A woman is arrested as protesters rally during "Moral Monday" demonstrations at the General Assembly in Raleigh, North Carolina, Monday, July 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Over the last several months, The Nation has launched numerous political campaigns in support of issues central to our reporting. We periodically post updates on past campaigns to keep up the momentum and to give our readers more opportunities to make a difference.
Moral Mondays
This month, we decided to try something different and a bit more positive by encouraging readers to thank the activists behind Moral Mondays in North Carolina. Facing a Republican-led state government determined to implement a radical right-wing agenda, members of the North Carolina NAACP and a host of other progressive organizations have been staging weekly protests outside the state capitol building. We launched our letter to help generate national awareness and support for the campaign and have so far collected nearly 3,000 names as well as numerous critically needed donations and pledges of volunteer time and in-kind contributions. Join the call!
Pay It Forward
We followed Katrina vanden Heuvel’s post lauding Oregon’s new, creative solution to the student loan debt crisis with an action asking readers to contact their state senators and representatives to urge them to consider the state’s “Pay It Forward, Pay It Back” plan. One of our readers has since informed us that, after sending the letter and adding to it that he had expertise on the issue, he was contacted by his state representative to set up a meeting to discuss the idea. Spread the word!
Stop Summers
Ahead of the national debate on the potential appointment of Larry Summers to head the Federal Reserve, William Greider was one of the first writers to denounce the idea and we quickly followed up with a petition to the president asking him to please not appoint Summers, who was key in implementing the deregulation policies that led to the financial crisis. With more than 6,000 signatures and counting, the petition is contributing to a major national groundswell opposing the appointment. Add your voice to the chorus!
Going forward, we are working on partnerships with other progressive organizations to develop more impactful actions, as well as exploring ways to keep participants in our actions updated so they can become more engaged. Nation readers and rabble rousers are encouraged to e-mail sarah@thenation.com with their own activism ideas and to visit thenation.com/activism and follow @NationAction on Twitter for information on upcoming campaigns.
