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.
Democracy
We are witnessing the consolidation of power in the hands of the few instead of the many. Democracy is a process and practice grounded in our values of interdependence that affirms the inherent worth and dignity of all. We are the majority, but we must organize our communities to build the power to defeat authoritarianism and build a truly multiracial democracy.
Our faith calls us to clarity and courage. The terrain of our democracy is shifting and while we take action on immediate threats, we remain focused on the horizon. The SAVE Act, passed in the House and now awaiting Senate action, threatens to disenfranchise over 21 million of our neighbors, disproportionately harming women, low-income communities, naturalized citizens, and young people. This bill weaponizes bureaucracy to suppress the vote, undermining the sacred principle of one person, one vote. But alongside our grief and outrage, we hold fast to our hope and our power. UUs showed up at the U.S. Capitol with our partners at Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice to support the reintroduction of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act—a bold step to restore federal protections against voter suppression, ensure same-day registration, and stop discriminatory roll purges.
Meanwhile, in Texas, a newly proposed congressional map threatens to erase representation by shifting five seats to partisan control. Gerrymandering continues to rob Black communities of political voice—splitting them to weaken collective power or packing them into single districts to limit their influence. These tactics are not just political maneuvers—they are moral failures that deny the dignity and agency of Black voters and all who believe in a multiracial democracy. We are not neutral. We are not passive. As Unitarian Universalists, we are rooted in a theology of interdependence and liberation—and we will continue to rise with faith, organize with love, and vote with fierce determination to defend democracy for all.
Act: SAVE THE DATE: Tues. August 12
Get ready for National Poll Work Recruitment Day!
Poll Worker Recruitment Day is a national day of action established by the Election Assistance Commission to recruit new potential poll workers who are committed to ensuring safe, fair, and free elections for all voters. There are no off years for elections — or for poll worker recruitment.
Join: MAYDAY STRONG for the next mass protest!
OUR DEMANDS TO BUILD THE SOCIETY WE ALL DESERVE:
Stop the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration.
Protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people.
Fully funded schools, healthcare and housing for all.
Stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and all our communities.
Invest in people not wars.
Sign up for an action near you!
Watch/Listen: Strategic Non-Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism
Check out Session 1 & 2 of Indivisible’s 1 Million Rising coordaining call. This 3-part training will equip you with a coordinated national strategy to organize locally, host community gatherings, and build a force bigger than fear. Sign up, show up, and take action together.
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: