Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
There’s a lot of good news in this week’s Nonviolence News. Youth and peace activists pushed Boeing to move its corporate headquarters out of Chicago. In 2021, Pillsbury family members decided to boycott their own brand over its manufacturing plant on stolen Palestinian land. The company finally pulled out, and the family has returned to enjoying the cookies they created 150 years ago. Chilean women won the closure of a smelting factory they call “Chile’s Chernobyl” for the poison it has dumped on the area. Long Beach, California, installed mats that give people in wheelchairs and rolling mobility devices access to the ocean. Ghanaian workers won a 15% cost-of-living allowance after mass protests. The US Postal Service increased its plans to electrify its fleet (from a measly 10% to 40%) after public outcry.
Most impressively of all, Spain taxed its banks and energy companies’ windfall profits. With the money, they will fund four months of free train travel for everyone, boost youth scholarships and build new homes. (Imagine if the whole world did something sensible like this.)
A few other highlights: students and families in Oakland, CA, have been occupying their elementary school for 50 days to stop it from being closed down. Puerto Ricans are marching against their energy company, which charges high prices for terrible service (last spring, one third of the country was left without power). Tour de France bicyclists staged a short, unified protest for road safety at one of the most deadly spots on the route. South Korean shipyard workers took over the factory and occupied the ships during their strike for better wages. Zimbabwean women are sewing sanitary pads to keep girls in school instead of staying home because they can’t afford disposable ones. In Myanmar, 2,000 garment workers are on strike over “unbearable” working conditions and wage theft.
There are so many gems in this week’s Nonviolence News. Scan all the headlines in our round-up, and don’t miss the interesting interview about the 1941 artists strike at Disney Studios.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
Photo Credit: Students from Parker Elementary are taking part in the sit-in to save their school. (Twitter/Parker for the People)
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Women Win Decades-Long Clean Air Battle In Chile’s Own ‘Chernobyl’: Activists in Quintero-Puchuncaví Bay ‘sacrifice zone’ hail closure of Codelco plant that poisoned their community. Their calls for environmental justice in the polluted Quintero-Puchuncaví Bay area of central Chile have largely gone unheard – until now. On 17 June, the government of the newly elected president Gabriel Boric announced that a smelting plant run by the state-owned National Copper Corporation of Chile (Codelco) would close. It followed a serious pollution incident that affected scores of people in this heavily industrialized area next to the Pacific Ocean. Read more>>
Chicago’s Anti-War Victory Against Boeing: The news released this spring that Boeing, a corporate weapons manufacturer, is moving its headquarters out of Chicago, Illinois, is a win for the anti-militarist movement and came just weeks after an even more meaningful victory for youth organizers who blocked the company from getting a $2 million tax break before they left. It’s a victory that organizers like us hope will inspire communities in other cities to target weapons manufacturers who are sucking up public resources via tax breaks and government contracts. Read more>>
The Pillsbury Family Celebrates a Win For Palestinian Rights: In 2021, Pillsbury family members made the tough decision to call for a boycott of their own family brand, established by their ancestor 150 years ago. They joined AFSC and partners to urge General Mills to stop manufacturing Pillsbury products on stolen Palestinian land. Today, they’re enjoying cookie dough again after celebrating General Mills’ decision to divest from the occupation. Read more>>
How Educators In Brookline, Massachusetts, Won An Illegal Strike: Striking has been illegal for public employees in Massachusetts since 1919. But in Brookline, a small suburb of Boston, we did it anyway. Out of a membership of 1,100, more than 900 signed in on the picket lines May 16. The strike culminated with a thousand educators descending on town hall for a rally with allies from around the state. Read more>>
Long Beach Installs Accessibility Mats On Beach: Disability rights advocates cheered the installation of accessibility mats on the sands of Long Beach. The mats allow access to individuals in wheelchairs and other mobility devices. Read more>>
Spain Taxes Banks & Energy Companies To Make Trains Free for 4 Months: New windfall taxes on banks and energy companies in Spain will be used to fund free train travel, boost youth scholarships and build new homes. Short and mid-distance trains will be free between September and December, an additional €100 will be given to a million scholarship holders at schools and universities, and 12,000 homes will be built in Madrid. Read more>>
US Postal Service To Boost Electric Vehicle Purchases After Backlash: Pressure from progressive advocacy groups and lawmakers bore fruit on Wednesday when the U.S. Postal Service announced that it would be making 40% of its new delivery vehicles electric, up from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s initial plan to electrify just 10% of the mail agency’s aging fleet. Over 500,000 emails, letters, and petition signers spoke up for electrification. Read more>>
Ghanaian Workers Win Cost-Of-Living Allowance: Ghana’s government has averted a planned strike by public sector workers over pay, reaching an agreement with the country’s main labour unions to increase the cost of living allowance by 15%, the finance ministry said on Friday. The trade unions, including teachers and health sectors workers had planned to strike in the coming weeks if wages were not increased as rampant inflation, currently at a record 29.8%, hits consumers in the west African country. Read more>>
Puerto Rico Holds Major Protest Over Energy Privatization: Hundreds of people marched on Wednesday in Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan to demand that the island’s government cancel its contract with power grid operator LUMA Energy over chronic power outages and frequent rate hikes. Demonstrators including union leaders and community activists say LUMA has steadily increased power rates despite frequent outages including one in April that left more than one third of the island in darkness. Read more>>
Oakland Parents Occupy Elementary School To Stop Its Closure: Plans to shutter several schools in Oakland have sparked hunger strikes, legal filings and a sit-in at Parker Elementary that’s lasted over 50 days. Read more>>
Ecuadorians Mobilize In Defense of Equalization of Salary: On July 13, hundreds of Ecuadorian teachers took to the streets across the country in a new national day of mobilization in defense of equalization of teachers’ salaries at national level. In Ecuador, the teachers teaching in public institutions receive around 50% less salaries than those teaching in private institutions. Read more>>
Ongoing Civil Strikes Further Cripple Everyday Life In Lebanon: Lebanon’s seemingly terminal dysfunction is now compounded by open-ended strikes at most government offices, as salaries are no longer sufficient for employees to get to work, let alone support themselves or their families. The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Beirut office estimates that nearly 100 percent of civil employees are now engaged in permanent or intermittent work stoppages. Lebanese may be sympathetic to public sector workers striking over wages, but frustration at inconvenience remains. Read more>>
Negotiations Underway In Panama As National Mobilizations Continue: After more than two weeks of mobilizations and strikes and several attempts by the national government to fragment the movement, the people of Panama continue their struggle to demand immediate solutions to the cost of living crisis. Read more>>
Tour de France Riders Stage Protest For Road Safety: Tour de France riders staged a protest at the start of Tuesday’s stage to complain about perceived dangerous racing conditions after a flurry of crashes reignited the issue of road safety. Having left the town of Redon in the western Brittany region to start Stage 4, they rode at a moderate pace and all riders got off their bikes after about 1 kilometer. They waited silently for about a minute before hitting the road again. Read more>>
Nigerian Unions Plan Two-Day Protest Against Shutdown of Universities: The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) will embark on two-day protest on July 26 to demonstrate against a six-month shutdown of public universities across the country due to pay disagreements between the government and teachers, it said on Sunday. The NLC, the country’s main umbrella union, represents millions of workers across most sectors of Africa’s biggest economy, including parts of the oil industry. It said in a statement it will mobilize workers to support the striking teachers. Read more>>
Sri Lankans Not Thrilled At New President: Sri Lanka’s imposing presidential secretariat which was stormed by a sea of protesters in early July, forcing out then incumbent Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was almost deserted as his replacement was voted in. Parliament’s selection of Ranil Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister, as Sri Lanka’s next president was a deep disappointment for many protesters at the secretariat and adjoining protest camp in the commercial capital Colombo, which has been the epicenter of nationwide demonstrations. Read more>>
Striking South Korean Shipyard Workers In Talks To End Occupation & Looming Police Siege: Striking contract workers and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (042660.KS) (DSME) have made some progress in talks over wage hikes, the two sides said on Wednesday, seeking to avoid the use of force to end a siege of the shipyard. About 100 sub-contractors have occupied DSME’s main dock in the south coast city of Geoje since last month demanding a 30% pay increase, halting work at the yard that the company has said have led to delivery delays. Read more>>
Garment Factory Workers in Myanmar Strike: Around 2,000 workers from a garment factory in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon went on strike over unbearable working conditions and wage theft, Myanmar Now reported. Read more>>
Biden Announces Emergency Board, Blocking Nationwide Railroad Strike: The announcement of the PEB, a form of federal mediation, blocks a potential strike by over 100,000 railroaders, which could have legally taken place as early as 12:01 AM on July 18, at the expiration of a 30-day “cooling off” period. Read more>>
Mexican Workers At Carlos Slim’s Telmex Launch First Strike In Decades: The trade union of Telmex, the Mexican telecommunications firm controlled by the family of tycoon Carlos Slim, went on strike on Thursday for the first time in nearly four decades after failing to reach a deal with the company, the union said. Telmex’s 60,000 unionized workers were set to walk out, a union representative said, adding that employees had begun hanging red and black flags outside Telmex offices to designate the start of the strike, its first since 1985. Read more>>
Chipotle Closes First Store to Unionize: Last month, workers at a Chipotle location in Augusta, Maine launched the company’s first-ever union. Now, the company is closing that location permanently, claiming that they are unable to staff the location. Chipotle United denounced the move as union-busting. Read more>>
Nursing Home Workers Strike Across Western New York: In Western New York, over 1,000 nursing home workers walked out of nine different facilities for one day to protest wages as low as $13.20/hour. “People don’t want to work in health care anymore — not for $13.20 an hour when you could pour coffee for $16 or $17 an hour,” Becky Pettis told WBFO. Read more>>
South Carolina Dollar General Workers Walkout Over Robberies & Wage Theft: While major retail outlets are unionizing, organizing has gone much slower at Dollar General. However, this weekend, workers at Dollar General in South Carolina staged a walkout. “We’ve been asking Dollar General to do these things for months, but Dollar General didn’t listen until we threatened to go on strike,” said Dollar General worker Taiwanna Milligan. “We’re following through with this strike because we have more problems that Dollar General has to fix.” Read more>>
Trucker Protests Bring Work At Port Of Oakland To A Halt: For the third consecutive day, hundreds of independent truckers protested Wednesday at the Port of Oakland, California. The truckers’ main demand is the repeal of provisions in California State Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), which would eliminate much of the independent trucking industry on the docks. Hundreds of truckers blocked the entrances to the docks with their trucks, bringing operations to a standstill. Read more>>
Opposition Grows To Gas Hub In Australia: The Traditional Owners of Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula) in the Pilbara are also incensed at the terrible damage being done to the 40,000-year-old rock art by the out-of-control gas industry. They oppose all new industrial development at the Burrup Hub, including the gas processing plant for the Scarborough field. Read more>>
Residents Living Near Oil Drilling And Allies Converge On State Agency Offices: Residents living on the frontlines of California’s oil extraction, and allies from across the state, came together today for demonstrations at the headquarters and Central Valley field office of the state’s oil regulator California’s Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM.) Advocates protested egregious mishandling of oil site inspections, threats to frontline communities from ongoing methane leaks at idle wells, and the long-delayed health and safety rule which Gov. Newsom touted last October would prevent new oil drilling in neighborhoods. Read more>>
Young Workers Are Bridging the Climate and Labor Movements: New momentum is buzzing through the North American labor movement, driven by the same age group which, across party affiliations and the urban-rural divide, has expressed majority-to-outsize support for advancing a climate policy overhaul with economic justice at its core. Ongoing organizing in the labor movement could have enormous implications for curbing the climate crisis. Read more>>
Ecosystem Restoration after Disaster – Hotlum Eco-Regeneration Camp and its response to the Lava Fire: As the climate crisis deepens, Ecosystem Restoration Camps sites are responding to increasing natural disasters in different ways. This article highlights Eco-Regeneration Camp Hotlum, California, and its experience recovering from the devastating Lava Fire of 2021. Read more>>
No Progress In Peruvian Talks Over Las Bambas Mine: A group of indigenous Peruvian communities that have been protesting MMG Ltd’s Las Bambas copper mine said on Thursday there has been no progress after a full month of talks, risking the end of a precarious truce. “In my community, there is no progress,” said Romualdo Ochoa, the President of the Huancuire community, which is opposing a planned expansion by Las Bambas into its territory. “This is disappointing.” Read more>>
Tiny House Trailblazer Helps Build More Inclusive Movement: As a Black woman in a space that’s predominantly white, Jewel Pearson has had her fair share of frightening racist encounters that have raised safety concerns and led her to move her tiny home twice. Instead of giving up on her dream lifestyle, Pearson leaned in and launched Tiny House Trailblazers in 2016 to advocate and create a safe space for other Black tiny home owners – and inspire Black and Brown people to pursue and achieve their own tiny living dreams. Read more>>
Students Like Me Can Target School Boards to Get Police Out of Schools: Students can challenge injustices like school policing by organizing and making their voices heard at school boards. Read more>>
Boxville And Beyond – How Shipping Container Marketplaces Revitalize City Centers And BIPOC Businesses: Urban planners and community developers are utilizing shipping containers to construct temporary and permanent shopping malls that empower Black and Brown entrepreneurs, help fledgling businesses and revive downtown areas in disenfranchised neighborhoods. Read more>>
New Border Wall Could End Legacy of Friendship Park: For decades, Friendship Park has been a sacred place on the border between Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California. That’s where loved ones could see each other and talk through the border fence, despite being separated. But today the Biden administration plans to build two, 30-foot border walls that would end those gatherings. “We want to make sure the public is aware of this, that they also have a say and provide their ideas of why Friendship Park should remain open,“ says AFSC’s Pedro Rios says. Read more>>
Former Minneapolis Police Officer Jailed For 2-1/2 Years In George Floyd Case: During the trial, federal prosecutors argued that the three men involved in George Floyd’s murder knew from their training and from “basic human decency” that they had a duty to help Floyd as he begged for his life before falling limp beneath Derek Chauvin’s knee. Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years in prison on federal charges of violating Floyd’s civil rights. Thomas Lane was sentenced for 2.5 years for doing nothing to stop the killing. Read more>>
Facing Eviction? Here’s How We Turn Rent Debts Into Leverage for Change: Household debtors seem to agree, and the pandemic has seen a surge in debtor organizing. Members of the Debt Collective organized to win over $6 billion in student and carceral debt cancellation during the pandemic alone; San Francisco’s Veritas Tenants Association took on the city’s largest corporate landlord and won pandemic rent debt cancellation for all tenants; and municipal, state and federal agencies placed payment moratoria on everything from utility bills to rent to student debt payments. These victories demonstrate the growing power of debtors. Alone, debtors are vulnerable to creditors’ legal and financial claims on them, but together they are powerful. Read more>>
Houston’s Fight To Decriminalize Mental Illness And Homelessness: While Harris County is spending millions of dollars on mental health services and service-providing agencies to reduce the number of mentally ill people entering its county jails, activists on the ground are tackling the problem from another angle—by providing direct support to the county’s homeless population. Read more>>
New Tenant Power Toolkit For Housing Justice: Helping each of us fight eviction and debt as individuals in the court system is crucial. But that is only the first part of what we can do together. Filing an answer to Unlawful Detainer or responding to a small claims lawsuit helps us respond to the system, but how can we change an unfair system? How can we change a system that evicts tenants who cannot file complicated legal papers within 5 days, but gives landlords online tools to evict from home? How can we change a system that allows landlords to ruin our credit over missed rent? Find answers in this new toolkit. Read more>>
The Forgotten Origins Of “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights”: Without the ingenuity of feminists from the Global South and networks of committed activists on every continent, we would never have heard the phrase: “Women’s Rights are Human Rights.” Read more>>
Despite Broken Promises From Politicians, Sex Workers Continue to Organize: Sex workers have been failed by electoral politics. Many are turning to harm reduction and mutual aid instead. Read more>>
Why Online Discrimination Against Women Should Concern Us All: Defenders of women’s rights should look for solutions that address the root causes of online discrimination and work to change them at the societal level. Read more>>
Zimbabwe Women Sew Sanitary Pads To Keep Girls In School: A community group in rural Zimbabwe is making reusable sanitary towels so that girls do not skip school when they have their period. The Chiedza Community Welfare Trust, in Zimbabwe’s Mutasa District, started sewing cloth sanitary pads when founder Gladys Mukaratirwa realized that local girls were missing school every month because they could not afford disposable hygiene products. Read more>>
How Trans Rights Activists Changed Argentina: Ten years ago Argentina passed groundbreaking gender identity laws, a victory won through solidarity, diverse tactics and longstanding activist traditions. The experience has lessons for us all. Read more>>
US Congresswomen AOC and Ayanna Pressley Arrested At Abortion Rights Protest: Sixteen members of Congress were detained at the protest outside the Supreme Court. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib were among 34 people arrested on Tuesday afternoon outside of the Supreme Court, where they were protesting for abortion rights, CBS reports. Per Capitol police, protesters were issued three warnings before they were arrested for blocking traffic on First Street, NE. Read more>>
Hundreds Protest After Deadly Attack In Iraq: Hundreds of people protested in Baghdad on Thursday after an attack in northern Iraq killed nine people including a newly wed husband and a 1-year-old, a strike that Iraq blamed on Turkish forces but which Ankara denied carrying out. In Baghdad, around 500 people gathered near a building belonging to the Turkish Embassy and scuffles briefly broke out between police and protesters. Read more>>
Breaking Cycles Of Violence In South Sudan: Former Nonviolent Peaceforce Protection Officer Hunter Dalli explains why intervention isn’t sufficient without the participation of those directly involved in the conflict. Read more>>
Tajikistan Cracks Down On Resistance To Military Conscription: The mass recruitment drives often turn violent as young men are kidnapped and bundled into waiting cars. Members of the public in recent years have taken to filming especially aggressive episodes on their phones and sharing online. Read more>>
Activists Call For Biak Massacre To Be Raised With Indonesia At Pacific Islands Forum: Indonesian security forces massacred scores of people in Biak, West Papua, 24 years ago on July 6, 1998. The victims included women and children who had gathered for a peaceful rally, singing songs and holding traditional dances. As the rally continued, many more people in the area joined in and numbers swelled to 500. Security forces attacked the demonstrators a few days later, massacring scores of people. Others were rounded up and later taken out to sea where they were thrown off naval ships and drowned. No Indonesian security force member has been charged or brought to justice for the human rights abuses committed against the peaceful demonstrators. Read more>>
North/South Korea Demilitarized Zone Has Become an Unexpected Bird Sanctuary: There’s a vast connection between war and environmental destruction. In a hopeful example of the parallel relationship between peace and environmental health, the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea has inadvertently become a bird sanctuary. Read more>>
Ferdinand the Bull Modeled Peace For a Generation: When the real-life bull that inspired Ferdinand was put into a politically-charged bullfight (to prove a theory that even pacifists would turn violent if pushed to it), he instead returned to the call of his owner for a caress. This moved a woman in the crowd to call for a rare pardon for the bull. Thousands joined her call, filling the stadium with pleas for his life to be spared. Although the tale ends in a vicious attack, the bull’s legacy lives on in the children’s story, Ferdinand, which continues to teach peace around the world. Read more>>
Absurdity As Protest – Birds Aren’t Real: Imagine you’re at a protest for some detestable cause — let’s say the antiabortion or anti-LGBTQ movement. Your opponents are likely accustomed to the standard counterprotesters: debaters that try to fight with reason. But this time you come at them with signs and chants that say “Birds aren’t real!” How do they respond to that? Birds Aren’t Real founder Peter McIndoe calls it “fighting lunacy with lunacy,” and it’s an apt name for the strategy. Read more>>
Artist Releases Illustrated History, Present, and Future of Labor Organizing: Sam Wallman has released his long-awaited first book, Our Members Be Unlimited, a comic about workers and their unions. Wallman is an artist based in Melbourne with an impressive catalog of political comics, posters and graphics. Our Members Be Unlimited looks at the past, present and future of unions and workplace organizing. Starting with slave uprisings in ancient Rome, later Haiti and then the formation of early trade unions in Britain, we gain an appreciation for the centuries of struggle before us that have given us the benefits all workers enjoy today. Editor’s Note: Not all of these examples are nonviolent, but many are. Read more>>
Artists Respond To Climate Crisis With The World Weather Network: A library at the top of one of London’s oldest skyscrapers; the rainforest, mountains and coastline of Peru; a Canadian island in the Labrador Current. All of these are weather stations, but they won’t necessarily be reporting temperature changes or barometric pressure. Instead, they are among the 28 international locations from which writers and artists will work to make sense of the climate crisis as part of a first-of-its kind collaboration called the World Weather Network. Read more>>
Northwest Artists Against Extinction: Artists in the Pacific Northwest are asking people to make some art and send it to politicians as part of a campaign to restore the Snake River and its imperiled fish, the salmon. Read more>>
What Happened To Hong Kong’s Protesters? Three years after the summer of mass unrest, some 1,500 of those arrested have been sentenced but hundreds of others are still waiting for their day in court. Read more>>
‘The Disney Revolt’ Details Animators’ 1941 Strike Against Disney: In the 1940s, one of Hollywood’s most popular leading men had big ears, red shorts and oversized yellow shoes. Mickey Mouse was a star. But the people who drew him for Walt Disney did not enjoy everything about their jobs. And in 1941, artists went on strike. NPR’s Barry Gordemer reports on the fight to unionize the Disney studios. Read more>>
How to Defund Fox News: Advertisers have no loyalty, period. So if their association with Fox News represents enough of a threat to their brand equity, they will reallocate their budgets. They’re terrified of a campaign like Check My Ads. Read more>>
UCLA Labor Center’s Soul Force Series Highlights Rev. Lawson: Rev. James Lawson shares stories of his path to nonviolence and his involvement in the 1960s Black freedom campaigns. The episodes survey Lawson’s legacy of advocating for justice in the face of racial segregation and labor exploitation. Included are retellings of Lawson’s childhood, his incarceration for being a conscientious objector to U.S. military enlistment, his travels to India as a student of Gandhi’s nonviolence teachings, and his role alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as a strategist in the civil rights movement. Listen here>>
Online Screening of The Day After, Followed By Anti-Nuke Discussion: “The Day After” is a U.S. post-apocalyptic film that first aired on November 20, 1983, on the ABC television network. A record-setting 100 million people watched it in the U.S. – and 200 million on Russian TV during its initial broadcast. Join World BEYOND War in viewing and discussing this tragically timely film. (Aug 6) Learn more>>
Tell Congress: Invest In Peace—Not War And Militarism: This week, the House of Representatives took up the National Defense Authorization Act. Members voted on Pentagon spending, nuclear weapons, and other critical issues that affect the lives, safety, and health of people around the globe. We need to keep up the pressure on Congress to move away from militarism and invest in peace. If you haven’t already, urge your representative to cut the Pentagon budget! Learn more>>
Defund the Mountain Valley Pipeline: Send a message to JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, MUFG, TD Bank, PNC, and Wells Fargo and tell them that continuing to fund the MVP is unacceptable. For years, activists in Appalachia have been fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline. If built, this fracked gas pipeline would have the same climate impact as 23 new coal plants ― and it would account for at least 1% of all greenhouse gases from the US energy sector. Learn more>>
Drop Charges Against Line 3 Water Protectors: Right now, hundreds of water protectors and comrades are faced with criminal charges in Minnesota for fighting the Line 3 pipeline and rising up in defense of the water, the climate, and the treaty rights of the Anishinaabeg people. Learn more>>
Preserve Highlander Center For Activists & Movements: The legacy of the Highlander Center is under threat. We need your support today to help defend our historic civil rights legacy – please add your name to our letter campaign calling for the Highlander Folk School name, property, and historic legacy to be returned to us and saved from opportunists who seek to capitalize on our 90 years of work. Learn more>>
James Lawson Institute 2022 Is Accepting Applicants: The powerful, in-depth training in strategy for movements and civil resistance, guided by the Rev. James Lawson and a team of organizers, is accepting applications. (Deadline: July 30; Starts Aug 10th) Learn more>>
