Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
From the global labor movement’s resurgence to interesting strategies in a wide range of campaigns, Nonviolence News offers a lot to mull on this week. Latvian teachers held an intense 3-day strike that led to higher wages. New York took thousands of guns off the streets with a buyback program. 120,000 striking federal workers in Canada reached a deal with the government on May Day, the internationally-recognized Labor Day. Speaking of May Day, people around the world took action amidst soaring inflation, high cost-of-living, and economic injustice. There’s a lot to get hot and bothered about for workers of the world.
Some interesting strategies and tactics also popped up in this week’s news. In the longest and largest strike in years, Palestinian teachers are working half-days to continue education for youth, then walking out at noon to participate in demonstrations calling for increased wages and greater independence for the educational system. Meanwhile, 300 supporters from the United States defied the blockade against Cuba by traveling there to meet the president. Italian workers are close to succeeding in turning their buyout-threatened factory into a worker-owned, socially-informed business. They had to occupy the facility for three years and have a wildly successful fundraiser to reach this moment of possibility. In the United States, an initiative called Clean Creatives has convinced 500 public relations and advertisement companies to refuse to support the fossil fuels industry. All of these stories remind us how effective it is to use nonviolence like a laser beam rather than a bubble wand.
In other Nonviolence News, Hollywood writers are on strike, South Korean doctors and nurses are embroiled in struggles over who gets paid to do what, Sudan’s civil society groups are mobilizing relief and mutual aid as civil war breaks out, and First Nations across Canada recognized Missing & Murdered Indigenous Persons Day.
A favorite story? A Finnish newspaper inserting frontline news about Ukraine into an online video game that millions of Russians play. The goal was to get the reality of war in front of people who are playing violent sniper games and ingesting Russian propaganda. The Finnish newspaper’s editor pointed out that many of the people playing this particular online video game are likely to enlist or be recruited to fight in Ukraine. I appreciated how they are pushing back on two forms of brainwashing by using some digital know-how and truth telling. (I also wish we did this for all sniper and combat video games, for all wars. The reality of war is so grotesque, no one should ever want to play at it “for fun”.)
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
Photo Credit: A worker holds up a smoke stick during a May Day rally in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, May 1, 2023. Workers and activists across Asia are marking May Day with protests calling for higher salaries and better working conditions, among other demands. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
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‘Big Win’ – New York to Build Publicly Owned Clean Energy, Electrify New Buildings: Climate campaigners in New York were credited with pushing legislators to include in the state budget “historic” provisions for renewable energy. The law is set to create tens of thousands of green jobs and “shut down some of the state’s most polluting oil and gas plants—which are concentrated in working-class, Black, and brown communities—by 2030, replacing them with pollution-free renewable power.” Read more>>
Agitation By Teachers Forces Latvian Government To Increase Wages: An intense three-day strike by educators in Latvia, led by the Latvian Education and Science Workers’ Trade Union (LIZDA), forced the coalition government headed by Krisjanis Karins to increase their wages. LIZDA organized a major protest march in the Latvian capital of Riga on April 24 and went on a three-day strike until April 27. Read more>>
President Lula Recognizes Six New Brazilian Indigenous Reserves: The lands include an extensive area of about 1.5 million acres of Amazon rainforest. The decree was signed on the last day of the 19th Terra Livre gathering, attended by thousands of Indigenous peoples in the country’s capital city of Brasília. Read more>>
New York Gun Buyback Program Takes Thousands Of Firearms Off The Street: Participants who turned in guns were given up to $500 for each firearm at nine program locations throughout the state. Read more>>
More Farmland Transitions to Organic: Growing interest in regenerative land practices and demand for organic food have led to consistent expansion of acres devoted to organic farming. Read more>>
Canada Lands May Day Deal To End Strike By Federal Workers: Canada’s government struck a deal with 120,000 federal workers on Monday, effectively ending the country’s largest public-sector strike ever that had crippled services from passport renewals to immigration for almost two weeks. Read more>>
May Day Workers Rallies Worldwide: People squeezed by inflation and demanding economic justice took to streets across Asia, Europe and the Americas on Monday to mark May Day, in an outpouring of worker discontent not seen since before the worldwide COVID-19 lockdowns. Read more>>
Kenya Opposition Groups Suspend Protests After One Demand Met: Kenya’s opposition on Wednesday said they had suspended the latest anti-government protests after reaching an agreement with the government of President William Ruto. The decision to suspend the protests was taken after Ruto’s ruling Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) alliance agreed “to one of our demands,” according to the statement. The opposition did not provide details of the agreement. Read more>>
Cuban President Meets With Over 300 Blockade-Defying Supporters From US: This morning, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel received at the Palace of the Revolution 300 friends of Cuba, coming from the United States to demand an end to the blockade. Read more>>
Defying Palestinian Authority Repression, Palestinian Teachers Lead Biggest Strike in Years: Amid an economic crisis caused by Israeli policies and Palestine Authority corruption, teachers are bringing schools and streets to a standstill until their demands are met. This is the largest and most enduring strike of its kind in years. For two months, all Palestinian public school teachers have been coming in to teach grades one through 12 only in the mornings, and participating in demonstrations to demand improvements to their working conditions, higher salaries, and more independence in the education system. Read more>>
In Largest May Day Turnout Since Pandemic, Workers Around the World March for Better Conditions: Marches from South Korea to Italy called for higher wages and targeted anti-worker policies. Read more>>
Models And Climate Activists Hit The Streets To Protest Star-Studded 2023 Met Gala: Inequality, sexism, and climate were the leading issues. Read more>>
Italian Workers Who Occupied Factory Are Close To Owning It: The longest-ever factory occupation in Italian history is taking place in Florence where the 300 workers are now making progress at turning it into a worker-owned non-profit that would pay the employees and produce products that would benefit the community. Read more>>
Outrage Simmers In New York After The Killing of Jordan Neely On a Subway Train: A protest on a downtown Manhattan subway platform over the death of a man suffering an apparent mental health episode aboard a train turned into an angry confrontation over policing and social welfare priorities in New York City. The attack on Monday has been called a semi-sanctioned vigilante response to homelessness and the mental health crisis. Read more>>
Tribes Host Prayer Ceremony Near White House Urging Biden to Reverse Resolution Copper Mine: Tribal and congressional leaders joined the San Carlos Apache Tribe on Wednesday, April 26, in a prayer ceremony and press conference denouncing Arizona’s Resolution Copper Mine project. “The Biden Administration is poised to give sacred Apache land in eastern Arizona to foreign mining companies with close financial ties to the Chinese government to construct an unnecessary copper mine that will destroy Oak Flat,” said San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler. Read more>>
National Missing & Murdered Indigenous Peoples Day (MMIP): May 5 has officially been declared National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) Awareness Day in Canada, and Native communities and organizations across the nation are gathering to draw attention to MMIP Crisis and honor those who have been impacted the most. From marches and vigils to fundraisers and art exhibitions, here is our list of MMIP Awareness Day events happening this week and next that will keep the fire burning for the missing and murdered in Indian Country. Read more>>
Climate Campaigners Stage Blockade at White House Correspondents Dinner: “We disrupted the rich and powerful because Joe Biden’s approval of deadly new oil and gas projects is killing the planet,” said the campaign group Climate Defiance. “We will continue to disrupt until we end fossil fuels.” Read more>>
BlackRock Security, NYPD ‘Brutalize’ Climate Protesters: BlackRock security guards and NYPD officers “brutalized” climate campaigners this morning, according to organizers, after activists succeeded in shuttering the entrance to the headquarters of the world’s largest fossil fuel investor for three hours. Eleven out of 75 activists were arrested after storming the headquarters of the world’s largest fossil fuel investor with pitchforks and fake oil. Read more>>
Azerbaijani Activists End Blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh: The self-proclaimed environmental activists blocked the road for 138 days, stopping after the government installed a checkpoint in Lachin. Read more>>
Norwegian Youth Demonstrate Against ‘Green Colonialism’: On March 3, the largest civil disobedience action in recent Norwegian history came to an end. 16 Sami activists occupied the lobby of the Oil and Energy Department, and over 1,500 demonstrators attended in Oslo, including around 100 activists partaking in the occupations. Beginning as a single day occupation to spread awareness about the illegal construction of wind turbines on Indigenous land, the demonstration ended as a burgeoning, semi-mass movement. Read more>>
North Carolina Group Asks UN to Probe Chemical Company’s PFAS Pollution: Local residents have accused Chemours of violating their human rights by discharging “forever chemicals” into the Cape Fear River watershed. Read more>>
Over 500 Creative Agencies Have Now Pledged Not to Work for Fossil Fuel Industry: Clean Creatives, the campaign for public relations and advertising professionals who want to stop fueling the climate crisis, on Thursday announced a major milestone: 500 agencies worldwide have “committed to refusing work with fossil fuel polluters.” Launched in late 2020, Clean Creatives seeks to raise awareness of the harmful greenwashing strategies used by fossil fuel companies and the advertising and PR agencies they hire. Read more>>
How India’s First ‘Green Village’ Turned Hunters Into Conservationists: In Khonoma, traditional knowledge has led to a boom in ecotourism and sustainable cultivation practices. The roots of that transformation go back decades. Read more>>
Climate Justice On The Ballot In El Paso: A proposed El Paso City Charter amendment—put forward by grassroots organizers—would create green economic growth, investments in conservation and infrastructure, and democratic control over special interests. Read more>>
Rutgers Academic Workers Are Striking for the Future of Public Education: Thousands of teachers — full-time, tenured, part-time, adjunct — grad students, counselors and others at New Jersey’s Rutgers University went on strike this month, an unprecedented labor action at the 257-year-old institution. Read more>>
Hollywood’s Writers Are on Strike. Here Are Five Things You Need To Know. As streaming content has boomed, the Writers Guild of America says that new media models like Netflix and other online platforms have steadily eroded workers’ pay and writers’ ability to earn a living in Hollywood. Some 11,500 members are on strike. Read more>>
UK Striking Nurses ‘Not Going Away’: Thousands of nurses walked out at 8pm on Sunday in what was described by the RCN as the “biggest strike yet” because it included nursing staff from emergency departments, intensive care and cancer care for the first time. Read more>>
Why Are So Many Young People Joining Labor Unions? For May Day, Portside Journal talked to young workers—in tech, retail, food service, and more—about what brought them to the labor movement. Those under 35 overwhelmingly approve of organized labor—77 percent. Read more>>
Brazilian Landless Workers Occupy Farms in Rio Grande and Bahia: They occupied abandoned, unproductive lands to establish camps where their families can make a home and grow food. Read more>>
South Korea Community Doctors Launch Strike In Protest Over Nursing Law: More than 10,000 South Korean community doctors and certified nursing assistants went on strike on Wednesday, protesting a nursing bill they fear would hurt their jobs even as it improves nurses’ pay and working conditions. The bill, passed in parliament last week, was primarily designed to help nurses, who have been suffering from burn-out and a shrinking talent pool while fighting on the frontlines against COVID-19. But doctors see the bill as opening the door for nurses to provide treatment without a medical license, while nursing assistants say it would expand jobs for registered nurses at the expense of theirs. Read more>>
Can Paying Parents Lead to Healthier Children? By helping caregivers gain financial stability, guaranteed income programs can improve the lives and health of pregnant people and their children. Read more>>
Seoul’s LGBT Festival Blocked By Christian Concert Outside City Hall: Seoul’s city government has effectively blocked South Korea’s largest annual LGBT festival from taking place outside city hall this year after granting a permit for a Christian youth concert instead, the LGBT event’s organizers said this week. Clashes over the Seoul Queer Culture Festival have become a yearly symbol of the battle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer rights in a country where same-sex marriage is not recognized and efforts to pass anti-discrimination laws face strong resistance from conservative religious groups and others. Read more>>
Trans Teen Receiving Award From Iowa Gov. Shouts “Trans Rights Are Human Rights”: A transgender student in Iowa used an award ceremony as an opportunity to protest Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who earlier this year signed two bills into law that attack trans kids across the state. Springsteen wore a pink, white and blue tie, symbolizing the colors of transgender pride, and a pin that read “Trans Rights are Human Rights.” She also wore a “She Her” button on her vest while shaking the governor’s hand. Read more>>
450+ North Carolina Medical Professionals ‘Adamantly Oppose’ Ban on Gender-Affirming Care: More than 450 North Carolina healthcare professionals in recent days have signed an open letter condemning a proposed state ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, legislation the signatories decried as a “dangerous governmental intrusion into the practice of medicine.” “Any legislation restricting or banning lifesaving care… will be detrimental to the health of transgender and gender-diverse North Carolinians.” Read more>>
Tennessee High School Girl Banned From Prom For Wearing Suit: B Hayes, a senior at Nashville Christian School in Tennessee, posted a now viral image posing in front of the venue hosting their senior prom. Hayes holds up a cardboard sign with the words: they wouldn’t let me IN because i’m in a suit.” In the caption, B Hayes writes: “i should not have to conform to femininity to attend my senior prom. I will not compromise who i am to fit in a box. who are you to tell us what it means to be a woman?” The photo has been liked nearly 20,000 times and thousands of commenters showed support for the teen. Read more>>
Gender-Affirming Care Has a Long History in the U.S. When politicians today refer to gender-affirming care as new, “untested,” or “experimental,” they ignore the long history of transgender medicine in the United States. It’s been nearly 60 years since the first transgender medical clinic opened in the U.S., and 47 years since Rhoda started her hormone therapy. Understanding the history of these treatments in the U.S. can be a helpful guide for citizens and legislators in a year when a record number of bills in statehouses target the rights of transgender people. Read more>>
Sudanese Civilian Groups Band Together To Provide Essential Aid: Civilians are helping Sudan’s most vulnerable via food banks, donations, logistical coordination and medical support as civil war erupts. Read more>>
The Seige On Leicester’s Israeli Weapons Factory Begins: Palestine Action’s siege has begun. Hundreds have descended on Meridian Business Park in Leicester to force Elbit’s factory to shut down. Read more>>
The First Boat To Protest Nukes Returns To Inspire New Generation: 65 years ago, the Golden Rule ignited protests that led to a partial ban on nuclear weapons testing. Now it’s back to fight for nothing short of abolition. Read more>>
Daniel Ellsberg Reflects on Leaking Pentagon Papers & His Legacy: Over the past five decades, Ellsberg has remained a leading critic of U.S. militarism and U.S. nuclear weapons policy, as well as a prominent advocate for other whistleblowers. Read more>>
Why I’m Saying No To The IDF As A 17-Year-Old: As my birthday approaches, I grow more and more anxious because a professional organization of trained terrorists that calls itself an army wants me to be one of them. And if I say no, a prison sentence will be the result. Read more>>
Children’s Art Competition “Peaceful Towns”: To provide opportunities for young people to think about the importance of peace and to foster their peace-seeking spirit, Mayors for Peace holds an annual Children’s Art Competition “Peaceful Towns.” Read more>>
‘No Mow May’: UK Gardeners Urged To Let Wildflowers And Grass Grow: Scientists at the charity Plantlife are asking the public to look out for wildflowers and other plants in their lawns as they put their lawnmowers away for a campaign labelled “No Mow May”. Read more>>
Finnish Newspaper Hides Ukraine News Reports For Russians In Online Game: A Finnish newspaper is circumventing Russian media restrictions by hiding news reports about the war in Ukraine in an online game popular among Russian gamers. Read more>>
New Podcast Highlights Artists & Culture Workers In Solidarity Economy: Remember the Future, a podcast on the Solidarity Economy and the artists and culture workers who are building it in their communities. Through their stories we recognize that the practices of the Solidarity Economy are not some new technology, but actually are ways of being in relationship with people and planet that are as old as time. Read more>>
Minnesota’s Prison-to-Grilled-Cheese Pipeline Is Changing Lives: What started as a restaurant has become a path to entrepreneurship, turning formerly incarcerated folks into lawyers and soul food impresarios. Read more>>
The ‘Barefoot College’ Reinventing Rural Education: Teaching everything from emergency medicine to solar engineering, a radical new university is serving the needs of India’s rural poor, whether they can read or not. Read more>>
Undercover Salting Isn’t Just a Labor Strategy. It Has an Antiwar History Too. The tactic of “salting” — getting a job with the specific intention of organizing your workplace — has recently been grabbing news headlines. Salting helped build the labor movement over the past century and is clearly making a comeback in the new surge of union organizing. But it has an antiwar history, too. In the ’60s, leftist organizers entered the war machine to turn troop discontent into organized resistance to the Vietnam War. Read more>>
Southern Worker School Charts Path For Building Workers Movement In The U.S. South: 120 rank and file workers and other activists who participated in a worker organizing training school in Charlotte, North Carolina. They spent 4 days strategizing, planning, building networks, and engaging in collective discussion on how to build a stronger and broader workers movement – including local workers assemblies – in the U.S. South. Read more>>
“I Was Every Woman’s Worst Nightmare. Restorative Justice Changed Me.” Locking broken people up for decades often makes them worse. Restorative justice is a proven holistic approach to addressing criminal behavior. Read more>>
How Subaltern Studies Changed Our Understanding Of Resistance Struggles: David Hardiman explains how the Subaltern Studies Group changed discussions on history, power, consciousness, colonialism and resistance. Read more>>
Good Care for Good Trouble: Three ways to practice community care for movement organizers, unionizers, and other folks on the ground keeping good trouble going. Read more>>
Stop Cop City: Over 70% of Atlanta residents don’t want this deadly tactical urban warfare cop training center in their city. Here are ways you can take action to keep the pressure on. Learn more>>
Ahimsa and Poetry: Danita Dodson, an amazing ahimsa fellow (from Center’s Teacher-Leadership Program in Nonviolence) and a prolific poet, will speak about writing nonviolence in poetry. (May 7) Learn more>>
Warheads to Windmills Webinar: This webinar aims to bring together some of the leading organizations and activists working on two crucially important issues – war and climate – to discuss how we can better collaborate and coordinate our efforts to save the planet from these existential threats before it is too late. There will be break-out rooms to help us connect to some of the campaigns that are already ongoing. (May 7) Learn more>>
From Conflict To Community: Join Bianca and Katie for a 5-week online exploration of From Conflict to Community – Transforming Conflicts Without Authorities written by Gandhi Institute Gwen Olton. (May 4) Learn more>>
New Webinar Series – Think Twice Before Calling the Police: Many people recognize that police violence targets certain communities and want to avoid calling the police—but don’t know what to do in case of an emergency. Our new webinar series can help you develop concrete skills to avoid calling law enforcement unless it’s absolutely necessary. We’ll also explore community-based alternatives to ensure safety for all of our neighbors. Learn more>> (May 4, 11, 18, 25)
How To Hold A Nonviolence Teach-In: Get skills and tools for holding a nonviolence teach-in. This session will cover what to teach, how to facilitate a lively discussion, where to hold your teach-in, and how to reach out to partner groups to make it happen. We will share creative ideas for your teach-in and help you feel comfortable in asking your faith center, local school, youth group, or even your workplace to hold an event. (May 13) Learn more>>
Writing Nonviolence II: Personal Stories & Memoir With Rivera Sun: From saving spiders to eating a vegetarian diet to protesting against nuclear weapons, we all have nonviolence stories to share. This 6-week course will explore how you can express your experiences in writing. We will look at personal stories, creative essays, and memoir for people of all ages. (Starts May 16) Learn more>>
Decolonizing Our Movements In The Context Of Dr. King’s Legacy: Last month, on the 55th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, FOR-USA joined a national teach-in, “Breaking the Silence on Our Culture of Violence” that reminded us that King called for a radical revolution of values that linked racism, militarism, and materialism. Next month, on what is known as “Flag Day” in the United States, the King & Breaking Silence Coalition will host an interactive webinar on Decolonization, part of a year-long series of deep dives into the most critical issues facing today’s social movements. (June 14) Learn more>>
24-Hr Peacewave: International Peace Bureau and World BEYOND War are planning a second-annual 24-hour peacewave on July 8-9, 2023. This is a 24-hour-long Zoom featuring live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world, moving around the globe with the sun. (July 8-9) Learn more>>
