Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
Let’s celebrate a small victory in a bigger, still-ongoing struggle. Striking South Korean junior doctors walked out by the thousands months ago – and the government suspended their licenses. Now, the authorities are promising to restore the licenses as part of its effort to get the junior doctors back to work, ending the ongoing medical impasse.
Other victories in this week’s Nonviolence News include a Swiss pension raise, Chicago’s unique bicycle giveaway program, how speed cameras are saving lives in Pennsylvania, Minneapolis’ cancellation of $100 million in medical debt, Michigan’s new law that requires homeowners associations to allow solar installations, and how Hawai’i banned ocean-floor mining.
Climate action is heating up along with the summer temperatures. Elders blocked Citibank’s doors in New York, holding cardboard tombstones with real stories of people killed by the climate crisis. Australians stopped trains. Following the Pan-Amazon Social Forum (pictured above), Amazonian rainforest inhabits have released a detailed plan to save their home – and the lungs of the world. A county in Oregon is suing the major fossil fuel companies for causing the 2021 heat dome that killed 69 people. An orchestra played classical music outside the Hague in protest of rising sea levels. Cambodian climate activists were just hit with hard sentences, but remain defiant even as some head to jail.
Peace activists around the world took action on several fronts. A 24-Hr Peace Wave was held continuously to protest war and militarism, and celebrate peace. The ports of Genoa, Italy, were blocked for 10 hrs over weapons shipments to Gaza. More actions for a ceasefire took place in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and in Israel. Hundreds of activists ‘unwelcomed’ NATO at its 75th anniversary party in Washington, DC. And more than 700 scientists called upon the Biden administration to stop a $100 billion ‘boondoggle’ in nuclear weapons expansions.
A favorite story? There’s a pair of them … and they involve love in the time of Pride Month. In Latvia, same-sex couple lined up to get married under the country’s new civil union law. Meanwhile, Hong Kong couples held non-sanctioned weddings to defy the lack of legal rights for same-sex marriage. Each is a good example of collective nonviolent action either in support of a fair law or in protest of the absence of such laws. Love is powerful … especially love-in-action.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
Photo Credit: Young people from Amazonian communities march during the Pan-Amazon Social Forum in Rurrenabaque, Bolivia on June 12. Photo by Katie Surma/Inside Climate News
How The Last Queen of Hawaiʻi is Influencing The Debate Over Deep-Sea Mining: As the U.N. weighs ocean floor mining, Hawai’i just banned the practice. The last Indigenous queen of Hawai’i set the legal framework with which the ban is being defended. Read more>>
Bolivians Mobilized to Defend Their Democracy: President Arce gave an interview about his country recently thwarted a military coup. “During quite anguishing and stressful hours, we had to quell a coup d’etat but had the support of the Bolivian people. What happened marked a very high point because it was the people who made the military retreat who intended to seize power,” the Bolivian president emphasized. Read more>>
Striking South Korean Junior Doctors Get Licenses Back: South Korea’s government announced Monday it will abandon its plan to suspend the licenses of striking junior doctors as part of its efforts to convince them to return to work and resolve the country’s monthslong medical impasse. Read more>>
Pensions in Switzerland – How a Raise Was Won: Swiss workers face a better retirement outlook thanks to a successful trade-union initiative. On March 3rd, the Swiss electorate accepted an initiative put forward by the Swiss trade unions to increase the state pension. It was a historic moment for several reasons, not least because it was the first time a union initiative had enjoyed victory at the polls. The outcome was even more impressive, given the overwhelmingly negative media coverage of the campaign and strong opposition from the federal government, Switzerland’s centre and right parties (which enjoy 70 per cent of the national vote), trade associations and the banking and insurance industry. Read more>>
Chicago’s Unique Bike Giveaway Program Is A Win: By giving free bikes to those most in need, the Bike Chicago Program has proven a powerful strategy to grow active transportation. A report on the first two years of the country’s biggest free bike distribution program says it’s proven an “effective, cost-efficient model for getting bicycles into users’ hands for transportation” in disinvested neighborhoods. Read more>>
In Pennsylvania, Speed Cameras Save Lives: The results are in: Speed cameras save lives, according to a study from the University of Pennsylvania. This is great news for cities and states seeking to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries as pedestrian deaths remain staggeringly high. The success of the pilot is building momentum for more speed cameras in Philadelphia, as other cities across the U.S. are implementing their own programs. As evidence continues to mount that speed cameras work, will car-centric cities slow drivers to save lives? Read more>>
I’m the Mayor of St. Paul. Here’s How Our City Is Erasing $100 Million in Medical Debt: More and more local governments are using federal funds to relieve residents’ medical debt. It’s a simple, straightforward way to meet our communities’ needs. Read more>>
Court Rules Pollution Violates Ecuadorian River’s Rights: A court rules that pollution has violated the rights of a river that runs through Ecuador’s capital. The city government appealed the ruling, which is based on an article of Ecuador’s Constitution that recognizes the rights of natural features like the Machángara River. Activists who filed the complaint said Sunday the decision is “historic.” Read more>>
Over Half of Clayoquot Sound’s Iconic Forests Are Now Protected: The forests of Clayoquot Sound became world famous as the battlegrounds of the decades-long “war in the woods” — and now, a vast swath of the rich old-growth trees are permanently protected. The Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations will now manage 760 square kilometres of old-growth conservancies with the help of philanthropic funding. Read more>>
Homeowners Associations In Michigan Now Have To Allow Rooftop Solar: In Michigan, a new law aims to remove that barrier by telling homeowners associations, or HOAs, they have to allow rooftop solar. The law gives many HOA members the power to install rooftop solar and an array of other energy-saving measures, from clotheslines to heat pumps. HOAs also have to adopt a solar energy policy within a year, and they can’t enforce standards that increase the cost of installation by more than $1,000 or decrease energy output by more than 10 percent. Read more>>
How Specialty Recyclers Are Reducing Waste: Less than a third of all US waste is recycled or composted. So companies are stepping in to take what traditional recyclers reject. Read more>>
Eighty-Two People Defy Crown Court Judge In Protest For Fair Trials: More than 80 people held signs saying “juries deserve to hear the whole truth” outside Southwark Crown Court in defiance of a judge who had arrested 11 for holding the same placards last week. Read more>>
A Cross-State Movement To Hold Railroads Accountable: Facing the ongoing impacts of pollution and derailments, activists in East Palestine, Ohio, and Baltimore are teaming up to pursue justice for their communities. Read more>>
Nature Access Is a Healthcare Issue: Author Misty Pratt explores emerging research—and her own experience—that suggests remedies like park prescriptions may be as key to mental and physical health as diet, exercise, and sleep. Read more>>
Several States Are Building New Women’s Prisons — Can They Be Stopped? Organizers across the country are working to halt the expansion of the carceral system. Read more>>
Why Police Reform Failed: New York City spent tens of millions of dollars on these police reforms. But the city’s own research showed that implicit bias training failed to make any difference at all in policing, which is consistent with academic research findings over the last decade. It is a ridiculous effort which imagines that the problems of racist police practices are accidental, unconscious and based on the discretionary decision making of individual officers. But the problem is so much deeper than that. Read more>>
Baltimore Nurses Are Fighting for a Transformative First Contract: Understaffing leaves nurses pulled in multiple directions and unable to offer optimal care. These nurses are fighting to change that. “Patients should not be treated like commodities”. Read more>>
Unions Urge US Lawmakers To Resist Anti-Worker Rules: Nearly 50 labor organizations representing a wide range of U.S. workers — from teachers to letter carriers to mine workers — are urging members of Congress this week to oppose Republican efforts to roll back a slew of Biden administration rules aimed at protecting the nation’s workforce from abusive employers and unscrupulous Wall Street investors. Read more>>
When Transit Riders Refuse To Just Sit Back: Though public transportation is a vital resource for many, governments don’t always adequately invest in it. Transit rider unions can get us back on the right track. Read more>>
As Summer Swelters, Will Workers Get Heat Protection? As temperatures continue to rise, California workers, worker protection groups, and state regulators are making progress on implementing heat regulations. Read more>>
Environmental Activists Defiant After Court Conviction In Cambodia: They were accused of plotting against the government and insulting the king. Ten activist members of the environmental group Mother Nature were sentenced to six to eight years in jail for allegedly plotting against the government and insulting the king of Cambodia, which is forbidden in the country. The court decision was widely condemned by human rights advocates. Mother Nature is known for organizing social media campaigns and youth-led community action campaigns to highlight environmental issues. Read more>>
Mourning Climate Dead Outside Citibank’s Front Doors: One of our tasks for the moment is to learn how to effectively mourn, and this was a lesson in just that. Read more>>
Australian Climate Activists Blockade Trains: Blockade Australia plans more climate protests disrupting Newcastle trains, saying disobedience is the only option. New South Wales provincial government condemns ‘reckless’ actions in Hunter region as more than 200 rail services cancelled and 26 people arrested since 25 June. Read more>>
To Save the Amazon, What if We Listened to Those Living Within It? Aiming to prevent “climate and ecological collapse,” rainforest inhabitants release a detailed plan to save their home, honing in on ending fossil fuel subsidies and securing Indigenous land rights. Read more>>
UN Rapporteur Comes To Court In Support of Just Stop Oil: A UN rapporteur has shown support for Just Stop Oil – by attending the trial of five of the group’s members after cops arrested them BEFORE they even did anything. The presence of the rapporteur is a warning/protest to the British politicians and legal system about their infringement on the rights of the climate protesters. Read more>>
In a Rare Court Action, an Oregon County Seeks to Hold Fossil Fuel Companies Accountable for Extreme Temperatures: Multnomah County recorded its highest-ever temperatures during heat dome conditions in 2021 that killed 69 people. When scientific studies showed that the extreme temperatures were caused by heat domes, which experts say are influenced by climate change, county officials didn’t just chalk it up to a random weather occurrence. They started researching the large fossil fuel companies whose emissions are driving the climate crisis—including ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron—and sued them. Read more>>
Elders Arrested Protesting Citibank Funding of Planet’s Destruction: “We are on the cusp of a ruined planet, and the big banks like Citi are funding it, to the tune of trillions,” said one organizer. Members of the group Third Act—who are mostly aged 60 and older—led a “funeral procession” near Citigroup’s Manhattan headquarters. Read more>>
Summer of Heat Meeting With Citibank: Stop the Money Pipeline and the Summer of Heat campaign met with members of the Citibank’s sustainability, corporate banking & risk management teams, including Val Smith, Nasser Malik, and Eliza Eubank. The fact that Citi felt the need to send a large team is a sign that our campaign of sustained nonviolent civil disobedience is working. Read more>>
Why The Climate Movement Is Actually Close To Winning: Despite widespread discouragement among climate activists, a tested blueprint for successful movements shows immense progress being made. Read more>>
The Death Squads Hunting Environmental Defenders: Around the world, government forces regularly attack environmental activists with impunity—and U.S. support. Between 2012 and 2022, around the world, one environmental defender was killed every other day, according to international human rights group Global Witness. That’s nearly 2,000 peasants, farmers, fisherfolk and activists murdered for defending their land from some of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions — including mining, logging and agribusiness corporations — as well as hydropower projects, which have their own ruinous environmental impact. Read more>>
UK Diamond Company Linked To Water Pollution In Southern Africa: A UK diamond company that won water and climate awards has been linked to water pollution in Lesotho, southern Africa. The investigation follows outcry from villagers living near the mine. The Indigenous people interviewed alleged that the polluted bodies of water have caused the deaths of animals, the extinction of fish, illnesses in locals, and the death of a child. Read more>>
Trans Youth Are Teaching Schools How to Actually Support Them: When educators respond to trans youth from places of risk and concern, how do youth work daily to create space to exist as gender-nonconforming young people? The education system is failing transgender youth, but one school in Canada is striving to create a new support model. Read more>>
Same-Sex Couples Line Up To Register Under Latvia’s New Civil Union Law: The law just went into effect, but it lacks some full legal protections for same-sex couples. The legal unions provide some tax and social security benefits, though they don’t allow for adoption or full inheritance rights. Read more>>
This Year’s Pride Parades Challenges To Act By Pro-Palestinian LGBTQ+ Protestors: The long-simmering divide between queers over Israel and Palestine has grown even wider this election year. Read more>>
Rejecting Shame to Reclaim the Power of the Period: Advocates are working to overcome patriarchal structures worldwide that deny menstruating people dignity, access, and agency. Read more>>
Nature Welcomes Queer People When Society Doesn’t: For a long time, queer people gathered outdoors out of necessity. Leaves and bushes and trees provided a shelter where queer people could come together and actualize their sexual desires, away from leering eyes and prejudices. There, in the green, were spaces just as vital as bars—built not from concrete but from the Earth. But there’s a shadow history to this: outdoor spaces have been sites of both liberation – and violence. Read more>>
Pride Is Power: How Queer People Are Defeating Anti-LGBTQ Laws: Faced with unprecedented numbers of anti-LGBTQ bills, queer people are taking to the state houses, courts, and communities to prove that love wins. Read more>>
Militarization Decreases Women’s Share of Income: Researchers demonstrate that militarism negatively affects gender equality during both wartime and peacetime. In particular, since 2022, global military expenditures have increased significantly and there have been noticeable setbacks in women’s equality—perhaps not a coincidence when considering the results of this research—but a politics of care offers an alternative way to achieve safety and security. Read more>>
Same-Sex Couples In Hong Kong Marry To Defy The Law: Ten LGBTQ+ couples wed in a group ceremony in Hong Kong over the weekend, pictured above. In a city where same-sex marriage is not recognized, the “Pride to Wed” event allowed the couples to publically declare their love, promote LGBTQ+ rights, and celebrate a diversity of relationships and identities. The ceremonies were performed virtually by an officiant in Utah, where there are no residency or citizenship requirements for marriage licenses. Read more>>
The ‘Pink’ Premium: Why Women in China Still Pay More for Less: For years, global campaigns have opposed the “pink tax,” where products marketed to women are priced higher than those for men. In China, the debate intensified recently when university students sued cosmetics giant L’Oréal for discriminatory pricing of facial cleansers. Read more>>
Port Gates of Genoa Blocked Over Rearmament And Genocide: June 25, the port gates San Benigno, Albertazzi, Etiopia and Lungomare Canepa in Genoa — Italy’s most important port — were simultaneously blocked for almost 10 hours with endless queues of lorries. Meanwhile hundreds of other people headed towards Terminal Messina (de facto blocked by the anti-riot police trucks), completely paralyzing the already jammed traffic. Read more>>
Palestine Rallies Reject Demonization of Australian Senator Fatima Payman: The 39th week of continuous protests against Australian complicity in Israel’s genocide against the people of Gaza came days after WA senator Fatima Payman announced her resignation from Labor. Read more>>
Public Servants ‘Won’t Be Silenced’ For Opposing Genocide In Palestine: Their “crime” was signing an open letter that called on federal Labor “to take swift and decisive action to end its support of the genocide, ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation of Palestine by immediately ceasing all military exports to Israel”. Read more>>
LA Protest: No Funds For ‘Zionist Vigilantes,’ End Palestine Occupation: On July 2, over 20 organizations, including Jewish, Palestinian, human rights, and anti-racist organizations, demanded that Los Angeles City Council members vote against a resolution that would provide $1 million of public funds to racist Zionist vigilante groups. Read more>>
Veterans For Peace Walk from Maine, Arrive in DC to Unwelcome NATO: They walked form Maine and arrived in Washington, D.C., today in unbearable heat. Why? To protest a NATO anniversary party. Watch here>>
No To NATO, Yes To Peace Rally At White House: World BEYOND War and other peace groups held a No To NATO, Yes To Peace rally. Here are some videos of the event. Watch here>>
Israeli Protesters Block Highways To Call For Ceasefire: Israeli protesters block highways, call for cease-fire to return hostages 9 months into war in Gaza. Marking nine months since the war in Gaza started, Israeli protesters blocked highways across the country Sunday, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and pushing for a cease-fire to bring back scores of hostages held by Hamas. Read more>>
A Flawed Peace Conference Offers a Radical Proposal – Hope: In a context of fear, hatred, and violence, an Israeli-Palestinian gathering that seemed detached from reality actually represented something revolutionary. Read more>>
Hundreds of Scientists Urge Biden to Cancel $100 Billion Nuclear Weapons Boondoggle: “There is no sound technical or strategic rationale for spending tens of billions of dollars building new nuclear weapons,” an expert said. Read more>>
Orchestra Plays Protest Chorus At Hague: In support of today’s protest in The Hague, the orchestra plays ‘Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder’, the final chorus of J.S. Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, in front of the Dutch parliamentary buildings. Blue banners symbolize the rising oceans. Read more>>
ExxonMobil Ad Finally Tells The Truth: This new Exxon ad is surprisingly candid! Yellow Dot Studios has created another spoof video that tells the truth about climate abuse. Watch here>>
Clarence and Ginni Finally Get Their Due: In this imaginative protest essay, Lady Macbeth has words for Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni from the other side of death. Read more>>
Can A New Version of Catan, The Cult-Favorite Board Game, Make Climate Change Fun To Talk About? A new version of Catan has players balancing renewable energy and fossil fuels on a fictitious island. But can a board game about clean energy actually be fun? And can it get more people talking about climate change, which scientists and advocacy organizations suggest is a precursor to climate action. Read more>>
Barbara Kingsolver On Climate Change: ‘Words Are What I Have To Offer’: The novelist explains why she wrote a pledge for the American Climate Corps. Read more>>
Global 24-Hour Peace Wave: International Peace Bureau and World BEYOND War held the third-annual 24-hour peacewave on June 22-23, 2024. This was a 24-hour-long Zoom featuring live peace actions in the streets and squares of the world, moving around the globe with the sun. This Peace Wave happened during the RIMPAC war rehearsals in the Pacific and just prior to protests of NATO’s meeting in Washington in July. The Peace Wave supports work for global peace and opposes military buildup including alliances like NATO, its partnerships around the globe, and related alliances such as AUKUS. The peace wave visits dozens of locations around the globe and include rallies, concerts, production of artworks, blood drives, installation of peace poles, dances, speeches, and public demonstrations of all variety. Watch here>>
Why Protests Work, Even When Not Everybody Likes Them: Organizers must learn to embrace the polarizing nature of protest in order to use it effectively. Because it breaks the rhythms of orderly business in society, forcing both the public and those in positions of power to pay attention to issues of great importance that might otherwise be downplayed or ignored, disruption is a vital tool of civil resistance. Read more>>
Labor Organizer Jane McAlevey On Why Strikes Are the Only Way Out of Our Current Crisis: As teachers across the United States have shown recently, mass strikes are the key to winning progressive victories in the Trump era. Read more>>
The Obsolescence Of War: War does not serve us. It represents the worst in humanity. Thankfully, we now have nonviolent tools to manage conflict in life-affirming ways. Read more>>
Nonviolence & Second-Wave Feminist: This book review looks at 47 essays written from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, in which prominent Second Wave feminists question how nonviolence might be applied to effectively transform violent systems of aggression, from rape to war. Read more>>
How To Not Pay Taxes: Whether for economic or political purposes, some taxpayers in the United States choose to avoid paying taxes. Here’s how—both legally and illegally. Read the guide>>
Extinction Rebellion Announces ‘Mass Occupation’ To Upgrade Democracy: Extinction Rebellion UK has responded to the general election result by inviting people to join Upgrade Democracy. It will be a three-day mass occupation of a high-profile location from Friday 30 August to Sunday 1 September. Learn more>>
#StudentsForGaza Meeting: Join our meeting to support student-led campaigns for university divestment from Israel-funded studies and weapons manufacturing. We’ll provide organizing tools, discuss key demands, and help students balance activism with academics. (July 16) Learn more>>
Judaism & Nonviolence: Join the Fellowship of Reconciliation for our monthly Gathering Voices series, featuring a conversation with Dr. Elliot Ratzman. An academic and activist from Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. Ratzman teaches courses on religion, race, and Jewish studies. He is completing his first book, Zipporah’s Knife, which explores the ethics of Jewish anti-racism. Currently, he is researching the history of American Jewish pacifism. With decades of involvement in peace and justice projects in the Middle East, Dr. Ratzman is also on the leadership team for Bend the Arc-Jewish Action Ohio. Don’t miss this insightful discussion on faith, justice, and activism. (July 16) Learn more>>
Interfaith Action For Palestine: Join a powerful interfaith, multiracial coalition of organizations in Washington, DC from July 28-30 to oppose the national gathering of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). This event will feature targeted actions around their gathering and lobbying efforts with Senators and Representatives. Together, we aim to reclaim the true spirit of Christianity, which CUFI has misappropriated to support Israel’s actions in Gaza. Participating organizations include Christians for a Free Palestine, Mennonite Action, Faith for Black Lives, Rabbis for Ceasefire, Jewish Voice for Peace – DC, If Not Now, Hindus for Human Rights, and FOR-USA. Learn more>>
War Abolisher Awards Presentation Online: World BEYOND War’s Fourth Annual War Abolisher Awards will recognize the work of individuals and organizations from around the globe who directly support one or more of the three segments of World BEYOND War’s strategy for reducing and eliminating war as outlined in the book A Global Security System, An Alternative to War. They are: Demilitarizing Security, Managing Conflict Without Violence, and Building a Culture of Peace. (July 22) Learn more>>
Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice: The first annual Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice will address the links between war, militarism and climate injustice, promoting grassroots action and policy making for peace and climate justice. This year’s theme is divest from war – invest in climate justice!(Sep 21-28) Learn more>>
Campaign Nonviolence Action Days: From Sept 21 to Oct 2, 2024, (Int’l Day of Peace to Int’l Day of Nonviolence), join tens of thousands of people in creatively building a culture of peace rooted in active nonviolence. Last year, people held over 5,000 actions, events, and marches across the USA and in 20 countries. Over 60,000 people participated in these events. In 2024, join us in advancing peace and nonviolence, and addressing the entwined issues of violence, war, poverty, racism, and environmental destruction. (Sep 21 – Oct 2) Learn more>>