Village Spirit Activism

Below are descriptions of and links to activism related websites for groups and organizations working to make this a better country and world to live in for us all. These are just what I have found so far. I am sure there are many more. As I run across more, I will add them. With the first one, USA.gov, you can identify and contact any of your representatives in government. It does help when people send letters to them about issues that need attention. Most will have websites with contact forms for those letters. At the bottom are a few major petition sites. It does help and can effect change when thousands of people sign petitions. Get involved and take action! Please let me know of any websites I can add here. These and additional links can be found in the right column.

ACTIVISM WEBSITES
	Contact any of your representatives in government. Find contact information for federal, state, and local government agencies and elected officials. We create and organize timely, needed government information and services and make them accessible to the public anytime, anywhere, via their channel of choice.
	Linked here is a page with a categorized list for hundreds of activist organizations. Click on any single category to expand it. START is a process that enables a small group of people to better understand what is wrong with our world, develop a vision of a better society, and figure out effective strategies for moving from here to there. START is a free 24-session study course that you conduct on your own. Gather 8 or 10 friends together, study and discuss environmental, domestic, and world issues using the on-line readings, read and think about the world we want and how to get there, and then act.
	At Action Network we believe that teams fighting for progressive change need powerful, flexible tools to win on the issues that will build a more just and equitable world for all of us. Action Network tools are made for—and with—teams at people-powered organizations that want to build broad support and foster deeper relationships with supporters. Our tools are made to help you capture a moment, rally supporters to your cause, and sustain relationships with activists to build a stronger organization with lasting impacts.
	Power Shift Network is a network of young people, organizations run by young people, and campaigns that support youth organizing. Young people today face a world in crisis: a broken political system, deepening inequality, entrenched and emboldened racism, and a catastrophically changing climate. But we’re committed to action, mutual support, and solidarity -- we’re building a strong, intersectional, bottom-up movement to take on the climate crisis, shift the power, and change the system. Network members are working to combat climate and environmental injustice, stop dirty energy projects, divest from fossil fuels, fix democracy, and build the just, clean-energy powered future young people need. We understand that these issues are deeply interlinked, and we believe that we can better tackle them as a coordinated network.
	People Vs. Fossil Fuels is organized by Build Back Fossil Free, a campaign led by hundreds of grassroots and national groups across the country. We’re coming together to ensure Biden becomes the climate president he promised to be. That means acting now to end the era of fossil fuel production, protect communities from the climate emergency, and repair the harm caused by fossil fuels.
	Launched in February, 2014, Creative Resistance was started with the goal of promoting and supporting activist art. Creative Resistance is a place for artists to share their work and for everyone to be inspired. Our home page is a Pinterest-style poster board providing a daily stream of activist art. You’ll see pictures of puppets, protest signs and other visual art, along with embedded videos of music and performance art. Our art groups page lists activist art groups around North America to help you connect and participate locally.
	The Drug Policy Alliance envisions a just society in which the use and regulation of drugs are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, in which people are no longer punished for what they put into their own bodies but only for crimes committed against others, and in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more. Our mission is to advance those policies and attitudes that best reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition, and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over their minds and bodies.
	Today, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has picked up this unfinished work. From Alaska to Arkansas, the Bronx to the border, people are coming together to confront the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. We understand that as a nation we are at a critical juncture — that we need a movement that will shift the moral narrative, impact policies and elections at every level of government, and build lasting power for poor and impacted people.
	CAI Website - Born out of an audacious idea that halting the deadly marketing practices of the world’s largest food corporation, Nestlé, could save the lives of millions of newborns, we were then – and are still – at the forefront of the movement to challenge corporate abuse.
	Public Citizen serves as the people’s voice in the nation’s capital. Since our founding in 1971, we have delved into an array of areas, but our work on each issue shares an overarching goal: To ensure that all citizens are represented in the halls of power.
	At FreePress we're working to create a world where people have the information and opportunities they need to tell their own stories, hold leaders accountable, and participate in our democracy. We fight to save the free and open internet, curb runaway media consolidation, protect press freedom, and ensure diverse voices are represented in our media. We believe that change happens when people have a real voice in the political process... About Page
	Today, Common Cause is one of the most active, effective, and respected nonprofit organizations working for political change in America. Common Cause strives to strengthen our democracy by empowering our members, supporters and the general public to take action on critical policy issues.
	Defending Rights & Dissent, formerly the Bill of Rights Defense Committee & Defending Dissent Foundation, protects the right of political expression to strengthen participatory democracy, and to fulfill the promise of the Bill of Rights for everyone. Freedom to dissent is essential to a functioning democracy, and every person under U.S. jurisdiction or control is entitled to Bill of Rights protections. At all times and especially when federal, state, or local governments propose or enact laws or policies that threaten or deny those rights, the people organize, exercising those same rights in the service of protecting them. Most people understand that the country cannot be made safer by sacrificing some rights for all or part of its population. When the people know and exercise their rights, the liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights hold firm and remain self-sustaining.
	FlushTheTPP.org is an action campaign to Stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). We invite you to join us. In order to stop the TPP we need to act quickly and in solidarity with people in other countries. This massive trade agreement is a high priority for transnational corporations, and they are working fast to make it law.
	Expose the TPP has a lot of information about the Trans Pacific Partnership and a letter you can send to your congressional representative by entering your zip code. You might net the 9 digit zip code to get the rep for your area.
	The Government Accountability Project is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization. A non-partisan public-interest group, GAP litigates whistleblower cases, helps expose wrongdoing to the public, and actively promotes government and corporate accountability. Since its founding in 1977, GAP has helped over 6,000 whistleblowers.
	The Democracy Collaborative is a national leader in equitable, inclusive and sustainable development through our Community Wealth Building Initiative. This initiative sustains a wide range of Advisory, Research and Field Building activities designed to transform the practice of community/economic development in the United States. Another important program is the Next System Project, ongoing intellectual work designed to connect Community Wealth Building to the larger context of systemic economic transformation.
	The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is our nation's guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
	The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. The vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.
	Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who take injustice personally. We are campaigning for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. We are funded by members and people like you. We are independent of any political ideology, economic interest or religion. No government is beyond scrutiny. No situation is beyond hope. Through our detailed research and determined campaigning, we help fight abuses of human rights worldwide. We bring torturers to justice. Change oppressive laws. And free people jailed just for voicing their opinion.
	WikiLeaks is a not-for-profit media organisation. Our goal is to bring important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to our journalists (our electronic drop box). One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth. We are a young organisation that has grown very quickly, relying on a network of dedicated volunteers around the globe. Since 2007, when the organisation was officially launched, WikiLeaks has worked to report on and publish important information. We also develop and adapt technologies to support these activities.
	Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth) is a nonprofit organization of architects, engineers, and affiliates dedicated to establishing the truth about the events of September 11, 2001. We pursue our mission by conducting research and educating the public about the scientific evidence related to the destruction of the three World Trade Center towers and by working with victims’ families and other activists to advocate for a new investigation.
	Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open Internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy on behalf of the public interest. Public Knowledge works at the intersection of copyright, telecommunications, and Internet law, at a time when these fields are converging. PK's experience in all three areas puts it in an ideal position to advocate for policies that serve the public interest.
	Center for Food Safety's mission is to empower people, support farmers, and protect the earth from the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture. Through groundbreaking legal, scientific, and grassroots action, we protect and promote your right to safe food and the environment. CFS's successful legal cases collectively represent a landmark body of case law on food and agricultural issues. For twenty years, CFS has been at the forefront of organizing a powerful food movement that is fighting the industrial model and promoting organic, ecological, and sustainable alternatives.
	The Sunlight Foundation is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that uses the tools of civic tech, open data, policy analysis and journalism to make our government and politics more accountable and transparent to all. Our vision is to use technology to enable more complete, equitable and effective democratic participation. Our overarching goal is to achieve changes in the law to require real-time, online transparency for all government information, with a special focus on the political money flow and who tries to influence government and how government responds. And, while our work began in 2006 with only a focus on the U.S. Congress, our open government work now takes place at the local, state, federal and international levels.
	Fight for the Future is dedicated to protecting and expanding the Internet’s transformative power in our lives by creating civic campaigns that are engaging for millions of people. Alongside internet users everywhere we beat back attempts to limit our basic rights and freedoms, and empower people to demand technology (and policy) that serves their interests. Activating the internet for the public good can only lead to a more vibrant and awesome world. More coming soon.
	Campaign for America's Future (CAF) is an American nonprofit progressive political advocacy organization. Founded in 1996, the organization bills itself as "the strategy center for the progressive movement." Within the Democratic Party, it often serves as a counterweight to the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). CAF argues that the Democratic Party should draw sharp contrasts with the Republicans and advance a progressive agenda, while the DLC argues that the party should pursue a centrist policy. CAF is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization. It has a sister organization called the Institute for America's Future, which is a 501(c)(3) think tank "devoted to shaping a compelling progressive agenda and message.
	We are a grassroots movement creating community-driven solutions to the ecological and economic crisis: Our Power Campaign. We are part of an overlooked force in environmental activism. A mass movement of people born and raised in “frontline communities” hardest-hit by pollution, climate and economic disruption. We are Indigenous, African American, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, and working white families leading the Climate Justice Alliance across the United States and Tribal Lands.
	The Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) is a national non-profit, non-partisan organization working to restore the rule of law and our constitutional rights and liberties. We aim to make police and intelligence agencies accountable to us, the people whom they serve. BORDC supports an ideologically, politically, ethnically, geographically, and generationally diverse grassroots movement, focused on educating Americans about the erosion of our fundamental freedoms; increasing civic participation; and converting concern and outrage into political action.
	rootstrikers.org - ONLY THE PEOPLE CAN FORCE LASTING CHANGE ON THIS BROKEN SYSTEM. That change begins with understanding: The people must recognize that corruption is not just one among many important problems. Corruption is the root problem, that makes solving the others so difficult.
	Our Revolution will reclaim democracy for the working people of our country by harnessing the transformative energy of the “political revolution.” Through supporting a new generation of progressive leaders, empowering millions to fight for progressive change and elevating the political consciousness, Our Revolution will transform American politics to make our political and economic systems once again responsive to the needs of working families. Our Revolution has three intertwined goals: to revitalize American democracy, empower progressive leaders and elevate the political consciousness.
	The mission of the Alliance for Democracy is to free all people from corporate domination of politics, economics, the environment, culture and information; to establish true democracy; and to create a just society with a sustainable, equitable economy.
	Greenpeace is the leading independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
	350 is building a global grassroots climate movement that can hold our leaders accountable to the realities of science and the principles of justice. That movement is rising from the bottom up all over the world, and is uniting to create the solutions that will ensure a better future for all. Our online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions bring together a global network active in over 188 countries.
	The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) works to turn environmental values into national, state and local priorities. LCV, in collaboration with our state LCV partners, advocates for sound environmental laws and policies, holds elected officials accountable for their votes and actions, and elects pro-environment candidates who will champion our priority issues.
	We are members of Friends of the Earth International, a global network representing more than two million activists in 75 countries. In the United States, we advocate in the halls of Congress, state capitals, and community groups around the country. With offices in Washington, D.C., Berkeley, CA, and members in all 50 states, we urge policymakers to defend and work towards a healthy environment for all people.
	At NRDC we combine the power of more than two million members and online activists with the expertise of some 500 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water, and the wild.
	The Climate Mobilization is a new, all-volunteer organization. Our mission is to save civilization and the natural world from catastrophic climate disruption. We are dedicated to living in climate truth, and believe that working to solve the climate crisis is everyone's responsibility.
	Founded by investor and philanthropist Tom Steyer in 2013, at Nextgen Climate we act politically to avert climate disaster and preserve American prosperity. Working at every level, we are committed to supporting candidates, elected officials and policymakers across the country that will take bold action on climate change—and to exposing those who deny reality and cater to special interests.