Image: Remix by Nonviolence News from photo by Patricio Hurtado on Pixabay
Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
Let’s start with a round of good news: Munich, Germany, has banned military ads in public spaces in the city, including on buses, subways, and billboards. Denver, Colorado, suburbs are pushing back against oil and gas wells and blocked two proposals for large fossil fuel developments. Seattle, Washington, passed an excessive executive compensation tax that will fund social housing. A US federal judge halted layoffs at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, also ruling that it cannot delete data or transfer funds out of the agency.
Across the United States, a total of three different sets of multi-nodal protests against Trump and Musk were held at dozens of locations. On Feb 17, the No Kings On Presidents Day protests happened in New York City, NY; Frankfort, KY; Washington, DC; St. Paul, MN; Boston, MA; New Orleans, LA; Denver, CO; Philadelphia, PA; Santa Fe, NM; Boise, ID; Atlanta, GA; New Jersey; Ellsworth, ME; Springfield, MA; Long Beach, CA; Chico, CA; Eugene, OR; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; Seattle, WA, Wilmington, DE; and many more.
On February 19, the Save Our Services protests opposing federal worker layoffs and funding cuts took place in DC and other major cities across the United States. Federal workers also are joining unions in record numbers and pushing back against the Trump Administration with humor, documentation, whistleblowing, refusals to comply with orders, Signal chats, Reddit threads, personal narratives, and much more.
On multiple days throughout the week, the #TeslaTakeDown protests brought popular ire to Elon Musk’s showrooms, offices, and factories across the United States in a set of visibility actions aimed at galvanizing more economic resistance to Musk’s businesses. Widespread anger over Musk’s actions with DOGE are already having an impact: Tesla’s $400 million armored car deal is on hold after massive outcry over favoritism (and a sneaky attempt to conceal Tesla’s name in the official documents). Tesla stock has plummeted 25% and sales of cybertrucks are falling after a social media rebrand dubbed them #swasticars.
Nor is Musk the only recipient of boycotts and economic resistance. A new report reveals that in the last month, more than 25% of US residents have dropped one or more favored brands over political issues, with the trend leaning more toward supporting DEI, social justice, and progressive values. On Feb 28, a National Economic Blackout is being planned against online shopping and specific megacorporations. Canadians are boycotting US products and their vacation cancelations might cost the US $2.1 billion, according to the US Travel Association.
The combination of widespread protests (which raise visibility and build participation) and economic resistance (which increases the costs on the opponent and puts pressure on them to stop their abuses) is critical to building a successful campaign to halt the authoritarian takeover of the US federal government and the onslaught of injustices targeting federal workers, public service programs, rule of law, science and fact, and the erasure of women, transgender persons, and people of color. Protests and visible resistance also embolden groups and organizations to engage in direct opposition to unjust orders, often at risk or cost to those groups or their members.
A theater in Minneapolis, for example, rejected federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts because it came with Trump’s anti-DEIA orders. In a statement, they wrote, “We cannot choose to receive money from the government if that means pushing artists back to the margins. We cannot hew to the narrowest possible view of who gets to participate in artistic and civic life. We cannot comply. We cannot betray our mission. We will not be silent. We will continue to support a beautifully diverse and inclusive group of playwrights, offering them the resources they need to create, for as long as we are able.”
Another campaign taking high risks to prevent harm is the network of community members, lawyers, educators, and faith leaders resisting ICE raids. Migrant workers are organizing to prevent ICE arrests and deportations. Indigenous Nations are responding to racial profiling, detainments, and harassment of tribal members. Other groups continue to educate people on how to resist ICE – or stall them with your basic rights. Rapid community responses, like immigration watch encrypted chats and tenant groups, are interrupting deportation arrests.
From lawyers being fired because they chose to uphold the law instead of corruption to states risking federal funding to stand up for migrants and transgender youth, the next round of this struggle comes with increasingly high consequences. Leaders of local governments, organizations, and businesses will need to have backbone to stand up to the abuses – and public demonstrations and rising economic resistance will help give them that courage.
Consider Canada. Hit with threats of punishing tariffs, demeaned by President Trump, and insultingly referred to as the 51st State, Canadians are officially pissed off with the United States. During the national anthem before the game, the singer intentionally swapped the lyrics to make a pointed commentary that only Canadians would command Canada. After their team trounced the United States, Prime Minister Trudeau proudly posted “You can’t take our country – and you can’t take our game.” These acts of protest spur defiance to authoritarians and can rally the courage of everyday people to stand up, speak up, and push back. All of which will matter when Trump’s next round of volleys comes.
In more Nonviolence News from around the world, Greece’s protests against government corruption’s role in the train crash that killed 57 people have now reached ‘unprecedented levels’. Legal clinics in India are helping rural women take back their land. In Kazakstan, police are persecuting feminist and LGBTQ groups by accusing them of violence – even though it was conservative counter protesters who attacked them as they conducted a human rights training. The crosshairs of Internet censorship and hijab laws in Iran is having a chilling impact on women and girls. In London, Extinction Rebellion doused a consulting company’s glass headquarters with black ‘oil’ to demand that they stop helping half the world’s fossil fuel producers maximize their profits by killing the planet. In British Columbia, First Nation community members and allies held a memorial march for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, transgender and gender-diverse peoples. An ad in the New York Times opposing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians was signed by 350 Jewish rabbis along with other celebrities and individuals.
In the endless round of alarming headlines, I find myself looking for stories I can learn from, including how South Korea stopped an authoritarian power grab in days, how Poland’s judges defended their independence and how Polish citizens pushed back against the far right. Rather than doomscrolling, take some time to learn how people around the world have met the kinds of challenges we face. These pro-tips can also help us see how nonviolence works on the strategic level. For example, after California high school students had their fall play canceled over content, they wrote a clever one-act play called [REDACTED] which won a state award. The lesson: when they try to censor you, get louder and start talking about the attempt to censor you until their efforts backfire on them. This is the same strategy protesters used at the Stonewall National Monument to stop the erasure of transwomen – who started the historic protest riot – from the national sites signs, educational plaques, and communications. Rallying at the site, they decorated the fence with transgender and queer flags, and used sidewalk chalk to correct the signs. This is a strategic question for all of us: how can we make the attempts to censor, stifle, or erase us boomerang into even higher visibility for our movements?
Here’s another example: In the Philippines, February 25th is the official holiday honoring the 1986 People Power Revolution – or it was until the son of the ousted dictator (now the current president of the Philippines) removed it from the list of official holidays. In defiance of the president, numerous schools and universities in the Philippines are honoring the day by shutting offices, closing classes, and holding other events to commemorate the people’s remarkable nonviolent movement. Campaign Nonviolence, a US-based group that fosters nonviolence education and action, heard about this just as they were getting ready to release their Nonviolent History Coloring Page on the 1986 People Power Revolution. Now, they’re encouraging people across the globe to teach about the People Power Revolution and/or sign a petition for the holiday’s reinstatement.
Each week, we collect 30-50 or more stories of nonviolence in action in our research for these articles. This week’s total was 88 stories. We can’t fit them all in, but you can explore those stories in our easy-to-read Nonviolence News Research Archive where all 88 stories are collected. If you’re wondering what actions you can join, check out the Calls-To-Action Section.
Know your nonviolent history. Teach resistance studies. Defend the truth. Uplift the stories of how people are taking action. All of these are needed to help people stand up for justice, respect, dignity, and the well-being of all. Nonviolence News is honored to be able to support you with that this week and always.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
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