OUR CRUCIAL SPRING CAMPAIGN IS NOW UNDERWAY
Please donate now to keep the mission and independent journalism of Common Dreams strong.
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
The NAACP will be with thousands of people who will converge on Washington, D.C., this spring as part of an unprecedented movement to demand a democracy that works for all Americans, one in which everyone has an equal voice and elected officials are accountable to the people, not the wealthy.
The landmark three-day mobilization, called "Democracy Awakening" and scheduled for April 16-18, brings together two advocacy communities in one movement. Together, they will press for reform proposals focused both on restoring and expanding voting rights protections, and curbing the influence of wealthy interests and corporations on elections. Polls show that the public overwhelmingly agrees on the need for reforms in both arenas, but this will mark the first mass demonstration calling for change on both these fronts.
More than 100 groups representing a diverse array of issues are organizing Democracy Awakening. Lead organizations include the American Postal Workers Union, Common Cause, Communications Workers of America, Democracy Initiative, Every Voice Center, Food & Water Watch, Franciscan Action Network, Greenpeace, NAACP, People For the American Way, Public Citizen, Student Debt Crisis and U.S. PIRG. A list of all endorsing organizations is available at https://democracyawakening.org/who-we-are/.
"We're not talking about the nostalgic disenfranchisement of 1965. Once again, states with the worst histories of discrimination are pushing for new barriers to block the young, the poor, the elderly and minority voters from the ballot in 2016," said Cornell William Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP. "We must answer the call for action."
Democracy Awakening will feature a rally and march on Sunday, April 17, as well as targeted actions at the "Congress of Conscience" on Monday, April 18, that will call for voting rights protections, measures to curb the influence of money in politics and more. Democracy Awakening will include teach-ins and cultural events throughout the weekend.
For both money in politics and voting rights, the U.S. Supreme Court has eviscerated laws that once protected the voices and votes of everyday Americans. Congress has solutions in front of it, but has failed to pass them into law or even hold a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"That's why it's time for us to fight back on a scale that's never been done before," announces a video about Democracy Awakening created by Brave New Films.
City by city and state by state, a national movement is growing to ensure voters are fully heard. In communities throughout the country, voters have turned back efforts to impose discriminatory barriers to voting, won measures for public financing of local and state elections, and passed resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and other rulings.
Solutions being sought as part of Democracy Awakening include legislation to restore the protections against voting discrimination that were struck down by the Supreme Court's ruling in Shelby Vs,. Holder, modernize voter registration, prevent deceptive practices that keep people from the ballot box and ensure equal access to voting for all.
Activists also will call for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and allow elected representatives to set commonsense limits on money in elections. They will press for increased disclosure of the source of election spending and public financing of elections.
Democracy Awakening will follow a march and demonstrations organized by 99Rise and Avaaz as part of a separate event called "Democracy Spring." which will travel from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., in early April.
Why It Matters
Representatives of some of the organizations participating in Democracy Awakening explain why they are involved:
"Americans' frustration - and despair - is reflected in countless polls that show staggering majorities of our citizens believe the system is rigged to favor the rich and powerful," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. "These views transcend party, region, race and gender. The American people know the system is not working for them, and that a broken system is blocking us from addressing our great challenges."
"Protecting voting rights and pushing for money in politics reform are two sides of the same coin," said Marge Baker, executive vice president of People For the American Way. "When people face barriers to casting a ballot, and when wealthy special interests can overpower the voices and priorities of everyday Americans, our democracy simply isn't working."
"A handful of wealthy and corporate donors are hijacking our political system through mega-contributions and a systematic assault on voting rights that can only result in a breakdown in democracy and the belief by the average person that her or his vote doesn't matter," said Christopher Shelton, president of Communications Workers of America. "This spring, CWA members are ready to join the millions of others in this movement and to do what it takes to win back our democracy."
"Americans across the country are demanding a democracy where everyone has an equal voice and our elected officials are held accountable to the voters," said Marissa Brown, executive director of the Democracy Initiative."Thousands of people will join together in Washington, D.C., for a Democracy Awakening - a call to conscience for our elected officials."
"People are fed up with a political system that too often works for big donors at the expense of everyone else," said Nick Nyhart, president and CEO of Every Voice Center. "And at the Democracy Awakening this spring, in Maine, in Seattle, and in cities and states across the country Americans are coming together to demand a democracy in which one's influence isn't determined by the size of their wallet."
"As long as our government is controlled by corporate interests, we'll never be able to protect our food, ban fracking, or prevent disasters like we've seen in Flint," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "Our democracy is broken, and for the sake of our food, water, and climate, it's time for us to fix it."
"The Democracy Awakening mobilization will galvanize the emerging movement that's challenging America to live up to its promise of government of, by, and for the people," said Annie Leonard, executive director at Greenpeace USA. "That promise means politicians putting people first by supporting voting rights and rejecting the campaign contributions from fossil fuel companies which manipulate our political system."
"Student Debt Crisis wholeheartedly believe that borrowers, students and young people are facing an uphill battle when it comes to higher education reform due to the influence of billionaires and corporations on our political system," said Natalia Abrams, executive director of Student Debt Crisis. "Until we get money out of politics and restore voting rights, our voices will not have the power that we, the people, deserve. It is our hope that once we get rid of the corporate stronghold on our democracy we will see reforms such as free college and some form of student loan forgiveness."
"As Franciscans and people of faith, we're working to remove the road block of unchecked money in politics as issues such as immigration, care for creation, and gun safety are not moving on Capitol Hill," said Patrick Carolan, executive director of the Franciscan Action Network. "As we continue to advocate for these core issues, we must also work to alleviate the root of the problem in order to see real progress."
"Voters want to be heard in our elections - they want a government that works for them instead of mega-donors," said Andre Delattre, executive director of U.S. PIRG. "As an independent voice for American consumers, U.S. PIRG has made voter empowerment a top priority. Democracy Awakening is a chance for us to push lawmakers for real election reforms."
"Democracy Awakening is the American Postal Workers Union's chance to become bigger than ourselves," said Debby Szeredy, executive vice president of the APWU. "We are a union representing our members and all of America as we fight to provide a Postal Service that is prompt efficient, affordable, with decent living wage jobs and benefits that communities have valued for years. Democracy Awakening connects us to the political revolution that has become crucial."
"Our democracy faces serious threats. Everyday Americans know our system is out of balance, and what's worse, our constitutional right to free speech has been reduced to a whisper as a few wealthy special interests spend billions so their voices are heard over everyone else," said Miles Rapport, president of Common Cause. "This spring, Common Cause's 400,000 members join with Americans from all walks of life to lift our voices and demand change through a series of important actions during two weeks in April, highlighting the importance of voting rights and reducing money's influence so together we create a 21st century democracy that works for every American."
Founded Feb. 12. 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization. Its more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
"As scientists, we've been warning about the loss of Arctic summer sea ice for decades," said one researcher.
Scientists on Tuesday warned that the planet is rapidly headed toward the consequences of the climate crisis that they have been warning about for decades as researchers published a new study showing that a complete loss of Arctic sea ice in the summer months is now unavoidable.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released in 2021 alarmed many with its warnings that if high or even intermediate planet-heating fossil fuel emissions continued, the Arctic would be ice-free by the 2040s—but its authors implored policymakers to focus on their finding that the region would retain its summer ice if decisive action was taken to limit an increase in global temperature rises to 2°C or less.
The new study published by researchers in South Korea, Germany, and Canada in Nature Communications found that even far-reaching action will no longer save the sea ice.
The scientists found that even in a low-emissions scenario, summer ice in the Arctic will be gone by the 2050s.
In an intermediate- or high-emissions scenario—which is far more likely, considering the United States, the largest historic source of fossil fuel emissions, has recently moved to approve massive projects such as the Willow oil drilling project and the Mountain Valley Pipeline—the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer months starting in the 2030s.
\u201cWhen I started reporting on climate change, the prediction was the Arctic could be sea-ice-free in summer by the 2070s. Now? By the 2030s. https://t.co/iSA52WS4YD\u201d— Elizabeth Kolbert (@Elizabeth Kolbert) 1686076003
"Unfortunately it has become too late to save Arctic summer sea ice," Dirk Notz, a climatologist at the University of Hamburg and co-author of the study, told The Guardian. "As scientists, we've been warning about the loss of Arctic summer sea ice for decades. This is now the first major component of the Earth system that we are going to lose because of global warming. People didn't listen to our warnings."
The researchers examined satellite data and climate models to analyze changes in the Arctic sea ice between 1979 and 2019 and found that previous models underestimated ice melting trends and that 90% of the loss of sea ice was the result of human-caused planetary heating.
Summer ice in the Arctic has receded by 13% each decade since 1979, they found.
The planet is already experiencing the effects of increased open water in the Arctic during the summer months, lead author Seung-Ki Min of Pohang University in South Korea noted, and policymakers must now prepare communities to adapt to those impacts, including extreme weather events.
"The most important impact for human society will be the increase in weather extremes that we are experiencing now, such as heatwaves, wildfires, and floods," Min toldThe Guardian. "We need to reduce CO2 emissions more ambitiously and also prepare to adapt to this faster Arctic warming and its impacts on human society and ecosystems."
The loss of summer sea ice would trigger a feedback loop known as "Arctic amplification," with the dark ocean absorbing more solar heat and causing additional planetary warming,
Arctic warming has also changed weather patterns in the northern hemisphere, such as storm formation and wind speeds—leading to extreme heat and rainfall.
"We need to prepare ourselves for a world with warmer Arctic very soon," Min toldCNN. "The earlier onset of an ice-free Arctic also implies that we will be experiencing extreme events faster than predicted."
Scientists last year said the extreme heat wave that struck Pakistan and India was made 30 times more likely due to planetary heating, and officials called the flooding that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands in Pakistan "climate dystopia at our doorstep."
Min said the impending loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic is a "tipping point" and a sign that the region is "seriously ill."
"We can regard the Arctic sea ice as the immune system of our body which protects our body from harmful things," Min toldCNN. "Without the protector, the Arctic's condition will go from bad to worse quickly."
"It comes as little surprise that Mr. Crow is doubling down on bogus legal theories as he continues to stonewall basic questions about his gifts to Clarence Thomas and his family."
U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden on Tuesday said that "nothing is off the table"—including a subpoena—after a lawyer for Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow continued to duck questions about the billionaire's gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives.
In a June 2 letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Crow attorney Michael Bopp expressed "respect" for the panel's "important role in formulating legislation concerning our federal courts system," while stating that he would "welcome a discussion with your staff."
However, Bopp also reiterated his assertion that "Congress does not have the power to impose ethics standards on the Supreme Court" and "therefore cannot mount an investigation for the purpose of helping craft such standards."
"It comes as little surprise that Mr. Crow is doubling down on bogus legal theories as he continues to stonewall basic questions about his gifts to Clarence Thomas and his family."
Thomas and Crow have repeatedly refused to answer questions about years of gifts—including luxury vacations and private school tuition—to the right-wing justice and members of his family.
In response to Bopp's assertion—which has been roundly refuted by Durbin and legal experts—Wyden, a progressive Oregon Democrat, accused the Gibson Dunn partner of "stonewalling."
"It comes as little surprise that Mr. Crow is doubling down on bogus legal theories as he continues to stonewall basic questions about his gifts to Clarence Thomas and his family. If anything, the most recent letter from his attorney raises more questions than it answers," the senator said in a statement.
\u201cHarlan Crow continues to stonewall over his gifts to Clarence Thomas. Nothing is off the table as I discuss next steps with my Finance Committee colleagues to compel answers to our questions from Mr. Crow, including by subpoena. Those discussions will continue.\u201d— Ron Wyden (@Ron Wyden) 1686059917
"The letter states, 'charter rates or reimbursements at rates prescribed by law were paid to the Crow family entities' with zero additional detail that could help clarify these financial arrangements, such as exactly who made those payments for Justice Thomas' extravagant luxury travel, and how many times and in what amounts those payments were made," Wyden continued.
"Far too often, efforts to investigate real-life tax practices of the ultra-wealthy and powerful end with this kind of vague, carefully-worded assurance that everything is on the level. That's simply not good enough," he argued. "This is exactly why the Finance Committee is pursuing this matter as part of its broader review of gift and estate tax practices of ultra-high net worth individuals."
Wyden added: "I've already begun productive discussions with the Finance Committee on next steps to compel answers to our questions from Mr. Crow, including by subpoena, and those discussions will continue."
The senator appeared at the summit days after pushing through language in the debt ceiling bill that will expedite the permitting process for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Organizers of a summit on so-called "permitting reform" hosted by the fossil fuel-linked news outlet Semafor were forced to delay the event on Tuesday when several climate campaigners interrupted Sen. Joe Manchin's remarks to protest the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a pet project of the right-wing West Virginia Democrat.
About two dozen protesters assembled on the stage at the event just as Manchin began speaking about his desire to speed up the approval of projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a $6.6 billion fracked gas project that would run from the senator's home state to Virginia, passing through wetlands and waterways.
"Dirty deal, MVP, Manchin, you are killing me!" chanted the demonstrators, who Bloomberg Law reported were representing the direct action group Climate Defiance. The group also sang the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads."
\u201cBREAKING: We just fully shut down Senator Joe Manchin's keynote address.\n\nHe is shoving a 2,000,000,000 cubic-foot-per-day fracked gas pipeline down our throats. \n\nManchin is not a moderate. Manchin is an ecocidal millionaire. We must resist him with all we've got. And we will.\u201d— Climate Defiance (@Climate Defiance) 1686075030
The demonstration came days after President Joe Biden signed into lawdebt ceiling legislation over the objections of climate campaigners as well as economic justice groups. The so-called Fiscal Responsibility Act includes a requirement that federal agencies approve all remaining permits for the MVP, which has been stalled in the courts as opponents have challenged its threats to the environment in the region the pipeline will pass through. The law also shields the permits from judicial review.
The pipeline is also projected to emit the equivalent of more than 89 million metric tons of carbon at a time when climate scientists and energy experts have warned that fossil fuel emissions must be rapidly drawn down to limit planetary heating to below 2°C above preindustrial levels.
Manchin secured the MVP language in the debt ceiling bill after his previous attempts to include the "dirty deal" regarding expedited permitting in the National Defense Authorization Act and in a stopgap funding bill last year.
The senator left the stage during the protest and claimed the protesters' actions would help him "tremendously" in his state, although polls have shown that West Virginians support a transition to clean energy.
\u201cClimate protesters disrupted Manchin\u2019s Semafor Q&A today on permitting and Mountain Valley pipeline. Speaking now in the back room, Manchin said \u201cwhat these people did today helps me tremendously in my state\u201d politically.\u201d— Ella Nilsen (@Ella Nilsen) 1686065235
Campaigners who have fought the MVP for years have said they will not back down following the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition is planning a rally in front of the White House on Thursday, and the local group Preserve Bent Mountain in Virginia said Monday that "it is not yet clear whether the stench of the MVP/debt limit deal will surpass legal scrutiny."
"Even if some of these permits are issued and initially shielded from judicial review, that's not necessarily the end of the line," Jason Rylander, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity," told the independent outlet Cardinal News on Monday. "The pipeline still has to cross some of the most difficult terrain along the route, through the Jefferson National Forest and other areas, and there will be opportunities to hold them accountable for the damage they are continuing to do."