Image: Remix by Nonviolence News of Nigeria’s Green Walk by iammatthewmario on Pixabay
Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun
On April 22, millions of people worldwide honored Earth Day. Along with the usual actions of planting trees and cleaning up trash, many took action for climate justice. It’s not surprising – people want climate action. A stunning new report shows that 89% of the world’s population wants their leaders to do more about the climate crisis. In the United States, where the official national policy is now climate denialism, around 74% of the population is clear that the crisis must be addressed. A wave of Earth Day actions – especially with #AllOutOnEarthDay – took place across the United States against the train wreck of devastating policies unleashed by the Trump administration including gutting the EPA, climate data censorship, defunding climate programs, and much more. The Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign revealed how five major insurance companies – Allianz, AXA, Aviva, Zurich, and Intact – have invested to the tune of $6.5bn in the fossil fuel corporations wrecking the planet. In London, activists protested British Petroleum’s involvement in the genocide in Gaza, making the connection between oil, war, ecocide, and genocide.
Earth Day also highlighted the positive strides being made for environmental justice. For example, mackerel are making a comeback in New England, South Dakota residents halted another carbon pipeline, and the Chicago Teachers Union ratified a historic contract that includes creating pathways to green jobs for high school students, increased resources to teach about climate issues, and plans for toxin removal, green building upgrades, and better school lunches. In India, the Garo People are blending traditional knowledge and participatory research to protect the region’s forests. On the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, ‘Creole Gardens’ are providing mutual aid, food security, and climate resilience. In Minnesota, Manoomin (wild rice) – already recognized with personhood – took another step toward integrating into state environmental law. New York City launched its citywide composting program.
A favorite Earth-loving action? There’s a second mix tape for Mother Nature that’s been released with the proceeds going to conservation and environmental justice work.
In Nonviolence News around the world, Turkey’s youth have been on the frontlines of the protest movement … and high school students are also campaigning against the replacement of qualified teachers and school staff with political appointees. Bosnia’s truck drivers drove a protest caravan of 500 trucks through the capital, calling for more support. Thousands of people turned out in support of trans persons as the United Kingdom Supreme Court ruled against trans rights in a controversial case interpreting the 2010 Equality Act. Another 2,000 people demonstrated against the ruling in Edinburgh, Scotland. In Morocco, 1,000 people demonstrated for an arms embargo on Israel, delaying the docking of a weapons ship. French journalists held a die-in in memory of 200 colleagues killed by Israel while reporting in Gaza. Mutual aid continues to be a critical source of survival for the 25 million people impacted by the civil war in Sudan.
In the United States, Trump’s been losing in the courts – again – with judges blocking some of his orders around citizenship requirements for voter registration, cutting public school funding over DEI policies or sanctuary cities, dismantlement of Voice of America, deportation of certain Venezuelan migrants, and ordering the White House to retract misleading statements that federal workers are being fired over performance issues (vs. slashes to the federal budget). Trump was also forced to walk back parts of his tariff threats and back down on his aggressive demands of Harvard University (saying they were sent ‘in error’). He also steered clear of the rumored crackdown on environmental nonprofits and was advised by his own Pentagon and Department of Defense officials not to invoke the Insurrection Act. Trump’s legal woes are surging; Harvard is suing the administration over the $2.2 billion funding freeze, a dozen states are suing him over tariffs, and disability rights groups and families are pushing back with lawsuits as Trump guts services and access to education. Meanwhile, Tesla’s grim profit report showed a 71% plunge in profits, thanks to the widespread Tesla Takedown actions. The news prompted Musk to say he was going to spend more time on the company rather than politics. (We can’t wait.)
The April 19th protests held by 50501 took place in 700 cities and towns across the United States, turning out a healthy 4 million people, slightly smaller than the April 5 demonstrations but robust nonetheless. Around 150 university campuses held protests against Trump’s attacks on higher education, funding cuts over DEI, targeting pro-Palestinian student activists for visa revocations and deportations, and more. Another 480 university presidents signed an open letter decrying the Trump administration’s policies and actions. (For reference: the total membership in the American Association of Colleges and Universities is just over 800.) Civil rights organizations have joined the growing ranks of institutions forming coalitions to resist Trump’s attacks; 75 nonprofits representing millions of people in the United States have formed “The Pact: A Civil Rights Coalition Unity Commitment“. The 40-day Target Fast has erupted into an indefinite boycott, pressuring the faltering company to recommit to DEI promises.
Here are a few more nonviolent campaigns and actions in the United States: Black students who held a student-led ‘speak out’ against terrible housing conditions were arrested by campus security at North Carolina Central University. A webmaster at Case Western Reserve University refused to obey orders to remove DEI scholarship pages. A Columbia professor decided to teach her class on race and media in defiance of the university’s cancellation of it. An Indigenous campaign is pushing for health data sovereignty in the face of DOGE data grabs and slashes to federal services that should have provided critical health data support for tribal governments. Migrant justice actions took place at the Salvadoran Consulate, and at Florida and Ohio jails. AIDS activists delivered a ‘mountain’ of 206 coffins to the US State Department to denounce Trump’s cuts to critical HIV programs worldwide. Social housing beat out big tech in Seattle.
For the readers who loved last week’s story of a human chain that moved 9,100 books for a local bookstore, you’ll also enjoy knowing how teens reversed a book ban, title by title. There’s also the newly-launched Operation Caged Bird Sings that is distributing banned books to naval midshipmen, pushing back at the decision of the Naval Academy to remove 200 titles, including Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. The quest for knowledge beyond formal institutions stretches beyond borders. In India, tiny libraries coordinated by community members are offering access to literature at bazaars, bus stops, and temples.
As always, our Nonviolence News Research Archive holds so many more stories than we can mention here. I urge you to explore them – the Knowledge Section has wonderful articles on worker innovations in organizing, how disability inclusion benefits everyone, organizing principles for resisting Trump, using solidarity as the antidote to fear, and an excellent list of 17 Ways To Disrupt the Status Quo In Your Town. You’ll also find calls-to-action like the D-Day Veterans March in DC, the Primal Scream, and a course on civilian based defense that teaches how nonviolent action can defend nations from invaders and occupiers.
Find all of the 110 stories we collected this week here>>
Last, but not least, the world lost a champion of nonviolence with Pope Francis’ passing. A rare progressive leader of the billion-strong Catholic Church, Pope Francis advocated for climate action, peace, and against wealth inequality. He also spoke up about the power of active nonviolence and supported efforts within the Catholic Church to make nonviolence and nonviolent resistance a central teaching. The Catholic Nonviolence Initiative has been working hard to make sure that Pope Francis’ legacy uplifts his deep connection to nonviolence.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
The average donor gives $35 to Nonviolence News.
Thanks for being such a generous circle of readers!
Donate here>>