All posts tagged: activism

We The People v Trump with Democracy Forward’s Skye Perryman

We The People v Trump with Democracy Forward’s Skye Perryman

Published by Sam Flores

 On this edition of The State of Belief, Democracy Forward President and CEO (and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World 2025) Skye Perryman is back to talk about the first year of this presidency. Democracy Forward has filed hundreds of court challenges to the administration’s unconstitutional power grab and has been remarkably successful in winning most of them. She stresses that not even the conservative Supreme Court has always sided with this administration and that lower court judges rejecting executive branch policies are sometimes Trump appointees themselves. Skye and host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush talk about the essential role for people of all faith traditions and belief systems to hold fast to their values and teachings regardless of the forces buffeting society, and how important maintaining community connections is to get through the enormous challenges we are all facing right now. “Courage is the new currency,” Skye often says, and stresses that there are many, many ways for people of good conscience to get involved in the work of …

The Threats of CEO Activism to the Democratic Process

The Threats of CEO Activism to the Democratic Process

Published by Jenni Sidey

We recently published an article in the Journal of Business Ethics reflecting on how CEO activism—the growing trend of CEOs taking public stances on political issues—affects the democratic process. The bulk of the article was written between 2021 and 2022. While this may not seem that long ago, much has changed since then. An increasingly reactionary practice In the early 2020s, most prominent activist statements made by CEOs supported progressive causes. The term “CEO activism” was primarily associated with statements in favor of stricter gun laws, expanded LGBT+ rights, and support for the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements, for example. Elon Musk, whom we only briefly mentioned in our paper, had just begun to take overt political stances in favor of the Republican Party. Peter Thiel, the PayPal founder who is famous today for his advocacy of a techno-libertarian ideology and his skepticism towards democracy, was relatively unknown to the general public at the time. The situation changed drastically with the 2024 U.S. presidential election, when Musk took CEO activism to new heights by using his …

Iran’s Nationwide Protests Feel Smothered After a Weeklong Crackdown and Internet Outage

Iran’s Nationwide Protests Feel Smothered After a Weeklong Crackdown and Internet Outage

Published by Sam Flores

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The nationwide protests challenging Iran’s theocracy appeared increasingly smothered Thursday, a week after authorities shut the country off from the world and escalated a bloody crackdown that activists say has killed at least 2,615 people. In Iran’s capital, Tehran, witnesses said recent mornings showed no new signs of bonfires lit the night before or debris in the streets. The sound of gunfire, which had been intense for several nights, has also faded. Meanwhile, Iranian state media has announced wave after wave of arrests by authorities, targeting those it calls “terrorists” while also apparently looking for Starlink satellite internet dishes, which offer the only way to get videos and images out to the internet. “Since Jan. 8, we saw a full-fledged war, and anybody who was in the gathering since then is a criminal,” said Justice Minister Amin Hossein Rahimi, according to a report Wednesday from the judiciary’s Mizan news agency. The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, as the country’s economy has been …