CREDO Mobile Blog

Tuesday Tip: Why the Green New Deal is Essential

The Green New Deal is – finally – a plan with the scope and ambition necessary to transition our society and economy away from fossil fuels and fend off the oncoming climate crisis.

Scientific research is now virtually unanimous: Unless we take drastic action to get carbon emissions under control in the next decade, by the year 2040, the global ecosystem will tip into an irreversible slide toward breakdown. In the United States, warming will devastate every sector of the economy, from agriculture to public health.

The Green New Deal is a plan to prevent this – and more. A proposal by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Green New Deal would entirely transform the U.S. economy, shifting us to 100 percent renewable energy within 10 years. Named for Pres. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal that helped lift the United States out of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the Green New Deal is a sweeping program of investment – not only in clean energy, but also in jobs, income inequality, infrastructure, and racial justice. It would give us an economy that is sustainable, strong and fair after our transition away from carbon.

By some estimates, a Green New Deal could create 10 million jobs over the next decade by putting Americans to work on the sustainable technology and infrastructure we need to transition away from fossil fuels. It would reduce income inequality and bring solutions to communities that have been left behind.

Like Pres. Roosevelt’s New Deal, this plan is ambitious – but it is necessary and possible. To make it a reality, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, 45 members of Congress and groups like our allies at the Sunrise Movement – an organization of young climate activists – have urged Speaker Nancy Pelosi to establish a House Select Committee on a Green New Deal with a mandate to create a solid plan by 2020 to transition to 100 percent clean energy by 2030, invest in communities on the frontlines of poverty and pollution, and guarantee good jobs to all who are willing to work for these goals. More than 61,000 CREDO activists have called on House Democrats to support Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal.

In addition, activists took their demands directly to Speaker Pelosi to demand immediate action on a new select committee: Hundreds of activists from Sunrise Movement staged multiple protests in the Capitol, the first of which was attended by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez herself, urging Speaker Pelosi to establish the select committee and make climate action front and center in the new Congress. Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi stopped short of doing so. Instead, she established the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which does not have the same mandate that climate activists have pushed for, such as allowing the committee to write legislation to transform our economy in the way that’s needed to prevent a climate crisis.

But CREDO and our allies are not deterred by this small setback, and we’re ramping up pressure on the newly Democratic House of Representatives to pass bold, transformative climate and green jobs initiatives and legislation. In addition, we’re calling on 2020 presidential hopefuls to commit to supporting the Green New Deal platform. Recently, after announcing her 2020 campaign bid, progressive champion Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that she “supports the idea of a Green New Deal to ambitiously tackle our climate crisis, economic inequality, and racial injustice.”

To learn and read more about the Green New Deal, Vox has a detailed and lengthy explainer you can check out here.

If you’re concerned about climate change, here’s a step you can take right now: switch your phone service to CREDO Mobile and your home electricity to CREDO Energy. We fight for climate justice through CREDO Action and donate to environmental organizations that are fighting the climate crisis every day, as well as many other progressive nonprofits. Take a look at who we fund and vote for the organizations you think we should fund this month.

Our favorite posters from the 2019 Women’s March

On Jan. 19, thousands turned out to stand up for women’s rights at the 2019 Women’s March, held in Washington, DC and in hundreds of communities across the globe.

We were so inspired by the creative and empowering signs carried by marchers, and members of the CREDO team were on hand to offer a few of our own designs. Here are some of our favorite posters from the marches in Washington DC and San Francisco.

Why are T-Mobile executives staying at Trump’s hotel? We have an idea.

It’s an open not-so-secret in Washington: Want to curry favor with Donald Trump? Book a room at his hotel.

T-Mobile executives, including outspoken CEO John Legere, stayed the day after announcing a $26 billion telecom mega-merger that needs approval by the Trump administration.

The Washington Post reported that top T-Mobile executives not only stayed for three days at Trump’s Washington hotel after the merger announcement, but some have returned to the hotel up to 10 times, totaling at least 38 hotel nights booked. It’s hard to believe every other hotel in Washington was full.

As former DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Counsel Gene Kimmelman put it, “I can’t believe this is a coincidence. In mergers, companies look for any potential advantage they can find.”

T-Mobile joins a long line of corporations, foreign diplomats and special interest groups participating in a “pay-to-play” scheme to influence the greedy, self-centered (and not to mention hateful, racist and misogynist) occupant of the White House. Trump is using his position to enrich himself and his family, and T-Mobile is happy to play along as long as it can increase its bottom line.

And this isn’t the first time T-Mobile has dipped its toe into Trump’s swamp. Last year, we learned that T-Mobile hired Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to help grease the regulatory wheels at the DOJ to move along merger negotiations. T-Mobile even refused to fire Lewandowski after he publicly mocked an immigrant 10-year-old with Down syndrome who was forcibly ripped from her mother at the border.

T-Mobile may be putting profits above values, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Here at CREDO, we would never attempt to curry favor with the Trump administration. In fact, we’re actively fighting him and his policies – through our activism and donations to progressive organizations that our members make possible just by using their phones every day.

To learn more about how you can help make progressive change with the simple choice of your mobile phone company, please visit CREDO Mobile.

CREDO activists confront CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan at his home

After news broke of the tragic death of 7-year-old asylum seeker Jakelin Caal Maquin while in Customs and Border Patrol custody, CREDO activists gathered outside CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan’s home to confront him about his agency’s horrific human rights abuses and demand justice for Jakelin Caal, as well as 20-year-old Guatemalan refugee Roxsana Hernandez and transgender asylum seeker Claudia Gomez Gonzalez, who were also killed while in CBP custody.

Protesters projected images of the three asylum-seekers on McAleenan’s home and demanded that he resign immediately:

From separating immigrant families to tear gassing them, McAleenan is carrying out all of Trump’s racist demands. He is dangerous, and he has to go. That’s why we’ve launched a petition – with already more than 50,000 CREDO member signatures – calling on the CBP commissioner to resign. You can add your name here.

This protest isn’t the first time CREDO activists have taken direct action to the homes of Trump administration officials who are enforcing and escalating Trump’s racist attacks on immigrants. Last June, CREDO members gathered outside the house of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, one of Trump’s leading henchmen who is implementing Trump’s inhumane immigration policy. We loudly played leaked audio of crying children who were separated from their parents at the border and marched with signs branding Nielsen a “child snatcher.” Our action brought nationwide attention – from the Washington Post to Newsweek, including one video that was viewed more than 1.3 million times.

#MeToo Victory: RCA drops sexual predator R. Kelly

For decades, multiple Black girls and young women have accused R&B singer R. Kelly of sexually abusing them. Yet, their calls for accountability have been ignored by law enforcement, record labels and other corporations promoting and profiting from his music. But last week, thanks to the sustained activism of Black women, Sony finally dropped R. Kelly from RCA records.

Together, with Color of Change, UltraViolet, Girls for Gender Equity and NOW NYC, CREDO activists signed petitions and last week gathered outside of Sony’s New York office to demand that Sony stop enabling a known sexual predator. Just days later, the music conglomerate ended Kelly’s contract with RCA.

The coalition delivered more than 200,000 petition signatures to RCA – including more than 42,000 from CREDO members.
Watch the rally outside Sony’s office here:

The docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” brought national attention to the stories of Black women who survived Kelly’s abuse. For years, Kelly never faced legal or financial consequences for his crimes. That is now, thankfully, beginning to change. We’re grateful to the groups who have led this work for years and to the CREDO members who stood with them.

Tuesday Tip: Make MLK Day a “day on,” not a day off

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday, Jan. 21. Encouragingly, the day is growing in recognition, with about 42 percent of U.S. businesses now giving workers the day off, which is more than give Presidents Day. Also encouraging is the fact that more and more of those who do get the day off spend it as a “day on,” volunteering in their community and serving others.

This is a trend that is very much needed in our nation now, because the progressive ideals that Dr. King fought for – racial justice, civil rights, economic equality, nonviolence – need defending. Hate crimes are rising sharply. Income inequality continues to grow. Immigrant children are being separated from their parents and locked in cages. Donald Trump continues to sow fear and racial division to inflame his base and feed his ego.

Our country can be better than this. And you can help. You can volunteer on January 21 and show your support for Dr. King’s legacy. He lived – and died – building a movement for change and improving the lives of others. As he told an audience in Montgomery, Alabama in 1957, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’”

What you can do is serve, even if only for a day. Spend MLK Day painting a school or delivering meals or building a home. Find a volunteer opportunity and help your neighbors, strengthen your community, bridge barriers and empower solutions to social problems.

To find a volunteer opportunity near you or get support for your project, try the search tool at the MLK Day of Service website.

As Coretta Scott King wrote in her essay “The Meaning of the King Holiday,” “His voice and his vision filled a great void in our nation and answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lived by its noblest principles. Yet Dr. King knew that it wasn’t enough just to talk the talk, that he had to walk the walk for his words to be credible.”

Every January 21, we can all follow in his footsteps. We can spend a day in service, live the values that Dr. King lived, and lift our nation a little closer to the ideals that he worked for.

Tuesday Tip: Why direct action is an essential part of the Women’s March

Throughout our nation’s history, the fight for civil rights and equality has never been fully realized without resistance. Today, many people associate “resistance” with opposition to the dangerous and hateful person occupying the White House. But resistance to oppression, tyranny, and injustice has always been achieved by groups of people rising up to challenge repressive authority in the pursuit of freedom and equality. From Frederick Douglass and Rosa Parks to the Parkland students and the protesters arrested opposing the Supreme Court nomination of a credibly accused rapist, progress is rarely made without public displays of resistance or “direct action.”

What is direct action?

In short, nonviolent direct action is the use of demonstrations and public forms of protest to focus attention on issues that those in power have refused to address. It’s a tool for those who hold less power in society. Participants intentionally leverage their freedom, comfort and physical safety to challenge those who do have the wealth and access to influence politics. Direct action is rooted in the philosophy of nonviolence, a positive force that addresses the unjust actions of those in power while also actively respecting the humanity of the people who do harm. There are six principles of Kingian nonviolence, the ideology formed from the direct actions of the civil rights movement and influenced by the work of Mahatma Gandhi.

Public civil disobedience to bring attention to injustice can have a major impact, like when four young Black men risked their safety and freedom by sitting at a lunch counter at a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960. Their direct action spurred more than 100,000 others to engage in direct action across the country to participate in similar sit-ins to protest racist segregation laws. Today, modern-day churches are providing sanctuary to undocumented families in violation of current immigration law. And of course, hundreds of thousands across the country participate in protests, marches (like ours at the Women’s March), banner drops, mic takeovers and other means of confronting power.

Why is direct action important to women’s rights and the progressive agenda?

A progressive agenda is inherently about making society more equitable and making space for people who have been historically marginalized and excluded to lead and thrive. A truly representative democracy is one with women leading in the halls of power and women advocating from the streets. Voting achieves the first. Direct action is a key part of achieving the second.

That means that once we put people in positions of power, we have to hold them accountable. Direct action is an effective way to do that. It allows sympathetic voices within the halls of power to justify their support for the issues we’re advocating for, and it puts pressure on less sympathetic voices to comply with our demands.

When the stakes are high –  when children are being put in cages, when families are being torn apart, when toddlers are tear gassed, and when a sexual predator is being offered a seat on the highest court in the land — the #WomensWave must rise higher. When the threats facing our communities escalate, we too must escalate.

Women have put their bodies on the line to obtain the right to vote, protest police violence,  defend immigrant families, stand up to the NRA, keep a sexual predator off the Supreme Court, protect our planet and so much more. This tried and true tactic has always been part of progressive agendas. We can’t stop now.

On January 19, we flooded the streets of Washington, DC and hundreds of other cities. If you joined us, thank you. To learn more about this year’s Women’s March, please visit womensmarch.com.

And if you need a protest sign to carry at future marches, CREDO has some great options that you can download and print out here.

On Roe v. Wade’s 46th anniversary, what does the new Supreme Court mean for reproductive rights?

It’s a frightening thought: Republicans have never been closer to overturning Roe v. Wade.

With Brett Kavanaugh now sitting on the Supreme Court, the court’s solidly conservative 5-4 majority has a real opportunity to overturn the landmark case protecting a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. That would leave more than 25 million women in 20 states – more than one-third of women of reproductive age – without access to legal abortion. That includes “more than 4.3 million Hispanic or Latina women, nearly 3.5 million Black or African American women, more than 800,000 Asian women, and nearly 300,000 American Indian or Alaska Native women.”

In the 46 years since the court handed down this monumental decision, conservatives have tried to overturn Roe and restrict access to abortion through legal battles, unconstitutional legislation at the state and federal levels and intimidation and violence against women and providers. But never have they had a chance like now to truly overturn women’s protected right to a safe and legal abortion nationwide.

So what does the makeup of the new court mean for abortion rights and reproductive freedom?

Frankly, it means we could be in the fight of our lives to protect a woman’s right to choose. Never before have Republicans and right-wing conservatives had a Supreme Court so willing to overturn abortion access.

Trump famously declared on the campaign trail that he would only nominate judges who would overturn abortion rights, and he made good on his promise with the immediate nomination of anti-abortion judge Neil Gorsuch to the seat stolen from Merrick Garland. Kavanaugh’s paper trail in opposition to reproductive freedom is clear, and we have a pretty good idea how he would vote given the opportunity.

What can we do to stand up for a woman’s right to an abortion?

There are ways activists, allies and progressive lawmakers can protect women’s rights if states begin banning abortion or if the court agrees to take up and rules unfavorably on one of the many abortion cases making their way through the court system.

Our allies at Planned Parenthood (CREDO is among their largest corporate donors) have released a 3-part plan to fight back against any attempts to restrict women’s health and access to reproductive services now that Kavanaugh has been installed on the Supreme Court. They include:

1. Expanding access to reproductive services in states where abortion remains legal, and increasing support for women in states where abortion is restricted;
2. Increasing pressure on state lawmakers to strengthen good laws protecting access and oppose bad laws restricting women’s health, and
3. Fighting the negative stigma of abortion that continues to pervade politics and popular culture.

To achieve those goals, we’re going to have to work hard – signing petitions, making calls, protesting and generating massive public pressure at both the state and national levels – to create an environment where conservative lawmakers and right-wing hate groups feel the pressure to back off their attacks on women and where advocates have the support to continue standing up for women’s rights.

In the coming months and years, we hope you will continue to help us in the fight to protect reproductive freedom, no matter what happens at the Supreme Court.