June 29th, 2019
Editor’s Note from Rivera Sun:
In this week’s Nonviolence News, Europeans are rising up for climate justice. Pashtuns are protesting Pakistan’s war crimes. Czechs are demonstrating against their prime minister. In the United States, reports on the horrific conditions in migrant detention centers – particularly for children – have millions in an uproar. New York City and DC protests featuring children in cages helped to galvanize people into action. Japanese-Americans protested at the site of a former interment camp that is being converted to hold migrants. Employees of a supply company walked out of work in protest of their company’s profiting off human rights abuses. A national day of action (July 12th) has been planned.
Nonviolence News collects this long list of what’s happening in order to illustrate in a single glance (or a rapid scroll) just how much is going on all over the world. If you take a closer look, you’ll quickly find examples of strategic, effective, and creative campaigns. Over the weeks, the enormous scale of how nonviolence is used starts to sink in. In the past three months, we’ve shared over 700 stories!
In internal news, Nonviolence News is growing. This week’s big project is putting together a website. If you have skills with WordPress and some time to contribute, contact me. Not a web programmer, but want to help? Let’s connect. I have a short list of tasks that I’d love some support with! Thank you.
May we all learn and grow, together.
Rivera Sun, Editor
Photo credit of opening image: Families Belong Together March, 2018.
Image by Phil Roeder, Creative Commons License, CC2.
Here’s what you’ll find in this week’s Nonviolence News:
Victory! Success Stories
Recent Actions & On-Going Campaigns
Nonviolence & Children
Climate Action
Peace Action
Creative Action
Knowledge & Reflection
Calls-to-Action
Illinois becomes the first state to ban private immigrant detention centers. Read more >>
Illinois legalizes marijuana, and, in a much-needed and important step, removes marijuana convictions from 770,000 citizens’ records. Read more >>
After more than two years of widespread debate and intense movement organizing against the power plant, state regulators on Thursday rejected a $1 billion proposal to build a gas-fired power plant in Burrillville. Read more >>
Mayor Deblasio announces expansion of NYC schools programs for social-emotional learning and restorative justice. Read more >>
Somerville, MA bans facial recognition software, becoming the second city in the US to do so. Read more >>
Portland, Maine rallies to show how to welcome and support refugees, immigrants, and asylum-seekers, providing a model for the country. Read more >>
Czechs protest by the thousands against prime minister. Read more >>
Coalition of environmental and health groups deliver 150,000 public comments urging the US Environmental Protection Agency to ban cancer-causing glyphosate. Read more >>
2354 (and counting) actions and events planned during Campaign Nonviolence’s Week of Actions, September 14-22, 2019. The campaign rallies people to work toward a culture of peace and nonviolence, free from war, poverty, racism, and environmental destruction. Read more >>
Detroit, Michigan organizes community with 12th annual “Silence the Violence” rally. Read more >>
Editor’s Note: Usually, our “Nonviolence & Children” section is full of creative and heartwarming ways that people teach and practice nonviolence to/with children. This week, we’re running a special section on the campaigns to end migrant family separation and child detention centers in the United States. After recent actions in major US cities showed children in cages and broadcasted audio of crying children, the effort to end the abuses erupted again and has inspired many to take action.
Massive US demonstrations against child detention being held in 75 locations on July 12th. Read more >>
20 ways you can support immigrant rights and help end child detention and family separation. Read more >>
Wayfair employees walk-out to demand that their company cease supporting child detention centers and send all profits from a recent sale of beds to Raices, an immigrant justice group. Read more >>
Interfaith leaders block ICE office in Milwaukee. Read more >>
Highlights Magazine, a longstanding children’s magazine featuring morality and values as well as creative works, takes a public stance against immigrant family separation and child detention centers. Read more >>
People try to donate diapers and toys for children in detention centers. They were turned away. Read more >>
Japanese-Americans protest child detention outside former WWII internment camp. Read more >>
Here’s a list of all the corporations that profit off Homestead Child Detention Center. Read more >>
Germany’s “Ende Gelande” means “Here. No further”. This 5-year-old anti-coal action camp gathers every summer to pressure Germany to quit coal. Watch more >>
On hottest day in history, Paris climate activists tear gassed by police for protesting climate inaction. Read more >>
70 climate activists were arrested for blockading the street outside the New York Times’ office in Manhattan, NY. Part of the global Extinction Rebellion movement, they want the major newspaper to cover the climate crisis like the catastrophic threat that it is. Read more >>
Pink Floyd guitarist raises $21 million for a climate change charity by selling his guitars. Read more >>
Extinction Rebellion’s international climate actions blend visibility, creativity, and disruption for maximum effect. Check out recent events such as the Cannes Lions festival disruption, the Petroleo and Fueliet’ BP Screening action, RCA Fashion action, and the Natural History Museum alternative banquet. Read more >>
Sunrise Movement rallies outside of Democratic National Headquarters in protest of the party’s failure to host a climate change debate. Read more >>
Doctors call for nonviolent direct action over climate crisis. Read more >>
Another protester locks down to excavator equipment to prevent the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Read more >>
Pashtuns protest Pakistan’s war crimes. Read more >>
Here’s how the United States can move away from the brink of war with Iran. Read more >>
22 peace protesters arrested by Bath Iron Works (Maine, USA) before warship christening ceremony. Read more >>
At an international gathering, the director of Portland (Oregon) Peace Teams shares key tips about how trust and nonviolence go hand-in-hand when working to de-escalate violent conflict in one’s community. Read more >>
8 peace activists arrested at Hancock Air National Guard Base protesting drone assassinations. Read more >>
What if the new US anti-war movement is right here, right under our noses? Read more >>
German citizens, hearing that an alt-right festival was planned for their town, bought up the entire stock of alcohol in order to “dry up” the neo-Nazis and show them they were unwelcome. Read more >>
Artists alter junk removal billboard from “We make junk disappear” to “We make children disappear” signed by ICE. Read more >>
“Refugees Got Talent” TV show aims to shift perspectives and stereotypes about refugees. Read more >>
Knitting website takes a stand against white supremacy . . . including in the Trump Administration. Read more >>
Rutgers University unveils new digital library of resistance manuals. Read more >>
How tech workers and flight attendants resisted immigrant family separation. Read more >>
Lessons from ten years of cooperative organizing. Read more >>
Understanding when repression helps or hurts movements. Read more >>
George Lakey on learning from 50+ years of LGBTQ struggles. Read more >>
Peace and happiness are tied to nonviolence. Metta Center explores the web of connections. Read more >>
Discerning right action on Nonviolence Radio. Read more >>
United States: July 12th is a National Day of Action to Close the Concentration Camps of child detention centers. Read more >>
July 1st, in anticipation of the Fourth of July, Rivera Sun offers webinar on “The Nonviolent History of American Independence”. 8pm ET, free, but registration required. Learn more >>
July 2nd Divest the War Machine organizing webinar. Learn more >>
Fellowships available for designing a civil resistance curriculum for high schoolers.Read more >>
Metta Center announces new online course on Nonviolence and the New Story. Learn more >>
Campaign Nonviolence Week of Actions September 14-22, 2019, Everywhere. Host or join a march, rally, protest, or other event or action for a culture of peace and active nonviolence. Learn more >>
Nonviolence News is a sister project to Nonviolence Now, a global campaign that collects and shares true, inspiring stories of nonviolence in action. They place ads in unusual places – like in Newsweek Magazine, online websites promoting violence, and public transit buses – to promote the effectiveness and versatility of nonviolence. Find out more about them at NonviolenceNow.org
About Rivera Sun: Activist/Author Rivera Sun is a nationwide speaker and trainer in strategy for nonviolent movements. She is the author of nine books and novels focusing on nonviolence, including The Dandelion Insurrection, The Roots of Resistance, and The Way Between. For four years, she cohosted nationally-syndicated radio programs on nonviolent struggle. Rivera Sun has worked for Campaign Nonviolence, Metta Center for Nonviolence, and Nonviolence Now, among other groups. Find out more about her work at: www.riverasun.com
