ROBERT C. KOEHLER – “. . . I write today from a position rare for a former prosecutor: to beseech you to commute the sentence of a man I helped put behind bars.” Thus begins one of the most stunning letters Robert Koehler has ever read, written almost four years ago by former U.S. Attorney James H. Reynolds to President Joe Biden, pleading with him to exonerate former American Indian Movement (AIM) leader Leonard Peltier
Author: Oregon PeaceWorks
How to Make an Impact at a Protest
LAURIE WOODWARD GARCIA – Protesting is a powerful tool for civic engagement, allowing individuals to voice their concerns, demand change, and unite with others around shared causes. To make the most of your participation, it’s essential to be prepared, informed, and strategic. Here’s a guide to help you make a meaningful impact at a protest.
The Trump/Musk Wrecking Ball Must Be Stopped
RIVERA SUN – It doesn’t matter if you voted for or against Trump in the last election. This chaos isn’t what any of us voted for. Musk with unlimited powers isn’t something we voted for. The destruction of the United States isn’t something we voted for. This illegal, unconstitutional, anti-American authoritarianism isn’t something we voted for.
Trump’s Horrific Plans for Guantanamo
ROBERT KOEHLER – Trump’s plan is to expand the infamous Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, part of the U.S. naval base in Cuba, which George W, Bush began using as he waged his horrific “war on terror” in the Middle East.
The Promise of America and the Demise of Foreign Aid
VOLKER FRANKE – Dreams shattered. Hopes crushed. Visions for a better future destroyed. Possibilities replaced with anguish, anxiety and fear. All with the stroke of a sharpie. President Trump’s Executive Order to reevaluate US foreign aid suddenly halted hundreds of humanitarian assistance projects in countries around the world that had been promised help, support and hope.
From Dread to Defiance: US Resistance Is Rising … And It’s Working
RIVERA SUN – In the United States, this week (Jan. 27-Feb. 2) [saw] both authoritarian moves from the Trump/Vance Administration … and a heartening surge of resistance. In dramatic ways, people are shifting from paralyzed dread to outraged defiance. And defiance is working.
Trade Disputes are Not Wars
CHRIS HOUSTON – I long for a future with more international collaboration and dialogue. I dream of a Canada that promotes peace and a world where leaders prioritize dialogue. Until then, let’s not frame this economic upheaval as a war. Let’s not normalize war. The world doesn’t need more wars. It needs more peace.
A Felon Pardoning Felons Cannot Be Allowed to Stand
ROB OKUN – Pardoning violent criminals is Mr. Trump’s most egregious action since returning to the White House; we know it won’t be his last. Like LA fire department sirens blaring as their city burns, there is an urgent need—right now—for a citizen’s fire brigade to protect democracy from burning to the ground. Silence and turning a blind eye are not an option.
“Choose Democracy” offers needed perspective on Trump
GEORGE LAKEY – Trump can lose when we fight. He is not invincible and he is not all powerful.
Genocide lawsuits against Democrats foreshadow 2026 primary challenges
NORMAN SOLOMON – More than 800 Americans in Northern California have now joined in a class-action lawsuit against their Democratic congressional representatives, charging them with illegally helping to provide weapons to Israel for use in committing genocide in Gaza. News of the suit has caused a stir in the Bay Area, with media coverage putting the pair, Rep. Jared Huffman and Rep. Mike Thompson, on the defensive.
Big data centers, big problems
R.J. CROSS, QUENTIN GOOD, JOHANNA NEUMANN, and ABE SCARR – The rapid growth of data centers can deepen America’s reliance on fossil fuels and is putting consumers and communities at risk.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Provides a Way to Avert Nuclear Catastrophe
LAWRENCE WITTNER – Given the weapons-obsession of a small group of nations, the current prospect for an effective ban on nuclear weapons is bleak. But, longer-term, the revival of a massive antinuclear movement, combined with pressure from an empowered United Nations, could bring the holdouts into the treaty and, thereby, avert nuclear catastrophe.
Is Iran’s Weakness America’s Opportunity?
MEL GURTOV – Reflecting on long-term consequences should lead to a US policy based on win-win diplomacy rather than one based on zero-sum confrontation.
Doomsday Clock Announcement Highlights Global Danger from Nuclear Weapons
PETER BERGEL (contact) – The 2025 setting of the Doomsday Clock on January 28 will be yet another warning to the world, and especially the Nuclear 9, that we must either eliminate nuclear weapons or they will eliminate us.
How U.S. Media Hide Truths About the Gaza War
NORMAN SOLOMON – The Gaza war has received a vast amount of U.S. media attention, but how much it actually communicated about the human realities was a whole other matter. The belief or unconscious notion that news media were conveying war’s realities ended up obscuring those realities all the more. And journalism’s inherent limitations were compounded by media biases.
US Hastens Decline by Denying Internal Problems
RICHARD D. WOLFF – Societies survive and grow when they successfully navigate their contradictions. Eventually, however, accumulating contradictions overwhelm existing means of navigating them. Then social problems arise that persist or worsen inside such societies because they are unsuccessfully navigated or go unattended. Sometimes, the dominant conscious reaction to such social problems is denial, a refusal to see them. Denial of internal social problems displaces navigating the contradictions that cause them. The resulting social decline, like the set of internal contradictions it reflects, is denied and ignored. Instead, narratives or rhetorics can arise that position such societies as victims of abuse by foreigners. The United States in 2025 illustrates this process: its rhetorics of refusal aim to end its victimization.
Kamala Harris Paid the Price for Not Breaking With Biden on Gaza, New Poll Shows
RYAN GRIM – Twenty-nine percent of non-voters who supported Biden in 2020 said U.S. support for the genocide was the top reason they sat the 2024 election, according to a survey by YouGov.
43 Lawmakers Back Youth in Climate Case Against US Government
JESSICA CORBETT – A 17-year-old plaintiff commended the federal lawmakers for “using their voices to weigh in on the importance of our rights to access justice and to a livable climate.”
Dr. Martin Luther King’s Prophetic Warning, Denouncing the Merchants of Death
KATHY KELLY – MLK: “This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
Archiving as resistance to genocide denial in Gaza
ELEFTHERIA KOUSTA – Law for Palestine members discuss their database of genocidal statements by leading Israeli figures and how it can help defend human rights.
Guide to Preserving Sacred Land Near You
JIMMY VIDELE – Preserving biodiversity is among the most urgent issues of our time, and it needs to be addressed regionally to succeed.
How a Community Collaborative in Arkansas Is Pioneering Solutions to Long-Standing Social Problems
DAMON ORION – Sankofa Village Arkansas is building an “intentional community centering Black healing, liberation, and regeneration.”
Genocidal President, Genocidal Politics
NORMAN SOLOMON – When news broke over the weekend that President Biden just approved an $8 billion deal for shipping weapons to Israel, a nameless official vowed that “we will continue to provide the capabilities necessary for Israel’s defense.” Following the reports last month from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch concluding that Israeli actions in Gaza are genocide, Biden’s decision was a new low for his presidency.
Killing of the United Healthcare CEO Sparked Long Overdue Conversation About Greed
SARENA NEYMAN – The murder of the United Healthcare CEO, as horrendous as it was, forced us to confront the injustices we’ve been taught to tolerate. This moment must unite us against the true enemies of the American dream: unchecked greed and exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few. We can either remain manipulated by scapegoating and fear or see the truth and demand change. Only then can we build a society where no one feels driven to such desperate measures again.
World Security Likely to Decline Across the Board in 2025
MEL GURTOV – The global citizen agenda for 2025 is very much like that for 2024—and probably for some years afterward. It includes global warming and related environmental crises; US-China tensions; challenges to democracy and peace in Europe and Africa; interstate and intrastate violence in the Middle East; and nuclear weapons upgrading. A new addition to this list is another Trump administration, which creates the potential for exceptional chaos in the US and worldwide.
Nonviolence News Reports 366+ Success Stories in 2024
RIVERA SUN – Upon reflection, 2024 was not just a year of disaster and political upheaval. It was also the year that Julian Assange was finally freed. It was the year Net Neutrality was restored. It was the year that corrupt leaders fell from power in South Korea and Bangladesh. When we remember all of these, we also remember the most important thing of all: nonviolent action achieved all this. What will we use nonviolence to accomplish in 2025?
Enrollment in Nature Schools Soars as Families Rediscover the Benefits of Outdoor Learning
DAMON ORION – Nature schools are taking education outside the box.
A Global Minimum Wage Would Reduce Poverty and Corporate Power
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – In today’s world of widespread poverty and unprecedented wealth, how about raising the wages of the most poorly-paid workers?
A history of success drives the ongoing struggle to clean up Cancer Alley
SUE INCHES – Despite years of polluter pushback and environmental racism, Cancer Alley communities in Louisiana are still fighting for a healthier environment for everyone.
What’s the best gift for relationships this holiday season? Understanding ourselves
MELINDA BURRELL – If we’re hoping for connection rather than conflict this holiday season, we can start with ourselves. We can learn to pay attention to our bodies, our emotions, our words, and our thinking. Self-awareness might be the best gift we can give our relationships this holiday season.
The LA Times Makes the Case for Shutting the Diablo Canyon Nukes
HARVEY WASSERMAN – A lot is packed into this commentary – addressing in particular the myth of needing “baseload power” from nuclear along with renewables, storage etc., and how ratepayers lose when deciders pursue long range, risky and expensive nuclear over what is available and cost-effective now
Oregon Sanctuary Laws Protect Migrants, with Caveats
ISOBEL CHARLE – As word has spread about President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans, advocates for immigrants in Oregon are working to educate people about their rights.
The Emperor Has No Clothes: COP29
SAVAIDA MA’ANI EWING -t is time to courageously and humbly acknowledge that our COP system does not work and to boldly reimagine a new system for stemming global warming. In this endeavor we would do well to heed the following words of Robert Schuman uttered in 1950: “World peace cannot be safeguarded without creative efforts commensurate with the dangers that threaten it”.
White House Tree-Lighting Vigil Centers Christ in the Rubble
LAURIE GOGNE – While the Biden administration proclaims “a season of Light and Peace” as the theme of its Christmas celebrations this year and thousands gathered in Washington on December 5th to view the lighting of the White House tree, a group of around 50 activists held another kind of commemoration of Jesus’s birth.
The Collapse of Syria’s Dictatorship Poses Many Questions
MEL GURTOV – Rebel groups that seize power invariably get caught between conflicting aims on the use of their new authority: revenge or governing? HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) could wind up being another jihadist regime, bent on eliminating enemies and building an authoritarian state; or it could focus on human security and friendly relations with all its neighbors. We’ll probably find out soon enough which path HTS is going to take.
This Year’s Nobel Peace Prize Focuses on Nuclear Weapons Abolition
PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY – In Japan, the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are known as Hibakusha. The Hibakusha have worked heroically and successfully to prevent any additional wartime nuclear attacks. Today in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” Nihon Hidankyo translates as “The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations.”
University of Toronto students score a win for the climate – and campus protests more broadly
NICK ENGELFRIED – As student dissent faces widespread crackdowns, a victory over fossil fuel influence at the University of Toronto offers hope and inspiration.
Salmon Return After Dam Removal
HALLIE GOLDEN – Salmon return to lay eggs in historic habitat after largest dam removal project in US history
World’s Richest Man Pays to Screw America DOGE-style
TOM H. HASTINGS – Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are partnering to create a new US government agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk underwrote the Trump campaign with $200 million in donations (AP estimate) and his own brand of buying votes.
In times of crisis we need more people power – mass trainings are the key
PAUL ENGLER – For movements trying to harness the energy that emerges during political upheavals, mass training provides a crucial means to develop leadership and bring in new participants.
Donald Trump’s Tariff Fantasies
MEL GURTOV – Donald Trump thinks the world of tariffs. But Vice President Kamala Harris referred to her opponent’s tariff policy as a “Trump Tax.” She’s right: Several independent studies have found that the new tariffs, if implemented, would raise costs for the average middle-class family anywhere between $1,350 and $3,900 a year. And J.D Vance claimed that when Trump was president and raised tariffs on Chinese goods, “prices went down for American citizens. They went up for the Chinese but they went down for our people.” Totally wrong. In fact, the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing opposed Trump’s tariffs precisely because US importers would have to pass along higher prices to consumers, making their goods less competitive. But Trump wasn’t listening.
We can stop the MAGA nightmare from becoming a permanent reality
LISA GILBERT and ROBERT WEISSMAN – If we fight — with everything, every damn thing, we’ve got — we *will* prevent at least some damage, and there is every reason to think we can stop the MAGA nightmare from becoming a permanent reality.
Community Support Helps Keep the Orca Book Cooperative Stay Afloat
DAMON ORION – When COVID-19 hit, U.S. bookshops were an endangered species. Olympia, Washington’s largest independent bookstore survived by embracing the co-op model.
Evaluating the Role of Right-Wing Christianity in the Election and Its Aftermath
BOB TOPPER – The problems we face are real. Solutions will come from realists who make rational decisions based on science and facts. Fantasies and superstitious fears will only perpetuate them. Anyone who doubts that should consider the tragic outcomes of religious fanaticism throughout history from the Inquisition to Heaven’s Gate, and then compare the well-being of people living in liberal democracies to those living in the theocratic and autocratic nations, especially those in the Middle East.
Eight Reasons Why Marco Rubio Would Be a Disastrous Secretary of State
MEDEA BENJAMIN and NICOLAS J. S. DAVIES – Of all Trump’s choices for his foreign policy team, Marco Rubio is the least controversial to the neoconservative foreign policy establishment in Washington, and the most certain to provide continuity with all that is wrong with U.S. foreign policy, from Cuba to the Middle East to China.
Some Amount of World Government Desperately Needed
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – The time has come to transform the United Nations into a federation of nations that can effectively uphold international law―a government for the world. With such a government, we would have a much better chance of restraining outlaw nations and averting the nuclear catastrophe that looms before us.
The BRICS Summit Should Mark The End Of Neocon Delusions
JEFFREY D, SACHS – The majority of the world does not want or accept U.S. hegemony.
How the Dutch Climate Movement Won an Environmental Breakthrough
PAUL ENGLER – An innovative Extinction Rebellion campaign to end fossil fuel subsidies offers key lessons for the global movement.
A New Wave of Movements against Trumpism is coming
MARK ENGLER and PAUL ENGLER – Our past experience tells us that coming months and years will offer moments that trigger public revulsion. Social movements provide a unique mechanism for responding, creating common identity and purpose between strangers and allowing genuine, collective participation in building a better democracy. If we are to make it together through Trump’s second presidency and emerge in its aftermath to create the world we need, this may be our greatest hope. Indeed, it may be our only one.
We Have a Sacred Duty – All of Us
RIVERA SUN – On Election Night, I did my civic duty and held it sacred. Now, I’m asking you to do your civic duty and hold it sacred. Stand up for your fellow citizens and human beings. Reject the politics of hate and policies of discrimination. Join us in reclaiming that profound and sacred aspiration of being a country of respect and decency. It’s not just the fate of our nation at stake. Your reputation is also on the line.