What has always grounded our work at Puget Sound Sage and Sage Leaders is community self-determination – whether through advocating for community control of land, reimagining our energy infrastructure, democratizing the workplace, or supporting emerging leaders of color. Our vision for a Just Transition is an economy governed by deep democracy where Black, Indigenous and people of color communities thrive.
Today that democracy is being challenged, and we must do everything we can to protect and ensure that every vote is counted. We know that people of color and low-income communities are being impacted the worst by the current health and economic crisis, and face more barriers than ever to vote. Despite this, our country is seeing historic turnout and we need to make sure that our voices – especially those who have lost jobs, homes, and loved ones because of systemic racism and this pandemic – are heard.
We acknowledge the lifelong work of Black and Indigenous organizers, past and present, who have been demanding that we rewrite the rules and transform our neighborhoods into places where we can all live safely. The movement for social justice is seeing an unprecedented success: the Black Lives Matter movement is now the largest protest in American history.
We have seen throughout this year how the will of the people is changing what is possible. Now we must all stand together to protect our power to determine our future.
Within these weeks following the election, we commit to:
- Follow the lead of BIPOC leaders and communities most impacted by barriers to voting
- Ensure every vote is counted and an orderly transition of power
- Protect every person’s right to engage in our democracy, whether through vote, voice or action – free all protestors.
Working in partnership with BIPOC-led coalitions over the long term, we commit to:
- Create an equitable national election system
- Defund the police and abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
- No New Youth Jail
- Invest in Black communities
Join the call to protect our democracy
Puget Sound Sage and Sage Leaders is part of a broad local coalition of pro-democracy organizations to Count Every Vote and Protect Every Person. This is one of many efforts across the country to organize rapid response events through Protect the Results that may be activated depending on how events unfold between now and January 20th.
If there are efforts to interfere with the counting of votes or the safe, peaceful transfer of power anytime between today and the inauguration on January 20th, a rapid response will activate a multi-day peoples’ uprising in Seattle and across the nation.
Follow Sage’s Facebook page for updates on future events.
photo by The New York Times