Dear John,

Can you imagine being 16, a refugee from war-torn Syria, bullied and
beaten at school and then a far-right celebrity starts posting lies about
you, harassing you through his million-plus followers, using you to push
his racist agenda?

That was Jamal's life.

But you all stepped in, helped raise enough money for Jamal to hire top
lawyers, take his harasser to court and win enough money to establish a
charity to help others.

[1]Newspaper title: Tommy Robinson loses Jamal Hijazi libel case, BBC,
22nd July 2021

This is the story of SumOfUs, this is the story of us, together.

It's been repeated dozens of times this year: standing with Indigenous
people in Brazil as they successfully fought a government campaign to
evict them from their ancestral lands, supporting brave whistleblowers as
they take on Big Tech corporations in the halls of government, forcing
governments to support lifting the Covid vaccine patent so everyone can
have access to life-saving medicine...

Just, wow -- I hope you're proud, John. This has been a
historic year in many of the most tragic ways, but it's also been a
historic year for hope, for the power of collective action, for all of us
who are part of the 19 million-strong SumOfUs community.

Check out these amazing stories about what we achieved together this year.

[2]Text reads SumOfUs in 2021! On a Blue background.

We stood with Indigenous communities in Brazil when they were under
attack.

Brazilian President Bolsonaro's allies in Congress tried to rush through a
new law to displace Indigenous communities from their ancestral lands. The
greedy government wanted to sell pristine areas of the Amazon rainforest
to make way for devastating industrial projects, but 236,958 SumOfUs
members around the world united to support the Indigenous people and stop
the government's plans.

The SumOfUs community raised tens of thousands of dollars to fund an
international email system and newsletter so grassroots partners in Brazil
can communicate and organize globally, including paying for
transportation, food and logistics support for Indigenous leaders who
travelled to the capital Brasilia for the "International Indigenous
Mobilization" where they camped in front of Congress to protest against
the genocidal bills targeting their communities and homes.

The bill has been stopped for now, but we'll keep our eyes wide-open to
ensure this and other genocidal bills are scrapped forever.

[3]Photo: Protestor on stage speaking at Struggle for Life Camp, August
2021, Brasília
Struggle for Life Camp, August 2021, Brasília. Credit: Articulation of
Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, APIB 

SumOfUs supported Big Tech whistleblowers like Frances Haugen as they
entered government hearings.

90,000 people around the world signed a petition to show support for Big
Tech whistleblowers and thousands sent messages of gratitude for their
courage. We delivered our petition to Frances Haugen, Facebook
whistleblower, in Brussels, minutes before she testified in the EU
Parliament -- and several Members of the European Parliament came to
support our action too! The SumOfUs community also took to social media to
pressure the EU for strong legislation to regulate Big Tech.

Together with partners we hosted a panel featuring more key Big Tech
whistleblowers to listen to and amplify the voices of women and women of
color who are taking on Big Tech. We heard about the challenges faced by
Pinterest whistleblower Ifeoma Ozoma and former Facebook employee Yael
Eisenstat. We delivered our Big Tech whistleblowers petition to them as
well as your messages of support. Many who attended were moved and
thrilled by our community support, and our solidarity will help inspire
others to join the fight against Big Tech.

[4]Photo: Frances Haugen standing in front of a SumOfUs billboard,
surrounded by friendly supporters with SumOfUs signs. Newspaper heading
reads Profits before people: The Facebook papers expose tech giant green,
25 October 2021, Common Dreams

We made the Australian Government stand up to Big Pharma and support the
suspension of patents for Covid vaccines.

The TRIPS vaccine waiver will force pharmaceutical corporations to share
their life-saving Covid patents with more countries. But in order for this
to become a reality, the waiver needs the support of all World Trade
Organisation member countries. Australia was one of the last countries
standing in the way of the proposed waiver.

Together with our allies across Australia we put pressure on the Trade
Minister to support the waiver. 10,000 members signed our petition,
hundreds emailed the Minister and support for the waiver exploded on
Twitter. Our call was delivered at an in-person meeting with the Minister
where he shared his change of heart! Without our community, this wouldn’t
have happened.

We still need more countries to support the waiver, but we’re now one step
closer to forcing Big Pharma to put people’s health before profits.

[5]Newspaper heading: Australia to support vaccine waiver after months of
pressure from human rights groups, 8 September 2021, The Guardian

And that’s not all…

We're taking on the financial sector for their dirty support of fossil
fuels.

We pushed the German Central Bank President to drop his opposition to a
green economic recovery, eventually leading to his resignation. SumOfUs
mobilised tens of thousands of people across Europe to force the European
Central Bank to adopt climate neutrality as a binding policy and to start
stripping the worst polluters from its portfolio. We also forced major
insurer AXA to eliminate support for the worst fossil fuel projects in the
world, including fracking, Arctic drilling and tar sands production (with
help from a hard-hitting full page ad in the Financial Times that members
like you chipped in for!).

And just last week we heard that our campaign was successful to block the
French Government from sinking 700 million Euros into a massive gas
project in the Arctic!

[6]Photo: Three people holding petition boxes stand in front of an ice
sculpture that spells out 700,000,000 euros

We are fighting hard to protect our privacy in Brazil.

Facebook wanted to steal WhatsApp user's data and information with a vile
new mandatory policy. If users rejected it, they would be blocked out of
the app that connects over 2 billion people worldwide. Corporate abuse
101!

[7]Newspaper headline reads Facebook treats Brazilians like second class
citizens, 15 April 2021, Terra

Nearly 210,000 members across the world joined forces to say no! We
stopped the companies in one of their top markets, Brazil. SumOfUs united
dozens of civil society groups to position against WhatsApp and we
commissioned the one and only legal briefing laying out how the policy was
abusive and illegal resulting in administrative action against both
companies.

We were told that our strategy was pivotal for authorities to issue an
immediate ban of the policy rollout, positively affecting the over 2
billion global WhatsApp users.

 [8]Image of a laptop screen with lots of screenshots from Portuguese
media outlets. Newspaper title below reads WhatsApp backtrack is good news
for 2 billion users, 5 June 2021, Forbes

Together, we helped get Big Tech's harm to children on the agenda.

With our allies, we forced Instagram to shelve its terrible plan to build
a special site that targeted the most vulnerable children with ads and
content that research says causes eating disorders, bullying and suicidal
thoughts.

Over 125,000 SumOfUs members signed a petition calling for an end to
Instagram's plan and this was followed up with hard-hitting stunts that
garnered hundreds of global media hits. Research by SumOfUs on the risks
of Instagram to children was cited in several articles and delivered to
U.S. politicians before key hearings. We will keep on fighting until this
awful idea is scrapped entirely.

[9]Newspaper headline: 'She opens the app and gets bombarded': parents on
Instagram, teens and eating disorders, 13 October, 2021, The Guardian

This is just a tiny fraction of everything we’ve done together this year,
with many more wins to come. From protecting our internet to protecting
our planet to standing with the most vulnerable among us, our community
keeps showing up, keeps bringing hope and heart to the fight, and keeps
making me so darn proud.

[10]Text: Thank you on blue background



Thanks for all that you do
Emma, and the rest of the SumOfUs team


P.S. [ [link removed] ]Click here to check out all the amazing videos from our 10-year
anniversary celebration! There are so many more moments to celebrate
there.

 

 

SumOfUs is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

Please help keep SumOfUs strong by chipping in $3. [link removed]