Editor’s Note from Rivera Sun
Who are the world’s leading experts in people-powered change? People, of course. The brave humans on the front lines of waging struggle, building solutions, challenging injustice, and organizing their communities are learning on their feet, in the streets. We can learn a lot from watching one another. This week, I wrote a short, super-helpful piece, “10 Take-Away Lessons From Nonviolence News“, which highlights ten pro-tips we can learn from stories in last week’s news.
The LA Teachers Strike can teach us about the ripple effect of working for change. High school students illuminate when (and why) it’s time to stop playing by the rules. Sudanese revolutionaries show us how to encourage police and soldiers to be tolerant of protesters or even take our sides. Backyard gardeners reveal the power of Gandhi’s constructive program to engage people in stopping climate change. And much, much more! Find the article here.
In our featured image (above), University of California Santa Cruz graduate students are going rogue on the union with a wildcat strike for wages that match the cost of living in the nation’s most expensive city. One of the Nonviolence News’ stories this week, “Why You Should Care About The UC Santa Cruz Grad Student Strike“, offers take-away lessons for workers in all sectors. Nonviolence News is all about learning from our fellow human beings – and applying that knowledge in our own efforts for change.
What will you learn from this week’s news?
Lead Photo Credit: UC Santa Cruz Grad Students cleverly protest in a crosswalk with matching signs.
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Heathrow Airport Expansion Rejected By Court of Appeals: In a HUGE victory for climate justice, and especially Extinction Rebellion UK, the courts ruled that a planned Heathrow Airport expansion could not proceed as it did not comply with the UK’s climate goals or carbon emission reduction targets. Read more >>
“Goliath” of a Coal Mine Stopped In Brazil: What would’ve been Latin America’s largest open-pit coal mine was stopped by a federal court Friday, thanks to a diverse campaign of marches, public education and advocacy. The court said the coal company’s failure to consult the local Indigenous population was a key factor. Read more >>
Teck Withdraws Frontier Mine Proposal: The company behind the largest-ever proposed tar sands mine has rescinded the application in recognition of Indigenous rights and title, the climate, and the uncertainty of construction in Canada. The company, Teck Resources, said that uncertainty over climate policy and protest in Canada convinced them to pull out. Read more >>
Texas Episcopalian Church Puts $13 Million Toward Racial Justice: Founded by a slave-owning Confederacy supporter, today this Episcopalian Church is working to fund racial justice and reparations. Read more >>
Sisters Gather 700,000+ Signatures To End Kellogg’s Palm Oil Use: These two kids pledged not to eat Kellogg’s cereal and organized others to pressure the company not to use palm oil. Read more >>
“A Historic Victory” for Survivors and the #MeToo Movement: Harvey Weinstein’s conviction is a major step forward in the effort to end sexual abuse and hold perpetrators accountable. Read more >>
Philippines Enacts Province-Wide Ban on Coal Power: In the Philippines, a new ban on all new coal-fired power station projects in the province of Antique has passed after years of anti-coal protests in the region. The provincial board said the ban was because of the damaging effects of coal to communities’ health. Read more >>
Uzbekistan Tree Lovers Score Rare Win: Developers in Uzbekistan have usually been able to chop down large numbers of trees with impunity. But things may be changing, slowly. Read more >>
Even ‘Worst Fossil Fuel Banker’ JPMorgan Chase Will No Longer Fund This Way of Destroying the Planet: The bank will stop backing extraction projects in the Arctic and phase out loans for coal by 2024. “These are small concessions that leave them the largest funder of the climate crisis—but it proves citizen power can work!” Read more >>
UCLA Abandons Plans For Facial Recognition Software: In a major victory for the movement against facial recognition, UCLA’s Administrative Vice Chancellor announced that the school is abandoning its plan to use the controversial technology. The decision comes after widespread community backlash and amidst the lead up to a national day of action on March 2 to ban facial recognition from campus. Read more >>
US Judge Takes Unexpected Action On Behalf of Democracy and Citizen Input: “A federal judge in Idaho ruled Thursday that a Trump administration policy limiting public input on oil and gas leasing decisions was ‘arbitrary and capricious,’ overturning the 2018 directive and voiding nearly 1 million acres of leases out West as a result.” Read more >>
New York City Housing Law Will Put Unfilled Luxury Dwellings Into Affordable Housing Lottery: Can’t fill the penthouse? The de Blasio administration is turning to luxury buildings in its search to find homes for the city’s staggering homeless population. Under a new rule, developers who are unable to fill affordable apartments in their high-end buildings through the city’s housing lottery system will be required to provide those apartments to shelter residents. Read more >>
Mobile Home Park Saves Community By Forming Coop: Manufactured, mobile homes are vulnerable to gentrification. Here’s how one Maine community organized and won longevity for their low income residents. Read more >>
Dominican Republic Holds Cacerolazo For Transparent Elections: Citizens demanded a new voting system after recent municipal elections were suspended due to problems in electronic voting. Read more >>
Supporters March For Julian Assange in London: Before the start of his hearing, activists turned out in force to show solidarity with Wikileaks founder as his extradition hearings began. Read more >>
Why the UC Santa Cruz Grad Student Strike Matters: This unexpected, wildcat strike offers take-away lessons for all workers. Read more >>
French Workers Continue Epic Resistance: On 20 February, nearly 100,000 people across France protested against proposed reforms to the country’s pension system. Read more >>
Former UN Chief Calls for Civil Disobedience: Electing leaders is not enough. We must take direct action ourselves if we want meaningful and rapid change. Read more >>
Chile Kicks Off Campaign for Constitutional Reform: The campaign for the constitutional plebiscite on April 26 will begin in Chile, a process that calls for democratization and the end of the enclaves of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), which persist in the Latin American country. Read more >>
UC Davis Grad Students Join UC Santa Cruz’ Strike: Graduate students in the Cost of Living Adjustment Movement at UC Davis have decided to withhold grades for Winter Quarter. The announcement makes them the third group to go on a wildcat strike — a strike without the approval of the graduate student union’s leadership. Read more >>
Toronto Dances For Wet’suwet’en: The large rally came after Trudeau called for First Nation supporters to dismantle rail blockades. Currently, talks between the hereditary chiefs and the Canadian government are underway. Read more >>
Malala Says Greta Is the Only Friend She’d Skip Class For: When the two iconic activists met, Malala, famous for defying the Taliban in order to go to school, says Greta is the only friend she’d go on school strike for. Read more >>
Canadian Officials Talk With Wet’suwet’en Chiefs For Third Day: Ministers say they’re optimistic. First Nation pipeline resisters are wary. Read more >>
Noble Prize Winners Turned Up the Heat on Teck Mine: A group of Noble Prize winners became the straw on the camel’s back for the Teck Frontier mine. They group had been pressuring the Canadian prime minister to withdraw support for tar sands mining in an era of climate crisis when the news broke that Teck was withdrawing its application. Read more >>
Canadian Biz Owner Speaks Truth To Power: Rail Blockades Will Hurt Biz, But It’s Not the Blockades’ Fault: Putting the blame squarely where it belongs, this business owner said politicians and the gas company are to blame for the risks her business faces. Read more >>
South African Activists Push To Cut Fossil Fuels From National Budget: Activists demanded that South Africa’s Finance Minister cut off public financing to fossil fuels on Monday, ahead of his major budget speech. They singled out the national development bank and another public finance institution, the IDC, for fueling the climate crisis by supporting fossil fuel projects instead of renewable solutions. Read more >>
Youth Climate Strikers In Rural Areas Are Protesting Alone: Young people around the world are following Greta Thunberg’s example and going on strike. In isolated areas, some are doing so by themselves. Read more >>
Thousands of Ukrainians Demand 100% Renewable Energy: People across Ukraine are telling the government its plan for the energy transition doesn’t go far enough. On Friday outside the Ministry for Energy and Mining, a coalition of youth demanded a national plan for 100% renewable energy by 2050, and an end to new coal mines which harm communities on the frontlines of extraction. Read more >>
Extinction Rebellion Tots Take On British Petroleum at Science Museum: Staging a die-in to protest the fossil fuel company’s sponsorship of the science museum, parents and kids as young as 2 years old are pressuring the museum to divest. Read more >>
Law Students Are Refusing Job Offers From Elite Firm Until It Drops ExxonMobil: A growing number of law students are pledging to refuse to work for Paul Weiss – or even to interview with the firm – until it drops ExxonMobil as a legal client. Read more >>
Mexican Women Call for National Strike Against Femicide: After a series of brutal murders of women, Mexican women are now calling for a national strike to demand immediate action on the issue. Read more >>
Beauty Workers Confront Ugly Harassment at Victoria’s Secret Skin Products Plant: Dealing with racial, sexual, and gender-based harassment, these workers tackle a tangled web of issues in a set of campaigns. Read more >>
“Ne Me Touche Pas” – #MeToo Hits France: Since #MeToo, French attitudes towards consent and power within relationships both personal and professional have come under the microscope as never before. Read more >>
Grassroots Movements Fight for Gender Equity in Elections, Culture and Health: From closing the wage gap and protecting reproductive rights to ending gender-based sexual exploitation, the push to support and empower women and nonbinary people has roots that date back generations. Read more >>
Dismantling Racism in the Food System with Farm Co-ops in the Philippines: Thirty years ago, banana workers in the Philippines used the country’s land reform law to become the owners of the plantations where they had labored for generations. Read Food First’s account of how these cooperatives have created an alternative to forced displacement and migration, while forming alliances with Indigenous sustainable agriculture groups. Read more >>
Black Futures Month & the Black Census: Alicia Garza weighs in on why the Black census – the first since the Reconstruction Era – is so important for racial justice. Read more >>
First-Ever Compendium of Indigenous Technologies Is Released: The collection offers an impressive array of climate resilient design for just about everything, including housing and architecture. Editor’s Note: this story sits squarely at the intersection of several aspects of social justice: Indigenous respect, racial justice, climate and earth justice. How many other intersectional Nonviolence News stories can you spot in this week’s issue? Read more >>
How Undocumented Activists in New Jersey Won Drivers Licenses for All: This article takes you inside the scene and shares how this victory came about. Read more >>
Thousands of Life Jackets Worn By Migrants Attached to Columns of Art Museum: The exhibit by Ai Wei Wei is a part of a 40-artist show on migrant justice. Read more >>
Greyhound Buses Closes Its Doors to Immigration Checks: Greyhound, the nation’s largest bus company, said Friday it will stop allowing Border Patrol agents without a warrant to board its buses to conduct routine immigration checks. Read more >>
#NeverAgainIsNow – Japanese Americans and Allies Demand Closure of Immigration Prison Camps: Tsuru for Solidarity, La Resistencia, Densho, and the Japanese American Citizens League held a rally outside the Northwest Detention Center to call for an end to migrant detention centers. The action was held on the Day of Remembrance, Feb. 19, which marks the 1942 executive order that forced over 100,000 Americans of Japanese descent into incarceration “camps.” Read more >>
4 Code Pink Activists Arrested While Protesting For Peace With Iran: As Pompeo testified at a hearing in Congress today, peace activists were arrested with no warning and no cause. The hearing was on Trump’s Iraq and Iran policies, and use of military force. Read more >>
Why Action On Militarism Is Necessary To Save the Planet: We can’t save the planet and blow it up at the same time. The goals of the wider climate movement aren’t reachable without simultaneously dismantling the increasingly militarized power structures in our world. Read more >>
US and Taliban Sign Deal Aimed At Peace: Under the pact, the U.S. would reduce its forces to 8,600 from 13,000 in the next three to four months. Remaining U.S. forces would withdraw in 14 months, although a complete pullout would depend on the Taliban meeting commitments to prevent terrorism. Read more >>
Italian Dock Workers Are Refusing To Load Weapons Ships Again: Italian dock workers have refused to load electricity generators onto a notorious Saudi cargo ship suspected of carrying arms to be used in the war in Yemen. This is the latest in a string of protests by anti-war activists against the ship as it has made its way to various European ports. Read more >>
11,000 km Walk For Peace From India To Switzerland: Activists are walking from Delhi to Geneva to make a point to the UN and governments around the world about the importance of introducing a Peace Ministry and peace education in elementary schools. That’s 11,000km. Read more >>
How We Win Book Shows Strategy For Peace Activists and Others: George Lakey’s new book shows us how to use nonviolent action to win big goals for peace, racial justice, climate, gender, and more. Read more >>
Chilean Women Recorded Dictatorship’s Cruelties in Embroidery: “The arpilleras narrated the course of Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship through bold colors, broad stitching, and striking imagery, often incorporating fabrics from their disappeared children’s clothes.” Read more >>
Garden Projects Exposes the Fault Lines of US Justice: The Solitary Gardens project builds local gardens the size of solitary confinement cells. The Prisoner’s Apothecary connects communities impacted by incarceration with herbal remedies for health challenges, stress, and trauma. Read more >>
Bread & Puppet Theater – A Living Museum of Protest Theater: A lifetime of puppets, protest, back-to-the-land living, and theater with a purpose exists in this rural Vermont barn and the puppeteers who stage annual shows there. Read more >>
Libraries of Things Continue to Catalog Success: Loaning out thousands of objects, tools, board games, kitchen ware, baby items, and everything but books, Libraries of Things are valuable community resources. Read more >>
To Stop Fossil Fuel Trains, They Built A Garden On the Tracks: The court case against 5 people who built a garden across the railroad tracks to stop oil trains ended in a mistrial – something climate activists are celebrating as a win. Read more >>
10 Take-Away Lessons From Nonviolence News: We can learn a lot from our fellow human beings who are waging nonviolence around the world. Here are 10 pro-tips from last week’s Nonviolence News. Read more >>
Is Civil Disobedience Good? This question is at the center of a court case seeking to prosecute #NoCoalNoGas campaigners for “bad behavior” as activists continue their struggle against the region’s worst offender. Read more >>
“The Third Harmony” Book Seeks To Mainstream Nonviolence: Metta Center for Nonviolence Founder Michael Nagler’s new book and project aim to do nothing less than bring nonviolence into the public consciousness. Read more >>
How the Workers Circle Fights Injustice with Activism & Joy: The 120 year old organization has been fighting the good fight for over a century. Read more >>
What Will It Take To Rein In Trump? Civil Resistance Experts Weigh In: Stopping Trump’s authoritarianism and convincing Republicans to break ranks will take mass action. 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 >>
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 >>
Earth Day Global Climate Strike: On April 22nd, the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, youth are calling for everyone to participate in a mass general strike. Read more >>
Earth Day to May Day 2020 Shut Down DC: Direct action campaign united labor and environmental justice and pushes for a Green New Deal. Learn more >>
#NoWar2020, World Beyond War’s 5th Annual Global Convergence, will be held in Ottawa, Canada, May 29-30, 2020, to coincide with CANSEC, Canada’s largest weapons expo. Register to join us this May for nonviolent activism, skills trainings, art-making, panel presentations, rallying, and more, culminating in the #NoWar2020 Conference on May 29-30. Read more >>