Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is tonight planning to give a speech at New York’s Washington Square Park, near the site of the former Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.

In 1911, a tragic fire there that was made worse by horrible working conditions, killed 146 workers. It also emboldened the women’s suffrage and labor movements to demand far-reaching change, and many of the laws enacted in the aftermath still protect workers today.

This is the historical context behind Ms Warren’s big speech today, to protect workers rights and curb Washington corruption.

She is seeking to:

• Ban lobbyists from all campaign fundraising activities — including serving as campaign bundlers.
• Ban campaigns from getting “intangible benefits” such as opposition research from foreign governments.
• Require Presidents and VPs to place business assets in a blind trust.
• Require senior government officials to divest assets that could present conflicts.
• Bar senior officials and Congress from trading individual stocks.
• Pay congressional staff “competitive” salaries.
• Bar all federal employees from becoming corporate lobbyists for six years after leaving government.

These provisions would stop an unscrupulous candidate like Donald Trump from getting help from Russians or other foreign governments.

She says: “On issue after issue, widely popular policies are stymied because giant corporations and billionaires who don’t want to pay taxes or follow any rules use their money and influence to stand in the way of big, structural change.”

“We’ve got to call that out for what it is: corruption, plain and simple.”

So far Ms Warren has also avoided all closed-door fundraising events, choosing instead to fundraise almost entirely from grassroots donations.

Another avenue that Senator Warren is pursuing is aimed at federal judges. According to a post she published on Medium, she will attempt to close a loophole which halts misconduct investigations when a judge steps down.

Warren points out a case involving Maryanne Trump-Barry, the President’s sister. Trump-Barry was being investigated for potential fraud due to her involvement with the Trump family tax schemes. However, she suddenly retired which put an end to the investigation.

“Under my plan, investigations will remain open until their findings are made public and any penalties for misconduct are issued.”