The People’s Empowerment Project
(formally known as MOP/The New York Democracy Project)
We’re on a mission to give people a way to reign in the corrupting influence of big money on our democracy.
Since big money decides elections long before we vote, we decided to give ‘the people’ a way to vote with their dollars 365 days a year. Democracy Coffee gives us a way to harness our collective purchasing power to work toward a future where politicians represent us—the citizens—and not just the interests of mega corporations.
Here’s what we’re all about:
We love Fair Elections.
When the majority of election funding is raised from a handful of big donors, the pool of candidates we get to vote for has already been chosen for us, long before we get to vote. This ‘invisible primary’ disempowers everyone who can’t afford to buy politicians and needs to stop. Fortunately, over 96% of the public want to end the corrupting influence of money in politics, so we have power in numbers. Fair Elections levels the playing field by giving those who don’t want to compromise their beliefs for large campaign donations the option to run on a public fair elections fund, so people can win based on their ideas and integrity, not just because they can sell out and raise the most money. Furthermore, once elected, their free to say “NO” to Wall St., big polluters and other wealthy special interest groups because they used public funds, not corporate money to finance their campaign. Fair Elections (aka Clean Elections) has already passed in a number of cities and states and would cost each taxpayer less than a penny a day (a small price to pay for a functioning democracy). Corrupt politicians can get away with opposing Fair Elections only as long as the public is ill informed, so we make it our job to provide objective non-partisan information for voters who want to take back our democracy from big money. Sign up to be kept in the loop!
We love Democracy Coffee.
If elections are decided by money long before we vote, then we need to give people a way to vote with their dollars. Coffee is a 30 billion dollar industry in the US, working together we can take a chunk of that and it put towards making our democracy work for rich and poor alike. We are working hard to make Democracy Coffee available to consumers across the country, so we can give, the people, an easy way to harness our collective purchasing power to pass Fair Elections. Each new store that carries democracy coffee is a new ballot box; remember, we live in a plutocracy (a government ruled by monied interests), so voting happens at cash registers 1st and at the polling stations 2nd. The sooner we realize this truth and get creative with crowdfunding the better. Don’t wait until the next election to vote, ask your local store to carry Democracy Coffee and give thousands of people a way to vote 365 days a year. More specifically, Democracy Coffee funds the our voter awareness efforts, the Guerrilla Media Collective, Democracy Shorts and worker owned coffee cooperatives in Colombia, Ethiopia, Sumatra and Honduras. Order some from our store.
We love the Guerrilla Media Collective.
PEP launched the Guerrilla Media Collective, to bring together grassroots activists who are fighting back against the dominant corporate media narrative with nonviolent direct actions designed to reach the public on important issues facing democracy. The Guerrilla Media Collective rose out of the Occupy diaspora and has already reached millions. Watch our 10 minute film: Guerrilla Media- Signs of an American Spring
We love Democracy Shorts.
We are producing these animated short films to raise awareness about how we can fight back against plutocracy while keeping a playful spirit. We made this little diddy to give you a taste of how we can use creative coffee advertisements to expose corruption.
Contact us
democracy coffee@gmail.com