Welcome to the Action Center Weekly Update. Each week, we will provide a brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment, share immediate actions you can take, and provide helpful resources to deepen knowledge and practice of our collective work to side with love.
Nothing is inevitable. All justice movements are powered by ordinary people who come together to defeat oppression and build a loving world. You are not alone. We have power. Together we can practice and win a just and loving world where all of us thrive.
Remember we build strong movements when we take action together. Organize teams and networks that can take these actions together. For support on practical organizing skills and support check out our Organizing School and Skill Up resources.
Decriminalization & Immigration
Criminalization and dehumanization are a political and spiritual project. We must dismantle the false idea that safety for some must come at the expense of safety for others. As people of faith, we cannot affirm the worth and dignity of all while privileging the well-being of a chosen few. We proclaim a future where care and safety are abundant because our relationships are cultivated through mutuality, not domination.
Migrant detention and deportation. The school to prison network and mass incarceration. Unceasing police violence toward Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities. Bills making protest and resistance movements illegal. Laws criminalizing poverty, gender identity and expression, sex work, abortion, accessing and providing health care. All of these forms of criminalization are used by the state to disrupt, disempower, and dehumanize our communities.
The Update:
Militarization at home and abroad have always been linked. The Big Bad Budget reconciliation bill’s drastic increase in ICE and border spending joins continued military spending to dwarf funding for the things that create true safety: education, homes, abolition of poverty, mental and physical health care.
Act:
Call your Congresspeople to condemn starvation as an act of war in Gaza
UUs for Justice in the Middle East calls on UUs to pressure mainstream media to cover Israel’s starvation of Gazans
Read:
What is the Prison Industrial Complex? What is Abolition? from Critical Resistance
Learn about the Military Industrial Complex
Learn:
Stop Cop Cities Everywhere – 8/26, 6-7:30ET by Workshops for Gaza
Join organizers from struggles against cop cities and carceral infrastructures in Atlanta, GA, San Pablo, CA, Charlotte, NC, and New York City to learn about what organizers are doing locally and how you can resist a cop city that might be coming to your city.
August 6th, 2pm ET. By the National Council of Churches
Watch/Listen: