Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun Media can be a problem. A big one. Extinction Rebellion just blockaded newspapers over their failure to report on the climate crisis. Meanwhile, a new report dispels the media narrative about the “violent” Black Lives Matter protests. The report finds that in 93% of the thousands of protests involving nearly…
#CancelRent, Bad Jazz, and Something Fishy About Nonviolence
Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun #CancelRent. Fifteen cities in the United States recently had uprisings for housing justice. People are occupying vacant homes, holding sit-ins at public offices, setting up encampments, and organizing anti-eviction blockades. Recently, the National Eviction Moratorium delayed evictions in federal housing until January … when tenants will be forced to pay…
Honduras’ Giant Murals, Miami’s Mangrove Swamps, and Defiant Postal Workers
Editor’s Note Follow the money is a popular activist slogan. In this week’s Nonviolence News, you’ll find that people take that advice literally – and creatively. To protest corruption, Hondurans have painted dozens of giant murals on highways asking “Where’s the money?” (¿Donde está el dinero?) Meanwhile, cities around the world are countering the pandemic…
From Blockades To Embroidery
Editor’s Note Moving beyond protests, people around the world are using nonviolent acts of noncooperation and intervention to strive for change. From blockades to embroidery, they’re using dozens of tactics. In Bolivia, 140 road blockades are shutting down the nation to stop the delays in their elections. Arizona schoolteachers, worried about unsafe school re-openings amidst the…
Election Uprisings
Editor’s Note Election uprisings are in the air. Mass protests in Belarus are decrying the elections results that claim Lukashenko won his sixth term with 80% of the vote while Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition candidate, was forced into hiding for fear of her safety. With police crackdowns, arrests of journalists, and repression of protests rocking…
Safe Schools, Healthy Kids, Ending Racism: Public Health As Nonviolence
Editor’s Note Public health is nonviolence in action. It’s a collection of policies and practices rooted in systemic and structural nonviolence as opposed to “systemic and structural violence“. For example, in a bid to stop obesity and diabetes, Oaxaca, Mexico, just banned the sale of junk food and sugary drinks to minors. It’s a stunning…
Rest In Power. Resist In Peace?
Editor’s Note Rest In Power, John Lewis. The news is full of tributes to congressman and civil rights legend John Lewis, praising his commitment to nonviolence and his lifelong efforts for racial justice. This is a week to remember and to mourn, not just for John Lewis, but for all of the people who have…
Got Dictators? Never Fear, Nonviolence Is Here
Editor’s Note: The United States is going through some growing pains. (Understatement of the year.) With secret police snatching protesters off the street, journalists being arrested for doing their jobs, and the Portland mayor being simultaneously tear gassed by federal agents and booed by his constituency (for doing the same thing to the protesters the…
Skywriting & Street Murals: Get Creative To Get The Message Out
Editor’s Note It’s been quite a week. Alternatives to militarized police are making headlines left and right. Virtual game players have been staging digital Black Lives Matter protests. A group with a biplane is skywriting the word “MapX” above migrant detention centers to reveal their locations across the United States. In the United Kingdom, citizens…
When We Organize, We Win
Editor’s Note: This week, three major fossil fuel pipelines were stalled, stopped, and shut down: the KXL, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and the Dakota Access Pipeline. This is a testimony to the millions of people who stood up at Standing Rock, in Nebraska, and along the many thousands of miles impacted by these pipelines. It…