dolorosa_12: (teen wolf)
a million times a trillion more ([personal profile] dolorosa_12) wrote2025-01-31 06:07 pm

Concrete political actions

I'm not doing a Friday open thread this week, as I've got too much going on over the weekend to be able to respond to a lot of comments.

Instead, I thought I'd gather together a bunch of calls to political action that I've seen over the past week or so. They cover a range of countries, and all include specific, tangible actions that you can take.



In the United Kingdom

Via [community profile] thissterlingcrew, a petition calling on Parliament to tighten the rules on political donations, particularly loopholes that allow ultra-rich individuals or foreign state actors to funnel their donations through a UK-registered company.

Once you have signed the petition, I would urge you to contact your MP about this as well, since petitions do not register with as great an effect as a personalised email.

The UK government is holding a consultation on copyright and (extractive) AI. If you feel strongly about this, you have until 25th February to respond, via webform or email.

In the European Union

There is an EU citizens' initiative to ban conversion therapy in the EU. My understanding is that for this to succeed, it must meet a minimum number of signatures across multiple (although not all) EU countries, so if you are eligible to sign, please do so, and spread the word. This needs to meet the threshold by 17th May.

In the United States

In the [community profile] thisfinecrew comm, [personal profile] chestnut_pod has posted information about calling elected representatives in response to the federal funding freeze.

In Ukraine

One of the awful consequences of the US federal funding freeze is its catastrophic effect on independent journalism, and grassroots civil society organisations in Ukraine.

Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the English-language Kyiv Independent media outlet has outlined the probable consequences of this aid freeze. Her outlet is in good financial shape, because they are fully funded by reader subscriptions — but many other organisations are less fortunate. In her editorial, she lists some outlets, and ways to fund them. The Kyiv Independent has launched a crowdfunding campaign — not for themselves, but to fund smaller outlets that are based in frontline regions (Kharkiv city, Sumy city, and Mykolaiv city).

Anastasia Lapatina, a freelance Ukrainian journalist (and Kyiv Independent alumna), has put together another list of media outlets and civil society organisations, and how to fund them.

I will be donating to the crowdfunder, and picking two outlets from the above lists to which to make monthly subscriptions. If you are financially able, I would encourage you to do something similar — as this is action you can take in response to the federal funding freeze, even if you are not a US citizen.


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vriddy: Cat looking out of the window beside a cup of tea and books (window cat)

[personal profile] vriddy 2025-01-31 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for this.
jo_lasalle: a sleeping panda (Default)

[personal profile] jo_lasalle 2025-03-02 03:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi,

you don't know me, but I've been seeing your posts on Ukraine via Network over the last two years, and I just wanted to thank you for your information posts, especially regarding organisations to donate to - I'd have found the vetting somewhat overwhelming so your posts have been hugely helpful to me.