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50-Year Deep Sea Mining Ban, Portugal’s Rail Strike & US Lawyers Resist

Posted on May 11, 2025May 11, 2025

Image: Remix by Nonviolence News from photo by Juuud28 on Pixabay

Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun

Let’s start with a glimpse of Nonviolence News around the world – especially the wins. In the United Kingdom, activists won a major legal case against an anti-protest regulation. Mexico put a constitutional ban on genetically-modified corn, deepening the legal protections for their heirloom and traditional heritage seeds. Spain canceled a multimillion dollar deal with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company. New Caledonia protected its South Pacific marine ecosystems by placing a 50-year ban on deep sea mining.

A Portuguese rail strike shut down every train in the country demanding better salaries for all the rail workers. Panama’s indefinite strike has entered its second week, pushing for pensions and sovereignty over the canal, and opposing the renewed attempts to build a hugely controversial foreign copper mine. Chileans walked in a solemn procession over the disappearance of Mapuche community leader Julia Chuñil. Colombia’s Indigenous “Land Back” movement is confronting oil drilling in the Amazon. Turkish citizens are decrying the blocking of the X account of the jailed mayor of Istanbul, a political opponent of President Erdogan. Feminists in India and Pakistan are pushing back on the idea that female soldiers bombing Pakistan is an achievement for gender justice. The trial and imprisonment of a satirist in Kazakhstan revealed important lessons about the need for community and family support through a politically-motivated trial. Haiti is demanding reparations for slavery on the anniversary of its independence from France. Chinese citizens are campaigning for break rooms for janitors and cleaners who often have nowhere to rest while at work. Brazilian app workers (like Uber drivers) are building alternatives to megacorporations based on self-management, cooperation, and technological justice.

In the United States, the authoritarian moves of President Trump once again hit roadblocks in the courts, including some significant legal rulings that could affect a number of cases. A federal judge ordered a temporary halt to DOGE’s illegal overhaul. A US District Judge nullified the executive order targeting law firms with punitive and retaliatory measures – the first case to overturn an entire executive order. Most notably, Maine’s Governor Janet Mills – who went toe-to-toe with Trump over trans rights, responding to his threats with a cool, “I’ll see you in court” – has won the case, ensuring that the state’s school lunch program funding cannot be cut off over the state’s stance on trans inclusion.

The legal field is mobilizing against Trump, especially after he targeted them with retaliation. The attorney generals of 20 states are suing the administration for dismantling public health agencies. Georgetown Law students made a public list of Trump-caving law firms as a resource to anyone wishing to withdraw their business, hire a different firm, or avoid working for the firms enabling Trump’s lawlessness. On May Day, thousands of lawyers in New York City publicly retook their oaths to uphold the constitution and rule of law, part of a 50-city action on Law Day. Around 600 lawyers and law firms in Maine – representing most of the major firms – signed a declaration to resist Trump’s intimidation.

Week after week, we see this pattern: in the courts and the streets, resistance is pushing back on authoritarianism – and making some progress. Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University PhD student snatched off the street and held for 6-weeks at a detention center in Louisiana, has now been released and will await legal proceedings at home in Massachusetts. After facing pressure, New York University Law allowed its students to sit their exams and attend protests, reversing an earlier stance that banned them from taking finals. A federal judge also overturned a Colorado school district’s book ban, returning 18 books to the shelves of the library. Libraries also celebrated a legal injunction against cuts to core library services offered by the federal government. Another judge blocked plans to deport immigrants to Libya. A judge stopped a state supreme court candidate in North Carolina from trying to change election law after the fact just so he could win; instead the judge ordered the state to confirm the Democratic candidate as the winner. On top of all that, MAGA candidates are losing seats in Texas and other conservative areas.

As ICE continues to terrorize communities, citizens and public officials continue to engage direct action and civil disobedience to try to stop unlawful and immoral arrests, detainment, and deportations. A 16-year-old was violently arrested as community members formed a human chain trying to protect her mother from an immigration arrest. The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was arrested while peacefully insisting on entering a new detention center with three congress members to conduct oversight. Quakers are marching 300 miles from New York to DC against the immigration crackdown. Colombia faculty held a silent vigil in pouring rain lifting up photos of students who have been detained or had their visas revoked.

Over 500,000 people have now signed the petition calling for Trump to be impeached, calling upon congress to fulfill its constitutional duty to hold the president accountable for illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional actions. Will it work? With congress stacked in Trump’s favor, it’s up to the people to build an unstoppable movement that makes accountability the only option.

If you take a look at our Nonviolence News Research Archive this week, you’ll find some excellent stories about a tree-sit to stop logging in Washington State, a water rally against landfill expansion in Maine, how New York communities are resisting Bitcoin power plants, Hawaii’s first-of-its-kind tourist tax to fund climate adaptation, and how University of Virginia student tour guides are resisting attempts to whitewash history. You’ll also find a fascinating look at the history of a Belgium university cleaners’ strike 50 years ago that went on to establish a worker coop called the Liberated Broom.

Take a look at the 80+ stories we collected this week in the Nonviolence News Research Archive>>

Here’s a set of stories that lifted my heart with their creative approach to the pressing issues of our times: Kenyans are defying the indigenous seed ban with songs celebrating those seeds and urging people to keep planting them. New York State is redistributing the excess tax revenue that came from sales tax in a time of inflation, sending it back to millions of low income New Yorkers. A group of surfer women in Sri Lanka are claiming the waves for women’s bodies in defiance of gender norms. Olympia, WA, held its 30th annual Procession of the Species with thousands of participants embodying different animals and plants in a parade full of color, puppetry, and costumes. After Marriott International’s CEO reaffirmed the company’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, over 40,000 employees sent him thank-you notes. Salt Lake City and Boise formally adopted LGBTQ+ flags as part of their official flags to defy statewide bans.

I am struck by the relentless persistence of activists worldwide. Times are tough … but humanity’s resilient creativity remains undaunted. Nonviolent action abounds. Let’s help it grow.

In solidarity,
Rivera Sun

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Nonviolence News Editor Rivera Sun is a novelist and nonviolence trainer. Her books, The Dandelion Insurrection and The Way Between are read around the world. She served as an advisor to the Nonviolence Now project, is on the Advisory Board of World Beyond War, and has worked with numerous nonviolence organizations. Her essays on nonviolence are syndicated by Peace Voice and have appeared in hundreds of journals. www.riverasun.com

Nonviolence News is a sister project to Nonviolence Now. Nonviolence Now works to make the media landscape a healthier, more positive space, especially for young people who spend a high percentage of time online.  We want to interrupt business as usual, especially online, where materialism and violence are actively promoted, by instead promoting nonviolence and its capacity to create a healthier, viable future.

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