More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Around the world, women’s labor is undervalued and exploited. These are stories about national and global economies through the eyes of feminists.
With time, the resistance movement against Trump’s dangerous agenda will grow to include low-wage white workers, a third of whom live in the South and were perhaps initially pro-Trump, according to a prediction from Bishop William Barber II.
“The only way a king becomes a king is if you bow. And we cannot bow,” Barber said. “Bowing is not in our DNA. We have to stand in this moment.”
President Trump’s first seven weeks back in office have been spent abandoning the American people—tearing apart vital programs, withholding funds that save lives and purging the federal workforce. Last Tuesday, he addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time in his second term. Throughout the speech, he boasted about abandoning international agreements, expediting environmental deregulation and gutting federal resources.
John Mullin is the founder of the nonprofit Spending Spotlight, which is seeking to rally progressive consumers to redirect their individual spending patterns to counter the influence of corporate spending on right-wing causes. Recognizing, as he explained, that as a resident of Seattle, his “elected officials [were] already doing things on these issues that are in alignment with what I would like to see happen,” such that his vote was not “actually making a huge difference,” Mullin began to consider the idea of “voting” through the redirection of consumer dollars.
Mullin and his small volunteer team developed a strategically targeted plan for how consumers can shift their spending away from “companies using their dollars against our rights and freedoms.”
Republicans’ proposed Medicaid cuts would strip healthcare from millions, including half of U.S. children, one in five Americans, and 40 percent of all pregnant women.
With so much at stake for America’s women and families, representatives in Congress should be working to strengthen and expand Medicaid and the coverage it provides, rather than decimate a program that touches the lives of over two-thirds of this country. The fact that these cuts are even proposed, let alone have passed, is a sign that we are in an unprecedented moment of extremism.
On Tuesday, House Republicans passed a budget resolution—and it does not bode well for women and their families.
As the Democratic Women’s Caucus reported, the resolution includes more than $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid—which, by the way, covers 40 percent of births that happen in America. The budget also includes significant cuts to SNAP programs that support nutrition for poor families, and helps feed over 13 million American children. We’re already in a care crisis—and Republicans are hell bent on making it worse.
A grassroots movement is calling for a nationwide 24-hour economic blackout on Friday, Feb. 28, urging Americans to boycott major corporations and use cash at small businesses to protest corporate and government influence. The action is part of a broader wave of spending protests, including ongoing boycotts targeting companies that have rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
These economic protests coincide with growing dissatisfaction with the Trump administration, as approval ratings drop and demonstrations against its policies—such as cuts to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and proposed Medicaid reductions—gain traction nationwide. With low-income voters playing a key role in Trump’s base, the administration’s economic policies are fueling both resistance and debate.
President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are targeting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which is the government oversight agency charged with protecting consumers from unfair and unethical practices like predatory lending rates for everything from home mortgages to used cars, junk charges such as “resort” fees at fleabag hotels and surprise “processing fees” or “closing fees” that weren’t disclosed upfront for loans.
And it’s no mystery why; the CFPB has been effective. It has obtained nearly $20 billion in financial relief for U.S. consumers in the form of canceled debts, compensation and reduced loans since its founding.
Agencies continue to suspend funding, despite multiple court orders blocking the federal freeze. Experts say the Trump administration’s actions set the stage for challenges to Congress’ authority—and the limits of the presidency.
In his first few days back in office, President Donald Trump engaged in a whirlwind of executive actions, from exiting the World Health Organization to deploying military personnel and National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Many of these actions are unprecedented. Some appear to be illegal and unconstitutional, according to legal experts and judges. But none of them should come as a surprise—nearly all of them were outlined in 2022 in a plan called Project 2025.
We are learning just how deeply offended powerful men are by the idea that any limits might be placed on them. Faced with the most basic oversight, they have lashed out and are now determined to take bodily and economic autonomy away from the rest of us.