Take Action

Ending Solitary Confinement

Nation Action on July 12, 2012 - 2:03 PM ET

With some 80,000 prisoners in solitary, the United States leads the world in isolating its citizens as well as incarcerating them. Though growing local and national movements are fighting solitary confinement as costly, dangerous and fundamentally inhumane and have made great headway in some places, in New York State, report Jean Casella and James Ridgeway in the new issue of The Nation, the prison system is in effect rigged to keep thousands of inmates in solitary for weeks, months, years, even decades.

TO DO

In the first-ever hearing of its kind, a Senate panel heard testimony recently on the psychological and human rights implications of solitary confinement in US prisons. Casella and Ridgeway’s organization, Solitary Watch, is urging citizens to contact Committee Chair Dick Durbin and other members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, thanking them for holding the hearings and imploring them to take further action. The ACLU is also sponsoring a public statement to show widespread opposition to the misuse of solitary confinement. Join the call, and check out the venerable civil liberty group’s page of activist resources detailing how to get more deeply involved in the fight against solitary confinement. After you’ve weighed in, share this information with friends, family and your Facebook and Twitter communities.

Stop the TPP

Nation Action on June 26, 2012 - 5:46 PM ET

Behind closed doors corporate America is implementing a stealth strategy to consolidate its rule. As Public Citizen's Executive Director Lori Wallach explains in the new issue of The Nation, the mechanism is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, whose negotiations have been conducted in extreme secrecy and whose essential function seems to be to act as a stealthy delivery mechanism for policies that could not survive public scrutiny. Branded as a “trade deal” by its corporate proponents, the TPP would actually establish new corporate rights to undermine environmental and health laws, offshore millions of American jobs, flood the US with untested food products, and extend the duration of medical patents.

TO DO

Sign Public Citizen’s petition imploring US Trade Rep Ron Kirk to stop the secrecy and publicly release all TPP proposals. Tell him it’s a simple request and that transparency matters. Then, go to tpp2012.com to find out how you can get more involved. After you've made your voice heard, please share this post with your friends, family and Twitter and Facebook communities.

Amend 'Citizens United' Out of Existence

Nation Action on June 25, 2012 - 1:39 PM ET

Today, the US Supreme Court summarily struck down Montana’s law shielding its elections from the influence of corporate cash. The court’s 5–4 decision in American Tradition Partnership v. Bullock significantly expands the scope and reach of the Citizens United ruling by striking down state limits on corporate spending in state and local elections.

“The question presented in this case is whether the holding of Citizens United applies to the Montana state law,” the majority wrote. “There can be no serious doubt that it does.” What this means, as John Nichols explains, is that if Exxon Mobil wants to spend $10 million to support a favored candidate in a state legislative or city council race that might decide whether the corporation is regulated, or whether it gets new drilling rights, it can.

TO DO

Ad Policy

Reform the NYPD

Nation Action on June 14, 2012 - 10:40 AM ET

As Ramzi Kassem reports in the new issue of The Nation, the NYPD has created perhaps the largest spying program by a local law enforcement agency on record—a sprawling effort to map entire communities that emerged from the toxic convergence of the permanent state of emergency gripping our society since 9/11 with the NYPD’s historic tendencies.

TO DO

In the face of stop-and-frisk and surveillance of Muslims, Communities United for Police Reform, a campaign to end discriminatory policing practices in New York, is working to build a lasting movement that promotes public safety and policing based on cooperation and respect—not discriminatory targeting and harassment. Stand with CPR and t ake this pledge to demand increased transparency and accountability from the NYPD, and an end to discriminatory and abusive law enforcement. After you've weighed in share this post with friends, family and your Twitter and Facebook communities.

Help the Davis Dozen

Nation Action on June 11, 2012 - 2:20 PM ET

At UC Davis and other institutions, student-led protests against austerity have been met with thuggish riot cops and the criminalization of speech, writes Professor Joshua Clover at thenation.com.

Clover is an indicted member of the “Davis Dozen”—a group of eleven activist students and one professor (Clover) who were served with arrest notices one month after the US Bank on the Davis campus closed its doors for good, following weeks of protests against the banks’ role in increasing student costs and student debt. Twelve people are now threatened with eleven years each in jail and one million dollars in fines for a purported conspiracy to shut the bank down.

TO DO

Kill the 'Kill List'

Nation Action on June 6, 2012 - 5:14 PM ET

The drone policy that President Obama has developed not only infringes on the sovereignty of other countries, insist Nation editors in the new issue of the magazine, but the assassinations violate laws put in place in the 1970s after scandals enveloped an earlier era of CIA criminality. What’s more, by allowing the executive branch to circumvent judicial review, the kill list makes a mockery of due process for terror suspects, even US citizens—in clear violation of the Constitution.

TO DO

Liberals raised a ruckus about President Bush’s human rights abuses. Silence now is not an option. The women-initiated grassroots peace group Code Pink has started a campaign imploring President Obama to ground the lethal drones and kill the “Kill List.” Add your name to the call. You can also add a personal message. After you’ve weighed in, share this post with friends, family and your Twitter and Facebook communities.

End All US Police and Military Aid to Honduras

Nation Action on May 22, 2012 - 4:32 PM ET

The United States has been quietly escalating its military presence in Honduras, pouring police and military funding into the illegitimate regime of President Porfirio Lobo in the name of fighting drugs, reports Dana Frank in the new issue of The Nation. This, despite the fact that Lobo himself took power in a post-coup election boycotted by almost all opposition figures, and that drug trafficking is now embedded in the state itself—all the way up to the very top of the government, according to high-level sources.

Moreover, according to the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras (Cofadeh), more than 10,000 official complaints have been filed about abuses by the police and military since the coup, not one of which has been addressed. And, those who document those abuses are under threat: twenty-two journalists and media workers have been killed since the coup and Cofadeh's leadership has received death threats.

TO DO

Support Tom Barrett

Nation Action on May 14, 2012 - 2:17 PM ET

As John Nichols writes, the June 5 Wisconsin recall elections are nothing less than a "grassroots rebellion against the determination of Governor Scott Walker and his legislative lieutenants to destroy unions, slash public sector wages and benefits, cut education funding and tear open the social safety net."

TO DO

If Walker and his allies are removed from office, the results will be seen across the country as a rejection of the idea that cutting taxes for the rich while attacking unions and slashing services will somehow spur job growth. That's why The Nation is endorsing Tom Barrett for Governor of Wisconsin. A candidate whom Russell Feingold hails as “a lifelong progressive [who] stood with me in voting against the deregulation that led to the Wall Street crash, opposing the Patriot Act and reforming our system of campaign finance,” Barrett is well-known for getting people to work together, keeping lines of communication open and uniting disparate interests. Support and join Barrett's campaign today.

Help Defend the Vote

Nation Action on May 10, 2012 - 10:28 AM ET

Brentin Mock’s report from the recent True the Vote national summit in Houston, Texas, offers an alarming look at the lengths to which the rightwing is going to suppress the ability of citizens of color to vote.

TO DO

True the Vote speakers talked a good game about protecting minority enfranchisement but, as Mock wrote, there was one thing conspicuously missing at the conference—any mention of expanding voter participation among voters of color. That’s the mandate of the League of Young Voters, a national group dedicated to engaging non-college youth and youth from low-income communities of color more deeply in the democratic process by working on local issues and by providing young people with tools, training and support to become meaningful catalysts for change in their communities. Check out LYVEF’s resource page, e-mail contactus@youngvoter.org to volunteer with a local league and donate to support the organization’s ability to counter the well-funded voter suppression tactics of the right.

End the Cover-Up at Walmart

Nation Action on May 2, 2012 - 10:58 AM ET

On April 21, David Barstow reported in the New York Times that Walmex, Walmart's largest foreign operation, had passed more than $24 million in bribes to politicians who could grease the wheels of its expansion in Mexico. After discovering the corruption, the retail giant's top mangement in the US moved to cover up the scandal. Barstow's expose, a triumph of investigative reporting, was well-timed for activists seeking to change the company as Liza Featherstone points out in The Nation. A call for resignations at the company is mounting , with the massive New York City Pension Funds, a Walmart shareholder, now on board.

TO DO

Among those leading the efforts to reform Walmart are company employees like Venanzi Luna, who created this petition calling for a change in leadership at America's largest retailer and a thorough and accountable investigation into Walmart's reported cover-up of bribery in its Mexico operations. Join her call and then share this post with family, Facebook friends, Twitter followers and your local media outfits. A new website—6degreesofwalmart.com—is also looking to change Walmart's behavior by targeting the company's political spending for right-wing causes, calling on the company to disclose its political spending and allowing citizens to directly challenge Walmart on political spending.