Activism
Effective uses for any time or money you can spare to get our country back on track
On this page
Action alerts and articles
- Stop taxpayer subsidy for war and climate catastrophe—3/30/2022
- Progressive Voter Guide Jan 2021
- Progressive Voter Guide Nov 2020
- Progressive Voter Guide Nov 2022
- Progressive Voter Guide March 2023
- Biden Step Aside, Please
- Progressive Voter Guide Nov 2024
Other actions...
moveon.org, of all the political groups I've been involved with, makes activism easiest for busy people. I suggest you sign up for their e mail action alerts. These show up at about the right frequency, are timely calls to action on the most crucial issues, and provide an expedient means of taking effective action. If I follow one of their suggested actions, I can count on being in and out in five minutes or less.
Being on these guys e mail list enables me to maintain a minimum background level of activism going on the most outrageous issues between times when I have energy to take more time-consuming action on my own activism projects.
truemajority.com is a similar organization, extremely well designed for maximum impact with minimum effort. A typical member action involves hitting the "reply" button to an action alert e mail, that automatically sends faxes to your representatives in congress!
Don't let the weapons of mass distraction get you!
Who to donate money to? How much?
After careful consideration, I'm upping my financial contributions from hundreds to thousands.
What use are savings or income if my children are to grow up under fascism?
This is where I'm sending my money:
- Move On PAC — support good candidates for congress
- True Majority "Computer ate my vote" fund— pays for grassroots campaign to pressure state election officials to use safer, more reliable voting machines
Stay informed
Alternative sources of information:
- pacifica.org Listener sponsored radio for over 50 years: KPFA (Berkeley), KPFK (Los Angeles), KPFT (Houston), WBAI (New York) and WPFW (Washington DC).
- truthout.com News and politics
- thenation.com Unconventional Wisdom Since 1865
- moveon.org/ Very well written in depth analyses by e mail a few times a month. Check out their past issues.
- guardian.co.uk The UK's most popular newspaper website
- iacenter.org Founded by Ramsey Clark, Former U.S. Attorney General-Information, Activism, and Resistance to US Militarism, War, and Corporate Greed
- votetoimpeach.org Campaign to impeach Bush
- indexonline.org Index on censorship
- zmag.org A huge website updated many times daily, serving a community of people committed to social change.
- freespeech.org Free Speech TV on satellite, cable and web
- tompaine.com A public interest journal inspired by the great patriot Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense and The Rights of Man
- commondreams.org Breaking news and views for the progressive community.
- michaelmoore.com Social commentator and director of Academy Award winning documentary "Bowling for Columbine."
- juliabutterfly.com Julia Butterfly's site. Education, inspiration and connection to live in a way that honors the diversity and interdependence of all life.
- buzzflash.com Daily headlines and breaking news from irreverent perspective
- worldnetdaily.com A Free Press For A Free People
- indymedia.org A collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage
- alternet.org A project of the Independent Media Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and alternative journalism
- counterpunch.org Bi-weekly muckraking newsletter edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair
- Hightower Lowdown So funny and right on that it helps ineffectually smoldering outrage sprout hot, clean flame
- Gregory Palast A source for material so outrageous (Bin Ladens invest in Bush's first Oil Company! or Theft of the Presidency!) you'd think it was a tabloid fabrication if it wasn't on the BBC, probably the most reputable source of news in the world.
- bbc.co.uk The BBC is a good alternative to mainstream US networks, typified by NBC, where millions get their news of the world as spun by the one of the world's largest military contractors (General Electric owns NBC).
To boost the effectiveness of your activist web site
There are many suggestions for increasing the usability of your web site on our Web design page.
Move on and truemajority.com are an excellent example of a highly effective web-based activism program. I suggest signing up for their e mail alerts just to see how they are done; they are even better than their web site.
Here's an example of a design to improve the effectiveness of your activist e mails.
Anti-globalization
- Why "Free Trade" is Not Green
- Earth Charter
- Confessions
of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat
Poor Countries Out of Trillions
Peace
Anti-car raves
- Over Consumption, Overspending on Cars Spurred by Consumer Reports
- What driving costs
- AAA Understatement of Car Usage Cost
- Equal opportunity mobility
- Ways of reducing car dependency
Pro-bicycle raves
A collection of letters to editor and politicians about making the world a better place with bicycle-friendly policy. Many of them but not all are Santa Barbara County focused.
- How safe is bicycling?
- Healthy is sexy: bike!
- Ellwood crossing Needed
- Energy Tax Preferred
- Forget Car Tax Cut
- Ellwood Crossing Fiasco
- Get Out Of Cars - Right!
- Santa Barbara Could Use a Gas Tax to Fund Road Work
- Old Town Goleta Bike Lanes Needed
- Gas Tax for Insurance
- Gas Price Ripoff
- Alternative To US 101 widening
- Measure D funds - Fork It over
- UCSB Must Consider Bike Transport
Bike links & Resources
- Bike routes in Santa Barbara
- Car Free Times - Awesome resource for better cities
- Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition
- Bicycle Austin - Page with lots of interesting facts & figures
- Center for Appropriate Transport - Great transport bikes, great people.