I wonder (but not too much) what would happen if/when Trump is POTUS again but faced with a Dem controlled House and Senate.
That might actually be the best outcome we can hope for in the #duocracy. We can hope there's some iota of justice that's meted out by the courts, but there was no legislative path forward after Pelosi seated 130+ sworn Seditionists in Congress.
At least w Trump 2.0, shitlibs might be upset about the stuff Biden gets a pass for just bc it's Trump.
I'm not going to tell you how to vote- many of my moots on here have zero faith in the electoral system, and rightfully so. I will ask that you #votelocal for the best candidates, because this is often where the buck stops and meaningful change is possible.
My own conservative suburb is a good example - a #grassroots campaign for a city council seat won against a corporate backed shill in 2021. Outspent 10:1, she triumphed by some 52 votes and has consistently delivered for our #community.
This year's winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize for grassroots environmental champions have been announced. There are 7 winners:
Marcel Gomes from #Brazil
Murrawah Maroochy Johnson from #Australia
Alok Shukla from #India
Teresa Vicente from #Spain
Andrea Vidaurre from the #US
Sinegugu Zukulu and Nonhle Mubuthuma from #SouthAfrica
It is heartening to see what these ordinary people have achieved.
Fred Hampton and the Rainbow Coalition
Chicago-style coalition building helped 2 produce the first Black mayor of Chicago & put
it's first Latino representatives in office.But
unbeknownst to many
this form of organizing started in the streets,fifty years ago with what was called the Rainbow Coalition,a progressive, fundamentally,
socialist movement.That set the foundation for
radical ideas and Civil Disobedience in Chicago
I disagree with #klopp about judging #henderson. To most it was clear that the decision to move to Saudi would (at the least) smack of hypocrisy and damage his public persona.
President #Biden just announced that his campaign raised more than $1.6 MILLION from #grassroots donors in JUST 24 HOURS after the #Iowa#Caucus. #JoeBiden is the real winner & no matter what the media & polls say, people are fired up to re-elect him in 2024.
Hey #TriangleNC#activists—I’m looking to hire a great #organizer to help #SwingLeft build new #grassroots groups in the #Triangle. The #job is flexible and pays $18 an hour. Help us defend democracy, defeat MAGA extremism, and elect Democrats in 2024— apply or share!
#MomsForLiberty, an anti-#LGBTQ#hategroup, wants you to believe they are a #grassroots organization powered by literally 1 million people. The truth is that grassroots #donations to the group make up about $100k of their total income while just two anonymous #megadonors supplied $2 MILLION. So, don't be fooled by these #bigots. The whole thing is one big exercise in hate and #deception.
"And if we win in Michigan, we’ll be just 50 electoral votes away from National Popular Vote taking full effect – and fixing our broken Electoral College for good." #support#grassroots
If I were working for #ASEAN, in particular in the #Culture vertical, I would have had set up a #Fediverse account already.
This is why ASEAN is having a hard time in, well, the ASEAN region when it comes to the people. The management, and everything else, is top-down.
It should be bottom-up. It should be #grassroots not political.
To this day, after so many years, ASEAN is still a political effort. They can't even mandate to make August 8 #ASEANday as a holiday in all member nations.
They can do more if only they'll change their approach.
I'm not saying the political side should be put aside. Not at all. Rather, the focus should be to sell it to its own people. It has to matter to the common folk.
Are they even aware that gamers from the ASEAN region have been closer since 2000? They probably are not. Imagine tapping that… missed opportunities.
"Days ago, voters in Ecuador approved a total ban on oil drilling in protected land in the #Amazon, a 2.5m-acre tract in the #Yasuní national park that might be the world’s most important #biodiversity hotspot. The area is a Unesco-designated biosphere reserve and home to two non-contacted #Indigenous groups. This could be a major step forward for the entire global climate justice movement in ways that are not yet apparent.
"This vote is important not only for Ecuador and for the Indigenous peoples in the Yasuní, who now have hope of living in peace in perpetuity. It is also a potential model for how we can use the democratic process around the world to help slow or even stop the expansion of fossil fuels to the benefit of billions of people.
"The Yasuní referendum proves that real democracy that respects the popular will can be a powerful tool for transitioning to a sustainable future. Ecuador’s state oil company, #Petroecuador, had been producing nearly 60,000 barrels a day in the Yasuní. It now must figure out how to dismantle its entire operation and go home. When in history has a popular vote ever forced an oil company to cease active drilling? Never.
"The Yasuní vote was not the result of a business decision made in a boardroom or government office. It was the product of two decades of #grassroots organizing by citizens and #activists like you and me. I know because I have been to Ecuador more than 250 times to work on a historic pollution case against #Chevron on behalf of the Indigenous people there. Many of the same Indigenous leaders and activists who helped fight Chevron organized the Yasuní vote.
"At the same time, the vote underscores how important it is to protect our increasingly fragile democracy. Without a robust democracy that allows citizens to place issues of critical importance on the ballot without the intermediation of elites, the Yasuní referendum never would have happened.
"The flipside is that powerful #OilAndGas companies understand the threat a real citizen-based democracy poses to their power. They fear a society where citizens can put referendums on the ballot without the approval of business leaders. Those of us in the climate movement often can’t even stop to focus on the connection between democracy and climate justice because we’re so focused on dealing with the immediate crises taking place before our eyes, such as the Maui fire.
"In the United States, it is not broadly known that the #FossilFuel industry quietly funds a national lobbying campaign that has introduced draconian #antiprotest bills in at least 18 states. These laws threaten anyone #protesting at an oil or gas facility with huge fines and serious prison sentences; some states even impose criminal liabilities on non-profit advocacy groups that support the protesters. These are really laws of intimidation designed to stop protest before it happens. And they are also manifesting in other countries including #Australia, the #UnitedKingdom and #Germany.
"As a result, many Americans who have committed #peaceful acts of non-violent #CivilDisobedience – central to the birth of our country and a cornerstone of our political tradition – now face decades in prison. In Atlanta, #Georgia, 42 people have been charged by prosecutors with 'domestic terrorism' for trying to save the city’s last green canopy in the #WeelauneeForest. Local police are trying to raze part of the forest to build a military-style police training academy, colloquially called “#CopCity”, that already resulted in the first police killing of a climate activist in US history. (The police have said that the activist, Manuel Paez #Terán, was used a weapon; activists dispute that claim.)
"The Atlanta cases represent a frightening escalation of attacks on #FreeSpeech and protest in the US. None of those charged – whom authorities accused mainly of vandalism and arson – committed a direct act of violence against another person. Nobody was injured other than the activist shot and killed by police while sitting in the forest.
"That this is happening in a city considered to be one of the cradles of the American civil rights movement shows just how entwined corporate and police power have become in their efforts to erode democratic rights.
"The prosecutions in Georgia are also occurring in a broader context where the right to vote has been seriously impaired. Voter suppression is now a regular feature in many US states, with ludicrous laws being passed to throw out votes. In this short century, two presidents have taken office in the US who did not win the popular vote. Votes are constantly thrown out for the thinnest of reasons, as journalists such as Greg Palast have meticulously documented.
On top of these threats to democracy at the state level, the US #supremecourt and its unelected, mostly #FarRight justices are weakening both our democracy and its ability to regulate the fossil fuel industry. The court has consistently approved measures like voter ID laws and felon disenfranchisement that make it more difficult for historically marginalized groups to vote. It has also, of late, decided its role is to strike down popular legislation, so who knows what they’d do to a popularly won ban on oil drilling.
"I am an #EnvironmentalJustice and #HumanRights lawyer, but one reason I spend significant time focused on issues of democracy is because I simply cannot do my work if our political system does not allow the political space to advocate freely. After I helped Indigenous peoples win a major pollution case in Ecuador, I was detained for almost three years in the US after being targeted with the nation’s first-ever corporate prosecution. My own case is a reminder that the normal rules of democracy can easily be suspended when entrenched economic interests face a serious enough threat to their bottom line.
"As I write this, a heat dome in the US sits over the entire midwest and is affecting 100 million people. Fires have destroyed millions of acres of land. A tropical storm just smacked southern California for the first time, and the historic town of Lahaina in Hawaii burned to the ground with hundreds of people still unaccounted for. In the meantime, the oil industry is reporting record profits, creating enormous incentives for a small group of powerful shareholders to maintain their power by shrinking our democratic space.
What the referendum in Ecuador teaches us is that democratic processes when coupled with strong grassroots organizing can produce startlingly effective results. Taking a cue from our friends in that brave country, the next major move for the climate justice movement could be to launch a national campaign to put the simple question presented in Ecuador before the American people in every state that allows citizens to place their own questions on the ballot. The question is whether we can vote to end the destruction of our planet by the burning of fossil fuels.
"It is clear we cannot trust either of the two major US political parties – both of which mostly support fossil fuel expansion – to adequately address this crisis. We simply cannot save the planet without first protecting and strengthening our democracy."
Thank you for this great article. The way that ActivityPub evolved is indeed rather unique and led to emergence of a #grassroots ecosystem.
After standardization it wasn't just Mastodon that introduced #ProtocolDecay. Everyone treading new areas did! Something important is still lacking: Robust way to extend #ActivityPub interoperably.
Providing proper guidance here (and in a 3-stage #StandardsProcess) imho is crucial for #Fediverse future. See:
RFS recruits people
We run paid ads about it.
We wrote a book about it.
We speak about it.
We write op-eds about it.
We tweet about it.
We tell the stories of young progressive elected officials across the country who’ve been there, done that, and have the office to prove it.
We connect our candidates to resources — including Swing Left, Arena Summit, National Democratic Training Committee (NDTC), Higher Heights, Latino Victory Project, Collective PAC, PCCC, VoteRunLead, and state parties across the country. Our candidates have access to their resources, trainings, mentors.
For some states, we also provide limited funding.
PASS IT ON!
…"group will pump $10 mil into local school board races that are being hijacked by conservatives.
"I'm not fucking around here," says Amanda Litman. "We’re gonna make sure that the school boards are good and that these people leading them are compassionate and empathetic and not Nazis….your community probably needs you."
🗣 The call for papers for the #Commoning congress is ongoing.
The online congress will focus on the practice of commoning throughout history with the primary objective to present innovative research informed by critical interculturality.
Anyone have a suggestion of a good Mastodon #server for ResearchForTheFrontLines.ca?
We're a #grassroots organization that provides #research support to communities and movements fighting for environmental and #climate justice across Canada.
There is apparently a democratic layer to this #FOSS and #grassroots governance in general that still needs to be coded as part of #OGB. So if you are a skill programmer, take a look.
We wonder if the (#)fediverseIcon project is worth bringing up at OGB?