Your 5 Minute Activist Links for April 1, 2008

** Amnesty International **
Demand the release of 15 Tibetan monks who were detained on March 10 for staging a peaceful demonstration in Barkhor, Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. There is no information on their current whereabouts or of any charges brought against them. They are at high risk of torture and other ill treatment.

** American Jewish World Service **
The genocide in Darfur has entered its sixth year. The Sudanese government has reinvigorated its campaign to frighten, displace and kill civilians, raising fears of an increasingly deadly cycle in the ongoing conflict.
Congress will soon determine funding levels of U.S. international assistance—money that can be used immediately to help meet the needs of the Darfuri people. AJWS needs your help to ensure that Congress provides adequate funding for both humanitarian aid and peacekeeping.
Click here to take action now.

** Working America **
We are approaching a critical moment in the campaign to stop the foreclosure crisis. The U.S. Senate is considering a bill (S. 2636) with a key provision that would fix bankruptcy policies to allow borrowers to restructure their mortgages in bankruptcy court.
Right now, more than 600,000 families may lose their homes. We can stop this from happening, but we need our senators to do the right thing.
Can you urge your senators to vote to let families restructure their mortgages in bankruptcy?

** League of Conservation Voters **
2007 was the earth's second warmest year on record - only 2005 was warmer. And last week scientists discovered a piece of Antarctica the size of Connecticut is breaking off.
Please join me in telling the House: Global warming is the greatest environmental crisis we face, and we need solutions now!


** Laborers' International Union of North America (LiUNA!) **
Now more than ever America needs relief from the housing and mortgage crisis. As many as 3 million families face foreclosure. In 2007 alone, 232,000 construction workers lost their jobs. And the crisis threatens retirement security.
But under a little-known provision of the Foreclosure Prevention Act pending in Congress, corporate homebuilders would get as much as $33 billion in tax breaks—even though they made billions in profits through subprime lending and speculative investors that helped create the current crisis.
Much of the Foreclosure Prevention Act provides needed help for families in distress, but it should not reward corporations that put them in distress. Tell your Senators now!