Editor’s Note from Rivera Sun
Never doubt the creativity and determination of your fellow human beings. Canada banned assault weapons in the wake of a mass shooting. Walmart workers launched their own contact tracing program to help protect people during the pandemic. The Lebanese mass protest movement is back in action with enormous car protests and masks with the iconic cedar tree emblem on them. The May Day General Strike brought together worker strikes, rent strikes, debt strikes, and consumer strikes for what organizers promise is the first of many general strikes. Meatless May, long a campaign of animal rights and climate activists, is now being pushed by Latinx meatpacking plant workers. Extinction Rebellion rolled out two creative campaigns: a “Winds of Change” kites and flags demonstration and a “Paint the Streets” effort using sidewalk chalk, painted rocks, and more.
I could go on. People are determined, creative, and undaunted. Read the stories in this week’s news.
New! You’re invited! I’m hosting a Nonviolence News Coffee Hour, online. Want to talk about some of the stories in the newsletter? Join me on May 7th at 7pm ET. We’ll explore our favorite stories, our newest insights, and questions about what is nonviolence, anyway? This event is free, but registration is required and donations are appreciated. It serves as a way to build the Nonviolence News community and support the weekly newsletter. Register here >>
With solidarity,
Rivera Sun, Editor
Photo Credit: Artivists painted a giant protest mural in front of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ house.
100 Miles of NYC Pedestrian Streets Go Car Free As City Eases Social Distancing: Will this lead to permanently car-free streets? Read more >>
Study Finds Cleaner Air Saved 11,000 Lives During COVID-19 Shutdowns: The clean air in Europe has also led to less asthma and preterm births. Read more >>
Canada Bans Assault Weapons: Citing violent misogyny as a problem, the government banned assault weapons following the recent mass shooting in Nova Scotia. Read more >>
Sweden Closes Its Last Coal Plant Two Years Ahead of Schedule: The country joins Austria and Belgium in going coal free. Read more >>
Costa Rican Suburb Gives Rights To Bees, Flowers, and Trees: A suburb of the country’s capital is showing how urban planning can be harnessed to benefit both humans and wildlife. Read more >>
Countering Gun Violence Directed At Migrants, This School Found Solutions: They identified dozens of factors making newcomer students vulnerable to becoming victims or perpetrators of violence, including dangerous local neighborhoods, past trauma, poverty, debts to smugglers and a lack of support systems. It became clear no existing local youth violence prevention program addressed the specific challenges facing newcomers. Read more >>
Protests Erupt Under Lockdown in South Africa: South Africa has seen its first protests under lockdown. Food shortages and hunger, gaps in the relief efforts, are all part of the problems being protested.
Read more >>
Walmart Workers Use DIY Contact Tracing To Protect Against COVID-19: A national labor non-profit launched a virtual tracker for coronavirus cases in Walmart stores around the country, citing the retail giant’s inaction. Read more >>
Hawaii Has a Feminist COVID-19 Recovery Plan That Builds Gender Equity: Wouldn’t it be sensible if all states prepared this way? Read more >>
50+ Atlanta Restaurants Pledge NOT To Reopen: As the Republican Georgia governor becomes one of the first in the US to lift lockdown orders, these restaurants refuse to take chances with public health. Read more >>
How Imprisoned Palestinians Gain Rights Through Everyday Resistance: Hunger strikes get more headlines, but Palestinians find a range of other ways to resist while being held in prisons. Read more >>
Lebanese Protest Movement Takes To the Streets Once Again: Observing social distancing guidelines amid a virus outbreak, dozens of Lebanese people have taken to the streets across Beirut and other cities. They are using car protests to object to rising poverty and other economic woes. Read more >>
Panamanians Break Quarantine For Emergency Hunger Relief Protests: Aid and relief has been disproportionately and inadequately distributed, forcing some areas to protest in the streets. Read more >>
May Day Strike Shows Strong Launch To Ongoing Campaign: On May Day, the first day of an ongoing campaign of General Strikes, there were actions all over the country supporting workers at Amazon, Walmart, Target, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, FedEx, Shipt and Instacart calling for protective gear and hazard pay for essential workers. There were also demands for systemic changes like national improved Medicare for all, a universal basic income, and a green new deal. Read more >>
Meatless May in Support of Striking Meatpacking Plant Workers: Meatless May takes on a Latinx workers’ twist. The idea has had many iterations, including a WWII campaign, a health regime, an animal rights effort, and a climate change emissions reduction focus. Now, striking Latinx meatpacking plant workers are calling upon consumers to give up meat. Read more >>
Students Across the Country Are Going on Strike: Students say that universities, despite their massive endowments and ongoing fundraising, are not meeting their basic needs as they continue their education in the midst of a pandemic. Read more >>
Street Vendors Demand Relief: With the gap in resources for street vendors, the Street Vendor Project is calling for New York to provide emergency relief for all workers in the informal economy. Kaufman-Gutierrez says the demands are modest compared to the bailout many corporations received. Read more >>
Nursing Home Workers Prepare To Strike: Workers at 40 nursing homes in Illinois, nearly all in the Chicago area, said Monday they have set a strike date for May 8, as contract negotiations come to a head while coronavirus cases are hitting a peak. Read more >>
When the Systems Fail, Mutual Aid Shows Up: Ordinary people continue to be extraordinary, even when the people with all the money and power fail in their basic duties. Read more >>
Inside A Frontline Mutual Aid Network in NYC: Woodbine, an autonomous space since 2014 in Ridgewood, Queens, has converted its space into a mutual aid hub. Read more >>
Richmond’s Office of Neighborhood Safety Pivots to Pandemic Relief: California advocates who have long worked to keep young men safe from gun violence are adapting their activities to deal with another pressing public health emergency that’s disproportionately killing black Americans: Covid-19. Read more >>
XR “Paint the Streets” Campaign Launches Creative Action: Using painted rocks and sidewalk chalk #Rewild #PaintTheStreets campaigns invite everyone to participate in creative action. Read more >>
With Coral Reef Scuba Diving Shut Down, Tour Boats Are Repurposing For Eco-Restoration Work: Instead of bringing tourists underwater to gawk at bright fish, the industry is being hired to help replant the Barrier Reef. Read more >>
Youth Climate Strikers Vow To #FightEveryCrisis: As climate strikes moved online, the youth are relentlessly organizing for systemic change. Read more >>
XR’s #NoGoingBack Campaign Strives To Keep Big Polluters Closed For Good: Banks have propped up the fossil fuel industry with £2 trillionsince the Paris Agreement. XR is organizing people to move their money to a bank that doesn’t fund the climate breakdown. Read more >>
Earth Day Switch Organizes People To Move Their Money Out of Fossil Fuels: Is your money funding fossil fuels? Go to Earth Day Switch to find out if your bank or energy provider is investing in fossil fuels and switch to a provider that isn’t funding the climate and ecological breakdown. Read more >>
Appalachian Collective Launches Green Stimulus Program: West Virginian beekeepers are supporting local agriculture and demonstrating the benefits of non-extractive livelihoods. Read more >>
Meet the Rent Strikers: Just who are these people refusing to pay rent? This article humanizes the movement and illuminates the reasons why they are organizing rent strikes. Read more >>
Housing Activists Crashed Their Landlord’s Zoom Party to Protest Forced Evictions: Brixton Market’s owner had his live DJ set hijacked by demonstrators after serving an eviction notice to a supermarket during the coronavirus pandemic. Read more >>
#CancelRent Car Protests Held In 40 Cities: From Los Angeles to San Francisco to Chicago to New York and more than 40 cities across the country, cars rolled through neighborhoods and shopping districts, stopped in front of jails, and drove by the homes of local politicians to demand that all rents and mortgages be canceled. Every car caravan took extensive precautions to conform to physical distancing requirements. Read more >>
Bayer Shareholders’ Meeting Shifted Online – And So Did The Protests Against The Company: Online ads, livestreams, and public testimonies against the company protested everything from cancer cases to bee die-offs. Read more >>
Not One Penny to the Pentagon! Tell Congress to Help People, Not War: We don’t need more nukes, militarized borders, armies, or drones — because war doesn’t keep anyone safe. It endangers us and our natural environment while diverting funds from where they are needed. We need more masks, nurses, ventilators, stimulus checks for unemployed, poor, and undocumented people, Black communities and communities of color, and healthcare and housing for all — because that is what keeps us all safe. Read more >>
NextGen Tax Resisters Refuse To Pay For War: A new generation of tax resisters has emerged, refusing to pay for war. In an age of never-ending wars, climate change and an escalating pandemic, war tax resistance — often associated with an older demographic — is now being explored by millennials. Read more >>
Don’t Draft US Women; Abolish The Draft For All Genders: A draft resister (Edward Hasbrouck) and an antiwar feminist (Rivera Sun) explain why the Pentagon’s plan to expand draft registration to women is not the only – or best – answer. Abolishing military draft registration for all genders is the way forward. Listen to the podcast here >>
Fifty Years Ago This Spring, Millions of Students Struck to End the War in Vietnam: In May 1970, 4 million students went on strike across the country, shutting down classes at hundreds of colleges, universities, and high schools and demanding an end to the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, their rebellion remains an inspiration, as radical student politics is back on the agenda. Read more >>
Grim Reaper Stalks Florida Beach During Risky Reopening: As the governor opened the beaches, this attorney dressed up to send a grim warning about easing stay-at-home orders too soon. Read more >>
“Protect Amazon Workers” Mural Painted In Front of Bezos’ House: A team of activists painted a mural on the street with massive letters stretching from curb to curb. Read more >>
Winds of Change, XR Campaign, Organizes Wind Socks For Climate Justice: Kites, Flags, Wind Spinners, Wind Socks, all with messages of climate justice. Read more >>
German Doctors Pose Nude To Show “How Vulnerable We Are In the Pandemic“: Protesting PPE shortages, the doctors took dramatic and creative action. Read more >>
Oceania’s Extinction Stories: Tales Of Love and Loss: Artistic expressions of mourning over extinction losses show how much we all stand to lose – and have already lost. Read more >>
Prison Nonviolence Trainer Shares Why We Must Decarcerate Immediately: With incarcerated people facing a disproportionate risk during this pandemic, we must remember the inherent worth of all people and their ability to change. Read more >>
How Do Workers Organize When They Can’t Go To Work? History tells us that even in times of little work, there are ways to fight back against exploitation. Read more >>
A Day in the Life of a Union Organizer: This is what organizing looks like in the middle of a pandemic. Read more >>
5 Proposals for a Better Post-Pandemic World: Post-growth society, regenerative agriculture, debt cancellation and more. Each shows the potential of structural nonviolence in all areas of our world. Read more >>
Nonviolent Methods Can Change The World: An international nonviolence trainer speaks about her experience from skepticism to empowerment along the path of learning about nonviolence while working for change. Read more >>
Nonviolence News Coffee Hour, May 7th at 7pm ET. Come talk about these stories! FREE, but registration is required and donations are appreciated. Thanks. Register here >>
Starts May 7th! Introduction To Engaging Nonviolence w/ Co-Author Nina Koevoets: This online course explores basic principles of nonviolence. Learn more here >>
General Strike2020: Here’s how to support and join in the rent, debt, worker, shopping, and general strike plans that will recur each month. Read more >>
Global Week of Actions May 25 to 31 Against Sanctions and Imperialism: Join with others to organize against sanctions and imperialism. Be creative – if we can’t gather then do something virtual or a car caravan. Read more >>
#FreeThemAll: Detention Release Now Phone Zap: Join us for an hour-long virtual action to make calls to get migrant people released from detention. We will be calling governors, ICE directors, etc as part of campaigns across the country to #FreeThemAll. Wednesdays 12 PST/ 1 MST/ 3 EST. Read more >>
#ShareMyCheck Supports Economic Justice Based Stimulus Check Redistribution: Here’s how people are sharing the wealth. Read more >>
8 Ways To Support Immigrant Communities: From supporting decarceration efforts to pushing for the return of DACA, here’s how to help immigrant communities. Read more >>
New Cohort Forming! Nonviolence Online Community Course – 6 Week Course with Rivera Sun, Wednesdays starting May 28th: Co-facilitated with Pace e Bene’s Veronica Pelicaric, this online course is intended to provide an opportunity to build community while studying nonviolence. Read more >>
Global Degrowth Day 2020: Celebrate the second annual Global Degrowth Day on June 6. Be part of a diverse movement for global justice, sustainability and well-being. As the coronavirus pandemic may still prohibit gatherings in June, they offer support for creating virtual events. Read more >>
Donate to the NYC Black Mutual Aid Fund: This is a fund that supports an important mutual aid network in severely impacted Black communities in the NYC area. Read more >>