Call to Action
American democracy is under attack.
As writers and citizens, we cannot stand by and see our institutions dismantled. Please join us in the battle of our lives.
Call, email, write, and show up at the offices of your elected officials. Remind them government is by the people, for the people.
Register to vote and show up at the polls, especially in special and runoff elections. Find out if there’s an election near you and vote prepared and informed at vote.org.
Consider writing an OpEd for one of our nation’s online or print publications (see guidelines below) or submit to our Substack page.
Join Writers for Democratic Action. We’ll keep you informed of specific campaigns and opportunities to volunteer locally. You can also check out our Civic Action Toolkit.
Don’t have a state WDA chapter? Form one. Contact us, and we’ll get you started.
STOP U.S. MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL
We members of the National Steering Committee of Writers for Democratic Action are appalled by the carnage being inflicted on the people of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces. With its refusal to alleviate the hunger of starving Gazans and its ongoing campaign of sadistic destruction, the government of Israel is violating not only the laws of war, but every norm of human decency. As American writers, we join the chorus of those demanding an immediate end to the military support the United States is providing Israel for its immoral and illegal war.
WE MUST SPEAK OUT.
WE MUST ACT TO STOP THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA.
As writers we have a responsibility to use our words to speak out when others are silenced.
We have a responsibility to speak against the oppressors and the autocrats who seek to use their power simply to maintain their power. Today, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has created a strategy of permanent war—against the Palestinian people and engulfing his own citizens in Israel—Jewish and Palestinian citizens alike—in an endless war without strategy or purpose.
This week, the Israeli government decided to commit further to an endless and mindless war against the Palestinians in Gaza, against nearly all global public sentiment and against all reason or morality.
We are speaking out against the horror of starvation in Gaza, used as a war strategy by the Netanyahu government and appeased by the Trump Administration.
We are speaking out against the murder of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed and being killed in war, lives extinguished.
We are speaking out against genocide against the Palestinian people.
We are speaking out on behalf of the 50 Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza, imprisoned by Hamas, intentionally starved and captive in tunnels, anticipating their own deaths, abandoned by their own government.
We are speaking out in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who take to the streets repeatedly, day and night, to tell their government enough. Feed the hungry. Negotiate to bring home the hostages. Stop sending Israelis to fight an endless war solely to remain in power.
We are speaking out in support of the more than one thousand Israeli writers and artists who signed a petition calling for an end to the war in Gaza, and in solidarity with the civil and human rights organizations that are defending their rights to speak out as artists, as the government seeks to silence and punish them.
We are speaking out in support of innocent Palestinian civilians living under Israeli military rule in the West Bank and against the military regime sanctioned by this Israeli government in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. There have been at least three deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians this summer so far (one was a joint Palestinian American citizen), all murdered by renegade Jewish settlers, allies of ministers in this Israeli government. No one has been arrested or brought to trial for these murders.
We are speaking out to say to the Trump Administration, when you stand idly by, you are complicit—complicit in starvation, complicit in murder, complicit in an endless cycle of needless warfare.
We are speaking out to say that we know there is another way.
It is the way of words.
It is the way of diplomacy.
It is the way of hope.
It must be the path toward peace.
We are speaking out on behalf of the creation of a free and independent state of Palestine with full membership in the UN and other international organizations.
But Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has no interest in diplomacy or hope. He wants endless warfare, and endless rule for his criminal regime. Life—Palestinian and Israeli alike—is not precious to him. Human life is precious to us. All lives. All people.
We ask you to join us in supporting these organizations that are feeding the Gazan people:
World Food Program, World Central Kitchen, and Anera
We ask you to contact your elected officials to tell them enough. The United States government has the power to stop this tyranny. Sitting idly by is complicity.
The Art of Peace: On Amichai, Darwish, and the Poetic Imagination
by Yahia Lababidi
Consequence Forum, August 6, 2025
WDA STANDS WITH PUBLIC MEDIA!
Writers for Democratic Action staunchly opposes the demolition of public media in the United States under the current rescission bills put forward by the House and Senate. National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service have, for decades, provided an essential conversation for all of America on radio and television both. The news divisions of both enterprises have set the standard against which all broadcast journalism is measured.
NPR provides a free-flow of trusted information for over 30 million Americans weekly at pennies to American taxpayers. Many of those listeners are from rural and underserved communities. For over 50 years, beginning with the inception of rural land-based and university-based stations, NPR has provided the structure of true commonwealth, giving voice to the voiceless, and supplying vital knowledge about health, weather, elections, agriculture, literature and art. NPR informs, entertains, educates, and even saves lives.
For half a century, PBS has formed the heart of television at its best. PBS programming redefined what broadcast media could be for children. It remade the documentary form to center history, culture, and worthy entertainment. A nation needs a common language, common stories, and common images, and PBS has provided them. Public Broadcasting has kept the public good––not commerce––at the center of its commitment.
Without the trustworthy values advanced and protected by NPR and PBS, propaganda can replace critical thinking, and democracy itself can shrivel. Autocracy cannot tolerate the free-ranging inquiry and counter-narratives that publicly supported media make possible. The Republicans in the House and the Senate are attacking this pillar of civic virtue at just the worst time, as journalism itself undergoes a crisis of survivability, with the epidemic of newsroom layoffs, take-overs by profit-obsessed corporations, and the destruction of community newspapers everywhere.
Writers for Democratic Action calls for the renewal - not the demolition – of public media. NPR and PBS must be protected. Take one example of the stakes: In 2001, PBS featured Bob Marley on American Masters, and in 2025 honored what would have been his 80th birthday with a concert featuring his great – and ever more relevant – lyric: “Get up, stand up! Stand up for your right! Get up stand up, Don’t give up the fight!”
What a 1964 Book About American Anti-Intellectualism Can Teach Us About the Trump Era:
On Richard Hofstadter & the Current Assault on Academia
By Peter Balakian
Literary Hub, July 9, 2025
Our deep thanks to the 2,100 U.S. towns and cities AND the estimated 5 million people who participated in the NO KINGS DAY protests nationwide!
NO KINGS’ DAY
JUNE 14 — NATIONWIDE
Organized by 50501 Movement
Writers for Democratic Action mobilized on Saturdays, April 5th and 19th to stop the MAGA assault on our country and Constitution. Now, please join us and millions of other Americans across the nation on Saturday, June 14th, when we will take to the streets to peacefully defend our freedoms, our rights, and our future. When those in power try to silence us, we rise louder. When they attack our communities, we fight back—together. Join us on June14th!
Find a protest in your area HERE.
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Drawing by Laurent Corvaisier @lemondefr
A Reflection on the Neofascist Character of the Trump Administration & the MAGA Movement
By Siri Hustvedt
Published in Le Monde
April 9, 2025
Stand with The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights!
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) published a new rule that gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) broad access to the immigration status of sponsors and families of unaccompanied children for enforcement purposes and removes safeguards against release denials based solely on a sponsor's immigration status.
This rule went into effect on March 25, 2025 (the same day the Rule was published) and comments are due May 27th. The Rule eliminates a provision of the ORR Foundational Rule that includes critical protections for unaccompanied children and their families. The deleted provision states that “ORR shall not disqualify potential sponsors based solely on their immigration status and shall not collect information on immigration status of potential sponsors for law enforcement or immigration enforcement related purposes. ORR shall not share any immigration status information relating to potential sponsors with any law enforcement or immigration enforcement related entity at any time.”
Federal law requires federal agencies to consider public comments submitted about these kinds of rules. That's why we need as many people as possible to send in unique comments opposing this rule. You can use our template language, set up in the form by clicking below. You can also submit a comment directly through the government website. (One note: while we encourage you to share personal experiences that are relevant, please do not share any names or identifying information about clients.)
Thank you for standing with immigrant children and their families!
Join Us for a TOWN HALL on Wednesday, July 2th!
Consider writing an OpEd for one of our country’s prominent online or print publications!
See The OpEd Project guidelines here.
Oppose the Attack on Education!
Donald Trump and his administration have drafted an executive order to eliminate the US Department of Education, which was created in 1979 to coordinate most financial assistance to education. The Department's mission is to serve America's students by ensuring equal access. Make no mistake: this is an attack against the marginalized. This is an attack against literacy. This is an attack against our fundamental rights.