Editor’s Note
Follow the money is a popular activist slogan. In this week’s Nonviolence News, you’ll find that people take that advice literally – and creatively. To protest corruption, Hondurans have painted dozens of giant murals on highways asking “Where’s the money?” (¿Donde está el dinero?) Meanwhile, cities around the world are countering the pandemic depression by using local currencies. And, to stop the climate crisis, Extinction Rebellion rolled out global actions against financial institutions that are profiting from destroying the planet.
Also, don’t miss the story about how Miami-Dade residents are demanding that officials abandon plans to build a concrete seawall and instead plant resilient mangrove swamps to counter rising sea levels. Speaking of resilience, articles on building a resilient neighborhood and forming a mutual aid network offer practical tips for engaging in what Gandhi might call constructive program. These types of nonviolent actions help us build strength in our communities – the kind of strength that helps us weather crises and resist injustice.
If I had a Nonviolence News “Story of the Week” Award, it might go to the postal workers who defied direct orders and reinstalled mail sorting machines after the Postmaster General took them offline. Or, it might go to the pro-basketball and soccer players who shut down the playoffs to protest racism and police brutality. But how could I choose? There are so many amazing actions in this week’s Nonviolence News! Enjoy them all.
Rivera Sun, Editor
Photo Credit: Hondurans protest corruption by painting giant highway messages asking “Where’s the money?”
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$600 Million Settlement For Flint, MI, After Water Crisis: Tens of thousands of families are eligible for compensation. Most of this money will be allocated to children in the city who were exposed to lead-contaminated water in their household pipes. Read more>>
US Federal Student Loan Payments Suspended Until 2021: With 1 in 5 college students choosing not to attend school this year and millions of US citizens facing evictions from pandemic-related economic woes, the decision to suspend loan repayments until 2021 is a welcome one. Read more>>
NBA Players Strike Wins Use of Stadiums for Polling Stations, Other Reforms: Following a multi-team strike protesting police brutality and systemic racism in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake earlier this week, players and league officials reached a deal Friday to resume the NBA playoffs, and agreed to use the league’s stadiums as voting locations for the November general election. Read more>>
Hondurans Paint Giant Slogans On Highways Asking “Where Is the Money?”: “¿Dónde está el dinero?” read the numerous anti-corruption messages painted across entire highways. The government tried to erase them but they’re spreading fast and being repainted. Editor’s Note: Thanks to one of our Nonviolence News readers for the tip-off on this amazing story! Read more>>
US Postal Workers Defy Orders And Reinstall Sorting Machines: This is what civil disobedience looks like, folks. Not to mention antifascism and civil servants defending their country with nonviolent action. Read more>>
Concerned IT Specialists Launch Database Of Detained Belarusian Protesters: Over 7,000 people have been detained since August 9 in the mass protests calling for the president’s resignation after an election widely denounced as corrupt. Read more>>
Thai Democracy Protests Get Wildly Creative: Students have come up with creative means of circumventing the restrictive rules, turning activities such as garden walks, washing the dishes, dressing up as Harry Potter characters, and using the three-finger Hunger Games salute into protest actions. Read more>>
Puerto Ricans Ousted The Governor; They Haven’t Stopped Organizing: One year after Puerto Ricans ousted their governor in mass protests, the long-standing structures of political and economic oppression remain in place on the island. But the uprising proved the power of collective action — and Puerto Ricans have become more resolved to build democracy from below and challenge their colonial status. Read more>>
Teachers Organize As COVID-19 Outbreaks At Schools Concealed: Using the fraudulent pretext of “protecting medical privacy,” a growing number of states and school districts across the United States are deliberately concealing information from the public on COVID-19 outbreaks in schools that have reopened. These include the states of Maine, Virginia and Oklahoma, as well as Camden County, Georgia, and Orange County, Florida. Read more>>
As Republican National Convention Speakers Denounce Protests, Police Pepper Spray Activists Protesting RNC: Charlotte police bull-rushed protesters with their bikes and pepper-sprayed individuals in the face at close range. Read more>>
Chile’s Campaign For Constitutional Plebiscite Kicks Off: Chileans used a plebiscite to oust the dictator Pinochet in 1990. Can a new plebiscite get rid of Pinochet’s constitution? Read more>>
Students In Spain Plan Strike For School Year Safety: Spain’s student union confirmed that students and teachers will hold a strike on September 16, 17, and 18 to reject the improvisation of the beginning of the school year. Read more>>
Poor People March On Biden’s Headquarters, Which Blocked Them With a Rent-A-Fence: The offices that were usually open to the public were barricaded when the marchers arrived. One organizer was arrested as she exercised her First Amendment Right to petition for redress of grievances. Read more>>
Environmental Activists Campaign To Save Nairobi National Park: Kenyan conservationists are mobilizing to stop luxury development projects inside Nairobi National Park that threaten its abundant wildlife. Read more>>
Miami-Dade Residents Don’t Want a Concrete Seawall; They Want Mangroves and Islands: As the city faces rising sea levels, residents are pushing a climate adaptation plan that centers ecological resilience. Read more>>
Extinction Rebellion Newsletter Features Turkish Resistance To Mining, and More: Turkish activists are halting a gold mine, Israeli protesters blockaded parliament, Taiwan held a clear air parade, Helsinki held a hunger strike, and so much more. Read more>>
Earth Overshoot Day Happened On Aug 22; We’re Now Wracking Up Ecological Debt: This year, Earth Overshoot Day occurs on August 22. It marks the point when humanity’s demand exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. Read more>>
Duluth Indigenous Groups Reframe Climate Work in Cultural Context: While many conversations about climate resiliency are well-intentioned, they often lack a perspective grounded in community control and cultural context. In this interview, Ivy Vainio and LeAnn Littlewolf from the American Indian Community Housing Organization explore how gardens, worm bins, and solar panels help reclaim agency for Duluth’s Indigenous communities. Read more>>
Behind the Effort To Reclaim Outdoor Spaces For Black People: Rue Mapp discusses how she approaches this work given a context in which forests are often not seen by Black people in the U.S. as healing spaces due to the terrors of the Jim Crow era. Meanwhile, she also takes on the importance of balancing accessibility to nature with rent control policies to prevent gentrification of green cities from shutting out people of color. Read more>>
Green Teen Memes – How TikTok Could Save The Planet: The video-sharing app has 800 million users, many of them conscious young eco-influencers campaigning on issues from climate change to biodiversity. Read more>>
How To Create A Resilient Space In Your Neighborhood: Norcal Resilience and Canticle Farm share a timely how-to guide on creating a resilient space in your neighborhood, even during COVID-19. Read more>>
Commoning Our Way Through The Climate Crisis: “If we know where to look, we can see that a new world is already emerging and it is not led by market or state, or by Left or Right political traditions. It is fractal, messy, adaptive, and exciting – it is ‘commoning’.” Read more>>
Sports Players Strike For Racial Justice: Professional basketball, baseball and soccer games came to an unprecedented halt Wednesday, after Milwaukee Bucks players refused to take the court for a playoff game against the Orlando Magic to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The NBA then canceled all three of Wednesday’s playoff games. Read more>>
New Campaign Seeks to Reduce the Power of Police Unions: Campaign Zero’s #NixThe6 project focuses on “six ways police unions obstruct, delay or defeat local efforts to hold police accountable.” Read more>>
Police Shootings of Jacob Blake and Trayford Pellerin Spark Protests in Kenosha, WI, and Lafayette, LA: Two police shootings led to more protests, some with property destruction and violence. Read more>>
Border Town Links Fight Against Trump’s Wall to the Black Lives Matter Movement: The No Border Wall Laredo Coalition links their demands to the larger movement for Black lives and to defund police, both in court and on the street. They’re demonstrating the connection between the systemic, carceral racism of Trump’s “prison wall” and the systemic racism of U.S. policing. Read more>>
Pittsburg, PA, Police Use Violence Against Protesters Protesting Police Violence: Yes, you read that headline correctly. Read more>>
Pasadena Cyclists Hold Protest Ride In The Wake Of McClain Shooting: Around 60 rolled through the city on Saturday night, demanding increased police oversight. Read more>>
600+ Groups Representing Over Half of Jewish People in US Sign Full-Page Ad in NYT to ‘Say Unequivocally: Black Lives Matter’: “By supporting this movement, we can build a country that fulfills the promise of freedom, unity, and safety for all of us, no exceptions.” Read more>>
The Movement Will Be Intersectional: Tarana Burke on inclusion, integrity and the evolution of #MeToo. Read more>>
Peer-To-Peer Lending in Canada: A rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) is a form of collective, peer-to-peer lending that has existed across the global south and immigrant communities for decades under many different names. ROSCAs are at the very core of the Black social economy in Canada, but have been largely overlooked because of their often informal nature. To learn more, watch The Banker Ladies, a short documentary about ROSCAs, cooperatives, and mutual aid amongst Black women in Toronto. Read more>>
UN Security Council Preambles Dilute Feminist Activism: Preambles to UNSC resolutions on women, peace, and security only serve to make feminist politics amenable to the larger militarized agenda of the Security Council. Read more>>
Philadelphia Houseless Resist Second Eviction Attempt: An encampment of 100 people has been demanding housing justice in Philadelphia, successfully resisting a second attempt by police to dismantle the encampment. Read more>>
Minneapolis Sanctuary Camp Residents Harassed by Police: Several hundred people living in dozens of camps across the Twin Cities wonder every day whether their only means of shelter against the elements will be destroyed by police officers. Read more>>
Over 40 Protests Across The UK On #StopArmingIsrael Day Of Action: Hundreds have taken to the streets in dozens of towns and cities to call for an end to the UK’s complicity in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people. Read more>>
Decoupling Peacebuilding From Band-aids And War Machines: New research into global peacebuilding efforts suggests that it’s time to scale up local efforts and disrupt the global war machine, otherwise, peacebuilding efforts risk becoming “part of the problem”. Read more>>
“If You Can’t Protect Them, Don’t Enlist Them” – 1 in 3 Women Are Sexually Assaulted In US Military: Opponents of drafting, recruiting women (or anyone) argue that the US military’s track record on sexual assault should make us all think twice about requiring women to register for the draft. Read more>>
Short On Money, Cities Around The World Develop Their Own: Local currencies are taking off in the pandemic depression. Read more>>
At the Human Library, You Can Check Out A Person to Hear Their Lifestory For 30 Mins: Breaking down biases, stereotypes, fear, and separation, the Human Library helps Denmark’s communities get to know one another. Read more>>
Photos of the Poor Projected Onto Hotel Wall Near Republican Convention: A progressive advocacy group representing 15,000 unemployed workers on Sunday projected onto a Charlotte, North Carolina hotel the photos and stories of jobless workers struggling to meet basic needs after the GOP allowed the $600-per-week unemployment benefit boost to expire last month, slashing the incomes of some 30 million Americans. Read more>>
Artists Unite In Blast-Hit Beirut: Lebanon’s performers rally to fundraise and tell stories of survival in a country devastated by disaster. Read more>>
Creating Public Art Rooted In Environmental Justice: “The fundamental belief in our work is that a creative practice can help people find new solutions to challenges — new opportunities in challenges,” Portier says. “So whether it’s environmental justice, or social justice, it’s the power of this participatory creative practice that’s important, and all the more so in public spaces.” Read more>>
What New Orleans’ Common Ground Collective Can Teach Us About Surviving Crisis Together: Fifteen years after Hurricane Katrina, the Common Ground Collective’s uncommon success offers lessons on how to build effective mutual aid projects today. Read more>>
Can Nonviolence Beat Capitalism? Nonviolent action is the most promising method for moving beyond capitalism to a more humane social and economic system. Nonviolent action as an approach has the capacity to transform capitalism, though there are many obstacles involved. Read more>>
How To Start A Mutual Aid Network In A Pandemic: With fires raging in California, massive flooding across Bangladesh, and not one but two hurricanes slamming into the Gulf Coast, this guide to starting a mutual aid network is (unfortunately) increasingly relevant. Drawing from existing knowledge instead of reinventing the wheel, it will either get you started or increase the capacity of a mutual aid network. Read more>>
“He Was Extremely Radical” / MLK’s Children On Their Father’s Life And George Floyd’s Death: Martin and Bernice King have continued their father’s legacy, protesting for civil rights. They discuss Black Lives Matter, their ongoing grief and the upcoming March on Washington. Read more>>
Black August; The Underground Railroad: Remembering this sustained road to freedom is a part of the Black August series, highlighting historical events that remind us of the legacy of Black radical resistance. Read more>>
Mass Direct Action Might Be The Only Way To Stop Trump From Stealing The Election: The more quickly we nonviolently disrupt Trump’s plans — at scale — the less longer-term disruption to our country and our lives. Read more>>
#ChooseDemocracy: A new campaign rallies people to resist if Trump refuses to respect the results of the elections. Read more>>
#SaveUSPS: Here’s how you can take action to make sure the postal service sabotage stops and is repaired. Read more>>
Support the Southern Power Fund: A fundraising campaign for 200 Black-led, Southern organizations, as well as seed a community-controlled fund to resource new projects. Read more>>
Preparing for Street Demonstrations: Practical Tools For Compassion In Action: Webinar with Jerry Monroe Maynard on what to do before, during, and after a street demonstration. You will learn what to bring, how to stay calm, what to do in uncertain situations, and how to look out for other demonstrators. (Sept 8) Learn more>>
September Nonviolence News Happy Hour: Join the conversation! Explore recent news, dig into your favorite stories, and hear what other people are talking about when it comes to nonviolence in action. (Sept 11) Learn more>>
Indigenous Peoples’ Day Teach-In: Join the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and Teaching for Change for keynote speaker Winona LaDuke and curriculum workshops. The focus of the teach-in is Indigenous peoples’ histories and experiences around food and water justice today. (Sept 12) Read more>>
Nonviolence Communication For The Rest of Us: Leonie Smith offers this training in nonviolent communication for People of Color and others who don’t necessarily feel like they “belong” in NVC culture. (Sept 15) Learn more>>
Sign the Declaration of Peace: Join the global call to abolition war, once and for all. Read more>>
Campaign Nonviolence Action Week: 3000+ actions and events to build a culture of peace and active nonviolence. Find one near you. (Sept 19-27) Read more>>
People Power: The Strategic Dynamics of Civil Resistance: The International Center On Nonviolent Conflict has opened registration for their free, moderated online course. (Oct 1-Nov 20) Learn more>>
Nonviolence In Action: Planning & Strategy Webinar: Join Nonviolence News Editor Rivera Sun to learn how to organize effective actions, powerful campaigns, and movements for change. (Oct 8) Read More>>
Kingian Nonviolence Mini-Workshop: Join Kazu Haga to discuss the principles of Dr. Martin Luther King and their relevancy for these times. (Nov 14) Read more>>
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