RIVERA SUN – A number of nonviolent solutions, ones that are practical, tangible and already underway, gives Rivera Sun hope “By directly meeting the needs of the people,” writes Saul Levin and Samantha Markel, “parallel institutions expose government inadequacies and provide a vision for the future.”
Category: Archive
This Is How We Take Back What’s Ours
ROXANNE D. BROWN – Working people struggle to buy groceries, pay utilities, and purchase homes while the wealthy fritter away obscene sums just because they can. Here’s the good news: It isn’t too late to take back what’s ours.
US Funding Cuts Spur World Hunger and Starvation to Crisis Levels
LAWRENCE WITTNER – A new direction is needed to avert massive human suffering and death. In the immediate future, other wealthy nations could step up to fill the funding gap left by the Trump administration. Longer term, the United Nations and its agencies could be provided with an independent source of income, thereby ending their dependence on the whims of individual nations―especially those nations directed by people so fantastically wealthy that they lack any comprehension of hunger and its effects. Until remedial action is taken, however, world hunger and starvation will continue as a disgrace to humanity.
The first anti-AI protester to be jailed has a message for OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta: ‘Regain your humanity’
ROBERT BOOTH – Wynd Kaufman, the activist who blocked the entrance to one of the world’s biggest AI companies, is believed to have become the first person jailed for protesting against artificial intelligence as supporters dub her the “Rosa Parks of AI risk.”
Real Power No Longer Resides in Military Might
WINSLOW MYERS – When are we going to understand that power no longer resides in military might, but instead in mutual understanding of what leads to common survival? The prevention of war by tenuous military superiority has now become unworkable on this planet, forever. When we admit this to ourselves, the door to new visions of security will open.
Inside the longest refugee protest in history
MATT BENSON – The choice of nonviolence isn’t incidental. In a system designed to render them invisible, protesters have chosen a strategy that forces the world to look. They have chosen to absorb violence without returning it, not as a form of passivity, but as a strategy grounded in their reality. Their discipline in the face of brutality lays bare the moral asymmetry of the system that claims to protect them while imprisoning them.
Peace Requires Leaders Who Understand the Limits of Power
GEORGE CASSIDY PAYNE – George Payne explains and exposes the “limits of power” for every political leader, using Donald Trump as the example of one who does not understand what limits his power. Every presidency eventually encounters forces beyond politics. There comes a point when personality collides with reality—and reality cannot be negotiated, litigated or rebranded. Three realities illustrate that truth: science, the rule of law, and geopolitics.
Robert Hubbell’s Democracy Brigade
ROB OKUN – There’s a five-alarm autocratic wildfire raging. It isn’t necessary to be an activist to feel the hot flames of fascism licking the edges of the Constitution. Robert Hubbell has donned his firefighting gear and stepped into the fray. What about the rest of us—what are we going to do?
Is Netanyahu on His Way Out? Current Status in Israel/Palestine
MEL GURTOV – David Remnick, who writes for The New Yorker from Israel (August 3), believes Trump holds the key to a Netanyahu victory (in a critical election October 27). At the moment that’s not good news for Netanyahu, since Trump has clearly regarded Bibi as an obstacle to a war settlement with Iran. But Trump is notoriously unpredictable. He “may still prefer the devil he knows,” Remnick writes.
Nuclear for Another Dictator? Trump’s Bad Deal with Saudi Arabia
MEL GURTOV – Even putting aside this transaction between two unreliable and faithless leaders, providing Saudi Arabia with nuclear technology is a bad deal that should never have been offered. It is full of holes on enrichment, runs an unacceptable risk of nuclear proliferation, and while good for Israel will do nothing to help the Palestinian people establish their own country. The deal demonstrates a deplorable lack of foresight of Trump and his advisers in their willingness to trade extraordinary policy and strategic gifts for nothing that is in the human interest.
The rulers of the nuclear powers are slow learners
LAWRENCE WITTNER – Although 81 years have passed since the atomic bombing of Japan in August 1945, the rulers of major nations continue their reckless march toward a nuclear holocaust.
The data center backlash that’s uniting America
NICK ENGELFRIED – The organized opposition to data centers builds on a wave of popular fury with the AI industry and its massive footprint, unlike almost anything in recent U.S. history. Moreover, “concerns about data centers are agitating even people who have never taken a public stand on any issue before,” Seed said. “They’re willing to take a stand on this.”
Arrested for Clapping, Iranian Prisoner Hunger Strike & Stopping Robot Teachers
RIVERA SUN – In the baffling koan of these times, what is the sound of our one hand clapping? All our voices, singing.
A Brief History of How Countries Sleepwalk Into War
JOHN P. RUEHL – From the Civil War and World War I to the ongoing conflict in Iran, America’s and other nations’ expectations of war have repeatedly been challenged by the realities that emerge once fighting begins.
How Anti-Worker Lawmakers Are Trying to Muzzle Voters
ROXANNE D. BROWN – Sooner or later, anti-worker lawmakers will learn that there’s no silencing voters like United Steelworkers (USW) members and other voters. The harder they try, the louder we get.
The World Cup Reminded Us What America Can Be
GEORGE CASSIDY PAYNE – The World Cup gave us a glimpse of America at its best: a place where strangers become neighbors, where cultures meet and create something new, and where diversity becomes not a source of fear but a foundation for belonging.
Armed Conflict is Surging Worldwide While Peacemaking is Flagging
MEL GURTOV – Wars in Iran, Ukraine, and Israel have drawn attention away from a stark fact: armed conflict is on the rise worldwide in and between states.
House Democrats are finally shifting on Israel. Party leaders must listen
NORMAN SOLOMON – More than 100 Democratic lawmakers voted against arms for Israel. They’re listening to the people – their bosses are behind.
Diplomacy Should Try to Halt a War, not Manage It
SOPHIA GONZALEZ – Real diplomacy should reduce the role of force, not normalize it. A serious negotiating strategy would begin with a durable ceasefire, clear limits on military operations, congressional authorization for any continued hostilities and sustained mediation through credible third parties. Those are not gifts to an adversary. They are safeguards against turning perpetual war into standard procedure.
Democratizing training for nonviolent resistance
JAMILA RAQIB and ALIA BRALEY – No platform, website or training program can replace the creativity, courage and local knowledge of the people organizing for change. But we hope that the People-Powered Training Platform becomes part of the infrastructure that helps movements learn from one another, think more strategically, and act more effectively together. Because while the challenges facing our societies are immense, so too is the capacity of ordinary people to meet them.
Chinese scientists set world record with new solar cell exceeding 28% efficiency
GLOBAL TIMES – Further development and deployment of the technology described and explained here could enable solar energy to power not only life and production on Earth but also future deep-space exploration missions.
How the state uses conspiracy charges to crush social movements
ADI SALEEM – One lesson that we can learn from the historical continuity between each of these episodes is that movements for economic and racial justice, movements against wars and imperialism, and anti-fascism as a concept (through the targeting of “antifa”) have all been described, in different moments, as threats to public order. In each case, the state and its prosecutors have been able to portray individuals participating in these movements as public enemies.
Our government must face the moral consequences of its wars
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – When is the last time the U.S. government, or a fragment thereof, has truly been held accountable – not merely legally or politically, but morally accountable – for an act of violence, for its addiction to violence?
Nonviolent Tactics Were Most of the Actual American Revolution
TOM HASTINGS – In 1815, John Adams noted, “The Revolution was in the Minds and Hearts of the People, and in the Union of the Colonies, both of which were Substantially effected before Hostilities commenced.”
What Will It Take to Move Beyond National Independence to Global Interdependence
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – Independence helped dismantle empires, but no nation can solve nuclear war, climate collapse, pandemics, or technological threats alone. As Americans and people of other former colonies recognize, there’s a great deal to be said for national independence. But, at times, we might also wonder: is it sufficient?
The US at 250: What Should We Be Paying Attention To?
RIVERA SUN – The United States at 250 – A Fourth of July Special.
There IS a Way to Reform the United Nations
JUSTIN HANEER – Thunderous applause echoed through the San Francisco Opera House on June 26th, 1945, as diplomats signed the United Nations Charter. It was hailed as a victory over war itself. Eighty-one years later, the UN has many accomplishments to celebrate. But the Charter’s opening pledge to save “succeeding generations from the scourge of war” remains painfully unfulfilled.
Finding real national pride on America’s 250th birthday
SARAH VAN GELDER – Our history has been one of atrocities — and extraordinary courage. An honest accounting of our nation’s founding injustices gives us the opportunity to make them right. When we do, we won’t need the swagger anymore, because we’ll have something sturdier: the real thing. We can be unified in pride for this country, and unstoppable in coming together to build what could truly be a more perfect union.
Unchecked billionaire oligarchs, not “godless communists,” are undermining American democracy
JARED O. BELL – The real threat to American democracy was never a democratic socialist winning a city primary. It is a system in which a handful of billionaires can reshape public institutions overnight, enrich themselves through the levers of government, and leave the rest of us to argue about labels while we live with the damage.
Trump’s Nuclear Weapons Policies Make the Whole World Less Safe
TOM H. HASTINGS – The sum total of Trump’s erosion of nuclear safeguards belie his rhetoric about nuclear safety; he has done more to make Americans and the world less safe from nuclear annihilation than any US leader ever.
Why Biden’s Debate Disaster Two Years Ago Matters for the Future
NORMAN SOLOMON – Looking ahead, a great need will be to overcome the ongoing culture of conformity that so badly damaged the Democratic Party in 2024 and helped Trump get back into the White House.
Really – How is Our Resistance Doing?
DANIEL HUNTER – Each of us has a choice right now — do we get smaller, or bigger? More bold or less? I think we follow the folks in Ohio, in Minneapolis, in Georgia, in the streets and the jails and the capitol buildings and the Signal group chats. My encouragement: keep getting bigger.
Trump Is Already Telling Us He Will Steal the Midterms (If We Let Him)
THOM HARTMANN – Donald Trump is already telling us he’s going to try to steal the 2026 election, and the fact that he’s saying it now, months in advance, is the whole tell.
Being honest with ourselves 250 years after July 4, 1776
KARY LOVE – America must be vigilant against encroaching erosions of its great principles. Every generation must renew their commitment to defending and expanding those human rights, not only in rhetoric, but in the halls of Congress, the White House, and the courts, and the streets, until “liberty and justice for all” is the lived reality of “we the people.” Only then will the right to celebration of the Declaration be earned. And every generation must earn that right by carrying forward the struggle for the “inalienable” rights of all.
Data Centers Threaten the Health of the Columbia River
KRISTEEN BARCLAY – The Columbia River is being re-engineered into a cooling system. Cooling system for industrial-scale computers. This shift is fundamentally changing the capacity of our river to function. The Snake and Yakima Rivers are at risk as well.
The U.S. Labor Movement as a force for peace and international cooperation
LAWRENCE WITTNER – This June’s AFL-CIO call for a just and peaceful world is in line with much of labor’s past. And the labor movement shouldn’t be written off as a force for peace and international cooperation in the future.
10 reasons to resist AI
JOSEPH MOGUL – To counter Big Tech’s narrative of AI inevitability, movements are beginning to resist on many fronts where this dangerous tech is being deployed.
The New Documentary “An Ordinary Insanity”
ROBERT ELLSBERG – “An Ordinary Insanity” may alert the public to the dangers we are facing from “The Doomsday Machine.” But it will also require widespread conscientious action, a kind of pandemic of courage, wisdom, enlightenment, and dedication to the survival of our planet.
Why Trump blinked on Iran
SOPHIA GONZALEZ – Trump stepped back because the next step looked less like victory than attrition. He should keep stepping back. The United States does not need another demonstration of airpower. It needs an exit from the logic that made airpower seem like a substitute for policy. Diplomacy is not a gift to Tehran. It is a rescue operation for Washington’s own overstretched strategy.
Investing in Care: A Public-Private Model for Youth Opportunity
COLIN GREER and REYNARD LOKI – A scalable model that combines education, paid work, mentorship, and healthcare to support vulnerable youth.
Around the world, global solidarity and cooperation are remarkably popular
LAWRENCE WITTNER – In most countries, including the United States, support for international solidarity and cooperation is very substantial, and growing. Consequently, political activists and politicians shouldn’t be reluctant to speak out for them. Indeed, given the popularity of this internationalist approach to global affairs, it might even prove a winning political issue.
Two visions of the US will compete at the World Cup
MARIA J. STEPHAN – A big tent coalition is harnessing the energy surrounding the World Cup to imagine a more free and democratic United States.
Best possible Iran agreement will leave everyone worse off than they started
MEL GURTOV – We’ve seen this movie several times already: Trump issues threats, Iran refuses to kneel, negotiators rush to Qatar, Trump or Rubio announces an imminent deal, and then optimism evaporates as it becomes clear that the two sides are miles apart.
The American epoch of oil is collapsing. What comes next could be ugly
JONATHON WATTS – China is dominating the energy transition with astonishing results, while fossil fuel fascists in the US try to turn back the clock.
Breaking Nuclear Law. The Risks Are Immeasurable
LINDA PENTZ GUNTER – The NRC has at times performed poorly as a diligent safety regulator, routinely serving more as lapdog than watchdog and putting industry profit motives ahead of public protection. But even a weak regulator is better than none at all. Nuclear power is simply too inherently dangerous a technology to operate outside the law. Ignoring those dangers will put millions of Americans at risk of another catastrophic nuclear accident.
Climate Change and the Decline of the American Empire
COVERING CLIMATE NOW – “One of the cornerstones of geostrategic thinking since the start of the Industrial Revolution, 250 years ago, is that the country that controls energy supply controls the world,” Jonathan Watts points out. “For most of the past century, that has centered on oil.” But the era of oil is ending, Watts contends, as the global economy “shifts from molecules to electrons” — or from burning oil, gas, and coal to generating solar, wind, and other forms of renewable energy. The implications are profound, not least for the chances of limiting global temperature rise to a survivable level.
Trump won big in Republican primaries, but then actually lost clout in Congress
CHRIS BOWERS – Trump’s victories against Rebellious GOP Incumbents may have scratched his itch for revenge, but they did not get him increased clout in Congress. In fact, Trump’s victories over Rebellious GOP Incumbents actually seems to have reduced his clout in Congress, and done so by quite a lot.
America’s 250th: Celebration or Wake?
KARY LOVE – Dethrone and declaw any pretend King of America. Take away his Nuclear Football; war is not a game. If accomplished, America can celebrate its 250th birthday. If not done, America is dead and July 4 nothing but a wake, held in memory of a dream denied. America will have been Made English Empire Again (MEEA). The people did it once before, they can do it again. Long live the genius of America. Government by the people and No Kings.
Remember the Department of Peace? Good idea then. Even better now.
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – Scott Paul writes, “This budget (proposed military budget upgrade) to $1.5 trillion annually is certainly not business as usual. It is a dramatic reordering of national priorities. Trump has made this shift explicit, arguing that the U.S. cannot afford childcare, Medicaid or Medicare because, as he put it, ‘we’re fighting wars.’”
Why power analysis is key to fighting ICE
JAMES L. VANHISE – Deep research is key to identifying ICE’s pillars of support and building the power necessary to topple them. No matter how formidable an opponent appears on the surface, chances are they have social, political or economic connections that render them vulnerable. Power research can help campaigns identify pillars of support, and finding the right target can be the difference between success and failure.