Like many of you, we have been carefully following the news of President-elect Trump’s transition team and federal appointments. To respond to these emerging threats to human rights and inclusive democracy, we are organizing our team to contribute to the broader opposition while also shoring up support to our partners and networks facing severe challenges in the near future.

A brief snapshot of the threats to social and economic rights:

• Massive assaults on public health care programs like Medicaid and Medicare and likely repeal of the ACA are on the table.
• Privatization of public goods and services, from schools to social security, along with massive defunding of essential needs for our poorest communities, from food and cash assistance, to water, to transportation, and more.
• Threats to undocumented people, including students and workers, from increased bullying to hate crimes that push people out of schools and workplaces.
• Intimidation of workers organizing for workplace justice and abandonment of any enforcement efforts of workers’ rights at the federal level.
• Unraveling already strained social housing and community development through time limits, defunding, and moving of public subsidies into private hands.

In the weeks and months ahead we will:

• Defend the gains we have made in decriminalizing schools and ramp up the DSC’s Counselors not Cops campaign.
• Fight the appointment of Betsy DeVos as the head of Department of Education. DeVos is a billionaire dedicated to privatizing and gutting public schools. We will work with members and partners, and states threatened with vouchers and privatization of schools.
• Amplify efforts to protect already strained public goods and services like cash and food assistance, water, transportation, and more.
• Defend public healthcare programs that are threatened with cuts and/or privatization, and work with state and local level efforts to create alternatives to federal policy.
• Work closely with our partners to monitor threats to undocumented workers and engage local and state agencies to strengthen strategies for enforcement of workplace rights in this new landscape.
• Join efforts to fight the gutting of housing for our poorest families through documenting the impact of budget cuts, and working with partners and localities that oppose the Administration’s agenda to find alternative strategies.
• Amplify efforts to protect and defend undocumented communities and Muslim communities from further criminalization.
• Build a message across many cities and states for human rights and an inclusive democracy through promoting local resolutions, encouraging critique, and building larger alliances across our areas of work.

Our partners and the broader movement for economic and social rights will need everyone’s support. Please donate today, so we can continue our work with leading frontline campaigns that are protecting human rights in these challenging times.