Nonviolence

BDS: Nonviolent Resistance To Israeli Occupation

March 25, 2014 Marjorie Cohn, www.commondreams.org Resist! Israel, Nonviolence, Palestine

Thanks to Scarlett Johansson, the American Studies Association (ASA), and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has entered our national discourse. Representatives of Palestinian civil society launched BDS in 2005, calling upon “international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South African in the apartheid era . . . [including] embargoes and sanctions against Israel.”

Occupy Radio: A Roadmap Compass to the New World

March 6, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.popularresistance.org Strategize! Activism, Nonviolence

Those of us engaged in protesting the current failing system sometimes forget to remember the good things happening in our society, such as solar technology, local economies, and small-scale, organic agriculture. As a result, we can become plagued with a sense of hopelessness and despair as we engage in boycotts, strikes, blockades, and protests.

Leading Nonviolent Strategist, Gene Sharp & The CIA

March 1, 2014 Stephen Zunes. Edited John Feffer, fpif.org Strategize! Nonviolence

Gene Sharp, an 80-year-old scholar of strategic nonviolent action and veteran of radical pacifist causes, is under attack by a number of foreign governments that claim that he and his small research institute are key players in a Bush administration plot against them. Though there is no truth to these charges, several leftist web sites and publications have been repeating such claims as fact. This raises disturbing questions regarding the ability of progressives challenging Bush foreign policy to distinguish between the very real manifestations of U.S. imperialism and conspiratorial fantasies. Gene Sharp’s personal history demonstrates the bizarre nature of these charges. He spent two years in prison for draft resistance against the Korean War, was arrested in the early civil rights sit-ins, was an editor of the radical pacifist journal Peace News, and was the personal assistant to the leftist labor organizer A.J. Muste. He named his institute after Albert Einstein, who is not only remembered as the greatest scientist of the 20th century but was also a well-known socialist and pacifist.

Did Nonviolence Fail In Egypt?

February 23, 2014 Mark Engler and Paul Engler, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Egypt, Nonviolence, Revolution

Three years ago this month, the 82-year-old president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, stepped down amid historic protests against his dictatorial rule. News of his resignation on Feb. 11, 2011 marked the climax of an uprising that was quickly recognized as one of the most sudden and significant upheavals of the 21st century. As the New York Times reported, “The announcement, which comes after an 18-day revolt led by the young people of Egypt, shatters three decades of political stasis and overturns the established order of the Arab world.” Activists in Egypt, along with sympathizers throughout the world, rejoiced. “We had tried before. But nothing was like this,” said Ahmed Salah, a veteran youth organizer who had worked for years to drum up resistance to the regime. For months, he had been promoting the audacious and improbable idea of a revolution without arms. “I had hopes, but I never really thought that I’d see it,” he explained. “Tahrir brought tears to my eyes.”

The Witch Hunt For Activists

February 22, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Nonviolence, Occupy, Police abuse

Terrorists are relatively rare. So, every now and then, undercover cops have got to go out and drum up some likely suspects to reassure the public that our money isn't being wasted. The agents go to activist communities, sit around in anarchist cafes, hang out at punk rock concerts, and pop into open air, general assemblies. After getting the lay of the land, they start to advocate violence . . . just to see if there are any violence-prone potential terrorists in the crowd. The agents then arrest the individuals they have actively encouraged to consider violent means. Some would call this entrapment, but, apparently, the courts disagree. Forgive me for being less than grateful to the undercover agents who disrupt meetings, encourage violent tendencies, and even go so far as offer instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails, but this is hardly amusing to those of us in the activist community who take nonviolence - and our work - seriously.

The Limits of Non-Cooperation as a Strategy for Social Change

February 18, 2014 Stephanie Van Hook, http://www.opendemocracy.net Strategize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Nonviolence, Occupy

The application of basic human stubbornness - the capacity to refuse or withhold obedience when faced by a pressing moral choice - is the most widely-researched topic in the field of nonviolence, from explorations of proven methods of civil resistance to the stories of people who have said ‘no’ to taxes or conscription, torture or betrayal. But non-cooperation clearly has its limits in terms of creating social change. As Gene Sharp points out, people’s capacity for this form of action is embedded in human nature, but it is insufficient to achieve the long-term goals of peace and social justice. We have learned how to topple dictators, but not how to replace dysfunctional political systems so that tyranny does not return. We know how to launch new social movements like Occupy and those of the Arab Spring, but not how to sustain their gains by transforming society at large.

The Hidden Potential Of The Greens

February 7, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Climate Change, Democracy, Finance and Economy, Nonviolence

While interviewing Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential Candidate in 2012, for the weekly Occupy Radio show that I co-host (listen here), it seems that she, like many of us, is frustrated by traditional politics. Our conversation revolved not around upcoming election or pieces of legislation, but around building a long overdue mass movement for Peace, People, and Planet over Profit - as the slogan for the upcoming Global Climate Convergence goes. This series of marches, demonstrations, civil disobedience and direct actions being planned for Earth Day to May Day 2014 is intended to set the ground for a global strike in 2015. The time has come to move out of traditional politicking and into the arena of concentrated, coordinated, effective nonviolent struggle. With climate change knocking on our doors, an escalation of nonviolent action is required to match the rapid demise of civil liberties and the disturbing rise of authoritarian, corporate-political collusion that seeks profit over peace, people, and the planet. The countdown for change has begun. If we are to survive on Earth, we, the people, need to become skilled in wielding what Gandhi referred to as "the greatest force at the disposal of mankind."

Building A Movement Of Peace Teams

February 6, 2014 Jessica Anderson, www.mettacenter.org Create! Nonviolence, Police abuse, Wars and Militarism

Meta Peace Team is conceptualized as a way to plan, train, and deploy peace teams where invited both domestically and internationally—again not to take sides or to “fix” problems, but to create space for people to come up with their own solutions to conflicts. The teams are made up of people who are trained in violence de-escalation techniques, committed to the internal work of personal centering so as to be able to overcome fear in the midst of violence, and willing to work collaboratively and with consensus processes. They believe that conflict per se can be constructive but that the use of violence to deal with conflict tends to be destructive—and, accordingly, they see the core of their mission as protecting people from violence no matter where that violence comes from or toward whom it is directed. And, they “walk their talk.”

Man From The North: ‘Blowing Up The Armory’

February 2, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.dandelionsalad.wordpress.com Educate! Nonviolence

We must look starkly at the flailing status of our struggle: these institutions have been invaded by corporate control and extreme greed. We no longer have the option of blowing up these armories – too many innocent civilians are entrenched inside these conquered territories. Nonviolent struggle rejects the notions of “acceptable levels of casualties”. No loss of human life or causing of physical harm can be justified by the worthiness of our cause. We have never had the militaristic luxury of wanton destruction. But neither can we be passive. The tools of our civilization are being forged into weapons of mass destruction. Our responsibility is clear. We must help citizens to safety. We must remove the arsenal from being used to cause harm to ourselves and others.

Green Shadow Cabinet Responds To State Of The Union

January 30, 2014 Staff, www.greenshadowcabinet.us Educate! Finance and the Economy, Health Care, Housing, Nonviolence, Nuclear Weapons, Social Security, Wars and Militarism, Worker Rights and Jobs

It is astounding how much clear thinking you can find on the Internet criticizing President Obama's State of the Union address. It seems less people are fooled and more people are speaking out about the inadequacy of the speech and the over-the-top show-man-ship displayed in the made for TV presentation. The Green Shadow Cabinet has responded to the 2014 State of the Union address with a critique of the policies, priorities and omissions made by President Barack Obama on Tuesday night. The following articles represent an alternative set of principles and policies that acknowledge and address critical issues facing the United States and the world.

Radical Kindness: Inspiration From A Fearless Rebel

January 30, 2014 Rivera Sun, Educate! Nonviolence, Occupy

There is nothing rebellious about violence at this point in human history; it has been normal, accepted, and constant for centuries. Rage and violence are the status quo of a socio-economic system built from exploitation and maintained by cruelty, greed, and destruction of the planet. If we wish to truly rebel against a greedy, warmongering, fear-inducing, corrupt, controlling socio-economic and political system that thrives on keeping its populace isolated, competitive, and antagonistic towards each other and the rest of the world, that rebellion requires not rage or violence, but kindness. Kindness cannot be equated with passivity, however. There is nothing kind about being passive when life-as-usual has become a march toward death. As lovers of humanity, we must admit that our leaders have severe addictions and abusive tendencies. It is an act of kindness - toward ourselves and our opponents - to stand up firmly and put an end to such abuse.

If MLK Were Alive Today (video)

January 20, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Criminal Justice and Prisons, Environment, Government, Martin Luther King Jr, MLK, MLK Speeches, Nonviolence, Oppression, Popular Resistance, Race, Racism, Wars and Militarism, Worker Rights and Jobs

No one can say what King would be doing or saying if government agencies at the local, state and federal level (including the FBI and CIA with an assist from a Mafia henchman) had not conspired to murder him.

My Homage to MLK

January 20, 2014 Michael N. Nagler, www.PopularResistance.org Strategize! MLK, Nonviolence

When Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. says that “darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hatred cannot drive out hatred; only love can do that,” he is pointing out a simple, polar difference between the two forces that determine the quality and direction of our life. St. Augustine long before him had said repeatedly in his monumental City of God, “there are two loves’ (or basic drives), that lead respectively to two world orders.” There are times when we fail to see things because they’re too simple. It takes a kind of courage to peer into that stark, underlying simplicity, to grasp that those two forces, with their opposite character and opposite results, really make up the texture of the moral choices facing us every time we address the major issues of our lives, personal or political. It is the failure to see these two forces as the underlying criterion of our choices, almost without exception, that makes our decisions such a disastrous incompetence.

When Martin Luther King, Jr. Gave Up His Guns

January 17, 2014 Mark Engler and Paul Engler, wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Nonviolence, Racism, Revolution

King’s political genius was in putting the institutional weight of a major national civil rights organization behind an ambitious, escalating deployment of civil resistance tactics. In the case of Birmingham, this meant taking many of the approaches that had been tried before — the economic pressure leveled against merchants during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the dramatic sit-ins of Nashville, the fill-the-jails arrest strategy of Albany — and combining them in a multi-staged assault that sociologist and civil rights historian Aldon Morris would dub “a planned exercise in mass disruption.” In creating an engineered conflict that could capture the national spotlight, King took huge risks. It would have been far easier for an organization of the size and background of the SCLC to turn toward more mainstream lobbying and legal action — much as the NAACP had done. Instead, by following SNCC’s student activists in embracing nonviolent confrontation, SCLC organizers and their local allies created a dramatic clash with segregationists that put the normally hidden injustices of racism on stark public display.

At the Heart of the Problem

January 9, 2014 Rivera Sun, www.PopularResistance.org Strategize! Democracy, Nonviolence

While the armed insurrection of the first American Revolution replaced a unjust monarch with a small, empowered elite sitting at the helm of a Constitutional Republic (as my right-wing friends are quick to remind me), the potential of an effective, nonviolent struggle at this time points to an opportunity for a much greater democratic society than Americans have ever experienced. A growing preference for "power with" versus "power over" has brought us to an interesting moment of reflection. Have we outgrown the rationale for representative democracy? The Founding Fathers (and their contemporary fans and supporters) feared the "rule of the mob". At this point in time, however, it is safe to say that the "rule of the elite" is propelling the mass of the populace into poverty, sickness, homelessness, and environmental collapse.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources