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Civil Disobedience

Extinction Rebellion: Direct Action Is Our Last Chance To Phase-Out Carbon

November 4, 2018 By Husna Rizvi, The New Internationalist ,
A new climate breakdown resistance movement is forming in Britain. On Wednesday 31 October in Westminster, ‘Extinction Rebellion’ – a nascent mass direct-action group, in the style of Occupy – came together to launch a rolling protest against the UK government’s failure to act to prevent climate change. In London’s Parliament Square, in front of Gandhi’s statue no less, thousands of people made a declaration of non-violent rebellion in an attempt to force concessions from the government. Their demands include: an immediate reversal of climate-toxic policies, net-zero emissions by 2025 and the establishment of a citizen’s assembly to oversee the radical changes necessary to halt global warming.

‘We Have A Duty To Act’: Hundreds Ready To Go To Jail Over Climate Crisis

October 30, 2018 By Matthew Taylor, Theguardian.com , ,
A new group of “concerned citizens” is planning a campaign of mass civil disobedience starting next month and promises it has hundreds of people – from teenagers to pensioners – ready to get arrested in an effort to draw attention to the unfolding climate emergency. The group, called Extinction Rebellion, is today backed by almost 100 senior academics from across the UK, including the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. In a letter published in the Guardian they say the failure of politicians to tackle climate breakdown and the growing extinction crisis means “the ‘social contract’ has been broken … [and] it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty to bypass the government’s inaction and flagrant dereliction of duty, and to rebel to defend life itself.”

Protester Explains Protesting To Attorney General Sessions

July 22, 2018 By Francis Flisiuk , The Portland Phoenix   , ,
Attorney General Jeff Sessions came to Portland, Maine to meet with members of local law enforcement and promote “Operation Synthetic Opioid." During the meeting, he called for Maine Sheriffs to “prosecute every readily provable case” involving the distribution of opioids, regardless of drug quantity. Essentially, Sessions wants to solve the opioid crisis by locking more people up. Outside the conference, on Middle Street in Portland, about 150 people protested Sessions' appearance. One of those people was 39-year-old Jessica Stewart, a member of Moral Movement Maine, and Catholic Workers. We spoke with Stewart shortly after her release from Cumberland County Jail about the impact of civil disobedience.

Bond Denied For Kings Bay Plowshares Activists

April 9, 2018 Staff, Nukeresister.org , , , ,
Seven Catholic plowshares activists were arrested early Thursday morning, April 5 at the Kings Bay Naval Base in St. Mary’s, Georgia. They entered the base late in the evening of April 4, 2018 in an attempt to nonviolently transform weapons of mass destruction and inspire Americans to reject racism, militarism and economic injustice. They are being held at the Camden County Public Safety Complex in Woodbine, Georgia.  On April 6 at 9:30 a.m. the seven had a first appearance in Camden County court before Chief Magistrate Judge Jennifer E. Lewis. They were charged with two felonies, Possession of Tools for the Commission of a Crime and Interference with Government Property, and a misdemeanor, Criminal Trespass. Despite their well-established commitment to nonviolence and integrity and a clear promise to reappear, the seven were denied bond for the felony charges.

Charges Against Portland Black Lives Matter Protesters Dropped

July 28, 2017 Jake Bleiberg, www.bangordailynews.com , , ,
By Jake Bleiberg for BDN - PORTLAND, Maine — A year after Portland police ended a Black Lives Matter demonstration with a mass arrest, the resulting legal drama has come to a close with the criminal charges against 17 protesters being dismissed. The charges were expected to be dropped since May, when a court hearing failed to repair a botched settlement agreement between the demonstrators and the Cumberland County District Attorney. The deal, which would have also seen the misdemeanor charges dropped, hinged on police and protesters talking through their differences in a so-called “restorative justice” session. It would have been the first time such a program was used in a civil disobedience case in Maine. But the deal went to pieces in the hall of a Portland church in February, when the protesters and an assistant district attorney couldn’t agree over logistics for the session. In May, a judge blocked the district attorney’s move to again prosecute the charges and ordered protesters and police to try again at the restorative justice session. After the ruling, District Attorney Stephanie Anderson said her office would not make another attempt at the session, thereby leaving the charges in an inactive court docket where they were finally dismissed Wednesday.

MIT Media Lab Announces $250,000 For Civil Disobedience

March 19, 2017 Amanda Hoover, www.bostonmagazine.com
By Amanda Hoover for Boston Magazine. On Monday, the MIT Media Lab opened applications for its Disobedience Award, a first-of-its-kind prize for an individual or group involved in civil disobedience that pushes some societal boundary in a progressive direction through peaceful action. The award seeks to honor those breaking the status quo and standing up to oppression, whether that’s in science, politics, corporations, communities, or some other facet of society. Along with the recognition of “official badass,” the title also comes with a not-too-shabby, “no strings attached” $250,000 reward. “Questioning authority and thinking for yourself is an essential component of science, of civil rights, of society,” says Media Lab director Joi Ito in an announcement video for the competition. “At some level, disobedience is at the root of creativity.”

It May Only Take 3.5% Of Population To Topple Dictator

February 3, 2017 Erica Chenoweth, www.theguardian.com ,
By Erica Chenoweth for The Guardian - The United States has its own rich history – past and present – of effective uses of nonviolent resistance. The technique established alternative institutions like economic cooperatives, alternative courts and an underground constitutional convention in the American colonies resulting in the declaration of independence. In 20th century, strategic nonviolent resistance has won voting rights for women and for African Americans living in the Jim Crow south. Nonviolent resistance has empowered the labor movement, closed down or cancelled dozens of nuclear plants, protected farm workers from abuse in California...

Why We Must Support Federal Worker Noncooperation

February 2, 2017 Adriana Calvarezi, www.truth-out.org , ,
By Adriana Calvarezi for Truthout - After 17 years at the US State Department, for example, TJ Lunardi decided to call it quits. Like other senior foreign service officers who, on January 25, 2017, left in what Washington Post journalist Josh Rogin characterized as an "ongoing mass exodus," Lunardi concluded that he "simply could not serve in an executive branch" where he "would have to carry out [Trump's] orders as president." Trump, he decided, is "a threat to our constitutional values." After Trump ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on that same day to remove its climate change page from the EPA website, an anonymous Badlands National Park federal employee

180 Federal Employees Sign Up For ‘Civil Disobedience’ Class

February 2, 2017 Brooke Seipel, www.thehill.com ,
By Brooke Seipel for The Hill - A large group of federal employees have signed up to participate in a workshop on civil disobedience in the President Trump era. According to a Washington Post report, 180 federal employees have signed up for a workshop featuring expert advice on workers’ rights and expressing civil disobedience. Dozens of federal workers have reportedly attended a support group for civil servants that serves as a forum for discussing opposition to the Trump administration. Some federal employees have already expressed defiance against the Trump administration following a gag order...

Mass Civil Disobedience To Stop The Suwannee River Crossing

December 23, 2016 Staff, www.facebook.com , ,
By Staff of Sabal Trail Resistance and Water is Life Camp - Join us in putting a wrench into the gears of the pipeline machine. This will be a mass sit-in to stop the Sabal Trail fracked gas pipeline construction from drilling under the Suwannee River in Live Oak, FL. Exact location for training, parking and protest TBA. There are several options for camping in the area. The night before we will hold a direct action training for all participants (not just people risking arrest.) The night after we will likely hold a vigil at the jail if people are held there. Not everyone who attends needs to risk arrest, but we ask all to consider their role in making this a successful event. It will be a "power in numbers" moment.

The Political Significance Of Being Inconvenienced

September 10, 2016 Benji Hart, www.radfag.com , ,
By Benji Hart for Radical Faggot - Last fall, Black Youth Project 100 along with Fight For 15, Organized Communities Against Deportation, and #Not1More shut down the International Chiefs of Police Conference in Chicago. Coordinated teams of protesters locked themselves into blockades all over the McCormick Place convention center. They strategically took over major streets, building entrances and passageways, in an attempt to make access to the conference as difficult as possible.

When Protest Becomes Sacrament: Grady Sisters Heed A Higher Call

August 13, 2016 Nicholas Kusnetz, www.insideclimatenews.org , ,
By Nicholas Kusnetz for Inside Climate News - On a warm May morning, two dozen people wearing blue shirts formed a neat line in front of the gates of a natural gas compressor station in central New York. The facility lay hidden somewhere in the trees behind them, and just beyond was Seneca Lake, a 38-mile azure gash through deep green hills that provides drinking water to 100,000 people. The sun crept over a ridge on the far side of the lake. It was still early enough to intercept the day's first delivery.

Civil Disobedience Is Only Way Left To Fight Climate Change

May 14, 2016 Kara Moses, www.theguardian.com , ,
By Kara Moses for The Guardian - Right now, thousands of people are taking direct action as part of a global wave of protests against the biggest fossil fuel infrastructure projects across the world. We kicked off earlier this month by shutting down the UK’s largest opencast coal mine in south Wales. Last Sunday, around 1,000 people closed the world’s largest coal-exporting port in Newcastle, Australia and other bold actions are happening at power stations, oil refineries, pipelines and mines everywhere from the Philippines, Brazil and the US, to Nigeria, Germany and India.

Climate Disobedience And New “Public Trust” Laws Of Nature

May 14, 2016 Ted Hamilton, www.truth-out.org ,
By Ted Hamilton for Truthout - If you think there's something odd about the US committing itself to at least a 26 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2025 even while federally owned landsproduce a quarter of the nation's fossil fuel energy, you just might be a believer in an old legal concept: the public trust doctrine. This ancient idea, applied since Roman days, is pretty straightforward: The government has an affirmative duty to protect natural resources that are shared by everybody.

Pennsylvania Township Legalizes Civil Disobedience

May 5, 2016 Chad Nicholson and Stacy Long, www.celdf.org ,
By Chad Nicholson and Stacy Long for CELDF and Grant Township - Grant Township, Indiana County, PA: Tonight, Grant Township Supervisors passed a first-in-the-nation law that legalizes direct actionto stop frack wastewater injection wells within the Township. Pennsylvania General Energy Company (PGE) has sued the Township to overturn a local democratically-enacted law that prohibits injection wells. If a court does not uphold the people’s right to stop corporate activities threatening the well-being of the community
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