THE KEYSTONE Winter/Spring ’26

The Put People First! PA Media & Communications Team is proud to announce the publication of our member-created newsletter, The Keystone Winter/Spring 2026 edition.

Click here to read a digital magazine version of The Keystone Winter/Spring 2026 edition.

Share the Keystone here: https://bit.ly/Keystone2026

The Keystone aims to “make the invisible visible” through member stories, reports on base-building and campaign activities, lessons on the terrain and leadership development, arts, culture & more! This edition is 44 pages covering activities across rural, urban and suburban Pennsylvania as well as highlights from across the country and internationally. Multiple articles and testimonies are printed in Spanish and English. Every piece includes QR codes and links to see additional photos, resources and learn more. Upwards of 75 people worked on content for The Keystone in one way or another for this publication, and you will find the edition is richer because of it!

To paraphrase Poor People’s Campaign leader, Rev. Barber, we know that to change the narrative on the poor, we need to change the narrator. The Keystone is written by regular people who know from our own survival struggles what we’re up against and what we need to change things. Read the introduction of the edition below!

Click here to read PDF version of The Keystone Winter/Spring 2026 edition.

Introduction

November 1, 2025 in the U.S. brought the reality of hunger and more intense poverty for over 40 million people, with the failure to load SNAP cards and the specter of work requirements that will only work to hurt more of us. Meanwhile, we continue to suffer bipartisan Medicaid purges, rising ACA premiums, and mass closures of our hospitals. These attacks on our class have occurred under both parties of Wall Street, and they are only intensifying. The 140 million people in and near poverty continues to grow—and 800 people die of poverty every day—in the richest country in the world. This same country is dragged along by a war economy that can always find money to divide us along racial, religious, cultural, geographical, and national lines. It wages attacks on our entire class, from Palestine, to Venezuela and Cuba, and right here on our own soil.

It feels like the poor and dispossessed working class is in a struggle for survival with the billionaires and their minions, who are trying to suck the air out of our lives. Many of us are deprived of our human rights to food, decent housing, medical care; some are kidnapped, incarcerated—even beaten, or killed. Misery and cruelty are the order of the day, all in the name of greater profits for the few, the top 10 of which grew their hoards by $698 billion in the last year alone. With the development of AI, our labor is less and less necessary.

So, we continue to unite, develop ourselves as leaders, and organize. The only thing that will save us is our own organization and unity as the poor and dispossessed—as the working class in the U.S. and around the world. In the face of bullets, raids and the denial of our basic needs, we choose the weapons of revolutionary love, political independence, and care for each other across any and all lines of division.

As one of our members put it: “The oppressors may have the pen, purse, and sword. But we have hearts to care and love one another, our minds for understanding what is truly right, and our hands to reach across the lines of separation.”

Here, we affirm our right to our own narratives. The Keystone is a statement that we need our own voices uplifted to change this system and a tool to build towards a revolution of values. This issue is dedicated to our members—experienced, new, and those yet to join. With each other, we can build a politically independent movement across all lines of division with solidarity for our class to end misery and to organize society around meeting the vast majority’s needs and a livable future.

— Members of the Put People First! PA Media & Communications Team

Introducción

El 1 de noviembre de 2025 en los Estados Unidos trajo consigo la realidad del hambre y una pobreza aún más intensa para más de 40 millones de personas, con la imposibilidad de recargar las tarjetas SNAP y el espectro de los requisitos laborales que solo servirán para perjudicarnos aún más. Mientras tanto, seguimos sufriendo purgas bipartidistas de Medicaid, el aumento de las primas de la ACA y el cierre masivo de nuestros hospitales. Estos ataques a nuestra clase se han producido bajo ambos partidos de Wall Street, y no hacen más que intensificarse. Los 140 millones de personas que viven en la pobreza o cerca de ella siguen aumentando, y 800 personas mueren cada día por culpa de la pobreza, en el país más rico del mundo. Este mismo país se ve arrastrado por una economía de guerra que siempre encuentra dinero para dividirnos por motivos raciales, religiosos, culturales, geográficos y nacionales. Lanza ataques contra toda nuestra clase, desde Palestina hasta Venezuela y Cuba, y aquí mismo, en nuestro propio territorio

Parece que la clase trabajadora pobre y desposeída está librando una lucha por la supervivencia contra los multimillonarios y sus secuaces, que intentan quitarnos el aire que respiramos. Muchos de nosotros estamos privados de nuestros derechos humanos a la alimentación, a una vivienda digna y a la atención médica; algunos son secuestrados, encarcelados, incluso golpeados o asesinados. La miseria y la crueldad son la orden del día, todo en nombre de mayores ganancias para unos pocos, cuyos 10 principales aumentaron sus fortunas en 698 mil millones de dólares solo en el último año. Con el desarrollo de la inteligencia artificial, nuestro trabajo es cada vez menos necesario.
Por eso, seguimos uniéndonos, desarrollándonos como líderes y organizándonos. Lo único que nos salvará es nuestra propia organización y unidad como pobres y desposeídos, como clase trabajadora en los Estados Unidos y en todo el mundo. Ante las balas, las redadas y la negación de nuestras necesidades básicas, elegimos las armas del amor revolucionario, la independencia política y el cuidado mutuo más allá de cualquiera línea divisoria.

Como dijo uno de nuestros miembros: «Los opresores tienen la pluma, la bolsa y la espada. Pero nosotros tenemos corazones para cuidarnos y amarnos unos a otros, mentes para comprender lo que es verdaderamente correcto y nuestras manos para tender puentes más allá de las líneas de separación».

Aquí afirmamos nuestro derecho a nuestras propias narrativas. Nuestro boletin “The Keystone” es una declaración de que necesitamos alzar nuestras propias voces para cambiar este sistema y una herramienta para construir una revolución de valores. Este número está dedicado a nuestros miembros, tanto a los veteranos como a los nuevos y a los que aún no se han unido. Juntos, podemos construir un movimiento políticamente independiente que trascienda todas las líneas divisorias, con solidaridad hacia nuestra clase, para poner fin a la miseria y para organizar la sociedad para garantizar las necesidades de la gran mayoría y un futuro digno y sostenible.

— Miembros del equipo de Media y Comunicaciones de ¡El Pueblo Primero! PA

The Keystone Winter-Spring26Download

Massachusetts Delegation: Lessons from the 2025 Membership Assembly

Massachusetts Delegation: Lessons from the 2025 Membership Assembly

The Massachusetts Nonviolent Medicaid Army (Mass NVMA) is a two-year-old state formation, started when a former Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) leader moved to Massachusetts. A small core of leaders cohered in Eastern and Western Mass by reconnecting with existing leaders and with new leaders drawn to the clarity of the NVMA. The state formation was further strengthened when two leaders from the Vermont Workers’ Center moved to Boston last year. We have been building out two regional committees in West and East while systemizing basebuilding cycles in each region, developing new leaders in the process.

This is the second year the Mass NVMA sent a delegation to the PPF-PA membership assembly, and new and more-experienced leaders are coming from both Boston and Western Mass.

Allie: The Put People First assembly helped me get a better grasp on why we do the work that we do with organizing. I heard that we organize so we are ready as leaders to take in the masses when the conditions get bad enough that people are forced to demand a change. The work we do can feel intangible at times so this was helpful for me to put things into perspective and feel more invigorated and committed to organizing in our community. I feel like I have seen activists groups struggle with longevity and burn out because it feels like they are constantly fighting a fruitless, losing battle so having this mindset shift has been impactful for me to see the ways that the work we do is different and while it is still difficult, it is done with intention and knowledge of the hard work that it will take.

I also feel like it helped challenge my idea of what a leader is and the qualities we all need to be striving for in our leadership. I have been intimidated by powerful orators in our movement and felt like they have a skill set I do not but seeing them speak and learning from them showed me that this is not an unobtainable thing, it is just a skill that we all can and need to learn how to do. The quote about a leader needing to be able to lead a meeting, scrub a toilet, etc. really rang true to me and showed me that versatility and adaptability are important traits in leadership. I tried to challenge myself to be like this by saying yes to new things even if I found it scary or uncomfortable. I used to be incredibly scared of public speaking but I have made an effort to say yes to doing it in order to allow myself to further develop as a leader, as I know this is an important skill for leaders to have and growth will only come if we put ourselves in situations that allow for it. I also allowed myself to help with songleading in ways that scared me. As a musician, it is hard for me to separate performance from making music for organizing so I wanted to put myself out of my comfort zone by saying yes to helping with musical aspects of the assembly and beyond back in MA in order to check my ego and allow music to be used in organizing contexts without thinking about how I sound.

The assembly also showed me the different ways people have been organized. I met people who joined through door knocking, were organized through church or online and it taught me that we must try multiple avenues to reach people. With this, I also saw the importance of accessibility in these spaces and how this weekend would not have been possible without the care for different people’s needs and meeting them when possible, including things like childcare.

Taka: Attending the Put People First! PA assembly for my second time and helping to lead our state delegation for the first time, impacted me personally and clarified the direction of our state formation. I am still processing the lessons learned.

In the way that leaders in a state formation have distinct needs and interdependencies to develop their 4 C’s, I’ve realized that different state formations of the NVMA also have distinct ways to learn from and support each other given their specific histories. Since getting back, we’ve successfully held not one but two People’s Clinics in Eastern Massachusetts. Specifically, we learned from leaders of the Illinois NUH that consistency and follow-through are key elements of deploying a project of survival as a basebuilding strategy.

Due to the increasingly precarious survival of the poor and dispossessed as well as our own efforts, our two-year-old Eastern regional committee is at a potential point of significant growth.
By learning the history of how the Maryland United Workers grew with fits and starts from a local to a statewide movement, I was reminded that leadership development is a slow and steady process through organizing cycles and campaigns. Building solid leadership to take on growth is a prerequisite to successfully harnessing such growing interest (to not let gold pass through the sieve). I believe we are starting to do that!

I look forward to hosting our own exchange in the future, and I am proud to be part of this deeply human thing we are doing together.

Stacey: This was my second PPF-PA assembly since getting involved with Massachusetts NVMA over a year ago, and also my first-time co-leading a delegation. Through co-leading a delegation from Massachusetts, I developed better understanding and skills in the small components of leadership, like organizing a debrief, supporting new leaders, and paying attention to details. The experience helped me feel more confident in taking on leads and developing new leaders through our basebuilding activities in Western Mass.

I also developed more clarity about our next steps in Massachusetts by having a better understanding of the campaign and tactics welded by PPF-PA. It was clarifying to see how the action and discussion of #Crozer8 agitated new members at the assembly, including members who came to the assembly because of the basebuilding done around Crozer, and how new leaders are developed through the campaign. The opportunity to exchange ideas with other states in different stages and conditions helped me see the need to be flexible and creative with our activities in Massachusetts, and in Franklin County — both being able to weld our strategy specific to our region and being realistic about our capacity.

Since we are in our early stages of building in Massachusetts, I also appreciated the opportunity to connect with other leaders, especially those building or have built new organizations/HRCs. Beyond talking about the need to focus on leadership development early on, I felt more committed to our project in Western Mass by having a more realistic understanding of the challenges that inevitably come up with building new organizations.

Bassima: “Leadership is when your thoughts govern your actions,” Nijmie explained in the closing ceremony of the membership assembly. To really be a 4C’s leader, you have to work on closing the gap between what you think and what you do. That sobered me right up, even as I said my goodbyes, it kept gnawing at me, this simple truth. So obvious when you first hear it, so shocking in its simplicity.

At the PPF-PA membership assembly, I saw many leaders moving in ways that clearly embodied their thoughts and feelings. Looking back through snippets of memories from that powerful weekend, I finally had the rubric with which to process that ineffable magical love I see in this community. There is no magic here. We are ordinary people who are actively committing to each other and ourselves, committing to the laborious day to day struggle of building up our community, educating ourselves, learning from each other, learning from our mistakes. Committing to match our actions to our thoughts, today and every day.

My journey in the NVMA has been a bumpy one. I have struggled in my own leadership development in ways that have impacted our nascent state and regional formation here in Eastern Massachusetts. At the PPF-PA MA, I found tools that helped me push past the mental block of the shame that comes with failure. I saw leaders I looked up to being vulnerable about past failures and humbly sharing the lessons learned along the way.

Since returning from the membership assembly, we in Eastern Mass have been working through an organizing cycle in my own neighborhood, Roslindale. Building on lessons learned from the people’s clinic workshop, and further advice I had received from leaders in other states who were generous with their time (thank you Kelly!), I was able to take on a leadership role in this, and feel somewhat competent as I did it. We have had 2 people’s clinics with many lessons learned in the process and are currently base building for and planning our upcoming North star event. The next challenge after this will be to maintain the connections between my local community in Roslindale and our state and regional formation in a sustainable and consistent way before we tackle the next neighborhood. I have a long trip home planned which will take me physically away from all we are building, and the skill I have to build up now is how to maintain connectedness and commitment during a prolonged physical absence. I will need an action plan for this, and then follow through, for to be a leader I must do what I think. I have finally understood that commitment is not a feeling, it’s a series of consistent actions.

Reporting from the 2025 Membership Assembly

The 13th Annual Membership Assembly kicked off in sunny State College, Pennsylvania, on October 17th, 2025. This was Put People First! PA’s largest Membership Assembly to date with over 160 adults and 40 youth in person as well as virtual participants attending on zoom. A third of those in the room were leaders from our broader network, the Nonviolent Medicaid Army, which made this weekend not only a crucial moment for our organizing in Pennsylvania but for our whole network, as we continue to build politically independent, poverty abolitionist movement led by the poor and dispossessed united across all lines of division. Click here for more photos from the weekend!

The Membership Assembly is a key moment every year where a huge number of people experience first hand the Community Agreement “Everyone is responsible for the success of the space.” From housing to Audio/Visual to childcare, the weekend was planned by a 19 member team, who in turn incorporated nearly all participants at the Assembly into “Basegroups” to support in carrying out these divisions of labor over the weekend. 

The Documentation Basegroup, comprised of eight leaders from Pennsylvania and three leaders from Georgia and Illinois, reported highlights from the sessions, captured interviews with participants and recorded photos and videos of the weekend. Here’s some of their coverage.

Saturday morning began with participants collectively building a movement altar. Leaders from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin, and California as well as international partners from Cuba and Brazil, shared an object that reflected their local history of struggle and led the group in a chant. As groups processed, we sang,

Let the Medicaid Army
Shine its light on you
Let the Medicaid army
Shine its light on you!

Well if you ever come to (Appalachia)
They’re gonna walk tall
But the rich and the greedy
Shove their backs against the wall
But with discipline and high morale
We’ll get through this dark night
You find that Medicaid Army
You find that big old light!

– Let The Medicaid Army by John Rowland, adapting Lead Belly

Assembly content kicked off with a session on Hospital Closures & the Political Economy of Healthcare. Gann from North Carolina NVMA and Homeless Union recorded participants’ responses to the question: Why does healthcare matter to you?

“Healthcare is the difference between life and death.”
“Matters to me because my husband needs medications, has worked since age 14 and deserves them.”
“I lost my son because he didn’t have insurance so they let him die.”
“I would be dead of cancer without healthcare. I was denied for so long.”
“The government wants us dead. But we have a right to life so we must fight.”
“My 4 surgeries made me poor because I had to pay out-of-pocket for the right to live.”
“My husband’s treatment was delayed for lack of $35 and he died.”
“We can beat cancer if we allocate resources to it.”
“The insurance industry is PARASITIC and denies care I deserve. Even my employer says worker’s compensation should cover my care but insurance denies me.”
“We are all living under and impacted by the same system. We’re impacted in different ways, but we are united in our fight.”

Watch the “Hospital Closures and the Political Economy of Healthcare” livestream here!

This powerful opening session was followed by workshops on Political Storytelling, People’s Clinics, Medicaid Sign-ups and Appeals and Song leading. Grace from the National Union of the Homeless in Chicago shared these highlights from the Political Storytelling workshop:

Put People First! PA Leaders Harrison, Jeanette, and Rebecca showed us how story sharing is a political act. Rebecca noted that “the ruling class controls the media because they want to control our thoughts…but we can win because we are united around the things that matter: our health, our lives, our families, our struggles.”

Desi from Movement of Immigrant Leaders in PA (MILPA) shared about Radio MILPA, which began two years ago with the goal of using radio to connect people in the immigrant community and to provide them with political education. Knowing that movements begin with the telling of untold stories, MILPA shares stories from the community in Untold Stories of PA. This is particularly important at a time where immigrant struggles are being scapegoated. MILPA also helps community members document abuses from police, ICE, and other agencies.

So many of the trials that people experience as “normal” are important healthcare stories. We can agitate people to help them take action by affirming that their experience matters, asking key questions, and listening deeply to their experiences.

See our series of #MedicaidMondays from the Assembly on Instagram and facebook thanks to Andrea from March on Harrisburg, a sister organization in the PA Poor People’s Campaign.

Saturday night ended as it always does with Arts & Culture Night with participants of all ages sharing stories, songs, visual art, jokes and more. The night was captured by Michele from Put People First! PA Southeast PA Healthcare Rights Committee:

With over 50 participants, Arts and Culture Night was a night filled with music, poetry, drawing, prose reading, and comedy. The talent and vulnerability in the room were truly inspiring. Music and singing led the stage, with members performing popular, resistance, and original songs. Unity Across Language was created in traditional Native American and Brazilian Portuguese songs. Many performers roused the audience to join in and sing along. Heartfelt poetry called out to life, loss, pain, and invisibility. Words dedicated to lost loved ones stirred the crowd, which also held the performers in its caring embrace.

Artists showed their beautiful work, emphasizing how art can be a means of self-expression as well as political messaging. Comedy was offered, both planned and unplanned, leading to lots and lots of laughter. In addition, Root Coordinators Jacob H, Phil, and Kristen were honored for their hard work and mentorship as they prepare to move on to new roles within our broader network. The Indiana NVMA wrapped up the night with an emotional tribute to a fallen leader, Ares. It was a fitting bittersweet ending as the audience came together dancing to “Dance Monkey,” a favorite song of Ares and his partner.

Sunday opened with informal discussion space for participants to come together to strategize our response to SNAP cuts – collectively and individually, what we need to know to keep our food stamps in the face of work requirements – as well as for regions and formations to reflect on the weekend.

The next block of workshops focused on how we embody our key political principle of Leadership across Difference in the Battle for the Bible, Unity Across Language and Housing and Healthcare.

Click here to watch the livestreamed “The Battle for the Bible” panel with leaders Willie Baptist from Georgia, Father Ty Hullinger from Maryland, Minister Tammy Rosing from Pennsylvania, Minister Moses Hernandez-McGavin from Ohio, and international guests!

Click here to listen to the livestreamed “NVMA Housing & Healthcare Panel” Leaders speak to the need for a healthcare system and a housing structure that puts people over profits, and how we’re organizing to make that happen. Panelists include Nijmie Dzurinko of Put People First! PA, Ana Cha of MST, Landless Workers Movement, Michael Coleman of United Workers, Bebhinn McDermott of the Albany chapter of the National Union of the Homeless, Max Ray-Riek of the ACT UP!  Philly Homeless Union, and Al and Weber of the Illinois chapter of the National Union of the Homeless.

We ended the 13th Assembly with a closing, bringing us all together in song, appreciation for the space and one another, and an agitation for how we bring forward what we learned from the weekend to make the struggle every day.

Big appreciation to all members of the Documentation Basegroup, Co-Coordinators Tammy (Put People First! PA & National Union of the Homeless, South Central PA) & Jamie (Put People First! PA, Southeast PA), and members Michele (PPF-PA SEPA), Ramona (PPF-PA SEPA), Gann (NUH – NC), Andrea (March on Harrisburg – SCPA), Emily (PPF-PA Southwest PA), Timothy (NUH / PPF-PA SWPA), Emma (NUH-IL), Alfredo (NUH – Philly), Grace (NUH-IL), who took photos, videos, notes and interviews throughout the weekend because movements begin with the telling of untold stories!

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“If I Were A Rich Man”

By Zevi K. Southeast PA Healthcare Rights Committee
Put People First! PA

I adapted the song “If I Were A Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof… So many of us learn to believe all our problems would be solved if only we, as individuals, had more money. But really, that won’t save us and we need a bigger understanding of what “wealth” is. This song is me imagining what it could be like to be “rich” in a way that includes all of us….

If I were a rich man
Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum
All day long, I’d biddy biddy bum
If I were a wealthy man
I wouldn’t have to work hard
Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum
If I were a biddy biddy rich, yidle-diddle-didle-didle man

I’d build a big health clinic with rooms by the dozen
Right in the middle of the town
Doctors, nurses, techs went to school for free
And there’d be workers whose one job is to check
On you if you haven’t been around
Co-pays and deductibles are banned!

We’d all have jobs that don’t make us want to die
Because they’d value human life
Instead of squeezing profits for billionaires
And we’d find ways to stop destroying the Earth
Because that’s a thing we could just do!
Can you feel the breeze of that sweet air…

If I were a rich man…

I see my kids, my children, looking like a rich man’s kids
With their bellies full of food
Getting the care and attention that they need
I see them putting on plays at cultural centers,
Learning how to cook and how to swim,
Singing, there’s a future still for me…

The politicians of the land would come to call on us!
They would ask us to advise them
Like Solomon the wise
What do you see, my people?
What do you need, my people?
When they told us we were powerless they lied!
Yabba dee die die…..

And it won’t make one bit of difference
If you’ve got money to pay
When we’re all rich
We all really own

If we were rich we’d have the time that we lack
To heal from centuries of pain
Even if we don’t know exactly how
Because the poor have always had to know
How to make a way out of no way
Can’t you see we’re doing it right now?

If we were a rich man! Yabba dibby….

Lord who made the planet and the stars
You decreed we would be what we are
Give us strength to carry us that far!
Till we all are a…wealthy… man !!!!

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