Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
Welcome to 2021. All the organizing work in Fall 2020 to prevent a US coup attempt paid off this week as (most of) the pillars of society categorically rebuffed the mob insurrection that stormed the US Capitol Building. But beyond these shocking (but not surprising) headlines, there are dozens of important nonviolent campaigns rising up for justice. Nurses and teachers continue to strike for safer workplaces. Students and parents at one of the US’ most expensive universities are preparing for a tuition strike. Young Israelis are refusing to join the military in protest of apartheid against Palestinians.
Don’t miss the new frontline of Indigenous-led pipeline resistance – Enbridge Line 3 Blockade. Check out the interesting emergence of the use of a “utility strike” aimed at withholding payments until the power company retires a coal plant. Learn why debtors are forming a union to push for debt abolition. Find out how #CancelRent and anti-eviction efforts are rapidly picking up steam. And in the “Knowledge” section, you’ll find a number of reflections looking back at resistance movements in 2020. There’s a lot to learn from these reports on feminist struggles across Latin America, or how LGBTQIA campaigns ramped up even amidst the pandemic and larger focus on racial justice struggles.
And, wow! You LOVED Nonviolence News’ four special reports on gains, wins, victories, and success stories in 2020. They became some of our most-read articles. Glad you like them! They are uplifting and inspiring. Here are the four reports in case you missed one:
56+ Racial Justice Gains In 2020
50 Wins For Pandemic Response & Economic Justice
50+ Victories For Political Change Around The World
70+ Wins For Earth & Climate Justice In 2020
In addition to these popular reports, Nonviolence News also released special reports throughout the year that helped people find out how their fellow citizens were responding to pandemic lockdowns, countering coups, and pushing for change even amidst unprecedented challenges. We used our newsletters to highlight exciting strategies and creative tactics. We shared how people around the world are using nonviolence in record-breaking numbers to make powerful change. I’m proud of the work Nonviolence News has done in 2020 … and eagerly anticipating the ways Nonviolence News can help our ever-expanding readership in 2021.
Welcome to 2021. Let’s make it a year of what John Lewis called “good trouble”.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun, Editor
Photo Credit: A #CancelRent and housing justice rally in Oakland, CA.
A Special Thank You & Celebrating A New Nonviolence Film
Have you seen this new nonviolence film? The Third Harmony, created by our friends at the Metta Center for Nonviolence, explores the rising resurgence of nonviolence in our world. They’ve made the film free to stream this weekend (Jan 9 & 10, 2021) and I’m delighted to be able to share it with all you wonderful Nonviolence News readers. I’m grateful for you and for my colleagues at Metta Center. We are a movement of incredible people who are all working to foster nonviolence in this crazy world. Find out more about the film and how to watch it for free here>>
Thanks to Fight for $15, Workers In 24 States and 50 Municipalities Will Receive Higher Minimum Wages In 2021: “These increases are a testament to the power of workers coming together and fighting for what real people and families need.” Read more>>
After Years of Protests, the Islamabad Zoo Will Convert Into An Animal Sanctuary: A happy ending for 2020, a year when Pakistanis debated animal abuse like never before. Read more>>
Denmark Sets Deadline To End All Fossil Fuel Drilling; Bans New Projects: Legislators in Denmark have agreed to stop issuing licenses for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea and set a 2050 deadline to end all fossil extraction and exploration in the area. Read more>>
Lloyd’s Market To Quit Fossil Fuel Insurance By 2030: The world’s biggest insurance market to end new investments in coal, oil sands and Arctic energy by 2022. Read more>>
Two Officers Fired Over Breonna Taylor Murder: The Louisville Metro Police Department has formally fired two of the officers involved in the March police raid that killed emergency medical worker Breonna Taylor. Read more>>
LA County Grants $5-an-Hour “Hero Pay” for Frontline Workers: With COVID-19 cases raging in California, LA County passed a measure that would give frontline retail workers at companies with more than 300 employees an extra $5-an-hour in “hero pay” for working during the pandemic. Read more>>
Arizona Teacher Sickout Wins Shift To Online Learning: After protests and threats of teacher sickouts, one East Valley school district decided at the last minute to switch students to virtual school from in-person learning as COVID-19 cases explode in Arizona. Read more>>
Major US Pension Fund Ditches Fossil Fuels: In what’s being billed as “the biggest leap forward worldwide on climate finance action this year,” a major US pension fund has announced plans to move its money out of fossil fuels. The New York State Common Retirement Fund has a portfolio of $226 billion worth of investments under its control. Read more>>
Despite Flagrant Coup Attempt, Pillars Of Democracy Are Holding: A coup needs legitimacy to be successful. If the goal of seizing the Capitol was to gain legitimacy, the action backfired spectacularly. Read more>>
India’s Huge Farmer Protests Continue: In November 2020, thousands of farmers marched from the northern states of India to Delhi to protest farming reforms passed by Prime Minister Modi’s government. Those protests have continued throughout the month of December and show little sign of letting up. The farmers have set up camp in and around the capital city to pressure the government to repeal the laws, but the government won’t budge. Read more>>
Google Workers Form Union to ‘Promote Solidarity, Democracy, and Social and Economic Justice’: The tech titan “has a responsibility to its thousands of workers and billions of users to make the world a better place,” two of the union’s leaders wrote. “We can help build that world.” Read more>>
Sixty Israeli Teens Refuse To Serve In Israeli Army: Dozens of Israeli teens sign public letter objecting to military service over Israel’s policies of apartheid, neoliberalism, and denial of the Nakba. Read more>>
People in Debt Have Formed a Union to Fight Back: The Debt Collective is urging President-elect Biden to cancel all student debt “because it’s the moral thing to do.” Read more>>
Chicago Teachers Union Members Take Stand Against Unsafe School Conditions: “We’re afraid for our lives. We don’t want to lose our jobs. The fear of losing our jobs is real,” said one teacher. “But the fear of this virus is greater than that fear.” Read more>>
Philadelphia Jobs With Justice Campaigns To Get University of Philadelphia To Pay Its Fair Share of Taxes: The university is exempt from taxes that could be used to help the public school system remove asbestos and lead from dangerous school buildings. Read more>>
Monterey Bay Crab Fisherman Go On Christmas Strike: Low pay, pandemic woes led crab fishermen in California to go on strike. Read more>>
Students & Parents At The US’ Most Expensive University Promise A Tuition Strike: More than 3,200 students, parents, faculty, and alum at Columbia University have signed a petition in support of a tuition strike for the spring 2021 semester. Read more>>
Black-Led Prison Strike Launches 30-Day Economic Blackout of Alabama Prisons: Incarcerated workers have gone on strike to protest the inhumane conditions in Alabama prisons, the economic exploitation of incarcerated workers, the neglect of the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) around COVID, and the implementation of video visitation equipment by Securus Technologies in order to eventually do away with in-person visitation. This strike is being led by the Free Alabama Movement, a prison abolition group founded and run by Black incarcerated workers. Read more>>
Stanford Hospital Workers Strike Against Unfair Vaccine Rollout: Today, at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California, many nurses and doctors stopped working to protest an upper management decision to give the COVID-19 vaccine to “orthopedic surgeons, nurses treating outpatients and a dermatologist,” instead of frontline workers. The hospital was quickly forced to apologize to its workers. Read more>>
Activists Launch National Campaign to Ban ‘No-Knock’ Police Raids: Campaign Zero is working with 37 city and state governments to pass comprehensive legislation that will better protect civilians. Read more>>
Deep In The Heart of the Military-Industrial Complex, the Peace Corner Confronts the Pentagon: In Hunstville, Alabama, the Peace Corner activists, in groups as large as a hundred or as small as a handful, show up each week to directly take on something even more heavily armed than cops: the Pentagon. Read more>>
Indigenous-led Resistance To Enbridge’s Line 3 Pipeline Threatens Big Oil’s Last Stand: Water protectors in Minnesota are kicking off what could be the climate movement’s next massive, sustained direct action campaign. Read more>>
Youth Climate Activists Ring In 2021 With Renewed Efforts: Youth activists around the world kicked off the new year Friday with a fresh round of #ClimateStrike actions and demands that 2021 be the year policymakers take sufficiently bold action to address the climate emergency. Many of the pleas included the hashtag #ClimateStrikeOnline, as the coronavirus crisis has forced many “school strike for climate” events to be virtual. Read more>>
Italian Forest Protectors Face Police Blockade: A small village in the Alps was suddenly occupied by police forces called in by a railway project worried about activist disruption of construction operations. Read more>>
To Protect Great Lakes, Michigan Tribes Oppose Enbridge Line 5 Pipelines: This Indigenous-led campaign in Northern Michigan opposes the Canadian firm Enbridge’s plan to extend the life of Line Five. The underwater oil and gas pipelines have operated for decades in the straits of Mackinac, the narrow body of water between Michigan’s lower and upper peninsula, and organizers view them as a disaster in the making. Read more>>
Climate Activists Mount Utility Strike To Urge Shutdown of New England Coal Plant: The Strike Down Coal campaign provides a COVID-safe form of disobedience, building on more than a year of direct actions to shut down Merrimack Station. Read more>>
Organizers Say Urban Agriculture Is Not Just a Hobby, It’s an Act of Resilience: These activists are working to decolonize the food system and shape the narrative around urban agriculture. Read more>>
North Dakota Residents Fight Loopholes Allowing Fracking to Poison Their Water: North Dakota’s water supplies are at risk from contaminants from fracking wastewater, but residents are fighting back. Read more>>
“Neither Extinction Nor Escape”: Nonviolence Radio shares a recording of a talk given by environmentalist, activist and author Vandana Shiva on ecofeminism and the decolonization of women, nature and the future. Read more>>
7 Ways Women Of Color Resisted Racism In 2020: From Brazil to India to Lebanon, women of color stood up for reproductive rights, political representation, labor justice, and to stop racism in all its many forms. Read more>>
We Must Remember to #SayHerName in Our Movements Against Police Violence: Despite leading the movements against police and state violence, Black women are often the forgotten victims. Read more>>
Boston Ujima Project Sparks A Grassroots Resistance to Racism In Finance: Systemic racism and inequity in financial markets have blocked many working-class communities of color from building wealth of their own. The Boston Ujima Fund aims to change all that, by building a movement that reinvests into the neighborhoods and dreams of communities, families, and people who have experienced generations of this sort of financial discrimination. Read more>>
#CancelRent Gains Momentum: Rent strikes have spread across the country with the spread of the coronavirus. In the pandemic’s first months, 400 New York City families stopped paying rent in buildings with over 1,500 rental units. In May, rent strikes involving 200,000 tenants spread to Philadelphia and elsewhere. Washington, D.C., in September saw tenant unions spring up in strikes. The movement is on the rise. Read more>>
Lushootseed Tribe Opens Holistic Housing For Unhoused Tribal Members In Seattle: Most of the building’s 80 studio apartments will be for the homeless, with 10 reserved for veterans and another 10 for extremely low-income households. Each of the building’s floors will be named after traditional medicines, such as Sage and Yarrow Root, and covered in Coast Salish art. The ground floor will feature a traditional Native café, resourced by a local farm. There will also be a primary care health clinic run by the Seattle Indian Health Board. Outside, a 25-foot wooden statue of a Native mother with her hands raised will welcome residents and visitors. Read more>>
Compassionate Model For Street Hygiene Opens in Portland, OR: The Hygiene Hub, under the Morrison Bridge, offers toilets, wind and solar showers, information and other resources. Read more>>
Activists Are Mobilizing to Create an Eviction-Free United States: Tenants are mobilizing to cancel rent, stop evictions and demand construction and maintenance of affordable housing. Read more>>
Indigenous Groups Flood Calendars of Insurance CEOs with Reminders To Meet With Them: Even though CEOs of insurance giant Liberty Mutual is refusing to meet with Indigenous leaders who oppose their pipeline policies, the organizers are putting themselves on the calendar in a creative way. Read more>>
‘Queer Japan’ Documentary Introduces Japan’s Vibrant, Multifaceted LGTBQ+ Community: The documentary celebrates self-love, community and resilience. Read more>>
A Visual History of Mutual Aid Appears In Bloomberg Business Magazine: Colorful, creative, full of activist history, this visual history shows how mutual aid differs from charity. In short, it’s supporting one another in ways that remake the world we live in. Read more>>
During Effort To Pass Stimulus Checks, Citizens Hit Up Mitch McConnell With $2K Venmo Requests: The (now former) Senate majority leader, seen as a key obstacle to COVID stimulus checks, is getting flooded with requests online. Read more>>
Seattle Light Projections and Overpass Banners Call For Trump To Be Removed: Projected onto skyscrapers and held above a freeway, these actions demanded that the 25th Amendment be invoked … or that Trump be impeached. Read more>>
The Year of COVID, Elections and Police Brutality Also Saw Powerful LGBTQ Activism: This year has reaffirmed that queer and trans liberation is inextricable from the liberation of all marginalized people. Read more>>
The Year of Feminist Struggles And Political Resistance In Latin America: In Latin America and the Caribbean, the year 2020 was marked by the role of feminist and social movements that helped bring about immense political change despite the presence of the COVID-19 pandemic which dominated the headlines and became a global concern. Read more>>
The International Press Did Not Understand The Demonstrations In Peru: What happened in Peru was not ‘just another emergency’. It was something much more complex than a demonstration. It was “a historical milestone in the contemporary political life of Peru”. Read more>>
How The Greenham Common Peace Encampment Changed This Military Wife: She first heard about the anti-nuke protests when her husband was assigned to try to stop them. But hearing about the skillfulness and courage of the peace women shifted her heart and mind forever. Read more>>
While They Didn’t Win Their Demands For Safety, The Grad Student Strike Revived The Student Union: For graduate students at the University of Michigan, organizing a campus-wide strike strengthened the solidarity, membership and visibility of unions on campus. Read more>>
Confronting The Dangers of Disdain: With the threat of totalitarianism at least forestalled, it’s time we examine and address its underlying causes. Read more>>
Ending Violence Against Sex Workers Means Abolishing Police and Prisons: On the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, let’s commit to building a world free of policing. Read more>>
The Art Of Using Supply Chains To Defend Worker Rights: The Fair Food Program protects farmworkers by closing the accountability loophole in the tomato supply chain. But can it be replicated? Read more>>
StrikeMapUK Launches, Tracking UK Labor Strikes For the First Time: An uptick in labor strikes in the United Kingdom prompted the launch of a strike tracker map website. The website is the first place all strikes across industries are being tracked. Read more>>
2020 Saw Resurgence of Strikes as a Key Tactic for Labor Around the World: While this year catalyzed a historic strike wave, it also exposed the labor movement’s internal divisions. Read more>>
Nonviolent Campaigns 101 – A Toolbox & Strategy For People Power: Ready to make social change? Join co-facilitators Rivera Sun and Henry Cervantes for a 6-week online course on building nonviolent campaigns. We’ll explore creative and powerful examples of how people like you have stood up for life, safety, health, people, and our planet. You’ll learn skills and gain tools that you and your community can use. (Jan 21-Feb 25) Learn more>>
Stand With Families In Takeover Houses: Families have been occupying vacant houses all year, countering evictions and houselessness with bold direct action. You can support them. Sign the “Housing is a Human Right Petition” here>>
Tell Alabama Prisons “No Retaliation Against Hunger Strikers”: Alabama incarcerated persons are on strike against inhumane conditions. They risk retaliation from prison authorities and guards. You can sign this petition to send a clear message that retaliation is unacceptable. Learn more >>
Election Defenders Announce Fresh Series of Action Trainings: This time, the Wednesday night online trainings will focus on anti-eviction actions and countering deportations. Learn more >>
“Our Sacred Humanity: A Self-Paced Nonviolence Retreat”: Metta Center for Nonviolence offers this online, self-paced nonviolence retreat to help you reconnect and deepen your nonviolence practice. Learn more >>
Engaging Nonviolence Online Community Course: Using small and large groups, facilitators Veronica Pelicaric and Rivera Sun will guide the participants through explorations into the personal, interpersonal, and social justice aspects of nonviolence. This Community Course is designed to be accessible, fun, friendly, and fearless. (Jan 18-Feb 22) Learn more >>
Heart of Nonviolence – Healing Ourselves, Healing Our Communities: This 6-week online course w/ Rivera Sun & Veronica Pelicaric will focus on the many types of inner work that support us as we use nonviolence in our daily lives and in the wider community. (March 16-April 20): Learn more >>
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