Reclaim Philadelphia is a progressive grassroots organization that came about in the aftermath of the Sanders campaign back in June. They previously protested before the Democratic National Convention to try to get the DNC Host Committee to release the names of its sponsors. It says it believes in giving everyone a voice and that the power is in the people. Reclaim says it wants to take money back from the powerful elite and redistribute the wealth among the community of Philadelphia.
After Donald Trump won on Nov. 8th, Reclaim said it started to have more meetings to make more people aware of the organization and make the Philadelphia community realize they need to take a stand. An organizer of Reclaim, A’brianna Morgan, says “It’s on us to take responsibility for ourselves, take responsibility for each other, stand with each other and fight for what we want,” .
Morgan is a Penn student who joined the organization in June and says she was not a part of the Bernie campaign, but she knew there was a sense of urgency now to get involved with the grassroots organization. “It is just so exciting that everyone is feeling this urgency now to organize and do things that will protect our communities,” said Morgan.
Not only are people coming together for political activism, but Reclaim Philadelphia member Paul Dexter says, “I feel like the grassroots organization is my community. I don’t know if everyone has the same view of what is a community, but to me a community is a group of people that can work with each other and take care of each other.” Reclaim says they want to build this network of community members who want to see change.
Reclaim says to try to better the community it is involved in the Our City Our Schools Campaign, which is trying to abolish the School Reform Commission and give the control of Philly schools back to the local community. Reclaim Philadelphia plans to go door to door in January to talk to the community about what a Trump Administration could mean. “It’s going to be a reaction and we don’t know necessarily what those battles will be and if they will be winnable at all. And so we’re trying to prepare a defensive and then an offensive of broader goals,” said Morgan.
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