| By Rivera Sun |
| This week in Nonviolence News, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro took two remarkable actions. First, he ordered the Navy to intercept and block any ships leaving their ports from delivering coal to Israel. This move comes a year after the government issued a formal decree banning exports to Israel. Despite this, administration officials have continued to green light coal shipments. Now Petro is taking a stand, not only for Gaza, but for the rule of law in his own country. President Petro also took a bold action against fracking by instructing the nation’s oil company to cancel a contract with a US-based oil and gas company. He said, “I want that operation to be sold, and for the money to be invested in clean energies. We are against fracking, because fracking is the death of nature, and the death of humanity.” On top of those two actions, a Colombian court also found former President Alvaro Uribe guilty of bribery and witness tampering in court cases around right-wing paramilitaries. The heavily-politicized trial has spurred protests both for and against the right-wing ex-president, but is an all-too-rare example of accountability for global leaders. President Petro’s actions are a reminder that responsible leadership in these times involves risks and standing up to powerful people bent on destruction. Upholding democracy and human decency, even insisting on accountability, requires us to challenge the status quo. From presidents to citizens, leadership in today’s turmoil means we have to be willing to forego short-term riches for long-term life for our species on this imperiled planet. It’s a tall order – but some leaders are showing that it’s possible. The contrast between people-centered policy and profit-centered policy is stark in the United States. The US in a massive struggle between a worldview that strives to use the collective power of government – municipal, state, county, and federal – to help people … versus the worldview that uses that same power to criminalize and punish people. For example, homelessness in Los Angeles has fallen for a second straight year due to its Inside Safe program – the very type of Housing First program that Trump is now eradicating at the federal level while also criminalizing homelessness. Ideally, government uses its considerable power to help people and mitigate the harms of current injustices. We can see this kind of good governance in the New Jersey’s governor’s decision to sign 3 new bills into law to make sure every child has access to free, high-quality preschool and full-day kindergarten. In addition, Missouri made a justice-based policy decision to end a ‘luxury tax’ on diapers and menstrual products, though 20 states still tax women and families for these necessities. Nonviolence Radio this week interviewed one of the cofounders of Lyft, the cooperative rideshare alternative to Uber, and spoke about the idea of a ‘nonviolent economics’, an economy that aims to reduce or end harm to people and planet as it provides the goods and services we need. It’s a far cry from business-as-usual. Economic issues continue to be a critical grievance for those resisting the rising authoritarianism of the Trump administration. After the Republicans’ budget bill gutted the social safety net, tens of thousands of people took to the streets as part of ‘Put Families First’ Day of Action with 223 marches nationwide. The Chicago Teachers Union also protested federal budget cuts by hosting a Billionaire Bake Sale with cardboard cupcakes and net worth price tags as they called on the Illinois governor to increase taxes on the rich to fill public education funding gaps. (The Anti-Trump Protesters of the Week Award has to go to Scotland, however, where hundreds of Scots heckled and hassled Trump at every turn of his golfing vacation.) One Million Rising held its second training in noncooperation tactics as 40,000 people tuned in live to learn how to organize a Resistance Gathering on countering authoritarianism. Examples of noncooperation – refusing to obey unjust orders, withdrawing support, noncompliance with expectations – abound. For example, Los Angeles juries acquitted anti-ICE protesters who faced lies and false affidavits from ICE agents who claimed the protesters had punched them. Tesla shares are still falling after Tesla Takedown’s stunningly successful boycott of Elon Musk’s signature company. The Trump administration asked Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to handover voter data; she told them to go jump in the Gulf of Maine. Over 1,000 nonprofits publicly denounced Trump’s plan to let churches endorse politicians and keep their nonprofit, tax-exempt status. Los Angeles protesters continue to disrupt traffic around the downtown Metropolitan detention center over many nights of repeated actions. A Vermont school superintendent was detained for hours after refusing to turn over the passwords to his devices, reminding them that federal law prohibits him from revealing student information without a judicial warrant or permission from their guardians. A motorcycling group of Catholics called ‘Pope Leo’s Prayer Riders’ have been holding prayer circle protests led by the Archbishop of Miami at the Everglades detention center cruelly-dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz’. It’s not without risks, as the EPA workers who signed a Declaration of Dissent found out. They were placed on administrative leave pending investigation a month ago – and are still on forced leave for speaking out about how the EPA’s political leadership was “recklessly undermining” the agency’s mission. The efforts of EPA workers to defend the imperiled institution come as Trump undermines foundational climate action plans and makes climate denialism the official US policy. But climate action won’t stop until the climate crisis does. This week, protesters put some street heat on Wells Fargo for expanding fossil fuel production. Interest in mutual aid toolkits and climate survival guides is surging amidst combined crises in economics and environment. An in-depth look at the Les Soulèvements de la Terre – Earth Uprisings alliance in France offers 60+ years of organizing insights. A fascinating direct action campaign is rising early on weekends to ‘poach’ rare prairie species out of the path of bulldozers and relocate them in areas safe from development. An Indigenous-led campaign to #SaveOakFlat is trying to stop a copper mine from turning a sacred site into a 2-mile wide crater. Extreme heat in Yemen has prompted three days of protests against power outages that cut off water access and raised fuel prices. In other Nonviolence News, high fuel prices also set off mass protests in Angola, where 22 people were killed, 197 injured, and 1,200 arrested amidst protests over the government’s plan to raise fuel prices by 30%. Serbian police clashed with student protesters as police evicted a months-long, anti-government protest encampment from university buildings. A German zoo sparked animal rights protests after it killed 12 healthy baboons. Tunisia, once a bright spot for democracy during Arab Spring, is now being called ‘an open-air prison’ by protesters who carried portraits of political prisoners and a cage that represented political life in the country amidst the one-man-rule of President Saied. Nigerian nurses are facing off with their government, resisting orders to return to work and refusing to accept partial concessions to their demands. German TikTok content moderators are on strike against AI taking their jobs. Immigrant workers in Italy launched a wave of strikes to demand their right to a 40-hr work week be upheld. Protesters in Kyiv celebrated as parliament members overwhelmingly voted to restore the independence of anti-graft watchdog organizations; President Zelenskyy had tried to undermine their autonomy until mass demonstrations erupted and pushed back. Perhaps their success will hearten the thousands of young Gambians who marched in the largest anti-corruption protest in their nation’s history. As Gaza continues to suffer under Israel’s forced starvation via humanitarian aid blockade, the Freedom Flotilla ship Handala was intercepted by the IDF. Israeli forces boarded and detained the crew, beating up Amazon Union founder Chris Smalls, the only African-American crew member. All of the 21 activists from the Handala have now been released from custody, though the coalition pointed out in a statement that 10,300 Palestinians remained imprisoned in violation of international law and the humanitarian aid blockade continues. Egyptian and Mediterranean citizens, meanwhile, have been filling water bottles with lentils and launching them into the sea in hopes that they reach the beaches in Gaza, which some did. It’s a poignant action that speaks to humanity’s will to take care of one another – and calls into contrast government’s cruelty in this forced starvation. Across the United States and around the world, people have been banging empty pots and pans in protest and solidarity hunger strikes with Gazans continue, including one that has been going on for 42+ days. In other actions worldwide, Greek protesters gave an Israeli cruise ship an unwelcoming ceremony on the island of Crete, large protests took place in the capitols Australia and the United Kingdom (among many other places), and the daughter of a renowned Israeli historian took to social media to call upon Israeli soldiers to refuse to serve in the Israeli army. Relentless action has had some notable impacts. In addition to Colombia’s president enforcing their coal shipment ban President Macron has stated that France will recognize the Palestinian State by September. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem put out a straightforward and unequivocal statement calling this a genocide. The most recent US Senate vote on blocking military aid to Israel revealed that the majority of Democrats now favor ending military aid to Israel. Due to right-wing opposition, however, and a number of non-supporting Democrats, the bill ultimately was voted down. |
Author/Activist Rivera Sun has written many books and novels featuring nonviolence, including the bestselling Dandelion Insurrection Trilogy and the award-winning Ari Ara Series. She is a nationwide trainer in strategy for nonviolent movements and her essays are published in journals across the country and around the world. You can find out more about her at: www.riverasun.com
This article was sent on August 2, 2025, to Peter Bergel.