May, 01 2020, 12:00am EDT
Climate Justice Alliance Joins Organizations Across the Country to Demand a #PeoplesBailout on #MayDay
Frontline communities and workers demand immediate relief & investment in long term recovery and a "down payment" on a regenerative economy.
WASHINGTON
Today, May 1, 2020, Climate Justice Alliance members, community groups and workers across the country are hosting actions to demand President Trump, Congress, and other local and state leaders act on the demands of working people, not corporations and the wealthy. Whether through a people's strike or demands to cancel rent and debt, a people's just recovery is what's in order, and it's possible right now.
In recent weeks, we've seen workers at Amazon and other corporations striking for safer working conditions and improved pay, while frontline health workers demand masks and protective equipment. Immigrant communities, excluded from the last stimulus package, are calling for immediate support and inclusion. Renters and homeowners have pressured landlords and banks to cancel rent and mortgage payments, while calling for a moratorium on water and electricity shut offs. Meanwhile, over 26 million people have filed for unemployment, making these solutions even more pressing.
This May Day, community groups and individuals are joining together to participate in local actions and a national virtual rally, twitter storms to Congress and the White House, car caravans to show support for essential workers and their livelihoods, and intentional shopping at local businesses while refusing to support chains that put profit over the safety and well-being of their own workers.
This is a pivotal moment for congressional and corporate leaders to not simply qualify frontline workers as "essential" but actually do something meaningful to ensure they can carry out their work with fair wages and under safe working conditions. Either elected officials will continue to spend billions bailing out Wall Street and oil companies or they will invest in the health, safety and well-being of millions of people through good jobs and the expansion of inclusive social safety nets. We need a People's Bailout that includes us all.
More information about local and national actions happening around the country can be found here.
Rosalinda Guillen, Community to Community (Washington)
"We need to look at containing COVID-19 in the food system from the human rights and food sovereignty perspective, not from the capitalist perspective of keeping profit margins up. Farmworkers, as essential workers, want to stay alive and need essential resources and enforceable rules in the workplace to survive and keep food on everyone's tables."
Antonio Tovar, Executive Director Farmworker Association of Florida
"Farmworkers ARE essential workers and have always been so, but for too long they have not been valued as such. In the same way that people applaud and thank healthcare workers in this crisis, everyone should thank farm workers as they sit down for every meal."
Davin Cardenas, Right to the City Alliance
"Today, renters, homeowners, and small businesses are taking action across the country to ensure that they aren't left behind as corporation after corporation is bailed out. Legislators need to put their money where their mouths are, to support the millions of people and 48% of renters nationwide who are unsure about how they will pay for rent in May, by cancelling rent, mortgages, and guarantee homes for all immediately."
Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network
"The Navajo Nation has one of the highest rates of Covid-19 infection rates in the country despite a population of 175,000. It's imperative we immediately get the resources we need to address this crisis. By ignoring the pandemic in Indian Country the US government continues its legacy of genocide."
Climate Justice Alliance (CJA) formed in 2013 to create a new center of gravity in the climate movement by uniting frontline communities and organizations into a formidable force. Our translocal organizing strategy and mobilizing capacity is building a Just Transition away from extractive systems of production, consumption and political oppression, and towards resilient, regenerative and equitable economies. We believe that the process of transition must place race, gender and class at the center of the solutions equation in order to make it a truly Just Transition.
(202) 455-8665LATEST NEWS
Trump Ally Bukele Reportedly Set to Arrest Journalists Who Revealed His Secret Pact With Gangs
One critic said the Salvadoran president "wants to silence" the acclaimed digital news site El Faro "because they're shattering the myths of the Bukele administration."
May 05, 2025
An internationally acclaimed digital news outlet in El Salvador said Monday that the administration of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is preparing to arrest a number of its journalists following the publication of an interview with two former gang leaders who shed new light on a power-sharing agreement with the U.S.-backed leader and self-described "world's coolest dictator."
"A reliable source in El Salvador told El Faro that the Bukele-controlled Attorney General's Office is preparing at least seven arrest warrants for members of El Faro," the outlet reported. "The source reached out following the publication of an interview with two former leaders of the 18th Street Revolucionarios on Bukele's yearslong relationship to gangs."
"If carried out, the warrants are the first time in decades that prosecutors seek to press charges against individual journalists for their journalistic labors," El Faro added.
Bukele responded to the interview in a Friday evening post on the social media site X that read in part, "It's clear that a country at peace, without deaths, without extortion, without bloodshed, without corpses every day, without mothers mourning their children, is not profitable for human rights NGOs, nor for the globalist media, nor for the elites, nor for [George] Soros."
While the pact between Bukele and gang leaders is well-known in El Salvador, El Faro—which has long been a thorn in the president's side—was the first media outlet to air video of gangsters acknowledging the agreement.
As El Faro reported:
At the heart of the threat of arrests is irony: El Faro was only able to interview the two Revolucionarios because they escaped El Salvador with the complicity of Bukele.
One, who goes by "Liro Man," recounts that he was taken to Guatemala, through a blind spot in the Salvadoran border, by Bukele gang negotiator Carlos Marroquín; the other, Carlos Cartagena, or "Charli," was arrested on a warrant in April 2022, early in the state of exception, but quickly released after the police received a call at the station and backed off.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Salvadorans were being rounded up without due process, on charges of belonging to gangs.
The video interview explains the dichotomy: For years, Salvadoran gang leaders cut covert deals with the entourage of Nayib Bukele. In their interview with El Faro, the two Revolucionarios say the FMLN party, to which the now-president belonged a decade ago, paid a quarter of a million dollars to the gangs during the 2014 campaign in exchange for vote coercion in gang-controlled communities, on behalf of Bukele for San Salvador mayor and Salvador Sánchez Cerén as president.
"This support, the sources say, was key to Bukele's ascent to power," El Faro noted. "'You're going to tell your mom and your wife's family that they have to vote for Nayib. If you don't do it, we'll kill them,' Liro Man says the gang members told their communities in that election. Of Bukele, he added, 'he knew he had to get to the gangs in order to get to where he is.'"
Part of the deal was a tacit "no body, no crime" policy under which gang leaders agreed to hide their victims' corpses as Bukele boasted of a historic reduction in homicides in a country once known as the world's murder capital.
"We've wanted to talk about this for a long time, for the simple reason that the government beats their chests and says, 'We're anti-gang, we don't want this scourge,'" Liro Man told El Faro. "But they forgot that they made a deal with us, and you were the first to get this out."
In an ironic twist, the Trump administration deported gang members from the U.S. to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center prison who faced federal indictments that could have resulted in their testifying in court about the pact with Bukele.
Responding to the possible arrest warrants for El Faro staffers, Argentinian journalist Eliezer Budasoff said on social media Sunday that "it's clear" that El Salvador's leader "wants to silence" the outlet "because they're shattering the myths of the Bukele administration, simply with more journalism."
The Bukele administration's attacks on El Faro include falsely accusing the outlet of money laundering and tax evasion, banning its reporters from press briefings, and surveilling its staffers with Pegasus spyware. El Faro has remained steadfast in the face of these and other actions.
"Every citizen must decide for themselves whether they want to be informed, or whether they prefer the blind loyalty this administration has demanded of its supporters since its first day in power," the outlet's editors wrote in 2022. "We don't have that choice. Our job is to report. We can't change the news, and we never will."
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Michigan AG Drops Charges Against Pro-Palestinian Campus Protesters
"Our First Amendment rights should never be criminalized. Speaking up against genocide should be lifted up, not slammed with felony charges. Palestinians deserve safety and dignity," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
May 05, 2025
Advocates for student protesters and other critics of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip celebrated on Monday after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel dropped all charges against seven people arrested last year at the University of Michigan amid allegations of bias that the Democrat rejected.
"When my office made the decision to issue charges of trespassing, and resisting and obstructing a police officer, in this matter, we did so based on the evidence and facts of the case. I stand by those charges and that determination," Nessel said in a statement. She then took aim at Ann Arbor District Judge Cedric Simpson.
"Despite months and months of court hearings, the court has yet to make a determination on whether probable cause was demonstrated that the defendants committed these crimes, and if so, to bind the case over to circuit court for trial, which is the primary obligation of the district court for any felony offense," she said. "During this time, the case has become a lightning rod of contention."
Nessel is Jewish, and on May 2, the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor submitted to the court a letter defending her against accusations of bias. The attorney general cited the letter in her new statement.
"Baseless and absurd allegations of bias have only furthered this divide," Nessel said. "The motion for recusal has been a diversionary tactic which has only served to further delay the proceedings. And now, we have learned that a public statement in support of my office from a local nonprofit has been directly communicated to the court. The impropriety of this action has led us to the difficult decision to drop these charges."
"These distractions and ongoing delays have created a circus-like atmosphere to these proceedings," she continued. "While I stand by my charging decisions, and believe, based on the evidence, a reasonable jury would find the defendants guilty of the crimes alleged, I no longer believe these cases to be a prudent use of my department's resources, and, as such, I have decided to dismiss the cases."
The defendants—Oliver Kozler, Samantha Lewis, Henry MacKeen-Shapiro, Michael Mueller, Asad Siddiqui, Avi Tachna-Fram, and Rhiannon Willow—had pleaded not guilty. The Detroit Free Pressreported that one of Nessel's deputies, Robyn Liddell, made the motion to dismiss the case and the defendants "hugged each other, smiled, and posed for a photo with their attorneys in the courtroom."
According to the newspaper:
The courtroom was packed with spectators, many of them wearing keffiyehs. They burst into applause at the decision and began chants of "Free Palestine."
Amir Makled, who represented Lewis, said the charges never should have been brought.
"This was not about trespass, this was not about a felony conduct," Makled said. "This was the criminalization of free speech, and today, the state of Michigan agrees."
State Rep. Dylan Wegela (D-26) said on social media Monday: "This is great news. It takes courage to stand up for what is right. The charges should have never been pursued in the first place. I'm glad the students maintained their innocence and didn't accept a plea deal."
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) similarly declared, "Good news for our university student communities!"
"Our First Amendment rights should never be criminalized," added Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress. "Speaking up against genocide should be lifted up, not slammed with felony charges. Palestinians deserve safety and dignity."
Union organizer Anne Elias said that "this prosecution was wrong and I think public pressure on Dana Nessel worked. I feel such relief for our students and community members, as this was a complete surprise for them today."
"[Democrats] largely own this mess, and we must identify the political entanglements—[especially] with President Ono resigning," Elias added, referring to Santa Ono, who is on track to leave his post at the University of Michigan to lead the University of Florida.
In addition to coming under fire for this case, Nessel was criticized late last month for raids of pro-Palestine student organizers' homes that her office said were "not related to protest activity on the campus of the University of Michigan," but "in furtherance of our investigation into multijurisdictional acts of vandalism."
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'Unconscionable': Trump Ready to Garnish Wages for Indebted Student Loan Borrowers
"They're just cruel and want to take as much as possible from the folks who have very little," said one student borrower advocacy group.
May 05, 2025
With the Trump administration restarting collection efforts on defaulted student loans after a five-year reprieve on Monday, Mike Pierce of the Student Borrower Protection Center said the move "will further fan the flames of economic chaos for working families across this country"—particularly as the White House threatens to garnish the wages of people who struggle to make higher monthly payments.
The SBPC joined nearly 200 other organizations in sending a letter to the acting undersecretary of education, James Bergeron, condemning the administration's efforts to gut income-driven repayment options and eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which has delivered student debt relief to 1 million public service workers since it was implemented in 2007.
"The administration should move to enact policies that better protect student borrowers, rather than pursue misguided policies that will drive up costs and weaken protections," wrote the groups.
More than 42 million Americans have student debt, with more than $1.6 trillion owed in total. More than 5 million borrowers are currently in default, and that number could grow to about 10 million as the Trump administration ends programs that have been aimed at helping people pay off their loans in manageable amounts each month.
Collections are beginning months after Republican-led lawsuits succeeded in blocking former President Joe Biden's Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, and days after the GOP members of the House Education and Workforce Committee advanced more than $350 billion in proposed funding cuts for education programs—cuts that government watchdog Accountable.US said are "paving the way for tax cuts for themselves, billionaire donors, and corporations."
The Republicans approved:
- Slashing federal student aid by capping unsubsidized and Parent PLUS loans and eliminating subsidized loans for undergraduates and Grad PLUS loans entirely, which would disproportionately impact low-income families, especially those with students at HBCUs;
- Repealing a set of Biden-era protections—including rules establishing forgiveness for students of schools that closed or failed to lead to gainful employment—that have canceled at least $17.2 billion in federal student loans for nearly 1 million borrowers misled by predatory institutions;
- Repealing the Biden administration's SAVE plan and replacing it with just two fixed or income-based repayment plans, a change that could raise costs for millions of borrowers, including those making modest incomes; and
- Changing Pell Grant eligibility by altering the definition of full-time college attendance to 30 credit hours per year and requiring at least half-time attendance to qualify for any grant at all.
"To pay for tax cuts for the richest in this country, congressional Republicans are willing to gut the programs tens of millions of Americans rely on," said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US. "Their education markup makes it abundantly clear that they're not just going to gut Medicaid, they're proposing hundreds of billions of dollars of cuts to programs that provide more opportunities for everyday Americans to access higher education. These cuts are a betrayal of congressional Republicans' promise to make government work for Americans and to lower their costs; in fact, it will do quite the opposite."
The Debt Collective, a union of student loan borrowers, pointed out that the Trump administration isn't required by law to begin collecting student debt on Monday.
"They're just cruel and want to take as much as possible from the folks who have very little," said the group.
Aside from garnishing borrowers' wages, the administration could further devastate millions of people as credit scores could tank when the Education Department begins collection activity.
The Federal Reserve projected in March that people with delinquencies could see their credit scores plummet by as many as 171 points, leading to higher costs for borrowers who later take out mortgages, car loans, and sign up for credit cards.
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) called President Donald Trump's threat to garnish wages in order to collect student debt "unconscionable."
The president and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, said Pressley, "should NOT be seizing people's hard-earned wages, tax refunds, and Social Security checks."
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