Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
#CancelRent. Fifteen cities in the United States recently had uprisings for housing justice. People are occupying vacant homes, holding sit-ins at public offices, setting up encampments, and organizing anti-eviction blockades. Recently, the National Eviction Moratorium delayed evictions in federal housing until January … when tenants will be forced to pay back rent or face eviction in the cold winter weather. Along with renters in non-federal housing (who are at immediate risk of eviction), they’re demanding that landlords and policy makers #CancelRent to avert the crisis.
Other noteworthy stories in Nonviolence News can be found in the “Creative” section. In Denmark, Bad Jazz musicians drown out alt-right hate speeches with terrible music. (Apparently, you don’t need any musical skills to join the band.) In Belarus, citizens hotwired their Internet to keep communication lines open as the government shut-down the major servers. The NFL (National Football League) has more than turned 180 degrees on it’s former outrage over Kapernick’s #TakeAKnee. This year, they’re going to paint #EndRacism in the end zones. Oh, and there’s something fishy about nonviolence … literally. In Italy, a coastal community formed a marine sanctuary (a form of structural nonviolence towards the Earth) and revived the ecosystem to the point where the fishing industry is now thriving using resilient, sustainable practices.
Also! Don’t miss your chance to study nonviolence – strategy, tactics, philosophy, communication, and more. Our “Call-To-Action” section has 10+ webinars ranging from a couple hours on “what to bring to a protest” to 6-weeks on Nonviolence 101. I’ll be teaching several courses this fall – all of which draw knowledge from the incredible stories in Nonviolence News.
Along with stories about restoring reindeer herds, defending old growth forests, and much more, you’ll find a ton of inspiration in this week’s Nonviolence News.
Rivera Sun, Editor
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How To Save the Sea – Fishing Lessons From An Italian Village: This small stretch of coastline went from a hotbed of drug smuggling to a model of ecological restoration. Read more>>
Argentina Passes Landmark LGBTQIA Employment Law: Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez Friday approved a decree stating that at least 1 percent of public sector jobs must be for transsexuals, transvestites, and transgender people. Only 1 in 10 trans individuals is currently employed. Read more>>
Dictionary.com Updates 15,000 Words To Eliminate Prejudiced Language: Dictionary.com is making major changes to more than 15,000 of its definitions, from capitalizing Black to updating entries about sexual orientation, aiming to foreground people over “clinical language”. Read more>>
Activists Who Disrupted Zionist Event At German University Cleared of Charges: The Palestinian rights activists interrupted the talk of an Israeli who has been directly involved in war crimes. Their court case just concluded. Read more>>
Palestine In Pictures: Actions, everyday resistance, and resilience are caught in photos, including actions like the anti-eviction blockade (above). Read more>>
Anti-Government Protests Break Out In South Ossetia, Russia: The funeral of a young man who died while in police custody turned into a protest against the authorities in the small, Russia-backed territory. The death was the latest in a series of scandals involving local law enforcement. Read more>>
Another Mapuche Activist Hospitalized During Hunger Strike In Chilean Prison: Mapuche political prisoner Eliseo Reiman Sunday was transferred from Lebu prison to a hospital after he spent two months of hunger strike and seven days of not drinking water. Read more>>
‘Fund Our Future’: Nationwide Day of Action to Demand Safe Schools: Despite the need for crucial resources to keep students, teachers, and families safe during the pandemic, schools have not been given “one additional federal dollar” to open safely. Read more>>
LA Teachers Are Fighting To Save A Popular Workshop Promoting Muslim and Arab Awareness: A pioneering professional development course that’s been training teachers to confront anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate for over a decade faces political threats and shut down. Read more>>
Third Blockade Stops Logging In Old Growth Forest: Grassroots forest defenders from across Vancouver Island have prevented Teal Jones Group from blasting logging roads into the headwaters of the Fairy Creek watershed for the past two weeks. They recently expanded their efforts to a third blockade site. (Photo credit) Read more>>
Earth Defenders Warn Against Democrats Undermining ‘Rights of Nature’ Movement With Watered-Down Approach: The fresh push for recognizing ecosystems as rights-bearing entities comes as the documentary film Invisible Hand premieres worldwide. Read more>>
“Is There No End to Big Oil’s Evil?” Campaigners Condemn Industry Plan to Pour US Plastics Into Africa: Anti-pollution advocates responded with alarm to the American Chemistry Council’s reported efforts to influence a pending U.S.-Kenya trade deal. Read more>>
DAPL Pipeline Shutdown Reversed: A new court ruling allows the oil to continue flowing as an environmental review is conducted. Read more>>
Sami Reindeer Herders Use Installation Art, Legal Action, and Organizing To Protect Free-Range Herds: The reindeer are key to protecting the ecology of the north regions in Norway, traditional Sami people are using many approaches to protect them. Read more>>
#VidasNegrasImportant – Brazil’s Black Lives Matter Movement: 1,400 Black men are killed by police in Brazil each year. The recent murder of a teen boy catalyzed the movement pushing for change. Read more>>
19 Black Families Purchase 96-Acres To Start A Safe Haven City For Black People: In Toomsboro, Georgia, a group of 19 Black families banded together to create what has the potential to be the next Black Wall Street. Read more>>
To Be BIPOC, Disabled and Fighting for Justice: Thirty years after the Americans with Disabilities Act became law, those on the frontlines say the next wave in the movement demands disability justice. Read more>>
How Black-led Resistance Movements Are Paving The Way For Reparations: A conversation with Truth-Telling Project Co-Director David Ragland on the need for restorative justice to address generations of harm. Read more>>
50,000 People Gather In DC To Protest Police Brutality: The Commitment March, Get Your Knee Off Our Necks, organized by civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, gathered thousands of people including civil rights activists calling for police reform. Read more>>
Black Ancestors Matter – This Community Is Struggling To Protect A Black Cemetery: In Bethesda, Maryland, a campaign is seeking to protect an African cemetery and preserve the history of a community that tells the story the mistreatment of African people in the United States. Read more>>
National Eviction Moratorium Delays Crisis, But Doesn’t Solve It: Renters in federal housing can’t be evicted until January, but without aid, they’ll own the back rent and wind up having to leave. Read more>>
Portland, OR, Group Repairs and Renovates Black Neighborhoods To Resist Gentrification: Taking Ownership PDX organizes teams of people to help keep Black homeowners in their homes, improve property values, and resist gentrification. Read more>>
Uprisings Against Evictions Take Place in 15 US Cities: Organizers and community members in at least 15 cities across the United States are set to mobilize Tuesday to “storm the streets in front of the homes and offices of Republican leaders, occupy eviction courts, and hold teach-ins on tenant protections for a nationwide day of uprisings to protest the Senate’s failures to provide relief during the biggest eviction crisis the U.S. has ever faced.” Read more>>
Jazz Collective Drowns Out Far-Right Rallies with Terrible Music: The Danish musicians “Free Jazz Against Paludan” welcome anyone who wants to push back peacefully against the hate speech of far-right politician Rasmus Paludan. No musical skills necessary. In fact, the worse you play, the more you’re welcome to join in. Read more>>
Belarus Shut Off Its Internet. It’s Citizens Hot-Wired It: During recent mass protests, citizen media shared the brutalities of police repression – but they had to circumvent an Internet shut-down to do it. Read more>>
Peoples WPA Uses Imagination To Challenge Reality: The People’s WPA is a cultural organizing and storytelling project that seeks to uplift essential forms of labor in an effort to build an inspiring vision of our shared future. In addition to crafting a credible vision, we seek to rally communities, educate organizers and guide decision-makers to enact ambitious policies. Read more>>
Artists Illuminate Hope and Denounce Pandemic Inequalities: Using art to speak about Black Lives Matter, essential workers, xenophobia and more, artists across the US use their skills to communicate important messages across a range of mediums. Read more>>
Virtual Concert In Columbia Protests Massacres and Assassinations: 70 musicians will come together to denounce the recent murders and call for justice with an online concert, “A Song X Columbia”. Read more>>
NFL Plans To Write “End Racism” In the End Zones: This season the NFL will make ending racism as visible as the cheerleaders. The players will also strike on the first week of the playoffs. Read more>>
“Society’s Cage” Art Installation On National Mall In DC Makes Bold Statement About Racial Injustice: The observer is invited to walk through the cube and between the uneven hanging conduit pipes to experience the visual and acoustical expression of systemic injustice through the eyes of Black lives. One enters and hears a concert of instruments accented with the cries of a child, police sirens, moans of the Black mother whose child was killed by police, the rising and falling tones of voices marking societal iniquities. Read more>>
Blkpaper Artist Collective Wants YOU To Print, Cut, Paste, and Bring These Images To Your Next BLM Protest: The website tells people how: “Download. Print. Post.” There are instructions on how to make wheat paste. “We want to be a dynamic tool for organizing. Art helps propel protest—and progress,” one of the organizers said. Read more>>
The Use of Arts & Symbols In The Mexican Feminist Movement: This recording of a recent webinar explores how Mexican feminists are using creativity and powerful symbols to push for gender justice. Watch here>>
Leverage Is Everything: The striking NBA players have inherent power, but so do you. The players may be famous, but the power they exercise is about strikes and labor action. You can do this, too. Read more>>
Protesters Gather For “Noise Protest” To Drown Out Trump: Hundreds of demonstrators gathered around the White House on Thursday night for a “noise demonstration and dance party” in an attempt to drown out President Donald Trump’s speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination. Read more>>
How Colleges Are Supporting Students Leaving Abusive Relationships: Relationship violence threatens not only students’ physical safety and emotional well-being, but also their academic prospects. Some campuses are finding solutions to help keep survivors in school. Read more>>
What Women’s Suffrage Owes to Indigenous Culture: The example of gender equality in Haudenosaunee society gave 19th-century White women some big ideas. Read more>>
#DefundPolice Can Improve Public Safety: Cities looking to #DefundPolice re-imagine public safety as they consider taking away resources from racist, oppressive policing and putting it toward public safety and social services. Read 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>>
Support The Takeover Housing Actions in Philadelphia: Poor People’s Army / Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign are doing TAKEOVER HOUSING ACTIONS in Philly, on the new underground railroad. We do this to house families that cannot find affordable homes to live in. Learn more>>
#ChooseDemocracy: A new campaign rallies people to resist if Trump refuses to respect the results of the elections. 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>>
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>>
People Power: The Strategic Dynamics of Civil Resistance: This free online course starts in early October. Applications are due by (September 13). Learn 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>>
Before We March: Strategies For Powerful Social Change: Building on strategies used to create effective campaigns here in the US and globally, trainer Rivera Sun will walk participants through creating power analyses, and planning campaigns and strategies that fit specific goals, and adapting to changing circumstances, opportunities and opposition, and more. (Sept 26) Learn more>>
National Town Halls To Stop the Warehousing of Charitable Dollars: A new campaign explains how we can unlock billions for pandemic relief. (Sept 21 & Oct 5) Learn more>>
Fierce Vulnerability for BIPOC: In this workshop, we will explore how we can build a movement that can respond to heightened levels of violence without producing more trauma in the world, and in our own bodies. (Sept 25-27) Learn more>>
New Webinar Series On Building Effective Movements In A Pandemic And Beyond: Waging Nonviolence and Solidarity 2020 and Beyond are launching a new webinar series featuring experienced grassroots activists from a broad array of international struggles. 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 6) Read More>>
Engaging Nonviolence 6-Week Course: Study nonviolence with Veronica Pelicaric and Rivera Sun. (online, starts Oct 8) Learn 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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