Nonviolence

Counter-Coup Unarmed Community Organizing Resource List

October 3, 2020 By Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Organize! Nonviolence, Nonviolent Action

An organizer and analyst we deeply respect, “Training for Change” co-founder George Lakey, recently suggested Voices help maintain a list of organizations in the U.S. which are helping people prepare for the possibility of a stolen election, a rigged election, or an outright coup following November 3rd voting in the U.S.. In a nation with rapidly dwindling concern for democracy, the principle of nonviolent community organizing for democracy has seldom seemed so urgent. We’re impressed by the quality of outreach and organizing which has already developed in cities and states across the U.S.

When The State Cannot Protect, Civilians Have The Responsibility To Intervene

July 14, 2020 Mel Duncan, Waging Nonviolence. Create! Anti-Racism, Nonviolence, Police violence, White Privilege

A few years ago, I was walking in Minneapolis, just a few miles from where George Floyd was murdered, when a panicked, young Native American man ran by me and into the street. Immediately afterward, a Minneapolis Police squad car pulled next to me. One officer jumped out, tackled the young man in the middle of the street and started pounding his face into the pavement. I approached the officer and told him that he was using excessive force and I had his badge number. His partner quickly escorted me back to the curb while informing me that I would be arrested for interfering with the arrest. I stood, yelling, while the beating continued. Recently standing at the memorial in front of the Cup Foods where Mr. Floyd was murdered, I recalled my earlier experience.

13 Percent of Environmental Activists Are Killed Worldwide

June 3, 2020 Telesur English. Educate! Environmental Movement, Nonviolence, State Violence

The Autonomous University of Barcelona's Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) published a study that shows that 13 percent of environmental activists are killed and another 18 percent are victims of physical violence worldwide. Research reveals that citizen movements halt ecological degradation by up to 27 percent of environmental conflicts, despite the high rate of criminalization, violence, and murders, especially in conflicts related to mining. The Environmental Justice (ENVjustice) scientists analyzed 2,743 cases of environmental conflicts from around the world recorded in the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), an interactive map that identifies and locates existing ecological conflicts.

White Women Line Up To Form Human Shield To Protect Black Protesters

June 2, 2020 Nicole Duncan, The Grio. Resist! Nonviolence, Police, Protests, Rebellion2020

Injustice and discrimination tend to be described in binary terms: good vs. evil, female vs. male, Black vs. White. However, at one of the at least twenty anti-police violence demonstrations held across the country on Thursday, an act of alliance disrupted that line of thinking by showing White bodies on the line to protect Black lives. In an image captured by photographer Tim Druck, scores of White women in Lousiville lined up arm-in-arm to form a human shield separating the Louisville Metro Police from protestors expressing their angst about the murder of Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black people at the hands of the police). Taylor was fatally shot by police as they barged in her home in March with a no-knock warrant and killed her while she was laying in her bed.

Beating Swords Into Plowshares

June 1, 2020 Kathy Kelly, Voices For Creative Nonviolence. Educate! Legal System, Nonviolence, Nuclear Weapons, Wars and Militarism

Inscribed on a wall across from the United Nations in New York City are ancient words of incalculable yearning: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” – Isaiah 2:4 I’ve stood with activists in front of that same wall singing Down by the Riverside, a song promising we’ll lay down our swords and shields, -“and study war no more, no more.”

First US Citizen Convicted For Protests At Nuclear Weapons Base In Germany

June 1, 2020 By John LaForge, Counterpunch. Resist! Germany, Legal System, Nonviolence, Nuclear Weapons

A US Air Force veteran of the US war in Vietnam and two other nuclear weapons protesters were found guilty of trespassing and damage to property in Cochem District Court May 11, 2020, as a result of July 2018 protest action at Germany’s Büchel Air Force Base, where the United States positions 20 of its nuclear bombs and where German pilots train to use them in possible attacks against Russia. There have been repeated arrests and detentions of US citizens during protests at the Büchel base since 2017, but no charges have been brought to trial until now. The judge sentenced all three to fines equivalent to 30 times their daily income plus court costs. The fines ranged from 150 to 900 Euros ($165 to $990). Refusing to pay could see the defendants jailed for up to 30 days. The three were among 18 war resisters.

The Problem Of “Peaceful Protesters”

May 28, 2020 It's Going Down. Strategize! Nonviolence, Protest, State Violence, Violence

Across the world and across history, oppressed, marginalized, poor, and working-class people have used a variety of tactics to further their goals and fight back, and this includes things that could be considered violent. Overall, this means that when people refuse their roles within society and instead force the system into a state of crisis, that’s when we can create a situation in which we can forward our own agenda. This often means that people refuse to do the things that allows the system to reproduce itself. In the case of workers, people strike. In the case of renters, they go on rent strike. For the poor, they refuse to be passive: they riot. In the case of all, they defend themselves against the violence of State repression and the police: they fight back.

Disobedient Peace As A Form Of Non-Cooperation With Inhumanity

May 27, 2020 Peace Science Digest. Strategize! Injustice, Mexico, Nonviolence, Peace

Peace is often viewed as the absence of violence, individuals and groups getting along, and, simply, an orderly life within and between societies. In this view, peace is often thought to be achieved through (military) strength. Those who are part of dominant groups benefit from such understandings of peace. The author of this article suggests that the concept of peace has been abused and manipulated—emptied of content or associated with militarization and repression instead of with justice. To re-appropriate the concept of peace, he introduces the notion of disobedient peace—building knowledge collectively through reflection and action, questioning taken-for-granted assumptions about a complex social order and obedience to authority, and developing a moral identity and action plans to disobey inhumane social orders.

The Violence Of Non-Violence: Canadian Sanctions Policy In Times Of COVID-19

May 8, 2020 By Claudia Chaufan and Maria Victor Paez, Orinoco Tribune. Strategize! Canada, COVID-19, Nonviolence, Sanctions

While there is no shortage of evidence for the economic, social, and health effects of sanctions, both state and nonstate actors – among the latter, many ostensibly averse to the use of military force – neglect, when not altogether ignore, the devastation caused by sanctions. Take, for instance, the case of sanctions on Venezuela: the policy has frozen assets, banned banks from transactions, and impeded the sale of oil, Venezuela’s main source of income, making the purchase of essential goods such as food and medicine all but impossible, thus targeting not only the Venezuelan government but the entire population.

Here’s Why We Must Decarcerate Now

April 30, 2020 Henry Cervantes, Waging Nonviolence. Create! COVID-19, Decarceration, Nonviolence, Prison

My neighborhood in Chicago, “Little Village,” is the single largest jail site in the United States. The Cook County Jail is usually known as a place where violence occurs, like attacks on inmates and correctional officers, suicides and shootings outside of the courthouse. It has also become what the New York Times called a top national “hot spot” for the coronavirus in recent weeks. As of this writing a staggering 491 inmates and over 360 staff have tested positive for COVID-19. Six inmates have recently died because of the virus, and the numbers of cases continue to grow. There are several important efforts taking place locally, like the Chicago Community Bond Fund and The Bail Project, to reduce the number of people behind bars during this pandemic.

COVID-19: Harnessing The Obstructive Power Of Constructive Program

April 28, 2020 Phil Wilmot, Nonviolent Conflict. Strategize! Constructive Program, Nonviolence, Resistance

Crises bring out the worst and best in people, and they do so on a mass scale. Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, we have seen plenty of toilet paper hoarding and other selfish acts, but arguably even more goodhearted people asking, “What else can I do?” Movement organizers themselves have been asking, “What infrastructure do we have, and how can we pivot it toward crisis response?” These are important questions to be asking right now, but organizers should take them one step further. Choosing to repurpose one’s movement toward community needs in times of crisis has short- and long-term strategic value. In this article I share a few thoughts about how movements can build power by serving their local communities—immunizing their movements from losing momentum with a “vaccine” of constructive programs and obstructive strategies.

The Choice For Global Nonviolence Is Sharper Than Ever

April 11, 2020 Ken Butigan, Pace e Bene. Strategize! climate crisis, Nonviolence, Pandemic, Recession

Violence—which individuals and whole societies chronically reach for in the hopes of defending themselves, solving their problems or resolving their conflicts—makes no sense in coping with this dangerous reality. Violence will not flatten the curve of infection or heal those who have tested positive. If anything, violent policies and behavior—attacking the sick or restricting their access to treatment, or exploding into rage—will only worsen an already bad situation. Instead, people everywhere are increasingly unleashing the power and spirit of nonviolent engagement: compassion, courage, resilience, sacrifice and concerted action for the common good. In the midst of the terror of this moment, these facets of active nonviolence are spreading everywhere as we mobilize to prevent transmission, treat the sick, console the dying, comfort survivors, and learn vital lessons from the awful toll that this cataclysm is taking.

Iraq Protesters Form ‘Mini-State’ In Tahrir Square

December 15, 2019 Qantara.de. Create! Democracy, health, Iraq, Nonviolence

With border guards, clean-up crews and hospitals, Iraqi protesters have created a mini-state in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, offering the kinds of services they say their government has failed to provide. "We've done more in two months than the state has done in 16 years," said Haydar Chaker, a construction worker from Babylon province, south of the capital. Everyone has their role, from cooking bread to painting murals, with a division of labour and scheduled shifts. Chaker came to Baghdad with his friends after the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage to the Shia holy city Karbala, his pilgrim's tent and cooking equipment equally useful at a protest encampment. Installed in the iconic square whose name means "liberation", he provides three meals a day to hundreds of protesters, cooking with donated foods.

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