Editor’s Note from Rivera Sun
The word is out: Nonviolence News is heartening, uplifting, and empowering. Welcome to each and every single one of our new readers. For our stalwarts, our new friends come from near and far. They heard about Nonviolence News through our collaborative outreach campaign with Nonviolence Now. It’s proof positive that thousands of people are yearning to hear the stories of nonviolence in action.
As you read today’s Nonviolence News, I hope you can feel the sense of solidarity with your fellow human beings as they also read these stories. Knowledge is powerful. Shared knowledge is even more powerful. Nonviolence News shows us that another world is possible. The stories teach us how to see our fellow human beings more clearly. We are strong. We are creative. We are beautiful. Nonviolence News lifts up the true – and incredible – stories of what people like us are doing to transform our world.
That lifts my heart. How about yours?
Photo Credit: Vanessa Nakate and other youth climate activists at Davos, Switzerland.
Pitch in today to be a part of this amazing effort
to bring stories of nonviolence to thousands of new readers! Thank you!
Massive Victory! Big Win For People and Planet: The CEO of BlackRock investment firm, which manages nearly $7 trillion in assets, promises to center sustainability and climate in its strategies. Read more >>
Doctors Prescribe Divestment For Health of People and Planet: The British Medical Journal boldly divested from fossil fuels and called upon readers, employees, other journals, and medical professionals to do the same. Read more >>
Moms4Justice Won More Than a House. They Won a Community: After a group of mothers occupied a vacant house in Oakland in protest of housing speculation, the company that owned the house agreed under public pressure to sell it at market value to the moms. The company also agreed to give community land trusts the right of first refusal on the 50 other homes they own in Oakland. Read more >>
Guardian Journal Pledges to Ban Fossil Fuel Advertising: In yet another sweeping divestment victory this week, the Guardian said it would no longer accept advertisements from the fossil fuel industry. Read more >>
Widespread Opposition Compels Gas Company To Withdraw Permit for LNG Export Terminal: Jordan Cove, Oregon, has kept out the LNG export terminal for years. Recently, they sent the vampire project back to the grave, using public outcry to compel the company to withdraw their permit application. Read more >>
Venice Residents Hold Boat Protest Against Cruise Ships: Hundreds came out in boats to protest the impact of cruise ships on flooding Venice. Read more >>
Seattle Nurses Strike: Chanting and carrying signs that read “patients over profits”, thousands of nurses began a 3-day strike. Read more >>
Activists Plan Boycott of U.S. Companies Backing India’s Anti-Muslim Policies: Activists from South Asian caste and religious minority communities are coming together to organize against Indian American businesses that support India’s moves toward stripping immigrating Muslims of citizenship rights. Read more >>
Honduran Nurses Continue Against Threatened Layoffs: Talks and negotiations over pay increases for nurses abruptly failed. Now, striking nurses are calling for government and management to renew good faith talks. Read more >>
Madrid Activists Protest Venezuela’s Guaido: Social activists rejected the self-proclaimed president who promotes an economic, financial, and commercial blockade against his own country. Read more >>
Protests Over Armenian Plan to Close Rural Maternity Clinics: Doctors and nurses protest the closures when “we worked even during war”. Meanwhile, mothers who were hoping to give birth in their home towns must now travel to the cities to receive care. Read more >>
South Korean “Mother Centers” Empower Parents Through Community-Based Initiatives: Single mothers often struggle in South Korea, but local “Mother Centers” — based on a German network of cooperatives — are empowering women to take charge of their futures. Read more >>
Ottawa Teachers’ Strike: Catholic school teachers in Ottawa, Canada, have been holding a series of one-day strikes; another is planned for next week. Meanwhile, public elementary school teachers have returned to bargaining in an effort to stop larger classrooms, lack of wage increases, reduced special needs funding, and more. Read more >>
Car Dealership Lets Homeless Park Their Cars At Night: A little compassion goes a long way. Structural violence is found in poverty, lack of affordable housing, and the other social supports that prevent homelessness. In this context, giving people a place to park their cars (read: their homes) is an act of nonviolence. Read more >>
US-detained Asylum Seekers Enter Fourth Month of Hunger Strike: Five men from south Asia have been refusing food in protest at their seemingly indefinite detention by US immigration police in Louisiana. Read more >>
#WeWantWitnesses: US citizens organize protests the unjust handling of Trump’s impeachment process. Read more >>
40+ Arrested, Thousands Swarm US Capitol To Demand Trump Impeachment: The day began with a large-scale silent protest inside the Hart Senate Building, where demonstrators “silently swarmed” in the center atrium to demand that the Senate see all documentary evidence and hear from all potential witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. Read more >>
Power to the People: Here’s a recap of the nationwide effort to gain public control of public utilities, including success stories and campaigns underway in California, New York, and more. Read more >>
Parents Protest Bullying and Fights: Taking action to protest outside their kids’ school, parents in this small desert town in California spoke up against the violence increasing in the school. Read more >>
180+ Arrests in Belgium: Extinction Rebellion Belgium organized a powerful and striking mass-action of civil disobedience on the busiest day of the Brussels Autosalon. About 250 rebels participated, with 185 arrests. Read more >>
The Caribbean Plastic Problem: Environmental groups throughout the Caribbean have pushed for single-use plastic bans. Enforcing the bans has proven to be a whole other set of campaigns. Here’s how people are working on it. Read more >>
Climate Kids Preparing for an Avalanche of 2020 Actions: Get ready. Activists have planned three days of national strikes, marches, and direct action against politicians and banks beginning on Earth Day (22 April); regular strikes on Fridays and additional strikes targeting primary elections in every state; plus an international day of action, college divestment campaigns; widespread voter mobilization campaigns; and a huge push by the Sunrise Movement to turn out the vote for Bernie Sanders and a Green New Deal. Read more >>
Ugandan Climate Activist Cropped from Davos Photo Calls for Racial Justice: “Climate activists of color are erased,” she said. “I [had] activists who messaged me to tell me that the same thing happened to them before but they didn’t have the courage to say anything,” Vanessa Nakate says. Read more >>
Jane Fonda & Greenpeace Bring Fire Drill Fridays to Los Angeles: Channeling the energy of the past few months, the movement will launch its next phase across California; bringing together activists, actors, and environmentalists to demand leaders address the climate crisis. Read more >>
Energy Justice Program Tackles Monopolies for Sake of Planet: The Center for Biological Diversity’s new effort will focus on utilities’ monopolies and reliance on fossil fuels. Read more >>
Three Veterans and a Peace Activist on the Military Draft: It sounds like the start of a joke about a bar, but it’s actually a 4-person interview that ran in a regional newspaper as youth panicked about the US-Iran conflict, the rumors of the return of the military draft, and increasing dislike of the forever wars. Read more >>
New York City Debates Divesting From Nuclear Weapons: the metropolis may declare itself a nuclear-weapons free zone and divest its pension and city funds from nuclear weapons. Read more >>
Count the Money! Campaign Pushes For Nuclear Weapons Divestment: The nuclear weapons industry has incredible political power and uses it to stimulate the nuclear arms race and expand the already colossal nuclear weapons budgets. To reverse this, the global Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign is promoting nuclear weapons divestment. Read more >>
Code Pink Organizes Apology Letter to Iran: The peace advocacy group CodePink is collecting American signatures for a letter apologizing to the Iranian people for U.S. aggression and warmaking. Read more >>
The 3% Plan to End Starvation By Trimming US Military Budget: World Beyond War says that all it would take to end world starvation is 3% of the US military budget … or 1.5% of all the world’s budgets combined. Is that too much to ask? Read more >>
Environmental Peacebuilding Is On the Rise, But What Is It? Environmental peacebuilding is an emerging field in both academic and practitioner communities that views environmental conflict as an opportunity to build peace rather than exclusively as a pathway to violence. Read more >>
Activists Use Artistic Face Paint to Defy Surveillance: With surveillance cameras everywhere, here’s how activists are using their faces as canvases to circumvent the rise of facial recognition software. Read more >>
African-American Quilts Contained Codes To Freedom: In an act of resistance to slavery, enslaved African-Americans used quilts hung from windowsills and clotheslines as a signal to others to help them escape to the North for freedom. Read more >>
Suitcase Sculptures Make the Case for Migrant Justice: Mohamed Hafez builds artist replicas of refugees emotional experiences inside suitcases. The sculptures are stunning. Read more >>
Santa Fe Artists Push Back Against Palestinian Mural Permit Denial: Santa Fe activists and artists are fighting back against their city’s decision to block the display of murals depicting the conditions of Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. Read more >>
Brooklyn Bakery Sends Impeachment Cakes to 53 Key Elected Officials: It’s time to impeach President Trump says this Brooklyn bakery that sent a memorable message to Republican lawmakers. Read more >>
How to Organize Your Workplace Without Getting Caught: Do you want to protest your company’s crappy record on sexual harassment? Are you thinking of unionizing? Here’s the Motherboard Guide to Secure Labor Organizing. Read more >>
Howard Zinn Remains Radical 10 Years After Death: Howard Zinn’s radical idea was that people acting collectively had agency. If you look closely, you’ll see that much of that agency was expressed through nonviolent actions. Read more >>
Does A Sense of National Identity Help Movements Succeed? A movement’s ability to harness national identity in a way that attracts support from both security forces and the broader public may help anti-regime movements succeed. Read more >>
Most Schools Stifle Indigenous Youth. Standing Rock Offered a Different Vision: A teacher and mother shares an inside look at the thoughtful and holistic approach to education during the Standing Rock encampments’ stand-off with the DAPL pipeline. Read more >>
What To Do When YOU Are the Abuser? An abuser turned therapist points the way forward and argues that both survivors and abusers need access to support. Read more >>
How Debt Abolition Can Be a DIY Action: It would be great if the US could forgive student loans en masse. Barring that, there are bold examples of how debt strikes can wage economic justice when other systems fail. Read more >>
End the US Military Draft! A bill has been introduced into US Congress to end draft registration for all genders and halt the plan to expand the draft to everyone. Here’s how to support it >>
Wet’suwet’en First Nation Pipeline Resistance Camp Supporter Toolkit: Here’s a guide to the numerous ways that you can support Wet’suwet’en and engage in solidarity actions. Read more >>
Transit Equity Day on February 4th: Labor Network For Sustainability has offered this toolkit in preparation for February 4th’s Transit Equity Day, a collaborative effort of several organizations and unions to promote public transit as a civil right and a strategy to combat climate change. (Feb 4 – Global) Learn more >>
Black Lives Matter At School Week: Feb 3-7, 2020, engage your local school in participating in Black Lives Matter and racial justice in schools. Read more >>
Embassy Protectors on Tour: The four Embassy Protectors who are facing federal charges are going on tour in the lead up to their jury trial on February 11. They’ll be in NJ, NY, PA, and CT from Jan. 24 to 28, in Amherst, MA on February 1 and in Washington, DC on Feb. 10. Learn more >>
How To Replace War with an Alternative Global Security System: Join this free webinar from World Beyond War on February 19 at 4:00pm EST about the alternative global security system laid out in World BEYOND War’s book. Presenters will explain the frameworks, processes, tools, and institutions necessary for dismantling the war machine and replacing it with a peace system based on common security. Learn more >>
United National Anti-War Coalition Aims to Unite US Peace Movement: UNAC has a big vision for their upcoming conference, Feb. 21 to 23 in New York City at The People’s Forum. Read more >>
Stop Deadly Sanctions: The new Sanctions Kill campaign is organizing to educate and mobilize to stop the sanctions. The first set of actions is March 13 to 15. Learn more >>
Solidarity With Palestine: Palestinians are calling for a global week of solidarity actions March 24 to 30. Find information on how to participate >>
1 thought on “Welcoming 5,000 New Readers! We All Need Nonviolence News’ Uplifting Stories”
Comments are closed.