Monday, May 20, 2019

Sign the petition telling the Supreme Court to protect Roe v. Wade and defend our rights.

Dear MoveOn member,
I'm Helmi Henkin, an organizer with the Yellowhammer Fund in Alabama, which helps people access safe abortions. I started a petition after our state passed an abortion ban which gives the government control over pregnant people's bodies—even in cases of rape or incest.
As similar extreme bills continue making their way through state legislatures, it's vital that we send a clear message to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the other members of the Supreme Court of the United States that we will not tolerate these attacks on our protected human rights.
Don't overturn Roe v. Wade. Protect abortion rights. End the attacks on reproductive rights and pregnant people's health. We won't go back!
Alabama's extreme bill gives the state control over pregnant people's bodies and increases the already tremendous barriers that people seeking abortion care in Alabama face in accessing their procedures. Access was already a problem in Alabama, which is why the Yellowhammer Fund exists.

The government's control and politicization of our bodies is unacceptable. Families in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, and communities across the nation are under attack as part of a publicly stated, coordinated effort to have the Supreme Court overturn its own legal precedent set by Roe v. Wade.1

This is truly concerning, because some members of the Supreme Court are already signaling a willingness to overturn legal precedent on other cases.2

Sign the petition telling Chief Justice John G. Roberts and the Supreme Court justices to end these extreme policies which deny families the right to determine whether, when, and how to create a family. 

People espousing "pro-life" politics frequently talk about how much they love pregnant people and babies. However, their political agenda does not extend to ensuring that pregnancy and birth are safe for pregnant people or that parents, children, and families can access the health care they need to live healthy lives. In Alabama, for example, this means that a large number of pregnant people are going without the prenatal, birth, and postnatal care needed to ensure healthy pregnancies and birth outcomes. Maternal and infant mortality rates are high.3

We will work with trusted partner organizations such as MoveOn to ensure the support of this petition is used to further pressure key decision-makers, keep the story in the media, and give everyone opportunities to stay engaged! MoveOn members have already raised more than $30,000 for our work in Alabama, and we're seeing generosity across the country—but we also need to make sure the Supreme Court respects the fundamental right to access an abortion, so we need to act now.
Thank you for your support during such an important moment for this movement.
–Helmi Henkin, The Yellowhammer Fund
Sources:
1. "Alabama Governor Signs Abortion Ban Into Law," NPR, May 14, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65594?t=7&akid=234356%2E38417624%2EcjW_Pv
2. "Supreme Court's Breyer, mentioning abortion case, warns about overturning precedent," NBC News, May 13, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65593?t=9&akid=234356%2E38417624%2EcjW_Pv
3. "States with the worst anti-abortion laws also have the worst infant mortality rates," Los Angeles Times, May 15, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65595?t=11&akid=234356%2E38417624%2EcjW_Pv
You're receiving this petition because we thought it might interest you. It was created on MoveOn.org, where anyone can start their own online petitions. You can start your own petition here.

Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to Alfred Johnson on May 16, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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We’re rallying to protect women’s rights MoveOn Reproductive Rights Team

MoveOn Reproductive Rights Team<moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
To  Alfred F Johnson  
Dear MoveOn member,
The governor of Alabama just signed the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country—a near total ban—and we all got a terrifying look at the next frontier of right-wing attacks on women.1
Alabama's law comes on the heels of so-called “heartbeat bills"—backdoor abortion bans that will functionally outlaw all abortions—in Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
The politicians behind these laws have one very specific end goal in mind: overturning Roe v. Wade. They all know that these laws will never go into effect as they are written; their express goal is for them to be challenged in the courts, land in the conservative-held Supreme Court, and serve as the catalyst for a complete ban on abortions in America.
This is draconian. It is terrifying. And we cannot let it happen.
That is why MoveOn is joining with many partners to organize large demonstrations at state capitols around the country on Tuesday to demand that state lawmakers take action to protect the right to safe and legal abortions around the country.
We must turn our outrage into action—right now. There's a lot we can do to affect the future of abortion rights—and women's rights—in America. We can, and must, call on elected officials to condemn the bans, focus heated attention on the courts reviewing these decisions, and support groups on the ground that provide much-needed resources to women seeking abortion care in states like Alabama. (For example, in just the past 24 hours, MoveOn members have donated close to $100,000 to the Yellowhammer Fund in Alabama.)
But these actions do not help protect access to abortion care in the long term. That can happen only through the passage of state laws that ensure that clinics will stay open and that women will be able to have access to affordable, legal abortion care even if Roe falls in the Supreme Court.
Only 10 states in the United States currently have laws on the books that will protect abortion access in the absence of Roe v. Wade, and 18 have so-called "trigger laws" which will outlaw abortion as soon as Roe is overturned and it is legal to do so.2
We must push state lawmakers to pass laws right now that will expand and protect abortion access in states across the country, as Republicans ratchet up their all-out war on women in the courts.
That is why MoveOn is joining reproductive justice, women's rights, and other progressive partners to hold rallies at state capitols across the country on Tuesday. We need to work through the weekend to help organize, recruit to, and prepare for these events and ensure that the events are seen by as many people as possible. And we need your help.
The news over the past week has been devastating and terrifying. The worst fears felt by so many women on November 8, 2016, have come true.
Make no mistake: The laws passed in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, and elsewhere are meant to punish women—especially poor women and disproportionately women of color who lack the resources to travel across state lines for abortion care.
These laws are punitive. They are hateful. And they are being pushed by male politicians without even the most basic scientific understanding of women's health.
But hope is not lost. Now is the time to show our true people power. We must rise up together in a grassroots movement to stop the assault on women's rights from the right and ensure that abortion care is kept safe, legal, and accessible for all.
Thanks for all you do.
–Emma, Robert, Brian, Jayne, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Alabama just passed a near-total ban on abortion," Vox, May 15, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65626?t=5&akid=234424%2E38417624%2EWRieZN
2. "Abortion Policy in the Absence of Roe," The Guttmacher Institute, May 1, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/42783?t=7&akid=234424%2E38417624%2EWRieZN
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to Alfred Johnson on May 17th, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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5/24 Imperialist War on Cuba and Venezuela: Afro-Caribbean Socialist Women Fight Back

Charlie Welch<cwelch@tecschange.org>
To  act-ma@act-ma.org  
_"Imperialist War on Cuba and Venezuela: Afro-Caribbean Socialist Women
Fight Back"_

Join the Boston branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation for a
special panel discussion on empire, race and socialism in Cuba and
Venezuela. In conjunction with Witness for Peace New England, the July
26th Coalition of Boston, and the Boston Venezuela Solidarity Committee,
we are honored to host Jourdy James Heredia, subdirector of the Global
Economy Research Center in Havana; Gisela Arandia, president of the
Cuban chapter of the Regional Articulation of Afro-descendants in Latin
America and the Caribbean; and Jeanette Charles, international
solidarity liaison with Venezuelanalysis.com.

Fri. May 24th
Encuento 5, 9A Hamilton Pl. (near Park St.)
7 PM

In the face of escalating US economic warfare against these sister
nations, three radical Black women of the Caribbean and its diaspora
will discuss the impacts of unilateral coercive sanctions on the Cuban
and Venezuelan peoples; anti-racism and reparations within both
revolutionary processes; and the ongoing construction of socialism,
anti-imperialist solidarity and racial liberation throughout the Americas.

This event will be held in both English and Spanish, and interpretation
will be provided.

Food and drink will be served, and unfortunately encuentro5 is not
wheelchair accessible.

Jeanette Charles is a daughter of the Haitian Diaspora and was raised in
working class Black and Brown Los Angeles, California. Charles currently
serves as the International Solidarity Liaison for Venezuela Analysis
and has worked as a writer and editor contributing to issues on
Afro-Venezuelans, sex and gender diversity movements, land recuperation
processes and the current political climate. She's worked in solidarity
spaces with African and Indigenous peoples across Latin America and the
Caribbean as a popular educator, human rights advocate and organizing
solidarity brigades. She's lived, worked and studied in Venezuela for
extended periods of time since 2010.
*
Jourdy Victoria James Heredia *received a PhD**in Economic Sciences from
the University of Havana and a PhD in Economic Sciences from the
University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. She is the subdirector
and lead researcher of the Global Economy Research Center in Havana,
Cuba and Associate Professor at the University of Havana. She is a
member of the editorial group of Cuba's World Economic Issues Journal
and of the Foreign Policy Experts group organized by Cuba's Higher
Institute for Foreign Relations. She has won the Annual Prize of the
Cuban Academy of Sciences on two occasions (1999 and 2000) and the
EU-LAC Foundation Prize in 2015. She has over 30 years of experience
researching issues of European integration. She is the author of
numerous articles in national and international journals and also of two
books (The Euro Zone Crisis: Economic Foundations and Lessons for Latin
America; and Food Security in the the European Union, Latin America and
the Caribbean: The Cases of Cuba and Spain). She has lectured in
universities throughout the world, including in Spain, Jamaica, Canada,
Germany, China and Kenya.

*Gisela Arandia* is an author and researcher on issues of race and
identity based out of UNEAC, the National Union of Artists and Writers
of Cuba. She is currently the president of the Cuban chapter of the
Regional Articulation of Afro-descendants in Latin America and the
Caribbean (ARAC). She manages theConcha Mocoyu Yoruba Cultural Center,
an innovative project which brought foreign funding down to the
neighborhood level in Havana in order to support a critically needed
self-apprenticeship program based in African roots. She holds a degree
in journalism and has been a researcher and writer about race and Black
people in Cuba since 1989. She published her book “Afro-Cuba Today” in
2013, and also researches Black feminism, Black communities in poor
neighborhoods and the impact of mass media on the self-esteem of
Afro-descendent people. She does action research and combines academic
work and social activism. She has conducted research at Center for
United States Studies at the University of Havana, the École des Hautes
Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, and the Center for Cuban Studies
at Florida International University, studying the Black Cuban community
in Miami. She has participated in many international conferences on
Afro-descendants in Africa, Latin America and the United States, and in
2017, she received her doctorate from the University of Havana.


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Veterans for Peace Memorial Day Program: Remember the Fallen May 26 @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Veterans for Peace Memorial Day Program: Remember the Fallen

May 26 @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Memorial Day
FacebookTwitterCopy LinkPrintFriendly
Gather at Park St. Station between 1:00 and 2:00 and hand out flyers.
Step off at 2:00 and parade up to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on the common behind the bagpiper.
Several Smedleys will do Memorial Day readings. (Dan H., Paul A., Ray A.)
Place carnations on the monument in remembrance of the fallen
Realign around the field of flags and ring the bell for departed Smedley Brothers. Al A., Jeff B. and Henry D.
Taps will then be played on the bugle.
Parade back to Park St. behind the bagpiper and disband.
FacebookTwitterCopy LinkPrintFriendly
+ GOOGLE CALENDAR+ ICAL EXPORT

Details

Date:
May 26
Time:
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Event Tags:
, , 

Organizer

Veterans for Peace – Smedley Butler Brigade
Phone:
(617) 942-0328
Email:
vfpsmedley@gmail.com
Website:
smedleyvfp.org

Venue

Boston Common, near Park Street Station
MA United States + Google Map
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Dear MoveOn member, The final battle to save abortion rights is on. Less than two weeks ago, Georgia joined Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Iowa, Louisiana, Utah, and North Dakota in banning abortion at six weeks or earlier, before most women know they are pregnant.1

Roe v. Wade Alert (via MoveOn)<moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
To  Alfred F Johnson  
Dear MoveOn member,
The final battle to save abortion rights is on.
Less than two weeks ago, Georgia joined Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Iowa, Louisiana, Utah, and North Dakota in banning abortion at six weeks or earlier, before most women know they are pregnant.1
Then last week, Alabama banned all abortion from the moment of conception—with no exceptions, even for child rape victims, punishable with 99 years in prison.2
And on Friday, the Missouri legislature voted to ban abortion at just eight weeks, with one Republican claiming that most sexual assaults are "consensual rapes."3 Meanwhile, abortion bans have been introduced in at least 28 states, and the Senate is holding hearings on a nationwide, 20-week ban.4,5
This is not a drill. There are no more backstops or second chances. Abortion WILL be banned if the right-wing has its way—which is why it's imperative we fight back NOW.
MoveOn is teaming up with abortion rights advocates to organize a rapid-response, 50-state protest at state capitols and other gathering places across the country. Will you chip in to help pull off these actions and save Roe v. Wade?
The minute Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed for the Supreme Court, anti-choice politicians jumped into action, introducing a wave of abortion bans more radical than anything we've ever seen before.
Under the Alabama ban, doctors face 99 years in jail for even attempting to provide an abortion. That's more jail time than a rapist would receive in cases where the pregnancy was the result of rape.6
In Georgia, women could be criminally charged for miscarriages and jailed even if they travel to another state to access a legal abortion.7
Texas even has a bill that would make abortion punishable with the death penalty.8
Their explicit goal is to take these laws to the Supreme Court and get Roe v. Wade overturned.9 And if you think you're safe because you live in a blue state, think again. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham has already started holding hearings on his nationwide, 20-week abortion ban.
Donald Trump and the radical right won't stop until all abortion is banned—or until they pay such a political price they don't dare continue. That's why we must get out in the streets now to put anti-choice politicians on notice that they will NOT get away with this.
Remember when Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch testified about how much they respect "precedent"? They lied through their teeth, just like Trump does every day.
Just this week, the Republican majority threw out a 40-year precedent on states' rights. Last year, they threw out a 42-year-old precedent, gutting the power of public workers' unions.10
Kavanaugh and Gorsuch wanted us to believe that they would never consider overruling decisions that have been on the books as long as Roe v. Wade or Casey v. Planned Parenthood, the 1992 decision that reaffirmed and scaled back the protections of Roe.
Senators like Susan Collins were fools to ever believe these empty promises, and now our backs are against the wall, with abortion rights hanging by a thread.
This Tuesday's actions are just the beginning of this final, last-ditch fight to save abortion rights. We will continue protesting, keep fighting bans in state legislatures and in Congress, oppose any further right-wing judicial nominations—and, most importantly, do everything humanly possible to put this issue front and center in the 2020 presidential election. Will you chip in $3?
Thanks for all you do.
–Emma, Ilya, Emily, Michael, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "A Surge in Bans on Abortion as Early as Six Weeks, Before Most People Know They Are Pregnant," Guttmacher Institute, March 22, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65638?t=6&akid=234618%2E38417624%2ELvbv5w
2. "Abortion Bans: 8 States Have Passed Bills to Limit the Procedure This Year," The New York Times, May 17, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65639?t=8&akid=234618%2E38417624%2ELvbv5w
3. "Ahead of abortion-ban vote, Republican references 'consensual rape,'" The Maddow Blog, May 17, 2019
http://act.moveon.org/go/65640?t=10&akid=234618%2E38417624%2ELvbv5w
4. "This map of abortion ban proposals and laws shows where rights are under fire in 2019," Fast Company, May 15, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65641?t=12&akid=234618%2E38417624%2ELvbv5w
5. "'Designed to Manufacture Outrage': Senate Judiciary Holds Hearing on 20-Week Abortion Ban," Rewire.News, April 9, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65642?t=14&akid=234618%2E38417624%2ELvbv5w
6. "Lawmakers Vote to Effectively Ban Abortion in Alabama," The New York Times, May 14, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65643?t=16&akid=234618%2E38417624%2ELvbv5w
7. "Georgia Just Criminalized Abortion. Women Who Terminate Their Pregnancies Would Receive Life in Prison." Slate, May 7, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65644?t=18&akid=234618%2E38417624%2ELvbv5w
8. "A Texas bill would allow the death penalty for patients who get abortions," Vox, April 11, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65645?t=20&akid=234618%2E38417624%2ELvbv5w
9. "What the Alabama abortion bill really aims to do," CNN, May 15, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65646?t=22&akid=234618%2E38417624%2ELvbv5w
10. "The Supreme Court is smashing precedents. But Roe v. Wade might still be saved." NBC News, May 15, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/65647?t=24&akid=234618%2E38417624%2ELvbv5w 
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to Alfred Johnson on May 20th, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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