Turning the Titanic: Belfast Shipyard Workers Want to Build Windmills

Editor’s Note from Rivera Sun:

Each week, I read hundreds of articles and survey close to a thousand headlines in search of the stories I feature in Nonviolence News. Finding these reports bolsters my heart.  In New Zealand, 10,000 weapons have been turned in through a buy-back program after the Christchurch massacre.  In Brazil, Indigenous women occupied a building in protest of far-right policies. But the pièce de résistance is the Belfast, Ireland shipyard workers’ two weeks (and counting) occupation of the site that built the Titanic.  130 workers are refusing to leave until the United Kingdom nationalizes the facilities (currently held by an insolvent foreign company that plans to close them) and converts them to producing renewable energy and green infrastructure. How’s that for poetic justice? 

This is just one of many inspiring stories. If you scan through this week’s round-up, you’ll see a staggering number of ways people are resisting injustice. I hope it gives you ideas – we need countless every day heroes and sheroes like you. One reason I compile Nonviolence News each week is the hope that it will inspire us all to find ways to take action.  Do you have a story to share about this? Let me know. I’ll feature your true story about how a story from Nonviolence News inspired you in an upcoming enewsleter. 

With heart and courage,
Rivera Sun, Editor

Photo credit for opening image: Belfast shipyard workers picket the gates of the shipyard that built the Titanic, refusing bankruptcy administrators access to the facility. Image by Unite the Union.

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Here’s what you’ll find in this week’s Nonviolence News:

Victory! Success Stories
Recent Actions & On-Going Campaigns
Racial Justice
Migrant Justice
Climate Action
Creative Action
Knowledge & Reflection
Calls-to-Action

Nonviolence News shares recent success stories so we see and remember
that nonviolent action is powerful and effective. 

Did migrant justice activists really just shut down Homestead Detention Center? Recent news indicates that the migrant children have been moved from the facility. Reports say that they have been sent to their US sponsors (usually family members) or to other facilities.  Read more >> Organizing groups say that questions still remain about where the children went . . . and the work continues to end family separation.  Read more >>

How #MeToo is influencing Sex Ed standards – even in Red States. Editor’s Note: when measuring a “victory”, we sometimes overlook ripple effects like this. Have we ended sexual violence toward women? No, not by a long shot. But this policy shift is an outgrowth of the #MeToo movement and should be celebrated as a partial success and a step in the right direction. Read more >>

Honduran political prisoner Edwin Espinal released on bail, protests continue against government. Read more >>

Under “withering” public criticism, the US Environmental Protection Agency revokes its decision to allow the use of cyanide bombs to kill coyotes and other wildlife.  Read more >>

Around the world, people are launching nonviolent campaigns and/or using principled nonviolence to transform their communities and fight injustice.
Here are a few recent stories. 

Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests force airport to shut down all flights.  Read more >>  Later, the protesters at Hong Kong’s international airport issued apologies to travelers after a peaceful sit-in devolved into chaos and massively disrupted air travel.  Read more >>

New Zealand gun buy-back program collects 10,000 weapons after Christchurch massacre.  Read more >>

Women lead the struggle to preserve democracy in India amid the rise of Hindu nationalism.  Read more >>

Zimbabweans struggle to gain the right to protest as armed police patrol the streets and a court rules against them.  Read more >>

On August 10th, worldwide protests condemned increased US blockade of Venezuela.  Read more >>

Hundreds of Indigenous women occupied a building of Brazil’s health ministry in the capital, Brasília, on Monday to protest against the policies of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.  Read more >>

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans march against Trump’s embargoes.  Read more >>

Extinction Rebellion’s “Animal Rebellion” activists plan to blockade major meat marketRead more >>

Portugal’s fuel truck drivers go on strike.Read more >>

Mongolian herders re-launch cooperatives for sustainable livelihoods.  Read more >>

Swedish women’s hockey team players boycott trainings over lack of pay.   Read more >>

Resist Rockwool holds a sing-out outside the American Institute of Architects to ask them to drop Rockwool’s toxic insulation from their green standards.  The activists are opposing a planned insulation plant factory in a Maryland community.  Read more >>

Walmart employees walk-out to demand the company stop selling guns. 55,000 citizens and employees have signed a petition demanding that the superstore stop gun sales.  Read more >> 

California mayor decides to keep flag at half-mast until Congress takes action on gun control and stopping mass shootings.  Read more >>

Protesters crash ALEC conference opposing the group’s support for criminalizing pipeline protests.  Read more >>

A campaign organizes people to donate to immigrants rights groups for every fascist who attends a large rally in Portland, OR.  “Every one of them that shows up is raising money for a cause that they hate.”   Read more >>

This illustrated story shows why one rich kid decided to give his wealth to social justice causes. Read more >>

People are organizing for racial justice in communities all over the world. Here are some stories of how they are using nonviolent action in those campaigns.

Water Walkers march from Minnesota to Lake Winnipeg to raise awareness about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.  Read more >>

Washington State farmworkers rise up against Trump and labor exploitation. On August 4 workers and their supporters marched 14 miles in 90-degree heat through berry fields just below the Canadian border, protesting the widespread abuse of agricultural labor.  Read more >>

Colin Kaepernick releases powerful video to mark the three-year anniversary of the first “Take A Knee” Anthem protests against racist police killings.   Read more >>

White US fencing champion takes a knee at medals ceremony.   Read more >>

As millions of humans become migrants and refugees from war and climate disasters, the struggle for migrant justice continues to grow.

Jews Against ICE hold nationwide protests, including 44 arrested in New York City direct actions.  Read more >>

Private contractor working for ICE faces investigation after he drove his truck into a crowd of demonstrators, injuring several people.  Read more >>

Banding together after a number of attacks on immigrants and Latinx people in the U.S., more than 200 Latinx entertainers, artists, and rights advocates published a letter in several major newspapers on Friday, pledging solidarity with people of Latin American descent across the United States.  Read more >>

Protests erupt at GEO Group’s new Boca Raton, FL, headquarters in objection to private prisons and migrant detention centers.  Read more >>

How Mississippians rallied for migrant justice and protected people during recent ICE raids.  Read more >>

Living sustainably and protecting our planet are forms of “nonviolence toward the Earth”, which is inseparable from embodying nonviolence toward ourselves and all others. Here are recent stories of nonviolent climate action. 

In late July, the Belfast shipyard which built the Titanic in 1909 was scheduled to be shut down after failing to find a buyer. Instead, over 130 workers seized control of the shipyard. After two weeks of blockading entry, they say they won’t leave until the facilities are nationalized and used to produce renewable energy infrastructure.  Read more >>

Fridays for the Future takes to Swiss streets.   Read more >>

Goldsmiths University in London, UK, takes beef off the university menu to help fight climate change.   Read more >>

Extinction Rebellion UK daubs Brazil’s embassy in bright red paint to protest the destruction of the rainforest and murders of Indigenous peoples.   Read more >>

Colorado’s sweeping new green law includes a mandate for designing Just Transition for former coal workers. Read more >>

Two pipeline protesters lock down to the Mountain Valley Pipeline stopping the construction work.   Read more >>

Nonviolence unleashes humanity’s amazing creativity. Here are a few stories that show how people used a creative approach to work for change.

Artists & activists use Puerto Rican popular heroes and poetry on new “rebel” currencyRead more >>

Fresno State alumna aims to ‘erase’ U.S. border with mural showing faces of deportationRead more >>

Rohingya poets, facing genocide, turn words into art of resistance.   Read more >>

‘Greta effect’ leads to boom in children’s environmental books.  The 16-year-old climate change activist has galvanized young people to read more about saving the planet.   Read more >>

Actor Jason Momoa delays filming Aquaman 2 to protest Mauna Kea telescope.   Read more >>

Extinction Rebellion UK saves the world at Boomtown immersive theater festival.  Read more >>

1,000 US artists join into creative effort to popularize and explain the beauty and necessity of a Green New Deal.  Read more >>

Forced by law to display national motto of “In God We Trust”, a Kentucky school district displays $1 bills with the saying.   Read more >>

In the field of nonviolence, people around the world are deepening their understanding of how nonviolence works to make change and wage peace.

How protesters are ‘deanonymising’ Russia’s riot police. Online tools identify policemen who violently dispersed protesters in Moscow.   Read more >>

Four ways we can engage with the global community of civil resistance.   Read more >>

Who are the Gilet Noirs?  Hint: they use political protest space opened by the Gilets Juanes and seek rights for undocumented migrants.  Read more >>

Here’s what it takes for a boycott to workRead more >>

Here are a few actions and events requesting your participation. 

Global Appeal for Peace organizes international community to oppose war and uphold international law.  Read more >>

#FreeJulianAssange August actions are being held globally on Aug 18, 23, 24th.  Read more > >

Campaign Nonviolence Week of Actions September 14-22, 2019, Everywhere. Host or join a march, rally, protest, or other event or action for a culture of peace and active nonviolence.  Learn more >>

Sept 20-27th, join the Global Climate Strike. (It’s not just for the kids, any more. Get ready to go on strike.) Read more >>

Oct 5th is a Day of Action Against Domestic Violence. Hold or join a 2-min die-in protest.  Learn more >>

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