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Today’s Action: Ask your state reps to support the national #PrisonStrike
A word from our founder: There are few questions easier than “should I shake the hand of a grieving father?” If Kavanaugh can’t get that question right, his judgement is better suited to a food court than the Supreme Court. (TWEET THAT)
Today’s Top Stories:
Internet sleuths find a clue pointing to Pence as the anonymous NYT Op-Ed writer
The newly uncovered evidence goes straight to Trump’s very own Vice President. You decide…
Take Action: Sign the petition calling on Congress to IMPEACH Trump now!
A Democratic Senator rattles Kavanaugh with a brutal confrontation about a secret stolen email scandal
Trump’s nominee and Republicans are trying to cover it up, but Senator Leahy exposed his hidden past for all to see.
People In All 50 States Are Defying Trump’s Efforts To Undo Obama’s Climate Saving Legacy With This Online Service
OD Action Partner: Arcadia Power is offering a way for all Americans to join the green power movement — free. No installation, no contract, $20 off your next electric bill.
Trump unloads a double-whammy tantrum about NIKE and the NFL
The president woke up in a rage and pulled out all the stops just one day before the kickoff of the 2018 NFL season.
A Senator asks Kavanaugh if Trump can pardon himself. His answer is disturbingly telling
Trump’s Supreme Court nominee got the question on everyone’s mind and his answer speaks volumes.
Take Action: Add your name to stop Trump from pardoning himself and his corrupt cronies!
Ivanka and Jared Kushner scolds Trump like a misbehaving toddler as Trump unravels in Oval Office
The First Daughter and her controversial husband are currently on babysitting duty at the White House.
Trump calls for the anonymous NYT Op-Ed writer to be turned over to the government
The Republican president makes the most dictatorial demand of his tenure yet.
Twitter is going crazy for these shirts and gifts that stick it to Trump
Wear exclusive gear from the official store of OD Action and use #ResistanceMerch to show your support for the resistance.
Today’s Action: Ask your state reps to support the national #PrisonStrike
One of the largest prison strikes in history has been running since August 21 and will conclude this Sunday, September 9. And there’s good reason for it: our industrial prison complex (the largest in the world, by a long shot) is a money-making machine, built on the backs and livelihoods of 2.3 million prisoners.
Prison labor exists in almost every industry, from customer service to carpentry, farm labor to video production. For this work, which brings state and federal prisons (including many privately owned) billions of dollars each year, most prisoners earn less than a dollar per hour — and in some states are entirely unpaid. Take a guess how interested our government is in rehabilitating and giving up such cheap labor, disproportionately men of color ensnared by racialized incarceration rates, which many activists are now calling a “modern-day slavery.”
The inmates in at least seventeen states have held a three-week peaceful and non-violent prisoners strike, with ten demands for reform. Their efforts include work strikes, hunger strikes, sit-ins, and boycotts (canteens, phone calls etc).
Call or email your state representatives and urge them to stand with the prison strike’s ten demands. Then, boost the national prisoners strike by promoting their stories, searching for and sharing the hashtag #PrisonStrike and #PrisonStrike2018.
The protest goes far beyond under-paid and unpaid labor. Prisons cut safety and sanitary corners to increase profit margins on their contracts. Most place undue financial burden on prisoners and their families (like exorbitant phone call prices). And most horrific is the epidemic death toll: in the past month alone in Mississippi, ten inmates have died in their cells…and the causes of death are unclear.
The strike is already having impact: Texas has just dropped the rates of inmate phone calls from 26 cents to 6 cents per minute. Which is huge, when you earn less than a dollar per hour.
But phone calls are just the beginning of needed changes — which is why we must help amplify their voices through September 9.
Email or call your state representatives and demand their statement on the prison strike’s ten demands for reform. Then, help end modern-day slavery by boosting the national prisoners strike on social media, using the hashtag #PrisonStrike and #PrisonStrike2018.
PS — Please don’t forget to sign the petition to tell the Senat that Kavanaugh has no place on the Supreme Court, and check out the brilliant “Don’t Think of an Elephant” by George Lakoff — a quick read that contains the ultimate keys for Democrats to win elections — and arguments.