New Cold War Spins Out of Control

September 29, 2016
New Cold War Spins Out of Control

ALASTAIR CROOKE -

Latest Syria Trainwreck Shows the Obama Administration Is in a State of Confused Agony

September 27, 2016

RUSSIA INSIDER/THE SAKER - The latest developments in Syria are not, I believe, the result of some deliberate plan of the USA to help their “moderate terrorist” allies on the ground, but they are the symptom of something even worse: the complete loss of control of the USA over the situation in Syria and,...

We Need to Ban Nuclear Weapons (in Spite of Canada)

September 25, 2016
We Need to Ban Nuclear Weapons (in Spite of Canada)

CESAR JARAMILLO - Make no mistake: neither North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test nor the recent high-stakes stalemate over Iran's nuclear program are the root of nuclear insecurity. They are but symptoms of a nuclear disarmament regime in a severe state of disrepair. While every other category of weapons of mass destruction has been...

Everything You Have Wanted to Know About Carbon Pricing

September 23, 2016
Everything You Have Wanted to Know About Carbon Pricing

UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS - “Carbon pricing” is a market-based strategy for lowering global warming emissions. The aim is to put a price on carbon emissions—an actual monetary value—so that the costs of climate impacts and the opportunities for low-carbon energy options are better reflected in our production and consumption choices. Carbon pricing programs...

Gandhi’s Salt: How a Fistful of Mud and Seawater Shook the British Empire

September 21, 2016
Gandhi’s Salt: How a Fistful of Mud and Seawater Shook the British Empire

RIVERA SUN - On April 6th, 1930 at 6:30 a.m. after morning prayers, Mohandas K. Gandhi raised a lump of salty mud and declared, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire."

This Nonviolent Life: Antoinette Tuff Stops School Shooter

September 19, 2016
This Nonviolent Life: Antoinette Tuff Stops School Shooter

RIVERA SUN - On August 20, 2013, Antoinette Tuff (right) nonviolently disarmed a school shooter, saving the lives of hundreds of school children. Antoinette was a bookkeeper. She wasn't supposed to be at the school that day. She was just filling in as a front desk receptionist as a favor to a friend.

This Moment at Standing Rock Was Decades in the Making

September 17, 2016
This Moment at Standing Rock Was Decades in the Making

JENNI MONET - North Dakota’s militarized response to activists opposing the Dakota Access pipeline—and the Standing Rock Sioux’s fierce resolve—reflect the area's particular racial divides.

“Most Important Lawsuit on the Planet” in Federal Court

September 15, 2016
“Most Important Lawsuit on the Planet” in Federal Court

OUR CHILDREN'S TRUST - 21 young people from across the United States have filed a landmark constitutional climate change lawsuit against the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.

Time To Fundamentally Rethink Our Relationship with Russia

September 13, 2016

JAVIER M. PIEDRA - The Euro-Atlantic world needs to see the strategic potential in working with Russia (as opposed to seeking her strategic encirclement), and must recognize that radical militant Islam is a much greater threat to our way of life than Putin’s Russia.

This Is Our Lucky Day

September 11, 2016
This Is Our Lucky Day

DAVID SWANSON - This is our lucky day for quite a few reasons. We haven't yet rendered the climate of this planet uninhabitable for our species. For those of us who are not in prison: we're not in prison -- and not because of some significant difference between us and many who are. For...

Massive Insurance Giants Call For End To Fossil Fuel Subsidies

September 9, 2016

KARL MATHIESEN - Climate change is the “mother of all risks” says Aviva CEO, and hundreds of billions in annual government assistance to oil, gas and coal is “simply unsustainable.” Three of the world’s biggest insurers called on G20 leaders to implement a timeframe for the end of fossil fuel subsidies when they met...

Pope’s World Day of Peace Message to Focus on Nonviolence

September 7, 2016
Pope’s World Day of Peace Message to Focus on Nonviolence

KEN BUTIGAN - The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will issue his annual World Day of Peace message for the first time on the theme of nonviolence. Entitled “Nonviolence: The Style of Politics of Peace,” the January 1, 2017 papal message will be sent to all foreign ministries worldwide. Announced by Vatican...

The Debut of Our Revolution: Great Potential. But.

September 5, 2016
The Debut of Our Revolution: Great Potential. But.

NORMAN SOLOMON - While Bernie Sanders was doing a brilliant job of ripping into the Trans-Pacific Partnership during the livestreamed launch of the Our Revolution organization on Wednesday night, CNN was airing a phone interview with Hillary Clinton and MSNBC was interviewing Donald Trump’s campaign manager. That sums up the contrast between the enduring...

What’s Really Behind the Election

September 3, 2016
What’s Really Behind the Election

ANDREW MOSS - You don't have to be a poet to breathe new possibilities into an old, familiar metaphor. Recently, for example, author and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman took a well-worn metaphor – the "web" – and reworked it in such a way as to recast the terms of the...

Majority of UN Members Declare Intention to Negotiate Ban on Nuclear Weapons in 2017

September 1, 2016

INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS (ICAN) - United Nations disarmament talks concluded in Geneva today (August 19th) with the overwhelming majority of nations signalling their intention to launch negotiations in 2017 for a global ban on nuclear weapons.

Clinton’s Transition Team Suggests a Corporate Presidency

August 30, 2016
Clinton’s Transition Team Suggests a Corporate Presidency

NORMAN SOLOMON - Like other Bernie Sanders delegates in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, I kept hearing about the crucial need to close ranks behind Hillary Clinton. “Unity” was the watchword. But Clinton has reaffirmed her unity with corporate America. Rhetoric aside, Clinton is showing her solidarity with the nemesis of the Sanders campaign...

U.S. Military Contractors Tell Investors Russian Threat Is Great for Business

August 28, 2016
U.S. Military Contractors Tell Investors Russian Threat Is Great for Business

LEE FANG - The escalating anti-Russian rhetoric in the U.S. presidential campaign comes in the midst of a major push by military contractors to position Moscow as a potent enemy that must be countered with a drastic increase in military spending by NATO countries. Weapon makers have told investors that they are relying on...

A Summer of Discontent: the Consolidation of Nuclear Disarmament and Deterrence Divides

August 26, 2016
A Summer of Discontent: the Consolidation of Nuclear Disarmament and Deterrence Divides

JENNY NIELSON - Nuclear weapons policy—issues relating to deterrence and disarmament—has been discussed this summer in various fora and generated significant media and public interest. The diverging views on the value, role and risks of nuclear weapons, and the increasing polarization among those promoting nuclear deterrence postures and disarmament, have been evidenced in a...

Audit: Pentagon Cannot Account For $6.5 Trillion Dollars Is Taxpayer Money

August 24, 2016
Audit: Pentagon Cannot Account For $6.5 Trillion Dollars Is Taxpayer Money

JAY SYRMOPOULOS - A new Department of Defense Inspector General’s report, released last week, has left Americans stunned at the jaw-dropping lack of accountability and oversight. The glaring report revealed the Pentagon couldn’t account for $6.5 trillion dollars worth of Army general fund transactions and data, according to a report by the Fiscal Times....

McKibben: Time to Declare a War (Literally) on Climate Change

August 22, 2016
McKibben: Time to Declare a War (Literally) on Climate Change

JON QUEALLY - We're under attack, says author and climate campaigner Bill McKibben, and the only way to defeat the enemy is to declare a global war against the destructive practices that threaten the world's imperiled ecosystems and human civilization as we know it.

‘No First Use’ Nuclear Policy Proposal Assailed by U.S. Cabinet Officials, Allies

August 20, 2016
‘No First Use’ Nuclear Policy Proposal Assailed by U.S. Cabinet Officials, Allies

PAUL SONNE, GORDON LUBOLD, CAROL E. LEE - A proposal under consideration at the White House to reverse decades of U.S. nuclear policy by declaring a “No First Use” protocol for nuclear weapons has run into opposition from top cabinet officials and U.S. allies. The opposition, from Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of...

Lost on the Way to the Voting Booth: Dignity and Respect

August 18, 2016
Lost on the Way to the Voting Booth: Dignity and Respect

RIVERA SUN - If there is one political action every American should take between now and November, it is to lift our heads with greater dignity and treat our fellow Americans with respect. Regardless of others, our own self-respect should demand such action. We can engage in functional civic dialogue. There is no...

American Casualties of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Program

August 16, 2016
American Casualties of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Program

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER - When Americans think about nuclear weapons, they comfort themselves with the thought that these weapons’ vast destruction of human life has not taken place since 1945—at least not yet. But, in reality, it has taken place, with shocking levels of U.S. casualties.

Massive Deployment of US WMD Spotlighted by Peace Group

August 14, 2016
Massive Deployment of US WMD Spotlighted by Peace Group

MARTHA BASKIN - The ad pierces your consciousness and catches you by surprise. Plastered on the side of Seattle's King County Metro it hurls you momentarily back in time, to a time when nuclear weapons were an imminent threat to our survival. Or did the era never end?

The U.S. Government Needs to Reorder Its Priorities

August 12, 2016
The U.S. Government Needs to Reorder Its Priorities

ADAM VOGEL - The politicians say we have the funds to spend on weapons that will destroy life on earth. It is time for the people to stand up and insist those funds be used to help our citizens create better lives for themselves and a better world for everyone. We have the funds,...

10 Facts the Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You About the War in Syria

August 10, 2016

DARIUS SHAHTAHMASEBI - August 04, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - "Anti Media" - Corporate media regularly attempts to present Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria as solely responsible for the ongoing conflict in the region. The media does report on events that contradict this narrative — albeit sparingly — but taken together, these underreported details...

DOD WOE: The Pentagon’s War on the Earth

August 8, 2016

TOM H. HASTINGS - We are waging war. We are the Nation of War. We destroy. We kill. Everyone fears us. Fewer and fewer admire us. But our fighting forces—and their attendant industries which manufacture the bombs, bullets, and ballistic delivery devices—also wage a war on the clean air, clean water, and clean soil...

The White Rose: Nonviolent Resistance to Hitler

August 6, 2016
The White Rose: Nonviolent Resistance to Hitler

RIVERA SUN - In June 1942, a pair of German university students formed The White Rose, a German resistance movement that used a series of leaflets to decry Nazi militarism and call for an end to the war. Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell wrote the first four leaflets between the end of June and...

China’s Bad Day in Court

August 4, 2016
China’s Bad Day in Court

MEL GURTOV - As had been widely expected, the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the UN Convention on he Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) ruled on July 12 in favor of the Philippines’ suit to declare Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea (SCS) illegal. On every particular, the court found that...

Investigators Fool U.S. Nuke Agency Into Providing Material for ‘Dirty Bomb

August 3, 2016
Investigators Fool U.S. Nuke Agency Into Providing Material for ‘Dirty Bomb

ADAM KREDO - Undercover inspectors working for the U.S. Government Accountability Office were able to fool the United States’ top nuclear regulator into granting it licenses to acquire material necessary to build a “dirty bomb,” or crude nuclear device, according to a new oversight report.

Growing a Culture of Nonviolence

August 1, 2016
Growing a Culture of Nonviolence

RIVERA SUN - Is America tired of its violence yet? While the media reports on the onslaught of shootings, militarism, police violence, and hate-motivated violent crimes, growing numbers of citizens are taking a stand in nonviolent action and community organizing nationwide.

Proactive Philanthropy: Don’t Wait, Reach Out!

July 30, 2016
Proactive Philanthropy: Don’t Wait, Reach Out!

ROBERT J. GOULD - If you have money to give, don’t wait for a call, an email, or a formal proposal, please reach out to a local community organization that is working on a cause you believe in, and get involved with what they do, and when you are convinced that they are doing...

Obama Considering Nuclear Reductions Via Executive Order

July 28, 2016
Obama Considering Nuclear Reductions Via Executive Order

RAMESH JAURA - Despite protests by Republican congressional leaders and the heads of Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, President Barack Obama is garnering wide support for his reported plan to implement at least a part of his cherished nuclear agenda through a series of executive actions during the next months before leaving...

“No Conflict Has Ever Been Solved with Violence”

July 26, 2016
“No Conflict Has Ever Been Solved with Violence”

WINSLOW MYERS - Martin Luther King Jr., in his famous Riverside Church speech of 1967, “Beyond Vietnam,” cataloged the ingredients of the toxic brew we must acknowledge and eliminate if we really hope to make America great: rampant racism, materialism, and militarism.

Abolish NATO

July 24, 2016

TOM MAYER - A passionate denunciation of NATO is given by Dennis J. Halliday, former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General (1994-98): “NATO as it expands today is absolutely not what the world of struggling economies and deprived populations require. It is nothing, but a negative force. It is undermining an already fragile United Nations. NATO...

The Wars Have Come to U.S. Soil

July 22, 2016
The Wars Have Come to U.S. Soil

PATRICK T. HILLER - The war that has come home is that of unchallenged U.S. militarism. While easily identifiable in wars abroad, the sometimes subtler forms of militarism played out in six ways over the last days.

Time for a Woman to Lead U.N.

July 20, 2016
Time for a Woman to Lead U.N.

TRUDY RUBIN - When it comes to Western political leaders, we have definitely arrived at The Time of the Woman. Hillary Clinton is the first serious female candidate for U.S. president, Theresa May just took over as British prime minister, and Germany's Angela Merkel remains the most powerful European politician. Moreover, the nationalist Marine...

U.S. Plans to Saturate Globe With Weapons

July 18, 2016
U.S. Plans to Saturate Globe With Weapons

DAVID SWANSON - As the United States and NATO antagonize Russia, and pressure NATO members to buy more weapons, and showcase U.S. weapons in numerous wars, and use every carrot and stick in the State Department to market U.S. weapons, an "official" who happens to have been located at a giant weapons trade show...

Democratic Socialism Returns to the U.S.

July 16, 2016
Democratic Socialism Returns to the U.S.

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER - It’s clear that democratic socialism has made a comeback in American life.

The Nonviolent History of American Independence

July 14, 2016
The Nonviolent History of American Independence

RIVERA SUN - Independence Day is commemorated with fireworks and flag-waving, gun salutes and military parades... but one of our nation's founding fathers, John Adams, wrote, "A history of military operations... is not a history of the American Revolution."

Keep Your Guns But Repeal the Second Amendment

July 12, 2016

TOM H. HASTINGS - My real point on the Second Amendment is that it effectively blocks sane control of weaponry. Repealing the Second Amendment would not affect anything that most gun owners feel is desirable. But the Second Amendment as interpreted by the Supremes does make it possible for the gun industry, through its...

What is Really Going on in China?

July 10, 2016
What is Really Going on in China?

MEL GURTOV - Will the real China please stand up? In the US media, most stories about China raise questions that amount to threat-mongering. How can China’s “aggressiveness” in the South China Sea be stopped? Is China forming a new alliance with Putin’s Russia? Has China hacked its way into...

The Catholic Church’s Turn Toward Nonviolence

July 8, 2016
The Catholic Church’s Turn Toward Nonviolence

JOHN DEAR - “I believe we are at an important and hopeful turning point in human history,” Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire said after a Rome conference in April, “a turning from violence to nonviolence, war to peace.” I hope Christians and Church people everywhere will study our statement, urge their local church...

Walkers Expose Prison Industrial Complex

July 6, 2016
Walkers Expose Prison Industrial Complex

KATHY KELLY - Along with Voices for Creative Nonviolence (VCNV) companions, I’m part of a 150 mile walk from Chicago to Thomson, IL, a small town in Northwest IL where the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is setting up an Administrative Maximum prison, also known as a Supermax. Prison laborers from U.S. minimum security prisons...

Recruiting Child Soldiers in the United States

July 4, 2016
Recruiting Child Soldiers in the United States

ROBERT C. KOEHLER - What’s the difference between education and obedience? If you see very little, you probably have no problem with the militarization of the American school system — or rather, the militarization of the impoverished schools . . . the ones that can’t afford new textbooks or functional plumbing, much less art...

We Shall Be Heard: Nonviolence is the Key to Social Gains

July 2, 2016
We Shall Be Heard: Nonviolence is the Key to Social Gains

JOSE-ANTONIO OROSCO - Fifty years ago this past March, a small group of activists left Delano, California and began a march to Sacramento to raise national awareness about the plight of farmworkers. By the time the march made it to the state capitol, its ranks had swelled to over 10,000 people. California politicians and...

How Nonviolence is Building Trust in Afghanistan

June 30, 2016
How Nonviolence is Building Trust in Afghanistan

KATHY KELLY - Here in Kabul, I read a recent BBC op-ed by Ahmed Rashid, urging a “diplomatic offensive” to build or repair relationships with the varied groups representing armed extremism in Afghanistan. Rashid has insisted, for years, that severe mistrust makes it almost impossible for such groups to negotiate an end to Afghanistan’s...

Remembering Argentina’s Mothers of the Disappeared

June 28, 2016
Remembering Argentina’s Mothers of the Disappeared

RIVERA SUN - Campaign Nonviolence is a movement to build a culture of active nonviolence. We share the stories of nonviolent action, drawing lessons, strength, and strategy from the global grassroots movements for change. Throughout the year, we look at historic struggles. The last week of April commemorated the 39th anniversary of the first...

How We Won on Net Neutrality

June 26, 2016
How We Won on Net Neutrality

RAY MORRIS - We won something big last week and we want to make sure you know just how important it was. For over a decade, CREDO fought ferociously to protect Net Neutrality. Last week a federal court handed us a huge and game-changing win for the future of an open and equal internet...

New Tool for Communities on How to Promote Peace

June 24, 2016

THE COMMUNITY TOOLBOX - Promoting Peace is a free online resource offering detailed guidance and links to resources for students and those working as advocates. Focused on concrete steps that can be taken as an individual, a family, a community, and global society it showcases evidence-based approaches shown to be effective in preventing...