John,

Last week, we celebrated victories across the globe that SumOfUs members like you won in 2020. And these were huge victories -- you got Apple to publish its first ever policy on human rights and Procter and Gamble, the world’s biggest consumer goods company, to stop importing palm oil made with forced labour.

We've loved receiving all of your kind messages of support and love for the work we do together.

So today, we’re reaching out again to keep the celebration going. We’d like to share a few exciting US victories that you helped win this year.

A win for Wild Salmon and 14,000 jobs

You are helping to protect the world’s largest and most valuable wild salmon fishery from the massive Pebble Mine.

If built, the Pebble Mine would have endangered the Alaskan salmon industry, which employs 14,000 people, and provides the world with healthy, sustainable wild salmon.

And last week we got some great news -- the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit for the proposed Pebble Mine, saying that the massive gold and copper mine does not comply with Clean Water Act guidelines, and that it is “contrary to the public interest.”

Since 2014, SumOfUs members like you have fought tirelessly to stop the Pebble Mine from being built. Over 170,000 of you signed a petition calling on Rio Tinto Mining to pull its investment in the dangerous project. Over 1,000 of you chipped in to send an Alaskan Indigenous delegation to its annual meeting. All of your work paid off because the mining giant listened and pulled its funding.

And since then, time and time again, SumOfUs has called on US government departments to reject the mine. It’s thanks to your perseverance that we’ve protected our sockeye salmon from this destructive mine so far.

TD Bank stops investing in GEO Group

Just 24 hours after you helped launch our campaign calling on TD Bank to divest from GEO Group, Trump’s favourite private prison company, the bank recommitted to never investing in GEO again.

When we found out that TD Bank quietly bought tens of thousands of shares in GEO Group during the start of the pandemic, we quickly took action. Within hours, more than 20,000 of you signed a petition. And because of your swift and overwhelming support for this campaign, SumOfUs was able to land an exclusive story in Bloomberg News. As a result, TD Bank told the Bloomberg reporter that it no longer holds the shares in GEO, and committed to cut all financial ties with private prison corporations in the future.

Thanks to your pressure on TD Bank, every bank in the world knows we will be watching them to make sure they never invest in infamous private prison corporations again.

Walmart stops selling All Lives Matter shirts

We also had a quick win against Walmart, the world's largest corporation.

"Black Lives Matter" has been a key rallying call in the fight for racial justice in the US. In response, racist groups have used ‘All Lives Matter’ as a code and dog whistle to show they stand against racial justice.

So when we saw that Walmart was selling ‘All Lives Matter’ merchandise, we knew that we had to speak up. And judging by how many of you took action, it was clear that you agreed. Less than 24 hours after thousands of SumOfUs members like you flooded Walmart with messages and calls, the giant corporation stopped selling its "All Lives Matter" merchandise in Canada. And less than a week later, it dropped its racist shirts in the US, as well.

Walmart, like many big brands, put out a statement saying that “Without question, Black Lives Matter.” But selling and profiting from the sale of anti-Black Lives Matter merchandise is total hypocrisy and rather than take responsibility, Walmart initially tried to pass the buck. That was until thousands of SumOfUs members got involved!  

Thanks for everything you do to win these massive victories in 2020. We look forward to win more victories with you in 2021.

Lacey, Angus, Nick and the rest of the SumOfUs team

More information:

Pebble Mine Permit Denied, New York Times, Nov. 25th, 2020



Email last week celebrating our global wins:

2020 has been a tough year. But you don't need us to tell you that.

In a crisis, one option is to retreat inwards. To pull up the drawbridge. But this year that's not what the SumOfUs community did.

As we faced unprecedented challenges, you continued to fight for people and planet. You stood for justice, took on powerful corporate interests and lent a hand to your neighbours.

This year, despite everything, you didn’t take your foot off the pedal. And that deserves to be celebrated.

So as we enter the final weeks of this year, we wanted to share with you just a few of the incredible things you achieved this year (and there are many more!):

Heres how you change the world in 2020 Sum of us members forced apple to publish its first ever policy on human rights You helped stop procter and gamble importing palm oil made with forced labour You beat nestle its given up and is selling all of its north american water bottling operations You stopped microsoft investments in dangerous faical recognition company anyvision You pushed TD canadas second largest bank to commit to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 With your help fronline workers at dollarama won danger pay increases and proper protective gear You forced pepsico to clean up its palm oil policy You forced the european central bank to put climate at the climate at the top of its political agenda Sum of us members helped push hanwha and samsung to rule out further investment in the adani coal mine More than 200000 sumofus members supported each other in our covid support network and distributed thousands of dollars to families in need Thanks to your pressure french insurer axa divested from weapons giant elbit systems Thank you youre amazing

Thanks for everything you do,
The whole team at SumOfUs


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