Community

Anishinaabe Water Walk To United Treaty 3 Against Pipeline

August 3, 2015 Idle No More, www.idlenomore.ca Resist! Community, Environment, Indigenous People, Oil & Gas, Pipeline, Resistance

By Idle No More - On August 2, 2015, nearly two dozen (or more) Anishinaabe Women and Men, Youth and Elders will be joined by supporters in a week-long walk against the Energy East Pipeline. The walk will cover more than 125 km of TransCanada’s proposed pipeline route where it crosses and threatens more than a dozen waterways in Treaty 3 Territory. The Anishinaabe Water Walk is organized by Grassroots Indigenous Water Defence (GIWD). What: The Anishinaabe Water Walk is a week-long walk along the route of the proposed TransCanada Energy East Pipeline project, to protect the waters of Treaty 3 Territories. When: Sunday August 2 to Saturday August 8, 2015. Where: Highway 17, Eagle Lake to Shoal Lake, Ontario, Treaty 3.

London: The City That Ate Itself

July 5, 2015 Rowan Moore, www.theguardian.com Educate! Capitalism, Community, Gentrification, London

By Rowan Moore in The Guardian. London is without question the most popular city for investors,” says Gavin Sung of the international property agents Savills. “There is a trust factor. It has a strong government, a great legal system, the currency is relatively safe. It has a really nice lifestyle, there is the West End, diversity of food, it’s multicultural.” We are in his office in a block in the centre of Singapore and he is explaining why people from that city-state are keen to buy residential property in London. He’s right – London has all these qualities. It has parks, museums and nice houses. Its arts of hedonism are reaching unprecedented levels: its restaurants get better or at least more ambitious and its bars offer cocktails previously unknown to man.

Beyond Confrontation: Community-Centered Policing Tools

June 12, 2015 Policy Link, www.policylink.org Strategize! Community, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Policy Link - On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, was shot multiple times and killed by Darren Wilson, a White police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri. This tragic act provoked grief and outrage in Ferguson and across the country. We mourned the loss of an innocent young man, taken before his time, and recognized that his killing was the latest in a long and rapidly growing succession of cases involving police use of lethal force against unarmed people of color. The disproportionate, militarized police response to subsequent community protests in Ferguson — including the use of tear gas and snipers, curfews enforced by armored trucks and tactical units, and the unwarranted arrest of multiple journalists — further incensed the country and, in conjunction with Michael Brown's killing, raised an urgent question: What must change so that not one more person of color is unjustifiably and indefensibly killed by the police?

Fifteen Years Of Community-Controlled Water In Bolivia

June 8, 2015 Marina Sitrin, www.roarmag.org Create! Bolivia, Community, Privatization, Water

By Marina Sitrin in Roar Mag - This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the victory of the communities of Bolivia over private water corporations. Not only did popular power reverse the plan to privatize the water, but the many hundreds of communities surrounding Cochabamba managed to keep their water as a common good, controlled and managed by the community directly and democratically. Other places around the world have also been successful in at least holding back privatizations and mining, such as in Thessaloniki, with the struggle to keep water public and in the Halkidiki region of Greece. In these examples, as in so many others, the struggles are grounded in a particular form of popular power. As with the experience in Cochabamba, it was regular people and communities organized in the streets (not parties, unions or other sectors) using direct action and directly democratic assemblies to make decisions.

Grassroots Organizing Shapes Response To Killing Of Walter Scott

May 31, 2015 Kerry Taylor, www.southernstudies.org Resist! Community, Organizing, Police violence, South Carolina, Walter Scott

By Kerry Taylor in Facing South. The city of North Charleston, South Carolina, has received strong praise for its handling of police officer Michael T. Slager's fatal shooting of 50-year-old African American Walter Scott during an April 4 traffic stop. According to various media commentaries, the city's quick response saved North Charleston from the outbreaks of vandalism and clashes with law enforcement that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri. At the local level, North Charleston's response was shaped by the emergence of a decentralized network of political activists who have been organizing around progressive causes, including labor rights and economic justice, LGBTQ equality, and racial disparities in policing. This network of activists sprang into action just hours after Scott's killing to offer a counter-narrative to the official version of events. They provided victims of police violence an outlet to express their pain and anger by organizing demonstrations, speak outs, and cultural events across the region. And they have carried out a range of protest activities aimed at securing reform. Their collective efforts at movement building, while diffuse and sometimes contradictory, represent an overlooked aspect of the Walter Scott story that has local political significance and strong national resonances.

Texas Fears Fracking Democracy Bans Local Ordinances

May 20, 2015 Earthworks | Denton Drilling Awareness Group | Earthjustice | Natural Resources Defense Council, www.earthworksaction.org Resist! Community, Law, Oil & Gas, Texas

Today Texas Governor Abbott signed HB 40 into law. Written by former ExxonMobil lawyer Shannon Ratliff, the statute forces every Texas municipality wanting common sense limits on oil and gas development to demonstrate its rules are “commercially reasonable”. It effectively overturns a Denton ballot initiative banning fracking that passed last November. “HB 40 was written by the oil and gas industry, for the oil and gas industry, to prevent voters from holding the oil and gas industry accountable for its impacts,” said Earthworks’ Texas organizer Sharon Wilson. Wilson, who played a key role in the Denton ballot initiative, continued, “It was the oil and gas industry’s contempt for impacted residents that pushed Denton voters to ban fracking in the first place. And now the oil and gas industry, through state lawmakers, has doubled down by showing every city in Texas that same contempt.”

NYPD Tries To Arrest 14-Year-Old Girl, Community Doesn’t Allow It!

May 18, 2015 Cassandra Fairbanks, www.thefreethoughtproject.com Resist! Community, New York City (NYC), police brutality, Police the Police

On May 14, copwatcher Michael Barber of the Copwatch Patrol Unit was out doing a great public service in which he frequently engages – filming the police. As he was doing so, he captured something absolutely amazing. The video, originally posted to Facebook early Friday morning, captured undercover officers grabbing at children while attempting to arrest a 14-year-old girl. This was reportedly over allegations that a child who was with her, who witnesses say appeared to be around 7-years-old, had pushed the button on a police call box.

Houston Residents Fear Impact Of Chemical Spill

March 11, 2015 Healthy Port Communities Coalition, www.airalliancehouston.org Educate! Community, Environment, health, Houston

The Healthy Port Communities Coalition (HPCC) calls on Houston’s petrochemical giants to act now to protect their neighbors after a collision in the Houston Ship Channel today led to a shelter-in-place order for several ship channel communities. “Houston’s petrochemical industry is often called the ‘economic engine’ in the region,” said Adrian Shelley, Director of Air Alliance Houston, “For many residents of ship channel communities, though, the industry is an engine of uncertainty and fear. It is disproportionately low-income and minority communities that suffer these negative impacts.” The people and environment of the Houston ship channel need better protection from the deadly risks associated with this industry. Today’s spill of MTBE in the ship channel is only the most recent disaster.

These Neighbors Got Together To Buy Vacant Buildings

March 5, 2015 Olivia LaVechhia, www.yesmagazine.org Create! Community, Housing, Land Rights

In 2011, a group of dedicated neighbors came together to change that. In November of that year, five of them, including Watson, became the founding board of the Northeast Investment Cooperative, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S. cooperative engaged in buying and developing real estate. NEIC created a structure where any Minnesota resident could join the co-op for $1,000, and invest more through the purchase of different classes of nonvoting stock. The group began spreading the word to prospective members, and started looking for a building to buy. One year later, NEIC had enough members to buy the two buildings on Central Avenue for cash. The co-op quickly sold one of the buildings to project partner Recovery Bike Shop, and after a gut renovation, which it funded with a 2 percent loan from the city and a loan from local Northeast Bank, it leased the other building to two young businesses that had struggled to find workable space elsewhere, Fair State Brewing Cooperative and Aki’s BreadHaus.

Chicago Community Taking On Koch Brothers Pollution & Winning

March 3, 2015 Joseph Erbentraut, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Community, Corporatism, Environment

It’s not easy to take on a wealthy, multi-national corporation and win. Especially for residents of Chicago’s struggling southeast side. But that’s exactly what's happening on the banks of the Calumet River, where the steel plants that used to give residents of a mostly Hispanic neighborhood access to a middle-class lifestyle were replaced, nearly two years ago, with black dust called petroleum coke (“petcoke”) piled five or six stories tall. The piles of petcoke -- a byproduct of the oil refining process -- belong to KCBX Terminals, owned by the conservative billionaire Koch Brothers. The piles have been roiling area residents ever since the black dust of mostly carbon and sulfur began blowing into the backyards, playgrounds and neighborhood parks. It blackens skies and leaves behind a sticky residue, raising concerns about aggravated asthma and other health issues.

Could A Community Bill Of Rights Stop A Pipeline?

February 19, 2015 Jes Burns, www.opb.org Strategize! Community, Environment, Fracking, Law, Oregon

Southern Oregon communities along a proposed natural gas pipeline route are looking for creative ways to stop the project. Douglas and Coos County residents hope a Community Bill of Rights will give them a legal avenue to assert local control. The pipeline for the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay would run through the property of Stacey McLaughlin. She doesn’t want it there. And speaking out before government officials has been less than satisfying. “It feels like a waste of my time,” she said. So McLaughlin is organizing her Douglas County neighbors to enact a community bill of rights. It would give cities and counties the legal grounds to say no to projects that violate local values.

Participatory Democracy In El Salvador

February 18, 2015 Beverly Bell, www.otherworldsarepossible.org Create! Autonomy, Community, El Salvador, Participatory Democracy

It is completely rooted in the people. There is a lot of wisdom in people, and so what leaders have to do is be with the people, listen to the people, and address the issues that the people raise, because together, we collectively build the alternatives that actually work. Anything that is done from an office is not going to coincide with reality. So we’re building from the people up. That characterizes the organization where I received my education, La Coordinadora. Our strategic development plans arise from huge assemblies. We can spend up to six months building our strategies, because we need input from all sectors and communities. This plan must work out for us, but it’s also important that it is taken up at the national governmental level, to inform the administration’s five-year plan.

Green Neocolonialism, Afro-Brazilian Rebellion In Brazil

December 29, 2014 Santiago Navarro F., Renata Bessi and Translated Miriam Taylor, www.truth-out.org Resist! Brazil, Community, Displacement

The Afro-Brazilian Quilombola people were forced from their land in Brazil in order to make way for eucalyptus plantations, which produce toilet paper destined for Western markets. But they are resisting by replanting native trees and food crops, and working for a post-eucalyptus reality. The principal use for the cellulose found in eucalyptus plants in Brazil is disposable paper products, such as toilet paper and paper towels - products most in demand in first-world markets. Yet these types of paper products generate social and environmental impacts in places in Brazil where many communities have never even had access to them. The region known as Sape do Norte, which includes the cities of Sao Mateus and Conceicao da Barra, in the state of Espirito Santo, in Brazil, has been heavily affected by eucalyptus plantations.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 »

Daily movement news and resources