Colombians March, Floating Anti-Nuke Protest & Hotel Workers Make Strides

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Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun From Sept 25-27, thousands of Indigenous Colombians marched in Bogata, calling for an end to paramilitary violence in their regions. They also voiced support for social reforms to alleviate poverty, pointing out the systemic connection between economic hardship, drug cartels, and the violence. It’s a connection that many places worldwide […]

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5,059+ Actions During Campaign Nonviolence Action Days 2023

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This post was originally published on Waging Nonviolence. Twin Cities Nonviolent, one of the sites with our Nonviolent Cities Project, held two environmentally-themed musical actions as part of their 12 Days Free From Violence. On Sept. 30, the symphony group Classical Uprising performed “The (Uncertain) Four Seasons,” Vivaldi’s classic with a climate twist. On Sept. 25, another […]

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Uruguay Saltwater Protests, Orange Cones Vs. Driverless Cars & the Friendship From Hell

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Nonviolence News Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun If you zoom out to a distant vantage point of human history, you can see the arc of the universe bending toward a certain kind of justice. If we secure a future for humanity, historians will look back on these times and identify them as an era in […]

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Safety, Dignity, Living Wages, a Healthy Planet – Is This Too Much To Ask?

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Nonviolence News Editor’s Note From Rivera Sun Looking around the globe in this week’s Nonviolence News, it’s evident that people are gripped in “struggles of survival”. The demands are sensible, reasonable: people want safety from brutal repression, they want wages that pay the bills, and they want a planet they can live on that won’t […]

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Pigs In Parliament, Beach Parties & Sewer Drains: 32 Protests To Inspire Creativity

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Originally published by Campaign Nonviolence (in collaboration with Nonviolence News) on Waging Nonviolence. Nonviolent action is an art, a science and a toolbox for making change. With over 300 methods of waging struggle — from street art to strikes, boycotts to blockades — and millions of people engaging with it, nonviolent action is innovative, unexpected […]

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My New Rule For Climate Action

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I have a new rule: any day that’s warmer than the historic average is a day to take climate action. In Northern Maine today, the temperature is a nippy 31 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s still cold, but the historic average is a frigid 14.4 degrees.

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Elephant Wars

Dev and the Elephant War

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This story by Rivera Sun is part of a 5-story series on climate solutions commissioned by Metta Center for Nonviolence. Find out more, watch an animated film, and find a lesson plan for students ages 11-18 here. Each night was war. The elephants invaded in the dark. They came from the forest, crashing and cracking […]

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The Boy Who Hated Fishing

The Boy Who Hated Fishing

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This story by Rivera Sun is part of a 5-story series on climate solutions commissioned by Metta Center for Nonviolence. Find out more, watch an animated film, and find a lesson plan for students ages 11-18 here. Leonardo sulked in the bow of his father’s boat. The sky blazed blue. The water sparkled. The wind […]

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Fridays for Future

How Nonviolent Action Is Protecting the Earth

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By Rivera Sun for Campaign Nonviolence, originally published at Waging Nonviolence In our efforts to build a culture of active nonviolence, Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence has always urged people to practice nonviolence toward oneself, all others (including socially, culturally, economically and politically) and toward the Earth. Violence toward the planet and ecosystems takes uncountable forms: […]

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Beyond Changing Light Bulbs: 21 Ways You Can Stop the Climate Crisis

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Here’s the good news: The debate is over. 75% of US citizens believe climate change is human-caused; more than half say we have to do something and fast.  Here’s even better news: A new report shows that more than 200 cities and counties, and 12 states have committed to or already achieved 100 percent clean electricity. This means that […]

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Sparking Change: How Movements Pass On Inspiration

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Change doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Resistance is a continuum. Nonviolent movements arise amidst the efforts of many other struggles. The knowledge of how to organize for change is a global legacy passed between movements and generations of activists through lineages of inspiration that stretch through hundreds of years. (The first recorded strike happened in […]

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Tapping Into People Power

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by Rivera Sun, Editor of Nonviolence News In times like this, many of us feel powerless to do anything about the political, social, and environmental injustices we face. But, power is everywhere. Like sunlight and solar panels, it’s a question of tapping into it. Accustomed to the top-down power of presidents and CEOs, most of […]

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Turning the Titanic: Belfast Shipyard Workers Want to Build Windmills

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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 […]

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Creative + Strategic = Effective Movements for Change

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by Rivera Sun, Editor of Nonviolence News If you want to make change, think outside the protest box. It’s easy to get hung up on protests. We’ve heard about them, they’re highly visible, and they’re relatively easy to pull off. The problem with protests is that – all too often – they’re easily ignored. Creativity […]

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The Bottom Line: Go For The Money

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by Rivera Sun It’s rare to hear business magazines admit the power of nonviolent action. As the editor of Nonviolence News, a service that collects and shares 30-50+ stories of nonviolence in action each week, I often see business journals minimizing the effect of activism. Usually, industry tries to conceal the impact nonviolent action has on […]

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Nonviolence News: A Record-Breaking Year

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May 11-18, 2019 Editor’s Note from Rivera Sun: By the numbers, Nonviolence News covers stories that involve millions of people. Civil disobedience arrests are happening by the dozens. Demonstrations involve thousands. Strikes include hundreds of thousands. This week alone, Nonviolence News is covering stories about 100-200,000 French protesters, 300,000 teachers on strike in Poland, thousands […]

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Going Horizontal: Written for Workplaces, Perfect for Activists

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A Review by Rivera Sun The Occupy Movement ignited popular awareness of “horizontal” concepts, yet many years have passed and few movements – and even fewer organizations – have really figured out how to embody those ideas. Samantha Slade’s new book, Going Horizontal, offers practical tools and tangible practices for all of us seeking to […]

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The End of the NRA: Biz Mags Tell Activists “The Strategy Is Working”

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Good news for humanity: the NRA is weakening. The gun-lobbying group is in “deep financial trouble,” Fortune Magazine reported, and warns that the NRA may not be able to keep going. “The group says it is under such financial distress because New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has convinced a number of financial service providers, banks, […]

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Overthrow the Corporate Overlords

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If you like being a peon, a serf, or a slave, by all means, continue on with business-as-usual. Your corporate overlords are delighted to exploit you. They’re thrilled at the prospect of profiting off your descendants for all eternity. But their hourglass is running out of sand. The planet’s ecosystems are collapsing. We will not […]

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8 Awesome Lessons from the Entrepreneurial Feminist Forum

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I recently left the country (for a weekend) and joined an international group of feminists of all genders at the Entrepreneurial Feminist Forum (EFF) in Toronto. I had been invited to offer a workshop on the tools and strategies activists use to make change. When I first heard about this group (not knowing anything about […]

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Rivera Sun’s Murmuration Exercise for Leaderful Organizing

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Murmuration Exercise Adapted for movements and organizations by Rivera Sun Please use and share, but please let participants know where it comes from so a sense of lineage and longevity is built through our movements. Thank you. History: I first learned this exercise as a group improvisational dance structure at Bennington College with Dance Professor […]

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Alaren and the Brothers Wall – Stories of the Third Brother

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Note: This short story is part of The Adventures of Alaren, the fictional folktales of the world in the Ari Ara Series. You can learn more and find the books here. Alaren and the Brothers Wall In the Stony Pass, north of the East-West Road, the two kings Marin and Shirar were building a wall. Two walls, […]

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After the Vote

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An Essay of the Man From the North (The Writings of the Fictional Character Charlie Rider from The Dandelion Insurrection) by Rivera Sun The Vote – the beloved, abused, scorned, corrupted, stolen, hijacked, pointless, profound, hopeful, depressing, hard-won, cherished vote – is not the only way to take action for meaningful change. Currently, the elections […]

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Protect the Net!

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Stop Crony Capitalism: Protect the Net! by Rivera Sun Pretty soon, we’ll all be paying a whole lot more money for Internet service. A few days ago the FCC’s repeal of Net Neutrality went into effect. If nothing is done, it easy to see the handwriting on the wall. After a waiting period of no […]

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