H.R. 6210, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, passed the House by an impressive 406-3 margin; the bill would impose sanctions on China for its government's human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (or XUAR), and would prevent that government from exporting goods made from Uyghur slavery to the United States. China's repression of nearly 2 million Uyghur Muslims into slavery camps is well-known by now, as is the complicity of American corporations (cough Amazon Apple cough) in that repression, and not coincidentally, the bill would also require big corporations to tell our Securities and Exchange Commission (or SEC) if they've taken any sort of part in this noxiousness. 406-3 is a pretty nice margin, but not too many years ago, our Senate couldn't even pass a bill passed unanimously in the House (that would be the Email Privacy Act), so we shouldn't get complacent about this bill, either. Hence Rethink Trade helps you tell your Senators to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act -- without the kind of poison-pill amendments some Senators used to sink the Email Privacy Act.
Meanwhile, Charleston (SC) Councilmember Harry Griffin held a rally with the so-called Proud Boys last week; the Proud Boys are a notorious group of Nazi wannabes, though of course they prefer the term "Western chauvinist" like they're post-modern or something. Our FBI, excuse me, even this FBI has designated the Proud Boys an "extremist hate group," and good Americans have captured their violent doings on camera, so there's little wiggle room for on-the-other-hand silliness when discussing them. (Yes, their current Chair is a person of color, and their founder married a person of color, but such phenomena, to be frank, aren't as uncommon as people think.) Anyway, Change.org helps you demand that Councilmember Griffin resign his job. Are we really going to demand his resignation over one mistake? Of course we are! Murderers commit "one mistake," and we don't blink at putting them in jail; we're not even putting Mr. Griffin in jail for associating with known racists, and a career in politics isn't a Constitutionally-protected right. Actually, it's the very definition of a privilege.
Finally, our soon-to-be-ex-President is rushing to do many favors for his corporate cronies before he leaves office, and one of these favors is a mining contract in the Oak Flat district of Arizona, which is also home to lands sacred to several Native American nations. Do you recall Arizona's two then-Republican Senators ensuring that the 2015 defense appropriations bill rolled back a prohibition on mining in those areas declared by none other than President Eisenhower? Do you recall that one of those Senators (Jeff Flake, far too well-congratulated for his opposition to our soon-to-be-ex-President) used to work for the corporation that would mine Oak Flat? Do you recall Apaches travelling 2,000 miles from Arizona to Washington, D.C. in 2016 to protest the taking of their sacred lands? And it's not just about not screwing Indians even further, or protecting actual religious freedom -- it's also about the pollution mining would unleash upon the region's land, air, and water. And for what? For more gilded plumbing in some mining executive's 19th vacation home? Win Without War helps you tell your Congressfolk to save the Oak Flat region of Arizona.
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