SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A still from The Leap's new video on organizing voters to take over federal governments for progressive goals. (Image: The Leap/YouTube/screenshot)
'This Is How We Change the World': To Address Climate Crisis, Video Explains, Democracy Movements Must Rise
To get "sweeping policies enacted," says The Leap, "our movements have started taking the next step: winning elections and entering government."
Oct 22, 2019
A new campaign from advocacy organization The Leap is calling on progressives around the world to organize to take over federal governments and wield their power to address the climate crisis and other pressing global issues.
"Thanks to grassroots organizing, radical ideas like the Green New Deal have already gone mainstream," Rajiv Sicora, senior manager of research and U.S. programming at The Leap, said in an email. "Now, to get these sweeping policies enacted, our movements have started taking the next step: winning elections and entering government."
Watch the video:
Narrated by actor and activist Danny Glover, the video asks activists to use democratic power to push for the implementation of the big ideas driving contemporary progressive movements.
Climate advocates and progressive lawmakers reacted positively to the video's message.
"This is how we change the world," tweeted Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Bill McKibben, founder of the climate advocacy organization 350 Action, said on Twitter that the video was "spectacular."
"When people organize, elections turn from popularity contests to battles of ideas," said McKibben.
The Leap's Sicora said the video is the beginning of a week of taking a deep dive into "the links between climate and democracy" by the organization and its allies.
"We're not going to talk about technical or procedural fixes," said Sicora. "Instead, we'll be asking the big questions about how our movements interact with mainstream politics--and how we can bring democracy into all aspects of our lives."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
A new campaign from advocacy organization The Leap is calling on progressives around the world to organize to take over federal governments and wield their power to address the climate crisis and other pressing global issues.
"Thanks to grassroots organizing, radical ideas like the Green New Deal have already gone mainstream," Rajiv Sicora, senior manager of research and U.S. programming at The Leap, said in an email. "Now, to get these sweeping policies enacted, our movements have started taking the next step: winning elections and entering government."
Watch the video:
Narrated by actor and activist Danny Glover, the video asks activists to use democratic power to push for the implementation of the big ideas driving contemporary progressive movements.
Climate advocates and progressive lawmakers reacted positively to the video's message.
"This is how we change the world," tweeted Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Bill McKibben, founder of the climate advocacy organization 350 Action, said on Twitter that the video was "spectacular."
"When people organize, elections turn from popularity contests to battles of ideas," said McKibben.
The Leap's Sicora said the video is the beginning of a week of taking a deep dive into "the links between climate and democracy" by the organization and its allies.
"We're not going to talk about technical or procedural fixes," said Sicora. "Instead, we'll be asking the big questions about how our movements interact with mainstream politics--and how we can bring democracy into all aspects of our lives."
A new campaign from advocacy organization The Leap is calling on progressives around the world to organize to take over federal governments and wield their power to address the climate crisis and other pressing global issues.
"Thanks to grassroots organizing, radical ideas like the Green New Deal have already gone mainstream," Rajiv Sicora, senior manager of research and U.S. programming at The Leap, said in an email. "Now, to get these sweeping policies enacted, our movements have started taking the next step: winning elections and entering government."
Watch the video:
Narrated by actor and activist Danny Glover, the video asks activists to use democratic power to push for the implementation of the big ideas driving contemporary progressive movements.
Climate advocates and progressive lawmakers reacted positively to the video's message.
"This is how we change the world," tweeted Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Bill McKibben, founder of the climate advocacy organization 350 Action, said on Twitter that the video was "spectacular."
"When people organize, elections turn from popularity contests to battles of ideas," said McKibben.
The Leap's Sicora said the video is the beginning of a week of taking a deep dive into "the links between climate and democracy" by the organization and its allies.
"We're not going to talk about technical or procedural fixes," said Sicora. "Instead, we'll be asking the big questions about how our movements interact with mainstream politics--and how we can bring democracy into all aspects of our lives."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.