Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
In a week when we could all use a little encouragement, Nonviolence News is full of stories that remind us that our actions make a difference. There are 15 success stories in this issue, ranging from the US pausing weapons shipments to Israel to activists in India stalling a coal mine. Other victories include Sweden’s two-year campaign to put wetlands restoration on the political agenda, Ecuadorians voting to prevent foreign corporations from being able to sue their government, Venezuela passing a major milestone in providing housing, the Potawatomi regaining ancestral lands, and more.
In other Nonviolence News, Argentine unions marched for social assistance, Kenyans rallied to demand that Lake Victoria be cleaned up of pollution and suffocating weeds, and 132 Belgians were arrested in Brussels calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies. In Minneapolis – where George Floyd was murdered by police in 2020 – community members are petitioning to regain community control of the police. Elsewhere in the United States, formerly-incarcerated women are campaigning for decarceration and a grassroots campaign in Massachusetts is pushing for safer subways with fewer police. One creative action that caught my interest was a fashion show that took place in a Chilean clothing landfill that is so large it can be seen from outer space.
As Israel attacks Rafah and the humanitarian crisis reaches a critical point, college encampments demanding divestment and ceasefires have spread across the United States and around the world. They are now expanding from students to include faculty, staff, and workers. And they may be working: for the first time, President Biden paused a weapons shipment to Israel. A few of the encampments have achieved their divestment goals: Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, joined Sacramento State and others in divesting from Israeli firms.
Also, a new analysis shows that out of 553 college encampments for Gaza, only 20 have resulted in violence and/or property damage, meaning that 97% of the protests have been nonviolent and peaceful. Of the remaining 3%, over half of those fell into violence after police or counter-protesters attacked the pro-Gaza demonstrators. This is an important piece of research that helps us all push back on the media narrative around the ‘violent’ ceasefire encampments.
Extinction Rebellion Global Support had at spot-on summary in their recent newsletter: “For weeks, American students have braved police violence, a hostile media, fascist mobs, and political condemnation. More than 2000 have been arrested. But they remain defiant, and in their defiance they’ve made world leaders look weak, the Western media look deranged, and galvanized the Palestinian cause everywhere. They have emphatically proven that peaceful protest can change the world.”
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
Photo Credit: Kenyans march to protect water quality in one of the main sources of drinking water.
Trinity College In Dublin, Ireland, Divests: Students at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland protesting the school’s complicity in Israeli crimes in Palestine began dismantling their encampment Wednesday after administrators agreed to divest from three companies with ties to Israel’s illegal settler colonies in the occupied West Bank. Trinity’s incoming student union president stressed that the school “refused to follow the U.S. example of bringing police in and made it clear that it would not pursue anything like that here.” Read more>>
Swedish Just Stop Oil Ally Group ‘Restore Wetlands’ Declare Victory In Huge Win For Civil Resistance: Their two-year campaign of nonviolent civil resistance has led every party in the Swedish Parliament to stand behind their demand of restoring the country’s wetlands. In a press release they stated “We will no longer glue ourselves to the highway with our Restore Wetlands banners. Restore Wetlands declare victory. Peaceful civil resistance works.” Read more>>
6 Recent Climate Victories To Celebrate: A Swiss insurance company dumped oil and gas. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that climate inaction is illegal. Activists in India have blocked an Adani coal mine. Ecuadorians voted to keep a law that prevents foreign corporations from suing their government. These are just some of the victories shared in Extinction Rebellion’s newsletter. Read more>>
Venezuela Government Delivers 4.9 Million Homes: The Venezuelan government marked the 13th anniversary of Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission (GMVV) by celebrating the 4.9 millionth home delivered to working-class families. The Maduro government vowed to reach 5 million houses in the coming weeks and two million more in the coming years. Read more>>
Chicago Black Church Creating A New Village On The South Side: Imani Village will add senior and affordable housing, retail opportunities and more to Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood. It will take a village to build a new future for Chicago’s South Side. And building that village is going to take a few decades. But the Black-led church behind the fledgling Imani Village is playing the long game. Read more>>
UAW Members Ratify Historic Contract At Daimler Truck: The deal includes raises of more than 25%, and the introduction of profit-sharing and Cost-of-Living (COLA) for the first time at Daimler. The agreement will end the tiered wage system at Daimler, ensuring that workers who make trucks and workers who make buses get equal pay for equal work by the end of the contract. Read more>>
Biden Withholds Ammunition Shipment: The Biden administration last week put a hold on a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition to Israel. This is the first time since the Oct. 7 attack that the U.S. has stopped a weapons shipment intended for the Israeli military. Read more>>
Sacramento State Agrees To Divests: Pro-Palestinian protesters said that California State University at Sacramento had taken a significant step: The institution had “officially divested.” According to an agreement reached with student protesters, Sacramento State has adopted a policy directing its five auxiliary organizations, including its philanthropic and fund-raising foundation, to ensure they do not have direct investments in “corporations and funds that profit from genocide, ethnic cleansing, and activities that violate fundamental human rights.” Read more>>
Acre By Acre, The Prairie Band Potawatomi Bought Back Their Land: Last week, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation began efforts to reestablish the only federal Indian reservation in Illinois, formally confirming the tribe’s governance over its land. The move could have wide-ranging impacts on matters ranging from criminal justice to climate and environmental jurisdiction. The Prairie Band Potawatomi have spent years purchasing land in northern Illinois where the Shab-eh-nay Reservation once existed. Read more>>
New York City Abolished Late Fees. Use Soared: In the fall of 2021, all three of New York City’s library systems abolished late fees. Two and a half years later, according to a story that Executive Editor Will Doig shared from The City, the move has resulted in “a spike in materials taken out, library cards issued and program attendance.” Read more>>
George Washington University Students Create Gaza Campus Solidarity Encampment: George Washington University students along with students from other universities, supporters from the local community, and some local allied groups, have joined the rising wave of university campus protests currently sweeping the nation. Read more>>
How a Collective In Election-Bound India Fights Hate Speech: Hate Speech Beda trains volunteers from across the southern state of Karnataka on using the law to combat hate crimes. It’s an uphill battle, but they’re not giving up. Read more>>
Meanwhile In Australia, Campus Protests Undisturbed: While American police are violently breaking up anti-genocide encampments at universities across the United States, in Australia authorities are allowing them to continue undisturbed. Read more>>
University Students in Mexico Launch Gaza Solidarity Encampment, Call for BDS: In demanding divestment from Israel, students in Mexico City build on a vibrant history of activism at their university. Read more>>
Police Want Proof Penn’s Student Encampment Is Dangerous Before Clearing It: The Philadelphia Police Department declined a request from the University of Pennsylvania to forcefully disperse a pro-Palestinian encampment. Instead, law enforcement asked for evidence that the protest presented an imminent danger, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian. Read more>>
Western Australia Teachers Take Strike Action Over Wages, Workload And Staffing: The profession is at breaking point, or past that point. The union is making 98 claims that boil down into four areas: wages; workload reduction; staffing; and addressing complex behavior. Read more>>
New York Care Workers’ Fight To End the 24-Hour Workday Highlights the Cracks Within the Progressive Movement: Workers’ efforts to improve their employment conditions puts them at odds with their union and progressive organizations in the state. Read more>>
‘Living Large At Mercedes?’ New UAW Video Exposes Staggering CEO Pay At Mercedes Ahead of Alabama Plant Union Vote: In a new video, non-union autoworkers from the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Ala., share the staggering compensation that Mercedes executives enjoy while workers struggle with the “Alabama Discount.” Workers in the video contrast the 80% pay raise Mercedes CEO Dimitris Psillakis got last year against the meager increases given to workers. Read more>>
Argentine Unions March for Social Assistance Demands: The Front of Organizations in Struggle (FOL) denounced “the dismantling of the Labor Empowerment program and the halving of the salary of 200,000 workers”. Read more>>
Extinction Rebellion Shares Recent Actions … And Victories: Dozens of young activists have marched through the Kenyan city of Kisumu, on the north-eastern shore of Lake Victoria, and demanded that their government protect the key water source from toxic pollution and suffocating weeds. In Extinction Rebellion’s newsletter, you’ll find other action reports from Serbia, Hungary, Canada, Uganda, UK, Australia, USA, Spain, Rwanda, Sweden, Italy, and DRC – and 6 victories to celebrate. Read more>>
Belgian Police Arrest 132 Climate Defenders Demanding End to Fossil Fuel Subsidies: The climate action group Extinction Rebellion Belgium on Saturday decried what it called “disproportionate police violence” against nonviolent demonstrators who were arrested during a protest in Brussels demanding an end to fossil fuel subsidies. “The fact that national governments are subsidizing fossil fuels is akin to a crime against humanity,” said one Extinction Rebellion organizer. Read more>>
Students Rise Up Against Coal And Gas: The action was part of “Rise Up 12 Days of Action” called by a coalition of environment groups aimed at highlighting Labor’s failure to end fossil fuel mining. Rise Up is a joint initiative by organizations including School Students for Climate (SS4C), 350.org, Move Beyond Coal and the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC). Read more>>
Activists Occupy Labour HQ: Now the UK Labour party has faced the wrath of campaigners it’s betrayed – as they occupy its HQ. Activists have occupied Labour Party HQ over its complicity in the Tories’ worsening of the climate crisis – specifically, the ludicrous and planet-wrecking Rosebank oil field. Read more>>
The Global Left Must Dare to Win on a Tight Deadline: We must be honest and serious about what climate collapse means to our struggles for justice, peace and wages, bread, housing, education, and health for all. Read more>>
How a Neighborhood Co-op Started by Teens Helped Communities Adopt Solar Power: Solar United Neighbors (SUN) works to help communities around the U.S. move away from fossil fuels and toward solar power. They do so through public education and by establishing neighborhood-based cooperatives, which can help to bring the price of installing solar panels down significantly through group purchasing and negotiation support. The project was started by two preteen friends who were moved to action after watching the documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” in 2007. Read more>>
Tucson Is Planting 1 Million Trees – And In The Neighborhoods That Need Them Most: In a bid to create shade and cooler temperatures, this southwest city is using data-driven research to make sure that low income areas come first when the tree planting takes place. Read more>>
Minneapolis: Petitions Turned In To Get Community Control Of Police On Ballot: On Wednesday May 1, Minneapolis 4 Community Control of the Police (M4CCP) held a press conference in the Public Safety Center, the temporary home to city hall offices, to turn in their petitions to put community control of the police on the November ballot. Read more>>
Meet the Campus Leaders Fighting Back Against Right-Wing Anti-DEI Crackdowns: Resistance is mounting among students, faculty and staff to the extreme anti-DEI laws in states like Florida and Texas. Read more>>
A Celebration ‘Of The Immigrant, The Foreigner, The Queer And The Indigenous’: Historically excluded take over at the Venice Biennale. The grand gathering of contemporary art celebrates marginalized identities with a ground-breaking edition in which artists from the global south, many of them largely unknown, are in the majority. Read more>>
Turning Walls Into Bridges — The Transformative Power Of ‘Unruly’ Migration: When we allow ourselves to consider struggles over the Mediterranean border as resistance, a clearer picture of border abolition emerges. Read more>>
You Can Stop The Rwanda Raids. Here’s How: From Labour’s Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to this government’s raft of inhumane laws for asylum seekers – culminating in the Safety of Rwanda Act – destitution, isolation and deportation have been normalized. The inhumane Rwanda deportation scandal is just the latest nightmare chapter in this racist-by-design system. Read more>>
Immigrant-Led Organizing Points The Way To a Better World For All Workers: Let’s follow the lead of immigrant workers organizing for a world without borders — this May Day and beyond. Read more>>
“To Be Free Is to Free Others”: Formerly Incarcerated Women Urge Decarceration: The fight to free women and end mass incarceration is long and ongoing, but these activists aren’t giving up. Read more>>
Iranian Women Violently Dragged From Streets By Police Amid Hijab Crackdown: Video evidence shows multiple arrests after regime launched new draconian campaign against women and girls. Read more>>
Missouri Organizers Have Put Abortion Rights on the Ballot: The measure guarantees a constitutional right to abortion in the first state to ban nearly all abortions post-“Roe”. Read more>>
City University Of New York Workers Announce Wildcat Sickout: After NYPD Arrests Over 100 Of Their Students And Colleagues. CUNY workers announced a wildcat sickout after NYPD raided City College’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment. It’s the first known job action in the PSC union’s 52-year history. Read more>>
Analysis Finds Nearly 97% of Campus Gaza Protests Have Been Peaceful: The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) examined 553 campus protests that took place across the U.S. between April 18-May 3 and found that fewer than 20 resulted in serious violence or property damage—meaning that 97% of the protests remained non-violent. The group categorizes demonstrations as violent only when “physical violence that rises above pushing or shoving” takes place or when property damage includes protesters “breaking a window or worse.” And half of the ones that became violent did so only amidst a police crackdown. Read more>>
What’s Really Happening on College Campuses, According to Student Journalists: POLITICO Magazine asked leaders of campus news organizations to set the record straight about campus unrest, antisemitism and what the media is getting wrong. Here’s what 14 of them saw and what they think. Read more>>
Names of 11,500 Dead Palestinians Brought To David Cameron’s Private Front Door: Foreign secretary David Cameron was faced with the names of over 11,000 Palestinians killed by Israel – as activists attached banners listing them all across the front gates of his private residence. Read more>>
Cops Arrest UCL Students: Cops arrested four campaigners at UCL student protests on suspicion of terrorism-related offenses – for the heinous crime of carrying a painting depicting a peace dove flying out of occupied Gaza. Apparently, clear blue sky is now antisemitic. Who knew? Read more>>
College Students Reflect on Graduation Amid Massive Campus Protests: As widespread protests against Israel’s war in Gaza engulf campuses across the United States, the graduating class of 2024 is once again witnessing world events upend their senior year. This is the same class of students whose final semester of high school was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic, with lockdowns in the U.S. starting in March 2020. Four years later, as pro-Palestinian demonstrators face suspensions, arrests, and threats of expulsion on campuses across the country, the end of their college experience has also taken an abrupt turn. Read more>>
Armenians In NYC Are Organizing For Palestinian Liberation: Amid escalating campus violence and a backdrop of student arrests, an NYC-based Armenian coalition is uniting Armenian, Palestinian, and Kurdish diaspora communities to organize for Palestinian liberation. Read more>>
Princeton Students Vow to Remain on Hunger Strike Until the University Divests: Over a dozen students at Princeton University have been on hunger strike for the past week as part of a Gaza solidarity encampment on campus protesting Israel’s war on Gaza and calling on the university to disclose and divest from companies with ties to Israel, among other demands. The hunger strikers are also calling for all charges to be dropped against a number of students arrested on campus in late April as part of the encampment. Areeq Hasan, a graduating senior at Princeton who has not eaten for a week, tells Democracy Now! the hunger strike was a response to the university’s stonewalling. Read more>>
University Students in Mexico Launch Gaza Solidarity Encampment, Call for BDS: In demanding divestment from Israel, students in Mexico City build on a vibrant history of activism at their university. Read more>>
Campus Protests Are Fighting Militarism and Corporatization at Home and Abroad: Student protesters know the fight for Palestinian freedom requires resisting militarization and fascism at home. Read more>>
Life-Saving Lending Library: Union supplies Palestinian journalists with safety gear amid ongoing Israeli genocide: “Amid the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip and occupation of Palestine more broadly, [the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate] recently created a potentially life-saving lending library of sorts, loaning safety gear to reporters on assignment.” Read more>>
First-Ever Faculty Gaza Solidarity Encampment Erected at The New School: The group named its encampment after Refaat Alareer, a professor whom Israel killed in December. A group of about 20 faculty put up roughly six tents in the lobby of the New School University Center, a major building for the university. Read more>>
NYC’s Riders Alliance Has a Vision For a Better, Safer Subway With Less Policing: A grassroots group of MTA passengers and community leaders is organizing riders to support new community investments and push back against regressive public safety narratives. Read more>>
Cooking Sections Combines Art, Activism & Local Food: The British artistic duo Cooking Sections blend art with activism, local commoning, and eco-stewardship in the service of climate-friendly foodways. Read more>>
Everywhere You Go in Downtown DC, Posters Say – STOP SENDING WEAPONS TO ISRAEL: World Beyond War posters are occupying the bus stops and catching many thousands of eyes. The antiwar image is 7 feet tall on 8 different bus stops in downtown Washington, D.C., for a month beginning May 6th. Read more>>
Castoffs To Catwalk: Fashion Show Shines Light On Vast Chile Clothes Dump: The refuse is so big, it’s visible from space. A fashion show aims to make earth-bound humans see it. Draped in layers of denim, Sadlin Charles walks the catwalk of sand between piles of discarded clothes and tires in Chile’s Atacama desert. His outfit has been made from items found in the surrounding heaps of rubbish. Read more>>
This New Indie Bookstore Is One Answer to Florida’s Book Bans: The Lynx is biting back at repressive book bans. It will be a literary haven and community refuge. Read more>>
A Just Transition College on the Horizon: Cooperation Vermont is teaming up with the People’s Network for Land and Liberation (PNLL), including NEC members Cooperation Jackson and Community Movement Builders, to turn Goddard College into a community-owned space for transformational learning and community resilience. Read more>>
How Portland Teachers Led The Longest K-12 Strike In Decades: “We’ll never forget the day when we knew that we would win. It was 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 21, more than three weeks into the first-ever Portland, Oregon, teachers strike. We were rally marshals, tasked with walking ahead of the march to troubleshoot potential issues. Accompanied by the dull hum of a nearby freeway and the caws of seagulls above the Willamette River, we stood on the sidewalk waiting — hoping that a parade of educators would soon join us.” Read more>>
How To Unite Local Initiatives For a More Sustainable Global Future: This article challenges the belief in high-tech solutions to solve socio-environmental crises, proposing a political vision beyond “green growth” and “ecomodernism”. It advocates for a commons-based technology framework, promoting collective resource management for sustainability. Read more>>
People Power Under Pressure – Human Rights Defenders & Business In 2023: Between January 2015 and December 2023, the Resource Centre documented over 5,300 attacks globally against HRDs challenging corporate harm. In 2023 alone, we identified 630 attacks directly affecting an estimated 20,000 people. Over three quarters (78%) of these attacks were against people taking action to protect the climate, environmental and land rights. Many of these attacks were perpetrated by State actors. Read more>>
Shawn Fain: May Day 2028 Could Transform the Labor Movement—and the World: The UAW President is calling on unions everywhere to align their contract expiration dates for mass impact. Planning for the possibility of a general strike. Read more>>
Columbia Students Are Sick At Heart — Just As We Were In ‘68: An organizer of the 1968 Columbia University protests on why the message against war, then and now, is the same. Read more>>
Echoes Of Student Activism — From The Free Speech Movement To The Gaza Protests: Michael Nagler discusses his student activism at UC Berkeley in 1964 and talks with Alex Gil from the Yale chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine. Read more>>
We Need ‘Outside Agitators’: Pro-Palestine student protesters are being smeared as puppets of shadowy “outside agitators.” The presence of community members and experienced activists in the protests is nothing to be ashamed of: we need outside agitators to build a better world. Read more>>
How The Fight For Free Palestine Is Changing Organizing: Arielle Klagsbrun of the Action Center on Race and Economy breaks down how the movement for a free Palestine has adopted and transformed the affinity group model of mass movement organizing. Read more>>
Lessons from Starbucks Workers United and the Fight for $15: While Starbucks workers still have a long way to go to win a good contract and organize thousands of remaining non-union stores, they have already achieved what in recent decades has been nearly impossible: unionizing a large national corporation from scratch under federal labor law. It seems that for employees of corporations like Starbucks, the NLRA still functions, barely, if the conditions are just right. By contrast, the Fast Food Council was created entirely outside of federal labor law. Read more>>
American Politicians Forget That Disruption and Disorder Are the Point of Protests: The Gaza-driven protests by college students, and the response to them by university presidents and law enforcement have dominated the media and roiled American politics at the start of this consequential electoral season. Scenes of tent encampments, chanting activists, occupied facilities, have conjured comparisons to the ungovernable activism of previous generations that left an indelible influence on the culture. Read more>>
Rio Grande Mutual Aid: This week, hundreds of towns were left underwater after historic flooding in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. At least 90 people were killed, and over 150,000 displaced. More than 500 families from farming settlements have been affected. Support recovery and mutual aid efforts led by Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST). Learn more>>
Tell Universities You Support Students For Peace: College students are facing police violence, arrests, suspensions, and ugly false accusations for nonviolently protesting genocide. Send an email with one click to the administrations of these universities: Columbia, NYU, Yale, UNC, Washington U, Vanderbilt, Michigan, The New School, MIT, Emerson, Tufts, Humboldt, Berkeley, Smith, Pomona, Minnesota. Learn more>>
Working with Youth Projects in Europe – Youth Leadership and Peacebuilding: This webinar will focus on Youth Peace Camp: bringing young people from conflict areas for a training on conflict transformation and creating trust. The presenters will also speak on several other examples of large-scale youth organizing. (May 14) Learn more>>
‘Light’ – A Documentary On Community Peace Teams In Palestine: Created by Community Peace Teams, this film is a special window into Palestinian resistance and resilience, from their teammate’s clandestine filming through checkpoints and brave confrontation of soldiers, to the legacy of the martyrs Haj Sulaiman and Hashem al Azzah, to the lives of Nisreen and Tareq who continue the struggle. (May 18) Learn more>>
24-Hr Peace Wave: International Peace Bureau and World BEYOND War will hold the third-annual 24-hour peacewave on June 22-23, 2024. This will be a 24-hour-long Zoom featuring live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world, moving around the globe with the sun. There will be a live Q&A section on Zoom for the last 10 minutes of each hour. This Peace Wave will happen during the RIMPAC war rehearsals in the Pacific and just prior to protests of NATO’s meeting in Washington in July. Learn more>>
Poor People’s Army March: Also known as the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, the mission of the nonviolent Poor People’s Army is to keep people alive and to build a cooperative economy and society. Endorsed by Veterans For Peace, the two-week Poor People’s Army March will go from Mikwaukee – site of the Republican National Convention (July 15) – to Chicago – site of the Democratic National Convention (August 19). The march will deliver the same message to both conventions: “We reject corporate greed and demand an end to poverty.” (July 15-Aug 19) Learn more>>