is it that nurses put this together? The people who formed the People's Summit knew that there was a time after the primaries that we would need to get together." —Shaun King, New York Daily News columnist/activist I f there's an emblem for the growth and reputation of our great organization, it is the unshakeable bond our nurses, leadership, and staff have forged with patients, the broader public, and those working to create a more humane society. For nurses, of course, it starts at the bedside. In an environment now fully domi- nated by a corporatized healthcare industry, nurses daily have to fight for appropriate staffing, safe conditions, and secure stan- dards for themselves. But as we have long known, that fight does not, and cannot, end at the hospital walls. Nurses understand that social advocacy must extend into the public and social arenas. When they see patients who have to cut their pills in half or skip vital care, from colonoscopies to chemotherapy, they know that their voices must ring out for funda- mental transformation of a profit-focused healthcare system. It doesn't stop there. All the other social ills present at the bedside as well—the harmful health effects of poverty, malnutri- tion, homelessness, unemployment, racism, sexism, homophobia, climate change, and environmental pollution and its dispropor- tionate impact on the low income and communities of color. It is for those reasons and more that NNU members engaged so energetically in the landmark Bernie Sanders campaign, for the candidate who embraced and gave voice to all our priorities, starting with guaranteed healthcare for all, to a global audience and our national media. More than a year ago, long before the first primary votes were cast, we identified a need for a gathering of grassroots activists, and national and community organizations who have worked with us, from the campaigns for Medicare for all, a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street, opposition to the Keystone pipeline, the Trans Pacific Partner- ship trade pact, and, subsequently, the Sanders movement. That gathering came together June 17 to 19 for three spectacular days in a People's Summit in Chicago with a common desire to unify the diversity, energy, and unflagging commitment of those who have long worked separately and often together to build a larg- er progressive movement to transform and heal the nation and the planet. The breadth of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and generations, of the partic- ipants, the speakers, the organizations, was a testimony to our work, and to the move- ments and coalitions we have stood with over many years. It fills us with hope for how to carry this transformational movement and moment forward. From one who has inspired us for years, educator/author Frances Fox Piven ob erved, "We're in a movement moment. Those movement moments don't occur too frequently in American history, but when they have occurred, they have changed our society." To the many young people who give us trust in the future. "What we've created together is incredible," said Moumita Ahmed of Millenials for Bernie. "We're going to come together and win." The Summit coincided with the conclusion of the primary season, an experience in which we had an unprecedented opportunity to campaign in the national spotlight on issues that have animated nurses and driven our members and organization for many years. Those priorities include guaranteed healthcare/Medicare for all; combatting the escalating, harmful effects of climate change and environmental pollution; enhancing retirement security through expansion of Social Security; the Robin Hood tax on Wall Street to raise the revenue we need for jobs and our future—and so much more. What so many noted in Chicago is that all of our issues were ones we held in common. That the best way to achieve our shared goals in the face of an economic and political chokehold by Wall Street, corporate giants, and the politicians they influence and control, is a unity of action. "It is our duty to fight for each other," emphasized Dante Barry, executive director of A Million Hoodies Movement for Justice. Or as climate action filmmaker Josh Fox put it, he is often asked, facing the threat of rising seas and other climate dangers "Where do I move?" As Fox says, "My answer is always the same, anywhere there is a strong movement." And, as we were constantly reminded in Chicago, the Sanders movement did not exist in isolation. "There is a history that has led up to this moment that allows us to step on the backs of so many people who gave us the leverage to be able to speak as powerfully as we are, to organize as well as we have," noted actress and activist Rosario Dawson. Dawson referred to the swelling move- ment as a "rising. It has long since been happening. And it will continue to happen because the reasons for it belie election cycle calendars. They are connected to our day-to- day lives; that is what is at stake, our commu- nities, our friends, our families, our future." Many economic and social forces of resistance and struggle predated this elec- toral cycle. Their recent roots can be traced to neoliberal policies, beginning in the 1970s, that ripped away at the heart of our 14 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G M A R C H | A P R I L 2 0 1 6 RoseAnn DeMoro Executive Director, National Nurses United Never Waiver Nurses' steadfast fight for justice culminated this year at the People's Summit, and continues on

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