Deborah James and Medea Benjamin pushing Starbucks to go Fair Trade, 1999.

We’re going to raise $25,000 by midnight on Dec. 31st.

Over the past 25 years, you have helped Global Exchange:

• transform the unfair practices of corporate giants like Nike, GAP, and Starbucks;
• build a thriving Fair Trade movement;
• monitor elections in Colombia, Mexico, and the U.S. and;
• build the Green Festival – the nation’s largest sustainability event.

Your support made all this, and much more, possible. Renew your commitment to social justice by making a donation today.

As we set our sights on the next 25 years, with your support we will reform U.S. gun laws, force Hershey’s to go Fair Trade, and continue to oppose unjust policies in the U.S. and abroad.

Your continued support will help us build an unstoppable movement for change.

Please donate today and make great things possible:

• One Hundred $25 gifts will cover the cost of a trip to Ethiopia to meet with Fair Trade cooperatives and develop increase relationships with local artisans.

• Fifty $100 gifts will tour a speaker from the frontlines of the drug war in Mexico, educating and inspiring thousands across the U.S. to change the broken policies that are fueling this tragic war.

• Five $250 gifts will sponsor a year-long youth fellowship to inspire and train the leaders of tomorrow.

• Twenty-five $1,000 gifts will support all creative actions we have planned in 2013 to expose the havoc that lobbyists are wreaking on our democracy.

Want to see what we have accomplished in 2012? Watch this video (or re-visit our winter, spring, summer and fall roundups) to find out:

If we can accomplish all that in one year, think of what we have in store for the next 25 years!

Give today and ring in another year full of social justice victories.

Here’s a very special video with highlights from our year, and we do mean “our” because we cannot do the work we do without YOU!

Please consider this your official invitation to JOIN US in this unstoppable movement for change. Together we are strong.

Here are some Elect Democracy campaign highlights:

• “How Wall Street is Burning Democracy” Report and Legislative Scorecard: We made it easy to find out how much Wall Street gave to Congressional campaigns to check how often Congresspeople voted in line with Wall Street’s lobby position on free trade bills, Wall Street regulation, the bailout, and more. The Huffington Post, Yes! Magazine, Alternet, Nation of Change, Daily Kos, and dozens of other news outlets covering our shocking revelation that Wall Street spends over $1,331 per minute on political influence via lobbying and campaign money.

• RNC/DNC: We brought our legislative scorecard and report to Tampa and Charlotte where we marched on both conventions with our call to get corporate money out of our democracy.

• Stick It to Super PACs: Just days before the most expensive U.S. election of all time we used email, phone, and social media to clog the gears of the ominous Super PACs! GOOD magazine, Upworthy, and others helped us spread the message. Over 1,500 people Stuck It to Super PACs on October 25th! You can still take action here.

• Election Day: do you remember that exact moment when the election was called and we learned that Barack Obama would remain President? I do. What has this election meant to you? Leave a comment on our blog.

• #StopTPP: I joined social, labour and faith based groups on the US/Canada border earlier this month to stop the TransPacific Partnership. To learn more about this ominous, 13 country free trade deal (and our work to stop it), read my blog about the TPPxBorder rally we attended on the U.S.-Canada border.

All that and so much more! A great place to read all about it is our online Media Center which has a vast collection of articles about our work this year.

Next year, we have even more ways to take action. Elect Democracy is taking on the hired hands that call the shots in DC: big shot lobbyists. From challenging Super PAC millions to lobbyist billions, our work is going to be fun, tough, and more important than ever.

We’ll also need your help. Compared to the amount of money flowing from Wall Street to Washington, when you see all we have accomplished, we truly make the most of every penny.

Consider giving a Global Exchange membership to a friend this season and support Elect Democracy.

Again, thank you so much for your action. I look forward to starting 2013 with refreshed energy and refueled strategies.

Happy Holidays!

You’re not crazy, it is getting worse.

Political campaigns have always involved a fair amount of mudslinging. But in the 2012 election, the amount of slinging and the quantities of mud have skyrocketed. According to MapLight analysis, twenty-one Super PACs have raised over $433 million to spend influencing the election. Think of it as 433 million more giant barrels of mud drowning our election in corporate political speech.

This is not what a healthy democracy looks like.

So What Exactly Is a Super PAC, anyway?

Super PACs are a new kind of political action committee enabled by the infamous January 2010 Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court and a subsequent federal court case in July 2010.

Formally known as “independent expenditure-only committees,” Super PACs can raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions, certain nonprofits, or individuals, and can then spend unlimited sums to support or oppose political candidates so long as they don’t ‘coordinate’ with the candidate’s campaign. Unlike traditional Political Action Committees, which would donate capped amounts of money to candidates, Super PAC money is simply not funneled to a candidate, enabling the Super PACs to spend unlimited dollars to buy influence over our election.

Record spending enabled through Super PACs most significantly benefits those with the most to spend and the most to gain: the corporate interests willing to spend tens of millions to get candidates in office that allow their greed to go unregulated. According to Campaign Legal Center, only a small top percentage of donors to Super PACs contribute a majority of their total funds. This corporate political speech is overpowering the voices of everybody else in this democracy.

Super PACs are Drowning Out Democracy, so What Can We Do About It?

Thousands of people are organizing to challenge the crisis in which Super PACs have placed our democracy. The solutions proposed range from campaign finance reform bills in Congress to constitutional amendments to local ordinances that prioritize community rights and decision-making. While all exciting, these victories could take years. Defending democracy means sticking with it for the long haul.

In the meantime, let’s get a big, collective “HELL NO!!!” on the record. After all, we are in the final days of the election season, and these are the moments where Super PACs are spending the most (literally tens of thousands of dollars per second) to influence your vote. So, since Super PACs are making democracy hard for us, let’s take a moment and making life hard for them, even if just for one day:

STICK IT TO SUPER PACS!

On October 25th, over a dozen organizations are partnering with Global Exchange to launch www.StickItToSuperPACs.org, a day-long action where you can tell the top-spending Super PACs exactly what you think about them. Visit the site today to Get Stickin’ and join the flood of emails, phone calls, Facebook posts, and Tweets to Super PACs that gives you, the voter, a chance to tell corporate dollars to get out of the way of democracy. Imagine your computer mouse transformed into a proverbial wrench, and then toss it into the gears of Super PACs that are drowning out everything except big-money corporate speech.

It’s not going to solve all our problems, but believe me, when I hit “send” on my letter to the top 5 Super PAC inboxes, I was happy I got to #StickItToSuperPACs today.  Sometimes it’s the little ways we take action to demand elections, not auctions, that will create momentum to usher in long term change down the line, so join me and get stickin’!

TAKE ACTION:

• Stick It To Super PACs: Visit our web page to call, email, post, and/or tweet your dissent straight to the Top 5 Super PACs.

Elect Democracy, a Global Exchange campaign, is a nonpartisan effort to expose and challenge the impact of corporate money in politics. The campaign focuses on the impact of political campaign contributions and lobbying from Wall Street and its impacts for civil society.

Follow @GlobalExchange @ElectDemocracy and @HillaryLehr for updates.

——————-

Democracy is an embodiment of  the #PowerofWe. With campaign season in full swing, we are all too familiar with the presence of corporate money in this year’s election. From billionaire-funded Super PACs to record campaign contributions from corporate interests on Wall Street, we are all thirsty for some democracy for a change.

To that end, here are some fresh ideas for reclaiming democracy by and for #we the people:

1) Stick it to Super PACs: Just because corporate-speech is flooding this election season doesn’t mean we can’t make some noise about it! Join a great day of action to Stick it to Super-PACs by filling email inboxes, phone lines, and social media feeds with our demand for real democracy, not corporate auctions. Global Exchange and a crew of other organizations on October 25. Take just a moment and join for our email list so we can keep you posted, or follow @ElectDemocracy on Twitter. If the Supreme Court won’t protect democracy, we will!

2) Put out the Fire: All that Wall Street campaign and lobbying money is burning our democracy… Using Global Exchange’s legislative scorecard, you can find out how much money your Congressperson received as well as how often their vote on certain bills was ‘loyal’ to Wall Street’s lobby position. Look up your legislators’ record, then put out the fire: call and remind Congress their job is to represent you, not Wall Street.

3) Don’t Get the Post-Election Blues… Organize!: It’s easy to feel blue about the gap between today’s elections and a healthy, thriving democracy. But don’t get caught on the bleachers post-election: start/keep organizing people power locally! Need a spark? Register to host a screening of the powerful money-in-politics documentary film Heist: Who Stole the American Dream- and How We Can Get It Back. If you register a screening in your community by October 22, you can be part of Global Exchange’s national week of screenings- we’ll help you plan every step of the way!

4) Follow the Money, and Tweet It: The brilliant money-in-politics research group MapLight released a fantastic new app called PolitiCash 2012 that allows you to see the most recent data about the top individuals and corporations throwing their money into influencing the outcome of the election. You may be surprised at what you find. Most usefully, PolitiCash 2012 allows users to Tweet their findings (and CC the candidates automatically) with the press of a button… download your app today.

5) Keep it Local: When we look at powerful shifts in history, we see that change is achieved by people in the same location building strong bonds and solidarity, standing together for what’s right, and extending systems of support. It’s crucial to keep nurturing strong communities, supporting those who are standing up (whether it’s resisting foreclosure or renegade gardening), and taking care of ourselves too. The outcome of the election, the corporate money influencing it, and the lobbyists of Wall Street will affect our lives and our communities, yes. But the stronger our bonds and awareness of one another, the greater chance we will have to stand up for justice where it counts. Thank you for everything you are already doing!

TAKE ACTION:
How else can the #PowerOfWe Elect Democracy for a change?? Leave a comment below with your idea, or share your experience of trying out one of our five suggestions.

While many may refer to November 6th as a finish line, let’s switch the metaphor: November 6th is the starting point.

In the long distance haul to Elect Democracy for a change, let’s not waste a moment on the bleachers after the election.

Get a head start on post-election democracy by hosting a documentary film screening November 12-18. Join people around the country to screen a new documentary film called Heist: Who Stole the American Dream, and How We Can Get it Back.

 A lot is at stake in this election. Yet no matter who claims the White House and Congressional seats, if we’re going to challenge Wall Street Sugar Daddies calling the shots in DC, we have our work cut out for us.

Host a film screening of the critically-acclaimed documentary Heist to do three crucial things:

1. Gather with your community after this expensive, post-truth election and channel your frustration and desire for change.
2. Learn and locate the extreme political power that the corporate 1% has amassed over decades. (Remember, this election certainly isn’t the be-all end-all of challenging our big corporate problem.)
3. Set the stage to talk about defining, reclaiming, and protecting real democracy. Move past post-election blues and stay active working with us to take action locally to hold Congress accountable to people.

Can you help build power and hope beyond the election? We need you. Sign up today to host a screening of Heist: Who Stole the American Dream and How We Can Get it Back. Here at Global Exchange, we’ll help you plan everything, every step of the way.

Here’s what some film critics had to say about Heist:

“… HEIST is well timed as a one-stop summary of reasons for ordinary Americans to be furious at our financial systems. Its last third turns from compiling past outrages to encouraging activism, making this snappy, solid docu an ideal candidate for savvy distribs to jump on immediately. With grassroots marketing, pic could ride the wave of burgeoning Occupy Wall Street-related protests as a ready-made primer.”
—Dennis Harvey, Variety

“Perhaps the best film yet about the roots of today’s economic conditions in the U.S., domination of public policy by corporate interests, and grassroots resistance that has emerged in the past few years.”
—TheWorkSite.org

TAKE ACTION:
Watch the Heist film trailer and sign up to host a screening by October 22!

Global Exchange members & supporters, staff & interns, friends & family all mixed and mingled the night away. Below  are some highlights of the evening, plus a photo recap. The complete set of photos is now up on our Facebook page.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE GX OPEN HOUSE:

Photo Booth Fun: We had a PAC (People Above Corporations) Super Pics Photo Booth, complete with props. The photos are on Facebook.

Prize Drawing winners announced: including our grand prize winner who received $1,000 towards a Reality Tour! Other prizes included a Wine Country package, Indoor Skydiving for 2 and a $200 gift basket from the Global Exchange Fair Trade store.

Thanks to all of the businesses that donated prizes for our drawing this year!

Beer and Wine: Thanks to Magnolia Pub & Brewery and Frey Organic Winery, guests enjoyed tasty spirits throughout the evening.

A Generous Surprise: Our Open House is a great time to engage with the community, AND to raise funds to support our work throughout the year. This year we were surprised with a generous matching gift donation, so for every dollar earned during the course of the evening, we were able to double it!
Food, oh, the food! Special thanks goes out to the local businesses that generously donated a wide array of delectable delights.

Plus, this was the first year Global Exchange staff and interns were invited to cook up their favorite dish to share with guests and boy did they deliver! Empanadas, muffins, bean salad, the list goes on and on. I made crab puffs:)

Staff Presentations: Global Exchange campaigners shared updates about their social justice work with guests, and GX Executive Director Carleen Pickard got the crowd excited about becoming Global Exchange members.

And this offer is still good> Join Global Exchange for $35/year and we’ll send you a gorgeous customized Global Exchange tote bag from Handmade Expressions women’s cooperative in India, a No-Nonsense Guide book and a bag of Equal Exchange chocolates!

Guests Voted! Open House guests were able to directly practice democracy at the event’s “Elect Democracy Voting Booth” where they voted on future projects for our Elect Democracy campaign. Results forthcoming!

New GEMS! We welcomed some new GEMS (Global Exchange Monthly Sustainers) to our growing network of supporters. It’s not too late to become a GEMS now!

Guests shared “What Democracy Looks Like”: We had a wall where folks could share their thoughts about democracy for all to see. We’ll be sharing some quotes from that, also forthcoming.

********

Tex (left) with Fair Trade Stores Director Jocelyn (right)

So there’s your handful of Open House highlights. I’ve attended many Global Exchange Open Houses, and this year was the best one yet. (I swear I don’t say that every year!)

Special thanks to all of our guests and volunteers for making the event such a success, along with all the businesses who donated food, drinks, and prizes. Hope to see some of you next year!

Now for the best part…PICTURES!!! You can view them all on our Facebook page here.

PHOTO RECAP OF GX OPEN HOUSE:

Zarah, Kylie and Ashley, your friendly Open House Greeters!

Arriving guests signing in at the front

Then the hugging began!

and continued throughout the evening!

People started meeting people…

and chatting away…

more chatting!

Then there was the food. Oh, the food!

there were all sorts of yummy things to dip and dunk and munch and nibble!

and refreshing, cold beer and local organic wine

Guests got to vote!

Some guests shared what they thought democracy looks like on our wall.

The Photo Booth was a lot of fun!

for lots of people!

Check out GX former staffer Sally dancing with GEMS (Global Exchange Monthly Sustainer) Tom last year, then re-enacting their dance again this year. What a hoot!

Global Exchange staff had the opportunity to showcase some of the work they are doing. Pictured: Dalit and Drea

Carleen got her soapbox (er, chair) moment to share with the crowd our $35 membership gift offer. (which includes that beautiful bag pictured on Carleen’s shoulder)

Hillary spoke about our Elect Democracy campaign and tools such as the Legislative SCORECARD pictured in her hand

Cosmo the dog made an appearance, along with his parents. (Click on this photo to check out his photobooth pic on Facebook, it’s pretty groovy!)

Zarah poses with Design Action friends who showed up in awesome form

GX Fair Trade Store staff know how to pose, and it shows!

Chandrika, Leslie and Jessica perfectly posing!

and finally, GX Executive Director Carleen Pickard shares a pic with former board member towards the end of the night.

TAKE ACTION!
Now that you’ve seen some of the great work we do (and how much fun we have doing it) I would like to formally invite you to join the Global Exchange family. Consider becoming a GEMS today. You won’t regret it.

Workshop participants in Charlotte, NC discuss how Wall Street is burning democracy, and how to put out the fire!

“Don’t Burn Democracy!” BBQs are designed to support existing or new local organizing with mini-grants for food, space, and copies of materials.

Groups are working on a broad range of issues from local greening initiatives to anti-war panels. But they do have one thing in common: a desire to resist Wall Street’s greed and unite to define and reclaim true democracy. This is the kind of organizing that lasts beyond a mere election cycle, and that is the kind of long term, local organizing we need!

Here’s how some of the participants are using our “Don’t Burn Democracy” mini-grants:

“The Green Wei sponsors monthly sustainability chats and a co-host collaborator is Occupy Newark. Our meetings are all themed now, as this helps to incentivize our contacts to engage more around the social justice issues we are promoting awareness of. Free food is a great incentive for getting people out and helps build our community.” – Kimi W., New Jersey

“Groups and people I work with in St. Petersburg FL have been successful with multiple issues (Awake Pinellas. Occupy St. Petersburg, Sierra Club. Hands Across the Sands, etc.). However, there is need for organizing in the northern part of Pinellas County…  Materials, funds and networking via GE would help make [planned] events a reality. I am an unpaid volunteer and receive no financial support from organizations I volunteer with so every small amount goes a long way.”  – George R., Florida

TAKE ACTION:

Interested in hosting a Don’t Burn Democracy BBQ in your community?

Email hillary@globalexchange.org to request a packet of materials including Elect Democracy stickers, infosheets, sample agendas and discussion ideas, and more.

-Street Heat: marches and protests demanding accountability and justice.
-Cop Heat: more militarized ‘free speech zones’ than I’ve ever seen before, ever, all at once.
-Wall Street Heat: lobbyists and campaign money burning democracy as usual.

Street Heat
“What a field day for the heat… a thousand people in the street… singing songs and carrying signs.” -Buffalo Springfield

Well, forty years later, the song strikes a chord- what a hot field day indeed! About a thousand protesters attended Charlotte’s March on Wall Street South on Sunday and several hundred others braved weather from Hurricane Isaac in Tampa to be heard at the conventions for the two major parties.

Of all the myriad problematic issues that impact communities of people living in the U.S., a common cry for money out of politics was loud and clear. It seems more evident than ever that the plutocracy of rule by the 1% is unsustainble for our communities and our planet. Protestors are calling for an end to greed and business as usual and a change in how people relate to each other: respect, mutual support, and peace.

United by both our unique differences and our shared determination to be heard and to create a better world, we spent our time marching and learning from one another and shared strategies of what’s working around the country in our efforts to build resilience. Our demands aren’t selfish or unreasonable; they are practical for the survival and health of this country.

Miami Tampa Heat

Well, we made important demands from within our ‘free speech zones’ that is. The police presence was ‘over the top’ in the opinion of a passerby flight attendant who watched the march from downtown. I must say I agree.

Something about a rightfully-angered civil society provokes an increasingly militarized response, but this cordoning off of protest to small ‘free speech zones’ and martial-law style patrolled parades diminish the visibility – in fact it invisibilizes – the many passionate cries for justice that should be heard in any healthy democracy.

Though apparently trying to keep a lower-than-usual profile, lobbyist-hosted soirees sure do attract the rapt attention of delegates, but what about the rest of us?  With Charlotte and Tampa both spending over $50 million in taxpayer dollars on ‘security’, it became clear that suppressing citizens from peacefully voicing legitimate concerns about the political process is very much a focus of this ‘security’ spending. P.S. Arresting peaceful environmental activists and using exorbitantly high bail to keep people behind bars instead of organizing? Not so cool, Charlotte P.D. Not so cool.

Wall Street is (really) Burning Democracy
While far far away on the West Coast, artists were burning a wooden replica of Wall Street, I was in Tampa and Charlotte giving workshops on how Wall Street was Burning Democracy. From homeless activists in Tampa’s Romneyville to schoolteachers who came to protest in Charlotte, it’s very clear that every single one of us can see how our communities are suffering when Wall Street uses it’s undue influence through record spending on elections to make policies in Washington keep up Wall Street’s profits at the expense of the rest of the country.

Our workshops focused on breaking out into groups so that we all had space to discuss in-depth how Wall Street impacts our lives AND to share how people are standing up to reclaim and protect democracy and their communities. It was a great opportunity to gather activists from all over the country to share, support, and strategize. We also found great potential hosts for October’s “Don’t Burn Democracy” BBQ events! Don’t forget to apply by September 15. The fact of the matter is that things are getting worse… but our resilience is getting stronger. The national dialogue and framing has shifted to include language about the 99%, about corporate greed and it’s consequences, and about what needs to change. We are making a difference, it just isn’t going to happen as fast as a burger pops out a drive-through window. Change takes time… and it takes all of us.

Let’s Put Out the Fire!!
The odds may feel slim, but don’t get burnt out- we can still make a difference. Even though it was hot hot hot, it was pretty darn cool to see so many people who are active in making change all around the country. From resisting foreclosures to fighting for accessible education, (im)migrant rights, and peace, we have a lot of friends with lots of common dreams. More and more of us are fighting to make those dreams real.

We see a small slice of that outside the RNC and the DNC, check out Global Exchange’s photo album to see everyone’s inspiring messages and demands! And we saw a lot of media listening.

No matter where you are or what you are doing, more people are listening than ever. Get out there and be heard! If money in politics is your pet peeve (it’s mine!) than use our legislative scorecard (most recently covered in the Huffington Post!) to find out how much Wall Street money your Senator or Representative received… and like Virginia Lee in Salt Lake City, write an op-ed about it if you want things to be different. Thanks again for everything you do, and thanks to all of the members of Global Exchange who helped me get to Tampa and Charlotte to organize and contribute to our movements for justice!

Hurricane Isaac has certainly been a wildcard for everyone gathered on Florida’s west coast for events related to the Republican National Convention. Officials cancelled the Monday’s opening hoopla and pushed the start of the convention back a day.

Speakers from the Coalition to March on the RNC lead the first of many marches in Tampa toward the Times Bay Forum on Monday, August 27, 2012.

This is ironic, because for all of the green zones, police presence, and over-the-top militaristic protest ‘control’ measures put in place to ‘zone’ free speech, the one Tampa visitor that officials couldn’t control – nature’s course – was the force that had the final say in impacting the RNC most significantly. Many people didn’t miss the irony here: Hurricane Isaac had the impact of forcing the 1% and those that do their bidding to adopt a more humble/realistic position of adjusting their own behavior due to the circumstances beyond purely themselves and their own interests… isn’t that almost exactly what all of us gathered to protest here in Tampa have been demanding?

Elect Democracy’s Hillary Lehr in Tampa

Once Issac passed to the west of Florida’s coast and barreled toward the northern Gulf Coast, the RNC and smaller-but-still-passionate protests got underway. So did the lavish corporate and lobbyist-sponsored parties designed to win cozy spots in the hearts of political hopefuls. Well, as you can probably guess I wasn’t invited to those parties, so I can’t tell you what happened there. I think you get the picture.While in Tampa, Elect Democracy brought our message: “Stop Wall Street from Burning Our Democracy” straight into the streets. Dozens of event happened throughout the area designed to call attention to the real threats to democracy in the US. Here is Global Exchange’s slideshow from Tampa demonstrations such as the March on the RNC, March for Survival, March to Stop Voter Suppression, and Rally for Women’s Rights.

Elect Democracy teamed up with the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign to offer workshops about Wall Street’s $4.2 billion investment in political influence and to discuss how this directly impacts our lives. When participants were first meeting one another, I asked people if they or anyone close to them was impacted by home foreclosure. Everyone raised their hand. I asked people if they or anyone close to them was struggling with student debt or unable to afford to continue their education. Everyone raised their hand. I asked people if they or anyone close to them was laid off or had trouble finding work in the past three years. Everyone raised their hand. A common response to protestors is (and has been for years), “Get a Job!” But the truth is, there aren’t enough jobs to go around, and Wall Street has played a direct role in shaping that economic reality. It seems like for more and more of us, one of our many ‘jobs’ is getting to work on put out the fire that the 1% has set to our democracy.

Elect Democracy workshop participants and members of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign in Romneyville, Tampa, FL.

Next stop: North Carolina. Let’s see what we find on the podiums and in the streets in Charlotte.