Poor People’s March, Kenya Resists, Stonehenge Paint & Rock Climbers for Palestine

Editor's Note From Rivera Sun

Economic injustice is one of the major drivers of mass movements. This weekend, thousands of poor people and allies gathered in Washington, DC, as part of the Poor People’s Campaign’s March To The Polls, an effort to mobilize some of the 140 million poor and low-income US citizens into a political force. It’s the kind of shift that many populaces around the world are making, though not all exercise power through the polls. Most do it in the streets.

For example, in Ladakh, India, a series of protest campaigns over jobs, autonomy, and the climate crisis led to a political flip away from the right-wing. The United Kingdom made a historic shift to a left-wing government for similar reasons. Meanwhile, in Kenya, the youth-mobilized mass protests succeeded in forcing President Ruto to do an about-face on a controversial finance bill, and the demonstrations continue to exert pressure while calling for parliament to dissolve and hold new elections.

In other Nonviolence News, Barcelona, Spain, banned short-term rentals to protect renters. The island of Vanuatu is seeing good results from its plastic ban. A rewilding success on the English coast is inspiring the surrounding area to also take measures help endangered species rebound.

Another wave of climate activists have been arrested during the Summer of Heat On Wall Street, bringing the total arrests to 259. In the United Kingdom, a trio of climate-activism stories caught headlines. In one, a group of activists raised a ruckus for throwing washable paint on Stonehenge. In another, climate leader Roger Hallam filibustered for hours on the witness stand about the reality of the crisis. In the third, the government arrested supporters of Just Stop Oil for nothing more than sharing food at a community event or in their homes.

Wars in multiple parts of the world are being resisted in a range of ways. Some efforts aim for survival and humanitarian relief, such as the communal kitchens in Khartoum, Sudan, that are trying to stave off the famine caused by the civil war. Others are refusing to actively fight, like the Ukrainian men who are fleeing the country to avoid conscription into the army, or the Israeli reservists refusing to serve in Gaza. Still more anti-war actions are continuing to push for divestment from weapons makers and for a ceasefire in Gaza. In one bold action in the United States, rock climbers hung a giant banner off the iconic cliffs in Yosemite National Park. Three thousand feet in the air, it read “Stop the Genocide”.

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The stories in Nonviolence News this week are a reminder that people are courageous, visionary, and determined. The world is changed by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. People like you.

In solidarity,
Rivera Sun