Dear Rich, I think we could all use some good news, so lets start there. In the election this week, communities in California, Ohio and Texas passed local bans on fracking despite massive industry spending, and communities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey stopped the privatization of their water systems! Were so proud of our staff, volunteers and local allies who helped win these victories. We know that when communities organize, we can win. And as I write this, the initiative in Oregon to label genetically engineered foods is still too close to call, with still thousands of votes left to count despite the record $20+ million spent by the Big Ag industry on misleading ads. Food & Water Watch is proud that Julia DeGraw, our resident Portland organizer, four temporary organizers and other key staff have worked hard on this campaign for months, and together the coalition of allied groups that we were proud to stand with carried out one of the largest voter-contact efforts in the state, contacting more than 540,000 voters. At the national level, a mid-term election marked by record spending on ads, low turnout and shocking voting rights abuses enabled a group of die-hard reactionaries to be elected to Congress. The fact is, no matter which party is in control of Congress, our way forward remains clear: we must continue to stand up to corporate special interests, organize and hold elected officials accountable on the issues we care about. Winning real change means organizing community by community to build the people power necessary for a 50-state strategy. We recently surveyed some of our members and heard from many of you that what you really like about Food & Water Watch is our ability to affect policy decisions in Washington. But few of those polled knew that the core of our work is educating and mobilizing people (or grassroots organizing), and this is why we have 17 offices across the nation. Our lobbying is backed up by the advocacy of the hundreds of thousands of our supporters like you. Whether it’s through turning out people to a protest through one of our field offices or delivering a petition from one of our online activists, we are only powerful when we harness the energy of our supporters. While it will be very tough to pass anything that puts people before corporate profits through Congress now, and we expect more attacks on our efforts to ban fracking and keep our food safe. It is because we are effective that Food & Water Watch is being attacked by industry. But we will not be cowed or frightened, because we have the truth and people on our side. That’s why no matter what the results of the elections at any given time, we must continue to raise our voices and engage politically if we have any hope of winning the world we want for future generations. That’s what we’ll continue to do in 2015. Chip in today to help us prepare for the fights ahead. Thanks for fighting for whats right, Wenonah Hauter Executive Director Food & Water Watch wenonah(at)fwwatch(dot)org
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 22:15:14 +0000
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