Editor’s Note from Rivera Sun
This week’s Nonviolence News includes an entire section of stories from around the world about the brave women refusing to remain silent while their rights and lives are on the line. On March 8th, International Women’s Day brought millions of women into the streets. From Mexico to Kyrgyzstan, women standing up for their rights even amidst threats of violence, police crackdowns, and the virulent misogyny in their cultures. The stories from countries around the world are truly inspiring.
Women in Mexico and Argentina followed up the March 8th marches with a national women’s strike. In Mexico, it was called “A Day Without Women” and the strike highlighted both the important role women play in society and the dangers of the rampant femicide that Mexican women have been rising up to stop.
Lastly, as COVID-19 emergency measures disrupt everyday existence, the best and the worst of humanity is on display. Nonviolence News will be sharing a midweek special report on the wonderful ways humanity is stepping up to the challenges of these times – all of which are acts of nonviolence.
Stay tuned,
Rivera Sun, Editor
Lead Photo Credit: “A Day Without Women” in Mexico.
In times like these, we need stories like these.
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Burlington, VT, Passes “Fair and Impartial Policing” Law: The resolution closes loopholes in the city’s current policy and prohibits local police from working with immigration enforcement agencies. Read more >>
Money Managers Are Starting To Urge Fossil Fuel Divestment: The specter of stranded assets is starting to become real. Wary of resistance movements and other market pressures, money managers are ditching oil and gas. Read more >>
Rail Blockades Trigger a Ripple Effect of Pipeline Investors Getting Cold Feet: Warren Buffett’s company is the latest to back out of a fossil fuel infrastructure project due to concern over the political situation of climate justice actions in Canada. Read more >>
Laboratory Diamonds Can Replace Blood Diamonds and Toxic Mines: “We don’t need to dig these huge holes in the earth any more that are visible from space. We used to hunt whales. We don’t do that any more do we?” Read more >>
Beyond Stuff: the Netherlands Town Center That Doesn’t Sell Stuff: The urban hub is part library, part meeting space, part science museum and part recreational hangout – a 10-storey “multi-space” designed to resonate with citizens who know that shopping is not necessarily the answer. Read more >>
Five Years Later, Gravity Payments Proves Equality Pays Well: In 2015, the boss of a card payments company in Seattle introduced a $70,000 minimum salary for all of his 120 staff – and personally took a pay cut of $1m. Five years later he’s still on the minimum salary, and says the gamble has paid off. Read more >>
After Employees Stage Walkout, Publishers Drop Woody Allen Memoir Over #MeToo Protests: Objecting to the unresolved sex crimes of Woody Allen, employees pressured their company to drop the director’s new memoir. Read more >>
The Undaunted Women Protesting India’s Anti-Muslim Citizenship Law: Despite facing deadly violence, Muslim women leading the sit-in that inspired a nationwide movement against India’s new discriminatory bill refuse to leave. Read more >>
UC Santa Cruz Graduate Strike Expands After Strikers Fired By University: Barricades blocked UC Santa Cruz while thousands of students, faculty, and staff took part in mass rallies and marches across almost the entire UC system. Read more >>
Italian Automotive Workers Go On Strike During Coronavirus Outbreak: Refusing to let bosses risk their safety, Italian factory workers are now going on strike. Read more >>
Marching In Snow and Ice, Teachers & Students Protest Mass Firings: Chanting passionately and carrying protest signs, teachers and their allies marched in the wind and snow to oppose the firing of “lecturers” who are non-tenured teachers. Read more >>
In Chile, a New Wave of Protests Demands President Piñera’s Resignation: Even after the president agreed to reform the Pinochet-era constitution, protesters say that will not be enough: Piñera must resign. Read more >>
Lebanon’s Protests Continue As Government Defaults on Eurobank Loan: Protesters have opposed debt repayment, along with other economic grievances that burden the people and have put their economy in upheaval. Read more >>
Permanent Real Estate Cooperative Combats Bay Area Affordable Housing Crisis: The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative facilitates BIPOC and allied communities to cooperatively organize, finance, purchase, occupy, and steward properties, and take them permanently off the speculative market. Listen to the interview on the Response podcast >>
5 Commitments to Deepen Your Local Living Efforts: Neal Goreflo committed to a #LocalYear in which he lives as locally as possible. Here are 5 ways he’s deepening the challenge. Read more >>
Truthdig Employees Stop Writing To Protest Work Conditions: Senior editors and columnists are beginning a work stoppage today to protest what they describe as unfair labor conditions and the effort by the publisher, Zuade Kaufman, to remove the site’s founding Editor-in-Chief and co-owner Robert Scheer. Read more >>
Over 1 Million Women March In Santiago, Chile on Int’l Women’s Day: The streets of Santiago were “electric” with the mobilization of over 1 million women on March 8th. Read more >>
Millions of Women Throughout Latin America Follow Protests With Strikes: Women are going on strike for gender justice, especially in cities throughout Mexico and Argentina. Read more >>
Women Around the World Protest For Equality, and Against Violence and Exploitation: International Women’s Day brought out millions of women to protest for their rights. Here are photos and stories. Read more >>
International Women’s Day Actions Round-Up From Around the World: This posting shares news from Mexico, South Africa, Chile, Puerto Rico, India, Thailand, and more. Read more >>
“A Day Without Women” Strikes Erupt Across Mexico: Following huge rallies on International Women’s Day, Mexican women went on strike against “machismo” culture. Read more >>
3500 Women Will Occupy Brasilia With The Motto, “Women in the Struggle Sowing Resistance”: Between the 5th and 9th of March, thousands of women will occupy Brasilia during the 1st National Landless Women’s Meeting. This is the first time in the history of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) that a meeting is spearheaded exclusively by rural women. Read more >>
Women Drive Nonviolent Movements To Success: Gender-based violence, WhatsApp message taxes and the rising cost of bread have set off some of the largest protests in the past year, and women were among the first in the streets, often risking their personal safety. Here’s a stunning round-up of women-led struggles. Read more >>
Pakistan’s Women’s March Shakes Patriarchy To the Core: Thousands marched on Int’l Women’s Day, demanding a society without exploitative patriarchal structures and control of economic resources, the right of women to make decisions about their own bodies, and ending harassment, forced religious conversions and the sexist portrayal of women in the media, among other things. Read more >>
Kyrgyz Women’s March Against Male Violence Was Attacked By Masked Men: The dozens of attackers, many in traditional ak-kalpak felt hats and some carrying sticks, shoved women to the ground and ripped signs from their hands. When the mob dispersed, police arrived on the scene and detained the people who had been attacked and loaded them onto waiting buses. Read more >>
Saudi’s Brave Women Pull Back the Curtain on Crown Prince: How can the world’s leaders pretend that it is acceptable to meet in a country that imprisons and tortures peaceful women activists and bombs civilians in Yemen? Read more >>
Countering Middle School Sexual Harassment: While the #MeToo movement has brought much-needed attention to the widespread problem of sexual harassment of adult women, relatively little attention has been paid to the rampant sexual harassment of girls that often starts in middle school. In our blog post, we discuss the scale of sexual harassment in middle school and explore what parents can do to empower their daughters and help foster safe and harassment-free schools. Read more >>
Why Feminists Need To Fund Themselves: Women’s rights and feminist groups are adopting new technologies and re-energizing long-standing organizing strategies to sustain their vital work. Read more >>
Megan Rapinoe Marshals the Women’s Soccer Gender Parity Struggle: With a law suit and an inside-out sports-top protest, female soccer players struggle to end gender discrimination in soccer. Read more >>
Letter from Indigenous Women on Amazon’s Front Lines: “With love and peace, we, women from four indigenous nations of the Western Amazon, are fighting against the threats to our forest.” Read more >>
Colombian Farmers Prepare To Ramp Up Anti-Mining Struggle: The crocheted public artwork (above) is part of a decade-long battle against a mining giant, and that battle could soon heat up in a rare, peaceful area of Colombia. Read more >>
Since 2018, the Climate Justice Movement Has Gained Unprecedented Momentum: Actions are ramping up. More and more people are joining in. Divestment wins are increasing. Fossil fuel infrastructure projects face widespread resistance. And the oil and gas industry is running scared. Read more >>
Indigenous Youth Arrested at BC Legislature During Solidarity Action for Wet’suwet’en: Five youth activists were arrested in an action that coincided with the delivery of 30,000 public signatures opposing governmental support for the pipeline planned for Wet’suwet’en territory. Read more >>
West Virginia Solidarity Action for Wet’suwet’en Shuts Down Energy Headquarters: More than 100 water protectors shut down the TC Energy Headquarters in Charleston, WV. Several people locked their necks to one another, blockading the lobby so that business inside the building could not continue. Read more >>
Extinction Rebellion Newsletter Connects Women’s Rights and Environmental Justice: Sharing stories of actions from Uganda, Italy, Hong Kong, and others, the newsletter features flash mobs, lock downs, blockades, school strikes, painted umbrellas, and more. Read more >>
In Vietnam, This Woman Is Tackling Big Coal: In a country that does not tolerate dissent, Nguy Thi Khanh convinced the government to reduce some of its coal targets and helped spark a national conversation about rising air and water pollution. Read more >>
Facing COVID-19 Threat, Greta Thunberg Calls For A Digital Strike: In light of the coronavirus spreading around the globe, climate action leader Greta Thunberg called on her supporters to observe a #DigitalStrike instead of attending in-person climate protests, as millions have on Fridays for more than a year and a half. Read more >>
“I Swapped My Gun For Binoculars”: India’s hunters turn to conservation: Villagers are downing their weapons and protecting swathes of ancient forest and its wildlife in Nagaland state. Read more >>
Students Walk-Out and Sit-in For Racial Justice On Anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s Murder: More than 100 students from Oak Park and River Forest High School walked out of class Wednesday morning and marched about a mile south to Oak Park Village Hall for a rally and sit-in. Read more >>
Students Wear Tee-Shirts Honoring Black Women To School: This simple acts sparked new lessons at school. Read more >>
Black Lives Matter Founders Honored On Time Magazine Cover for Int’l Women’s Day: The periodical commissioned 49 original portraits, with more than half created by women, including Mickalene Thomas, Shana Wilson, Bisa Butler on Wangari Maathai, and more. Read more >>
How People Are Organizing Migrant Justice and Resistance in the US Borderlands: From challenging narratives justifying violence to know-your-rights trainings and cultural actions, border communities are building a powerful movement. Read more >>
Migrant Rescuers Are Making History in the Mediterranean: While governments fail to meet basic humanitarian requirements, rescue organizations like Sea-Watch are taking life-saving action on the frontlines of the European migrant crisis. Read more >>
Who Is Responsible When Technology Facilitates ICE Raids That Violate Rights? Palantir has argued that its technology does not play an active role in deportations and the human rights violations that have occurred under the Trump administration, but this claim is patently false. Read more >>
“I’m A Youth Organizer. Stop Getting in My Way”: A student organizer speaks up about how older people – particularly school administrators – fail to support youth in taking action. She also offers tips for how adults can be more supportive when students decide to move into action. Read more >>
Why It’s Easier for Today’s Protest Movements To Start – But Harder For Them to Succeed: In the past decade, protests have been easier to start but more difficult to resolve. The good news is that the movements of 2019 have broken this trend. Read more >>
Maintaining Movement Momentum In A Time of Coronavirus: David Solnit offers practical advice for contingency planning for movements as public gatherings are restricted. Interestingly, this is also handy for dealing with authoritarian crackdowns and dangerous repression. Read more >>
A Guide to Social Media Activism In the Digital Age: Here is a helpful guide book to using social media for social justice causes, covering a number of examples and case studies.Read more >>
Using Hope To Deliver Justice: Here’s why hope-based narratives are not wishful thinking, but a powerful tactic for pushing for change. Read more >>
“The Age of Hybrid Warfare” Free Webinar: War is more than bombs and bullets. Join World BEYOND War on March 25 for a free webinar on “hybrid warfare” – a mix of disinformation, sanctions, and unconventional tactics. We will 1) define what hybrid warfare is, and 2) discuss case studies of hybrid warfare in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and elsewhere. Read more >>
Solidarity With Palestine: Palestinians are calling for a global week of solidarity actions March 24 to 30. Find information on how to participate >>
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 >>