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For Today’s Youth, The Ability To Make Change Is A Survival Skill

November 28, 2019 Rivera Sun, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
It’s a thing. Parents are hosting protest parties instead of birthday parties. The kids design signs, hold a march with their friends, and do a demonstration for peace, love, kindness or whatever. It’s training in standing up and speaking out — two prized freedoms in the United States. And it gives kids an experience they’re going to need again and again, probably in situations that are far less fun. Young people just a few years older than these kids are staging school walk-outs over the lack of gun control, the climate crisis, the overuse of standardized tests, racist police shootings and more. They’re holding occupations to overturn racist school policies. They’re taking a knee along with athlete Colin Kaepernick. They’re organizing to protect their friends who are undocumented students. To this generation, the ability to make change is a survival skill for a world in crisis. These are the life skills they’ll need to create a world that works for them — and everyone.

On Contact: Rebel, Rebel With Popular Resistance

October 13, 2019 Chris Hedges, RT. , ,
This week on On Contact with Chris Hedges, Dr. Margaret Flowers and attorney Kevin Zeese speak about social transformation and building a culture of resistance. They discuss the roles of movements and electoral politics in social change and the necessity of direct action to impact the power structure. They also discuss the free Popular Resistance School. Hedges was involved in organizing the occupation of Freedom Plaza in 2011, part of the Occupy Movement, and the strategy retreat that led to the founding of Popular Resistance in 2013. Hedges' first-hand knowledge of major transformations that countries have experienced while being a foreign correspondent for the New York Times informs the work of Popular Resistance.

The New Age Of Protest

October 5, 2019 John Feffer, Fpif.org , ,
Led by young people, climate strikers blocked traffic on two mornings at the end of last month in Washington, DC. On the first day, protestors chained themselves to a boat three blocks from the White House, and 32 activists were arrested. On the second day, activists targeted the EPA and Trump International Hotel. It was a not-so-subtle suggestion to commuters stuck in their cars on those mornings to think more favorably about public transportation or telecommuting. It was also a potent reminder, as Congress remains polarized on so many issues, that some paralysis is healthy in the nation’s capital.

Vista High School Students Demand Climate Action

October 5, 2019 Juliana Musheyev, Liberationnews.org , ,
Students from Rancho Buena Vista High School organized a sit-in at Vista City Hall Sept. 27 to demand a stronger climate action plan. Close to a hundred people attended, most under the age of 18. Vista has a Climate Action Plan, which is required by California law, but it has not been implemented. According to organizer of the sit-in Leana Cortez:  “[The plan] was written in 2012. Nothing. We’re in 2019, almost 2020. Still nothing. We do have problems with the plan overall, It’s a little bit diluted. However, I think our biggest concern is that it hasn’t been implemented, because we are running out of time.”

Defender Of Brazil’s Indigenous Tribes Murdered ‘Execution-Style’ In Amazon Town

September 22, 2019 George Dvorsky, Earther. , , ,
Maxciel Pereira dos Santos, a veteran defender of Brazil’s indigenous people, has reportedly been shot dead in a remote Amazon town while riding his motorcycle. The BBC reports Santos was shot twice in the head while riding his motorcycle down the main street of Tabatinga, a Brazilian city near the border of Colombia and Peru, according to a statement issued this past weekend by the National Indian Foundation (INA), a union representing workers at Brazil’s indigenous protection agency, FUNAI. This incident happened on the evening of Friday September 6, according to Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo. Santos worked at FUNAI for the past 12 years, where he defended both contacted and uncontacted Brazilian tribes from miners, loggers, farmers, and anyone else seeking to seize land in the Amazon rainforest.

Trump Ordered By Judge To Testify In NY Protest Case

September 22, 2019 Tal Axelrod, The Hill. , , ,
A New York judge Friday ordered President Trump to answer questions in a civil suit involving a 2015 incident between protesters and his security guards. State Supreme Court Justice Doris Gonzalez ruled Trump must “appear for a videotaped deposition prior to the trial” under oath, saying his testimony is “indispensable.” The trial involves a group of protesters who say Trump’s security guards assaulted them outside of Trump Tower in 2015. The plaintiffs were demonstrating against Trump’s rhetoric toward Mexican immigrants. The judge rejected arguments from Trump’s camp saying the president’s duties should exempt him from testifying. Gonzalez said Trump may answer questions from the White House “at a time that will accommodate his busy schedule,” and that “there would be no necessity for the president to attend in person, though he could elect to do so.” 

Reflections On The Future – Post Climate Strike Musings

September 21, 2019 Eleanor Goldfield, Art Killing Apathy. , , ,
Millions of people came together yesterday for the Global Climate Strike. I was in New York City with some 250,000 other people and the energy, along with other people’s sweaty bodies, was palpable. I came as part of the People’s Mobilization, an effort to connect the issues of US empire and war with climate chaos, and from this intersection build power. After all, the US military is the world’s single largest consumer of fossil fuels, equal to the emissions of 140 countries. If we are to realistically mitigate the worst effects of climate change, the military industrial complex is a good (and necessary) place to start. But the issue of war has been largely lacking in the hot topic of climate justice so a coalition of folks, not least of all those on the receiving end of US bombs, felt the issue needed to be raised.

These Activists-in-Training Are Scouting For Social Justice

September 16, 2019 Azucena Rasilla, Zora.medium.com , , ,
Anayvette Martinez wanted to start a different kind of girl scout troop after her then fourth-grade daughter expressed her desire to join one. What Martinez found, however, was that her daughter Lupita would have been one out of two Brown girls to join. She knew this statistic had to change. “The traditional scouting model wouldn’t center her experience as a woman of color, and it would have been a watered-down version of what she could be exposed to,” says Martinez (who identifies herself as Queer) of the idea of starting the Radical Monarchs. She wanted the troop to truly center women of color’s identity.

The Rise Of A New Climate Activism

September 6, 2019 By Sophie Yeo, Theecologist.org ,
I saw Greta Thunberg for the first time in Poland at the end of last year. It was during the early days of the Katowice UNclimate negotiations. She was sitting in a makeshift TV studio, having her pigtails re-tied. I was in a hurry, chasing too many stories down at once, and paid little attention to this 15-year-old girl. Of course, I’d heard of Greta by that point. I’d received several emails inviting me to press conferences where she was speaking, but I hadn’t taken the bait. I had recently written about the Juliana v United States litigation, where a group of young people sued the government for failing to protect them against climate change...

This Is What Activism Does To Your Body

August 14, 2019 By Jolie A. Doggett, Huffpost.com , , ,
August 9 marks five years since a white police officer, Darren Wilson, shot and killed an unarmed Black teenager named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. While accounts of exactly what happened vary, Wilson shot Brown at least six times ― twice in the head. Brown’s bloody body was left on a residential street for four hours in broad daylight. Weeks of demonstrations, vigils and protests followed. These protests eventually turned into riots with militarized police officers on one side and fed-up Black residents on another.

Repression Of Climate Activism In Switzerland

August 6, 2019 Collectiv Climate Justice and Breakfree Suisse, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Since 2016, civil disobedience actions in several swiss cities have targeted banks  (Crédit Suisse and UBS) investing heavily in the expansion of fossil fuel extraction, particularly "extreme" fossil fuels, such as canadian tar sands and fracking. The Swiss financial sector causes 20 times more greenhouse gas emissions than Switzerland itself. Between 2016 and 2018, investments of UBS and Credit Suisse totalled 83.3 billion USD. These are climate crimes, considering that according to the IPCC only a quarter of conventional fossil fuel reserves can be exploited if we are to avoid warming of over 2 degrees and the resultant climate chaos. Until lately, the banks and authorities had tolerated repeated occupations, hoping to avoid negative publicity, but are now reacting more and more violently as the movement grows in size and determination.

Extinction Rebellion Calls On Congress To Declare A Climate Emergency Using Superglue

July 24, 2019 Staff, Extinctionrebellion.us , ,
Washington, D.C., July 23 – Following the weekend’s “heat emergency” and a slew of flash floods in D.C., the climate group Extinction Rebellion (XR) brought business-as-usual to a halt in Congress Tuesday with an unprecedented act of mass civil disobedience. Activists used superglue to physically attach themselves to key passages in the House Office buildings, blocking members of Congress just before a vote in the Capitol building. The climate activists demanded the speedy passage of the climate emergency resolution, which is currently sitting idle in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Pipeline Fighter Blocks Mountain Valley Pipeline Construction

July 16, 2019 Staff, Facebook.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/ , ,
Montgomery County, VA — Yesterday, pipeline fighter Phillip Flagg locked himself in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline near Elliston, VA. MVP has been clearing and grading this section of the pipeline’s path in preparation to lay pipe. Phillip laid his body in the easement and locked his body to an underground concrete blockade directly in the path of the pipeline. His action stopped MVP work at the site for 7 hours, preventing the company’s progression towards the nearby Yellow Finch tree sits. Around 5:30 pm, Phillip was extracted from his blockade and arrested.

Prime Day Brings Out Anti-Amazon Wave Of Protests And Activism

July 16, 2019 Ben Fox Rubin, Cnet.com , ,
Demonstrations happened in Minnesota, New York, Seattle and San Francisco, as well as across Europe. While Amazon is working to push its big Prime Day summer sale this week, activists and unions are using the day to highlight their many concerns about the world's biggest online store. Their concerns vary widely, from working conditions in warehouses to climate issues to its ties to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Much of the activist attention in the US was directed at Shakopee, Minnesota, where Amazon warehouse workers protested Monday...

Rising Tide Calls For Call Climate Actions

July 16, 2019 Staff, Risingtidenorthamerica.org , ,
Time is running out. The climate crisis is at our doorstep. Communities around the world are already being battered by the earliest effects of the changing climate–superstorms, floods, wildfires and droughts. And still not moving any closer to actualizing the dramatic transformation of our energy systems and economy that we all know are needed to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.  The situation is bleak, but we are hopeful.  Around the world, people are stepping up to take bold direct action to confront the climate crisis.
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Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

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Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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