Week 25 Trending Campaigns
Week 25 Trending Campaigns
Trending campaigns on Resistbot as of June 20, 2023.
Good news! Our top campaign for most of the past year was successful, as the United States Supreme Court upheld ICWA in a 7-2 decision. It was welcome news to the Indigenous community, as overturning this law would have been potentially devastating. However, the black cloud in this silver lining is why it was upheld: in short, the United States Constitution contains language protecting the sovereignty of indigenous tribes. It does not offer the same for women, African-Americans, or other groups with their rights under threat—as one would expect, given who wrote it and when. The Roberts Court didn’t exactly see the light here. Here are the top trending campaigns over the past seven days.
1️⃣ Pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act
Speaking of the Supreme Court, Elizabeth Warren recently reintroduced the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act as S. 1908.
“By holding the Supreme Court to a binding code of conduct and requiring all federal judges to disclose conflicts of interest, the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act would strengthen mechanisms for judicial accountability and help root out conflicts of interest in our judicial system.”
The bill tackles the Clarence Thomas problem by establishing a code of ethics, limiting gifts, reforming the recusal process, banning justices from owning individual stocks, and other badly needed reforms.
2️⃣ Stop Child Labor in the United States
Yes, this is a real campaign. A weird trend in Republican legislatures is the rolling back of child labor laws in response to increased enforcement by the U.S. Department of Labor. Per the Economic Policy Institute:
Already in 2023, eight bills to weaken child labor protections have been introduced in six Midwestern states (Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota) and in Arkansas, where a bill repealing restrictions on work for 14- and 15-year-olds has now been signed into law. One bill introduced in Minnesota would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work on construction sites. Ten states have introduced, considered, or passed legislation rolling back protections for young workers in just the past two years.
Industry groups seem to want a way around paying more than starvation wages (literally, see the next campaign) to adults and are pushing state legislatures to allow child labor instead. The GOP talking points have made it sound like this is common sense reform so kids can get summer jobs at an ice cream stand, where the reality looks like 13 to 17-year-olds working in meat packing plants or ten-year-olds working unpaid until 2am.
3️⃣ Increase Food Aid in the Farm Bill
The COVID-area extra assistance to food banks and needy families has expired at the state and federal levels, but the need among families for food hasn’t. This campaign asks Congress to increase funding to the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) in the 2023 farm bill as one possible solution. Per The Hill:
With the double whammy of inflated food prices and other pandemic supports like the expanded Child Tax Credit, eviction moratoria and expansions in Medicaid also ending, millions of American families are now at risk of going hungry.
Seniors who ordinarily qualified for only the most meager benefits before the pandemic emergency allotments now face the steepest hunger cliff: Their monthly allotment will plunge from $281 a month to just $23 per month — about 75 cents per day.
75 cents per day. Think about that for a minute. So we have unprecedented levels of hunger in the United States, corporations looking for cheaper labor, and a bill to stop corruption and regulatory capture at the Supreme Court—all connected. Take action, and take the time to educate friends and family on what’s going on in the United States in 2023.
Others gaining steam: Stand for Tigray, Support the Food and Farm Act, Designate Belarus for Temporary Protected Status, 300 Mass Shootings so far in 2023
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