Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
While student encampments protesting for a ceasefire in Gaza have dominated the headlines, a different student encampment in Paraguay has been mobilizing to protect their access to free higher education. Facing a right-wing plan to implement university fees and strip away anti-hunger programs, students set up a protest encampment for a month, took control of their campus, went on strike for classes, and suspended the main university’s operations. Recently shifting from the encampment and occupation into other kinds of actions, the students are continuing to organize to protect the right to free education.
The question of how to shift tactics and continue to move forward is on everyone’s minds as the encampments for Gaza face evictions across the United States. How will the movement sustain its pressure in a different way? They have many options. As graduation season begins, we’re seeing protest actions – like turning backs, refusing to attend, holding up signs or banners – begin during the ceremonies. It’s a critical moment. The prosecutors at the ICC asked for arrest warrants for President Netanyahu and Hamas leaders, citing concerns over a full-scale invasion of Rafah, where not only the war but the humanitarian crisis continues to cause deep alarm.
In more Nonviolence News, Tunisia is facing a double-pronged crackdown on migrant rights and people who criticize the government. Nigerian women are protesting police brutality in the oil-producing Imo State of Nigeria while Lagos-based environmentalists are demanding that Shell’s plan to sell their company’s holdings in Nigeria must include ecosystem restoration clauses. In Portugal, campaigners opposing an airport expansion gained a temporary reprieve, but are already working to keep officials from simply switching locations. Along the US-Mexico border, 1,000 botanists documented the biodiversity splintered by the border wall. Students in Montreal, Canada, held a walkout over sexist dress code policies.
Water is a growing issue from India to Kazakhstan to the United States. In each place, the demands are different. In India, a group of women halted a train in protest over the lack of consistent water supply in their community for over four months. In the United States, residents of Dekalb County, Georgia, and organizing against exorbitant water bills. In Kazakhstan, a weeklong protest encampment has now disbanded after seeking more equitable compensation for the widespread flood damages. With Brazil facing catastrophic flooding, other areas confronting threats of drought, and many places resisting privatization, pollution, and price gouging, water issues will continue to be a source of protests this year.
A favorite story? A woman in Hyderabad, India, protested horrible potholes by sitting down in the puddle while police and authorities tried to get her to move. The simple action went viral on social media, raising awareness of the widespread frustration among motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians over the state of the roads. Sometimes, we all just feel that plunking down in frustration, right? Remember, where and how we choose to sit can make a splash.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
Victory At Last for Blackfeet Nation in Montana: After 40 years, Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine area is safe from oil and gas drilling after a settlement retired the region’s last federal lease. The agreement that Earthjustice negotiated is a win for Tribal leaders and conservationists who came together to save the area from fossil fuel development. The area is sacred to the Blackfeet Nation and an important habitat for wildlife. This agreement retires the last of 47 leases that were issued under the Reagan Administration. Now, Badger-Two Medicine has permanent protection. Read more>>
‘Positive News’ For Defenders of Press Freedom As Assange Granted Permission To Appeal: “The High Court’s decision is a rare piece of positive news for Julian Assange and all defenders of press freedom. Amnesty International considers that if extradited to the USA, Assange will be at risk of serious abuse, including prolonged solitary confinement, which would violate the prohibition on torture or other ill-treatment. Read more>>
Government Cancels Illegal Arctic Oil Leases: The Biden administration has canceled oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that had been auctioned off illegally during Trump’s final days in office. Read more>>
Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Are Safe from Mining: Earthjustice secured a resounding victory when a federal court dismissed an industry lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s 20-year mining ban in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. In the lawsuit, Earthjustice represented conservation groups defending the Boundary Waters against mining company Twin Metals, which planned to build a toxic copper mine there. The court rejected the company’s lawsuit, siding with Earthjustice and the government. Now the country’s most visited wilderness is free from the shadow of this toxic mine. Read more>>
Women Stop Train in Jammu, India To Protest Against Water Crisis: Women stopped the Vande Bharat train on Thursday by staging a protest at a railway station here against water crisis compounded by heatwave conditions. The demonstrators threatened to block all incoming and outgoing trains if the water crisis in their colony was not addressed urgently. Read more>>
Oil Company Asks Judge To Arrest And Jail Cree Chief Leading Alberta Blockade: Woodland Cree want Obsidian Energy to share profits and address pollution and earthquake issues — Instead, the company is asking a court to hold Chief Isaac Laboucan-Avirom behind bars until the blockade is lifted. Read more>>
Kazakhstan Flood Protest Encampment Disbands: Demonstrators who set up a tent camp in the western Kazakhstan town of Kulsary in a demand for larger compensation payments for flood damage to their homes ended their weeklong protest. They demanded that a square meter of flooded housing be valued at 400 thousand tenge, and that the money be handed over to them personally. It has not been divulged what promises — or threats — were made to bring the protest to a close. Read more>>
Rights Groups Slam ‘Malicious Crackdown’ on Migrants and Civil Society in Tunisia: “The clampdown on migration-related work at the same time as the increasing arrest of government critics and journalists sends a chilling message,” said one campaigner. Read more>>
Nigerian Women Protest Alleged Police Brutality: Women in the oil-producing area of Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State of Nigeria stormed the streets of Mmahu community on Monday to protest alleged police brutality against the people. According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the women, numbering over 500, were seen with placards bearing various inscriptions, appealing to the State and Federal Governments, as well as the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to come to their rescue. Read more>>
Demanding Access To Affordable Water In Georgia: Since 2014, residents in DeKalb County, Georgia, have received outrageously high water bills—up to tens of thousands of dollars. Faulty meters and neglected infrastructure damage explained the spikes. Still, the county has forced residents to bear the burden of exorbitant bills. Some people have faced water shutoffs and liens on their homes. Read more about how residents are working to stop this injustice. Read more>>
Paraguayan Youth Fight to Defend Affordable Education: After education subsidy funding changes sparked mass protests, a weeks-long occupation of Paraguay’s largest university forced the right-wing government to the table. “They underestimated the student movement.” Read more>>
Hotel Union Workers End Strike Against Virgin Hotels Las Vegas With Contract Talks Set: More than 700 workers with Culinary Union Local 226 walked off the job at the 1,500-room hotel-casino near the Las Vegas Strip on Friday morning and ended the strike Sunday morning. Contract talks are set to resume on Tuesday. Read more>>
US Undergrads Are Getting An Extracurricular Crash Course In Labor Organizing: Eleven new labor unions for undergraduate student-workers entered the fray in 2023 alone, and more are organizing. Read more>>
Women Protest Shell’s Plan To Sell Company Without Ecosystem Restoration: Environmental activists have rejected Shell’s divestment plans and potential exit from the country without following the due process of decommissioning. At a protest staged at Shell’s Lagos headquarters, the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) demanded that Shell, Chevron, and other major oil companies in the country commit to implementing the reclamation measures recommended by independent environmental audits and pay adequate compensation to those who have borne the brunt of their operations. Read more>>
Ahead of Hearing, South Koreans Hope Climate Case Inspires Others: Climate justice advocates on Monday expressed hope that a landmark youth-led South Korean lawsuit—which alleges the country’s government is failing to protect citizens from the effects of the human-caused planetary emergency—will have a ripple effect that inspires activists throughout Asia and beyond to take similar action. “If we have a favorable precedent in South Korea, I think that will really be a trigger in spreading this trend,” said one attorney in the landmark youth-led lawsuit. Read more>>
Anti-Chevron Day Event Held in Richmond: Environmentalists, unions, poets, musicians and genocide resisters call out Chevron’s crimes. As if it was not enough that Chevron is massively contributing to climate change and degrading the air people in Richmond breathe, Chevron also profits from its oil platforms off the Gaza coast and from doing business with the Israeli-US genocide machine. All this was exposed in an “Anti Chevron Day” street fair held in Richmond’s Unity Park. Read more>>
Portugal’s Ecocidal Airport Grounded – For Now: The Portuguese government has grounded an ecocidal airport that would have decimated a biodiverse wetland. However, it isn’t the end of the climate-wrecking air travel plan. Specifically, the government is still hurtling ahead with plans to build the new airport at a different location. Of course, this will be disastrous for the climate crisis and nature. Read more>>
Energy Experts, Frontline Advocates Call On Biden to Stop LNG Exports for Good: “You cannot say that tripling or quadrupling the level of exports from today’s record highs is not going to result in significant financial harm,” one expert said. Read more>>
Botanists Are Documenting A Forgotten Ecosystem Split By Border Wall: Around 1,000 botanists and citizen scientists armed with the iNaturalist app on their smartphones are recording the biodiversity along the U.S.-Mexico border. Uploading photos to the app helps identify plants and animals, and records the coordinates of the location. The hope is the information could lead to more protections for the region’s natural richness, which is overshadowed by news of drug trafficking and migrant smuggling. Read more>>
The All-Female Patrol Guarding Ecuador’s Amazon Rainforest: The women undergo regular training sessions, with younger women teaching older members how to operate these phone cameras and drones. Each patrol involves a rotation of members, particularly the younger ones, who primarily patrol the land, ensuring continued presence and surveillance. The women do not carry any weapons, relying instead on their collective presence to act as a deterrent. Read more>>
El Paso Residents Rally to Protect a Rio Grande Wetland: Potential routes for a highway in El Paso’s Mission Valley run alongside a restored wetland called Rio Bosque. Environmental advocates are urging TxDOT to scrap the idea. Read more>>
Forgotten Keepers of the Rio Grande Delta: a Native Elder Fights Fossil Fuel Companies in Texas: An industrial buildout is erasing the last traces of an ancient world, but the Carrizo/Comecrudo, unrecognized and unknown, continue to resist. Read more>>
Montreal-Area High School Students Protest ‘Sexist’ Dress Code: Students at Curé-Antoine-Labelle High School in Laval, north of Montreal, are protesting Thursday after they say their school’s administration started pushing what they call a “sexist” dress code. The students say that as temperatures began rising outside, they started receiving warnings about the length of their shorts – but only girls received the warnings. Read more>>
How Women Are Helping Their Neighbors Heal From Depression: In places with few mental health professionals, volunteer-led group therapy sends positive ripples through families and communities. Read more>>
Women To Protest Over Confidentiality Clauses Used Against Mothers: Campaign groups Pregnant Then Screwed and Can’t Buy My Silence claim confidentiality clauses, and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), are being misused to “gag” women suffering discrimination, bullying or harassment at work. NDAs are widely used to cover up the wrongdoings of people and companies to the detriment of victims, said the groups. Read more>>
In Wales, Dozens March Through Park In Protest For Women’s Safety After Flasher Incidents: A protest in Wales demanding safety for women and girls took place in a park after a series of incidents involving a prolific flasher. Women, men, and children – including a 10-month-old – marched through Riverside Park on Saturday. Read more>>
Over 200,000 Nevadans Sign Onto Proposed Abortion Rights Ballot Measure: Reproductive rights defenders seek to put an amendment to the state constitution on the November ballot. An amendment to enshrine abortion rights in Nevada’s constitution moved one step closer to appearing on this November’s ballot Monday as reproductive rights defenders submitted nearly twice the number of required signatures to state election officials. Read more>>
Decolonization Movement Expands In Africa’s Sahel Region: The United States announced that it will remove its troops from Niger in September after the government ordered them to leave. Mali and Burkina Faso have done the same. Chad is the most recent country in the Sahel Region of Africa to order the US out. This follows a wave of resistance against French colonization in the region. Clearing the FOG speaks with Abayomi Azikiwe of Pan African News Wire about the growing resistance in the Sahel and the United States. Listen here>>
University of California Academic Workers Strike To Stand Up For Pro-Palestinian Protesters: Graduate students at the University of California, Santa Cruz walked off their jobs and went on strike Monday, the first campus to do so as part of a systemwide protest against a public university they say has violated the speech rights of pro-Palestinian advocates. Read more>>
Rights Advocates Demand Probe Into Reports That Israel Uses WhatsApp to Target Palestinians: “The Israeli Lavender system, supported by artificial intelligence, identifies Palestinians by tracking their communications via WhatsApp or the groups they join,” said a Palestinian digital rights group. Read more>>
Morehouse Students Show Solidarity With Gaza During Biden Commencement Speech: “It is my stance as a Morehouse man, nay as a human being, to call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip,” said valedictorian DeAngelo Fletcher. Read more>>
Global Rights Groups Back ICC Arrest Warrants for Israel’s Netanyahu and Gallant: “The fact that the court is not caving to Israeli or massive U.S. pressure and intends to continue its investigation cannot be praised highly enough,” said one advocate. Read more>>
75-Year-Old Former Paratrooper Walks The Walk Against War: Fifty-four years ago, Windsor Wade marched off to war. Today he is walking for peace. The 75-year-old former paratrooper is on PeaceWalk 2024, organized by Veterans For Peace, winding its way for 700 miles from Maine to Washington, D.C. Read more>>
Palestinian Lawyers Are Working Harder Than Ever To Support Political Prisoners: A Palestinian human rights lawyer with Addameer on the hardships and necessity of providing free legal aid and documenting human rights abuses. Read more>>
Woman Protests Bad Roads In Hyderabad By Sitting In Water-Filled Pothole At Nagole: Grabbing the eyeballs both on the road and online, she brought attention to an issue that has been bothering scores of motorists for at least over a year. Read more>>
Climate Activists Take Over 200 Shell Billboards: An activist group has pasted its own artworks over billboards and bus-stops promoting oil company Shell’s sponsorship of British Cycling. Brandalism said the campaign was over what it said was Shell’s recent decision to “row back” on climate pledges. Read more>>
Unlocking the Power of Poster Art for Movement Building: It’s been 35 years since Carol Wells’ obsession with political graphics or political posters captured her. An encounter with a child changed the course of her life. Read more>>
The Role Of Music In The Palestinian Resistance Movement: What role do music and musicians have in the fight for liberation? Music is interwoven with liberation struggles, particularly in the current war on Gaza. Through a conversation with prominent artists such as rapper and activist Saul Williams, Arab-American singer Leila Hegazy, and Lebanese-Palestinian singer Anees – who have been raising their voices for Palestine – this podcast interview looks at why they think art has historically played an important role in shifting global consciousness. Read more>>
Macklemore’s Anthem For GazaI Is A Rarity: A protest song in an era of apolitical music. “Hind’s Hall” was electrifying because it was so unexpected. Read more>>
Needs-Based Salaries Are Upending Workplace Norms: “Socially just pay policy,” is designed to “recognize different needs and backgrounds.” Every employee gets the same core salary, with additional “uplifts” available to those who have financial dependents or live in a city (since the Covid-19 pandemic, staff can work remotely). Even more unusually, PIRC offers uplifts to staff members who have experienced marginalization, discrimination or oppression — no requirement to explain specifics, they simply make the request. Money is also available to help cover housing or health care emergencies. Read more>>
How UC Researchers Began Saying No To Military Work: With nearly 20,000 members voting, 79 percent voted to strike over the University of California’s unfair labor practices in repressing peaceful protest, retaliating against members for protesting, and prohibiting pro-Palestine speech at the worksite. Part of the groundwork behind this vote and informing the potential strike is the organizing they have done over the past several months in science departments. They are researchers who are no longer willing to support genocide with their labor. Read more>>
Prioritizing Pleasure In Our Movements: Embracing joy can give insight into the type of world we want to live in—and the motivation to work toward it. Pleasure activism asserts that we all need and deserve to feel pleasure and that enjoyment gives us the energy to bring about social change. It’s a political framework that centers joy. Read more>>
Free Download of Shawn Fain’s ‘Other Bible,’ A Troublemaker’s Handbook: “As a young union activist I had another bible,” United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said on Sunday in the final main session of the 2024 Labor Notes Conference. “It was this book right here, called A Troublemaker’s Handbook, from Labor Notes. Read more>>
Overcoming Despair And Apathy To Win Democracy: Lessons on movement building from one of the founders of the Serbian student movement that brought down dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Read more>>
Inside The Student Movement That Forced Ireland’s Trinity College To Divest From Israel: As news of crackdowns on U.S. campus protests spread, students in Ireland drew inspiration and planned a strategic path to victory. Read more>>
For Educators Grappling With Student Protests, Here’s How To Play a Supporting Role: From mentoring to monitoring to joining in, there is much faculty can do to foster constructive outcomes and help young people confront the injustices of the world they are inheriting. Read more>>
The Catholic Critique Of War Is Hiding In Plain Sight: Roman Catholicism has spent decades developing a comprehensive case against war that deserves a wider hearing, including among Catholics. Read more>>
From Gaza & Ukraine To WWIII – The NATO Problem: What does NATO have to do with current and looming wars? How does an alliance whose members and partners make up 69.4% of the world’s military spending shape international relations? What alternatives exist? What is being planned by advocates for peace and demilitarization? This webinar on June 15, 2024, is free and open to the public. Register here>>
Tell US Congress To Stop Arming Israel: The U.S. government is still arming Israel despite grave violations of U.S. and international law. Tell President Biden and Congress: Stop arming genocide! President Biden has paused some arms shipments but is still poised to send others. Take action today>>
Tell the Army Corps Not To Fast-Track a Dangerous Pipeline: For more than a decade, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has fought to remove the Line 5 oil pipeline from their homeland in northern Wisconsin. A federal judge recently ruled in their favor, agreeing that Enbridge is illegally trespassing on the Bad River Band’s reservation. However, Enbridge wants to re-route the pipeline. Urge the Army Corps to delay their public hearing until the State of Wisconsin and the Bad River Band weigh in. Take action>>
NO To NATO, YES To PEACE: The largest war machine ever will be celebrating itself, with the help of presidents and prime ministers, in Washington D.C., in July. Can you come help us unwelcome NATO and hold a counter-summit featuring some of the strongest voices for a peaceful alternative to machinery that depends on conflict for its (temporary) survival? Learn more>>