Dear John,

Thank you to everyone who contacted Congress last week to pass a coronavirus relief bill! With each passing day, COVID-19 claims more lives and further devastates our communities, yet the president and Congress have failed to extend unemployment benefits and provide much needed relief to all who need it. If you haven’t already, tell your senators to pass a coronavirus relief bill now!  
 

Protecting our elections and our communities: AFSC is deeply concerned about the lives and safety of Black, Brown, LGBTQIA, Muslim, Jewish, and other groups who may be targeted during and after the election. We must stand together against hate and violence—and speak against voter suppression, felony disenfranchisement, purging, and other tactics that threaten our democracy.   

At multiple actions across California, demonstrators demand the release of people held in prisons and immigration jails: The governor has the authority to address “the medical emergency that ICE is causing worldwide in spreading COVID-19—and the crisis in California’s own prisons. To fail to do is so is to be complicit in this systemic state violence,” AFSC’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program said in a statement. (KGET)  

Holding General Mills accountable for profiting from the occupation: Last month, AFSC and partners took our campaign to boycott Pillsbury straight to the corporation’s boardroom. AFSC’s Noam Perry shares how the company responded to our questions.

Reflecting on AFSC's history in the penal abolition movement: Laura Magnani, who recently retired as director of AFSC’s California Healing Justice Program, shares insights from 30 years of organizing for sentencing reform, prison abolition, ending solitary confinement, and more.  

The real winners in the Israel-UAE deal? Arms dealers: The agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates was presented as a peace deal. In reality, it's a license for weapons manufacturers to expand their customer base, writes AFSC’s Sahar Vardi. (+972 magazine)

Share your message of hope!: In case you missed it, we sent out an invitation to share what gives you hope in these difficult times or offer some words of encouragement to others in the global AFSC community who are taking action for change. Your words will amplify our collective efforts.