John,

This has been one of the most devastating and isolating years in recent history, but in the midst of it all, you came together and created incredible hope and change. 

You gave a mother fighting to save other children from the painful death her daughter suffered at the hands of Monsanto’s Roundup poison, the resources she needs to continue her brave battle. 

Sofia and a group of mothers in her community who have suffered due to glyphosate poisoning are taking their case to court to ban glyphosate once and for all.

You forced banks and insurers in Canada, France and the UK to transform from being climate killers to becoming allies in the climate fight. 

You helped an Amazon indigenous community protect their land from government destruction. 

You pushed Delta Air Lines, a major corporate donor, to withdraw support for racist, divisive politicians in Georgia. 

You protected the privacy of people everywhere from tech startup Clubhouse, helped kick Trump off Twitter, and exploded into the national conversation on disinformation and Big Tech regulation in the US. 

Headlines from our disinformation action outside the US Capitol Building.

All in the last four months!

And that’s not all. Scroll below to check out everything we’ve done together, just in 2021. If this is what we can achieve in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century, imagine what we can do together in the years to come!

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Saving the bees in Germany

Thanks to the determination of SumOfUs members, we helped to collect more than 70,000 signatures for a referendum that led to a landmark state law protecting bee habitat and regulating pesticide use everywhere! It’s an incredible model that will serve as a benchmark for all of Germany, and immediately protect the essential bee habitat of Brandenburg. 

And it only happened after a long and difficult citizen’s initiative process, a massive coalition mobilisation and months-long negotiations with parliamentarians. And the governing coalition has committed to passing the law as soon as it’s entered into Parliament! 

A young bee defender joins a protest calling on German lawmakers to protect the bees. Picture credit: Joerg Farys

Charting protected land in the Amazon

When Bolsonaro came to power in Brazil, mining activities in indigenous territories rose by 91% in 2019. And the Tupinambás are on the front lines, trying to defend their land from invaders and corporate permits. 

To make their home officially recognized and protected as Terra Indigena by authorities, they were told they needed to go through a difficult and expensive charting process, one they couldn’t afford to complete on their own. 

But our community swiftly came together and raised the money necessary to help buy all the needed equipment, organize the charting process and collect data. And the community was able to start this important process to save their home land. 

Cacique Brás - a Tupinambás representative, wrote to us to say:

“I am grateful for the help to the Tupinambá people. The work we [the Tupinambá] can do thanks to your support will reflect on other Indigenous Peoples and it will make the Tupinambá and their territory monitoring references in the fight for Indigenous People’s rights and helping other peoples fight for their rights”
 

Members of the Tupinambá community taking part in their territory demarcation.

Turning Lloyd’s of London into a climate leader in insurance

Tens of thousands of SumOfUs members in the UK signed a call for major insurance group, Lloyd’s of London to adopt clear climate targets, breaking their cozy relationship with dirty coal investments.

Check out the video!

Then the call was delivered with a bold, eye-catching full-page ad in a major insurance publication and a series of in-person actions near the Lloyd’s headquarters. 

Just weeks later, Lloyd’s announced their first ever climate policy! Thanks to our community, this behemoth in fossil fuel financing is on the road to divestment, stopping millions in new fossil fuel projects. 

 

The full page ad SumOfUs members paid for in a major insurance publication calling out Lloyd's Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown.

Forcing the Bank of England to protect our planet

After 60,000 signed a call for the Bank of England to adopt climate as a key consideration in policy and investments -- setting the stage for the entire banking sector to make a similar shift -- the UK government ordered the head of the bank to protect the planet as an official part of their job! 

The petition was delivered in an incredible four page full color ad in the Exchequer’s local newspaper, ensuring that he and all his neighbors saw the campaign. And it worked, helping to win a historic shift in the policy of the UK’s central bank! 

The four page ad delivering SumOfUs members' petition in the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer's local paper.

This is just part of a larger push to make central banks go green, and use their power as regulators to green the entire financial sector. 

Protecting our Privacy from WhatsApp and Clubhouse

After over 450,000 SumOfUs members called for Big Tech to protect our privacy and stop stealing our data to fuel manipulation and disinformation, the team filed two landmark claims with regulators. 

Clubhouse, a new app exploding in popularity, was illegally downloading contact information and personal data from all users. SumOfUs sprang into action and delivered a thousands-strong petition by filing an emergency complaint with a French regulator. An official investigation was launched and Clubhouse ended its worst data privacy busting practices!

At the same time, WhatsApp was pursuing a new policy to take all of our personal details and hand them over to Facebook to fuel their hyper-targeted and manipulative advertising program -- in flagrant violation of many national privacy laws. We filed an official complaint with Brazil’s regulator, and built a massive media moment around it, forcing the government to act! Once Brazil bans the data transfer, we’ll take our call to other regulators around the world, including states in the US with similar privacy protections.

Building opposition to arms sales to Yemen  

After a petition in France garnered massive support, SumOfUs members launched a powerful swarm of phone calls to strategic MP targets calling on them to create a commission on France’s arms trade into Yemen -- arms that are used to kill civilians. 

The pressure worked so well that the whip MP in charge of foreign affairs called staff and begged us to stop the phone calls -- we agreed, but only after she rapidly created the commission and launched the investigation. 

The report was released and it clearly demanded parliamentary control over arms sales -- a win that could give the people of France a direct say in whether their government should be selling arms to violent forces in Yemen.

Reforming Uber  

Tens of thousands of us signed petitions and sent messages to help turn Uber, the famous ride-sharing app, into a green and sustainable employer. In a coalition of groups from across Europe, we pushed Uber to adopt a 50% electric vehicle target by 2025! Setting a standard for ride-sharing everywhere.

And, after four years of member campaigning and a landmark legal case, Uber has finally agreed to respect basic workers rights for drivers! That means they get basic protections and benefits, across the UK. And it gives huge momentum for the fight for worker’s rights everywhere! 

Over 100,000 petition signatures are delivered to Uber in partnership with GMB Union calling for Uber to protect the safety of passengers and drivers.

Calling for Big Tech reform in the US, UK and EU  

It started in January when 70,000 SumOfUs members helped lead the push to pressure Twitter to ban Trump. This included taking our message right to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's doorstep!

From there, the movement for Big Tech reform started to gain momentum everywhere. We took our call to regulators: filing a complaint in France against Clubhouse for illegally taking our private data and contact list; filing a complaint in Brazil against Facebook for illegally passing taking our WhatsApp data; and using both of these to pressure the US to act as well.

Now we’re gearing up to support major legislation in the UK and Europe that will serve as the gold standard for BigTech reform everywhere: making sure we are protected from data extraction, surveillance and manipulation.

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And all of that is just what we are winning this year!

There is an unimaginable amount of essential work for our community, but we are responding to the needs of those around us, building community and coalitions and working to address injustice everywhere.

Together, there’s no limit to what we can achieve.