Frequently Asked Questions - RootsAction

How large is RootsAction.org?How do I join?Is my information private?How can I get in touch with the RootsAction team?Can I create a petition on your site?How is RootsAction funded?How do you use donations?Why don't you join with other great groups into one unified organization or alliance?I support your political critique and reform goals, BUT isn't it all hopeless?Can you point to any successes or worthwhile campaigns?  Where are RootsAction's graphic logos?

How large is RootsAction.org?RootsAction started its online activism at the beginning of 2011, and has had continuous growth ever since. We grew to 100,000 people by the end of 2011, and 200,000 by the end of 2012, 500,000 by the end of 2014, and over 640,000 in 2015.

How do I join?It’s as easy as providing your name, email address and zipcode here.

Is my information private?Yes. Here is our privacy policy.

How can I get in touch with the RootsAction team?Send us suggestions, questions and feedback here. Although our team is too small to respond to every communication sent in, we do read each and every one. Many are passed around to the entire RootsAction team and discussed – and some ideas and suggestions have been implemented.  

Can I create a petition on your site?Yes at http://DIY.rootsaction.org

How is RootsAction funded?As a nonprofit officially named “Action for a Progressive Future,” we rely on donations from members of the public. You can make a secure online donation to RootsAction.org here.  Or feel free to send a check to:     RootsAction.org    PO Box 10931Murfreesboro, TN 37129

How do you use donations?Except where donations are sought for a specific campaign, your financial contributions to RootsAction help us cover our tech infrastructure and support, and an editorial team of two and ½ persons. Due to our low overhead, we can accomplish a lot with a little funding. Please support RootsAction.

Why don't you join with other great groups into one unified organization or alliance?RootsAction works as often as possible in coalition with other progressive groups, and some of our best successes have been accomplished in these alliances. Having said that, we also believe there are advantages to a pluralistic approach, where different groups are using different tactics and strategies toward social change. We are basically an online group, but we work closely with offline groups that are a critical part of the solutions we need.

I support your political critique and reform goals, BUT isn't it all hopeless?You don't really believe that or you wouldn't be pleading for someone to prove you wrong. We can’t predict the future, but we believe we have a moral duty to work to make things better and to refrain from discouraging each other.  If you need to see successes to keep your spirits up, RootsAction has won some victories (see next FAQ).

Can you point to any successes or worthwhile campaigns?Here are just a few positive developments that RootsAction contributed to in some way, large or small:

In January 2017, President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, as RootsAction, among many others, had requested.

In January 2017, President Barack Obama sent $500 million to the Green Climate Fund, as RootsAction and many allies had demanded.

In January 2017, a court ruling finally answered pressure from RootsAction and allies to cease the medical neglect of Mumia Abu Jamal and other prisoners in Pennsylvania suffering Hepatitis C. The federal court ordered that treatment be provided within 21 days.

In December 2016, President Barack Obama banned oil drilling in portions of the Arctic and Atlantic, something that RootsAction, among others, had pushed for.

In December 2016, RootsAction protested a survey the Trump transition team had sent to Department of Energy employees apparently seeking to learn who supported protecting the earth from climate change. Reportedly employees refused to respond to it. The Trump team disowned it.

In December 2016, after pressure from RootsAction and many others, President Obama finally blocked some but not all weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.

In December 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers denied a permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline, which RootsAction had helped oppose. We will continue to oppose it in any other location.

In November 2016, Congress dropped its efforts to compel young women to register with Selective Service for a military draft. That was the outcome that RootsAction had promoted, along with abolishing Selective Service for men -- a step yet to be worked for.

After one state created automatic voter registration, RootsAction began flooding state legislators and governors with emails advocating following suit. By November 2016 six states plus the District of Columbia had created automatic voter registration, and one more (Illinois) needed only a vote for a veto override to join the list. Numerous other states by this time had legislation in the works.

In November 2016, RootsAction helped pass California's Proposition 59 asking elected officials to overturn Citizens United.

In November 2016, President Barack Obama abandoned efforts to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership, long opposed by RootsAction in coalition with many other groups.

In November 2016, RootsAction helped urge a yes vote on an initiative to create ranked-choice or instant runoff voting in Maine, and a similar initiative in Benton County, Oregon. The measures both passed.

In November 2016, the United States began allowing cancer vaccine from Cuba into the country, a move that RootsAction had pushed for.

In October 2016, a DIY RootsAction petition asked North Dakota to drop charges against journalists Amy Goodman and Deia Schlosberg. This was one part of a much wider outrcy over Goodman's indictment. The charges against her were dropped.

In September 2016 RootsAction pushed for the U.S. Congress to override the President's veto to pass a bill allowing 9/11 victims' families to sue Saudi Arabia. Congress did so.

In September 2016 pressure from a DIY RootsAction petition helped persuade the U.S. State Department to grant British whistleblower Craig Murray a visa to visit the United States to speak at a conference against war and to present an award to U.S. whistleblower John Kiriakou.

In September 2016 pressure from RootsAction and allies helped persuade the U.S. Army to cease violating *some* of whistleblower Chelsea Manning's basic rights. This struggle continues.

In July 2016, the U.S. government finally made public 28 previously censored pages of a Congressional report on 9/11 regarding evidence of Saudi Arabian ties to 9/11. RootsAction and allies had lobbied for that release.

In June 2016, RootsAction was part of a large coalition of groups that won improvements from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on mortgage loans in poor neighborhoods.

In April-May 2016, RootsAction petitioned the Prime Minister of Bosnia to cease retaliation against a whistleblowing company. The pressure was felt, and the government quickly allowed the company to resume operations and return its employees to work.

In March 2016, a DIY RootsAction petition urged Senator Bernie Sanders to refuse an invitation to speak at an AIPAC event. He did refuse.

In March 2016, RootsAction was part of a coalition effort that stopped legislation that would have privatized the Federal Aviation Administration.

In 2015, a DIY campaign to rename J.E.B. Stuart High School in Fairfax County resulted in the School Board creating a new method for renaming schools. Part Two is an effort to rename the school for Thurgood Marshall.

In December 2015, a DIY petition urged the Congressional Research Service to resume reporting on international weapons sales after a three year period since it last did so. Within weeks, the CRS released a new report.

In November 2015, President Barack Obama abandoned plans for the construction of one fossil fuel pipeline, the Keystone XL tarsands pipeline. RootsAction had joined with many others in opposing it.

In November 2015, the U.S. government made the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) public. RootsAction and others had demanded that it be made public as a means to facilitate defeating it.

In September 2015, Shell abandoned its arctic drilling plans which RootsAction and many other groups had opposed.

In September 2015, after long and intense efforts by RootsAction and coalition partners and many others, enough U.S. senators committed to supporting a nuclear agreement with Iran for the agreement to survive efforts to undo it.

In August 2015, after hunger strikes by prisoners and petitioning by many groups, including RootsAction, California ended indefinite solitary confinement and brought thousands of prisoners out of isolation.

In August 2015, Chelsea Manning faced the possibility of indefinite solitary confinement for the offense of possessing certain publications including the Senate Torture Report and for possessing toothpaste that was past its expiration date. RootsAction collected over 30,000 -- and together with allies 100,000 -- signatures and delivered them to the U.S. Army, generating media attention. Manning said there was no doubt she would have been put in solitary confinement for at least some time without the petition. Instead, although found "guilty," she was sentenced to 3 weeks without access to the library, gym, or outdoors.

In August 2015, the White House further tightened, at least slightly, the military's unloading of military weaponry on local police departments.

In July 2015, the United States and other Western nations reached a final agreement with Iran. RootsAction had been helping to hold off Congressional moves to prevent such a deal for years. That struggle continues.

Few expected the vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on June 12, 2015, to fail. That's why they held the vote! The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a job-killing, environment-destroying, 1% enriching, antidemocratic trade treaty, and briefly RootsAction and a great many allies slowed it down, raising awareness and building the movement to oppose it. President Obama made a trip to Capitol Hill on the day of the vote to pressure Democrats to vote for a measure that would have allowed "fast track" to proceed. Public pressure turned so many Democrats (and many Republicans) against this vote, that Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi turned against it. They held the vote, and it failed to pass. Congress maneuvered to pass Fast Track the following week, but the struggle to prevent the TPP goes on.

In May 2015, the U.S. government agreed to allow testing for U.S. use of a Cuban vaccine for lung cancer, following pressure by RootsAction and allies to allow various Cuban medical advances to be used in the U.S.

In May 2015, the U.S. Congress allowed some of the most abusive and abused sections of the Patriot Act to expire after RootsAction and allies had demanded just that. Congress then passed the USA Freedom Act which imposed some restrictions but was at best a very limited victory.

In May 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama moved to reduce war weaponry flowing to domestic police departments in the United States, something that RootsAction and others had pushed for, for months.

In April 2015, the United States and Iran negotiated an agreement -- by many accounts avoiding a war. RootsAction had been one group among a great many supporting that effort and helping defeat moves to block it in recent years (see below).

In February 2015, after RootsAction and many other organizations had for months pressed the Federal Communications Commission to protect Internet Neutrality, it voted decisively to do so.

In February 2015, President Obama vetoed a bill to allow the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to be built -- a veto that RootsAction had advocated for, as had many, many, many other organizations.

In late 2014 and early 2015, RootsAction was part of stopping the creation of what would have been the biggest and dirtiest trash incinerator in the United States, in Baltimore.

In January 2015, after a DIY.RootsAction.org petition pushed the United States to negotiate with North Korea rather than rejecting its offer to halt nuclear tests, the U.S. did begin negotiating -- with outcome yet to be determined.

In January 2015, after RootsAction and many other organizations had for months pressed the Federal Communications Commission to protect Internet Neutrality, it moved to do so.

In December 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice dropped its threat to imprison author and journalist James Risen if he refused to reveal his source for the reporting he'd done on Operation Merlin, in which the CIA gave flawed blueprints for nuclear weapons to Iran. RootsAction had organized a coalition to demand just this outcome and had collected over 100,000 signatures on a petition to the President and the Attorney General.

In December 2014, RootsAction and other organizations pushed hard for the release of a 500-page summary of a U.S. Senate report on torture by the CIA, which was released on December 9th. Specifically, we lobbied outgoing Senator Mark Udall to release the report if the committee did not. Udall threatened to do so. And immediately after the report was released, he spoke on the Senate floor and revealed more information that had not been included.

In November 2014, RootsAction was one of many several groups that pressured the U.S. Senate to vote no on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The Senate did so by one vote.

In September 2014, the Governor of California signed four bills that RootsAction, among others, had urged him to sign:

In September 2014, Google said it would cease funding ALEC, as demanded by RootsAction and a huge coalition of groups and individuals.

In September 2014, a DIY petition posted at DIY.rootsaction.org by the War Resisters League helped a broad effort that resulted in Marriott Hotels and the City of Oakland, Calif., both committing to not hosting the Urban Shield event in the future -- an event that markets military weapons to police.

In September 2014, a coalition including RootsAction won from the U.S. Department of Justice a commitment to investigate police violence in Ferguson, Missouri. Clearly, this is a first step and an ongoing campaign.

In July 2014, after RootsAction and many, many other organizations pushed Congress to block a new war on Iraq, the House passed a measure denying the President any ability to begin a new U.S. war there without a Congressional authorization.

In July 2014, RootsAction was part of a coalition effort that halted, at least for now, the construction of what would have been the largest trash-burning incinerator in the nation, near a school in Baltimore.

In May 2014, RootsAction and Demand Progress sent over 90,000 emails to the Federal Communications Commission urging that it back off plans to destroy net neutrality. The Washington Post reported: "The FCC ... has been flooded with more than 100,000 e-mails and calls to commissioners’ offices from consumers voicing concern about protecting the principle known as 'net neutrality,' which says that all content should be treated equally online." The FCC's final decision is not yet known.

In February 2014, a judge showed great leniency in sentencing three nonviolent protesters of nuclear weapons in Tennessee to sentences far below the federal guidelines, after their lawyer submitted 17,000 signatures and comments from a RootsAction.org petition.

In January 2014, a bill to create sanctions on Iran, effectively tear up a negotiated agreement with Iran on nuclear energy, and commit the U.S. to any war with Iran engaged in by Israel, looked likely to pass through the U.S. Senate. RootsAction helped, along with many, many other organizations to successfully stop that bill -- for now.

In December 2013 Russian President Vladimir Putin said two jailed members of the punk band Pussy Riot would be freed -- and they were. Months earlier, RootsAction had been early to widely communicate opposition to their imprisonment.

In November 2013 we flooded Bath, Maine, city council with emails opposing corporate welfare for General Dynamics' weapons construction, as a minor assist to a local campaign. The victory was partial, with the city council reducing but still providing tax breaks.

In September 2013 we flooded President Obama and Iranian President Rouhani with emails urging them to speak with each other about peace. Days later, they did so in what amounted to the most serious meeting between U.S. and Iranian leaders in decades. We continued to press for more talks and an end to sanctions and threats of war.

In August 2013 we, along with many other groups and individuals, helped compel President Obama to seek Congressional authorization before attacking Syria, and continued to pressure Congress to reject that request. In September 2013 we helped compel both houses of Congress to make clear to the White House that they would reject an authorization of war on Syria. The missiles were not fired, and the decision clearly turned on the Congressional opposition.

In May 2013 we urged the Governor of Connecticut to sign a bill, also promoted by lots of groups in Connecticut, creating a commission to advance conversion from a war to a peace economy.  He signed it.  We hope to help spread that model to 49 other states and the District of Columbia.

In 2013, we helped stop the Koch brothers from taking over the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and six other newspapers.

Our petition to the U.S. and Yemeni governments was part of an effort that freed from prison on July 23, 2013, journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye.

We led some of the earliest online campaigning in support of NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. 

Our petition urging that military whistle-blower Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning receive the Nobel Peace Prize became an international phenomenon. 

We've opposed the launching of U.S. wars in Iran or Syria, and we've pushed hard for an end to U.S. war-making in Afghanistan. The U.S. House of Representatives voted in June 2013 to require an end by December 2014.  

In 2012, we flooded the government of Ecuador with requests for asylum for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – which they noted, and which they granted. 

We led a coalition in 2012 that successfully obtained a visa to visit the United States for an Afghan peace activist who otherwise was being blocked.  

We supported a living wage campaign at the University of Virginia that has won wage increases.  

Our opposition to increased interest rates on student loans has been part of efforts that have, thus far, resulted in a partial victory.

For years, we’ve campaigned for no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits, and continuously demanded cuts to Pentagon spending as part of any budgetary discussions. 

We have been supporting a youth-led effort in the United States to legally force the government to address climate change, and that effort has won a victory in Texas district court.  

We helped lead the progressive opposition to Susan Rice's nomination for Secretary of State – over her investments in corporations backing Keystone pipeline.  

We’ve supported the movement to reject Citizens United, which has gained a great deal of attention, passing almost 300 local and several state resolutions.  

On several issues, including the Trans Pacific Partnership, we've received a lot of emails from our members thanking us for educating them, which is a valuable end in itself. 

We've helped push back, successfully so far, against attempts to eliminate Saturday mail delivery by the U.S. Postal Service. 

In 2012, we sparked a large coalition around NBC's pro-war "reality" show, called "Stars Earn Stripes," which was canceled.

We opposed indefinite detention power even before President Obama signed it; a federal court later blocked it. 

We’ve built a large coalition of groups gathering signatures against weaponized drones and, in 2013, had allies deliver the petition to officials in Pakistan.  

In 2013, we built pressure that removed the most egregious language from a Senate resolution that, as originally written, would have effectively given Israel the power to launch a U.S. war on Iran. 

In 2012, we came very close to winning a vote in the U.S. House to cut off military sponsorships of NASCAR and other sporting events; the Army announced it was ending NASCAR sponsorships. 

We formed, in 2012, an international coalition of poets against a life sentence for a poet in Qatar (punishment for reading a poem). His sentence has been reduced to 15 years. 

Where are RootsAction's graphic logos?

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http://rootsaction.org/about-rootsaction/faq