(You can read the full transcript at this link.)
Hi, this is Anna Callahan and you’re listening to Incorruptible Massachusetts. Our goal is to help people understand state politics: investigate why it’s so broken, imagine what we could have here in MA if we fixed it, and report on how you can get involved.
Today I’m interviewing Jordan Berg Powers.
Jordan Berg Powers is the Executive Director at Mass Alliance, where he previously served as Deputy Director. In his nine years there, he has helped elect new progressive leaders across the state, recruited progressive champions to run, and trained hundreds of grassroots organizers. Before working at Mass Alliance, Jordan was a campaigns organizer for Free Press which fought for Net Neutrality and against media consolidation. In 2015 Jordan was recognized for his exceptional work in politics as an inaugural inductee into the 40 under 40 Poly Award. Jordan has a Masters in International Politics from the London School of Oriental & African Studies as well as a B.A. in International Development and a B.A. in Economics from American University.
I have to say, Jordan is one of my personal super heroes. I find him so insightful, and while is viewpoint of MA state politics is one of the darkest, he provides some of the most biting criticism, he is also the most optimistic. Don’t miss his incredibly uplifting remarks at the end of this episode. I’m so grateful for every opportunity I have to talk to him, and especially for this one.
Without further delay, here is my interview with Jordan Berg Powers of Mass Alliance.
Anna:
Welcome. I have the great pleasure of being here with Jordan Berg powers who heads up mass alliance and we are going to talk about state politics. So my first question is, hey, do you just want to introduce mess alliance and talk a little bit about what your mission is and kind of what you see your role as, not you personally, but what's mass alliance's role in State politics?
Jordan Berg Powers:
Mass alliance is a coalition of 27 progressive political organizations. We work to support our community members, so our member organizations who range on a ton of issues, everything from economic justice to social justice, um, to equal rights, immigrant rights. And our labor unions — we have teachers' unions, we have people who are fighting for janitors, we have people fighting for, um, for security guards, and we have real peace groups. I like to think we have actual socialists, not the fake ones that they talk about on TV. We have feminist organizations and groups fighting for equal access to abortion. So, you know, we have a sort of a broad array of organizations, and despite what people think, we don't always get along or agree with one another. Um, and so a lot of the work we do at Mass Alliance is just to get people to set a table, you know, get people talking to being community with one another.
It is much easier to ask people to do uncomfortable things to get out of their comfort zone if they're comfortable with you. I mean, ultimately these are person these or we're all people. Um, and so that's really what mass alliance is about at its core is providing that space, providing opportunities for the left to come together.
Another big part of what we do is we do trainings and education. We do a lot of education. We hit every corner of the state trying to help people be better progressive's. And what that means is not like on issue stuff, but really like how do I talk about my issues in a way that I don't sound like Charlie Brown's parents to regular people, which is how I think most of the left sounds to regular people. And the other thing that we do, um, and so, so we really want people