A, you did this!

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Dear A,

Can you imagine being 16, a refugee from war-torn Syria, bullied and beaten at school and then a far-right celebrity starts posting lies about you, harassing you through his million-plus followers, using you to push his racist agenda?

That was Jamal's life.

But you all stepped in, helped raise enough money for Jamal to hire top lawyers, take his harasser to court and win enough money to establish a charity to help others.

Newspaper title: Tommy Robinson loses Jamal Hijazi libel case, BBC, 22nd July 2021

This is the story of SumOfUs, this is the story of us, together.

It's been repeated dozens of times this year: standing with Indigenous people in Brazil as they successfully fought a government campaign to evict them from their ancestral lands, supporting brave whistleblowers as they take on Big Tech corporations in the halls of government, forcing governments to support lifting the Covid vaccine patent so everyone can have access to life-saving medicine...

Just, wow -- I hope you're proud, A. This has been a historic year in many of the most tragic ways, but it's also been... a historic year for hope, for the power of collective action, for all of us who are part of the 19 million-strong SumOfUs community.

Check out these amazing stories about what we achieved together this year.

Text reads SumOfUs in 2021! On a Blue background.

We stood with Indigenous communities in Brazil when they were under attack.

Brazilian President Bolsonaro's allies in Congress tried to rush through a new law to displace Indigenous communities from their ancestral lands. The greedy government wanted to sell pristine areas of the Amazon rainforest to make way for devastating industrial projects, but 236,958 SumOfUs members around the world united to support the Indigenous people and stop the government's plans.

The SumOfUs community raised tens of thousands of dollars to fund an international email system and newsletter so grassroots partners in Brazil can communicate and organize globally, including paying for transportation, food and logistics support for Indigenous leaders who travelled to the capital Brasilia for the "International Indigenous Mobilization" where they camped in front of Congress to protest against the genocidal bills targeting their communities and homes.

The bill has been stopped for now, but we'll keep our eyes wide-open to ensure this and other genocidal bills are scrapped forever.

Photo: Protestor on stage speaking at Struggle for Life Camp, August 2021, Brasília
Struggle for Life Camp, August 2021, Brasília. Credit: Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, APIB

SumOfUs supported Big Tech whistleblowers like Frances Haugen as they entered government hearings.

90,000 people around the world signed a petition to show support for Big Tech whistleblowers and thousands sent messages of gratitude for their courage. We delivered our petition to Frances Haugen, Facebook whistleblower, in Brussels, minutes before she testified in the EU Parliament -- and several Members of the European Parliament came to support our action too! The SumOfUs community also took to social media to pressure the EU for strong legislation to regulate Big Tech.

Together with partners we hosted a panel featuring more key Big Tech whistleblowers to listen to and amplify the voices of women and women of color who are taking on Big Tech. We heard about the challenges faced by Pinterest whistleblower Ifeoma Ozoma and former Facebook employee Yael Eisenstat. We delivered our Big Tech whistleblowers petition to them as well as your messages of support. Many who attended were moved and thrilled by our community support, and our solidarity will help inspire others to join the fight against Big Tech.

Photo: Frances Haugen standing in front of a SumOfUs billboard, surrounded by friendly supporters with SumOfUs signs. Newspaper heading reads Profits before people: The Facebook papers expose tech giant green, 25 October 2021, Common Dreams

We made the Australian Government stand up to Big Pharma and support the suspension of patents for Covid vaccines.

The TRIPS vaccine waiver will force pharmaceutical corporations to share their life-saving Covid patents with more countries. But in order for this to become a reality, the waiver needs the support of all World Trade Organisation member countries. Australia was one of the last countries standing in the way of the proposed waiver.

Together with our allies across Australia we put pressure on the Trade Minister to support the waiver. 10,000 members signed our petition, hundreds emailed the Minister and support for the waiver exploded on Twitter. Our call was delivered at an in-person meeting with the Minister where he shared his change of heart! Without our community, this wouldn’t have happened.

We still need more countries to support the waiver, but we’re now one step closer to forcing Big Pharma to put people’s health before profits.

Newspaper heading: Australia to support vaccine waiver after months of pressure from human rights groups, 8 September 2021, The Guardian

And that’s not all…

We're taking on the financial sector for their dirty support of fossil fuels.

We pushed the German Central Bank President to drop his opposition to a green economic recovery, eventually leading to his resignation. SumOfUs mobilised tens of thousands of people across Europe to force the European Central Bank to adopt climate neutrality as a binding policy and to start stripping the worst polluters from its portfolio. We also forced major insurer AXA to eliminate support for the worst fossil fuel projects in the world, including fracking, Arctic drilling and tar sands production (with help from a hard-hitting full page ad in the Financial Times that members like you chipped in for!).

And just last week we heard that our campaign was successful to block the French Government from sinking 700 million Euros into a massive gas project in the Arctic!

Photo: Three people holding petition boxes stand in front of an ice sculpture that spells out 700,000,000 euros

We are fighting hard to protect our privacy in Brazil.

Facebook wanted to steal WhatsApp user's data and information with a vile new mandatory policy. If users rejected it, they would be blocked out of the app that connects over 2 billion people worldwide. Corporate abuse 101!

Newspaper headline reads Facebook treats Brazilians like second class citizens, 15 April 2021, Terra

Nearly 210,000 members across the world joined forces to say no! We stopped the companies in one of their top markets, Brazil. SumOfUs united dozens of civil society groups to position against WhatsApp and we commissioned the one and only legal briefing laying out how the policy was abusive and illegal resulting in administrative action against both companies.

We were told that our strategy was pivotal for authorities to issue an immediate ban of the policy rollout, positively affecting the over 2 billion global WhatsApp users.

Image of a laptop screen with lots of screenshots from Portuguese media outlets. Newspaper title below reads WhatsApp backtrack is good news for 2 billion users, 5 June 2021, Forbes

Together, we helped get Big Tech's harm to children on the agenda.

With our allies, we forced Instagram to shelve its terrible plan to build a special site that targeted the most vulnerable children with ads and content that research says causes eating disorders, bullying and suicidal thoughts.

Over 125,000 SumOfUs members signed a petition calling for an end to Instagram's plan and this was followed up with hard-hitting stunts that garnered hundreds of global media hits. Research by SumOfUs on the risks of Instagram to children was cited in several articles and delivered to U.S. politicians before key hearings. We will keep on fighting until this awful idea is scrapped entirely.

Newspaper headline: 'She opens the app and gets bombarded': parents on Instagram, teens and eating disorders, 13 October, 2021, The Guardian

This is just a tiny fraction of everything we’ve done together this year, with many more wins to come. From protecting our internet to protecting our planet to standing with the most vulnerable among us, our community keeps showing up, keeps bringing hope and heart to the fight, and keeps making me so darn proud.

Text: Thank you on blue background

Thanks for all that you do
Emma, and the rest of the SumOfUs team


P.S. Click here to check out all the amazing videos from our 10-year anniversary celebration! There are so many more moments to celebrate there.


SumOfUs is a community of people from around the world committed to curbing the growing power of corporations. We want to buy from, work for and invest in companies that respect the environment, treat their workers well and respect democracy. And we’re not afraid to stand up to them when they don’t.

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