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.
Category: What’s Happening In the Movement
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.
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.
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.
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.
Montana’s First Worker Cooperative Is In It for the Long Haul
DAMON ORION – The custom steel fabrication and design company Crucible built a “gravel road” for other Montana worker co-ops to follow.
Five Ways to Approach the Election with a Movement Mindset
RAE ABILEAH and ANDREW BOYD – Distilling hard-earned lessons from election dilemmas faced by earlier social movements, here are five key insights to consider.
This activist group chat has been blocking a weapons shipment to Israel for weeks
MADISON BANNON – A South African WhatsApp group working with Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, has sparked a movement to block a ship carrying military explosives bound for Israel.
Amazing True Story About Mutual Understanding on the Abortion Issue
JOSH SABEY – When political rivals meet behind closed doors, positive changes can occur in everyone involved,
Kris Kristofferson: His Anti-War Legacy Amidst His Musical Career
CHRIS HOUSTON – American country musician Kris Kristofferson was a military veteran and anti-war activist. He continued his advocacy against the Gulf Wars and benefit concerts for Palestinian children despite the negative impacts that both had on his career. Kristofferson died on September 28 at his home in Hawaii, aged 88. Stephen Miller’s 2009 biography quotes Kristofferson, “I found a considerable lack of work after doing concerts for the Palestinian children and for a couple of gigs with Vanessa Redgrave and if that’s the way it has to be, that’s the way it has to be. If you support human rights, you gotta support them everywhere.”
In the Heart of Wall Street, Rights of Nature Activists Put the Fossil Fuel Era on Trial
KATIE SURMA – What would the world look like if legal systems rendered decisions based on what was best for the integrity of ecosystems? A people’s tribunal on the “rights of nature” is providing a model.
Georgia’s Repressive Tactics Unravel In ‘Stop Cop City’ Case
FIGHT BACK! NEWS – Georgia’s aggressive prosecution of activists in the Stop Cop City case is part of a larger trend across the U.S., where the state increasingly treats protest movements as threats to national security rather than expressions of democratic dissent.
Jury defies judge and refuses to convict Palestine Action activists
SKWAWKBOX – A jury at Bradford Crown Court has defied a judge’s attempts to rule out any legal argument about the imperative of disrupting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and has refused to convict four Palestine Action ‘actionists’ who caused over half a million pounds’ worth of damage to a Teledyne weapons factory supplying missile parts to Israel.
‘Failure of Leadership’: Hoffa Rips O’Brien Over Teamsters’ Snub of Harris
JON QUEALLY – If Trump ultimately wins, Greenhouse said, the snub of Harris may be something O’Brien and the Teamsters “end up regretting because a second Trump administration will probably be even more of a danger to unions (and democracy) than the first one.”
Campaign Nonviolence Organizes 5,209 Peace Activities Worldwide
CAAMPAIGN NONVIOLENCE – A culture of active nonviolence is powerful. It’s visionary. It’s active. It’s disruptive. It’s healing and transforming. And it’s here now.
To address the climate emergency, foundations must spend big on movements
MARGARET KLEIN SALAMON – Philanthropy has a unique and critical role to play in addressing the climate emergency. By acknowledging the calamity we face and adjusting their operations, philanthropies can lead society into the “emergency mode” necessary to avert disaster. The time for half-measures, white papers and panel discussions is over. Philanthropy must act now, boldly and decisively, to help save our planet for future generations.
Campus Protests: How to Lose
DR. TOM H. HASTINGS – Basic Negotiation 101: Make a demand. Let the other party know what your best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) is. Stick to it and impose costs if you are able. Do so without rancor or identity slurs, which saves face for everyone. Preserving everyone’s dignity in the throes of conflict is crucial and ultimately allows your enemy to become your opponent and ultimately your partner in a collaborative path forward.
The quiet rollout of Cop Cities across the US meets a growing resistance
VICTORIA VELENZUELA – As Cop Cities spread to nearly every state, grassroots activists are pushing back by forming coalitions that press for investment in communities over militarized policin
California city’s $550m deal with Chevron could be a national model for environmentalists
WILL MCCARTHY – California environmentalists have a new playbook for beating Big Oil.
Movement media organizations are coming together to build power
MAYA SCHENWAR and LARA WITT – Fourteen values-aligned organizations have formed the Movement Media Alliance, a new coalition of social justice-driven journalism platforms aimed at sharing resources and transforming the news.
Venezuela offers inspiration and an election warning
CLIFTON ROSS and MARCY REIN – Venezuelan democracy defenders are showing that the conflict isn’t about left versus right — it’s about opening a space to struggle for genuine freedom and democracy.
US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remembered amid growing threat of nuclear war
ABDUL RAHMAN – Over 50,000 people, including representatives from 109 countries, joined an event marking the 79th anniversary of the US’s bombing of Hiroshima. The main ceremony was held at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park on Tuesday, August 6.
Extinction Rebellion: Navigating the Great Paradox of Climate Action
GAIA MARTINO – The core characteristics of XR are all part of a strategy of political prefiguration. As a young female foreigner, Gaia Martino witnessed first-hand XR’s efforts to be as inclusive as possible and to adopt a care culture coherent with the group’s vision for change. As a participant of many organizational meetings, Marino also witnessed first-hand XR’s successful efforts to grant organizing autonomy to local chapters. Nonviolent action, inclusivity, autonomy and care culture are all coherent with XR’s design to create a paradigm shift in how people organize for environmental justice. To obtain a culture that will heal the planet as well as society, we must rise above the paradox that climate action must simultaneously be local and transcend the local. And for this, everyone must believe they can play a small part in shaping, setting up and enacting change.
“Beat Trump” is the Wrong Message
PETER BERGEL – By now everyone who could be recruited by the “Beat Trump” message has been recruited. People who fear the autocracy and unhinged “leadership” Trump offers need to recruit to our ranks the uncommitteds and those who don’t trust the Establishment. To accomplish that, three messages must characterize the upcoming campaign. Everyone can help by steering discussions to address these points and lobbying prominent Democrats.
Can Humanity Repair Its Relationship With Nature? Weaving Earth Education Center Offers a Promising Path
DAMON ORION – Weaving Earth Education Center, an all-ages education center, reminds us that “we are a part of this earth, not apart from it.”
Victims Win Historic Victory Against Chiquita in Colombia Paramilitary Case
DANIELA DIAZ RANGEL and JOSHUA COLLINS – The ruling against the banana giant formerly known as United Fruit makes history in holding a U.S. company liable for abuses committed abroad. Lawyers say the case is just the beginning.
The only antidote to election anxiety is training to confront Trump’s threat
GEORGE LAKEY – No matter the outcome in November, we need training to transform despair into action and to build the kind of solidarity that offers protection.
California Communities Celebrate ‘Massive’ Victory as Oil Industry Drops Unpopular Referendum
LIZA GROSS – The oil industry withdrew its $40 million campaign to kill a historic law to protect neighborhoods from oil drilling’s toxic effects, but is threatening to challenge the measure in court.
Reaching Across the Generations to Oppose War
DONNA PARK – Relying on the force of law instead of the law of force is a better way to address conflicts among nations and, in this fashion, keep us all safe and secure.
Joint Statement of U.S. Government Officials who have Resigned over U.S. policy towards Gaza, Palestine, and Israel
JOSH PAUL (for himself and eleven other former U.S. government officials) – We are former U.S. Government Officials who resigned from our respective positions over the last nine months due to our grave concerns with current U.S. policy towards the crisis in Gaza, and U.S. policies and practices towards Palestine and Israel more broadly.
One woman just brought the entire UK fossil fuels industry to its knees
THE CANARY – A landmark decision by the UK Supreme Court on Thursday June 20 has raised major barriers to all new fossil fuel projects across the UK, including the proposed new coal mine in Cumbria and the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea.
Minding the Debate: What’s Happening to Our Brains During Election Season
MELINDA BURRELL – Some of us are convening watch parties and others deliberately will not tune in. Either way, the June 27 presidential debate is the real start of the election season, when more Americans start to pay attention. It’s when partisan rhetoric runs hot and emotions run high. It’s also a chance for us, as members of a democratic republic. How? By setting expectations for ourselves and our leaders. A peek at our neurobiology can help us make this debate something we learn from rather than something that divides us further.
27,000 Virginia Teachers Win Historic Union Election with Presidential Election Implications
MIKE ELK – June 10, 2024 This morning, it was announced that Virginia Education Unions, a joint coalition of Virginia-based AFT and NEA locals, had won a historic union election to represent over 27,000 teachers and school staff in Fairfax County, Virginia.
How Donald Trump Worked to Destroy America’s Labor Unions
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – If Trump expects significant union support this November, it’s merely another of his many illusions.
Climate Superfund Law Enacted; Vermont Becomes First State to Hold Big Oil Financially Responsible for a Fair Share of Climate Damages
VERMONT NATURAL RESOURCES COUNCIL – Legislation authorizing the State of Vermont to recoup financial damages caused by climate change from major fossil fuel companies became law today (May 31, 2024) when Governor Phil Scott failed to sign or veto the bill during the constitutionally-mandated five-day consideration period.
The Nuclear FREEZE Movement of the 1980s Has Lessons for Today
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – The success of the freeze movement and its anti-nuclear counterparts of the 1980’s and 1990’s provides an important lesson for our own time. If substantial popular pressure can be stirred up by advocates of arms control and disarmament, government officials can be convinced to change their nuclear policies.
Act Now Against These Companies Profiting from the Genocide of the Palestinian People
PALESTINIAN BDS NATIONAL COMMITTEE (BNC) – People of conscience around the world are rightfully shattered, enraged, and sometimes feeling powerless about Israel’s #GazaGenocide. Many feel compelled to boycott any and all products and services of companies tied in any way to Israel. The proliferation of extensive “boycott lists” on social media is a result of this. The question is how to make boycotts effective and actually have an impact in holding corporations accountable for their complicity in the suffering of Palestinians?
Overcoming despair and apathy to win democracy
GEORGE LAKEY – Lessons on movement building from one of the founders of the Serbian student movement that brought down dictator Slobodan Milosevic.
UMass Arrests: What Would Daniel Ellsberg Do?
CHRISTIAN APPY – What would Daniel Ellsberg do in the face of the Israel-Hamas war? We can’t know with complete certainty because he died last June at the age of 92. We do know that in the 50 years after he released the Pentagon Papers, he devoted his life to principled nonviolent activism and was arrested more than 80 times for acts of civil disobedience in the struggle for peace and nuclear disarmament. When Christian Appy saw UMass students protest Israel’s way of retaliating against Hamas for Hamas’ October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, he took up with the students after asking, “What would Daniel Ellsberg do?”
Looking Beneath the Surface of the End-the-War Encampments
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – The encampments are filled with students from different religious traditions — Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, unaffiliated as well as spiritual but not religious students. They are finding solace and courage among themselves.
War Culture Hates the Ethical Passion of the Young
NORMAN SOLOMON – With transcendent wisdom, this spring’s student uprising has rejected conformity as a lethal anesthetic while the horrors continue in Gaza. Leaders of the most powerful American institutions want to continue as usual, as if official participation in genocide were no particular cause for alarm. Instead, young people have dared to lead the way, insisting that such a culture of death is repugnant and completely unacceptable.
Columbia students are sick at heart — just as we were in ‘68
MARK RUDD – An organizer of the 1968 Columbia University protests, Mark Rudd analyzes why the message against war, then and now, is the same.
Climate activists in New England can finally celebrate ‘the end of coal’
SIOBHAN SENIER – With the last of New England’s coal plants now set to close, the No Coal No Gas campaign is reflecting on the power of fighting together.
Inspiring Memoir of an Unrelenting Nuclear Resister
PATRICK O’NEILL – This Earth Day peace appeal by journalist Patrick O’Neill describes his work with others to act to reduce the chances of the ultimate self-inflicted disaster, nuclear war.
Climate movement elders revive monkey wrench tactics to save an old forest
NICK ENGELFRIED – Earlier this year, seven activists entered the site of a proposed timber sale in Washington State, intent on halting — or at least delaying — the destruction of trees with immense carbon storage potential. Over the course of several hours, they hiked off-trail through the dense understory, removing signs and flagging tape marking the boundaries of the controversial Carrot timber sale. The creative nonviolent direct action seemed to pay off, as a couple days later Washington’s Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, announced it was cancelling the Carrot sale for the time being. The timing seems striking, even though the announcement did not acknowledge the protest. Now, the nonviolent saboteurs hope their actions have bought enough precious time to permanently protect the area.
Creating Community, One Conversation at a Time
MELINDA BURRELL – So much starts with a conversation. Try it for your own sense of wellbeing — and watch it become contagious.
Human rights violated by Swiss inaction on climate, ECHR rules in landmark case
AJIT NIRANJAN – Court finds in favour of group of older Swiss women who claimed weak policies put them at greater risk of death from heatwaves. In a landmark decision on one of three major climate cases, the first such rulings by an international court, the ECHR raised judicial pressure on governments to stop filling the atmosphere with gases that make extreme weather more violent.
Yurok Tribe Becomes First To Steward Land With National Park Service
CRISTEN HEMINGWAY JAYNES – Restoring Prairie Creek to ecological integrity is part of the plan for the 125-acre ‘O Rew Redwoods Gateway, which represents a first-ever model for tribal, federal, and state co-management of nationally significant land, with an Indigenous tribe at the helm.