ARNIE ALPERT – Despite failing to pass a human rights resolution, one group of investors will continue the fight to hold the world’s biggest firearms manufacturer accountable.
Category: What’s Happening In the Movement
We have a violence problem – Campaign Nonviolence strives to solve it
RIVERA SUN – Violence may be everywhere, but so are we. Tens of thousands of people will move into action between Sept 21-Oct 2 to bring a nonviolent world one step closer to reality. Will you?
There’s No Place for Burnout in a Burning World
CHARLIE WOOD – Climate activists can start to build a stronger culture of care by taking burnout seriously and understanding its root causes.
Marine Life Defenders Say UN Talks ‘Last Chance’ for Global Ocean Treaty
JESSICA CORBETT – Because the high seas “don’t ‘belong’ to anyone, they have been treated recklessly with impunity,” said one campaigner, arguing that “nobody’s waters” must become “everyone’s responsibility.”
Veterans Send Letter to President Biden: “Read Our Nuclear Posture Review Before Releasing Yours”
VETERANS FOR PEACE – In an Open Letter to President Biden, Veterans for Peace is requesting that he take a look at their Nuclear Posture Review before issuing his own. The letter is prompted by the escalating war in Ukraine and the growing possibility of nuclear war.
Why Is There More Media Talk About Using Nuclear Weapons Than About Banning Them?
KARL GROSSMAN – It’s of critical importance—indeed, existential importance—to the world: the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. And a coalition of peace organizations in the United States is charging that media are acting like the treaty “does not exist.” The Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative is waging a campaign to encourage press coverage of the treaty, which, it argues, “provides the only pathway to a safe, secure future free of the nuclear threat” (Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance Newsletter, 6/22).
Practicing Safe Protest: Just Say No to Violence
DR.TOM H. HASTINGS – Our peace team is one of many across the US and we hope more and more folks seek training in more and more towns so we can return to protest that is very assertive, but not aggressive, not alienating to the public, and everyone stays safe.
Climate Change: If you want to know who changed Manchin’s mind–you did
BILL MCKIBBEN – For decades now, when asked about the point of one climate protest or another, I’ve usually said something to the effect of: we fight to change the zeitgeist, people’s sense of what is normal and natural and obvious. Yes, we fight to block this pipeline or divest that pension fund, and each of those is important: but they add up to something more, a slowly moving weight that eventually shifts from one side to the other. That’s what happened last night when Joe Manchin caved. Now the Senate finally—for the first time in more than three decades—seems set to pass actual serious climate legislation.
Financial Sector Addresses Meeting on Nuclear Ban Treaty
ICAN: INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS – For the first time ever investors were directly represented at a conference of parties to a humanitarian disarmament treaty. The Italian asset manager Etica Funds, on behalf of a group of 37 investors presented a group statement to the first meeting of states parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Organizers are reeling yet determined following Supreme Court’s dangerous expansion of gun rights
ZANE MCNEILL – After celebrating the Senate’s gun control legislation, advocates are planning new actions in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on concealed carry.
KXL is Officially Dead
JOYCE BRAUN – KXL Official Termination “marks the end of one heck of a fight!”
Is our democracy at risk? Actions we all can take to protect it
MELINDA BURRELL – The January 6th Committee is showing us how fragile our democracy is. Our trust in each other and in our institutions is waning – in both parties. Norms of peaceful, inclusive democratic activity are being eroded, as we see from reports about professional election officials being intimidated.
Time to launch “Dads Demand Action to Raise Healthy Boys”
ROB OKUN – This Father’s Day, if you like, sure, fire up the grill and give Dad a new fishing rod. But also, let’s encourage men—fathers, sons, grandfathers, brothers, uncles, nephews—to move off the sidelines as bystanders and onto a field of dreams as change agents cultivating a disease-resistant crop of healthy boys.
Organizers Are Demanding a Green New Deal for the Gulf South
C.J. POLUCHRONIOU – The Green New Deal project proposed by progressive activists and lawmakers carries special weight for sustainability in the Gulf Coast.
Protesters Take On NRA Convention After Texas Shooting
CHARLIE SCUDDER – Hundreds rally for gun control outside the NRA’s Houston meeting, calling on Americans to ‘protect kids, not guns.’
The People’s Summit for Democracy Offers a Progressive Vision to Counter U.S. Dominance in the Americas
SHEILA XAIO and MANOLO DE LOS SANTOS – For the Americas, which are on the cusp of transformative times, the age of the Monroe Doctrine is over.
Great Plains Farmers Push Back Against CO2 Pipelines Encroaching on Their Land
LEANNA FIRST-ARAI – Farmers, ranchers, and other rural community members across five Great Plains states and Illinois — many of whom were previously sued by developers of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines wanting to build through their land — are finding their property, safety and livelihoods encroached upon yet again by corporations. This time, they’re coming up against developers, many with fossil fuel ties, who are seeking to cash in on climate solutions tax credits to build a massive network of carbon dioxide (CO2) pipelines across the United States.
Rebellious Climate Scientists Have Message for Humanity: ‘Mobilize, Mobilize, Mobilize’
KENNY STANCIL – In the face of the “escalating climate emergency,” the advocacy group Scientist Rebellion warns that the IPCC summary to global policymakers remains “alarmingly reserved, docile, and conservative.”
Ukraine War Causing Fractures in the Peace Movement When It’s Needed Most
BRIAN GARVEY – Cohesive opposition that demands an end to the violence and bloodshed in Ukraine must be the top priority of advocates for peace.
Energy efficiency guru Amory Lovins: ‘It’s the largest, cheapest, safest, cleanest way to address the crisis’
JOHN VIDAL – Just as with the 1970s oil shocks, the problem today is not where to find energy but how to use it better, Amory Lovins says. The answer is what he calls “integrative, or whole-system, design,†a way to employ orthodox engineering to achieve radically more energy-efficient results by changing the design logic. Design, retrofitting, and efficiency, these are the answers to the climate crisis.
Ukrainians took to the streets to avert a nuclear disaster. Will Americans do the same?
PAUL GUNTER and LINDA PENTZ GUNTER – The near disaster at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant shows why activists fought for decades to end these risks — and why mass action is needed once again.
Two Hundred Nobel Laureates Call for an End to the Ukraine War
NOBEL LAUREATES – Two hundred two Nobel laureates voice their support for the Ukrainian people and the free and independent state of Ukraine as it faces Russian aggression.
Worried about Nuclear War? You can actually do Something to Prevent it
FRIDA BERRIGAN – If anything good can come out of the horrific war in Ukraine, it might be a renewed movement to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all.
300,000 Russians Sign Peace Petition in 12 Hours
RUSSIAN PETITIONERS – We appeal to all sane people in Russia, on whose actions and words something depends. Become a part of the anti-war movement, speak out against the war. Do this at least in order to show the whole world that there have been, there are and there will be people in Russia who will not accept the meanness created by the authorities, who have turned the state itself and the peoples of Russia into an instrument of their crimes.
Independent American and Russian Women Call for Peace
WOMENCALL4PEACE – We are women from the United States and Russia who are deeply concerned about the risk of possible war between our two countries, who together possess over 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons. We are mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and we are sisters, one to another. We stand together and we call for peace. Stand with us.
US and Russian Doctors Warn of Possible Global Catastrophe from Escalating Conflict in Ukraine
INTERNATIONAL PHYSICIANS FOR THE PREVENTION OF WAR – American and Russian physicians representing IPPNW are warning that the war in Ukraine could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe as a result of conventional fighting and the attendant risks to that country’s nuclear power facilities and of escalation to nuclear war.
No War with Russia! No Expansion of NATO!
MASSACHUSETTS PEACE ACTION – The US has just managed to extract itself from a 20-year war in Afghanistan. Does our government seriously want to embark on another war? Since 2001, our long, bloody, fruitless interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan have cost thousands of US lives, hundreds of thousands of civilian lives in those countries, and $6.4 trillion.
Who is Willing to Participate in Non-Violent Civil Disobedience for the Climate?
CONTRIBUTORS – In September 2021, we asked Americans about their willingness to support an organization engaging in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse and about their willingness to personally engage in such non-violent civil disobedience themselves. Here we examine how this willingness varies across different groups including Global Warming’s Six Americas, generations, and the three largest racial/ethnic groups in the United States.
To Nuclear-Armed States: Nice Talk, Now Walk the WalkÂ
PETER BERGEL – We must build a movement strong enough to abolish nuclear weapons altogether. It will take a lot of work and will not happen overnight, but if we want to survive, it is up to the citizens of the nuclear-armed nations to demand that their governments conclude the nuclear disarmament agreements necessary to enable all of them to sign the nuclear ban treaty.
Candidates, Keep it Clean! The Exhausted Majority is Urging
MELINDA BURRELL – We’re hearing more about our “exhausted majorityâ€Â – the two-thirds of Americans who are tired of the polarization and anger that surround us, are flexible in their attitudes, and want a way out of the divide.
Wet’suwet’en Water Protectors Vow to Continue Struggle after Announcing Strategic Retreat
ANISH R M – In the face of another crackdown by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), anti-pipeline Wet’suwet’en protesters have retreated from Coyote Camp. In an announcement on January 4, the activists of the Indigenous Wet’suwet’en tribe in British Columbia, Canada, have stated they are staging a “strategic retreat.†Water protectors who have been resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline and staging an occupation and blockade at the drill site near Camp Coyote have retreated to evade arrests and another violent police crackdown.
Should Fighting for Democracy Take Priority over Building Powerful Social Movements?
GEORGE LAKEY – Activists throughout history have put social movement work on hold for the electoral arena. Determining whether to do so is a matter of strategy and calling.
Rohingya Sue Facebook for $150bn for Fueling Myanmar Hate Speech
AL JAZEERA and NEWS AGENCIES – Rohingya refugees have sued the social media giant Facebook for $150bn over claims the social network is failing to stem hate speech on its platform, exacerbating violence against the vulnerable Myanmar minority.
How the USA Could Lead a Global Green New Deal
KEVIN DANAHER – The world is facing two interlinked crises: politically motivated violence and global destruction of the environment. They are obviously related, in that global military conflicts and weapons spending are among the most egregious wasters of resources on the planet. This project would seek to unify those elements of the military and civil society who want to accelerate the transition to sustainability while also improving the security of the United States.
Victory in Ecuador: Constitutional Court Upholds Rights of Nature
PRESS RELEASE of the CENTER FOR DEMOCRATIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS – Rights of Nature Victory in Ecuador: In the Los Cedros case, the Constitutional Court upheld the rights of nature. The Court ruled that mining in a protected forest is unconstitutional, and violates the constitutional rights of nature.
Digging for Peace – Resisting Nuclear Weapons
BRIAN TERRELL – NATO boasts of “Steadfast Noon,†betraying the arrogant conviction of the Allied Heads of State and Government that despite a “deteriorating security environment,†through annual displays of brute force and profligate waste of fossil fuel, the darkness can be held at bay forever and the exploiters of the earth and its people will bask in the everlasting light of noon. The scholars at The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who have kept a “Doomsday Clock†since 1947, propose instead that the planet is actually closer to midnight, the hypothetical global catastrophe. The Bulletin’s Clock is now at 100 seconds before midnight and humanity is closer to its destruction than ever before, because “the dangerous rivalry and hostility among the superpowers increases the likelihood of nuclear blunder… Climate change just compounds the crisis.â€
Why Public Banking is a Step Toward Revolutionizing Our Economy
PAMELA HAINES – The public banking movement is creating an opening wedge for the transfer of our financial system from private to public control.
Why Activism Needs to be Part of any Meaningful Climate Education
NICK ENGELFRIED – Simply teaching kids about the science of the climate crisis isn’t enough. To prevent feelings of disempowerment, they need to see how they can make a meaningful impact.
Protest at Manchin’s Yacht Demands End to His Obstruction of Reconciliation Bill
JAKE JOHNSON – West Virginia activists in kayaks and electric boats converged on Sen. Joe Manchin’s yacht in Washington, D.C. on Monday, September 27, to protest the right-wing Democrat’s continued obstruction of his own party’s reconciliation package, a central component of President Joe Biden’s climate and safety net agenda.
4,391+ Actions for a Better World: Campaign Nonviolence Action Week is Bigger Than Ever
RIVERA SUN – From Sept 18-26, tens of thousands of people took action for a culture of peace and active nonviolence, free from war, poverty, racism, and environmental destruction.
You Can Help Stop Climate Chaos: 25 Ways
TOM H. HASTINGS – Almost all of us can do far better to fight climate chaos with relatively little effort.Â
Louisiana Plastics Plant Put On Pause In A Win For Activists
OLIVER LAUGHLAND – The US government has placed further delays on a proposed multibillion dollar plastics plant in south Louisiana, marking a major victory for environmental activists and members of the majority Black community who have campaigned for years against construction.
‘We owe them a huge amount’: March to Honour Greenham Common Women
ALEXANDRA TOPPING – Forty years ago a small group of women, along with a few men and children in buggies in tow, left their homes in Wales to protest against the arrival of US nuclear warheads at RAF Greenham Common. The steps they took that day would lead to the establishment of the Greenham women’s peace camp, which at its height gathered more than 70,000 women for direct action and became the biggest female-led protest since women’s suffrage.
Abolishing Nuclear Weapons is the People’s Job
PETER BERGEL – Any of our cities could be incinerated by today’s nuclear weapons without warning at virtually any moment, either accidentally or purposely. Yet this monstrous possibility has fallen off the radar of most citizens and politicians.
We Must Choose the Future for This Newborn Child
RIVERA SUN – The story of a “Sixth Mass Extinction” must be turned around. The child born today will be almost 80 in 2100. What kind of world will we build for her?
‘Homecoming’: 100 Years after Forceful Removal, Nez Perce People Celebrate Reclaimed Land
DIANNE LUGO – On Thursday, July 29, more than 150 Nez Perce (Niimiipuu) people returned and blessed part of their homeland, a hundred years after the U.S Army drove them from the Wallowa Valley in eastern Oregon.Â
Everyone has a Role to Play in Stopping the Line 3 Pipeline
EILEEN FLANAGAN – Indigenous water protectors and allies are effectively engaging all four roles of social change — just what’s needed to beat a company as powerful as Enbridge.
Jesse Jackson, William Barber Among Dozens Arrested While Demanding Filibuster Repeal Outside Sinema’s Office
KENNY STANCIL – Thirty-nine people, including civil rights champions Revs. Jesse Jackson and William J. Barber II, were arrested Monday, July 26, during a sit-in outside the Phoenix office of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a conservative Democrat whose opposition to filibuster reform is enabling Senate Republicans to obstruct the passage of progressive legislation on voting rights, the minimum wage, immigration reform, climate action, and more.
As DA Rejects Charges, Bayou Bridge Water Protectors Vow ‘We Will Not Stop Our Work’
BRETT WILKINS – “Louisiana’s ‘critical infrastructure’ law is an attempt to take away our personal freedom along with our constitutional right to protest,” Annie White Hat continued. “I stand proud of our work and am grateful for the countless allies who bravely stepped forward to support the first direct actions to stop oil and gas in the swamps of south Louisiana.”
Why the Russian Revolution Actually Owes its Success to Nonviolent Resistance
DAVID CARROLL COCHRAN – Despite conventional wisdom, Russians relied principally on a sophisticated and diverse array of nonviolent methods to end centuries of tsarist rule in 1917.