Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
Women’s rights are human rights. Half of the world’s population lives in an on-going state of inequality. In this week’s Nonviolence News, you’ll find articles about women’s rights campaigns in Nigeria, Iran, Panama, India, and the United States. In the photo, above, Panama’s women protest in the streets over the inequalities in how the pandemic has impacted women. In Iran, a #MeToo movement has arisen, forging its own path to resist both patriarchy and western stereotypes. In the United States this week, a Black woman blew the whistle on mass hysterectomies in a migrant detention center. In so many of the stories in this week’s Nonviolence News, you’ll see women at the heart and soul of making change in our world.
As the United States mourns the passing of renowned Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the fate of women’s rights is up in the air. Protests are already being planned to demand that Republicans follow the protocols they insisted upon under the Obama Administration, and allow the next president to fill Ginsberg’s seat.
Women will not go back to the dark night of humanity’s soul from which we have only so recently emerged. Patriarchy and misogyny, gender inequality, and sexism are not the future of our species. Women – and people of all genders – around the world are demanding full equality for people of all genders, racism, sexuality, religions, classes, ages, abilities, and backgrounds. This is the future for humanity. It is a future in which we all belong.
Rivera Sun, Editor
Photo Credit: Empty Pots protest in Panama.
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Breonna Taylor’s Family Gains 12 Significant Police Reforms: The settlement includes an overhaul of the execution of simultaneous search warrants, mandates that a commanding officer review and give written approval of all search warrants, documents aimed at calculating the specific dangers of a warrant location, and more. Read more>>
British Columbia Forest Management Practices Now Guided By Biodiversity: B.C. Forests Minister Doug Donaldson today announced the deferral of old-growth logging within more than 350,000 hectares as well as the protection of up to 1,500 giant trees. The move came in response to a highly anticipated report also released today on the management of old-growth forests in the province. Read more>>
South African Stores Toss TRESemmé Hair Products After Racist Ad Causes Massive Protest Campaign: The ad triggered protests led by opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who called the ad “racist” and “dehumanizing.” Read more>>
Oscars Adds Diversity Criteria To Avoid Another #OscarsSoWhite Scandal:
Five years after the hashtag shamed the film industry for an all-white Best Picture slate, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will require films to be more diverse for top-prize consideration. Read more>>
Charlottesville, VA, Finally Takes Down Confederate Statue Near Site Of 2017 Unite The Right Rally: Three years and many deaths later, Charlottesville finally took down their confederate statue that stood near the site of the violent #UniteTheRight rally. Read more>>
Bye Bye, Big Oil? BP Admits Demand May Have Already Peaked, Predicts Growth of Renewable Energy: Welcoming news that oil demand may never recover to pre-pandemic levels, Greenpeace noted that “a #GreenRecovery will hasten its demise.” Read more>>
A New Jersey Law Makes a Clean Environment A Right. Other States Should Follow: The far-reaching environmental justice bill acknowledges and aims to reduce harm from pollution on communities of color. Read more>>
The Immokalee Way: Protecting Farmworkers Amid a Pandemic: While some companies do everything to escape accountability, the Fair Food Program proves there’s an alternative. Read more>>
100,000 March Against Belarus’ Lukashenko: There was no sign that the anti-Lukashenko movement is declining or fading away. Instead protesters took to the streets in huge numbers for the fifth weekend in a row, defying riot police who blocked off the city centre with military vehicles. Read more>>
Chileans Commemorate the Coup of Allende With Mass Demonstrations: People carried images of loved ones who were murdered by Pinochet’s military dictatorship on the anniversary of the coup. Read more>>
In The Absence Of The State, People Are Leading Beirut’s Recovery: A month after the Beirut blast, a people-centered recovery is key to peaceful change. Read more>>
ICE-Detained Asylum-Seekers On Hunger Strike Amid COVID-19 Face Solitary Confinement: 30 Africans immigrants at the Pine Prairie facility in New Orleans are participating in a hunger strike to get everybody out safely, especially two who are especially sick. Read more>>
What Will It Take To Defend The Election? Here’s One Winning Strategy: A knee-jerk protest won’t stop a Trump power grab. It’s going to take several clear, do-able strategies that together enable us to win. Read more>>
Meet the Students Trying to Organize the First Campus-Wide Undergraduate Union: Inside the groundbreaking student organizing drive at Kenyon College. Read more>>
Labor Activists Speak Out About Underground Miners’ Protest In Ukraine: Workers in Ukraine’s iron ore industry are refusing to come up from their mines, risking their wellbeing for better wages, working conditions and social benefits. Read more>>
Toronto Hold Rally For Six Nations Members Arrested In Land Dispute: Hundreds of people demonstrated outside of the office of the Ontario ministry of Indigenous affairs in Toronto on Saturday to show support for members of Six Nations of the Grand River arrested in a land dispute. Read more>>
Empathy Saves Lives as Pandemic Makes Addiction More Dangerous: The solidarity of people looking out for one another is a necessary ingredient to preserving life. Read more>>
Celebrities Boycott Facebook Over Failure To Stop Hate: A 24-hour upload boycott by celebrities protested what they see as Facebook’s failure to control disinformation and hate speech. The campaign, #StopHateForProfit, is aimed at Facebook and Instagram and has attracted such disparate individuals as Kim Kardashian West, Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Ruffalo. Read more>>
Alternative School Solutions For Working Parents: Around the US, education advocates, as well as school districts, co-ops, and parents have been rushing to create alternative and out-of the box solutions for schooling during the pandemic. Read more>>
Tenants’ Rights Organizers Are Fighting to Keep Everyone Housed: For millions of people across the country, this crisis has threatened the roof over their head. For tenants’ rights organizers in New Orleans, Washington, Los Angeles, and New York, that has meant mobilizing to effectively protect people from getting kicked out of their home amid fears of a mass eviction crisis. The pandemic is quite literally hitting home. Read more>>
Rochester Protesters Say Justice for Daniel Prude Requires Defunding the Police: Following Prude’s death, his family and local community group Free the People (FTP) Roc struggled to obtain body camera footage via a public records request from the city and its police department. The footage, released six months later on September 2, quickly sparked outrage and grief within Rochester and across the country. Read more>>
Could Athlete’s Revolts for Racial Justice Sink Trump’s Campaign? Let’s hope so. They’ve already had a significant impact. Read more>>
Britain’s Got Talent Takes BLM Stand And Faces Racist Backlash: The performance included a scene of a white man kneeling on a dancer’s neck and lyrics opposing police brutality. Read more>>
Lancaster Is Latest City to Protest a Police Shooting Death: Ricardo Munoz, a 27-year-old Pennsylvania man with schizophrenia, was shot and killed by police while allegedly wielding a knife. Read more>>
Free Black Mental Health App Offers A Lifeline: Two years ago, New Orleans born-and-raised Jasmin Pierre created “The Safe Place,” a mental health app created with Black folks and cultural competency in mind. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s continued racial trauma and unrest, Jasmin has witnessed an increase in downloads. Read more>>
$5K Grants Program Seeks To Help Struggling Black Businesses: Amex has joined forces with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation to launch the “Coalition to Back Black Businesses.” The coalition intends to give out $10 million in grants over four years to help Black businesses recover from the pandemic. The coalition also includes the National Black Chamber of Commerce, the National Business League, the U.S. Black Chambers, and Walker’s Legacy. Read more>>
New Fossil Fuel Projects Meet Indigenous Resistance in New Mexico: The Trump administration appears set to open the region to more extraction, but Navajo activists are resisting. Read more>>
Rural Oregon Communities Are Fighting to Keep Out Big Water Bottling Companies: The corporate capture of water as a commodity and material for oil and gas drilling is receiving community pushback. Read more>>
Indigenous Stewardship of the Land Would Help to Prevent Raging Climate Fires: A return to Indigenous forest management practices could help better steward the land and foster greater climate resiliency. Read more>>
Extinction Rebellion’s ‘Go Floppy’ Tactic Annoys British Cops – But Works: A spokeswoman for XR confirmed that – despite the cops’ irritation about floppy protesters – the rebels were encouraged and trained to go limp when being arrested. “It is part of our non-cooperation tactics. It is totally peaceful,” she said. Read more>>
Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s Passing Honored With Vigils – And Protests To Stall The Next Pick: Citizens are demanding that Republicans follow the protocols they insisted on under Obama and let the next president pick the judge to fill RBG’s Supreme Court seat. Read more>>
Iran’s #MeToo Movement Challenges Patriarchy And Western Stereotypes: The movement is part of a global outpouring of anger against male privilege, with Iranian women as agents who do not need white saviors. Read more>>
“Empty Pots Of Panama Protest” Decries Corruption And Gender Inequality: According to the protestors, due to violence, the overload of tasks on women, inequality and poverty in the context of COVID-19, women are carrying the burden of work and suffering more from the consequences of the pandemic. This is also evidenced in the absence of responses to women with children who need to work to make any money to support the kids, said the protestors of the movement. Read more>>
#CancelNetflix Boycott Over Cuties Misses The Point: A controversial film about young, Black, immigrant girls navigating hyper-sexualized cultures and traditional home cultures is generating a mass storm of controversy. Is it warranted? Read more>>
Stella Nyanzi’s Radical Feminism: African feminism is the active mobilization of women and non-binary people across the continent and in the diaspora working to undo the violence of the state and capital. Read more>>
Whistleblower on Doctor at ICE Facility Warns Of Mass Hysterectomies: The complaint described one doctor at the facility as the “uterus collector” for how often he performed the procedure. Read more>>
Why Doing Nothing Is A Radical Act For India’s Women: “Time is a feminist issue. Leisure is a feminist issue. It essentially tells you who can afford it. It’s a reflection of your social and economic standing,” says Surabhi Yadav, whose photography project captures carefree moments of women around her. Read more>>
Campaign Nonviolence Action Week Launches with 4,000+ Actions & Events: The movement mobilizes every fall to build a culture of peace and active nonviolence, free from war, poverty, racism, and environmental destruction. Read more>>
New Report Shows Majority of US Citizens Want Diplomacy & Demilitarization: Statistics are surprising. This new report shows that the majority of US citizens want increased diplomacy, ends to foreign wars, and cuts to military spending. Read more>>
170 Peace Groups Issue Urgent Call For Global Peace: With International Day of Peace around the corner, peace groups are demanding ceasefires and demilitarization to deal with pandemic, economic woes, and humanitarian, refugee, and climate crises. Read more>>
Striking During the Pandemic: Workers are going on strike for health measures, hazard pay, and many other issues. They’re being creative about their actions … and the stakes are literally life-and-death. Read more>>
Peopleless Protest – Bridging Digital And In-Person Divides: In the COVID-19 era, organizers are looking for tactics that are safe and effective. Here are some ideas from around the world. Read more>>
Insider Threats – A Closer Look At Security In Movements: In activist circles, sooner or later people can become concerned about the possibility of infiltrators in our midst. Read more>>
Protesting Nuclear Weapons, She Found Her Community, Sexual Identity And Sense Of Purpose: Nearly 40 years after the founding of Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, it’s time to honor this vital part of the peace, women’s and queer movements. Read more>>
What Role Did Gene Sharp Play In the Fall Of Communism? A scholar takes a look at the accusations and facts of how the Soviet Union collapsed, the role of nonviolent struggle, and the ways Gene Sharp’s work was – or wasn’t – involved. Read more>>
AfroResistance Hosts Anti-Oppression Workshop, “Dominant Culture: A Virtual Anti-Oppression Workshop.” Registration is required. (September 16 and 30) Read 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>>
Struggles Against Extraction In Africa: Register for this webinar on environmental justice struggles and opposition to resource extraction in Africa, featuring activists from Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. (Sept 22) Read more>>
Nonviolence News Happy Hour: Join the conversation! Readers of Nonviolence News join with Kit Miller from the MK Gandhi Institute and Nonviolence News Editor Rivera Sun to discuss what’s happening in the news. (Sept 25) Learn 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>>
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>>
Confronting Challenges of Medical Debt: RIP Medical Debt will be hosting a virtual summit on the contemporary challenges of medical debt in America. The summit is free and will be made accessible through a public livestream. (Oct 6) Read more>>
Debunking the Myths of World War II Course: World BEYOND War is launching a new online course that explores why WWII was not fought to rescue anyone from persecution, was not necessary for defense, was the most damaging and destructive event yet to occur, and could have been prevented by avoiding any of several bad decisions. (Starts Oct 5) 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>>
Black People’s March On White House: The Black Is Back Coalition calls on all to march, rally and convene in Washington, D.C., during the “Black People’s March On White House.” Registration is required. (Nov 7-8) 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>>