Note: This newsletter is provided through the courtesy of Progressive Action, Global Exchange.
Dear PAGE activist,
This week, we’ll focus on the long game, specifically related to gender justice and women’s rights.
If Trump’s extreme right-wing nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, is confirmed to the Supreme Court, he could destroy our access to basic rights for at least thirty years, undoing much of the movement towards racial, economic, and gender justice, and threatening the lives and freedoms of people in and outside the US. We cannot lose this fight.
Trump’s administration also opposed a global resolution encouraging breastfeeding, going against widely-accepted community and medical opinions, and promoting big businesses’ long-held practice of exploiting black and brown bodies.
We also encourage you to spread the word: DACA recipients can still renew! But this window may be closing as the courts start issuing decisions on the program -- and the Trump administration has promised to stop DACA, regardless of the court rulings.
But this week, we also celebrate those doing the most thankless work. We mark the 5 year anniversary of the Black Lives Matter movement. As global activists, we are indebted to BLM since they have not only inspired tactics and given us role models, but have also made the world a better place for those most marginalized.
It’s also easy to get lost in critique of one another and a rigidity in our ideals that obscures alternatives ways of being. For motivation, we turn to the words of carla bergman and Nick Montgomery in Joyful Militancy:
“We think that rigidity is undone by activating, stoking, and intensifying the growth of shared power, and defending it with militancy and gentleness; in other words, figuring out how to transform our own situations, treat each other well, listen to each other, experiment, and fight together.”
As always, our actions are curated for US Americans abroad and global citizens. If you’re new to PAGE, get in touch with us at engage.with.page@gmail.com, or check out our website and updated toolkit. Please help us spread the word about PAGE by forwarding this email to friends, family members, and like-minded acquaintances, where they can join our community by clicking on this link to our sign-up sheet.
In solidarity,
Progressive Action, Global Exchange
Priority Actions
Oppose Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation for the Supreme Court:
Trump nominated the extreme right-wing Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court last week. Kavanaugh’s confirmation would result in decades of further violations of the rights of the most vulnerable people in America. He’ll help the courts undo years of progress on economic, social, and racial justice, and threaten:
Roe vs. Wade and reproductive rights
Voting rights and racial equality
Unions and workers’ rights, in favor of corporations and the wealthy
Access to health care and the ACA
LGBTQ+ rights, including housing, employment, and healthcare access, and marriage equality
Environmental protections
What can you do?
Read up. Understand why there’s no liberal case for Kavanaugh.
Call your Senators and tell them to oppose Kavanaugh. We need 51 votes in the Senate to block Kavanaugh. This includes each of the 49 Democrats and 2 Republicans - most likely Senators Collins (ME) and Murkowski (AK). You can use Indivisible’s script or dial their toll-free number 1-844-778-3056 (use Google Hangout to make free calls from abroad!) and you’ll hear a summary of what to say to your Senator’s office - then they’ll connect you directly.
Remember, we want to prioritize these 6 senators! (Thanks, Southern Poverty Law Center! Join their Tuesday call-ins here.)
Send a letter for free (and without doing any work!) through this coalition of progressive and liberal groups, including NARAL, RootsAction, Daily Kos, and the National LGBTQ Taskforce
Prioritize women’s health and informed choice over corporate interests, regarding breastfeeding and beyond!
At the World Health Assembly, the Trump administration attempted to weaken a global resolution promoting breastfeeding, and even threatened Ecuador with punishing changes to trade and withdrawal of military assistance, for their role in introducing the resolution. The World Health Organization recommends mothers breastfeed newborns babies exclusively for up to six months, and The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends at least 12 months. But the Trump administration is promoting the baby formula industry over women’s access to health information - and the right to choose.
“What you are seeing here is the collusion of the US government with the infant formula industry, which is very similar to the collusion of the US government with the National Rifle Association.” – Rafael Perez-Escamilla, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, quoted in Vox.
Learn! This is not just about women’s choice. This is also about global business and the way it has systematically profited from the exploitation of poor women and families. The Trump administration is continuing this legacy.
Sign the petition by 1,000 Days, calling on Nestlé, Danone, Kraft Heinz and other infant formula companies to abide by the international agreements and stop aggressive marketing tactics that hurt poor women and children.
Spread the word: DACA is still under threat -- but renewals are still being accepted!
A number of legal injunctions have kept renewals open for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, as court cases are in progress to challenge the Trump administration’s destruction of the program. BUT, in a June memo, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen affirmed that DHS wants to end the DACA program, regardless of the court decision. United We Dream reports on a similar July memo from the Department of Justice. The Trump administration, in other words, has confirmed it doesn’t care how the courts decide; they’ll end DACA anyway.
Spread the word: If you previously registered for DACA, apply for your renewal as soon possible -- visit RenewMyDACA.com and check out these 7 steps to renew. You can also find out how to support DACA applicants there. The DC court ruling may come as early as July 23!
Thanks to United We Dream for this action and all their work!
Join our Global Get Out the Vote Efforts! Let’s do our part to make sure that US-Americans living abroad know they can vote from abroad, are informed about upcoming elections, and are registered to receive absentee ballots.
Join our GOTV organizing crew! Pick a person from your group to join our GOTV Abroad WhatsApp group to get tips and tricks to register people from wherever you are. Send us an email at engage.with.page@gmail.com with the point person’s WhatsApp contact number, and we’ll add them to the group.
Join fellow US-Americans abroad to Get Out The Vote for November elections! VoteFromAbroad.Org has all the info you need to register you and your friends abroad. To share widely with friends and on social media, like “VoteFromAbroad” on Facebook. Don’t forget to use this form to organize and track the number of people you register to vote and tweet us @PAGEofdemocracy to tell us about your efforts, using #NotTooFarAwayToVote!
Primaries are kicking into full swing. Postcards for Voters has put together a helpful listof primaries and ways that you can send postcards to voters in states with primaries happening soon. If you haven’t already, take a look and learn about when your next election is coming up!
**** Thank you for your progressive action ****