Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
As the planet heats up and the burden of climate disasters is shared unequally, climate activists are increasingly articulating the demand that global wealth be redistributed to address this. Specifically, much of the wealth of the global south was – and still is – extracted to colonial nations, leaving behind poverty and vulnerability to the harshest impacts of the climate crisis. This was a key point for protesters who rallied at a recent summit in East Africa, calling upon wealthier nations to live up to their promises to provide climate financing. The protesters also opposed the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which has been become iconic for the continued madness of oil extraction amidst climate chaos.
In other Nonviolence News, an interesting demonstration occurred in the United Kingdom in which supporters of climate activists held a sit-in outside of court holding blank signs. Their message was not opaque, however. The signs represented a reminder that juries have the right to acquit activists of the charges they face. It’s a tactic through which citizens can uphold moral imperatives that judges do not.
Speaking of legal maneuvers, last week we reported on a new rule in the United States that says union-busting companies will be forced to recognize the very unions they oppose. Starbucks and Amazon were at the top of my list for this comeuppance, but it turns out that workers at Trader Joe’s may be the first to put the rule to the test.
On the other side of the coin, two moves by the Atlanta Police Department (APD) reveal the lengths the police state will go to defend its position and thwart the #StopCopCity campaign. First, APD got the attorney general to slap lawsuits on the activists’ bail bond fund committee as a “violent act” and open prosecution of many more as co-“racketeers”. Second, APD is recruiting new police officers from New York City – which is kind of rich given how many times they’ve lambasted the protesters for having ‘outside agitators’ join the direct actions from out of state.
There are so many fascinating stories in this week’s edition, including articles on building peace through sports in Northern Ireland and Korea, the role of women as agents of peace in Kashmir, and an interview with the first and only conscientious objector from West Point Military academy. But a pair of historic campaigns caught – and held – my attention. The first was the 1907 French Mustache Strike.
There’s nothing that delights me more than stumbling across a little-known example of nonviolent action. In 1907, when mustaches were all the rage, waiters in France (notoriously called garçon, “boy”) were not allowed to wear them. So, high-end waitstaff went on strike, walking out of work for better wages – and more fashionable facial hair. After denying the industry a whopping 25,000 francs per day in revenue, they won.
The second historic struggle came on the heels of the more famous Alcatraz Island occupation by Native Americans, but has the distinction of being the only campaign in the Red Movement to actually win land back. On March 8, 1970, between 85 and 100 Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nations warriors, including women and children, breached the perimeter of a decommissioned US Army base near Seattle and announced they were reclaiming it. They were armed with only sandwiches, potato chips, sleeping bags, and cooking utensils, according to one news report. Their occupation lasted only minutes, but they won the return of the land (although the mechanism of return is a 99-year lease from the city of Seattle).
My top pick this week? A farm outside of Portland, OR, set up a traditional autumn corn maze … spelling out: “No more silence. End gun violence.” It’s a big message, literally covering 7 acres and 2.7 miles of pathways. It’s a poignant protest, given how many of us feel like we’re stumbling around a maze when it comes to actually getting gun control in the United States and stopping the ongoing tragedy of gun violence.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
Photo Credit: Climate activists take part in a march in Nairobi, Kenya on September 4, 2023.
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Baltimore Healing Garden Aims to Keep Young People Off the Streets: Nine years ago, Lisa Molock founded Let’s Thrive Baltimore in her neighborhood to keep young people off the streets and out of the line of fire. She started by building a Healing Garden in a neighborhood devastated by daily gun violence, creating a safe space for survivors to heal and for community members to gather, garden, and thrive. The project has since grown to provide many critical services to community members—including job programs and mentoring for young people, financial literacy and therapeutic programs for families, and housing and cash assistance for survivors of violence. Read more>>
Palestine Action Acquitted After Blockading Drone Factory: A judge has acquitted two Palestine Action activists after they blockaded the entrance to a drone engine-making factory that supplies Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest privately owned arms company. Crucially, the judge let them off using a precedent of proportionately versus what they were protesting – that is, the pair’s actions were reasonable compared to what the drones would have done in the Occupied Territories. Read more>>
Photo Essay: How DC Central Kitchen Tackles Hunger, From Food Trucks to Training Programs: DC Central Kitchen is a nonprofit that is the primary school food provider to 19 Washington, D.C., schools. But kids need meals even when schools close for the summer. Here’s how it feeds kids—and families—where they are. Read more>>
Native Tribe To Get Back Land 160 Years After Largest Mass Hanging In US History: Golden prairies and winding rivers of a Minnesota state park also hold the secret burial sites of Dakota people who died as the United States failed to fulfill treaties with Native Americans more than a century ago. Now their descendants are getting the land back. Read more>>
Dorchester Food Co-op Aims To Shake Up Boston’s Food Ecosystem: The worker- and community-owned grocery store, which aims to increase access to nutritious and culturally relevant food, is a project over a decade in the making. The co-op is the result of more than 10 years of organizing around investors and gathering the funds to make a dream come true. Its completion marks a milestone for the neighborhood – and the co-op community as a whole. Read more>>
Last Fracked Oil Wells to Be Removed From Blackfeet Nation: After many years of struggle, the Blackfleet Nation is relieved that an agreement has finally been reached between the U.S. government, tribal and conservation partner organizations, and the leaseholder—Solenex, LLC—to retire the last Badger-Two Medicine oil and gas lease. Since time immemorial, the Blackfleet Nation has remained committed to protecting their sacred cultural lands in the Badger-Two Medicine. Now the last fracked oil wells will be removed. Read more>>
Frederick Douglass Statue Goes Up In Belfast, Ireland: A recent positive memorialization is the erection of a statue of US former slave, antislavery activist, social reformer and pro-feminist Frederick Douglass in Lombard Street in Belfast – the first in Ireland (though there are plaques to him in Cork and Waterford). Douglass spent quite some time in Ireland and was very appreciative of the welcome and support he received. Read more>>
‘Burnt Out, Stretched Thin, and Fed Up’: Dozens of Healthcare Workers Arrested at Labor Day Protest: “We are prepared to do whatever it takes, even get arrested in an act of civil disobedience, to stand up for our patients,” said one Kaiser Permanente worker. Dozens of healthcare workers were arrested in Los Angeles on Monday after sitting in the street outside of a Kaiser Permanente facility to demand that providers address dangerously low staffing levels at hospitals in California and across the country. Read more>>
Federal Workers Back Nigeria Labour Congress With 2-Day Warning Strike: Vowing to shutdown all secretariats, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) embarked on a two-day warning strike today over issues of government insensitivity to the plight of workers and the citizenry at large. Read more>>
Why I’m Proud To Stand Trial Defending The Right To Rescue Animals: There is nothing right about a legal system that protects those hurting animals and punishes those trying to save them. Read more>>
Protesters Oppose Self-Driving Cars: Protesters gathered outside of Cruise’s (self-driving cars related to General Motors) San Francisco headquarters on Labor Day calling for its shutdown in order to protect workers. The protest also comes after the San Francisco Fire Department claimed two robotaxis impeded an ambulance in August, which was carrying a patient who later died. 600,000 transit workers jobs will disappear. Read more>>
Tens of Thousands in Seoul Say ‘Stop the Dumping of Radioactive Wastewater’: ‘It is time for the international community to step in and call out this clear breach of the international law’. South Koreans have continued a weekend rally against Japan’s dumping of Fukushima nuclear plant’s contaminated radioactive wastewater into the ocean by holding a large demonstration on Saturday. Read more>>
‘We’re Shattered And Fed Up’: The Youth On the Frontlines Of Israel’s Protests: Before this year, many of these teens and twentysomethings had never been to a protest. Now they’re taking to the streets not just to fight the Israeli government, but to change the old order. Read more>>
Trader Joe’s Union Files to Force Company to Recognize Union Under New Rule: The union is likely the first to seek a bargaining order under the groundbreaking new rule. Read more>>
Rich Nations Have Delivered Mere ‘Pittance’ to Help East Africa Tackle Climate Crisis: In addition to calling on rich nations to contribute the aid they’ve promised to support Africa’s renewable energy transition, African civil society groups are urging their leaders to reject fossil fuel expansion, specifically warning against the completion of TotalEnergies’ East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). “We have an abundance of clean, renewable energy,” said one African activist. “But to unlock it, Africa needs funding from countries that have got rich off our suffering.” Read more>>
This Is How We Challenge The Power of Big Pharma: People in the United States pay the highest prices for pharmaceuticals, and Big Pharma spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year on lobbying to keep it that way. The United States is also experiencing a growing shortage of medications from antibiotics to cancer treatments and more despite being a wealthy country. Clearing the FOG Radio speaks with Dana Brown of the Democracy Collaborative to understand what is behind the high prices and shortages. Listen here>>
WGA (Writers Guild America) Says That Media Companies “In Process Of Wrestling Amongst Themselves” For Deal To End Strikes: The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers delivered its latest counteroffer to the guild on August 11, which the guild has described as “neither nothing nor nearly enough.” Read more>>
Climate Activists Call On Insurers To Ditch Climate-Wrecking EACOP Project: On 30 August, climate activists staged a protest against multiple insurance companies. The coalition of campaigners from Money Rebellion, Coal Action Network, StopEACOP, Extinction Rebellion, Stop Rosebank, and Just Stop Oil demonstrated outside the offices of a series of Lloyd’s of London members. They were targeting agents that have refused to rule out insuring the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). Read more>>
Youth Climate Activists Inspire UN Committee To Declare Child Climate Rights: Young people have been leading the way in the fight against climate breakdown – and now, a United Nations committee has recognized their unique rights in the face of the climate crisis and environmental degradation. Read more>>
Activists Crash Powerful Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole as Climate Protests and Responses to Them Escalate: Demonstrators called out the Federal Reserve and international financial regulators for inaction on climate and inattention to fossil fuels’ financial risks. Read more>>
Seattle Climate Activists Roost In Old Cedar Tree To Prevent It From Being Cut Own For New Housing: Climate activists in Seattle are taking residence in shifts on an old thick cedar tree to protest its removal. They’re trying to save a tree they say could be 200 years old. The protest on a private lot is the latest episode highlighting tensions behind tree policy in Seattle as climate change increases temperatures and urban canopy decreases. Read more>>
These Cities Are Depaving For a Cooler Future: Asphalt contributes to the urban heat island effect and makes places more prone to flooding. Planners are rethinking its place in cities. And it all started because a man named Arif Khan wanted a garden. Read more>>
Protests And Pink Paint: What Is On2Ottawa? Ottawa can expect “continued and sustained disruption” until Sept. 9, said group activist. Self-described as a “nonviolent civil disobedience campaign,” On2Ottawa has the goal of encouraging Canada’s governments to take urgent and meaningful action to address the climate crisis. Read more>>
California Poised To Become First US State To Ban Caste Discrimination: Bill gives added protections to those hailing from Nepal, India and Bangladesh and is awaiting the governor’s signature to become law. Read more>>
Organizers Condemn ‘Anti-Democratic’ RICO Charges Against Cop City Protesters: The indictments “send a chilling message that any dissent to Cop City will be punished with the full power and violence of the government.” Organizers with the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta said Tuesday that new organized crime and racketeering charges against more than 60 campaigners were aimed at quashing all dissent against the construction of a $90 million police training facility in the city, as well as similar law enforcement projects. Read more>>
Social Media Storm Exposes NYTimes’ Colonial Biases In Hawaiian Wildfires Coverage: After a New York Times profile on the wildfires in Maui featured a white woman’s search for her Rolex in the rubble, a social media storm of protest is decrying the heartless, biased reporting. Native Hawaiians are still missing in the ashes. Read more>>
Cop City Protesters Say Atlanta Police Department Is Soliciting Outside Agitators: In recent weeks, New Yorkers have been perplexed by Atlanta Police Department (APD) hiring advertisements plastered throughout the MTA announcing recruiting events in New York City. On Saturday afternoon, one of those events took place at the New York Hilton Midtown. A group of around 100 protestors chanting “From ATL to NYC, stop Cop City!” gathered on the sidewalk outside the hotel in opposition to the interstate recruitment. Read more>>
Amid Power Shift in Sahel Region, US Protesters Express Solidarity With African Masses: In recent weeks, many eyes have turned to the Sahel region of the African continent where U.S.-trained military leaders have ousted African heads of state as a show of force against France, the U.S. and other Western powers who have continued to exert political and economic control of those African countries. While “coup” has been commonly used in discussions about Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, and most recently Gabon, protesters who rallied at the French Embassy in Washington, DC, vehemently dismissed that word, mainly out of deference to the masses of Africans on the continent and around the world who’ve expressed support for these movements. Read more>>
Only a Social Movement Can Win Real Immigration Reform: “All over the country, immigrant workers are a big part of the workforce. They’re all part of a base that can force change. We can’t depend on political winds or what people tell us is possible. We have to be tenacious for what’s just and righteous.” Immigrant rights activists across the country are working on HR 1511, “Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929,” it is breathtaking in its simplicity. It just changes a date: January 1, 1972. Read more>>
Berlin Wall Relic Gets a ‘Second Life’ On US-Mexico Border As Biden Adds Barriers: As the U.S. government built its latest stretch of border wall, Mexico made a statement of its own by laying remains of the Berlin Wall a few steps away. The 3-ton pockmarked, gray concrete slab sits next to a lighthouse and the border wall extending into the Pacific Ocean. “May this be a lesson to build a society that knocks down walls and builds bridges,” reads the inscription below the towering Cold War relic, attributed to Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero and titled, “A World Without Walls.” Read more>>
Spain’s Men’s Team Condemn Rubiales’ ‘Unacceptable Behavior’ That ‘Tarnished’ Women’s World Cup Win: The captains of Spain’s men’s national team condemned the “unacceptable behavior” of soccer federation president Luis Rubiales in a show of support Monday for the women’s World Cup-winning team. It was the first public statement by the top Spanish players against Rubiales after he kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips without consent after the World Cup final. He also grabbed his crotch in a lewd victory gesture last month in Sydney. Read more>>
LGBTQ+ Group Banned From Marching In Town’s Labor Day Parade: An LGBTQ+ group was banned from marching in town’s Labor Day parade for the “safety of the public”. The group thinks the ban was a response to their plan to have a local drag performer join them in the parade. On Thursday, just days before the parade in Essex, Iowa, members of Shenandoah Pride say they received an email from Mayor Calvin Kinney on behalf of the city. Despite feeling “shocked and angry,” Bears told the AP that the ban had actually done more for the group’s visibility than marching in the parade would have. Read more>>
District Attorney’s Threat To Drag Performers Doubles Attendance Of Pride Event: The attendance at Blount Pride Fest doubled from last year after a Tennessee attorney general threatened to prosecute the event’s drag performers. He wanted to shut down the queens, but his little plan backfired. Read more>>
Huge Protests In Niger Call For French Forces To Leave After Coup: Tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside a French military base in Niger’s capital Niamey on Saturday demanding that its troops leave in the wake of a military coup that has widespread popular support but which Paris refuses to recognize. Read more>>
Building Peace Through Sport In Northern Ireland And Korea: Sport has distinct advantages as a tool of peacebuilding: “it has popular, often emotional, appeal and commands mass attention,” and it can operate everywhere from the grassroots level, where it can aid in relationship-building across divides, to the elite level, where it can serve a symbolic, unifying function and also as a venue for cooperation that may spill over into other areas. Here’s how it’s being used in Northern Ireland and Korea. Read more>>
Women As An Agent Of Peace In Kashmir Conflict: The conflict in Kashmir has been a deeply embedded and complex issue that is occurring for several decades, causing widespread misery, violence, and instability in the region. Women in Kashmir are facing persisting misogyny on daily basis. Despite these hardships, Kashmiri women have shown an unwavering spirit, advocating for their families, communities, and their right to live in peace. Read more>>
Meet The First (And Only) Conscientious Objector From West Point: Nonviolence Radio interviews former Army cadet Cary Donham discusses the struggle that led him to follow his conscience and leave West Point at the height of the Vietnam War. Read more>>
Palestine Action Forces Drone Makers To Take Down Jobs Listings: Palestine Action supporters invaded the newly opened Manchester office of recruitment firm IO Associates on Friday after spotting 22 job adverts for vacancies at Elbit Systems, the Israeli arms manufacturer. Soon after, all Elbit job offers were removed from the public site, and Elbit also took them off their careers page. Read more>>
Activists Masked Like CEOs Pour Oil On Globe Outside Fossil Fuel Headquarters: A coalition of groups visited the City of London offices of 10 insurance companies who have not yet ruled out insuring the proposed East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) which TotalEnergies and China National Offshore are still trying to raise funding for. Outside each office a masked actor, wearing the face and ID of the relevant CEO, poured oil over a globe, surrounded by smoke from flares and raven-like figures clicking their bony wings on the entrances. Watch here>>
The Overlooked but Potent Artist in the Fight Against Autocracy: Beware the artist. In the struggle against authoritarianism, artists play an overlooked role as catalysts for social change, drivers of accountability, and prophets of freer futures. Amid intensifying repression of traditional political dissent worldwide, artists of all types and genres can flex striking expressive freedom even in the most constricted climates. Read more>>
The Rude Mechanical Orchestra- A Radical Protest Marching Band: The Rude Mechanical Orchestra is a radical protest marching band based in Mannahatta, the unceded occupied land of the Lenape Nation, colonially known as New York City. We play music and provide chant support in the streets for the revolution and all its intersecting avenues, including (but not limited to): feminism, immigrant rights, queer and trans rights, labor, climate justice, peace, community self-determination, and racial, social, and economic justice. Read more>>
Lessons from Lively Picket Lines and Protests: Whether during a contract campaign or a strike, a lively picket line can raise spirits and build solidarity. Many creative antics are discussed like this piggy-bank piñata, which helped graduate workers at New York University win a contract in 2015. Read more>>
Portland Farm Makes Corn Maze Into A Dramatic Statement On Gun Violence: Bella Organic Farm on Sauvie Island is once again setting a high bar for local corn mazes. Every year, the farm uses its corn maze to say something. Whether it’s support for gender equity or Damian Lillard, Bella Organic is known for making a big – literally, the maze is 7 acres with about 2.7 miles of pathways – statement. This year’s maze has a simple message: “No more silence. End gun violence.” Read more>>
The Day The Indians Took Over Seattle’s Fort Lawton—and Won Land Back: On March 8, 1970, between 85 and 100 Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nations warriors, including women and children, breached the decommissioned Army base’s perimeter and announced they were reclaiming Seattle’s Fort Lawton. They were armed with only sandwiches, potato chips, sleeping bags, and cooking utensils, according to one news report. They won the return of the land to the tribes. Read more>>
The French Mustache Strike of 1907: In 1907, high-end waiters in Paris were on strike to demand better pay, more time off—and the right to grow mustaches. The bristly adornments had been virtually ubiquitous among French men for decades, though many waiters, domestic servants, and priests were not allowed to have them—“sentenced to forced shaving,” as the newspaper La Lanterne put it on April 27. Indignant waiters, finally fed up, walked out of their fancy restaurants en masse, along with, by one contemporary estimate, roughly 25,000 francs a day in revenue. “Women are quite determined to starve with their children rather than see the whiskers of their husbands still fall under the razor,” reported the Mémorial de la Loire newspaper. Read more>>
The Right to Protest Is Under Assault. Frontline Activists Show How to Fight Back. From Israel and Iran to China and France, massive protests are making international headlines. So too are the violent government crackdowns against them. Read more>>
To Promote The Right To Acquit, Protesters Hold Blank Placards Outside UK Court: Although no climate or protest trial was listed, more than 20 protesters sat quietly holding placards at both court entrances. Some displayed a message, while others simply held blank boards – a symbol of state repression and silencing. Read more>>
What Time Is It On The Clock Of Abolitionist Organizing? The following is a lightly edited transcript of opening remarks by Andrea J. Ritchie for the Abolitionist Gathering at the 2022 Allied Media Conference. It is an assessment of the current conditions in which the abolitionist movement exists and some of the difficult questions concerning power and strategy that must be faced in the coming years. Read more>>
Something Old, Something New – The Arc of Organizational Resilience: Kim Fellner draws on her experience with the National Organizers Alliance to look at the persistence—and shifts—of the challenges movement organizations face. Read more>>
Finding Liberation And Belonging In Lessons From The Past: Black Muslim women in the United States, especially in Southern States, face unique discrimination due to intersecting marginalized identities. Organizers are making an intentional effort to make sure they’re included in the national conversation around safety. Read more>>
The Movement For Public Schools Is Still Alive: #RedForEd, the teachers movement in West Virginia, galvanized the movement for justice in public school education. Since then, the movement has seen ebbs and flows. But that’s the nature of organizing. There is no straight line of progress, but instead waves that slowly and determinedly wash against the shores—little by little changing the landscape. Read more>>
Cross-Border Solidarity & Taking Back the Land: The power of quilombos and the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) in Brazil have inspired grassroots movements worldwide. Hear lessons from Brazilian and U.S. organizers about the struggle for land reform and why we need shared strategy and solidarity across borders. Read more>>
How University of California Workers Won The Biggest Higher-Ed Strike In US History: Two University of California union organizers argue the keys to their union pulling off the largest strike of 2022 were simple: an emphasis on majority participation, democratic decision-making, and building a representative structure across the UC system. Read more>>
‘A Reckoning’: 500 Groups Endorse March to End Fossil Fuels: “The March to End Fossil Fuels isn’t a request,” one organizer said “It’s a demand for President Biden to enact actionable solutions that match the scale of the crisis at hand.” A total of 500 international, national, and local organizations have endorsed the September 17 March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City, leaders behind the event announced. Learn more>>
Restorative Circles w/ Dominic Barter: This October Dominic Barter, from Brazil, will offer a weekend introduction to the design of dialogical social systems. We’ll focus on how communities, families, groups and institutions can discover and strengthen their own effective responses to conflict through the unique Restorative Circles process developed by Dominic and colleagues in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the mid 1990s. This craft process of community self-determination has inspired change in a huge diversity of contexts, proving effective in war zones from the kitchen table to the office, from classrooms to campaigns, from prisons to court rooms and even armed civil conflict. (Oct 6-8) Learn more>>
Governing Power: Movement Strategies in the US and the Global South: Around the world, people pushed to the margins are organizing together to win power in government and the economic institutions that shape our lives. From Brazil to Minneapolis to Washington state, hear from three leaders who are utilizing co-governance strategies to build a more equitable and just future for all. (September 12 – Online). Read more>>
Campaign Nonviolence Action Days: From Sept 21 to Oct 2, 2023, (Int’l Day of Peace to Int’l Day of Nonviolence), join tens of thousands of people in calling for a culture rooted in nonviolence. Last year, people held over 4,600 actions, events and marches across the USA and in 20 countries. Over 60,000 people participated in these events. (Sept 21-Oct 2) Learn more>>
#NoWar2023 Conference – Nonviolent Resistance To Militarism: Throughout three days of virtual panels, training, and discussion sessions, #NoWar2023 will make the case for the efficacy of nonviolent resistance as a tool for conflict resolution, highlighting case studies from around the world of unarmed civilian based defense against invasions, occupations, and dictatorships. (Sept 22-24) Learn more>>
Third Harmony Film Screening & Discussion: Watch the movie The Third Harmony: Nonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature with a group and then enjoy an online discussion. The Third Harmony tells the story of nonviolence – humanity’s greatest (and most overlooked) resource. (Oct 1) Learn more>>
The Path To Nonviolence & The New Story: In this five-week book club, three special guest facilitators from Beyond War Northwest will lead an exploration of the stories we’ve been told and the uplifting alternative that awaits in The Third Harmony: Nonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature. (Oct 18-Nov 15) Learn more>>
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