Action Alerts

Columbus StandUP launched Lights Out AEP, a campaign demanding that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) reject AEP Ohio’s proposed rate hike.

Tuesday, November 18, 7pm
Zoom meeting - please register
Jewish Voice for Peace event - Tom Hayes will reflect on his experiences as a participant in the Gaza humanitarian aid mission in late September. Following his kidnapping and imprisonment in Israel, Tom returned to his home in Columbus on October 12.

Tom is a long-time advocate of Palestinian rights and a documentary filmmaker. In the 1980s, he filmed in Palestinian refugee camps and has produced three long-form documentaries on the denial of Palestinians’ rights. His 1985 documentary “Native Sons: Palestinians In Exile,” narrated by Martin Sheen, follows the lives of three refugee families living in Lebanon’s camps. His 2015 film “Two Blue Lines,” explores the impact of Jewish settlement on the Palestinians, from before the creation of the state of Israel to the present day.

Hayes most recently co-directed “Voyage of the Handala,” an independent documentary about the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, premiering Oct. 27 at Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival in Spain.

Tom is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Central Ohio.

Sunday, November 16, 2:30-4PM
The Magical Druid, 2887 N. High Columbus, OH
Providing space for our community to discuss paganism and other topics of interest. Free event but donations to cover rent, utilities etc. is always nice.

Facebook Event

The Columbus Dispatch article by Cole Behrens from November 13 shows us that the Columbus City Schools (CCS) continues to play politics with the future of our children. The Superintendent knows she must cut about 50 million dollars from the budget.

She was in the district when her predecessor hired hundreds of additional administrators to the Central Office. She knows that the Central Office is overstaffed. The Board of Education (elected by Franklin County Democrats) knows this too; they aren’t stupid. So, what’s the first thing they choose to do to solve this budget challenge?

Play politics.

Instead of cutting the overstaffed Central Office, the Superintendent and the politically-motivated Board of Education will take the easiest route to solve the problem: lay off a wide range of employees at every level.

Some Central Office administrative roles will be eliminated, but also plenty of janitors, secretaries, and teachers. Everyone will be angry, but it will be spread across all levels fairly. Fair to the employees perhaps, but unfair to the students.

Join Indivisible every Saturday as we stand at the corner of High Street and North Broadway and protest the destruction and degradation of the Trump administration. Location:  East North Broadway and High St., Columbus.  

Sign up here. 

Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)’s Community Primer  is here for you, laying out your community’s reality both in what you are up against and how to take action based on your terms. 

The Primer walks you through the typical scenarios of what you can expect when a corporate project wants to come to town like elected officials saying their hands are tied or that if we just present all the information about how bad this thing is the powers that be will have to stop it. 

Progressives in Congress introduced a resolution recognizing Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and demanding accountability for these atrocities. 

Tell your member of Congress to join this historic resolution today. 

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) is joined by 20 additional Members of Congress in introducing a resolution Recognizing the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The legislation calls on the U.S. to end its complicity in the genocide, including halting weapons to the Israeli military and supporting international measures of accountability.  

From Democratic Socialists of America:

Union Starbucks workers across the country are launching a nationwide strike today, Thursday, November 13. More than a year after the company stopped bargaining in good faith, stonewalling any progress at the table, Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) members in 19 cities across 14 states will go on the picket lines at Red Cup Rallies. The SBWU strike will keep going until the company comes to the table.

The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) is a community of sustainable and organic farmers, handlers, producers, and consumers across the U.S. The challenges faced by those in our network are unique to diversified and usually small- or mid-scale farms that provide healthy food to their communities. 

The government shutdown, tariff negotiations, staffing changes at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and other recent events have specific implications for these farms and the local communities that benefit from their products. We have been actively connecting with individuals who want to share their stories to uplift some of the experiences of those in our community.

Congress is on the verge of passing legislation that will devastate access to life-saving hemp products for over 40 million Americans - including veterans, seniors, children with epilepsy and autism, and countless others who rely on hemp-derived cannabinoids for their health and well-being.

Buried deep in the federal spending bill is language that would ban nearly all hemp-derived THC products, including non-intoxicating CBD items that contain even trace amounts of THC.

The bill redefines hemp so narrowly that even full-spectrum CBD products will become illegal, banning any product with more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container, a threshold so low it would eliminate nearly every hemp-derived product currently on the market.

This reckless move would:

• Wipe out 95% of the hemp industry

• Shutter thousands of small businesses

• Criminalize the very products that millions depend on to survive and thrive

This is a public health crisis in the making.

We must act NOW.