Have you heard Gandhi’s four-step recipe for victory? “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win,” he said. We’re seeing examples of this every day at Avaaz’s new petition site where members are launching their own campaigns to change the world in ways big and small.

Here’s how the recipe works:

1. Tell friends about an issue you care about in your community or the world and ask them to show their support with our community petitions site.
2. If the petition goes viral, the media pays attention and the bad guys say: “You’ll never win!”
3. The Avaaz community charges in with global backing and resources to fight the opposition. Public support balloons and decision makers are forced to reckon with it. Together, we start turning the tide.
4. And then we win.

Now it’s your turn. Launch the next game changing campaign at Avaaz’s new community petitions site: :

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?cl=2276207643&v=20060

The recipe worked for Shanker, an Avaaz member from India whose brother tragically took his own life when he couldn’t escape the clutches of a imperious employer. Shanker’s brother’s employer had lured him to Bahrain with a misleading job offer and then blocked him from ever leaving the country. When Shanker found out that 100 of his brother’s co-workers were trapped as well, he launched a petition on the Avaaz site and 20,000 people around the world joined it, leading the corporation to set all of it’s trapped workers free!

All of us have the power to spur changes like this. We just need to share our passion with each other and pool our voices. If there’s something happening in your community or the world that you’d like to change, start a petition today:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?cl=2276207643&v=20060

With hope,

Joseph, Ian, Ari, Ricken, Marie, Oli, Adam and the whole Avaaz team

ThinkProgress War Room

Another Way the GOP Favors the Wealthy Over Everyone Else

While much of the discussion around the fiscal showdown has rightly focused on the top tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, there are a lot of other very important tax issues to sort. Notably, many expanded tax credits for low-wage workers and other important tax credits, such as the American Opportunity tax credit, will disappear at the end of the year if they are not extended.

The Senate has already passed a bill extending these important tax credits as well as the current tax rates for 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses, but Republicans are holding those tax cuts hostage in order to get more tax breaks for the wealthy.

Our colleagues put together a handy infographic showing how Republican plans would impact different families.

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The Federal Reserve made a big move to help improve the economy.

Things in Syria are getting even worse.