The Problem is Civil Obedience by Howard Zinn + Matt Damon Reads from Howard Zinn’s Speech

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by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Previously published on November 25, 2013
November 22, 2020

[By the latter part of May, 1970, feelings about the war in Vietnam had become almost unbearably intense. In Boston, about a hundred of us decided to sit down at the Boston Army Base and block the road used by buses carrying draftees off to military duty. We were not so daft that we thought we were stopping the flow of soldiers to Vietnam; it was a symbolic act, a statement, a piece of guerrilla the after. We were all arrested and charged, in the quaint language of an old statute, with “sauntering and loitering” in such a way as to obstruct traffic.

The Murmuration + The Winds of Change are Blowing! by Rivera Sun

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by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
November 20, 2020

Winds of Change is the third novel in the Dandelion Trilogy by Rivera Sun. It’s a wild tale of resistance and resilience, people-powered democracy movements and the race for climate justice. An early release can be found through the novel’s Community Publishing Campaign here.

Beyond Voting by Howard Zinn + What Else You Can Do: 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action by David Swanson

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by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published Nov. 6, 2018, written in 1976
November 3, 2020

Gossip is the opium of the American public. We lie back, close our eyes and happily inhale the stories about Roosevelt’s and Kennedy’s affairs, Lyndon Johnson’s nude swims with unnamed partners and, now, Nixon’s pathetic “final days” in office.

Ralph Nader: What It Takes To Create Social Change Against All Odds

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Dandelion Salad

with Ralph Nader

TEDMED on Oct 23, 2020

It is impossible to think about environmental advocacy today without remembering what brought us here. For decades, Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader has been identifying corporate misdeeds, galvanizing public action, and guiding regulatory action to build a safer and healthier world. From taking on the automobile industry by vying for improved safety features for passengers – like mandatory seat belts – to tobacco regulations, The Clean Air Act, and more, Ralph’s efforts have fundamentally shaped legislature over the past decades.

MFTN: Disrupt! Interrupt! The Ground of Resistance is Ours

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published November 18, 2016
August 11, 2020

A smoothly functioning society is created and maintained by the people. Children go to school, workers show up at their jobs, shipments are made, groceries and purchases are bought, bills are paid, goods and services are delivered; and so on. In times of justice, when the workings of society are fair, respectful, and uphold the rights and dignity of humanity, then the people have every reason to collectively maintain functional workplaces, schools, roads, social events, and so on.

David Swanson and Greta Zarro: How to Demilitarize Police

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with David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, July 31, 2020
August 6, 2020

WorldBeyondWar.org on Jul 30, 2020

World BEYOND War’s David Swanson and Greta Zarro on how to start and win a campaign to ban militarized policing in your locality, anywhere on earth. We recently did this in Charlottesville, VA, U.S., and are now working with a number of cities to do the same.

Chris Hedges and Roger Hallam: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Aug 1, 2020

Chris Hedges discusses resistance with Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, and author of the new book Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse.

Chris Hedges: The Student Uprising in Paris in May 1968

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the video below

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on May 16, 2020

On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to author and translator, Mitch Abidor about the student uprising in Paris in May 1968.

Nothing Is Going Back To Normal — May Day 2020

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Dandelion Salad

sub.Media on Apr 30, 2020

This May Day finds us at an important historic crossroads. Amidst a global pandemic, this year the streets will be eerily silent as people forgo the marches, rallies and riots that are the annual rituals of international workers day.

When The Revolution Comes by Gaither Stewart

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by Gaither Stewart
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rome, Italy
Previously published August 8, 2011
April 21, 2020

The Historical Gastonia Textile Mill Strikes Are Not Forgotten

When in the early part of this millennium I was writing a rather surrealistic novel, ASHEVILLE, about the town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina where I started out my life, I ran into the story of the Asheville-based self-professed Communist writer, Olive Tilford Dargan, of whom I had never heard before. Visiting then her gravesite in the little known Green Hills Cemetery in West Asheville and researching her and her activities I fell into a gossamer review of early 19th century labor struggles in the good old U.S. South.

The Stimulator: Keep Your Rent!

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the video below

Dandelion Salad

sub.Media on Mar 28, 2020

This April 1st, millions of people won’t be able to afford their rent. But together we can get through this. Reach out to your neighbours. Build defense groups. Identify local pressure points. Talk tactics. Be creative. Prepare to stop evictions. On April 1st, keep your rent. And tell your neighbours to keep theirs too.

MFTN: The Sabotage of Division

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published Feb. 23, 2014
March 9, 2020

Enough! Enough of this senseless criticizing of one another. A Dandelion Insurrectionist who is imprisoned and beaten by the police is no more revolutionary than the mother who gets up in the morning and feeds her child. We all have tasks that are imperatives of our times and we must do them with humility. Those of us trying to make change through civil resistance are no nobler than the plumber trying to clear the shit out of the pipes.

Shut Down Canada Until it Solves its War, Oil, and Genocide Problem by David Swanson

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
February 16, 2020

Indigenous people in Canada are giving the world a demonstration of the power of nonviolent action. The justness of their cause — defending the land from those who would destroy it for short term profit and the elimination of a habitable climate on earth — combined with their courage and the absence on their part of cruelty or hatred, has the potential to create a much larger movement, which is of course the key to success.

Chris Hedges: Shut It Down–Stories From A Fierce, Loving Resistance

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Feb 15, 2020

On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to activist and author, Lisa Fithian, about fierce, loving resistance. Lisa has been at the center of some of the most important campaigns of the American resistance movement in the past four decades, including the March for Peace, Justice in Central America and South Africa, Justice for Janitors labor organizing campaign, the Battle of Seattle, Occupy Wall Street, Egypt’s Tahrir Square, Standing Rock, Ferguson, and most recently, the Extinction Rebellion climate justice protests.

The Proletariat In Search Of A Class by Gaither Stewart

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

by Gaither Stewart
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Rome, Italy
February 3, 2020

The super-indoctrinated, Trump-voting American working class, dulled by the mass media and the “American dream”, has changed very little since the crushing of the great textile strikes that swept the United States in the 1920s. Not an iota of class-consciousness has it absorbed. (Nor has it been explained and offered to all wage earners in sufficient doses.) For also the middle classes, crushed by an ever more desperate, an “end of times” form of capitalism, has not yet grasped that they too are now part of the American proletariat. In that respect it seems that the old, often criticized word proletariat is still quite adequate.