Democracy Now!
Last week, Eric and I presented the first-ever Waging Nonviolence Award at the Plural + Youth Video Festival to Aliens vs Predators, which dramatizes the struggle faced by undocumented high school students in America—from being shut out of higher education to becoming targets of military recruitment. Aside from the pointedly hilarious title, we were impressed
Two events in two nights inspired me. The first was a visit to our community of Greg Mortenson. If you haven't heard of him yet, he's the author of "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time;" and of "Stones into Sc...
Al Giordano, Open Democracy, November 18, 2010Newspapers are downsizing and going out of business. Major broadcast, satellite and cable news organizations are outsourcing and closing international bureaus. The credibility of commercial journalism i...
Olena Tregub and Oksana Shulyar, Open Democracy, November 17, 2010The Orange Revolution was the zenith of Ukrainians’ resentment over blatant manipulation of the 2004 presidential election in Ukraine and the subsequent vote-counting fraud. The cro...
Lester R. Kurtz, Open Democracy, November 17, 2010From the authoritarian’s perspective, internal dissidents are easy to deal with – put them in jail, have them disappeared, exiled, or executed. It is not so easy to silence the prestigious Nobel c...
Phoebe Kennedy, The Independent, November 19, 2010Now she is out, and working hard. "I have so much to do, I barely have time to breathe!" Ms Suu Kyi's next move is to consult, catch up, engage and try to revitalise the democracy movement, which has st...
Teoh El Sen, Free Malaysia Today, November 17, 2010Hunted by the military, human rights activist and documentary filmmaker Wensi Fatubun left his home in West Papua, Indonesia, and continued his fight abroad. "I received an SMS threatening me to back o...
Recently, at his office at Georgetown University, I had the opportunity to interview Charles Villa-Vicencio, a theologian who was National Research Director for the historic South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, led by Desmond Tutu. We discussed the peacebuilding process, a new kind of emerging spirituality, and even his disagreements with Tutu about forgiveness. But
By Michael Adamsky One minute, I was standing in the picket line, chanting against Blue River Waste Management and their ecologically unfriendly practices; the next, the police are breaking up our protest. I read in the paper the next morning … Continue reading →
Could Nonviolent Resistance Defeat Petraeus’ Night Raids in Afghanistan? cross posted by robert naiman Pop quiz on the news: who said this week, referring to the dispute between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. military commander David Petraeus over U.S. Special Forces “night raids” that break into Afghans’ homes in the middle of the night: Many Afghans see the raids as a … humiliating symbol of American power. Was it: a) Afghan President Hamid Karzai b) Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich c) U.S. peace activist Kathy Kelly d) The New York Times The correct answer is d, the New York...
Thirty-three women descended 500 m into the El Chiflon del Diablo mine – an unused carbon mine which now operates as a tourist attraction – to protest the elimination of a labor program of which they belonged and have threatened starting a hunger-strike. One hundred pinwheels briefly blanketed the ground outside an administrative building on
Raise your hand if you've heard of restorative justice. Keep your hand up if you can explain to us what it is. Keep your hand up if you connect it to nonviolence. OK, before I am accused of torture of Joshuan proportions (when Moses kept his arms outst...
From Waging Nonviolence When Nadav Weinberg, a soldier who had served with the Israeli Defense Forces, spoke at Arizona State University last week, the room was filled with protesters. Rather than disrupt his speech, which is often the tactic taken at such events, the demonstrators found a much more powerful way to voice their dissent: silence. Here
The coalition of nonviolent activist based in Lisbon denounce the blocking of their European comrades at the border of the Portugese territory during these last days. read more
The Boston Globe‘s photo blog The Big Picture focused its latest post on recent protests from around the world. The 50 photos range “From quiet, prayerful requests for peace in Mexico to the violent takeover of an office building in London to student demonstrators in Chile and gay rights activists making a statement to the
The just past elections showed that the most important instances of nonviolent activism in the last year here in the United States have been the organizing efforts of the various groups that together call themselves the Tea Party. Through rallies, speeches, voter turnout efforts, and the mobilization of various media outlets, the organizers of the
