SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2021
Weekend Reading

Dear John,

In the U.S. and communities around the world, supporters like you help AFSC respond to urgent needs—and build a more just, peaceful future.

That includes Ixil Mayan communities in the highlands of western Guatemala. With your support, AFSC is helping Ixil youth organize, promote food sovereignty, and protect their rights and ancestral values. Read more from AFSC’s Josseline Acuña. [link removed]

Here are this week’s picks to inform and support your activism.

Facing shareholder pressure, Microsoft agrees to independent assessment of its human rights impact: [link removed] AFSC's Investigate website exposes Microsoft’s surveillance tech contracts with law enforcement, ICE, and prisons. We joined with other concerned investors—and got the company to agree to a third-party assessment of these contracts. We hope this assessment leads Microsoft to "withdraw from all such harmful business relationships," says AFSC's Dov Baum. Visit our Investigate site. [link removed]

Money for war, but not for ending poverty: [link removed] Congress is arguing over a $3.5 trillion social safety net package. That plan would improve the health and well-being of most people in the United States. Meanwhile, legislators are proposing twice as much money for the Pentagon, writes AFSC’s Tori Bateman.

Tell public officials: Protect incarcerated people from COVID-19!: [link removed] More than 2,607 people have died from COVID-19 in U.S. prisons, jails, and detention centers. Hundreds of thousands more have tested positive. Government officials must do more to stop the spread. That includes granting clemency to people released to home confinement so they aren’t forced to return to prison.

Why AFSC uses the term “Israeli apartheid”: [link removed] For decades AFSC has called attention to the systematic inequality between Palestinians and Jewish Israelis. These inequalities are not just the result of the ongoing occupation. They are a reality for Palestinians in Israel, writes AFSC’s Mike Merryman-Lotze.

Why Biden's 'smart border' is a bad idea: [link removed] The administration’s border plans include more surveillance, drones, and other harmful technologies. This will further militarize border communities and undermine civil liberties, says AFSC's Pedro Rios. (Transnational Institute)

Be well and take care

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