Editor’s Note from Rivera Sun
It’s that time of year when every blog and news journal in the world starts sharing recaps of 2019. This report on 99 good news stories in 2019 caught my eye. As I was scrolling down the list, I noticed that so much of the “good news” was also Nonviolence News. “Good news” is often about nonviolence toward people and planet, lives saved, ecosystems protected, human rights secured, and more. Nonviolence News is good news, and good news is rooted in nonviolence. When we look at what’s happened around the world this year, nonviolence and nonviolent action have played a starring role. As I look back at 2019, my sentiments echo the Algerian protester above: nothing can stop us.
The year 2019 also marks the emergence of Nonviolence News as a weekly newsletter. We have had a remarkable year since we launched in May 2019. In the past six months we have:
- Collected and shared 1,852 nonviolence stories (wow!)
- Sourced nonviolence stories from over 320 journals and websites
- Celebrated 169 victories and success stories in nonviolence (small and large)
- Gathered stories from 100+ countries
- Written and placed articles inspired by the newsletter in 41 journals
- Reached hundreds of thousands of people with Nonviolence News
In 2020, I think it’s time to hear from YOU. Has reading Nonviolence News changed you? Inspired you? Uplifted you? Have these stories given you ideas for action? Have you retold a story to a class, friend, or activist group? Tell me your story in 1-5 sentences and I’ll highlight you in 2020. Send a message to rivera@riverasun.com. Feel free to include a photo.
With gratitude for everything that happened in 2019
and excitement for all that’s coming in 2020,
Rivera Sun, Editor
Photo Credit: Amiri Yacine, 26, a student, poses for a photograph during a protest rejecting the December presidential election and against the country’s ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria. 15 NOV 2019. Reuters/Ramzi Boudina
PS Last week’s story about Canada protecting a forest the size of Tasmania was actually about Australia. We’re still glad to hear it.
How do I find 1,852 stories? With a little help from my friends. Thank you.
Donations = more Nonviolence News
Here are some recent successes brought about by nonviolence in action.
Goldman Sachs announces that it will no longer finance arctic drilling projects. Editor’s Note: Special thanks to the ShellNo campaign, Indigenous organizers, and many others for delaying, stalling, pressuring, and raising the costs on Arctic drilling. We’re finally turning the tide. Now, onto the next banks. Read more >>
Indigenous teenagers in Alaska led a campaign to get lawmakers to pass climate emergency resolution. They listened. Read more >>
New Jersey immigrants just won Licenses for All, allowing undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses. Read more >>
Kansas City, MO, adopts their first-ever Tenants’ Bill of Rights. Read more >>
Tennessee State Capitol will replace a KKK statue in the capitol building. They’re considering women (since all the other statues are men), and Dolly Parton’s name has come up. Read more >>
Katelynn Hardee, a 5-year-old kindergarten student at Breeze Hill Elementary School in San Diego’s North County, raised money by selling hot cocoa and cookies and used that money to pay off 123 students’ lunch debts. Editor’s Note: While we can – and should – celebrate this example of kindness and action, we should also remember that the school itself could have a lunch debt jubilee, or that the federal government could fully fund the lunch program. Individual action and collective, systemic action must both be called for. Read more >>
Supreme Court blocks cities’ attempts to persecute the homeless using camping bans. Read more >>
Brown University votes to divest from companies violating Palestinian rights. Read more >>
Here’s how people are taking action this week for a wide range of causes.
7 protest moments that defined 2019 from Climate Strikes, #FireDrillFriday, Chile, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, and Amazon and Uber protests. Read more >>
Resistance to the coup in Bolivia has been successful via three strategies –road blockades, nonviolent protests of thousands that gathered force rather than diminishing in the face of massacres, and intensely collective decision-making. Read more >>
Colombia is undergoing a historic moment of social transformation and struggle. Hundreds of thousands of people have joined the uprising against the criminal, neoliberal and repressive government of president Ivan Duque including famous musicians, beauty queens and athletes. Read more >>
In photos: India’s new citizenship laws spark massive protests. Six people have been killed in clashes with the police. Read more >>
After initial reports of violence between police and students at Jamia Muslim University protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act, students from universities located in many parts of India expressed solidarity with Jamia students and continued protest marches post-midnight. Read more >>
Mauna Kea telescope resisters warily hopeful after Hawaii Governor withdraws law enforcement from site. The blockade and demonstrations have been on-going for over 5 months. Read more >>
Thousands protest against crackdown in Lebanon’s capital. The day after security forces disperse demonstration, protesters march on parliament to call for an independent government. Read more >>
France braces for holiday traffic jams and challenges as nationwide strike over pension changes continues. Read more >>
France records 391-mile traffic jam as public transport brought to halt by third week of strikes over pension changes. Read more >>
Angered over lack of electoral reform, opposition groups in Georgia have been trying to thwart the government’s work with hit-and-run pranks and protests. Parliament had to be evacuated this week after protestors deployed a stink bomb. Read more >>
Meanwhile, the Georgian government held a mass demonstration partly to claim that its supporters can outnumber protesters. Read more >>
On eve of 7th anniversary of Sandy Hook Massacre, mom of murdered child says, “choose love” and provides social-emotional learning curriculum in an effort to prevent school shootings. Read more >>
United Kingdom bus workers are on strike, affecting 60 locations in the midst of holiday bustle. Read more >>
German union extends Amazon warehouse strike through Christmas. Read more >>
Over 500 Honolulu airport workers went on strike in Honolulu, Hawaii, amidst one of the busiest travel times of the year. Read more >>
15,000 Northern Ireland nurses ended strike without achieving stated demands for pay parity and safer staffing levels; more mass action is brewing. Read more >>
Wildcat strike launched by University of California Santa Cruz grad students. The teaching assistants are refusing to grade final papers at the end of term until they are given a cost of living increase. Read more >>
Venezuela Embassy Protectors denied right to a fair trial after their arrests for occupying the embassy at the invitation of the Maduro Administration during Guaido’s attempted coup. Read more >>
Mourners and protesters in a DC funeral procession carried an empty casket with plastic candles. The mass funeral remembered the 81 people who died in 2019 while experiencing homelessness in D.C. Read more >>
In a show of defiance, dozens of American Indian community members returned to a former homeless encampment in south Minneapolis late Friday, declaring their reoccupation of the site a protest to demand more emergency shelter beds and fewer barriers to housing. Read more >>
Nonviolence towards the Earth is nonviolence toward humanity. Here are ways people are working to save the planet . . . and our species.
Extinction Rebellion’s beautiful enewsletter shows you inspiring photos of creative action from climate activists all over the world. Read more >>
COP25 was a failure, but activists’ collective organizing at the talks was unprecedented. Read more >>
A mom reflects on re-reading Rachel Carson, finding wonder amidst ecosystem breakdown, and the challenge of parenting through climate collapse. Read more >>
A group of climate protesters had to hop out of the way of a slow-moving coal train in West Boylston, Massachusetts, on Monday after the conductor was unwilling — or unable — to stop. The activists were able to escape the situation with no injuries. Read more >>
Nonviolence unleashes our human creativity.
Here are some ways creativity and the arts merged with social action this week.
Young Colombians are using a climate lawsuit against the government to spark collective action, street art and music performances at festivals and schools. Art offers new opportunities for engagement to Colombia’s ethnically diverse and geographically dispersed people. Read more >>
Life-size terra-cotta statues in Gaza embody Palestinians’ pain and suffering in an area abandoned due to Israeli bombings. Read more >>
A picture is worth a thousands words: check out these portraits from the front lines of global protests. Read more >>
We are fortunate to live at a time when there is so much knowledge about nonviolence
available to explore. Here are some articles that invite us to dig deeper.
Chile’s subway fare hike protests escalated into a mass movement. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg: global inequality is driving global protests. Read more >>
How to sponsor an immigrant or asylum seeker in your home as an act of resistance to US immigration policy. Read more >>
After meeting inmates studying nonviolence, this peace and justice activist was convinced the inmates were needed back in their communities to nurture and guide their children and those of their neighbors. Read more >>
The United Nations released new guidelines on disability inclusion in humanitarian action. These efforts in humanitarian work may offer insights for campaigners in nonviolent movements who may be excluding current and potential activists. Read more >>
Hope, Resistance, and the Revolution in 2019. A look at this year’s mass movements. Read more >>
Occupy Wall Street’s legacy runs deeper than you might think, influencing movements, policy, popular opinion, debt cancellation, and more. Read more >>
Michael Nagler of Metta Center reviews Gandhi the Organizer and explains why reading the book could not only change your life … it could change the world. Read more >>
Why be a pacifist? From developing a pacifist economy to addressing structural injustice, author Tim Gee discusses the challenge and potential of pacifism in the 21st century. Read more >>
Here’s a fascinating 10-part podcast on a French village’s extraordinary nonviolent resistance to the Nazis in World War II. Read more >>
Here are a few upcoming actions inviting your participation and support.
End the US Military Draft! Bill introduced to end draft registration for all genders and halt the plan to expand the draft to everyone. Read more >>
Be the Revolution Summit: How to Create Vision, Strategies & Solidarity for Sustainable Social Movements. FREE Online Summit, JAN 6-31. Find out more >>
Movement Generation’s May 2020 Justice & Ecology Retreat in Occidental, CA. Read more >>
Apply now for the 2020 Block, Build, Be retreat and training with Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Read more >>
500 groups issue plan to pressure the next US president (whomever it may be) to take 10 steps in the next administration’s first 10 days to address the climate crisis. You can join in. Read more >>
Sign up for World Beyond War’s 6-week course starting in January, War Abolition 101: How Do We End War? Read more >>
Feb 3-7, 2020, Black Lives Matter At School Week – engage your local school in participating! Read more >>
Your support makes this possible. Thank you. Donate here.
Nonviolence News is a sister project to Nonviolence Now. Nonviolence Now is a campaign that is intended to introduce and share stories of nonviolence, and to ignite the potential of principled nonviolence globally.
Author/Activist Rivera Sun has written many books and novels, including The Dandelion Insurrectionand The Way Between. She is a nationwide trainer in strategy for nonviolent movements and her essays are published in journals across the country and around the world. You can find out more about here at: www.riverasun.com