Marianne Walles

My name is Marianne Walles and I am running for Steering Committee. I am a lifelong resident of Somerville. I am a social worker and an elected union leader. I use my voice as a social worker and a union leader to advocate for housing, workers' rights, and ensuring that basic human needs are met. Over the past few years, I have been a co-chair of the ORS PILOT working group. I am proud of the progress we have made in our organizing efforts and that we were able to get negotiating team and an ordinance introduced. I am looking forward to expanding our work on the PILOT as a means of a progressive revenue and making large nonprofits more accountable to host communities. . I would like to see Somerville be a place where people could live and work without the fear of displacement.

Michael Bowler

I am running for my fourth term on steering because I believe that Our Revolution Somerville plays a crucial role in local movements here in Somerville- intersecting the worlds of grassroots organizing and electoral politics effectively. But there is more work that needs to be done to grow membership, guide the organization through important municipal elections and get involved in new, important causes. I have been involved with Our Revolution Somerville since its creation 4 years ago as a member of the steering committee, and I care deeply about its ability to restore power to the people of the community. We don’t have to look beyond our own city to see that unions, immigrants and working class people are under attack. I think it’s important that we continue to bring a spotlight to these issues and organize campaigns around the issues that fit with our values. When we fight, we win. This past term felt deflating because of COVID-19, and I am not sure I brought my best self to ORS. That being said, I was happy to be involved in the paraprofessionals fight for a living wage and the campaign to hold the SCC accountable for the community benefits agreement in Union Square. In this next term, there will be so many important issues on the table surrounding building a more equitable city post-COVID while protecting our most vulnerable neighbors. I hope I get the chance to serve again.

Donald "DJ" Cronin

My name is Donald “DJ” Cronin and I am declaring my intention to run for re-election to the Steering Committee of Our Revolution Somerville. I am a long time Workers’ Rights Advocate and Union Organizer, currently the Organizing Director of SEIU Local 888. I have been active in ORS since 2017 and would like to continue the hard work we have been doing in the Labor Working Group, of which I am co-chair, around wage theft and other issues affecting workers in Somerville including getting the Wage Theft Advisory Committee up and running, assisting the newly formed Somerville Workers Center, Workers’ Rights trainings and working with the labor and community groups in Somerville Stands Together. I am also looking forward to being a part of the process for endorsements in the upcoming 2021 Somerville municipal elections with the Electoral Working Group and Steering Committee. Thank you for your consideration.

Larry Rich (Pandemic Portrait)

We don’t live in a democracy. A 2014 Princeton study of Congressional policy outcomes vs voter polls showed that voters in the lower 90% of income have no influence on legislation. If 100% of those voters were in favor of legislation, there was a 30% chance that it would pass. Conversely, if 0% of those voters were in favor of legislation, there was still a 30% chance that it would pass. Wealthy (upper 10%) voters fared somewhat better: if no wealthy voters at all backed a piece of legislation, it was almost certain that it would not pass. Those that do influence legislation are the wealthy, large corporations, large interest groups and lobbyists.

In order to restore small “d” democracy, we need to get big money out of politics, we have to get people into politics with the interests of the majority at heart, we need to enact rank choice voting and we need to support social justice policies to help the many - including Medicare for all, livable wages for all, repairing the inequities of minorities and women and restoring the environment. That’s what Our Revolution is about and that’s why I want to serve. I am not currently on the steering committee although I am the Somerville rep to the Our Revolution Massachusetts (ORMA) Representative Council. I was on the first interim steering committee and have attended meetings ever since whether or not officially a member.

Harriotte Hurie Ranvig

I have lived, worked and raised my children here in Somerville since 1983 as a blind mother and now grandmother. My understanding of the gross inequities people struggle with daily is informed by my lifelong advocacy with and for people with disabilities, work which intersects with racial injustice. Multilingual fluency (Hindi, German, conversational Spanish and French) has served me in connecting with individuals across cultures.

During the three years I have served on the ORS Steering Committee, I have testified at City Council hearings on critical issues of zoning for affordable and accessible housing and for fairness in large city development projects. I will continue to hold our mayor and city council accountable for making good on their progressive promises. Thank you for considering me for the 2021 Our Revolution Steering Committee.

Colleen Fitzpatrick

My name is Colleen Fitzpatrick and I have been a member of the Our Revolution Somerville Steering Committee for the past three years. I am incredibly proud of the work that this organization has done advocating for local and state policies that advance affordable housing, protect worker’s rights and ensure that institutions and developers pay their fair share. We have disrupted city politics as usual and pushed those in power toward a more progressive agenda. However, there is still much more work to be done. We face an uphill battle against those who come to our city seeking to make a quick profit at the expense of residents and workers. Rents continue to rise astronomically and it is becoming more and more difficult for working people to make a life here.

I am highly committed to this organization and our goal of achieving a more fair, equitable and democratic Somerville. It would be an honor to continue serving on the Steering Committee. I believe my background in labor and community organizing makes me well-suited to the role and responsibility.

Through my recent work in community development, I gained knowledge of the latest housing policies aimed at maximizing affordability and preventing displacement. I also bring personal experience living as a renter in our fraught and overpriced housing market. Additionally, I have years of experience working as an organizer in the labor movement. I am currently employed at Mass Teacher’s Association where I help members address issues in their workplaces and build stronger locals.

Overall, I have a practiced ability to bring people together around common issues and a track record of building the collective power necessary to make positive change. I am well versed in the democratic processes and collective decision making that is the foundation of our work. I believe I am great fit for this organization and look forward to continuing to work together to advance our progressive agenda in the coming year.

Pennie Taylor

Hi, I’m Pennie Taylor, a renter in Ward 2. I manage public art and youth development programs, and am a community organizer. The trauma experienced by our neighbors in housing crisis during COVID is shocking. We need housing remedies yesterday: more money to rental assistance, and direct cash to people including undocumented households and neighbors with disabilities, to keep people fed and in their homes during a global pandemic. Somervillians must be safe with dignity, with basic needs met without stress. One way to get funds for basic needs is to defund the police. I’d personally like to abolish them entirely.

I’m on the Union Square Neighborhood Council Board standing for people over profits, and serve on the USNC Community Benefits Agreement Oversight Committee, holding developers accountable to their commitments to our neighbors. As a part of the ORS Labor Working Group, I helped propel a coalition of workers, unions, legal, and local organizations to get the updated wage theft ordinance on the books. Last year saw our campaign to support the founding of the Somerville Worker Center come to fruition, to educate and protect Somerville workers from exploitation.

I value ORS because I can trust the solidarity is there. I’d be honored to serve on the SC for a second term in this important electoral year. Being in ORS has taught me time and time again that when we fight, we win!

Jeff Uehlinger

My name is Jeff Uehlinger and I am excited to be considered for the Our Revolution Somerville steering committee. I have been a member of ORS for two years and work as a labor organizer where I develop organizing campaigns with (soon to be) union workers. I also have experience supporting insurgent political campaigns including organizing canvassing operations and data support.

As ORS members, our work is more urgent than ever. In 2020 we saw the rapid acceleration of multiple crises, as it is more difficult than ever for working people to live in Somerville and corporate neglect has forced workers into life-threatening hazards like never before. The pandemic has stricken our community with isolation, and white supremacists have targeted immigrants and our neighbors of color. In 2021 I commit to fighting back as an ORS member as we continue to bring together movements across our city, run candidates in strategic electoral races, design campaigns to pass bold legislation, build out our membership, and advance the work of our working groups. I hope to join our committed leadership to move this work forward.

Kimberly Abruzzo

Hello, I'm Kimberly - a kid from a working-class background and tradeswoman in an industry of both extreme privilege and extreme poverty.

This morally conflicting environment has given me a unique insider perspective on our deep nationwide class chasm. Learning how to relate to people from vastly different economic and political backgrounds has been integral to understanding how we might push towards a progresive agenda and recruit unexpected allies.

After past experience in protest, political documentary, and direct action, I'm ready to help influence public policy to benefit underserved citizens. I dream of a day we see power in the hands of workers; ensuring they receive full compensation for their part surviving under capitalism.

I'd like to fight for issues like daily overtime wage and mandatory healthcare - particularly mental health and support for people who manage disabilities.

Furthermore, I seek to drop the idea that political newbies must already identify as progressive to fight for progressive policies. I believe that inclusivity brings education and influence - and alongside that comes change. The anger has to go somewhere, after all.

Melinda Green

Hi! I’m Melinda and I would be honored you reelect me to the ORS Steering Committee. After joining DSA, I discovered ORS and have been an active member of the group since June 2017. In addition to serving on the Steering Committee and acting as a co-chair since 2019, I regularly organize our monthly meetings and ensure the Steering Committee supports our working groups. Since Covid began, I have hopefully done my best to ‘herd cats,’ facilitate communications, and improve accessibility so that all meeting attendees feel included. In 2021, I want to continue this work and do my part to evolve our organizational strategy.

As part of our amazing Communications team, I use my experience as a product designer and creative director on things like our newsletters, election literature, and logo. Outside of ORS, I am a longtime, year-round organizer for the Boston Underground Film FestivaI, and I help out with local lefty campaigns whenever I can. I also serve as Secretary and Treasurer of the Ward 2 Democrats. Due in a very large part to ORS, my connection to Somerville has deepened, and I believe the only way we can be a real community is when all residents live with dignity and their basic needs met.

Nate Clauser

I'm Nate Clauser. I've lived in Somerville's Ward 5 since 2014. I joined Our Revolution Somerville in 2017 shortly after its creation and participated in our effort at the 2017 Mass Dems Platform Convention that won progressive changes to the state party platform. I knocked hundreds of doors for the victorious ORS slate later that year in the municipal election. I've since served as co-chair of the ORS Electoral Working Group, helping to organize and facilitate our endorsement process, candidate questionnaires, forums, and canvassing efforts from 2018-2020. I'm also a member of our Labor Working Group, through which I worked with City Councilors on a major overhaul and expansion of Somerville's Wage Theft Ordinance in 2019 and showed up in the past year to support Somerville paraprofessionals fighting for a living wage and painters and other workers fighting wage theft at Assembly Square.

I've served on the Steering Committee for the last two years, and I have a clear understanding of the considerable time and effort it takes to serve the organization in this capacity. I'm seeking reelection to a third term because there's much more work to do to build a Somerville for the many, and I'm still willing to help do it. Though there is much worthy and important work that I hope to do this year as part of ORS, I plan to focus my efforts on ORS's electoral work amidst what is shaping up to be a very big municipal election year. I ask for your vote, and I look forward to continuing to work alongside you for a more just and equitable Somerville.

Malcolm Cummings

My name is Malcolm Cummings, and I’m excited to be running for ORS steering committee. I grew up in Cambridge, lived in Somerville since 2009, and joined ORS after the 2016 election to support local progressive action. I’ve worked on climate change issues in Somerville for many years, including a long running campaign to divest public funds from the fossil fuel industry, organizing community input to the city’s Somerville Climate Forward plan, helping start the Climate Coalition of Somerville to coordinate local climate action, and advancing sustainable development goals in the zoning overhaul centered on high-quality affordable housing. ORS can play a big role in bringing the values of the Green New Deal to Somerville; a just transition away from fossil fuels that centers environmental justice for people who have been harmed most by pollution and climate change while bringing good, meaningful jobs to the city. I was inspired to run for steering committee by the impressive work of ORS members over the last four years, and by my wife and father. As a union carpenter and public school teacher in Somerville, they teach me every day that collective action and solidarity are how people build a better future for each other. I hope to represent those values by contributing my experience to the ongoing work of ORS.

Hang Ngo

My name is Hang Ngo (she/they) and I grew up next door, in Chelsea, after my family and I arrived in the U.S. as refugees after the Vietnam War. I am running for the ORS Steering Committee because my privilege of time and energy to be involved in political organizing is best used to amplify the voices of those who don't have the luxury of showing up to political meetings. My fellow immigrant neighbors, neighbors of color, and neighbors struggling with limited financial resources in this increasingly unaffordable city need a seat at the table. Progressive policies benefit everyone, particularly those with the least amount of power in our community.

I am a steering committee member of the Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance of Boston (QAPA) and an active member of Just Us Somerville. I would love to build coalition among various community groups and organizations with ORS to fight for our vision of an equitable and affordable Somerville together. Professionally, I am a clinical psychologist and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consultant. My DEI lens, personal lived experiences, and community connections would help include more perspectives in ORS's work to continue to build a progressive movement that includes everyone.