Resist!
Strategic direct action and civil disobedience such as strikes, sit-ins and occupations can expose injustice, slow down or stop harmful practices and win specific demands. Below is an archive of articles covering resistance groups in the United States and internationally. If you are inspired by a campaign, perhaps you will join or support it. If you like the tactics being used, you can adapt them for your own struggle. Check out our Resources Page for links to tools that may be helpful in your resistance.
In early September, pro-Palestine activists began to receive information about a conference organized by prominent academic Ivor Chipkin and his Johannesburg-based research NGO, the New South Institute (NSI). Launched under the signature name African Global Dialogue, this year’s event was titled “Narrative Conditions Towards Peace in the Middle East.”
To many, this was innocuous enough. What could be harmful about engaging in intellectual dialogues that promote peace? Who could oppose, in their words, a critical, yet positive engagement “with a view to opening a discursive space about Israel/Palestine”?
Martinique Masses Continue Rebellion Against French Colonial System
October 21, 2024
Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report.
Resist!
Caribbean, France, French colonialism, Mass Action
The Caribbean Island of Martinique is classified as an overseas department of France but it is treated like a colony, lacking any voice in its own affairs. Social unrest has flared up again prompted by hyperinflation and the heavy-handed tactics utilized by security forces under the control of Paris.
Due to its colonial dependency, the rate of rising prices in Martinique far exceeds that of the colonial power in France.
During September, thousands of people took to the streets in response to the escalating prices for food and other consumer goods. Riot police from France were deployed to put down the unrest which involved industrial actions among the workers.
Victims Of Family Policing Are Leading A Movement To Abolish It
October 21, 2024
Carolyn Elerding, Truthout.
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Child Protective Services, Colorado, CPS, family policing, Family separation
In December 2020, Samantha Hudson arrived with her daughters, ages 2 and 4, at ACCESS Housing family shelter in Adams County, one of the most economically depressed regions in the Denver area. Hudson, who identifies as Native American and has multiple disabilities, hoped staying in the shelter would provide a new beginning and more safety for her girls. What happened next is all too common in marginalized communities throughout the U.S.
Within hours, ACCESS staff called the Child Protective Services (CPS) reporting hotline, and CPS was en route with police to take the children.
Health Activists Picket Against High Cost Of Nutritious Food
October 20, 2024
Peoples Health Dispatch, People's Dispatch.
Resist!
Food Sovereignty, Health Care, Hunger, Inflation, Malnutrition, People's Health Movement, South Africa, World Food Day
On World Food Day, October 16, the People’s Health Movement (PHM) South Africa organized a picket in front of the National Parliament to protest the high cost of healthy and nutritious food in the country.
While the South African Constitution guarantees the right to food, PHM South Africa argued that only the wealthy can afford healthy meals today. “The soaring prices of nutritious food have placed it beyond the reach of millions, forcing many to resort to cheaper, ultra-processed foods,” they said. Ultra-processed foods, which have been linked to a long list of non-communicable diseases, including cancer and diabetes, make this a pressing social justice issue, the picket organizers noted.
SeaTac Hotel Workers With UNITE HERE Local 8 On Strike
October 20, 2024
Clio Jensen, Fight Back! News.
Resist!
Hotel workers, Seattle, Strikes, Wages, Washington, Worker Rights and Jobs
Seattle, Washington – On October 12, over 400 hotel workers at the Doubletree Seattle Airport and the Seattle Airport Hilton & Conference Center walked out and went on strike, joining hotel workers across the U.S. Workers at the two hotels are fighting for good raises, pension plan improvement, fair staffing and respect in their new contract.
The picket began at 5 a.m., when dozens of workers joined the picket line outside both striking hotels. As they marched, they chanted, “What do we want? Contract! When do we want it? Now!” and “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” Workers carried signs that read “Respect our work,” “One job should be enough” and “Make them pay.” Cars and buses passing by honked their horns in support as the picket continued throughout the day.
West Harlem Pushes Back Against Columbia’s Latest Campus Expansion
October 20, 2024
Eric Santomauro-Stenzel, The Indypendent.
Resist!
Columbia, Gentrification, Harlem, Housing, New York City (NYC)
Columbia University, New York City’s largest landlord, is facing increased community resistance to its ongoing Manhattanville campus expansion, located between W. 125th and 134th Streets.
Since Columbia won a lengthy legal battle in 2010, the campus has grown to include residential, artistic, science, business and gathering spaces. While most of the Manhattanville campus has already been constructed, Columbia plans to further develop over the next two decades. One of the university’s most recent acquisitions, 2.5 acres of land along the Hudson River, is yet to be redeveloped, and community members want to see it serve them.
Athens Dockworkers Block Ammunition Shipment Bound For Israel
October 19, 2024
People's Dispatch.
Resist!
Blockade, Dockworkers, Greece, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Piraeus Port, Shipping industry
Workers at the Piraeus Port in Athens successfully blocked a shipment of ammunition bound for Israel in a late-night action on October 17. Following a call to action by the dockworkers’ union ENEDEP, port workers and activists mobilized to prevent a container of bullets, designated for the port of Haifa, from being loaded onto the ship Marla Bull, owned by Israeli company ZIM Integrated Shipping Services.
In addition to ENEDEP, the action was supported by several workers’ organizations, including the Labor Center of Piraeus and unions of metalworkers and the shipbuilding industry. The workers declared they would not be complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza by allowing the container to sail, as its cargo would be used to kill more Palestinians.
Boston Rally Demands: Indigenous Peoples Day Now!
October 18, 2024
Will Hodgkinson, Workers World.
Resist!
Boston, Indigenous Peoples Day, Indigenous Rights, Massachusetts, Worker Rights and Jobs
Boston, Massachusetts - Nearly 200 Indigenous protesters and their allies gathered outside Park Street Station in Boston on Oct. 12 to demand that Massachusetts immediately designate the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day.
An Indigenous-led coalition of United American Indians of New England (UAINE), the North American Indian Center of Boston (NAICOB), Cultural Survival, the New Democracy Coalition, Workers World Party-Boston and Italian Americans for Indigenous Peoples Day organized the Oct. 12 action, which bolsters the longstanding effort to demolish the cult glorifying Christopher Columbus, whose lifework was characterized by conquest, slavery and genocide.
Toronto And Montreal Move Ahead With Fossil Fuel Ad Restrictions
October 18, 2024
Taylor Noakes, DeSmog.
Resist!
Advertising, Canada, Energy, Media, Montreal, Oil and Gas Industry, Politics and Policy, Public transportation, Toronto
The city of Toronto has passed a motion aiming to restrict fossil fuel advertising on municipal property, one of several recent efforts to curtail fossil fuel advertising in major Canadian cities. The motion passed on Thursday, October 10, giving Toronto city councillors one year to come up with a draft of the proposed legislation.
The effort comes as transit agencies in Canada’s two largest cities have either implemented or are considering similar restrictions on using public transit to advertise for Big Oil or related industries.
AES Interrupts A $50b Shakedown In The Sahel
October 17, 2024
Kodjovi Kpachavi, Black Agenda Report.
Resist!
Alliance of Sahe States (AES), colonization, Mining, Sahel, Sovereignty, Uranium
In the shadow of the Aïr Mountains, along the southern edge of the Sahara, a Nigerien town has been poisoned. The lands around the town of Arlit, home to 200,000 Nigeriens, is scarred by an enormous open-pit uranium mine run by a French company known as Orano.
Following the 1960's independence struggle in Niger, Orano, a French state-owned enterprise, entered into a number of joint ventures with the neocolonial government of Niger as well as those of Spain, and Japan. These ventures (known as SOMAÏR and COMINAK) have since extracted over 145,000 tons of uranium from the mines around Arlit.
I Resigned From Canada’s Largest Broadcasting Corporation
October 17, 2024
Arfa Rana, Mondoweiss.
Resist!
Canada, Genocide, Israel, Media, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Propaganda
Words can empower, arm, and evoke sentiments that stimulate new ideas, worldviews, and policies. Being the only Muslim in the newsroom, I feared the language the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was using to talk about Palestinians and resistance could ignite similar emotions that justified the U.S. invasion of Iraq and mass killings of innocent civilians in 2001.
Days after October 7, 2023, I sat across from a CBC executive who appeared uneasy yet curious about my concerns over CBC’s coverage of Hamas’ attack on Israel. I was appalled by CBC’s lack of historical context between Israel and Palestine and the language used to defend Israel’s massacre of Palestinians.
Diverse Coalition Urges Supreme Court To Protect Oak Flat
October 17, 2024
Ryan Colby, Becket Law.
Resist!
Apache, Apache Stronghold, Arizona, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Oak Flat, Save Oak Flat, US Supreme Court
A coalition of tribal nations, Catholic bishops, states, legal scholars, and diverse religious organizations asked the Supreme Court yesterday to protect the Apache sacred site at Oak Flat from destruction by a multinational mining giant. In Apache Stronghold v. United States, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stop the federal government from transferring Oak Flat to Resolution Copper, a foreign-owned mining company that plans to turn the site into a massive mining crater, ending Apache religious practices forever
The Student Movement Awakes With A Roar In Argentina
October 17, 2024
Juliana Yantorno, Left Voice.
Resist!
Anti-Austerity, Argentina, Higher Education, Javier Milei, Student Activism
When far-right president Javier Milei intervened to veto a Congressional bill to fund public universities and keep his slashes to the education budget intact, he had no idea that he would wake up the sleeping beast of Argentina’s student movement.
Between October 14 and 15, students and faculty held more than 100 assemblies to decide how to organize the fight against the far right government’s attacks and many voted to occupy their universities. Students are now occupying 72 different schools and departments across the country and they are holding public classes in the streets in 30 universities across Argentina.
Peruvian Transport Workers Strike To Demand An End To Extortion
October 16, 2024
Pablo Meriguet, People's Dispatch.
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Dina Boluarte, Lima, organized crime, Peru, police repression, Transportation, Unions, Worker Rights
On Thursday, October 10, several associations of transportation workers and companies in Peru began a work stoppage that lasted until Saturday, October 12, protesting rising crime and extortion by criminal groups in Peru’s major cities.
In their industrial action, they were joined by hundreds of people from trade and business associations, as well as some citizen and student organizations. Why? The security crisis that Peruvians are experiencing is worsening significantly. In fact, this is the first time that protests of this type and for this reason have taken place in Peru, which shows the severity of the situation and the uncertain consequences that this type of demand could cause, politically speaking, in Peruvian society.
Solidarity With Samidoun And Khaled Barakat, Designated As ‘Terrorists’
October 16, 2024
Dalal Zainabi and Saheli Chowdhury, Orinoco Tribune.
Resist!
Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Repression, Samidoun, Sanctions, Solidarity, Terrorist List
Orinoco Tribune strongly condemns the designation of the Palestinian prisoner solidarity organization Samidoun as a “foreign terrorist entity” by the governments of the United States and Canada. Orinoco Tribune also condemns the branding of Palestinian activist Khaled Barakat, a Canadian citizen, as a “terrorist” by the US government and the imposition of targeted sanctions against him.
Orinoco Tribune considers this designation to be a thinly veiled attempt to silence Palestinians and pro-Palestine voices and suppress the legitimate humanitarian efforts of Samidoun and other organizations working for the Palestinian people.