Think Outside the Protest Box

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Protest. Petition. Call your senators. Nothing changes, right? No matter how large our demonstrations get, no matter how many millions of people write and petition politicians, no matter how many people get arrested in front of the White House or at our state capitols, it seems that our (supposedly) elected officials keep turning a blind […]

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Shifting Systems with Nonviolent Strategy

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The secret to successful nonviolent struggle lies in understanding strategy and systems. All systems require participation and resources to survive. Deny those things, and the system will wither away . . . or concede to meet your demands. Strategy can be that simple. Cut off the water and the plants will die. Block all other […]

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A Revolution By Any Other Name

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There are some who mince their steps and words, who hush the bold and outspoken, who advise moderation. But, a revolution by any other name does not smell as sweet. Reform does not cut it. Resistance is not enough. Massive change is vague. Transformation calls to mind change, yet does not invoke the burning urgency, the gritty intensity of the tsunami of change […]

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Bring On Solutionary Rail!

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It’s not every day that you run across an idea so elegant, so eminently practical that your jaw literally drops as you stagger beneath the shock of your huge “aha” moment. Solutionary Rail did that for me. Rail experts and long-time activists from Backbone Campaign have struck gold with their well-researched proposal to electrify America’s […]

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Blockade the Gangplanks on the Titanic

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An Essay of the Man From the Northby Rivera Sun Blockade the gangplanks of the Titanic! Shut down the boilers of the ship! Storm the stairs from steerage and seize the wheel! We have passed the point where token victories, small handouts, and crumbs from banquet tables will help us. We have struck too many […]

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Rise And Live!

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Stay asleep, by all means. If you wish to die, sleepwalking over the cliff edge of extinction is one way to go. Stay afraid, by all means. If you wish to die, cowering in fear until poverty starves or the police state kills you is one way to go. Stay addicted, by all means. If […]

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Otpor!

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On October 5th, 2000, the Serbian nonviolent revolutionary movement, Otpor!, succeeded in overthrowing the dictator Slobodan Milosevic in a dramatic show of people-power. Otpor is Serbian for “resistance”. Otpor! began in 1998, launched by veterans of a previous student anti-Milosevic campaign that had failed. A group of a dozen or so students picked themselves up […]

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Solidarity, Poland

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When Soviet forces liberated Poland from Nazi occupation after World War II, the struggle was far from over for Polish citizens. The Soviets installed a government under which workers were employed by state-owned businesses and could not organize or represent themselves. Independent unions were banned. Over the decades, frustration grew among workers and citizens, aggravated […]

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Radical Love

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I used to think of love as a side dish to social political change – the green beans next to the meat and potatoes of power and struggle. But, the more I live in the gritty world of honest humanity, the more I suspect that love is the essential mineral lacking in our nation’s veins. […]

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Argentina’s Mothers of the Disappeared

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On April 30, 1977, Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti and a dozen other mothers gathered in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina’s capitol city to demand justice for their children, who had been “disappeared” by the military junta early in the Dirty War period – a reign of terror that would last from 1974 to […]

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Gandhi’s Salt: How a Fistful of Mud and Seawater Shook the British Empire

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On April 6th, 1930 at 6:30am after morning prayers, Mohandas K. Gandhi raised a lump of salty mud and declared, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.” Salt was an unexpected choice for the revolutionary nonviolent movement. Earlier that year, the Indian National Congress had boldly issued a declaration of self-rule, […]

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Throw Off the Tyranny of Poverty! – An Essay of the Man From the North

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An Essay of the Man From the Northby Rivera Sun Curse the war culture! It leaves us at a loss for words, bereft of metaphors to describe our situation. Our minds become blank slates, unable to recognize dangers at the door unless they carry assault weapons or drop bombs on our heads. Poverty and poverty-related […]

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The Earth Is Singing Her Revolution – Excerpt from Steam Drills

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“The Revolutionary Table” Chapter Fourteen of Steam Drills by Rivera Sun Patrick, Louisa, Hank, Wanda, and Ford all crowded around the kitchen table in Henrietta’s two-room cabin. Old Moses Nelson’s mother gave birth to him on that table. Strong and sturdy, rugged as the ancient oak that formed its boards; the table’s grains held a […]

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Nonviolent Resistance to Trump: Creative, Powerful . . . and Growing

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The rise of Donald Trump has been infuriating, horrifying, and ridiculous all at once. Meanwhile, what we, the People, are doing to resist injustice, oppression, discrimination, hate, bigotry, and authoritarianism is downright inspiring. Nonviolent action is reaching new heights of creativity in the United States, widening in frequency and participation. Here’s just a sample of […]

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People Power Revolution in the Philippines

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February 25th commemorates the victory of the People-Power Revolution in the Philippines, in which nonviolent civil resistance (people power) overthrew President Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos had been elected in 1965, and again in 1969. When barred from a third term campaign for re-election, he declared martial law, arrested his opposition leaders, and dissolved congress. His primary […]

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Defending Against the Unknown

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An Essay of the Man from the Northby Rivera Sun The challenges that confront us loom imminent, yet still unknown. Like dangers in the dark, we can sense but not clearly see them. Our government is preparing new assaults upon our rights and maneuvering more regressive unjust legislation through the machine of the political apparatus. […]

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Christmas Day Truce

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The Christmas Day Truce is one of the more memorable stories of peace. During World War I, nearly 100,000 French, British, and German soldiers participated in an unofficial ceasefire around the Christmas holidays of 1914. Wikipedia reports, “In the week leading up to the 25th, French, German, and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal […]

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Pieces of Truth Forged Into Daggers of Deception

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When truth and reality are shattered into a thousand shards of deception, skewed and slanted into vicious weapons for power and control, how can we in the Dandelion Insurrection move forward? Cautiously. Gandhi said, “We all have a piece of the truth.” Ideally, we would use our diverse perspectives to build a home for all […]

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Julia Butterfly Hill

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On December 10th, 1997, Julia Butterfly Hill ascended into the upper branches of a 180-foot tall, 1000+ year old redwood tree in Humboldt County, California. She would not come down for 738 days. For over two years, despite dangerous conditions and much hardship, she maintained a tree-sit that ultimately resulted in saving the old growth […]

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Night of Terror

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November 14th, 1917, is known as the “Night of Terror”. During the women’s suffrage movement, thirty-three nonviolent demonstrators were sent back to prison for participating in the Silent Sentinel protests in front of the White House. They had all served time before, experiencing the horrible conditions of the workhouse. In his book, “Nonviolent Lives“, Ken […]

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Fuel For Change: Excerpt from The Dandelion Insurrection

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  (This is an excerpt from Rivera Sun’s novel, The Dandelion Insurrection, which you can find here.)   Charlie and Zadie drove down the main street of the rural Pennsylvanian town. The locals stood in the doorways, frowns carving their faces as they stared at the teeming soldiers. The waitresses at the diner peered through […]

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Resisting Operation Extract and Export

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An Essay of the Man From the North Don’t wait until the perils of extraction are on your doorstep, in your backyard, or poisoning your water. Look around! Pay attention to the stories coming from the north, south, east, west. See the noose of hard truth tightening. Oil and gas extraction is invading the United […]

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Countering Hate and Discrimination

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by Rivera Sun for Campaign Nonviolence and Peace Voice Many people in the United States are expressing concern over the rise of hatred, hate crimes, bigotry, racism, sexism, and Islamophobia. At the same time, a number of creative nonviolent responses have arisen for addressing discrimination and hatred on the ground. Here are a few stories […]

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Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution: Know Your Nonviolent History

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Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution in 1989 —  Campaigners sought to end the Soviet occupation of the country, as well as shifting from communist rule. They wanted to remove the laws of state-mandated censorship and demanded free elections. Just eighteen months before the November nonviolent revolution, Czechoslovakians organized their first public mass demonstration since 1969. Roman Catholic […]

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