ANNUAL MEETING PROGRAM - STAMP UPDATES

Here are Metro Justice news and events for the week of 1/24/2026

ANNUAL MEETING PROGRAM 

Saturday, 1/31/26

We’ve been promoting our Annual Membership Meeting for a month now - and with reason! For members, it is the time to vote on leadership and budget for the coming year, fundamental decisions for the organization. But non-members are also welcome, and even if you are not voting it is a great way to find out what Metro Justice stands for and who its leaders are. And this year there will be a whole new level of information sharing and work planning, with opportunities to get involved. 

Here’s the program:

10:00-11:00 am

Meet friends and talk over bagels and coffee with the people anchoring our most important campaigns and committees

11:00-1:00 

Meet the new prospective council members for 2026, and vote for your favorites if you are a member

Examine the budgets for Metro Justice (the 501c4 nonprofit that is politically active and pays taxes) and the Metro Justice Education Fund (the 501c3 nonprofit that is educational and tax exempt) and vote whether to accept or amend each budget, if you are a member 

1:00-2:00 pm

Working lunch with leaders of the campaign or committee of your choice

If you have not yet registered for the meeting, please do so now! And if you would like to take this opportunity to join Metro Justice, you can do that here, or sign up at the door next Saturday. 

Not sure about your membership status? Click here (you will need to sign in to access the portal) or contact [email protected]. If you are having trouble signing in at the Metro Justice website, George will be able to help you.

Volunteers Needed: We will need help with setup, 9-10 am and cleanup 2-3 pm. If you can help at either time, please click here!

STAMP UPDATES

Despite the bitter cold, the campaign to stop a monster data center at STAMP is blazing hot. Updates: 

• The NYSDEC has still not taken action to dispute STAMP developer GCEDC for lead agency status of the data center environmental review process. A spokesperson now says their deadline is January 28. So, you can still email and call! Click here to send an email to Commissioner Amanda Lefton, then call her at 518-402-8540. Tell her, “DEC must take lead agency status for environmental review of Project Double Reed.” Click here for more info and context. 
• In response to GCEDC’s invitation to meet and discuss the data center proposal, the Tonawanda Seneca Nation sent a letter with the questions they want GCEDC and STREAM to answer before they agree to a meeting. Read the letter here. 
• The Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s demand for DEC to take lead agency status at STAMP has been uplifted by a powerful group of allies: Orleans County DEC, New York Renews, the Sierra Club, and more than 650 residents of New York State (that’s you!) The Buffalo News also published an editorial calling on DEC to take this step. 
• We have still not seen an application for financial incentives from the data center developer, STREAM US Data Centers, and their corporate backer, Apollo Global Management. But GCEDC has signaled that they expect this application to be submitted before their next Board meeting in Batavia on February 5 (join us there if you can). Stay tuned - there will be a public hearing on the application, and we want you all to come and bring friends! Learn more here.

BOOK OF THE WEEK

From our online library of books, podcasts and other media centered on political education for organizing. We need a volunteer to curate this library and arrange book discussions! If you are interested, or if you have a favorite resource to share, please contact Alice. In the meantime, we will be sharing an interesting book, site or podcast every week. 

Love Rebels: How I Learned to Burn It Down Without Burning Out Kitty Stryker Author,  carla joy bergman Foreword

Balancing a devotion to activism with personal relationships can be incredibly difficult. Kitty Stryker shares her experience as an activist, street medic, and relationship educator to help others pursue the important work while maintaining healthy relationships and without burning out. In what is both a call to action and a candid memoir, Stryker is open about what she has learned and her perceived limitations. She also emphasizes that without taking care of our interpersonal relationships, many people burn out of activism at the very time when we need more people on the ground, and offers practical strategies to avoid this and to encourage healthy relationships.

Purchase

Read or Listen free on Hoopla

What books, articles or podcasts should we be reading about ICE and protesting US government violence? Send suggestions here.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Sunday, January 25, 6pm Little Theatre Ain't No Back to a Merry-Go-Round The untold story of the first organized interracial civil rights protest in U.S. history. When 5 Howard University students sat on a Maryland carousel in 1960, the arrests made headlines. When the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students in picketing, an extraordinary history-making partnership was born. 
• Monday, January 26, bus leaves Rochester 5 am Communities Not Cages Advocacy Day in Albany. We are demanding action on legislation that provides a fair, fast, and safe path home, restores hope to families, and delivers real, tangible change. Our voices, especially when raised together, matter. But only if we show up.  Please RSVP today. To prepare for the day, please join our Advocacy Day Training on Thursday, January 22 at 6-7pm. Zoom link here. (Please try to make it if you can, but we will also send out a recording.) Rochester   Location: 803 West Avenue, Rochester NY 14611 (Bus parked in Cairn Street Parking Lot)   Departure time: 5:00 AM   Contact: Thomas Gant, 585-705-9778
• Tuesday, January 27, meet free bus early for Daniel’s Law Advocacy Day in Albany. Marking nearly 6 years since the killing of Daniel Prude here in Rochester, we'll be fighting for the passage of Daniel's Law (S3670/A4617), a bill that will save lives by ensuring that people experiencing mental health crises are treated with care and compassion. 
• Thursday, January 29,  5:30 pm Frederick Douglass Commons Feldman Ballroom on the River Campus University’s 25th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Address Rev. Dr. William J. Barber is founder, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, a national organization whose mission is to build moral movements for social change. He is also co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, an anti-poverty organization, and the founding director of the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy at Yale Divinity School.
• Saturday, January 31, 10-2 Metro Justice Annual Meeting. Members will elect the 2026 council and choose whether to approve the proposed 2026 budget for the organization. We will also choose our route forward to fight the rising despotism. Non-members are welcome, but only members can vote. It is possible to join at the meeting.
• Sunday, February 1st, 2 pm 510 State Street, Zine Workshop!  Never heard the terms “hostile architecture” or “OPCs” before? Curious about what encampment sweeps actually are? ROC DSA and Rochester Grants Pass Resistance are partnering on a zine-making workshop led by local artist and ROC DSA/RGPR/MJ member Kelly Cheatle who will guide us through zine design and layout to printing and folding for distribution. At the end of our workshop, attendees will have completed zines to share with friends, neighbors, and favorite spots around town.
• Wednesday, February 4, 8am the GCEDC STAMP Committee meets at the MedTech Centre, 99 MedTech Drive, Batavia. RSVP here. They need to see the community out in force! (and yes we know it’s early)
• Thursday, February 5, 4pm the GCEDC Board of Directors meets at the MedTech Centre, 99 MedTech Drive, Batavia. RSVP with us. They need to see the community out in force! The meetings are shameful but we have fun connecting in the lobby when it’s all over.
• Saturday May 9 Metro Justice Annual Dinner (save the date!)
• It's always a good time to check your membership status in our new portal as well! You should be able to log in and see your donation and dues history at the link here. (But please let us know if you have trouble!) 

Do you have an event or desktop action to share? Click here! The deadline for our Friday newsletter is Wednesday afternoon each week.

DESKTOP ACTIONS: 

• NY Immigration Coalition: We must not rest until action is taken on our urgent priorities:

  • Guaranteeing the right to counsel for all immigrants in New York during deportation hearings through the Access to Representation Act along with $175 million in the state budget for urgent legal and social services.
  • Passing the New York for All Act to bar law enforcement from collaborating with ICE and Border Patrol, an essential law that will protect thousands of families.
  • The New York Dignity Not Detention Act gets New York out of the business of immigration detention.
• If you want to help the front line activists in Minnesota, StandWithMinnesota.com is an excellent vetted directory
• The disaster for working people in terms of job loss and wage suppression caused by the original NAFTA continues unabated under Trump’s USMCA deal. Urge your Congress members to demand more for working people in the country’s biggest trade negotiation and help introduce accountability in this backroom process!
• From Democracy Now: "On Capitol Hill, seven Democratic lawmakers joined Republicans to pass a $1.2 trillion government funding package that includes $64 billion more for the Department of Homeland Security and $10 billion more for ICE. It goes to the Senate next week. Please make sure Senators Schumer and Gillibrand hear from you to oppose funding for Homeland Security! Call and demand they VOTE No! The main congressional number is (202) 224-3121. Or use 5Calls.org
• Take action in support of key New York State food policy legislation! Contact your state representatives to urge support for the Predatory Marketing Prevention Act, which would curb the targeted marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children and communities of color.
• New York–based organizations can complete this sign-on form to publicly support a broader package of state legislation that advances public health, improves consumer awareness, and holds the food industry accountable for practices that undermine health and equity.
• Support striking nurses in New York City, now in their second week of picketing for enforceable safe staffing ratios, guaranteed healthcare benefits for frontline nurses, and protections from workplace violence. 
• Check out Freedom Trainers, a resource for training in nonviolent non-cooperation that we will explore in a later issue. Here's a timely offering: https://freedomtrainers.net/so-the-national-guard-is-or-might-be-coming-to-your-city/ 
• Urgent National call - Stop the SPEED ACT (HR 4776), a bill that would gut bedrock environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NYPIRG is asking us to call our US congressional representatives using their sample script, then report the call to NYPIRG. The bill has now passed in the house (on 12/18), so contact your Senator; This has still not passed the Senate yet, so please keep calling.
• Share, repost or comment on our RG&E demands on Insta and/or Facebook then Read our demand letter and send your own version of it to your legislators 
• Let your NY state Senator and Assembly Member know that you want them to pass the New York Health Act, so that all of us in NY can have health care we can afford, with monthly payments based on income and no other out of pocket cost.
• Repost/tweet the New York Health posts at the Campaign for New York Health Facebook page every Tuesday and Thursday noon
• Get a "Replace RGE" yard sign! Be the envy of your neighbors!  
• Join Metro Justice or renew your membership - in these dark times we need to stick together, and to plan to support ourselves as much as possible.