Speaker 1: You were listening and waiting on reparations for production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Um ye, it's waiting a reparations. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: hey hey now this is the store, y'all. Abaja Knife
Speaker 1: came up with the new lifestyle walking out of the
Speaker 1: store with a few white owls like sir, sub dude,
Speaker 1: and then you wipe out. All started at a six
Speaker 1: when I came to hate this makeshift matrix talking about
Speaker 1: fake ship, interested in words, and I started to play
Speaker 1: with took it from the journal and not to the
Speaker 1: pavement bill it proof, you know, hurting the get by
Speaker 1: myself because Mariah maternity leave and I turned it hot,
Speaker 1: make it to a certain degree, eat wrappings like I'm
Speaker 1: eating up a burger with cheese. Dope. He was going on,
Speaker 1: this is dope, Knife, and you are listening to waiting
Speaker 1: on reparations. Man, it feels weird. I was like, I
Speaker 1: wanted to stop for a second and let Mariah say
Speaker 1: and lingua franca, and then we would say that you
Speaker 1: know how it goes. But today I am by myself.
Speaker 1: At least for this beginning of the episode, Mariah is
Speaker 1: on her leave. The baby hasn't come yet, but we're
Speaker 1: waiting but she's officially on her brake, so it is
Speaker 1: just going to be me rapping on this one and
Speaker 1: opening it up for you. Got another banger of the
Speaker 1: episode coming up is gonna be an interview that Mariah
Speaker 1: did with Robin Wesley Wiliba, who is a Democratic socialist
Speaker 1: that's running for Minneapolis City Council. They're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about their journey to get into this point of running
Speaker 1: for office. Police brutality, right, control. A bunch of cool
Speaker 1: ship coming up. Um, But let's see what do I wanna?
Speaker 1: What I want to talk about with you guys today
Speaker 1: before we get there. Oh New York rapperk that's k A.
Speaker 1: If you guys haven't heard of him from Brownsville. I've
Speaker 1: been a huge fan of his for at least eight
Speaker 1: years now, and he put out a couple of albums
Speaker 1: that I really dug. But he just put out a
Speaker 1: new joint called The Martyrs Reward that, oh my, totally critical.
Speaker 1: Many in invest coutive test either put a belt or
Speaker 1: a bullet. That's how I was taught things. So on
Speaker 1: every summer of wonder why I won the old s friends.
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't usually you know, outright like recommend
Speaker 1: stuff on this show more or less just say what
Speaker 1: we think is dope, you know, pertaining on the topic
Speaker 1: that we're talking about music. But this album I have
Speaker 1: to I gotta give it up, and I gotta use
Speaker 1: my little bit of a platform to pick up this album,
Speaker 1: The Martyrs Reward by k If you are in the
Speaker 1: mood for some like lyrical, thoughtful hip hop, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean to be honest with you, This Ship is
Speaker 1: like it's like the hip hop equivalent of reading a novel,
Speaker 1: is how I would describe cos music in this album
Speaker 1: in particular, It's like the way he uses pros and
Speaker 1: stuff is just it's nuts, but highly recommended. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm listening to. I've had that Ship on repeat, so
Speaker 1: you need to check that. Shut up? What else is interesting? Oh? Um?
Speaker 1: Candy Candice Owens, the right wing conservative pundit. Apparently she's
Speaker 1: being sued by a fellow black right winger for twenty
Speaker 1: million dollars for saying that there's strip club madam. So
Speaker 1: that's that story. Um. You know what, let's not even
Speaker 1: waste any more time. We're gonna be right back with
Speaker 1: that interview for you right after the this week, I
Speaker 1: have the distinct honor of being joined by Robin Wants
Speaker 1: and Wallaba, a Democratic Socialist running to be minneapolis first
Speaker 1: Black Socialist councilperson to represent word two. She is a
Speaker 1: Chicago native, a community activists, a labor organizer, and from
Speaker 1: Wakata and all around with the person. Robin, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us today. How are you? What's good? Yes,
Speaker 1: say so much for having me, Mariah, Like, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad to be able to also support like powerful black
Speaker 1: fans who are doing great things like yourself, so like
Speaker 1: Queen's Unite. I'm so excited to be here. Just talk
Speaker 1: about this, I would say, like history making campaign that
Speaker 1: we're running over here in Minneapolis. Yeah. So you you know,
Speaker 1: I've looked at your platform ex sensively. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of exciting stuff on it. But for you what uh actually,
Speaker 1: don't let me take it. Let me take a step back.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited talking about six and you calls yes,
Speaker 1: let's go. But let's learn about who you are as
Speaker 1: a person, because I'm sure your experiences working to uh
Speaker 1: radically transform our you know, the presidential complex, working with
Speaker 1: the education, because these backgrounds very much informed the policies
Speaker 1: that we're gonna talk about it a little bit. So
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit how you got here, so
Speaker 1: you can from Chicago, you're in Minneapolis. Now, what led
Speaker 1: you to, uh, this moment of running for Minneapolisity Council. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would definitely say, you know, coming from Chicago and
Speaker 1: actually coming to Minneapolis thinking like this is gonna be
Speaker 1: you know, my liberal refuge from my life is alright
Speaker 1: over in Chicago. So I was like, I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give me a good job because that's how
Speaker 1: Minneapolis this market. You know, my housing is gonna be
Speaker 1: for the low. We're just gonna live our best lives.
Speaker 1: And then literally within a year of being here, um,
Speaker 1: Jamark Clark was murdered by Minneapolis police um. Um. And
Speaker 1: for me it was like whoa, okay, so the same
Speaker 1: stuff that is happening in my hometown and literally everywhere
Speaker 1: else that's that happens here. Um. And what really moved
Speaker 1: me to like start joining joining like some of the
Speaker 1: frontline struggles was really our own BLM chapter that really
Speaker 1: like came into fruition um in the midst of um
Speaker 1: that high profile murder of Jamaar Um. I mean, these
Speaker 1: folks we're talking about black working class folks literally holding space,
Speaker 1: occupying the fourth pre seat police station. UM, you know,
Speaker 1: literally seeing the things that it's become norm now, like
Speaker 1: with withstanding like tear gas and Robert bullets, like just
Speaker 1: all out attacks from not only the police themselves, were
Speaker 1: just simply saying, you can't kill us, UM, and nor
Speaker 1: will you continue to just act violence on us and
Speaker 1: just you know, continue to live your lives while we
Speaker 1: carry on the suffer and the trauma from those experiences.
Speaker 1: They not only got attacked from that, but they also
Speaker 1: got attacked from the different practic establishment. Like every progressive
Speaker 1: of all the colors, UM came out was like, no
Speaker 1: need to stop doing this. This is not the way
Speaker 1: in which we get changed, which is completely false. And
Speaker 1: I think for me it was like a wake up
Speaker 1: call in that moment. I immediately like joined the front
Speaker 1: lines with black working class people and trying to get
Speaker 1: justice for the Mark Clark and that segue to me
Speaker 1: joining our workers right struggle. UM that was also happening
Speaker 1: at the same time, which was leading a fifteen minimum
Speaker 1: wage fight, and I already know like coming from South
Speaker 1: Side Chicago, heavily police communities are also historically digested communities,
Speaker 1: and those are the areas where we do not have,
Speaker 1: you know, investments and quality jobs or livable wage shops.
Speaker 1: So for me, it's like it's a no brainer, Like
Speaker 1: we need to make sure working class people have more
Speaker 1: money in their pockets than any effort that is trying
Speaker 1: to transfer you know, power, I mean not power, but
Speaker 1: wealth from the hands of like the minority one percent
Speaker 1: and back into the pockets of working class people like
Speaker 1: I'm down for UM. So immediately joining those efforts and
Speaker 1: then seeing the democratic establishment once again go every like,
Speaker 1: go through every tactic in blockage that they could throw
Speaker 1: at us to make sure that not only your communities
Speaker 1: remain over police, but we are also not going to
Speaker 1: provide you with the solutions like more wages, um to
Speaker 1: make your life better in this city. We want you
Speaker 1: to continue to suffer. And I think the seeds were
Speaker 1: planted for me at that time where we gotta start
Speaker 1: building our own independent political power in the city or
Speaker 1: folks are going to continuously get killed. And unfortunately Jamark
Speaker 1: Clark was not the last UM. And unfortunately Jamark I
Speaker 1: mean even George Floyd after last year, he was not
Speaker 1: the last. We've continued to have these and people are
Speaker 1: still struggling. Joblessness rates are still going up. We have
Speaker 1: growing ten encampments across the city. We have a serious
Speaker 1: or PR crisis that's also interwoven into all these other
Speaker 1: crisis is that we're experiencing. And it's very clear we
Speaker 1: need new leadership, and not only new leadership, but people
Speaker 1: will understand that the system we're up again is racial
Speaker 1: capitalism that once working class people to struggle, that wants
Speaker 1: black people to just be bearers of state violence and
Speaker 1: not say nothing and go to work and be happy
Speaker 1: that you've got a job that pays you pennies. And
Speaker 1: it's just like, no, we're done with that. We've done
Speaker 1: with that. Yeah. So you've touched on so many different
Speaker 1: issues and the way to the intersect from police brutality
Speaker 1: to homelessness, the opioid crisis, economic justice. So what would
Speaker 1: you say is the number one priority for you when
Speaker 1: you get in office? What is your election? First of all?
Speaker 1: November second? Okay, yeah, we don't have much time, we
Speaker 1: know we don't. So when you get in there, you
Speaker 1: get to you with the election November, you get sworn
Speaker 1: in what like January and something like that. Ye so yeah,
Speaker 1: So Robinson there January first, what's going down on the
Speaker 1: city council. First thing first, the biggest thing is public safety. UM.
Speaker 1: That is the fight of this race, and it's a
Speaker 1: fight on both sides of We have candidates and the
Speaker 1: mayor UM and corporate driven lobbying forces that are literally
Speaker 1: UM launching a forceful campaign that says we need to
Speaker 1: support the police more than ever. We need to be
Speaker 1: making sure that we're fully funding the departments. Are literally
Speaker 1: retaliating against the demands of last year's you know historic
Speaker 1: global uprising UM that took place in the wake of
Speaker 1: George Floyd's murder. And we have candidates like myself who
Speaker 1: are running on you know, continuing that movement that we
Speaker 1: experience where it's like, no, we need to not continue
Speaker 1: in continuing, you know, this investment into institutions that kill us,
Speaker 1: that does not abide in our collective well being. We
Speaker 1: need to start investing and in housing because housing its
Speaker 1: public safety. We need to be investing into public schools
Speaker 1: because public schools and education is public safety. We need
Speaker 1: to make sure we're UM really bringing about a green
Speaker 1: New deal because clean air, clean water, that is public safety,
Speaker 1: and those are all the things that working class people need,
Speaker 1: and that's the things that we want to emphasize when
Speaker 1: we're elected. Like public safety is not isolated to policing.
Speaker 1: We need to be making mass social investments through attacks
Speaker 1: on the rich to fund the actual solutions to prevent preventives,
Speaker 1: you know, solutions that makes our community safe, that allows
Speaker 1: working class people to have a quality of life. And
Speaker 1: one of the ways in which we're gonna do that
Speaker 1: is one of the big things that's happening in Minneapolis
Speaker 1: in this election where working class people will likely have
Speaker 1: a vote on. It's passing Yes for Many Apolis, which
Speaker 1: is one of the campaigns that came out of you know,
Speaker 1: last year's movement to really digest from the police and
Speaker 1: move those resources towards others, you know, UM departments and
Speaker 1: services that keeps our community safe. UM. So that will
Speaker 1: be voted on on the November two and if that passes,
Speaker 1: then I, alone with my colleagues will have the very
Speaker 1: serious tasks of fighting for ordinance that makes sure that
Speaker 1: department does not just propagate the status quo policing that
Speaker 1: we know does not work and that continues to harm
Speaker 1: black people and brown people, import folks and if folks
Speaker 1: want to check out what our vision is for public safety,
Speaker 1: we have a lot more thoughts of that, like make
Speaker 1: sure we're fully funding three on one, we're expanding an
Speaker 1: unarmed workforce. We were demilitarizing this department so people can't
Speaker 1: shoot people with tear gas. That why why, you know,
Speaker 1: like like why it's not that serious re um and
Speaker 1: making sure that we're also having a democratic oversight structure
Speaker 1: over this new department. So we just released our own
Speaker 1: comprehensive public safety plan that we plan to fight for
Speaker 1: regardless of what happens with Yes for Minneapolis UM when
Speaker 1: we're elected, like that first hundred days of like this
Speaker 1: is how we make sure we have a public safety
Speaker 1: system that doesn't you know, support apartheid structure of our
Speaker 1: city where black people get policed and killed and rich
Speaker 1: people get safety and and and wellness calls when Rome
Speaker 1: people look like they're they're in their neighborhood, Like no,
Speaker 1: we're ending that. I feel that. Yeah, I mean, like
Speaker 1: public safety encompasses so much it can be hard to
Speaker 1: like pull the threads out with regards to a concrete
Speaker 1: starting point because you have to have you have to
Speaker 1: deal with it comprehensively. And so to say, oh, we're
Speaker 1: just gonna like focus on the housing. Oh, we're just
Speaker 1: gonna focus on the on the environmental health and well
Speaker 1: being of our communities, etcetera. It's like no, it's like
Speaker 1: it is everything together. Yeah, so yeah, I feel that.
Speaker 1: I feel that. Um I I'd love to hear more
Speaker 1: about this, uh, this wealth tax that you're interested in implementing.
Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about how that would
Speaker 1: work and what you and what you want to accomplish
Speaker 1: with it, like what you wanna get done when when
Speaker 1: that comes to fruition, Yes, I mean when it comes
Speaker 1: to public safety, like when we're talking about like making
Speaker 1: me soul, like mass social investments, we know it's going
Speaker 1: to take revenue, and of course, like the revenue is there.
Speaker 1: What we're heard or told time and time again is that, no,
Speaker 1: we can't prioritize high housing, we can't prioritize public housing.
Speaker 1: We can't prioritize like actually hiring unarmed public safety workers
Speaker 1: because we ain't got the money. No, you got the money.
Speaker 1: You just want to use that to direct more subsidies
Speaker 1: to corporate developers who are displacing working class residents and
Speaker 1: renters from their communities. You want to continue to give
Speaker 1: TIFFs to target which is out here still in uh
Speaker 1: their workers wages every single day. Like, no, we got
Speaker 1: the money. You just rather like subsidize corporate in in
Speaker 1: profit driven um businesses in our cities. That's where you
Speaker 1: want to direct that money towards. And we're like, no,
Speaker 1: you need to run those coins back. And the way
Speaker 1: that we know that's got to happen is through either taxation,
Speaker 1: which we know there is some state pre preemptions on it,
Speaker 1: but yes, but fees. And this is the thing with
Speaker 1: like being a public servant, you need to be creative.
Speaker 1: Like I mean even right now brick control, which is
Speaker 1: also going to be voted on too, and which we're supporting.
Speaker 1: They told us four four years ago you can't do
Speaker 1: breck control. The state preempt that. And it's like, guess
Speaker 1: what we could do a charter amendment. That's how we
Speaker 1: also got the fifteen minimum wage that we um successfully
Speaker 1: fall for in twenty seventeen. We are the same arguments,
Speaker 1: you can't do this, the state prevents this big big
Speaker 1: business of this is illegal. It's like the price, the price.
Speaker 1: Let's search through our toolkit of things to do to
Speaker 1: make change happen, like and we could get this done.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that we can do to
Speaker 1: start to UM, you know, fight back against our extract
Speaker 1: of economy. It's a leverished fees on these corporate interests.
Speaker 1: We're talking about passing airbnb tax. Like where I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: we have ten encampments that are growing by the day.
Speaker 1: It absolutely makes no sense why we have luxury like
Speaker 1: apartments in our communities that are sitting vacant because the
Speaker 1: landlords wants to lease it out as an airbnb. No, no,
Speaker 1: you need to be you need to be penalized for that,
Speaker 1: like somebody needs to be in the apartment. And if
Speaker 1: you're not gonna make that happen, trust me, you're not
Speaker 1: about to make no profit off of basically support and
Speaker 1: a housing crisis in our city. UM. We can leverage
Speaker 1: fees on businesses like what Seattle did. M Seattle got
Speaker 1: creative and said, let's do um a head tax for
Speaker 1: all the employees of Amazon because that's the big you
Speaker 1: know business over there, and we can use that revenue
Speaker 1: to create city owned social housing. And that was gonna
Speaker 1: bring in two hundred forty million dollars every year, we
Speaker 1: can look at doing the same thing. Target is one
Speaker 1: of the largest and most respected, you know corporations UM
Speaker 1: in our city, and as I also mentioned, are often
Speaker 1: one of the biggest corporates of wage thefts. Let's start
Speaker 1: leveraging taxes on them, like they don't often pay property taxes.
Speaker 1: We need to say no, you need to start doing that.
Speaker 1: So there's a number of tools that we can use.
Speaker 1: Mansion taxes, why are we selling mansions at a housing crisis? Like, no,
Speaker 1: you need to run run that money back and and
Speaker 1: then we can use that revenue to actually support like
Speaker 1: funding our collective needs, our social infrastructures. So there's a
Speaker 1: number of ways in which we can look at just
Speaker 1: through fees um or levies of how we can start
Speaker 1: to um reverse the effects of trickle down economics. Because
Speaker 1: none of that money trickles down to our communities. We
Speaker 1: need to start actually taking hold of that wealth and
Speaker 1: redirecting them back into the pockets of working class people.
Speaker 1: We will be back with Robbin right after the jump.
Speaker 1: I think um I mean a lot of what a
Speaker 1: lot of the funds that could be generated through levies
Speaker 1: and visa as you're describing could be put into you know,
Speaker 1: like social housing and things like that. But one of
Speaker 1: the interests interested me about your platform is in the
Speaker 1: discussion of housing, and touched on the cities and the
Speaker 1: airbnbas and stuff. Um, what seemed to me to be
Speaker 1: like an inclusionary zoning policy of like new developments and
Speaker 1: a certain amount of affordable housing. And then I wondered
Speaker 1: if you talk to us a little bit more about
Speaker 1: your vision, if any, for working with private developers to
Speaker 1: ensure that with regards to housing in particular, you know,
Speaker 1: we're actually getting housing for the people, So I think
Speaker 1: we're sure. The first step is we need to pass
Speaker 1: a strong rent control policy, like the fact right now
Speaker 1: Minneapolis passed plan that authorized the creation of hundreds let
Speaker 1: me not saying hundreds thousands of new um um housing
Speaker 1: units under multi like apartment complexes that again are largely
Speaker 1: cost burden housing, meaning whoever moved in there, likely orty
Speaker 1: of your annual income is going to go towards rent
Speaker 1: alone in that unit. UM. So we need to be
Speaker 1: um placed in a cap on those rents right now
Speaker 1: to make sure, you know, folks are not having to
Speaker 1: choose between I don't know cooking, buying groceries, or rent
Speaker 1: so we're supporting rent control UM. One of the other
Speaker 1: measures that we're talking about is the city has the
Speaker 1: ability to buy back some of those units and put
Speaker 1: those in a land us, put those in our public
Speaker 1: housing portfolio UM, like start getting those back off of
Speaker 1: the private markets UM. And also another big thing that
Speaker 1: we're talking about doing is UM. Right now, the rent
Speaker 1: of our housing UM or the market right housing is
Speaker 1: determined through an average median income, and that average median
Speaker 1: income right now is based off of like eight of
Speaker 1: the average income for the metro residents, like metro wide.
Speaker 1: It's not looking at Minneapolis specific, and that's largely why
Speaker 1: they will say a one bedroom apartment UM at you know,
Speaker 1: fift hundred dollars. That's totally reasonable. It's not we need
Speaker 1: to be reducing that. It's it's the acronym is a
Speaker 1: m I. We're talking about reducing that to thirty percent
Speaker 1: or at minimum fifty percent of Minneapolis average income I
Speaker 1: mean media and income, because then we can see those
Speaker 1: rents gonna back down to like, okay, eleven hundred for
Speaker 1: one bad room, nine hundred for one bamp room. Like
Speaker 1: it's not giving this uh why threshold, which is largely
Speaker 1: profits for the corporate developers who are building this housing
Speaker 1: and overseeing it. UM. So we're talking about reigning back
Speaker 1: in the A m I. But again you got a
Speaker 1: couple that with UM uh rent control. We also again
Speaker 1: need to be buying back units, getting those units that
Speaker 1: are now being used for air and b and bs.
Speaker 1: We need to be putting those into city on land
Speaker 1: trust UM, adding those to our public housing portfolio because
Speaker 1: we've privatized so much of it so far, and then
Speaker 1: using that revenue again through taxing UM some of these
Speaker 1: corporate developers in the Ridge to actually start constructing our
Speaker 1: own city owned housing UM. Where again that basis we
Speaker 1: could say a m I like if we want to
Speaker 1: charge five hundred dollars for a studio or eight hundred
Speaker 1: dollars for a one bath room, we can do that
Speaker 1: because the city owned mm hmm. That's the future that
Speaker 1: I'm invested in because clearly the private the private market
Speaker 1: will never meet that needs. It's clearly it's not doing
Speaker 1: it now. People are literally living in tents year round.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you've ever been to Minneapolis
Speaker 1: or your listeners, I have ye show I put a
Speaker 1: show somewhere in the Minneapolis many years ago. Was it
Speaker 1: during the winter. I'm from the South, baby, No, it's gold.
Speaker 1: It's going to him, y'all keep that it's cold. People
Speaker 1: are literally living outside in the tundra in a tent
Speaker 1: and we literally have units just sitting empty. That's a problem.
Speaker 1: We need to need to be like running that back
Speaker 1: into city owned and democratically owned, um croopertives their land trust.
Speaker 1: Like no, it cannot. We cannot keep relying on to
Speaker 1: private housing market because it's spelling us. Yeah. Period, period.
Speaker 1: So by the time we got lot, like what is
Speaker 1: your coalition, your government coalition look like ideally because you
Speaker 1: know you have I saw this, I got in I
Speaker 1: got in the thousand nighteen. I was the only person
Speaker 1: of color and twenty years younger than everybody else only
Speaker 1: only socialist, abolitionist an average, and like it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I gotta good ship done now or try to with
Speaker 1: these like oh that's white people that like are like
Speaker 1: do will not even make eye contact with me. And
Speaker 1: so I've always very curious when I interview candidates or
Speaker 1: talking to candidas, you know, de several different municipalities, like
Speaker 1: what you for what you what your ideal government coalition
Speaker 1: looks like, what it's looking to probably shake out like,
Speaker 1: and how that's going to impact the way you move
Speaker 1: within the space of of of city council. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: super excited about this because we are team was just
Speaker 1: talking about this. We're about to release our community our
Speaker 1: community Commitment Plan. But how we're going to do that
Speaker 1: A built um a co governance structure with working class
Speaker 1: people you know, driving it. And one of the biggest
Speaker 1: things that we're saying, like to hold the core of it,
Speaker 1: we need to create a community office right in our ward.
Speaker 1: Right now, all of the offices are out in city
Speaker 1: Hall in downtown Minneapolis where the lobby is and um
Speaker 1: US Bank can get to your elected leader and basically
Speaker 1: tell them, yo, I need I need you to sell
Speaker 1: out working class people in this way. We know if
Speaker 1: you're gonna ask us to sell out working class people,
Speaker 1: we need you to come to where the people are.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna have a community office and city Council
Speaker 1: gets paid pretty well. So all of my staff has
Speaker 1: agreed to or will agree to um using a portion
Speaker 1: of our money, our salaries and not only fund this office,
Speaker 1: but to also fund UM staff to do the coordinating
Speaker 1: work of building our grass recoalition, which will definitely include
Speaker 1: you know, unions. UM. My Ward is also home to
Speaker 1: the largest student community in the city because we have
Speaker 1: two large universities, so we need to make sure we're
Speaker 1: having a student UM you know representation UM. And we're
Speaker 1: actually gonna put together a student UM group on campus
Speaker 1: UM so that we're making sure we're meeting with them continuously. UM.
Speaker 1: But that coalition is also going to include renters because
Speaker 1: again my words, majority renters as well as that's that's
Speaker 1: the demographic of the city. UM. We're gonna also have
Speaker 1: UM healthcare workers UM, because that's a particular need right now. UM.
Speaker 1: Of we're literally closing down hospitals and we know we're
Speaker 1: entering into another peak of like the delta variant, it
Speaker 1: makes no sense, UM. But that coalition will also include
Speaker 1: small business owners. And I'm literally talking about small businesses,
Speaker 1: the micro businesses, not uh the two hundred thousand employees
Speaker 1: that like to pretend that they are and actually helped
Speaker 1: close down small businesses. UM. So we're literally talking about
Speaker 1: what that structure looks like right now. We're really excited
Speaker 1: of like, how do we help people's assemblies, like you know,
Speaker 1: organizing committees using a precinct captain strategy that we're using
Speaker 1: now for our field operations. So that's actually working class
Speaker 1: people who are continuously having conversations around our platform and
Speaker 1: how we're advancing it together right on their blocks. Um,
Speaker 1: because it's gonna have to take that local, hyper localized
Speaker 1: like organizing the tribe, this forward um and another big
Speaker 1: piece of our community kind of engagement strategy. It's also
Speaker 1: participatory budgeting because city council here has oversight over the
Speaker 1: budget and it they hardly fight from mass investments into anything.
Speaker 1: So this is an opportunity where we can actually work
Speaker 1: with the coalitions of of stakeholder hers I described to
Speaker 1: actually build a robust budget that against shift the wealth
Speaker 1: that we generate for big business back into our hands
Speaker 1: and back into our needs. UM. So we're really excited
Speaker 1: to use as a tool. But yes, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: releasing that because that's what we dream of, like that's
Speaker 1: what we're practicing now, like how to have working class
Speaker 1: people really drive like building their own political independence. Amazing.
Speaker 1: We'll tell us where we can keep in touch with you,
Speaker 1: where we can donate, where we can learn more about
Speaker 1: your work. Um, I love the coins. Yes, you can
Speaker 1: uh follow us on all social media channels at robbin
Speaker 1: for mini Apolis. Either it's gonna be robin fo r
Speaker 1: m p l S or robbing number four mp ls.
Speaker 1: But we are gonna we are on all the social
Speaker 1: media channels. Actually we got a TikTok so even comes
Speaker 1: I know, I love it that we're trying to be
Speaker 1: real millennial status UM. But we're on Facebook, social media, UM, Instagram, Twitter,
Speaker 1: and then we have our website robbin f O r MPLS.
Speaker 1: That's where you also can find our podcast because we're
Speaker 1: connecting with community leaders in Minneapolis to show how movements
Speaker 1: are very active in strong UM around a number of issues.
Speaker 1: So we have our podcasts there. That's how you can
Speaker 1: find out how to support door knocks, phone banks where
Speaker 1: and this is from wherever you're at, Like you can
Speaker 1: come down and visit us, or we can find a
Speaker 1: way to get you somebody's uh phone bank bank sheet,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna make space for you. Um. And you
Speaker 1: can also find our donation link up on our website.
Speaker 1: We appreciate all the coins. Ain't so far we've been
Speaker 1: able to raise our sixty thou dollars just um on
Speaker 1: just brass roots like or working class people. Yeah, our
Speaker 1: average domenship thirty dollars and it's just like yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: so we appreciate every dollar, UM, and it's going towards
Speaker 1: really building a political revolution here in Minneapolis. UM. But yeah,
Speaker 1: please share our social media, share our poles, share the
Speaker 1: articles we've been in a number I think of powerful
Speaker 1: articles that lays out political analysis of what we're dealing
Speaker 1: with here in Minneapolis and how it connects to the
Speaker 1: nationwide fight for justice and a new mandate on public safety.
Speaker 1: So you can find all that on our website to UM.
Speaker 1: But yeah, left folks know you know, the political revolution,
Speaker 1: the movement is not dead here in Minneapolis, and our
Speaker 1: campaign is running on it. We are the extension of it,
Speaker 1: UM and we plan to win come November and continue
Speaker 1: to bring those demands that was inspired by George Floyd
Speaker 1: inter fruition and fight unapologetically alongside working class people to
Speaker 1: make every one of those demands happen because we deserve
Speaker 1: it and we ain't got no choice. It's a beautiful thing. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time, UM, and hopefully
Speaker 1: we'll have you back when you're in office. Wait. Yes,
Speaker 1: and that is our episode for this week. I want
Speaker 1: to give a massive shout out to Robin for taking
Speaker 1: the time to talk with Mariah. That was some dope shit,
Speaker 1: and we are wishing them well in their quest to
Speaker 1: take office. Um. I don't really have too much to
Speaker 1: add to it except for you know what I do.
Speaker 1: I'm a rapping astute. Hey Joe, can you kick that beat? Please?
Speaker 1: Oh Joe? We wait nah, we wait nah, we wait,
Speaker 1: no reparations. Yeah, alright, let's kick it yeo yo. I
Speaker 1: am dirty and grit nerty ship read hiddd scrolls fine
Speaker 1: words that can flip it's decadence, even put a burden.
Speaker 1: Spit and tell me that my Rom's book is like
Speaker 1: the word of the brick. Drink drugs on a golden chalice.
Speaker 1: Give me hugs because they know my talent. Treat me
Speaker 1: like slow because I know my balance. Pot head with
Speaker 1: some bud and a soda gallon. Life's band calls. Only
Speaker 1: know if you throw a challenge rappers baking and acting
Speaker 1: like it's the truth. I'm gonna go and show you
Speaker 1: who illist up in the booth acting like a menace
Speaker 1: I'm tennists that take it to knocking out the park.
Speaker 1: I'm a bigger babe in the roof. Oh, dope, dope,
Speaker 1: dope dope. Alright, alright, my name is Dope Knife and
Speaker 1: you are listening to Waiting on Reparations. See you all
Speaker 1: next week. Waitning on Reparations is the production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, check out the
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.