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With more than 30,000 cases across all US states, the Covid-19 pandemic has left hospitals struggling with limited resources and millions of Americans unsure if their next paycheck will arrive. As Congress continues to stall on its stimulus package, now is the time to keep each other safe and healthy.
This week’s Take Action Now offers ideas for fighting for fair elections amid the pandemic, supporting immigrant families, and building mutual aid networks.
Take Action Now gives you three meaningful actions you can take each week whatever your schedule. You can sign up here to get these actions and more in your inbox every Tuesday.
NO TIME TO SPARE?
The coronavirus outbreak threatens not just public health and economic stability but our democracy as well. Throughout the primaries, voters have encountered long lines, limited polling place hours, machine failures—and our current public health emergency threatens to heighten voter suppression to an unprecedented level. Sign this petition to demand Vote by Mail for all voters. Send a tweet to your senator to make sure that voting rights protections are included in the Senate’s coronavirus package.
GOT SOME TIME?
The stimulus package passed by Congress will determine who is able to recover from this crisis and who will not. Call your representatives and implore them to include housing and homelessness resources in the package. Then tell Congress to include immigrant families, too, ensuring that all people regardless of immigration status receive cash payments and coronavirus testing and care. Check out and share Detention Watch Network’s tool kit, with tips on supporting the mass release of people in ICE custody through targeting decision makers at all levels of government.
READY TO DIG IN?
Across the country, communities are mobilizing to protect our neighbors amid this crisis. First, stand up for incarcerated people by contacting your representatives to demand that people be released from crowded, dangerous facilities. Check out this spreadsheet or this map of mutual aid groups across the country to plug into one in your community and sign up to deliver food and supplies to people in need. People across the country have been building Google Docs with ideas for how to help each other during this crisis. Check out this one and this one for lots of ways to offer support.
