Hershey, Mars & Nestle: Stop Child Labor!

Since 2001, chocolate consumers around the world have voiced their concern about child labor and trafficking on cocoa farms in West Africa. Despite millions of dollars and tons of public relations campaigns over the years, the worst forms of child labor and trafficking continue to occur in the cocoa supply chains of major US chocolate companies like Hershey, M&M/Mars and Nestle. We've heard the same talking points from these companies for years about how they are working together as an industry to stop child labor, but their lack of progress to date is unacceptable. For more information about industry initiatives to date, please see ILRF's most recent cocoa report.



Please join us today in getting beyond the talking points and asking Hershey, M&M/Mars and Nestle what each company is doing specifically to ensure they are respecting internationally recognized labor rights in their cocoa sourcing.


http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/chocolate

TAKE ACTION: Ensure human needs are met in the final recovery plan!

The Senate and House have passed different versions of President Obama’s economic recovery package. While the total cost is similar, there are significant differences in how the House and Senate would allocate the funds. Now Congress must resolve these differences in a conference committee made up of key members of both houses.

Your help is needed to ensure that the final bill retains the highest funding for programs that provides the great benefit to people most in need.

Call your U.S. senators and representative toll-free* today at 1-800-473-6711.
Tell them to make sure the conference negotiators:

*Retain the highest funding for programs that have the greatest benefit for the lowest- income people, including aid to states and housing programs.
*Remove the flawed “E-Verify” requirement.
*Remove $1 billion in funding for nuclear weapons.

American Friends Service Committee
http://www.afsc.org/EconomicJustice/US/ht/d/sp/i/70722/pid/70722

Tell Florida Governor Crist to Take a Stand Against Slavery!

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is calling on Florida Governor Charlie Crist to commit the full power of his office to address the plague of modern-day slavery in Florida's fields. Add your voice to this call and send an email or fax to the governor today!
Background: Just this past December, federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice wrapped up yet another farm labor slavery case in Florida, a case the Chief Assistant US Attorney called one of Southwest Florida's biggest, ugliest slavery cases ever. This became the seventh such slavery case in ten years, involving a total of well over 1,000 workers.

Yet, when a reporter called Governor Crist's office about this most recent case, the governor declined to comment and instead passed the call off to the spokesperson for Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Terrence McElroy, who -- not once, but twice -- gave the impression that one slavery case per year is somehow no cause for alarm.

For decades, the silence of Florida's governors in the face of the brutal exploitation of the state's farmworkers has allowed that exploitation -- up to and including modern-day slavery -- to persist.

Join farmworkers and consumers from across Florida and the US in telling Governor Crist that now is the time to break the silence and ensure that this latest slavery case is the last slavery case ever in Florida's fields.

The letter not only calls on Governor Crist to publicly condemn the continuing existence of modern-day slavery, but also to demand that the Florida Tomato Growers' Exchange end its efforts to nullify the agreements reached between the CIW and leading fast-food and supermarket purchasers of Florida tomatoes to improve farmworker wages and working conditions, the conditions that provide the fertile soil in which modern-day slavery takes root.

We will be collecting signatures, both here in Immokalee and across the country, during the month of February. If there is no response, we plan to deliver the signatures with a creative action in Tallahassee in the month of March. Stay tuned for more details on the petition in the weeks ahead, and in the meantime you can help us gather more signatures among your friends and co-workers, at your school or place of worship!



http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/Governor_Crist_stand_against_slavery/

Roses Are Red, Lipstick (Still!) Has Lead

This Valentine’s Day, you may want to pass on the ruby red lips: The FDA still hasn’t done anything about lead in lipstick.

It has been more than a year since the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics reported that the urban legend was true: popular brands of lipstick do contain lead. The FDA said it would conduct an independent investigation. Despite repeated calls from the Campaign, our allies and our supporters (that's you), as well as pressure from U.S. Senators, the FDA still has not released any data on its own lipstick tests or taken any action to protect people from dangerous ingredients in cosmetic products.

After the Campaign released "A Poison Kiss: The Problem of Lead in Lipstick," dozens of news outlets across the country covered the story, and inquiries from individuals came flooding in. It is clear that Americans do not want potent neurotoxins like lead in their lipstick, or any other consumer product.

Unlike the United States, the European Union and Canada actually regulate cosmetics. Large cosmetics companies are now selling safer products in other countries – but because they are not mandated to remove lead and other harmful substances from U.S. products, we doubt they will. This is not only bad for public health; it also leaves the U.S. behind while our peers drive innovation of safer products.

The FDA should require cosmetics to be safe for long-term use. Tell the agency that we deserve lipstick without lead by filling out the form on this page. Your letter will be sent to Dr. Linda Katz, Director of the FDA's Office of Cosmetics and Colors, and Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Frank Torti.

With your help, we can kiss lead and other harmful chemicals in cosmetics goodbye!

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5500/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1052

Tell Congress to Fix Our Broken Food Safety System!

The current Salmonella contamination in peanut butter products is the most recent failure of FDA's ability to inspect and regulate our food system. The Food and Drug Administration, the federal agency that is supposed to create a safety net to protect consumers from unsafe food, can't handle the job. Now is the time to reorganize and create a better agency that can actually deal with food safety. We have a new Congress and a new President who can make real change and overhaul our broken food safety system.

Can you tell Congress to take action now and fix the FDA and our broken food safety system?

Commend President Obama and Call for Accountability

Amnesty International commends President Barack Obama’s signing of executive orders on Guantanamo, detention policy, interrogation and transparency, along with his decision to halt military commissions at Guantanamo, as important steps forward in committing the United States government to human rights, international law, the U.S. Constitution, and the values and ideals central to a just, free and secure society. As President Obama said at the signing ceremony, the United States does not have "to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals." Please take a moment to commend him for his initial first positive steps and ask him to finish the job he started.

Tim DeChristopher Reinvents the Greenbuck in Utah

by Jerry CopeDesigner, Filmmaker, Eco Activist
Huffington Post
January 11, 2009

...Al Gore, James Hansen, Pat Shea, and numerous others have all issued the call for vastly increased peaceful civil disobedience to force real change in government and corporate environmental policy. Mr. DeChristopher is the most recent to answer the call and has inspired people across the globe by his courage and tenacity. To voice your support for Tim DeChristopher or assist with his legal defense go to Bidder70.org .

URGENT: Petition to Urge President-elect Obama not to appoint former Adm. Dennis Blair

Sign the petition now! http://www.petitiononline.com/blair01/petition.html

Urge President-elect Obama not to appoint former Adm. Dennis Blair as Director of National Intelligence. As Commander in the Pacific, he cozied up to the Indonesian military and downplayed human rights concerns in the lead up and aftermath of East Timor's independence referendum. According to news reports, Obama will appoint his intelligence chief this week.

For background go see these ETAN media releases:

Adm. Blair Poor Choice as Director of National Intelligence, Says Rights Group; Blair’s History with Indonesia and East Timor Raises Questions about Likely Nominee

ETAN Urges President-elect Obama Not to Appoint Adm. Blair Director of National Intelligence; ETAN Menolak Adm. Blair sebagai Kepala Intelijen Nasional
In addition to signing the petition, you can also cut, paste and modify the text below and post it to President-elect Obama's transition website. Just go here: http://change.gov/page/s/seattable and send a comment.

Thank you and spread the word! ETAN

President-elect Obama -

We urge you not to appoint Adm. Dennis Blair as Director of National Intelligence. During his years as Pacific Commander, Blair actively worked to reinstate military assistance and deepen ties to Indonesia's military, despite its ongoing human rights violations in East Timor and its consistent record of impunity. In 1999, he undermined the U.S. efforts to support human rights and self-determination in the Indonesian-occupied territory and opposed congressional efforts to limit assistance.

In April 1999, just days after Indonesian security forces and their militias carried out a brutal, churchyard massacre, Adm. Blair delivered a message of 'business-as-usual' to Indonesian General Wiranto, then Commander of the Indonesian armed forces. Following East Timor's pro-independence vote, Blair sought the quickest possible restoration of military assistance, despite Indonesia's highly destructive exit and the failure, which continues to this day, to prosecute the senior officials who oversaw the violence.
This lack of concern for human rights shows that he is unlikely to be a champion of reform. I don't believe that this is the kind of change people are expecting.

Power Past Coal

100 Days of Action to Expose the True Cost of Coal, Plug into New Power
Join dozens of groups across the United States between January 21st to April 30th for 100 Days of Action to Power Past Coal! From Appalachia to Arizona, from the Dakotas to Washington DC, we’re united to share the stories from communities impacted by coal, and to begin working on a truly clean and just energy future.

Take action. Tell your story. Join the movement.
Starting on January 20th, the new president and congress will have a unique opportunity to tackle one of the biggest justice issues in the United States today: Coal.
The whole life cycle of coal is costly, dirty and deadly, from mining, to dumping coal waste to global warming. The communities that coal impacts are some of the poorest places in the US; we need new green jobs in these communities and new energy options for America.
Each day, from January 21st to April 30th, one or more communities will make a call for us to power past coal – from its destructive mining practices to its dangerous waste disposal. Citizens across the US will gather with each other and organizations, small and large, to work for clean energy, to tell their truth about coal, to keep false solutions that include coal out of climate change legislation, and stand in solidarity with communities impacted by coal.
Our actions will tell the story of the new power we are building — the power of the grassroots joining together to Power Past Coal.

http://powerpastcoal.org/

End Israel's Attacks on Gaza

Send a letter below to the President, State Department, and your Members of Congress demanding 1) an unconditional and immediate cease-fire; 2) complete access of humanitarian goods to the Gaza Strip and a lifting of Israel's siege; and 3) accountability for Israel's misuse of U.S. weapons as required by the Arms Export Control Act and Foreign Assistance Act.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/t/2439/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26379

GAZA EMERGENCY: Stop the Killing NOW!

Join CODEPINK by signing our call for a US-backed ceasefire in Gaza.

We will deliver it to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice next week.


http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1788

GAZA: STOP THE BLOODSHED, TIME FOR PEACE

With over 280 dead and continued shelling of civilians in southern Israel, now is the time to issue a demand to world leaders that the spiraling violence that has characterized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must come to an end.

Sign the petition below calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza - and for peace to be achieved between Israel and Palestine in 2009.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/?cl=161484073&v=2605

Sign Our Open Letter to President-Elect Obama; We Need a Change in Israel/Palestine Policy

As of this writing, Israeli Air Force attacks today on the occupied Gaza Strip killed an estimated 200 or more people and injured hundreds more. These Israeli attacks come on top of a brutal siege of the Gaza Strip, which has created a humanitarian catastrophe of dire proportions for Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinian residents by restricting the provision of food, fuel, medicine, electricity, and other necessities of life.

While the scope of civilian casualties in today's attacks is not yet clear, it is unmistakable that Israel carried out these attacks with F16 fighter jets and missiles provided by the taxpayers of this country. From 2001-2006, the United States transferred to Israel more than $200 million worth of spare parts to fly its fleet of F16's. In July 2008, the United States gave Israel 186 million gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel. Last year, the United States signed a $1.3 billion contract with Raytheon to transfer to Israel thousands of TOW, Hellfire, and "bunker buster" missiles.

In short, Israel 's lethal attack today on the Gaza Strip could not have happened without the active military and political support of the United States . Therefore, we need to take action to protest this attack and demand an immediate cease-fire.

1. Contact the White House to protest the attack and demand an immediate cease-fire...

2. Contact the State Department...

3. Contact your Representative and Senators in Congress...

4. Contact your local media by phoning into a talk show or writing a letter to the editor...

5. Organize a local protest or vigil and tell us about it...

6. Sign our open letter to President-Elect Obama calling for a new U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine and find out other steps you can take to influence the incoming Administration..


http://www.endtheoccupation.org/form.php?modin=137

Now, Is The Crucial Time; You can make a difference!

A New Year's Message From IAC Founder Ramsey Clark

Dear friends,

We are at a crucial historic juncture.

We cannot sit back and expect that change will just happen now. In order to make real change, people must be mobilized and organized. Otherwise, all of the hopes for a new direction can be quickly diverted.

The International Action Center (IAC) is unique. Its role is recognized worldwide and here in the U.S. This is because the IAC provides—for activists and political movements—a bold, independent voice that is so needed today.

Flouting the mandate of the people of the U.S. who want the troops withdrawn and this horrific war ended, the U.S. government has just imposed a new "Status of Forces" Agreement on Iraq which would keep tens of thousands of U.S. troops and mercenaries there for the next three years (at the cost of $12 billion a month)!

While the entire Bush program has been repudiated, the atrocities and illegal imprisonment continue at Guantanamo. U.S. missiles rain down on villages in Pakistan, killing civilians, and they, together with NATO weapons, increasingly hit children, women and men in Afghanistan--where tens of thousands of U.S. troops could likely be sent. Bellicosity continues towards Iran and other nations in the Middle East. NATO is expanding which raises the danger of new confrontations with Russia in Georgia, the Ukraine, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

The military budget continues to grow at a gargantuan rate, far surpassing that of any in U.S. history, diverting massive funds and depriving millions here of needed health care, housing, and education, while infrastructures deteriorate, and thousands hard-hit by hurricane disasters have been abandoned by the government.

The spiraling economic meltdown means millions of people are losing their jobs and homes while states implement massive and harsh cutbacks in vital social programs. Yet trillions of dollars in "bailouts" are handed over to the banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions of wealth.

But there is reason for hope--there is opposition to the wars abroad, to the violations of civil liberties and basic rights abroad and at home, including the terrible witch hunt on immigrants, and to the sweeping economic attacks on poor and working people as the policy-driven greater concentration of wealth and growth of poverty intensifies. And millions of people feel hope because of the historic election of an African-American man.

It is critical that organizing grows on every front. In order to make real change, it takes mobilizing and strong, independent and decisive actions.

The International Action Center (IAC) is well-situated and long-experienced to be a major organizing force in this period. The IAC has been a consistent, determined and independent voice and major mobilizing center against U.S. wars, sanctions and military interventions for 17 years, since the first Gulf War. This principled organization of activists has courageously held protests, meetings and forums across the country, opposing U.S. aggression against Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Palestine, Somalia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Sudan, Bolivia, Panama and Korea.

IAC organizers have produced many books--translated into several languages—for the public, scholars, and anti-war protesters here and worldwide, while providing a center and resources for a new generation of activists. The People's Video Network has produced many politically-educational videos, while building an alternative media network.

The IAC has taken on struggles against racism, bigotry, injustice and more--from standing with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors in their still unmet quest for justice, to supporting immigrants' rights, opposing the death penalty and challenging military recruitment.

And now, in this crucial time of economic crisis and hardship, the IAC, which is fiercely committed to a Peoples' Agenda, has helped launch and organize campaigns against home foreclosures and evictions, utility shut-offs, mass transit rate increases, and for healthcare.

The IAC looks forward to a new year of struggle against war and political, social and economic injustice!

Our New Year's Resolution for 2009 must be to organize together tirelessly to end the occupation of Iraq, to stop a new war against Iran or any nation, and to stop incessant provocations against Islam, Venezuela, Russia, Bolivia, Cuba and others. We must work to promote international friendship and respect for humankind and to oppose the policies of domination, globalization and war.

We invite you to join in the new year of activism with the IAC and to support its vital work.

You can make a difference!

Visit http://www.iacenter.org/

Call Time on Global Greed

The past few months have seen one of the most significant financial crises in North American and European history, a crisis caused by a greedy, reckless and unregulated economic system which has been biased against the poor for decades. The spiralling levels of inequality and instability created by the current economic system have created enormous social and environmental problems.



Once again, the fall-out of this crisis will have a detrimental impact on millions of ordinary people in the UK, and billions of people in the poorest countries of the world. But while those that created the crisis have been bailed out (bonus intact) with unprecedented sums of taxpayer money, the poor in developed and developing nations have received nothing.

Let’s call time on global greed. The same systems that create poverty here – unfair trade rules and tax systems, debt burdens, privatisation and attacks on welfare spending – also create poverty in the developing world.

Only a system which works for the poorest of the world will ensure a just, sustainable and prosperous world for all of us.

It’s time for a radically different economic system which reduces inequality, creates jobs, puts people before profit, ensures a sustainable environment, and puts eradicating poverty at its heart. We need a ‘green new deal’ that will revolutionise the economy :

A major recovery plan that puts people and the environment at its heart, in particular which enables countries to better feed, clothe, educate and protect their people
Effective regulation of the financial system, including just tax, debt and trade rules
A new and democratic set of institutions to govern this economic system
This fundamental global reform needs to be agreed democratically, with the poorest of the world having a full and equal say over the future economic system. In particular this system cannot be agreed at the meeting of the 20 most powerful countries in the world (G20) on 15 November. The UN, as the only organisation with such a mandate, must be empowered to lead a process of comprehensive reform of the financial and economic system which involves all governments and civil society, in an open manner.

Help us take action - sign the petition to Gordon Brown

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/Call%20Time%20on%20Global%20Greed+4635.twl

Action Alert: Bolivia’s Amazon Riches to Be Plundered for Oil

President Morales must be encouraged to live up to his grand rhetoric, and end his government's hurried measures to decimate massive indigenous rainforest protected areas and their biodiversity and climate values, in a manner eerily reminiscent of the capitalistic system against which he rallies...NOTE: This is a protest, not a petition, sending emails to many real decision makers on matters vital to the Earth.

http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=bolivia_rainforest

How To Be an Ethical Consumer Without Breaking the Bank

There are many affordable ways to spend your hard-earned cash in accordance with progressive values.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/113496/

Tell Lowe's, Home Depot and Wal-Mart to Stop Selling Cypress Mulch

Cypress forests are the best natural storm and flood protection for the Gulf Coast, and they provide important habitat for wildlife, including endangered species...Cypress trees take a long time to grow, and changing ecological conditions mean many of them will never regenerate once cut.

http://action.healthygulf.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=5892

Take a Stand for Survival

At the UN Negotiations in Poland, youth from around the world are demanding that their countries' delegations commit to making a climate treaty that "safeguards the survival of all countries and peoples."


This message needs to be heard--please take a stand for survival by signing the survival pledge...

http://action.350.org/o/1879/t/8474/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1777