The apartment in Upper Manhattan was unassuming, but the people filing in on Saturday, September 20, 2025, represented a front line of American dissent.
They were the chastised, the targeted, and the unbowed—gathered under the roof of a man who knows the cost of challenging power.
The host was Steven Donziger, the environmental lawyer who beat Chevron in an Ecuadorian court and was then systematically destroyed by the oil giant in American courts, resulting in his disbarment and a contempt of court conviction that left him under house arrest for nearly three years.
The guest of honor was Congresswoman Delia Ramirez of Illinois, a member of the progressive “Squad” who is now bracing for a political onslaught from the deep-pocketed pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, due to her unequivocal condemnation of the genocide in Gaza.
And moving quietly among them was Lisa McCormick, the New Jersey progressive known less for winning elections than for unapologetically advocating ideas that make the political establishment flinch—like outlawing bribery and capping personal fortunes at $50 million.
This was not a typical political fundraiser.
It was a strategic council of war for a movement that believes the systems of American power—legal, political, and economic—are fundamentally rigged. The money raised was for Ramirez’s reelection, but the currency traded was solidarity.
The gathering revealed the emerging shape of a modern progressive coalition. It was not defined by a single issue, but by a common enemy: concentrated power.
Seated beside Donziger was former Congressman Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D, whose own primary defeat in 2024 serves as a cautionary tale of the millions AIPAC can deploy to unseat critics of Israel. His presence was a sober reminder of the fight ahead for Ramirez.
Across the room was Morris Pearl, the former BlackRock managing director and chairman of the Patriotic Millionaires, who argues with the zeal of a convert that his own tax breaks are corrosive to democracy.
“As things stand in America today, thanks to special rules, wealthy investors like me pay far lower tax rates than people who work for a living,” Pearl has said. “A common refrain that I hear is that investors need tax breaks as incentives to invest, create jobs, and grow the economy, but I know from my own experience that this could not be further from the truth.”
Michael Greenberg, the founder of Climate Defiance, offered a different kind of energy.
With the serene smile of a man who has stared down the grille of an SUV, he leads a group that specializes in confrontational direct action.
Climate Defiance has called senators “murderers” to their faces and hounded oil CEOs, operating on a simple motto: “We make life miserable for people in power. And we do not apologize.”
They were joined by New York City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, a former public defender whose advocacy for decriminalizing poverty aligns with the group’s ethos, and Jodie Evans, a co-founder of the anti-war group CODEPINK, among others.
The assembled guests represented a convergence of climate justice, economic equality, anti-militarism, and legal reform movements.
The Connective Tissue: A System Under Siege
What binds this diverse group is the shared experience of being targeted by powerful institutions.
For Donziger, it was Chevron’s use of the U.S. judicial system to neutralize him after his victory in Ecuador.
His prosecution for contempt—handled by a private law firm with ties to Chevron after the Justice Department declined to pursue it—is seen by supporters as a blatant example of corporate influence over the law.
McCormick’s social media advocacy for his pardon was a deliberate choice to challenge a corrupted, two-tier justice system.
For Ramirez, the coming fight is political.
Her votes against resolutions affirming unconditional U.S. support for Israel, and her recent comment that she is “a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American,” have made her a marked woman in the eyes of well-funded opposition groups.
Her stance is not seen as dissent but as disloyalty, a charge often leveled against outspoken figures of color.
McCormick provides the ideological framework that connects these battles.
Her modern “Share Our Wealth” platform, inspired by Huey Long’s Depression-era radicalism, posits that extreme wealth is the root cause of political and judicial corruption.
To McCormick, a system that allows a corporation to persecute a lawyer is the same system that allows billionaires to fund primary challenges against dissenting voices and buy tax breaks for themselves.
A Movement Forged in Response
The strategy session in Donziger’s home was pragmatic.
Conversations focused on grassroots mobilization, messaging, and surviving the financial avalanche that awaits Ramirez. There was a palpable awareness that the champions of the people are being outgunned in America’s decades-long class war, but also a resolve that their strength lies in a coalition that traditional politics has overlooked.
This is a movement built not on the hope of easy wins, but on the necessity of long-term resistance.
It argues that the climate crisis, economic despair, and endless war are not separate issues but symptoms of the same disease: a democracy captured by moneyed interests.
McCormick has said that working to outlaw bribery, reverse Reaganomics, and save the world is more than a slogan, because she is speaking literally.
“Outlawing bribery means closing the loopholes that allow Tom Homan to accept a bag of $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents, being considered a complicated case instead of a closed one,” said McCormick. “Reaganomics turned millionaires into billionaires and impoverished virtually everyone else, while ‘saving the world’ acknowledges that scientists say we have entered the Sixth Mass Extinction.”
“Outlawing bribery means making it a crime, not a complication, when a man like Tom Homan takes a bag of $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents,” said McCormick. “Reaganomics didn’t trickle down—it flooded up, turning millionaires into billionaires while bankrupting the rest of us. And ‘saving the world’ is a last stand, as scientists are telling us we’re in a Sixth Mass Extinction. We’re not debating policy—we’re fighting for survival.”
As the evening ended, the attendees departed into the New York night.
They are a political work in progress—a collection of brave organizers, ousted officials, unapologetic activists, and a millionaire who wants to be taxed.
They are united by the conviction that the most important fights today are not between left and right, but between the powerful and the powerless. And in that fight, they have chosen their side.