Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
Last week, we reported that Panama’s cost-of-living protesters had won a 30% reduction in essential goods. Now, they’ve secured even more victories, including an increase in the public education budget and price caps on medicine. They’re not the only group celebrating. In Oakland, California, residents finally won a 6-year battle with a negligent landlord. The 14-unit property has been put into the Community Land Trust as affordable housing. A tiny Maine town of 900 is cheering after stopping a proposal for a polluting silver mine. And, Illinois prisoners and their families achieved two long-sought gains: one for incarcerated women opposing fear tactic shakedowns, another for some the 409 survivors of Chicago Police Department’s wrongful convictions and torture.
In the rest of the world, the struggles continue. Sierra Leone doctors are on indefinite strike. Sri Lankans are frustrated – after ousting one president, they’re faced with new leaders cut from the same cloth that are simply reinforcing the economic policies that have led to disaster. Reuters journalists held a 24-hr strike. (Note: a good way to support striking journalists is to not visit that website for the duration of the strike. We aren’t running any stories from Reuters this week.) Black women in Brazil held a march for life, rights, dignity, and a racism-free society. An Indigenous blockade used tripods to shut down the streets outside the US Department of the Interior calling for an end of oil leasing, and the return of Native land to Native hands. In Buenos Aires, a new app allows residents to keep track of brutal cops and publish that information. On a joyful-and-provocative note, the songwriter of the viral TikTok sensation, I Know Victoria’s Secret, filmed an amazing flashmob outside the lingerie store – and the manager was NOT happy.
My top pick this week? An article about Colombia’s Indigenous youth brigades that vow to not join any military group. Instead, they organize nonviolent patrols to ensure peace communities can exist and the many armed factions stay out of their villages. It is dangerous and courageous work.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
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Victory in Defense of Abortion Rights – Kansas Votes NO: Kansans flooded the voting booths to defend abortion rights. Early in-person voter turnout was 250% higher than the 2018 primary midterm election and mail-in ballots doubled. The on-the-ground struggle in Kansas was powered by the determination of untold numbers of volunteers and activists, spearheaded by a statewide coalition of abortion rights organizations called Kansans for Constitutional Rights. Party for Socialism and Liberation organizers joined with so many others who went door to door, called people night after night and spread their message on social media – urging a “No” vote on the referendum. Read more>>
Olivia Julianna Flipped Matt Gaetz’ Hate In To Fundraiser For Reproductive Rights – But That’s Not All: 19-year-old Olivia Julianna took on a congressman and raised more than $2 million for abortion funds. But what she loves most of all is when politicians underestimate her. Just take Texas attorney general Ken Paxton. And Virginia’s Republican governor Glenn Youngkin. And Texas Republican governor Greg Abbott. Oh, and infamously, Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, who body-shamed 19-year-old Olivia, only for her to turn his fatphobic, misogynistic comments into more than $2 million in donations to abortion funds across the country. Read more>>
Panamanian People’s Organizations And Unions Win More Victories: The organizations which called for the national strike recently signed two agreements to increase the public education budget and to establish price caps for medicines. The new agreements in addition to those won last week will increase the public education budget to 6% of the GDP as demanded by teachers’ unions, and establish price caps for around 150 medicines. Read more>>
Oakland Renters Gain 14-Unit Apartment: After a six-year battle and almost two-and-a-half years of not paying rent, the tenants at a 14-unit Oakland building claimed victory over their landlord. Instead of tenants getting evicted, their landlord is no longer involved. Oakland’s community Land Trust purchased the 14-unit building for $3.3 million. Now the entire building will turn into affordable housing. Read more>>
How A Small Maine Town Stopped A Silver Mine: A town of 900 people organized against a metal mining corporation who promised jobs and silver. But, faced with long-term contamination of their rivers and bays, the people used Maine’s “home rule” charter to ban industrial mining. A grass roots understanding of their community was critical. Read more>>
Incarcerated Women in Illinois Win Court Battle Against Brutal “Tactical Team”: After a degrading, inhumane shakedown, incarcerated women filed suit against the prison – and won. The shakedown was apparently a deliberate exercise designed to teach new guards how to strike fear into the hearts of those incarcerated at Lincoln and other prisons in Illinois. The reign of terror lasted at least five hours until the lunch hour. Read more>>
Beyoncé Confirmed She Will Remove an Ableist Slur From a Song on Renaissance: The disabled community called out the pop star’s song “Heated,” which included the term “spaz”. The derogatory term derived from discrimination against people with seizures, epilepsy, Parkinsons and other disabilities affecting muscle spasms. Just a month before, the singer Lizzo had used “spaz” in a song and quickly changed it following mobilized outcry from disabled activists. Read more>>
In Chicago, Organizers Force The Release of Chicago Police Torture Survivors: A series of victories was won in the past month by the movement to free the 409 survivors of torture and wrongful conviction at the hands of Chicago Police Department. Clayborn Smith, Marcellous Pittman, Juan Hernandez, Rosendo Hernandez, Arthur Almendarez, John Galvan, Eruby Abrego, Jeremiah Cain, David Gecht and David Colon have all had historic judgments in their cases. Read more>>
Sierra Leone Doctors Begin Indefinite Strike: Doctors across Sierra Leone began an indefinite strike on Monday to protest low pay and lack of benefits, leaving dozens of patients in hospital waiting rooms in need of care. The doctors said they lost between 20% to 40% of their take-home pay in May after the government ended their monthly COVID-19 risk allowance and a tax break they had received with the onset of the pandemic. Read more>>
Health Professionals Protest At JPMorgan Headquarters: Six health professionals took part in a protest at the Canary Wharf headquarters of JPMorgan. They were arrested after carefully cracking eight plate glass windows at the huge investment and finance bank in protest at continued investment in new fossil fuel projects. “Health and care professionals should recognize the climate crisis as a health crisis, and therefore climate action as a core part of their professional responsibilities.” Read more>>
Sri Lankan Protest Movement Decries Reinforcement of Economic System It Objected To: With the appointment of the President and new Cabinet, Sri Lanka is presently witnessing the systematic reinforcement of the existing system, the one that the Aragalaya (Protest Movement) demanded must change, asserts Prof. Shamala Kumar of the University of Peradeniya. “We are again confronted with the reality that the country’s governance structure is not for the people or designed to protect us, but to protect the Executive and those that have his patronage,” she emphasized, in an interview with The Sunday Morning. Read more>>
Reuters Journalists Hold 24-Hr Strike: Over 300 Thomson Reuters journalists began a 24-hour strike Thursday, according to the workers’ union, citing low wage increases over the last two years. Read more>>
Black Women’s March In Brazil: On Sunday, July 31, at Copacabana Beach, in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, the VIII Black Women’s March was held, with the theme “For life, rights, dignity and for a just and anti-racist society. More black women in power!” In its eighth edition, the movement renewed its demands, such as requests for political, legislative, and social inclusion, the end of femicide, and the end of sexism. Read more>>
A Web Of Resistance Grows To Oppose Atlanta’s “Cop City”: Abolitionists, Indigenous leaders and artists are fiercely resisting plans for the largest police training center in the country. “This is going to be the largest urban warfare training facility for police in the country,” Burnett said. “And, what does that mean when, in 2020, people were actually asking to abolish the police?” Read more>>
COVID Reignites Long Fight For Health Care In California Prisons: The deadly COVID outbreaks in California’s prisons fed off decades of neglect. The pandemic has also spurred a wave of organizing that activists hope will further the push for decarceration. The COVID pandemic has thrown a harsh light on long-running medical neglect of incarcerated people and exposed the hold that the prison-industrial complex has on California politics. But even as it has done so, it has made openings for activism by and on behalf of the nearly 100,000 people in the state’s prisons, among whom people of color are dramatically overrepresented. Read more>>
Black Alliance For Peace Condemns FBI Attack On African Peoples Socialist Party: On Friday, July 29, 2022, the FBI executed multiple raids against APSP’s Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Florida and their Uhuru Solidarity Center in St. Louis, Missouri and the private residence of APSP Chairman Omali Yeshitela also in St. Louis. The FBI employed flashbang grenades and handcuffed Yeshitela and his wife while their house was raided. The FBI claims that the raids are connected to the federal indictment of a Russian national, Aleksandr Ionov, alleging that he has been working to spread “Russian propaganda” in the United States. Read more>>
‘Aftershock’ Examines the Fallout of the Black Maternal Mortality Crisis: The new documentary “Aftershock” tells the stories of two young women who suffered preventable deaths, and of the activists working to protect Black mothers. The U.S. maternal mortality rate is more than twice that of peer nations like Canada and the U.K., but the dangers childbirth poses to Black American women are particularly stark. Nationwide, Black women are three times more likely than white women to suffer childbirth-related deaths, and the gulf is even wider in New York City, where Black women are 12 times more likely to die than their white counterparts. Read more>>
‘It’s About Damn Time’ – 4 Louisville Cops Charged in Killing of Breonna Taylor: “Breonna Taylor should be alive today, and the people who killed her must be held accountable,” asserted one civil rights campaigner. Following two years of racial justice activism, the U.S. government on Thursday charged four current and former Louisville, Kentucky officers for alleged federal crimes related to the March 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old unarmed Black woman who was shot dead in her own home during a botched police raid. The crimes were “civil rights offenses, unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force, and obstruction offenses.” Read more>>
Mothers of the Movement Fight To Abolish Death Penalty In Illinois: There was a saying among the Mothers: “We’re there for every mother’s son.” Ronnie Kitchen was one of the cofounders of the Death Row Ten, a group of Black men, all of whom had been tortured by former Chicago Police Department Commander Jon Burge and white detectives under his command, and all of whom had been convicted and sentenced to death on the basis of tortured confessions. It was their mothers that put a human face on the death penalty and acted as the bridge between the activist community and their sons. Read more>>
A New Migrant Caravan Is Heading To the United States: On Monday, about 3,700 Central American migrants left the border state of Chiapas for the United States. According to reports from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the caravan is made up of people from countries including Venezuela, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Ecuador, Cuba, Panama, and also from Asia. Read more>>
First-of-Its-Kind Greenwashing Lawsuit Targets Gas Giant for Methane Lies: Washington Gas’s customers, said the plaintiffs, “have a right to the facts about the environmental and health impacts of the products and services they use—including where they get their energy.” The company has focused heavily on convincing customers that using natural gas, whose main ingredient is methane, is a sustainable way to power their homes and workplaces—despite the fact that methane has 80 times the climate-heating potency of carbon emissions in its first 20 years in the atmosphere. Read more>>
Indigenous-Led Blockade Demands Biden Declare Climate Emergency, End Oil Leasing: “Native land back in native hands, we are not your sacrifice zones!” An Indigenous-led blockade outside the U.S. Department of Interior early Monday morning called on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and halt all new fossil fuel projects, a demand that came as the White House and Senate Democrats are pushing legislation that could unleash a flurry of drilling activity on public lands and waters. Read more>>
As Congress Passes ‘A Climate Suicide Pact’, The Fight To Declare Climate Emergency Continues: As heatwaves, droughts and wild fires ravage the planet, pressure is building on the White House and Congress to take substantive action to address the climate crisis. More than a thousand organizations in the United States have come together as the People vs Fossil Fuels coalition with the demand that President Biden declare a climate emergency and use his executive powers to stop fossil fuel extraction and new infrastructure. Listen here>>
We All Just Want To Stop Oil Hold Coalition March: The coalition is made up of various campaign groups, activists and trade unionists, including Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace & Justice Project, Fuel Poverty Action, Don’t Pay, XR Trade Unions, Disabled People Against Cuts, as well as Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil. After a symbolic sit-down in the road outside Parliament (authorized with police on this occasion), instead of speeches there was a short walk to St James’ Park, where people sat in small groups and were invited to plan together how to build a movement towards widespread civil resistance in October. Watch here>>
Protest Held Against Mountain Valley Pipeline: A small group of dedicated activists today rallied in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) headquarters calling for the commission not to issue a second extension certificate to the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) a $5.5 billion 303-mile-long interstate natural gas project. The 42-inch diameter pipeline is facing opposition from numerable groups with issues related to global warming, the route’s effect on endangered species, construction issues including continual erosion problems along its length along with complaints from landowners whose property the massive pipeline project is crossing. Read more>>
World Update -Ten Countries From Pakistan To Panama Could Go The Sri Lanka Way: Sri Lanka is not alone. Rising inflation has pushed a lot of other nations to the brink of an economic collapse. Pakistan and Nepal find themselves with low foreign exchange; the soaring cost of living has led to protests in Argentina, Ghana, Kenya. Read more>>
Why Delivery Drivers Tried to Sew Their Lips Shut In Indonesia: The protest comes amidst dropping wages, rising inflation, and an investment crunch in the region. The lip sewing, meant to symbolize the difficulty drivers have experienced in getting the attention of regulators, is by far the most extreme act of protest by gig economy drivers in Indonesia to date. It may have worked. Read more>>
Striking Dockworkers At Ports In Northern Germany Are Spearheading The Fight Against Inflation: Two weeks ago, thousands of dockworkers in the ports of northern Germany went on strike for the third time in just a few weeks. The 48-hour strike for wages that would cover the real inflation being felt by these workers was the longest work stoppage in the ports in more than 40 years — reason enough for the bosses in the port, and beyond, to tremble with fear for their profits and attack the right to strike. Some 17 injunctions have been sought in labor courts to stop the strike. Rainer Dulger, president of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA), went so far as to call for declaring a “national emergency” to make it easier to break strikes in the future. Read more>>
Judge Rules West Virginia’s Medicaid Program Must Provide Gender-Affirming Care: U.S. District Judge Chuck Chambers found that the state was discriminating against transgender residents with low incomes by excluding gender-affirming care — which can consist of therapy, medication or surgery — from its Medicaid program. Two transgender West Virginia residents, Shauntae Anderson and Christopher Fain, sued the state over the policy in federal court. They were represented by Lambda Legal, a legal organization that focuses on LGBTQ issues. Read more>>
Primatologist Jane Goodall Gets Barbie Doll In Her Likeness: British primatologist Jane Goodall has got a Barbie in her likeness, fulfilling a longtime wish of having her own doll to inspire young girls. Mattel Inc unveiled the new Barbie, which the toymaker says is made from recycled plastic, as part of its Inspiring Women Series, nodding to Goodall’s groundbreaking studies of chimpanzees and conservation efforts. Dressed in a khaki shirt and shorts and holding a notebook, Goodall’s doll has a pair of binoculars around her neck and David Greybeard by her side, a replica of the first chimpanzee to trust the primatologist as she conducted her research at Gombe National Park, in what is now Tanzania in east Africa. Read more>>
County Controller Suggests Dumping Wells Fargo Over Abortion: ‘Let’s move banks to one [that’s] more socially conscious,’ Democrat Mark Pinsley said. Pennsylvania officials are moving to dump $145 million in taxpayer assets from Wells Fargo & Co. because of the financial titan’s support for politicians who oppose abortion rights. Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley was moved to act in response to his adult daughter’s outrage at last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling toppling Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that provided a constitutional right to abortion. “I went on vacation with my wife and family, and my daughter, who’s 20, said we couldn’t celebrate the Fourth of July because our freedoms were being taken away.” Read more>>
Colombia’s Indigenous Youth Join Nonviolent Guard: In Cauca province, where hundreds of environmental defenders have been killed since 2016, children aged five to 15 are taught nonviolent ways to avoid recruitment into militias and protect their land. Read more>>
Taiwanese Protesters Tell Nancy Pelosi To Go Home: Hundreds of civilians gathered across multiple city sites to welcome or protest against her arrival. Outside the airport, Taiwan independence groups held signs saying “I love Pelosi” and “shut up China”. The largest crowd gathered outside the Grand Hyatt, where Pelosi was due to stay. The turnout was larger than any expected and drew a large police presence but remained peaceful. Well organized, vociferous protesters held signs calling Pelosi a warmonger, and chanted “Yankee go home” from across the road. Read more>>
US Airman Who Rescued Film of A-Bomb Horrors Is Honored At Last: Few would recognize McGovern, but the vision of apocalypse is familiar from documentary footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the second world war. The footage for the 77th anniversaries of the atomic bombings that obliterated the Japanese cities and showed the reality of nuclear war: blasted landscapes, burnt skeletons, radiation sickness. But those haunting images might not exist were it not for McGovern. As part of the US Strategic Bombing Survey – which studied the impact of bombing – McGovern supervised Japanese and American camera crews in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Back in the US, he saved the footage from suppression by making secret copies. Read more>>
Anti-War Campaigners Applauded Yemen Truce Extension Amid Demands That US End Support for Saudi-Led War: “Not only was United States involvement in this brutal war unauthorized to begin with, but it is a crucial point of leverage to ensure that the Saudis and their allies remain at the negotiating table these next two months,” said one advocate. Anti-war campaigners on Tuesday applauded news that the United Nations-brokered truce in Yemen had been extended for another two months and called on U.S. lawmakers to help ensure more permanent peace by passing the Yemen War Powers Resolution. Read more>>
Veterans Arrested at Protest Condemning US Military’s Role in Climate Crisis: “We need to be reducing U.S. militarism and redirecting that money towards climate solutions,” said one veteran who took part in the demonstration. Veterans for Peace (VFP), a national anti-war group that organized the demonstration, said that at least seven veterans and supporters were arrested at the Capitol Hill protest, where advocates demanded cuts to the Pentagon budget, transparency from the military on its carbon emissions, an end to all U.S.-led wars, and a climate emergency declaration from President Joe Biden. Read more>>
“I Know Victoria’s Secret” Flashmob Held Outside Store: The hit song I Know Victoria’s Secret, was written by a TikTok influencer named Jax. It critiqued the body-shaming profiteering of the luxury underwear company. Now, the songwriter has choreographed a flashmob dance to the song – and performed it right outside the store. Watch here>>
Your Yard Could Be a Wildlife Sanctuary: Lawns are America’s biggest irrigated crop. Converting some of them into natural habitats could do wonders for Earth’s biodiversity. Nouveaux Voisins — New Neighbors, in English — envisions a world of yards like this, where suburban landscapes teem with life and buzz with planet-nourishing biodiversity. The Montreal-based nonprofit aims to “transform the culture of lawns” by educating people about how they can turn their yards (or balconies, or window ledges) into critical habitats for native plants and pollinators. Read more>>
Mapping The Police – Citizen Control Of the Security Forces In Buenos Aires: Last week, Ofelia Fernández, a member of the Buenos Aires legislature, announced on her social media the launch of a Map of the City’s Police, a collaborative webpage whose objective is to highlight, identify, and denounce situations of police violence within the territory of Buenos Aires; consequently allowing citizens to hold local security forces to account. This tool of citizen participation was designed in conjunction with a network of individuals and organizations. If an officer is implicated in a case of police violence or a shooting, that information is easily accessible. Read more>>
Chile Is Updating Its Constitution For the 21st Century. The US Should Follow Its Lead: The US constitution used to be considered a model for democracies around the world – but its antiquated institutions and absence of rights have guaranteed its declining influence. The US is not alone. Scores of constitutions around the world were written by dictators, colonizers and military occupiers to enshrine institutions that are undemocratic by design and unfit to cope with crises like a rapidly heating planet. Read more>>
Military Dissent And Protest – When Soldiers Refuse Orders to Use of Force: At a time when the horrors of war are on full display in Ukraine, it is important to understand that militaries sometimes choose to dissent when leaders order them to use force. Whether in foreign conflicts or against protesters at home, armies resist such orders, by staying in the barracks or avoiding direct clashes with civilians. The implications are enormous: military disobedience can save lives. Read more>>
Why Environmental Defenders Are Under Threat: The world is facing twin environmental horrors: climate change and a biodiversity crisis. Both fundamentally challenge the continuation and healthy functioning of civilization on this planet. There are many organizations, groups, and individuals across many countries who are trying to tackle these environmental disasters. Given all the money at stake, it stands to reason that these groups and organizations would receive pushback from vested interests and in some cases even threats of violence. And they do. Here’s the surprising reasons why. Read more>>
Don’t Pay UK Wants Millions Of People To Cancel Direct Debits: Millions of us won’t be able to afford food and bills this winter. We cannot afford to let that happen. We demand a reduction of bills to an affordable level. We will cancel our direct debits from Oct. 1 if we are ignored. The campaign starts now with your help. Learn more>>
Join This Free Public Webinar On Matters Of War, Peace, Art, And Activism With Roger Waters: There will be a presentation by Roger Waters, followed by Q&A. Topics will include: The repression of Julian Assange, free speech, and press freedom, Israeli military repression of Palestinians, and BDS, U.S. perpetual war and militarism, and the artist’s role in opposing each. (Aug 8) Learn more>>
CODEPINK Calls For Climate Emergency Declaration: The deadly heat waves of the past week demonstrate that climate action is long overdue. We’re in an emergency. Act now and demand President Biden declare an emergency for the planet now instead of fueling more wars. 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>>
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