Posted on August 10, 2017
Al Gore is back with a heated “Sequel”
Al Gore is as passionate as ever about climate change. A decade after his documentary An Inconvenient Truth made climate change a front-burner topic for people everywhere, Gore is back with An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. And this time he’s pulling no punches. “He’s been very engaged and frankly is much less diplomatic now,” director Bonni Cohen told the Hollywood Reporter. “Al’s gloves have come off.” And yet the new film offers hope, describing just how close we are to a clean energy revolution.
Posted on August 2, 2017
Our July grantees thank you for your support
Each month, CREDO members vote on how we distribute our funding to three amazing organizations. Those small actions add up – with one click, you can dedicate resources to defend social justice, protect and expand Medicaid and Medicare and support the legal defense of whistleblowers who expose attacks on our democracy. Just last month, over 88,000 CREDO members voted to distribute our funds to Center for Constitutional Rights, Social Security Works and the Whistleblower Special Defense Fund.
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 Constitutional Rights
“Thank you for your vote – and thank you, CREDO, for your renewed support! Together, we are advancing the rights of those with the fewest protections and least access to legal resources and strengthening progressive movements that strive for justice and equality.” To learn more, visit ccrjustice.org.
Social Security Works
“CREDO members stood with us in 2010, when ‘everybody’ knew Social Security benefits would be cut, the only question was by how much. Together we galvanized a movement and changed the conversation. Social Security Works & CREDO have faced long odds and won before. Your support means we will again.” To learn more, visit socialsecurityworks.org.
Posted on August 1, 2017
Vote for these great progressive organizations this August
Every month, CREDO members vote how to divide our monthly donation to three great progressive groups. This August, you can vote for organizations fighting for workers’ rights in China, providing cutting-edge progressive journalism and standing up to the dirty fossil fuel industry. This month you can vote for China Labor Watch, Democracy Now! and Stand Up to Oil. Learn more about their important work, and then cast your vote for one, two or all three by August 31.
China Labor Watch
Since 2000, China Labor Watch (CLW) has been a leading organization standing up for Chinese workers’ rights. CLW views Chinese workers’ rights as inalienable human rights and is dedicated to workers’ fair share of economic development under globalization.
Funding from CREDO will enable CLW to conduct more investigations of factories in developing countries that supply multinational brands and help improve labor conditions for factory workers. A CREDO donation will also immediately help support three currently detained CLW investigators who are involved in Ivanka Trump’s supplier factory investigations.
Posted on July 31, 2017
Books CREDO recommends: Summer 2017 edition
The dog days of summer are in full swing, but the attacks on the middle class and the country’s most vulnerable by the Trump administration continue in full force. Here at CREDO, we’re not letting the summer heat keep us from fighting back the attacks — and we hope it won’t stop you, either. Here are two great books of the resistance that we’d like to recommend you add to your summer reading list to help keep up the fight, too.
“This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class” by Senator Elizabeth Warren
While the middle class has been shrinking for decades and income inequality continues to soar, hardworking Americans struggle everyday to make ends meet as they watch as Donald Trump and right-wing politicians in Washington slash our social safety net to hand out massive tax breaks to the country’s richest.
As the poor and middle class are hammered by an unfair system, progressive champion Senator Elizabeth Warren offers hope and practical solutions to reverse the dwindling middle class in her New York Times bestseller, “This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class
Written in her trademark practical, no-nonsense style, this thought-provoking book is a powerful and important insight into Senator Warren’s ideas to protect the economic security of everyday Americans, shrink the gap between the rich and poor and ensure progressives continue fighting no matter what in the face of a corrupt and incompetent administration.
“The Resistance Handbook: 45 Ways to Fight Trump” by Michael Huttner and Markos Moulitsas
When disgruntled Donald Trump supporters spam your Amazon book listing with one-star ratings and angry, incoherent fake reviews, you know you’re doing something right.
“The Resistance Handbook: 45 Ways to Fight Trump
With simple, actionable steps, “The Resistance Handbook” provides you with specific and meaningful ways to engage with elected officials and in one’s community to stop the Trump administration’s racist, sexist, homophobic attacks on vulnerable communities while building a strong political movement to get out the vote and defeat Trump and right-wing extremists in the next election.
If you’ve been asking yourself, “What more can I do to stop Trump?”, then this is a helpful guide for you.
Posted on July 27, 2017
New video: Rainey Reitman of EFF visits CREDO headquarters
Rainey Reitman, activism director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, visited CREDO headquarters for a special conversation to discuss how the organization defends civil liberties and protects user privacy in the digital world through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism and technology development. If you missed the live broadcast on Facebook, you can watch the full video below.
LIVE NOW: Electronic Frontier Foundation at CREDO headquarters
CREDO welcomes Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Rainey Reitman to discuss how EFF is defending civil liberties and protecting user privacy in the digital world.
Posted by CREDO Mobile on Thursday, July 27, 2017
Posted on July 26, 2017
Video: Empowering activists to resist Trumpcare with their personal stories
Trumpcare, the Republican plan to gut health care for millions of Americans, defund Planned Parenthood and raise insurance premiums across the country, is a cruel, heartless and deadly legislation.
This Republican plan is so unpopular that cowardly Republican senators have been avoiding their constituents in recent weeks by refusing to host town hall meetings or public events.
That’s why leading up to recent legislative action in Congress CREDO had been working to empower people across the country with our Resist Trumpcare video project to lift up the health care stories of people in key states who have the most to lose if Republicans pass Trumpcare.
Posted on July 13, 2017
CREDO Mobile Earns Top Marks for Protecting Consumer Privacy
New report on privacy practices shows CREDO Mobile’s dedication to safeguarding customer data
A new report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation evaluating top tech companies’ consumer privacy protections recognized CREDO Mobile’s dedication to safeguarding customer data in all five categories evaluated. The report, Who Has Your Back? Government Data Requests 2017 is available here. CREDO Mobile is the only mobile carrier to receive five stars; all other mobile carriers evaluated received one star.
The report analyzed thousands of requests by the United States Government for consumer data and surveillance attempts, and evaluated the companies’ responses against industry best practices. Baseline best practices include publishing a transparency report and requiring a warrant before releasing user content to the government.
“At CREDO, we stand for protecting internet privacy and have a long history of fighting for it,” said CREDO Mobile CEO Ray Morris. “By leading the way in adopting policies to protect consumers, promote transparency, and resist government overreach, we’re living our progressive values in a way that truly matters for our members.”
CREDO Mobile received recognition in all five categories: following industry-wide best practices, telling users about government data requests, promising not to sell out users, standing up to national security letter gag orders and having pro-user public policies. Only nine companies received credit in each category. CREDO Mobile has received a perfect score each time it has been evaluated in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s “Who Has Your Back?” reports.
Posted on July 12, 2017
Mobile app of the month: Countable
When you think of the tools and tactics of the resistance to Donald Trump and heartless extremists in Congress, you might think petitions, marches, protests, sit-ins, letters, phone calls or even civil disobedience.
What if you had another tool that could allow you to record a video for policymakers without ever leaving your house?
Now you do. Countable, a startup located in San Francisco, enables people to know what their elected officials are up to and record video messages telling them directly how to vote on upcoming bills.
With Countable’s free Android or iOS app, you can read plain language summaries of upcoming legislation, tell your representatives how to vote by clicking “yea” or “nay” on the bills and make 30 second videos that will be sent to your lawmakers.
At CREDO, we’re using Countable to allow our members to share their own stories and promote our donations grantees. For example, to keep up the pressure on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to protect net neutrality, we’ve asked partners and CREDO activists to record short videos describing why net neutrality is important to them. We’ll be delivering the videos directly to the FCC. Moreover, to make sure Republican Senators in key states hear directly from their constituents about Trumpcare, we’ve asked CREDO members in those states to record video messages telling their own stories. You can watch our powerful compilation of health care stories here.
We’re also asking CREDO members to record videos to explain why they joined CREDO Mobile or voted for their favorite progressive organizations during our monthly donations voting program.
You can learn more about the app and the company on their website.
Posted on July 12, 2017
The Power of Organizing
There’s no doubt that we are living in unprecedented times in terms of the level of attacks from the Trump administration against women’s health and Latinx folks. But we’re also living in a time of powerful grassroots resistance emerging across the country – and week after week, we can see how well that resistance is working. That’s why I’m so proud of our long-time activism work with CREDO and thankful for their members who are among – and continue to be – some of Planned Parenthood’s most loyal supporters.
As the deputy program manager for Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s Raíz program, I see the power of this resistance every day. Since the Trump administration took office, people have been marching in the streets, flooding town halls, and calling their members of Congress so much that they actually shut down the Congressional switchboard.
But that power didn’t start when Trump took office. Beginning in 2014, the Raíz organizers have worked to build sustainable, community-organizing teams as members of and in partnership with the Latinx community. Raíz began as an unparalleled effort to sign the Latinx community up for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and I’ve seen firsthand in my work helping uninsured communities how critical it is – especially Latinx folks who saw the largest reduction in uninsurance rates among any demographic group. Organizing worked – it helped make sure people were healthier, and began to help break down barriers to accessing quality, affordable, and accessible health care that existed in the Latinx community.
Posted on July 5, 2017
We helped plant 11,110 trees. Thanks!
Here at CREDO, we’re always thinking of new ways we can make our planet a greener place. In June, we pledged to help plant 10 trees for each new phone we sold. Well, we’ve tallied the numbers and we’re pleased to tell you that there are now 11,110 more trees planted in the earth, thanks to CREDO members.
The trees were planted in partnership with Trees for the Future, a nonprofit organization that helps communities plant trees to restore life to degraded lands. Our June campaign focused on sub-Saharan Africa, where Trees for the Future’s Forest Garden Program helps African families plant fast-growing trees, fruit and nut trees, hardwoods and food crops together to transform overused and exhausted lands into forest gardens.
These gardens provide families with sustainable food sources, firewood, livestock feed, products to sell at market and a 400% increase in their annual income in only four years. They help people earn more money, grow more food and build a more sustainable future. They slow erosion, fix nitrogen in the soil, cool the land and boost biodiversity.
The trees that we—and you—helped plant are doing a lot of good. For that, we say thanks. Please stay tuned to learn about more CREDO campaigns for a greener planet in the months ahead. And if you’re not already a member, please consider joining us and the many other CREDO members who are making a difference every day.
