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Social Movements

A Strategy For Social Self-Defense

March 21, 2025 Jeremy Brecher, Strike. , , ,
French Prime Minister George Clemenceau once warned that “generals always prepare to fight the last war, especially if they won it.” Conditions in 2025 differ in many ways from those of 2017. Social Self-Defense against Trumpian autocracy in the new MAGA era will fail if it is simply a rerun of the first Trump Resistance. Its strategy will have to pay continuous attention to what the Trump regime is doing, how people are reacting, and what opportunities for action those developments open or close. Trump’s actions and popular response are highly unpredictable, so his opponent’s strategies will have to be highly flexible.

No One Is Coming To Feed Us

January 25, 2025 The Chronicles for Black Political Power. , , ,
It's January 2025, LA is burning, Richmond has no water, Helene survivors are getting kicked out of hotels by FEMA. The level of government response you grew up with is gone. This has left millions wondering; what is it going to take for Americans to say enough is enough? The missing piece of the puzzle is food. If we can't feed ourselves, we can't disrupt the system that feeds us. If we don't source our food locally, we won't fight to stay. We urgently need communities that can feed themselves while withholding labor, communities that trust and rely on each other, and communities that understand the vital importance of the land they're living on.

Panamanian Movements Vow To Resist Trump’s Threats

January 21, 2025 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Panamanian movements have expressed their readiness to resist US President Donald Trump’s threats to Panama’s sovereignty. On January 20, as part of a mobilization of trade unions and social movements in Panama City in defense of the public pension system, they will also denounce the expansionist threats of Trump. At a rally in December, Trump said that the fees being charged at the Panama canal are too high and that if they did not come down, “we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, quickly and without question.”

Running In Circles On Racial Justice

January 21, 2025 Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, LA Progressive. , , ,
We keep running in circles when it comes to addressing racial justice in the US. This means that with every advance we almost come back to the same place and must fight the battles all over again. It doesn't mean that progress has not been made, but the progress retrogresses due to the immediate backlash that charges any advance to rectify past racial injustices as an affront to white people. At best there is an ebb and flow when it comes to rectifying the racial harms and damages of the past. Race history and the many initiatives to rectify past wrongs are more of a circle than a linear line.

International Anti-Fascist Festival In Venezuela Ends With Resolution

January 13, 2025 Ultimas Noticias, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , , , , ,
The International Anti-Fascist World Festival For a New World, held in Caracas, Venezuela, in which more than 2,000 delegates from 125 countries participated, came to an end. At the closing ceremony of the festival, on Saturday, January 11, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro thanked the participants for attending the festival and pointed out that the proposals that have emerged demonstrate the vitality that this movement is gaining. “On behalf of all Venezuela, I thank you for coming to this unprecedented event,” said President Maduro, adding that “we are at peace, in democracy, in full exercise of our national sovereignty, and the people are moving forward in this new stage.”

COP29 Contradiction And The Climate

December 21, 2024 Krys Cerisier, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
Climate activists are considering throwing in the COP towel after negotiations led to a poor budget deal, with activists walking away with only $300 billion of their $1 trillion goal after this year's dubbed 'finance’ COP. The 29th annual Conference Of Parties, or COP29 was created to facilitate international cooperation over ways to keep the global average temperature rise close to 1.5 degrees C. However, climate activists are now arguing that the process is instead a way for fossil fuel industries to protect their interests. While at COP, climate activist and five time COP attendee Xiye Bastida explained, “It's no mistake that the last three COPs have been in oil [rich] countries."

How To Build A Culture Of Organizing

December 1, 2024 Steve Dubb and Marshall Ganz, Non Profit News. , , ,
Democracy is not something you have; it is something you do. If you’re not doing it, it’s not real. Sadly, in our country, there is less and less of it being done. Take the replacement of self-governing organizations with nonprofits or NGOs: there is nothing democratic there. It is almost like unions are one of the few remaining forces where people are actually practicing self-government. It is kind of hard to have any real understanding of what democracy means in terms of how we interact with each other and how we govern ourselves when it is not part of your daily experience. It hollows out any real understanding of democracy.

With COP29 Failure Global Struggle Needed To Save The Planet

November 28, 2024 Betsey Piette, Workers World. , , ,
The year 2024 is on track to be the warmest year ever. Since January there have been more destructive hurricanes, cyclones and tornadoes than any time in history. Around the globe, record rainfalls have resulted in massive mudslides that wiped away entire towns. As the year’s end approaches, climate scientists report that 2024 “will be the first year in which the world’s average surface temperature exceeded the pre-industrial average by 1.5 degrees Celsius.” (Truthout, Nov. 22) Global warming “tipping points” established decades ago appear to be on the brink of being surpassed, and many climate scientists already considered the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature limit to be too high.

In Times Of Crisis We Need More People Power

November 23, 2024 Paul Engler, Waging Nonviolence. ,
Social movements often face a contradiction: To expand and thrive, they need to bring in ever-greater numbers of new participants. And yet, knowing how to effectively absorb new people and plug them into a movement’s work can be very difficult. This is a problem even during normal times, but it grows even bigger during times of political crisis — such as the moment we are facing right now. Imagine that you are an organizer and that you just pulled off a fantastic direct action. A small and powerful protest you held locally generated excitement and made news headlines. The public noticed, and the next day there are 10 people at your office door who saw the demonstration and are excited to get involved.

Pro-Palestine Protests Erupt In Rio Ahead Of G20 Summit

November 19, 2024 Al Mayadeen English. , , , , , , , ,
Hundreds of protesters marched along Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Copacabana Beach on Saturday, rallying in solidarity with Palestinians and addressing global issues just days before global leaders gather for the G20 summit. The peaceful demonstration, held under steady rain and watched by heavy security, aimed to send a message to the heads of state and government convening in the city on Monday and Tuesday. Protesters carried Palestinian flags and banners demanding an end to Brazil-"Israel" relations and a halt to military funding for "Israel's" genocidal campaign in Gaza and Lebanon.

Conservative US lawmakers Hound Pro-Palestine Organizations

September 29, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
On September 25, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson took to social media to attack several pro-Palestine organizations, which have been leading in the solidarity movement across the United States. Johnson referenced the action taken by the United States House Committee on Ways and Means, led by conservative Representative Jason Smith, which has called on the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of eight organizations. According to Smith, these organizations have “organized and subsidized illegal activity on college campuses and beyond and have potentially provided support to terrorist organizations overseas.”

What The US Can Learn From Gambia About Defeating Petty Tyrants

September 27, 2024 Phil Wilmot, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
Yahya Jammeh rose to power in Gambia through a coup d’etat in 1994. For 22 years, his rule was characterized by autocracy, politically motivated torture, killings and poor geopolitical relations with neighbors. In 2016, Jammeh was finally pushed out of power in the country of about three million citizens. His overthrow is largely credited to the people of Gambia, who mobilized against yet another coup attempt by the Jammeh regime. (Defeated at the polls, Jammeh had conceded to victor Adama Barrow, but then reneged on that concession.) Out of this political circus rose a movement using the hashtag #GambiaHasDecided.

From The Antifascist Congress In Venezuela

September 16, 2024 Rosa Miriam Elizalde Resumen English. , , ,
In Venezuela, more than a thousand international guests from 95 countries gathered this week at the first World Congress against Fascism, Neo-Fascism and similar expressions. We listened to brilliant interventions that defined the conceptual framework where these political groups are produced and reproduced and emphasized crucial and novel elements of the new era. But the surname 2.0 is not secondary. The new technologies -particularly the so-called social networks- that these political formations have known how to use before and better than others, with the help of algorithms that favor by design polarization, extremism and the exacerbation of feelings of irritability and compulsion to violence in the eagerness to compete for attention, weigh heavily.

ManiFiesta Brings A Weekend Of Solidarity And Activism To Belgium

September 8, 2024 Ana Vračar, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , ,
Thousands are expected to gather in Ostend, Belgium, on September 7-8 for ManiFiesta, a festival of solidarity organized by a coalition of left organizations in the country. The event will mark the unofficial start of Belgium’s political season, bringing together activists, trade unionists, and political leaders to discuss some of the most pressing issues in Europe and the world today. ManiFiesta, organized by groups including Intal, Cubanismo, and Redfox, with the support of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB), consists of a mix of political discussions, cultural performances, and music. This year’s lineup includes performances by funk band Jamila & the Other Heroes, and rapper Lowkey.

To Address The Climate Emergency, Foundations Must Spend Big On Movements

September 8, 2024 Margaret Klein Salamon, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
As a clinical psychologist turned climate activist and now a funder of disruptive climate protests, I have witnessed the profound disconnect between the urgency of our climate crisis and the tepid, cautious response of the philanthropic sector. It brings me close to despair, as I know that incrementalism or philanthropy-as-usual can’t possibly be effective at protecting humanity. The public is in a mass delusion of normalcy — sleepwalking off a cliff — and philanthropy is complicit. Philanthropy has treated the climate as one problem among many that should be dealt with in a “business as usual” way, including all of the philanthropic sector’s incrementalism and caution.
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