Posted on August 2, 2023
Our July grantees thank you for your support
Each month, CREDO members vote on how we distribute funding to three incredible nonprofits. Those small actions add up – with one click, you can help fund groups fighting for economic justice, abortion rights and expanding the Supreme Court. In July, CREDO members voted to distribute our monthly donation among the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Take Back the Court..
These donations are made possible by CREDO customers and the revenue they generate by using our services. The distribution depends entirely on the votes of CREDO members like you. And for that, our July grant recipients thank you.
Center for Economic and Policy Research
“Thank you, CREDO Members, for supporting CEPR. Your support will help fulfill an economic agenda for full employment that’s as badly needed today as it was 60 years ago. We will keep on in honor of King’s dream and the March for Jobs and Freedom.” – Algernon Austin, Director of Race and Economic Justice, Center for Economic and Policy Research
To learn more, visit www.cepr.net.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund
“Thank you for your support, which keeps the Planned Parenthood Action Fund strong as we fight for reproductive freedom and health care access. Together, we will work to build a more equitable future for all people.” – Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO, Planned Parenthood Action Fund
To learn more, visit /www.plannedparenthoodaction.org.
Take Back the Court
“I can’t thank you enough for your support of our movement to Take Back the Court! With the backing of CREDO members like you, we will grow and amplify our work to strengthen American democracy by expanding and reforming the Supreme Court.” – Sarah Lipton-Lubet, President and Executive Director, Take Back the Court
To learn more, visit www.takebackthecourtfoundation.org.
Now check out the three groups we are funding in August, and cast your vote to help distribute our donations.
CREDO members who use our products are the reason why we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile, the carrier with a conscience.
Posted on August 1, 2023
Vote for Amazon Watch, National Domestic Workers Alliance and National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund this August
Every month, CREDO members vote to distribute our monthly grant to three incredible progressive causes – and every vote makes a difference. This August, you can support groups fighting for climate justice, workers rights and civil rights for all to fund the Amazon Watch, National Domestic Workers Alliance and National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund..
Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch protects the Amazon rainforest and our climate in solidarity with Indigenous peoples. For over 25 years, they have advanced the rights of Indigenous peoples in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability & the preservation of the Amazon.
The Amazon faces an ecological tipping point. We are taking bold action to avert this by amplifying Indigenous-led campaigns to protect the remaining rainforest by 2025: pressuring major drivers of rainforest destruction, securing Indigenous land titles & mobilizing funds directly to Indigenous peoples.
National Domestic Workers Alliance
NDWA organizes to win respect, recognition, rights and protections for the nearly 2.2 million nannies, house cleaners, and homecare workers—mostly immigrants and women of color—who do the essential work of caring for our loved ones and our homes.
Funding from CREDO will help us organize domestic workers who are leading the national fight for public investments in the care economy’s home and community-based services, universal childcare, paid leave, and protections for immigrant workers.
National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund
The Task Force Action Fund builds the political power of LGBTQ people and protects against attacks on our human rights and liberties. We engage in grassroots organizing and training, to build a world that values diversity of human expression and identity.
Funding from CREDO will help the Task Force engage in proactive and intentional movement building across the nation. We will educate, engage, and train LGBTQ and allied people and organizations through dynamic, comprehensive programming.
Your vote this month will determine how we divide our monthly donations among these three progressive groups. Be sure to cast your vote to support one, two or all three by August 31.
CREDO members who use our products and services everyday are the reason we are able to make these donations each month. Learn more about CREDO Mobile and join our movement.
Posted on August 1, 2023
Join the movement: Stand for dignity and equality in domestic work
Note from the CREDO team: This August, the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Support from the CREDO community will help the NDWA in its effort to win respect, recognition, and labor rights and protections for the nearly 2.5 million nannies, housecleaners and homecare workers who do the essential work of caring for our loved ones and our homes.
Read this important blog post about the National Domestic Workers Alliance’s critical work, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to the NDWA to support its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding August grantees.
The National Domestic Workers Alliance has a special campaign running this summer while Senators and Representatives will be in their home districts. They are working to pass The Federal Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Click here to learn more about this campaign.
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT: Help us win a Federal Domestic Bill of Rights. Sign the pledge and let us know how you want to get involved to help us pass this critical piece of legislation!
At the heart of our nation’s progress lies a group of unsung heroes: domestic workers. These 2.2 million nannies, house cleaners, and homecare workers tirelessly care for our loved ones and homes, making all other work possible. Their dedication is crucial, yet their labor often goes undervalued, leaving them vulnerable to low pay, abuse, sexual harassment and a lack of protections and rights.
The National Domestic Workers Alliance is revolutionizing this narrative. As one of the country’s leading progressive social movement organizations, we fight for respect, recognition, and labor rights for domestic workers. Our mission is rooted in the unwavering pursuit of justice, equality, and the profound interdependence that binds us all in society.
Our multi-pronged approach paves the way for success:
- Organizing and Empowerment: NDWA provides a supportive space for domestic workers to access resources, skills training, benefits, and advocacy tools.
- Policy Solutions: We develop innovative policies that improve working conditions and economic security, advocating for their passage with the help of workers, supporters, and partners.
- Shifting Narratives: By teaming up with artists and storytellers, we leverage popular culture to amplify the voices and stories of domestic workers.
- Embracing Technology: We harness the power of technology to create new opportunities and enhance dignity in domestic work.
- Mobilizing Voters: Educating and engaging underrepresented women of color voters is critical to building a better world.
- Mobilizing Voters: Educating and engaging underrepresented women of color voters is critical to building a better world.
- Pledge your Support: We believe that all workers, no matter their job, should be treated fairly and have safe workplaces. The Federal Domestic Workers Bill of Rights is an important step to make this happen.
Recent victories speak to the power of our movement. We have achieved 13 Domestic Worker Bills of Rights so far, including a landmark win in Washington, DC, where we secured legal protections against discrimination and abuse.
This year, we celebrated the White House’s recognition of April as Care Workers Recognition Month, which was backed by a historic Executive Order to support caregivers – the outcome of years of relentless organizing and campaigning.
But we won’t stop here. We will continue to leverage all opportunities to increase wages and protections in the near and long-term. In Philadelphia, we launched our Anti-Retaliation Campaign, empowering workers to assert their rights without fear of any repercussions. Our Georgia team is seeking to raise the wages of direct care workers through American Rescue Plan Act Funds at the state level, and at the local and municipal level, looking to tap into State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to win allocations for workforce development training and certification courses that would enable personal care aides to access certified nursing assistants (CNAs) jobs which would make them eligible for higher-paying roles. All the while keeping our eyes set on passing more state and local Domestic Worker Bills of Rights, including the New Jersey Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, as well as a National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
With your support, we aim to transform domestic work for an inclusive and equitable future.
Join our movement today! Sign up for our email newsletter to stay updated, take action, and stand in solidarity with domestic workers. Together, we can bring about lasting change and build a brighter tomorrow for all.
Posted on August 1, 2023
Fighting for a world where you’re free to be you: National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund
Note from the CREDO team: This August, the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Support from the CREDO community will help the Task Force Action Fund in its effort to build political power, take action and create change to achieve freedom and justice for LGBTQ people and communities.
Read this important blog post about the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund’s critical work, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to the Task Force Action Fund to support its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding August grantees.
This year has been tough. The rights of LGBTQ+ people, women, drag artists and young people are being threatened repeatedly. As a bisexual, transmasculine person and the father of a toddler, I’m increasingly concerned about the anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies seeping into the fabric of our country and making hatred the main characteristic instead of love.
My partner and I worry, honestly, about the country our child is growing up in. But in my time working for the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, I have consistently been encouraged by our mission to build a world where all people can feel free to be their most authentic selves, away from hatred and bigotry.
The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund was founded to advocate for the rights, equity, health and safety of our LGBTQ+ community. Now in our 50th year, we continue to build the political power of LGBTQ+ people and protect against attacks on our liberties and fundamental human rights. One way we do this by training and mobilizing grassroots activists around progressive, LGBTQ-affirming initiatives, giving voice to supporters of LGBTQ+ equity.
Over the past several years, we’ve seen an increasing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ bills advance through local, state and federal legislatures, further marginalizing LGBTQ+ people through political hostility. These relentless efforts have given rise to previously unseen levels of LGBTQ+ harassment, physical violence and online hate. It’s more important now than ever to push back against the hate and intolerance we began fighting 50 years ago.
To meet this political moment, the Task Force Action Fund is making a difference through the work of our staff and supporters. Here are some of the initiatives we’re currently working on:
- Building Queer Power training series: This training series equips organizers with the tools they need to create change in their local communities. With programs like Direct Action 101, Driving the Narrative: Combatting Anti-Queer Propagandaand Organizing 101-Base Building + Outreach, our focus is on building a firm foundation for young people who are just entering the political sphere and helping them find ways to exercise their voice.
- Creating Change 365 (CC365): As a year-round extension of our annual Creating Change Conference, CC365 aims to build the knowledge, skills and power of the LGBTQ+ movement, emphasizing interactivity and participant engagement for a diverse audience of activists, movement leaders, students and service providers. Join us for robust political discussions and explorations of queer culture and joy.
- Ban the Repro Binary: After the historic reversal of Roe v. Wade, in June 2022, the Task Force Action Fund initiated a public education campaign to expand the LGBTQ+ community’s understanding of reproductive justice and encourage cis men to support the fight for reproductive rights. Our Ban the Repro Binary campaign consists of several powerful short videos from a diverse set of male-identified voices in the LGBTQ+ community.
- Queer Faith in Action: The Task Force Action Fund works directly with faith leaders who are committed to facilitating a paradigm shift to make churches welcoming and affirming places for all people, regardless of sexual and gender identity. These partnerships directly upend dominant narratives that have often divided people of faith on LGBTQ matters.
- Spanish-language speakers training: We are building and training a pipeline of Spanish-speaking canvassers and media surrogates who are prepared to speak on a broad range of topics related to LGBTQ+ people and are qualified to defend our issues publicly. The Task Force Action Fund’s Spanish-language media ambassadors have already appeared on networks like CNN en Español and Univision, and they have been featured on local radio stations that have high reach in our target districts.
Change is possible! Access to democracy, for everyone, depends on full representation of our communities through voter protections. The enforcement of LGBTQ+ civil rights depends on federal nondiscrimination protections provided by legislation like the Equality Act. We have a pathway toward liberation. All we must do is act!
Today and always, we fight to better the lives of LGBTQ+ people, especially those most marginalized in our community. We believe in the power of centering the voices and experiences of Black and Brown people, transgender and non-binary folx, people with disabilities and people living in poverty. Together we are stronger because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
You can learn more about our work at TheTaskforceActionFund.org and vote for us today at CREDODonations.com!
With encouragement and gratitude,
Reese Rathjen Amyx (He/They), Digital Fundraising Manager, National LGBTQ Task Force
Posted on July 31, 2023
Indigenous land rights now: Amazon Watch is protecting the rainforest
Note from the CREDO team: This August, Amazon Watch is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help Amazon Watch defend this Earth-critical ecosystem and protect the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land for centuries.
Read this important blog post about Amazon Watch’s critical work, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to Amazon Watch to support its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding August grantees.
For over 25 years, Amazon Watch has worked effectively to protect the rainforest—and our climate—in solidarity with Indigenous peoples. A longtime partner of CREDO, Amazon Watch carries out campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability and the preservation of the Amazon’s vital ecological systems. These campaigns are founded on trust-based relationships built over decades of partnership with Indigenous, forest and traditional peoples throughout the Amazon Basin.
We are at a unique moment for the Amazon. Threats posed by mega-development, extractive industries, agribusiness, and more have brought the ecosystem to its tipping point. Thanks to long-term resistance and organizing by Amazonian peoples, we still have the chance to build momentum for a turning point.
Indigenous peoples’ message is clear: now is the moment for each of us to step up in international solidarity with Indigenous Earth Defenders. So what can this solidarity accomplish today?
¡Demarcação já! Demarcation now!
With the recent change in Brazil’s administration, new opportunities are opening up for the demarcation of Indigenous territories. Demarcation is Brazil’s process of officially recognizing Indigenous lands and, in 2023, President Lula da Silva has demarcated more than 620,000 hectares. Amazon Watch is working closely with its partners to demarcate as many Indigenous lands as possible in this window of opportunity, with the goal of permanently protecting the remaining 80% of the rainforest by 2025.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognizes Indigenous peoples’ vital role as forest guardians who are integral to the solution of our climate crisis. In Latin America, deforestation rates in Indigenous territories are up to 50% lower than in other lands. Indigenous peoples also protect over 80% of the planet’s biodiversity. So the demarcation of Indigenous lands is essential to protecting the rainforests that Indigenous peoples have stewarded for centuries and, in turn, protecting our climate.
Demarcation sets a precedent. It requires that Brazilian authorities defend Indigenous territories and gives Amazonian communities legal recourse to expel industries and illegal invaders that harm their lands, waters and people. With Sonia Guajajara leading the newly created Ministry of Indigenous Affairs, there are now 14 territories advancing toward demarcation and 25 more territories to be declared. Amazon Watch is playing an important part in this process and supporting the Indigenous communities who are carrying out territorial monitoring and mobilizing for demarcation.
Demarcation in Sawré Muybu, Munduruku Territory
Sawré Muybu is a highly preserved area of rainforest in the Tapajós River Basin of Brazil. Covering over 178,000 hectares (more than half the size of Rhode Island), it is the ancestral territory of the Munduruku people and a keystone of the entire region’s ecological integrity. The Munduruku currently face intense threats to their lands and personal safety from illegal mining and logging, and from industrial development. They have documented repeated, violent land invasions and have carried out territorial monitoring and boundary-marking activities in an effort to advance demarcation in Sawré Muybu.
Amazon Watch is a close partner of the Munduruku people and has supported their autonomy and self-determination processes for years, starting with the movement against the Belo Monte mega-dam in 2011. In 2017 and 2023, Amazon Watch installed solar grid systems in Munduruku territory to provide clean, consistent power for territorial monitoring. Over the past 12 years, Amazon Watch has also provided solidarity funding for community health initiatives, Indigenous leadership, convening, security and organizing, all of which are essential to the self-demarcation process.
Since 2018, CREDO’s support has empowered Amazon Watch’s solidarity work with the Munduruku. This support has included direct funding for their self-demarcation process in Sawré Muybu and has amplified the pan-Amazon movement to permanently protect Indigenous territories.
With the Indigenous movement’s growing power to organize and with President Lula da Silva as an ally, now is the moment to secure Indigenous land rights and avert the Amazon’s tipping point. The CREDO community is advancing Indigenous rights and defending irreplaceable ecosystems through donations to Amazon Watch, supporting:
- Defense of territories against corporate threats: Amazon Watch supports efforts by Indigenous peoples to resist mining in their territories. Currently, it is working to strengthen the Munduruku’s resistance to mining company Anglo American by carrying out campaigns to keep mining out of Indigenous lands. Demarcation is one of the key tools to achieve this.
- Direct solidarity funding: Amazon Watch’s Amazon Defenders Fund supports Indigenous leaders and communities defending the Amazon. It strengthens Indigenous organizations and movements and provides direct support for their assemblies, communications, safety and security, communal economies, well-being and leadership, inclusive of Indigenous women.
- Legal defense, communications and technical support: Amazon Watch develops and supports legal strategies to uphold and advance Indigenous rights and protect Earth Defenders at risk. It amplifies the urgent call for demarcation through its network of over 600,000 international supporters and media connections to overcome political inertia.
Onward for the Amazon
Thanks to CREDO’s solidarity, Amazon Watch will continue advancing Indigenous land rights, resisting ecosystem destruction, and insisting that Indigenous voices and solutions are centered every step of the way. Together we say: Onward for the Amazon!
Posted on July 31, 2023
With CREDO funding, Defenders of Wildlife continue to be the voice for the animals that cannot speak for themselves.
Up to a million species are facing extinction – some within the next decade – unless we take immediate action to save them. Thankfully, our grantee partners at Defenders of Wildlife work tirelessly to identify and implement innovative solutions to protect endangered species and their habitat.
In December 2022, CREDO members voted to donate $33,125 to help Defenders’ scientists, lawyers, advocates and activists protect wildlife in courtrooms and in communities across the nation.
Powered in part by the generosity of CREDO and our members, Defenders of Wildlife had some recent victories and launched some great new initiatives. Here’s a quick report on how your donations are making an impact from our friends at Defenders:
Recent Victories
Since December 2022, Defenders has had several victories and for wildlife, enabled and assisted by the unrestricted funds granted by CREDO:
- Our Red Wolf Recovery program has celebrated the arrival of a new litter of red wolf puppies born in the wild, three females and two males. As of May 2023, this brings the Milltail Pack’s numbers up to 13 wolves. Thanks to Defenders’ legal action that compelled the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to release more red wolves into the wild, the wild population now stands to quadruple in just two years.
- In April, the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife and the Coastal Conservation League, obtained a major win for threatened red knots. The endangered bird arrives in South Carolina to feed on newly spawned horseshoe crab eggs in the spring, essentially doubling their body weight to survive the grueling migration. The District Court’s order enacts restrictions on horseshoe crab harvest to ensure the protection of the bird’s food source.
- Also in April, Defenders and its allies reached a settlement with the Bureau of Land Management, which will no longer allow large-scale logging of pinyon-juniper forests in the Southwest that are critical for pinyon jays and other wildlife.
New Initiatives
Defenders is always opening new cases and projects to defend threatened wildlife and their habitats. Since we received the CREDO grant, we have:
- Stopped a bill in the Washington state legislature that would delist the gray wolf on the state Endangered Species Act;
- Submitted comments for the Montana State Grizzly Bear Management Plan and Colorado Wolf Management and Reintroduction Plan drafts;
- Hosted in-person workshops on renewable energy in New Mexico, North Carolina, and Wyoming;
- Published multiple reports, videos, print ads, and blog posts to spread awareness of the biodiversity crisis and celebrate the 50th year of the Endangered Species Act; and
- Launched a TikTok channel, as more than 20% of people (30% of millennials) currently get their news from TikTok.
If you’d like to learn more or get involved with Defenders of Wildlife, please visit their website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.
Posted on July 20, 2023
Try this one amazing tip to declutter your phone’s photo library to save space
If your smartphone’s photo library is anything like ours, it’s a total mess. Old selfies, mistaken or duplicate pictures, long videos you saved that you’ll never watch again.
All those files are taking up valuable space and keeping your library too cluttered.
Here’s one quick hack that will easily clean up your camera roll and save a ton of space on your smartphone.
This clever tip comes courtesy of TikTok creator Kayla Kerr, who suggests setting aside a couple minutes every day to look through your photo library to declutter unwanted photos and videos, with one special twist:
@kaylakerr_ it’s also like your own personal TimeHop which is fun
Kayla suggests opening your photo library and searching for the current month and day, which will bring up all the photos and videos that were created on that day in previous years and you can decide which files you want to keep or delete.
This method is a much more manageable and less overwhelming way to clean up the images on your smartphone than trying to tackle your photo library all at once.
One last tip: Set yourself a daily reminder — and your camera roll will be clean in 365 days!
Posted on July 13, 2023
How to Prepare for a Lost or Stolen Smartphone
You never want to think it will happen: Your smartphone — and everything inside it — is missing. Has it been lost or stolen? You can’t find it anywhere. It feels like a catastrophe.
Luckily, with a bit of preparation, you can mitigate the fallout. In this week’s tip, we’ll give you some easy-to-follow steps you can take today to protect the data in your iPhone or Android phone — and hopefully get it back — before it goes missing.
Before we begin: If you have already lost your smartphone, or it’s been stolen, please check out our blog post, “How to quickly find a lost or stolen phone.”
Now, here’s how to prepare, just in case:
For both Android and iPhone users:
- Enable Lock Screen Security
It may seem basic, but the first line of defense is often overlooked. Enable PIN, password, pattern, or biometric (fingerprint or facial recognition) security. This will prevent unauthorized access if your device ends up in the wrong hands. Here’s how on an iOS device and Android.
- Regularly Backup Your Data
Regular backups ensure that your data, including photos, contacts, and files, are safe. Both Android and iOS offer automatic backup services – Google Drive for Android and iCloud for iOS. Make sure you have this feature turned on and your important data is being backed up regularly.
- Know How to Use Your Phone Finder App
Both iOS and Android platforms have built-in phone finder apps – ‘Find My’ for iOS and ‘Find My Device’ for Android. These apps allow you to locate, ring, or wipe your device if it’s lost or stolen. Make sure they’re activated and you know how to use them.
For iPhone Users:
- Enable ‘Send Last Location’
In your ‘Find My’ settings, ensure the ‘Send Last Location‘ feature is turned on. If your battery is critically low, your device will automatically send its location to iCloud, which can be crucial in finding a lost phone.
For Android Users:
- Set Up a ‘Lock Screen Message’
Before you lose your phone, you can set a lock screen message so that it will appear when your phone is locked, enabling anyone who finds your phone to contact you. It could be as simple as “If found, please contact (alternative contact details)”.
Here’s how (this may vary by model): Open the Settings app > Security & location > Screen lock preferences > Lock screen message.
- Secure Your Google Account
Your Google account is the key to much of your phone’s data. Ensure you have a strong, unique password and two-step verification enabled to prevent unauthorized access.
Remember, prevention is better than cure. It’s easy to think, “It won’t happen to me,” but it’s much less stressful to spend a few minutes now to prepare for the worst than it is to deal with the consequences of a lost or stolen phone. Stay safe, stay connected, and, most importantly, stay prepared.
Posted on July 10, 2023
CREDO grantee Take Back the Court is reforming the Supreme Court to preserve democracy, rights, and freedoms
Note from the CREDO team: This July, Take Back the Court is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help the organization rebuild democracy, protect the rights of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of color, tackle the climate crisis, and mobilize progressive activists to take action.
Read this important blog post about Take Back the Court’s critical work, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this July.
In 2016, the right-wing movement stole the Supreme Court.
In an unprecedented political move, Mitch McConnell and his Senate cronies refused to hold a vote for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. In doing so, they shrunk the Court to 8 seats for more than a year. But they weren’t done.
In the fall of 2020, they tossed out their own rulebook and rammed through the confirmation of Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett in record time — even though 63 million people had already cast ballots in the election that would ultimately unseat President Trump.
Without those two insidious moves, the Supreme Court would have a 5-4, narrow liberal majority. Instead, the highest court in the land is being held hostage by 6 right-wing extremist politicians in robes — 5 of whom were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote. Their radical agenda won’t win at the polls, so they’re imposing minority rule from the bench.
Take Back the Court was established to counter this threat to our democracy — to reclaim for the American people the most powerful legal institution in the country from the radical politicians who spent decades carefully plotting to enact a regressive and anti-democratic agenda against the will of the majority of Americans. Take Back the Court is the only organization dedicated primarily to expanding and rebalancing the Supreme Court to strengthen American democracy and preserve fundamental freedoms for all Americans.
The Supreme Court Is Stripping Us of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms
We are watching the Court strip away more and more of our fundamental rights and freedoms each and every year. In just the 2.5 years since Justice Barrett took the bench, the Court has eviscerated voting rights protections three times. It has gutted rights for working Americans twice. It has defanged the 50-year-old environmental protections that protected our air and water from pollution twice. They have stripped LGBTQ+ people of their right to shop in stores, made our communities more vulnerable to gun violence, blocked student debt relief, ended protections for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people, and, of course, cut off access to abortion.
Only Expansion Can Rebalance the Court and Protect Us From Its Current Radicalism
So what are we doing about it? We’re building a movement to expand and rebalance the Court. Our country was founded on a principle of checks and balances, and historically, Congress has checked the power of the Supreme Court by changing its size and composition. It’s happened 7 times before, and we can make it happen again to correct the right-wing theft of the Court. By passing a bill, the Judiciary Act, to add 4 seats to the Court, we can create a more balanced institution committed to upholding our rights and freedoms — and unlike other judicial reforms, the current Court could not strike down Court expansion.
In just 4 years, we’ve taken Court expansion from a lofty idea to a blossoming movement and mainstream policy goal with more than 65 supporters in Congress and the endorsement of more than 130 diverse organizations. Groups like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Color of Change, Black Lives Matter, VotoLatino, March for Our Lives, Greenpeace, Lambda Legal, SEIU, and many others have joined this fight because they know we cannot create a future that works for all with a broken Court attacking our rights and freedoms.
And we’re just getting started. Because of our work, Americans are realizing that if they care about nearly any issue — voting rights, climate change, labor rights, LGBTQ+ rights, racial and economic justice, tribal sovereignty, abortion and reproductive rights, immigration, student debt relief, gun violence prevention, and carceral state reform to name a few — they care about the Supreme Court and what it’s doing. We need a Court that will respect our rights and freedoms rather than standing in the way of progress if we are going to meet the challenges currently facing our country.
Occasional decisions that do not inflict maximum pain on Americans aside, this Court is not going to stop its assault on our more cherished rights, freedoms, and progress.. And the justices embroiled in ethics scandal after ethics scandal are not going to voluntarily check their own power or miraculously wake up and decide to “do the right thing.” We’re making sure all Americans, their organizations, and their congressional representatives know exactly the threat the Court poses and what we can do about it.
Despite losing the popular vote in 7 out of the last 8 presidential elections, Republicans have held the Court for 50 straight years. Without expansion, we are unlikely to see a liberal majority on the Court until at least 2065.
We’ve seen the harm the Court can do with just one decision. We’ve seen the devastation that follows just one term. We cannot withstand 40 more years of this Court rolling back our rights and freedoms. We must take back the court — today! Join us at takebackthecourtfoundation.org.
Posted on July 10, 2023
The Center for Economic and Policy Research: Full Employment for All
Note from the CREDO team: This July, Center for Economic and Policy Research is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help fund CEPR’s Full Employment For All campaign, by lifting demands made 60 years ago at the March for Jobs and Freedom to push Congress to fix the nation’s chronic joblessness problem through a national subsidized jobs program.
Read this important blog post about CEPR’s critical work, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this July.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research is excited to be a CREDO July 2023 grantee, and we are so grateful to all CREDO members! In the past, your generous support has allowed us to ramp up our fight for economic justice, both in the US and abroad, and we can’t wait to do it again.
This year, CREDO members will help fund CEPR’s Full Employment For All campaign. We are commemorating the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom by pushing for Congress to address the joblessness in the country’s “forgotten places” (to paraphrase President Biden). The historically low national unemployment rate is worth celebrating, but it is important to remember that not everywhere is actually experiencing low unemployment. For example, in the first quarter of this year, in Yuma, Arizona, the unemployment rate was 8.5 percent – more than twice the national rate. And for many parts of the country, the reality is even harsher. The unemployment rate was 9.3 percent in Calhoun County, West Virginia, nearly 11 percent in Flint, Michigan and 13.2 percent in the Kusilvak Census Area in Alaska. In Reedley, California the unemployment rate is nearly a whopping 20 percent. We have a lot of work to do.
CEPR’s Director of Race and Economic Justice, Dr. Algernon Austin, is helping to spearhead the effort of a broad coalition of social and economic justice and grassroots advocacy organizations committed to finally actualizing the powerful economic agenda set by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders. The coalition is calling for a national subsidized employment program targeted to high-unemployment areas so that we can achieve full employment for all.
Algernon’s research has revealed that the country has made ZERO progress over the last 60 years in breaking the two-to-one, Black-to-White unemployment-rate ratio. The Black unemployment rate continues to be roughly twice the White unemployment rate, and therefore Black America never truly experiences low unemployment. A targeted subsidized employment program would help us make serious gains in securing full employment for all.
In fact, a targeted jobs program would help all communities, regardless of race, that face persistently high rates of joblessness. While the problem is most acute for the Black and Native American populations, communities facing disproportionately low employment can be found in all states and among all races, including in White rural communities. With this understanding, CEPR is building a multiracial, class-diverse coalition to address the complexities of this enduring, yet underreported, economic crisis.
It is unconscionable that such little progress had been made in the 60 YEARS since Dr. King brought this issue to Congress’ doorstep. At CEPR, we know that economic and racial justice are inextricably linked. We believe in a country where there is full employment for all – not just low unemployment for some. CREDO members can help us force Congress to finally do their jobs and right this wrong. Together, we will work to achieve what Dr. King set out to do 60 years ago.
