By Rivera Sun
It’s Fourth of July. Some are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Some are protesting. Some are mourning. Some are critiquing. Some are boycotting. Some are reclaiming. Some are doing all of the above. Everybody has an opinion–and there’s nothing more American than exercising your First Amendment Right to express your opinions. It’s fitting that the First Amendment (which protects the right to free speech and assembly) was won in an act of protest. In 1789, around 52 delegates to the first Constitutional Convention stormed out of Liberty Hall, frustrated by the lack of protections for citizens against the abuses of state power. They returned with the Bill of Rights which laid out some of the most-cherished laws enshrined in the Constitution, including the First Amendment.
Today, freedom of speech and the right to protest are under assault. The Trump administration’s federal lawyers are escalating their attacks on demonstrators, including with the harsh sentencing of the Prairieland 19 and the indictments of the Minneapolis 15. Some of these anti-ICE activists are accused of ‘crimes’ of nothing more than distributing zines, swearing at federal agents, putting emojis in a group chat, and holding a megaphone. ICE is also sending agents to harass people who wrote letters of protest (as is their constitutional right and, one might argue, their civic duty) to the head of ICE. A father narrowly missed the agents who showed up at his house while he was on vacation in Finland. Even more troubling, a poll worker was approached while doing her duties as voting was taking place. This kind of repression of protesters is an expansion of what pro-Palestinian student activists have been facing for years. Right now, the Swarthmore 9 students are on trial for exercising their right to speech and assembly at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Swarthmore College.
This crackdown is meant to intimidate and scare people, deterring them from resistance. So far, it’s not. And, importantly, our rights are being upheld in a number of cases. For example, a tenured professor at San Jose State University won reinstatement after being fired over her support for pro-Palestinian protests. A protester who was detained in Washington, DC, for walking behind National Guard agents blaring the Star Wars Darth Vadar theme song just received a $50,000 settlement. Exercising our right to protest is a civic duty, as Air Force Major Jason Watson pointed out as he was arrested on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building while calling for the impeachment and removal of the president and vice president.
Faced with rising authoritarianism, the 250th anniversary of July 4th is unfolding amidst a massive political and cultural struggle. People in the United States aren’t contentedly waving flags and setting off fireworks. Hundreds of alternative gatherings, teach-ins, and protests are taking place this weekend as communities decouple the annual commemorations from the Trump-hijacked events that are riddled with white supremacy, lies, and whitewashed history. In Washington, DC, the long-planned 250th celebrations are faltering and flopping due to popular disgust (and active resistance) to Trump’s corruption, narcissism, and partisanship. Seven states declined to attend the Great American State Fair, including Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon and Washington. The general populace also stayed away from the events, leading to low turnouts as headliner musicians pulled out. Many of the attendees also walked out of Trump’s rambling speech at the Great American State Fair.
History, identity, and narratives are a critical frontline in the anti-authoritarian struggle. Both sides know that the narratives we tell about history shape our actions in the present, for better or for worse. That’s why school curriculums, DEI policies, history textbooks, library book bans, and National Parks signage have all become flashpoints in the struggle between the MAGA’s white supremacist narratives and the multiracial, diverse understanding of the United States. The United States was founded on land stolen from Indigenous Peoples, built on slavery; embroiled in sexism, racism, classism, xenophobia, and homophobia; and marked by constant wars and violent oppression that largely benefitted the rich. Any narratives about our 250 years of existence – and the centuries of earlier colonialism – are not complete without these acknowledgements. Even in 1776, the discourses on abolition of slavery, women’s equality, and Indigenous sovereignty were robust. The struggles for justice around these and other issues shaped the United States from start to present.
Speaking of historical narratives, though, let’s talk a little bit about July 4, 1776. Both America 250 (Congress approved, Republican-hijacked) and Freedom 250 (Trump’s version) frame the Declaration of Independence as the starting point in the revolutionary struggle. But by that time, a decade of robust nonviolent campaigns had already achieved functional independence, making Thomas Jefferson’s words a statement of fact, not an aspirational statement.
These nonviolent campaigns are often familiar to us, though they are usually stripped of their identity as nonviolent actions. The US independence movement used tactics like tax resistance (no taxation without representation), mass civil disobedience (Stamp Act), independent press and resistance literature (Thomas Paine’s Common Sense), the establishment of parallel institutions (Continental Congress), and more. Social noncooperation and social pressure played an immense role, with women refusing to court men who supported Britain, and mourners refusing to wear black to funeral because the dyed cloth came from Britain. Nearly 150 years before Gandhi, the US independence movement also wielded spinning wheels against the British Empire, building self reliance and local economy, wearing homespun as a symbol of resistance, and refusing to buy imported cloth to deprive their oppressors of revenue. More than a century before the Irish would coin the term ‘boycott’, the US colonists organized some of the most successful boycotts in history, building 90% participation rates in the campaign against importing, buying, or selling British goods. By 1776, the colonies were refusing to pay taxes, running their own governments, and disobeying British laws. They were functionally independent, politically and economically.
So, while the Declaration of Independence marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War … it’s also accurate to say that it marked the successful conclusion of the decade-long nonviolent movement that won defacto independence.
Today, the 250-year struggle for ‘liberty and justice for all’ is not over. Not by a long shot.
Swilling in federal dollars, ICE is rolling out a nationwide offensive. In 5 days, they arrested 10,000 people, deploying 80% of their agents into the field to fulfill quotas of arresting 2,000 immigrants each day. Prison companies like GeoGroup and CoreCivic are raking in profits while depriving detainees of basic rights to food, air conditioning in extreme heat, medical attention, access to lawyers, and more. Detained migrants are forced to labor in the detention centers, often unpaid or paid as little as $1-4/day. Meanwhile GeoGroup is making $180/day on each of the 1,000 beds in Delaney Hall. Protests outside Delaney Hall continue with a wide range of community members coming to support, including the Pop Up Peace Choir. In Texas, Japanese Internment Camp survivors walked for 4 days to protest at Dilley Detention Center. Springfield, Ohio, is rallying, grieving, and readying for a massive struggle as Temporary Protected Status was ended for hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants who face a dangerous political situation in their home country. Migrant justice groups are handing out whistles again as communities race to respond to sneakier, stealthier ICE tactics. Woodburn, Oregon, removed Flock cameras that track immigrants. The LA Dodgers fulfilled their $1 million pledge to support immigrant families impacted by ICE raids and divested from GeoGroup’s private detention centers.
(By the way, another important divestment action happened this week as the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) formally recognized the genocide in Gaza, divested from Israeli companies, urged its members to boycott Israel, and agreed to lobby for a US arms embargo on Israel. Just days earlier, the group divested from GE Aerospace and Palantir, two companies involved in making weapons and technology involved in the genocide. The move built on a decade of divesting from companies involved in Israel’s apartheid state.)
This Fourth of July Special has been focused on the United States, but you’ll find many other important stories in our Nonviolence News Research Archive. The Democratic Republic of Congo is using the Ebola outbreak as an excuse to ban demonstrations and quell dissent even in areas that have no cases of the deadly disease. More than 350 demonstrators were arrested in Kenyaas they attempted to commemorate the second anniversary of a brutal massacre that killed 60 protesters. Australian protesters are headed to court over their defiance of a ban on a pro-Palestinian phrase and more demonstrators are taking action against the ‘stupid law’. Albanians are not giving up their demand to stop a luxury resort and kick out the corrupt politicians connected to Jared Kushner and the Trump family. In West Bengal, India, people are blocking bulldozers to demand compensation and relocation as the right-wing government launches massive demolition drives targeting areas with street vendors and slums. In Brazil, Rio de Janeiro bus drivers are on strike for better pay and an end to the 6-day work schedule. Mexico‘s gig workers with the National App Union are campaigning to close the loopholes that gutted their historic win. Lush will donate 75% of the sales price from one of their products to supporting the United Kingdom’s “Defend Our Juries” campaign, which strives to protect the right to protest and to a fair trial.
So, peruse the Nonviolence News Research Archive for gems you won’t want to miss. Mamdani’s rent freeze for 1 million NYC tenants. A thousand child actors (along with parents and agents) opposing AI contract clauses. Turtle tunnels helping rare turtles cross the road in Maine. Gender-bending roles in Balkan history. Japan’s brewing watershed movement for LGBTQ+ rights. Climate scientists and federal workers relaunching Climate.gov as Climate.us. A couple scaling the Empire State Building to unfurl a banner with a Jimi Hendrix quote: “when the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.” What will you discover in the archive? Find out.
Find 82 stories in our Nonviolence News Research Archive>>
With over 2,500 stories so far, our 2026 Nonviolence News Research Archive is so big that it maxes out Google Doc’s capacity. (I know, wow!) This week, we split the year’s collection into two files. You can find them here.
A favorite story? On July 4th, activists are reclaiming the narratives of democracy by marching through the streets of Washington, DC, carrying a 700-ft, “We, the People” banner signed by thousands of citizens and residents from across the country. Standing up for a fair, just, inclusive, and multiracial, people-powered democracy is the perfect way to honor this day.
In solidarity,
Rivera Sun
Rivera Sun is a change-maker, a cultural creative, a protest novelist, and an advocate for nonviolence and social justice. She is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, The Way Between and other novels. She is the editor of Nonviolence News. Her study guide to making change with nonviolent action is used by activist groups across the country. Her essays and writings are syndicated by Peace Voice, and have appeared in journals nationwide. Find out more about her here.
This piece by Rivera Sun was sent to The PeaceWorker and other peace, nonviolence, and social justice groups on July 4, 2026.