November, 05 2014, 03:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Email:,info(at)fwwatch(dot)org,Seth Gladstone -,sgladstone@fwwatch.org
Community Organizing Wins Significant Victories on Fracking and Other Key Issues
Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter
WASHINGTON
"In the aftermath of an election with negative implications for the Democratic establishment, grassroots victories on fracking and water privatization indicate that Americans are still willing to vote on crucial issues that directly affect their families and communities.
"Residents of Athens, Ohio; San Benito County and Mendocino County, California; and Denton, Texas all successfully voted to ban fracking in their communities. This is huge news, and an indication that more and more Americans are rejecting oil and gas industry hyperbole, as well as this destructive, toxic process. To date, 136 communities in the U.S. have banned fracking, and that number is only likely to grow.
"These victories are particularly significant because grassroots efforts managed to prevail despite being outspent by the oil and gas industry. In San Benito County alone, the oil industry spent about $2 million attempting to defeat a fracking ban.
"Likewise, voters went to the polls in Reading, Pennsylvania and Sussex Borough, New Jersey to prevent corporations from privatizing their respective water systems.
"A ballot measure in Oregon to label GMO foods is still too close to call, a substantial feat considering the fact that major corporations spent some $20 million trying to defeat this grassroots effort.
"In this post Citizens United era, the 2014 election cycle was marked by record spending on ads, low voter turnout and shocking voting rights abuses. It seems that relying merely on TV ads to win seats in a handful of swing states has once again proven ineffective, and the Republican-light strategy has once again failed Democrats. The bottom line is that when communities organize in the public interest, they win important victories for the public, no matter who controls Congress."
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
(202) 683-2500LATEST NEWS
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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