Leo Gerard Is Rising

Leo Gerard Is Rising

To send labor supporters into their final week of preparing for One Billion Rising, United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard recorded this special video message.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

On February 14, 2013, 1 billion will rise. No matter where you are in the world, there will probably be a rising near you. With the addition of Laos, Liberia, Monaco and Palestine, the One Billion Rising campaign to stop violence against women and girls is now up to 197 countries and territories taking part in what organizers say will be the largest global day of action the world has ever seen. Starting in Samoa, the sun will rise on February 14, kicking off forty-eight hours worldwide of striking, dancing and rising. To send labor supporters into their final week of preparing for One Billion Rising, United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard recorded this special video message.

Among the reasons Gerard lists for rising are: “To stop the violence… To end the governmental initiatives that restrict women’s rights… Because pregnancy from rape is not something God intended… In opposition to redefining how violence against women is prosecuted.”

“I’m rising to stop workplace discrimination…for gender equality…I'm rising because I will not accept violence against our mothers sisters daughters…I'm rising because it’s a new time and a new way of being.”

Go Leo!

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x