Most Christians—and all who celebrate the shop-til-you-drop version of Christmas—are in the final week of hubbub and to-do lists before the big day where Santa drops through the chimney with a bag full of plastic toys made of toxic petro-chemicals that were imported from China. Is that a tad too cynical? As the holiday season is upon us and folks celebrate (which I, too, enjoy) by generously giving to their favorite charities, baking homemade treats for neighbors, sipping eggnog with family, making foolish decisions at the work holiday party, my thoughts—as a Catholic Worker—inevitably turn to peace.

“What do you want for Christmas?” asks my mother. “World Peace.” I’ve made the joke so many times that it is no longer funny—was it ever? Nonetheless, I slug through the commercialized, state/religious-authority approved versions of Jesus that bear no reference to the poor, to social justice, or to the radical teachings of sharing, inclusivity, and nonviolence that the “Prince of Peace” spoke. “Nothing political,” my mother warns me before any family dinner. Each year, my immediate family gathers with our friends of over 20 years from across the street for games, drinks and a Christmas skit. The Olzen family script is in the works but I’ll give a little teaser for this year’s theme: “Occupy North Pole.” Again my mother forewarns as her eyes settle squarely on me, “but we don’t want to get too political.”

While Easter is, theologically speaking, the most important holy day for the Christian church, it probably enjoys more public specter around Christmas as it has deep roots in American consumer culture. Still, many people will head to church on Christmas who may not any other day of the year. Church leadership, choosing not to alienate its congregations, will steer clear of anything resembling close to a political statement. Christmas Mass—for Catholics—will predictably be a sing-song of beautiful carols and elaborately decorated altars and nativities. We will be urged to give thanks for what we have. Pray for what we don’t have and asked to be generous to our less fortunate neighbors. So long as decorum is kept, controversy kept at bay, and sides are not drawn, it will be a good Christmas… and totally misses the point about Jesus, Christianity, and the state of society.

Lines have been drawn and tipping points reached. The economy continues to falter, the cost of living goes up, social support networks disappear, and war spending, environmental costs, and corporate profits skyrocket. As Occupy Wall Street seeks sanctuary, somewhat controversially, at Trinity Wall Street—an episcopal church—I wonder at how long most churches can avoid the politics of economic, environmental, and social justice? Of course, this is not a new pondering as tomes, dissertations and Glenn Beck have tackled the issue in a myriad of ways. But this Christmas seems different. The politics are different. The possibilities are different. World peace is more than a Christmas wish. There are U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq. There are glimmers of hope—US negotiations with Taliban, a 2014 deadline to end the occupation—that the Afghan war has an end in sight. And where are the churches preaching that good news, even if it is not perfect?

During the civil rights movement, churches—particularly African American ones under the leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)—played a significant role not just in raising awareness but in organizing and training people in nonviolent activism. To be sure, there are plenty of churches involved in nonviolent struggle today. The Sanctuary movement of the 1980s was largely a Christian church movement and many of those churches are now leaders in immigrant rights work. St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. has long opened its door to activists descending on the nation’s capital for protest. Programs like JustFaith and Advent Conspiracy are trying to get Christian church people connected to social justice and get them involved in social action both globally and locally. It is a good thing and powerfully transforms people’s lives, but there is a little bit of Dickens’ Scrooge in me. I want more. I think we can do better.

So what do I want for Christmas… besides a new soil thermometer? All I want for Christmas is for churches to become the agents and leaders for social change that their creeds profess. All I want for Christmas is for Christians to choose to nonviolently struggle for the love, justice and peace that their faith in Jesus promises. All I want for Christmas is that the 1 percent leadership of political, economic, and religious institutions make the choices that work for all—and that the 99 percent will help them do it through creative and courageous nonviolent action. This Christmas, I want ordinary folks to realize that there is no Christmas without the elves; that Santa relies on their cooperation to make it happen. It is because of the elves—through their hard work, their obedience, and their adherence to the status quo—that Santa gets the milk and cookies. Where are our milk and cookies this Christmas? Well, I guess it’s time to get organized, to get trained. With the late Howard Zinn reminding us “that we can’t be neutral on a moving train,” it’s time for the churches to get moving.

In September 2011, the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths released a shocking human rights report entitled Culture of Cruelty: Abuse and Impunity in Short-Term U.S. Border Patrol Custody. This is the organization’s second report; in 2008, it published Crossing the Line which narrated the stories of over 400 individual accounts of abuse of migrants while in Border Patrol custody. Their new report contains even more detailed evidence, concluding that “the abuse, neglect, and dehumanization of migrants is part of the institutional culture of Border Patrol.” Data collected from almost 13,000 individuals in 4,130 interviews—over the course of a three year period while simultaneously providing direct aid to repatriated and deported migrants—unmask an often-untold (or at least, unheard) story of pervasive and systemic human rights violation committed by a federal agency in the United States.

Vicki Kline, a spokesperson for No More Deaths who also co-wrote the report, commented on the report’s findings:

We hope to achieve increased public (and policy-maker) knowledge of the complex set of contextual circumstances that have led to 1) the current border situation, and 2) an institution [Border Patrol] that has the capacity to institute simple changes that make them more accountable to the public and their stated policy of treating people with respect and dignity. They do not appear to be making those change and has, instead, continued to be a place the creates a culture in which abuses of people’s dignity are permissible.

Culture of Cruelty documents more than 30,000 instances of abuse from respondents—the most frequent being denied or provided insufficient food while in custody; length of custody ranged from a few hours to more than 2 days. This may not seem “that abusive,” but considering that migrants in detention are often held after having been arrested in the desert, the punishment is particularly harsh. It is not uncommon for migrants to have been in the desert for days at a time—many without enough food or no food at all. But there is more. The report highlights twelve areas of concern regarding Border Patrol treatment of detained migrants:

• Failure to Provide and the Denial of Water

• Failure to Provide and the Denial of Food

• Failure to Provide Medical Treatment and Access to Medical Professionals

• Inhumane Processing Center Conditions

• Verbal Abuse

• Physical Abuse

• Dangerous Transportation Practices

• Separation of Family Members

• Dangerous Repatriation Practices

• Failure to Return Personal Belongings

• Due Process Concern

• Psychological Abuse

The report copiously substantiates—quantitatively and qualitatively—its findings regarding the areas of concern. For example:

April 15, 2010, with Angélica from Mexico. Angélica has a son in Oregon. When the Border Patrol apprehended her group, agents handcuffed them to one another and made them walk in a line for 20 minutes in the dark. She fell because it was difficult to walk and agents pushed her. While she was in custody in Yuma on March 14, agents threw away all of her possessions, including medicine. Border Patrol agents kicked Angélica in the stomach and denied her medical attention. When No More Deaths volunteers met her on April 15, she reported persisting pain in her abdomen.

May 18, 2010, anonymous man from Mexico. He stated that he had lived in Wisconsin for 14 years and Texas for one year, and has family in the U.S. The interviewee and his group were apprehended by Border Patrol agents. Many people asked for water and did not receive it. Some were wounded and did not receive medical care. They were told neither where they were being taken nor where they were being held in custody. The agents used curse words and racial epithets and told the detainees, “You are illegal, you don’t have rights.”

The story CNN ran on the report detailed Border Patrol council President Brandon Judd denying the report’s findings; “it just doesn’t ring true,” Judd said. Analysis of news sources highlight similar institutional responses from the agency to deflect the reports’ findings by not responding to the findings directly or making unrelated statements affirming Border Patrol’s professionalism.

Yet what is remarkable about this report is not just its finding, but that the process that produced it—like its 2008 predecessor. It was born out of the painstaking work of a community-based human rights groups: non-professionals. That is, No More Deaths is an all-volunteer community group of concerned citizens (not all of whom are documented) who, for the most part, are rather ordinary. They are students, retirees, teachers, pastors, skilled workers, and social service providers. Bringing together young and old alike to “end death and suffering on the U.S.-Mexico border,” No More Deaths funds itself, has no paid staff, operates by consensus, and is rooted in a tradition of nonviolence called civil initiative. A problem was identified, the root causes were identified, and a small group of concerned people got together to come up with a response that took personal responsibility for finding solutions for the issue.

Both reports were a direct response from the aid work No More Deaths was engaged in and it informs decisions as to where its limited energies and resources should be put. “The abuse documentation project sprang out of humanitarian work; so that has always been really important—we started documenting things that people told us in the course of providing first aid, or responding to crises,” said Kline, who recently returned from presenting the report to the Human Rights Commission in Mexico City and migrant aid groups in Oaxaca. Kline continued:

We didn’t just go in with an idea that we wanted to document what we believed what was happening; we began documenting the repeated stories and experiences that people were sharing with us. The point of the reports is to inform people of the situation on the ground; policy and history; the lived experience of people who have been in short-term border patrol custody.

Culture of Cruelty represents an activist group at its best: relevant to the needs of a community, collaborative sharing of power, high quality results, accessible to the public and other institutions, and has the freedom to engage in activities that respond directly to the identified problems. “We’ve only focused mostly on abuses in short-term Border Patrol custody,” said Kline. “But our documentation uncovered other issues within the larger immigration detention system, issues related to the health impact of deportations of people who’ve been living in the U.S. for extended periods of time, and the impacts of changing demographics of repatriations and the flow of migration. The deportation impact report will be released this season. The rest is leading to other conversations about where do we go from here?”

He is currently being held by the Oakland Police Department on $10,000 bail and they plan to turn him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for immediate deportation. He could be sent to Arizona as soon as tommorrow morning. That means we need to act now!

On Facebook, Leenie Venet offers this update:

Pancho is now at Santa Rita in Dublin, CA.  His arraignment for the civil disobedience charges has been fast tracked to Wed. 11/16/11 at 9:00 AM in Room 107 at the  WILEY W. MANUEL COURTHOUSE.  There is a possibility that he will  be transferred after this hearing to the custody of the immigration officials. Please attend this hearing and show your support for Pancho Ramos Stierle!!

Before he goes to court later this morning, please read and sign the petition to free Pancho, which can be found here. An email from Janine Schwab at the American Friends Service Committee says that you can also:

call the following federal officials NOW and ask them to ask Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release (or lift) the immigration hold on him. Barbara Lee 510-763-0370. Nancy Pelosi 415-556-4862. Diane Feinstein 415-393-0707. We have 12 to 24 hours to act on this.

According to the petition, Congresswoman Barbara Lee can intervene and has the power to release Pancho.

Signing this petition or making these calls will only take a few minutes tops, and may be able to help keep a truly inspiring advocate and practitioner of nonviolence in the United States, so that he can continue his important work for social justice and peace—including his ongoing bold and creative effort to challenge gang violence in his Oakland neighborhood. As Venet writes on Facebook:

Pancho used his power of love to nonviolently stand against Arpaio’s immigrant sweeps in Arizona last summer and was faced with a similar situation.  We were successful in helping Pancho get out of that situation by using the power of collective intention.

Now we must muster whatever people power we have to defend Pancho once again and to challenge our unjust immigration policies.

UPDATE: Susan Koppelman has written on Facebook that Pancho’s arraignment was been postponed until 2pm PST, which means we now have roughly another 3 hours to spread the petition and call the congresspeople above. The How to Help tab at this link provides the most comprehensive list of things you can do, with many more ideas and phone numbers than I provided above.

Protestors called for the immediate divestment of investments made by Wells Fargo and other major shareholders in private prison corporations such as the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group Inc., whose business models actively pursue harsher immigrant incarceration policies such as those seen in Arizona, Georgia and more recently Alabama.  The detention centers and prisons that these and other corporations bank on are often plagued with instances of sexual and physical abuse against immigrants who do not have access to legitimate legal recourse due to their status.

Peter Cervantes-Gautshi, (check out his highly censored story, Wall Street and Our Campaign to Decriminalize Immigrants), who was present at the Portland action, stated that “we wanted to show Wells Fargo that this movement is growing and that more and more people are becoming aware of their involvement in using tax dollars to put people in cages. They need to instead invest in creating good jobs for people.”

A delegation of demonstrators also entered the Wells Fargo building in order to inform the manager that failure of the bank to divest its shares from corporations that promote severe incarceration practices and policy will result in a substantial amount of customers closing their accounts. The manager was not present and the delegation was shuffled off to someone who, according to Cervantes, “had little authority and was less than helpful.” The demonstration outside remained lively and spirited as drivers honked in support and pedestrians gave their “thumbs-up” of approval.

Meanwhile in Kansas, Sunflower Community Action (SCA) held a Popular Education Assembly designed to educate the public on the connections between the new wave of anti-immigrant laws, the private prisons that lobby for them, and the bank that provided the investments to make it all possible: Wells Fargo. SCA is calling on Wichita to join people across the country in divesting from, and refusing to do business with Wells Fargo.

The protests are part and parcel of a series of nationwide demonstrations implemented by an impressive network of community organizations who have decided to heed the call for a national month of action. Through educational workshops, nonviolent direct action and concrete strategies for demanding shareholder divestment, the campaign intends to raise public awareness regarding the intricate and nefarious relationship between big business (aka Wall Street) and government within the rubric of the prison-industrial complex.

Previous actions have taken place in cities such as San Francisco, Minnesota and Denver, with more planned next week, including Wichita’s Zombie Crawl later today, where members of Sunflower Community Action, in solidarity with the OccupyWitchita movement, will present a theatrical memoir entitled, “Investments of Mass Destruction.”

These events have been particularly effective in tying together the multitude of seemingly disparate demands (the proverbial “laundry list”) that have come out of the Occupy movement. Organizers and spokespersons have proven adept at demonstrating and highlighting the fact that corporate-government collusion is the root cause of innumerable consequences of misery, inequality and poverty.

I see this campaign as one of the more effective and substantial movements to be explicitly aligned with the “Occupy” sentiment in that its primary participants and organizers are speaking directly to the reality of the most downtrodden and impoverished segment of the 99 percent, particularly the constituent members of our nation’s disenfranchised communities of color.

Yet the campaign also does not ignore the systematic targeting, dehumanization, humiliation and torture of those who aren’t even counted amongst the “official” 99 percent, namely the undocumented, whose only “crime” more often than not is earning an honest living through the provision of essential services that the “documented” covet and demand.  Yes, you can tell a lot about a person and a nation based on how they treat the “least amongst us.”

At the core, this divestment campaign isn’t about papers (no, not even the green ones); it is about dignity and unity. For what good is paper if it can purchase and/or confer the ‘legal’ right to kill, steal, exploit and imprison the innocent and hard-working with impunity? Our solidarity is, and now must prove to be, mightier than the dollar. Divest from corruption. Occupy Everything. Together as one.

• Classrooms have remained shut for more than 10 million Kenyan students at the start of the term when students sit national exams after about 200,000 members of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) stayed away. Teachers marched through the streets of Nairobi Wednesday on the second day of a nationwide strike.

• Thousands of people marched on Thursday against the appointed government in Swaziland, Africa’s last absolute monarchy.

• In Australia, unions are claiming victory in their campaign against the state government after an angry crowd of about 30,000 marched on State Parliament yesterday to protest the O’Farrell government’s controversial legislation that limits public sector workers’ pay raises.

• Thousands of teachers and students took to the streets of several of  Colombia’s  major cities Wednesday “in defense of public education.”

• At least 10 young illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States almost all their lives could be deported after being arrested Tuesday during a boisterous sit-in rally during which about 300 people blocked a busy intersection near uptown Charlotte to protest immigration law.

• About 1,200 workers at Freeport McMoRan’s Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde SAA unit, Peru’s third-largest copper producer, began a 48-hour strike on Wednesday over pay increases and will hold a second strike from Sept. 14 if no accord is reached.

• About 3,000 hotel workers started a week-long strike against Hyatt yesterday as part of a campaign in four cities—Honolulu, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles—over the subcontracting of jobs and poor working conditions.

• In Jordan, scores of journalists staged a sit-in on Wednesday in solidarity with colleagues discharged from service by Nourmina TV earlier this month.

• Bahrain yesterday released doctors and medical personnel who have been behind bars since March after increased international condemnation and a series of hunger strikes by supporters inside and outside the country.

• Normal life across Kashmir was disrupted on Tuesday, the first day of a 2-day general strike to press for release of political prisoners and to protest the fresh wave of arrests across the valley.

• In what organizers are proclaiming to be the largest social protest in Israel’s history, hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities Saturday night to protest the high cost of living in the country and demand government action.

• Workers across Italy went on strike yesterday as the center-right government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi rushed to secure parliamentary backing for austerity measures vital to keep European Central Bank support.

• More than 2000 people marched through the streets of a Glasgow suburb on Sunday to protest plans to build a massive waste incinerator.

• Several hundred Haitians demonstrated Monday in support of an 18-year-old man who says he was sexually assaulted by peacekeepers from Uruguay on a U.N. base along the southern coast of Haiti.

• Several thousand protesters from major unions and leftist groups rallied in central Madrid last night to demand a referendum on the proposed cap on long-term budget deficits.

• More than 100 jailed Bahraini activists – including doctors who treated injured protesters during months of anti-government protests and crackdowns in the Gulf kingdom – are on hunger strike.

• Immigrant rights groups chanted “Jesus was an immigrant” under the New Mexico governor’s office Tuesday as lawmakers returned to Santa Fe for a special session that may include a proposed repeal of a law that lets undocumented workers get New Mexico driver’s licenses.

• Thousands of nurses and supporters descended on their local Congressional offices nationwide last Thursday, demanding that Wall Street pay for the crisis it created.

• In the largest civil disobedience protests in the environmental movement’s recent history, 50 more people were arrested Thursday outside the White House in a protest against the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. Since Saturday, 322 people have now been arrested.

• Seven hundred transport workers blocked a main road in western Sydney yesterday to demand new federal work safety laws.

• Some retrenched workers of the Ghana Cotton Company (GCC) in Bolgatanga are on hunger strike and they and their colleagues on Thursday reiterated their appeal to government to ensure that their severance awards are paid them.

• Police arrested undocumented students who were holding a demonstration Wednesday outside the immigration offices in Los Angeles against Secure Communities, a controversial  immigration enforcement program.

• Police turned away a half-dozen protesters on Wednesday who had occupied Rep. Paul Ryan’s Kenosha office since last week.

• Around 100 lawyers in Syria defied Bashar al-Assad’s regime as it continues a violent crackdown against country-wide protests, by holding coordinated sit-ins outside bar associations in at least four regions of the country on Tuesday.

• The Pakistani city of Karachi was brought to a standstill on Tuesday after a “day of mourning” strike was called by a political party to protest against weeks of violence.

• Greek tourism workers walked off the job Tuesday in a 24-hour strike over government pension cuts, as dozens demonstrated outside three luxury hotels in the Greek capital to protest the cutbacks.

• In San Francisco, authorities arrested 45 people Monday during another protest against BART, the operators of the Bay Area train system.

• In New York City, an 82-year-old resident of Brooklyn facing foreclosure was allowed to stay in her house last Friday after more than 200 people gathered in front of her home to block the eviction.

• Hundreds of foreign exchange students walked off their jobs at a Hershey’s chocolate plant in Pennsylvania to protest low pay and physically draining work.

• Latino activists held a protest outside President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign headquarters on Tuesday to ask him to end a criminal deportation program they say is snaring large number of illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes.

• Syrian security forces fired at thousands of protesters who poured into the streets throughout the country Friday killing at least two, activists said, a day after the United States and its European allies demanded that President Bashar Assad step down.

• Indian activist Anna Hazare began a public hunger strike in the country’s capital Friday, accompanied by thousands of cheering supporters, who want to see stronger anti-corruption measures in India.

• Hundreds of striking Verizon workers held a candlelight vigil outside their CEO’s Mendham, New Jersey mansion Thursday, hoping to draw a stark contrast between the contract demands of blue-collar workers and the quality of life enjoyed by the company’s executives.

• What began as the latest public hearing organized by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security task force to address deportation policy concerns ended in the arrest of 10 immigration reform activists Wednesday evening in Chicago.

• Protesters gatecrashed a mining and exploration conference organised by the New South Wales government in Australia yesterday, abseiling off the balcony of a Sydney hotel to unfurl a banner against coal seam gas.

• A program that is central to President Obama’s immigration enforcement strategy has drawn protests by Latino and immigrant organizations in six major cities on Tuesday, as those groups stepped up their confrontation with the administration over the fast pace of deportations.

• Anna Hazare, India’s leading anti-corruption activist, began a hunger strike in police custody following his arrest Tuesday morning. His unlawful arrest sparked massive outrage across the country and widespread protests were witnessed.

• Bolivian indigenous activists started a long protest march on Sunday from the Amazon plains to the country’s capital against a government plan to build a 306km highway through a national park in indigenous territory.

• On Monday, hundreds of people attending the Midwest Rising! Convergence took to the streets of St. Louis to protest Bank of America and Peabody Coal. Fifteen community and climate activists were arrested.

• Jubilant students at Glasgow University were celebrating a victory on Monday night after one of the longest sit-ins in British history. The students will move out at the end of the month after reaching agreement with the university which they say will ensure no further cuts and a new club.

• Roughly 25 percent of the Trinidad’s police officers joined in a one-day strike on Monday to protest the government’s offer of a 5 percent pay raise, which the union says that isn’t enough.

The still-smouldering Carpetright store in Tottenham. (Photo: Guardian)

Rioting and rampages spreading across English cities have caused severe property destruction and raised public alarm. Writing in London’s Guardian, community organizer Stafford Scott describes how he was among the group that on August 6th sought information from the police in Tottenham, a poorer section of London. They wanted an official statement on whether Mark Duggan had been killed by police bullets, as had been reported in the news.

All we really wanted was an explanation of what was going on. We needed to hear directly from the police. We waited for hours outside the station for a senior officer to speak with the family, in a demonstration led by young women. A woman-only delegation went into the station, as we wanted to ensure that this did not become confrontational. It was when the young women, many with children, decided to call it a day that the atmosphere changed, and guys in the crowd started to voice and then act out their frustrations.

This event is what most media accounts have identified as the spark that set England on fire, which has caught the world by surprise. Yet, says Scott, “If the rioting was a surprise, people weren’t looking.”

My summer in Britain has been jarred by the outbreaks of turmoil and destruction spreading from London to Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool. A storm of criticism against the police followed—thunderously amplified by politicians, even while they denounced it as criminality. Surely, the real meaning of these events will take time to discern.

There’s a kernel in Scott’s account that should not be overlooked. Assuming that his report is accurate and faithful, it is possible that an appropriate response to the women-led demonstration in front of a police station might have altered the turn of events. At the most basic level, police and security services need to be able to recognize such a peaceful, nonviolent initiative. No matter the depth of the underlying causative problems in the upheaval, in the background is a difficult fact: police are often not trained in differentiating one nonviolent method from another. Although police services are increasingly trained in mediation, crowd control, and how to handle criminals nonviolently, here they allowed a demonstration to turn into a riot.

Philip B. Heymann’s 1992 analysis of South Africa’s long struggle against apartheid suggests that success in nonviolent action happens through a three-way relationship among the nonviolent challengers, the target group, and the military, police, or security services. If at all possible, Heymann concludes, the challengers should clarify their grievances, purposes, and demands, so as to minimize obstruction or interruption by the other two. This means probing not only the complaint of the nonviolent protagonists, but also examining the objectives and actions of the adversary and police.

In this case there may not have been an immediately evident and concrete target group, but Heymann’s insight is instructive: bring the police into the picture and treat them as part of a relationship. This may be hard advice for some people to swallow. Even so, in analyzing the riots in England, observers must ask whether the police understood that they, too, must be part of a relationship.

We must also acknowledge, however, that there is only so much that police services can do. A failure for decades to address larger social and economic problems make this sort of conflict almost inevitable. A number of distinguished researchers have clearly shown what underlies such a catastrophe. The findings of  Sir Michael Marmot and Richard G. Wilkinson contribute a powerful larger frame for considering the turmoil of the English cities. Clinical data in Marmot and Wilkinson’s Social Determinants of Health (2001) concerning well-being for modern societies, supports their contention that social pathologies (crime, high levels of imprisonment, mental illness, and poor health status) are more common in societies with steep maldistribution of wealth than where economic distribution has resulted in lesser gaps between rich and the poorest. Wilkinson and Kate Pickett explain in The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone (2009) that income inequality correlates with thirteen health and social problems, such as unemployment and drug use. The World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health urges countries to “tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money, and resources.” Britain, along with the United States, are known to have the lowest rates of social mobility among the industrialized countries.

Whatever the subsequent, numerous lessons to be drawn from the wreckage in the English cities, it would be prudent to recognize that police (and diplomats and journalists) need formal training in understanding civil citizen action, and how to respond to it as part of a relationship. That alone, however, will not be enough, unless governments and the public address the underlying social and economic factors.

When a country is shaken by violence, most people expect it to react in kind with force. We’re certainly reminded of that now, as we in the US approach the tenth anniversaries, respectively, of the 9/11 attacks and the hot-on-the-heels launching of the War on Terror. So what about the most recent act of terrorism in the news—Anders Behring Breivik’s rampage in Norway?

I was struck by a comment left here at Waging Nonviolence the other day by Susanne Kromberg, who wrote, “I am a Norwegian who is vainly trying to get The New York Times to cover the passive resistance that has sprung up in Norway as Norwegians under good leadership decide to demonstrate that only love is powerful enough to overcome hatred.” I didn’t know Susanne personally, but I wrote to her and asked to hear more.

Susanne, it turns out, is a Quaker (and Quaker blogger) currently living in Seattle, where she’s a hospital chaplain. As a way of coping with the attacks on her home from far away, she explained to me, she has been collecting news of how people have been reacting to Breivik’s atrocities in Norway, much of which has been ignored in the US media. Instead, the focus of American journalists has been on how the country has supposedly “reignited” its immigration debate and has been “reassessing” its relatively measured policing policy—implying that things are moving in a bellicose direction. Yet, as Susanne wrote in a poignant letter to the New York Times Public Editor:

I have read more stories than I care to about “innocent”, “idyllic” and “naïve” Norway in the last week. What evidence is there to support that opinion?

My best guess is that any response that doesn’t involve increased security measures and weaponry seems naïve to [reporter Michael] Schwirtz. He appears not to recognize that people can be thoughtful as they choose another strategy to combat violence.

While Susanne hasn’t yet had time to collect all the evidence she’s been gathering into a single piece of writing, she has been continually posting it in Facebook status updates. In the spirit of our recent “Texting from Madison” series, I thought I’d share (selected, but uncensored and unaltered) some of her recent posts to give a sense of the courageously nonviolent responses to this attack mounted by her fellow Norwegians:

July 22

07:39 terrorism finds its way to Norway. apparent car bomb blew up outside prime minister’s office building damaging bottom three floors. PM is safe, no word yet on how many others dead or wounded. aauugh.

11:36 right now the mayor of oslo is saying we’re not going to allow fear to take a hold, because then we would have handed the victory to the terrorists.

11:38 prime minister now saying the same thing. violence will not frighten us and we will not allow anyone to try to intimidate us out of legal political activity

11:39 Muslim leaders in Norway swiftly condemned the attacks. “This is our homeland, this is my homeland; I condemn these attacks and the Islamic Council of Norway condemns these attacks, whoever is behind them,” said Mehtab Afsar, secretary general of the Islamic Council of Norway.

12:58 Norway made a conscious decision not to heighten the protection for politicians and other public figures after attacks elsewhere in Scandinavia. “We see it as a key political value in itself not to have that kind of militarized society,” says Iver Neumann, research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).. “Whether we can still afford such an open society, is now up for debate.” Yes, Norway is at a fork in the road. I hope we don’t change much.

14:07 Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg: “Our answer is more democracy, more openness to show that we will not be stopped by this kind of violence. At the same time we shouldn’t be naive, we should understand that violence can attack our society – we’ve seen that today.”

July 23

18:54 on a per capita basis, Norway lost twice as many people as the USA did on 9/11, according to a story in The Atlantic.

July 24 

09:14 I have seen more grown men cry on Norwegian TV the last three days than in my entire life up to now. That includes the King of Norway and Prime Minister.

09:15 so grateful that they model the appropriate behavior: grief, not vengeance.

11:43 “On Monday the perpetrator of the horrific attack on innocent Norwegian citizens will be given the opportunity to explain his actions in an open court. He has written in his “manifesto” that he will use the courtroom as a propaganda tool… Close the doors to the hearing. He wants to have open doors so that the recording can then be shown on TV stations worldwide.” from the event “Steng doerene.”

15:39 “If one man can create that much hate, you can only imagine how much love we as a togetherness can create.” Stine Renate Håheim, survivor from Utoeya, in an interview on CNN

July 25

01:30 Wow. We learned today that Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s step-brother was one of those who was killed on Utøya (he worked as security officer and was among the first to be killed). It blows my mind that the Royal family, with the media’s help, chose not to reveal this information until today. I’m thinking they wanted to ensure that no victims be singled out as “special” lest it detract from national mourning.

July 26

16:09 Crown Prince Haakon and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre at a mosque in Oslo to express their sadness that Muslims were erroneously blamed for the attacks on Friday. The imam confessed that he also made the same wrong assumption. The Lutheran bishop of Oslo, Ole Christian Kvarme also participated.

16:12 I should point out that they apologized on behalf of everyone who made that mistake – Norwegian authorities did not themselves entertain any theories despite media pressure to theorize.

22:00 All 7 political parties and their youth groups have been flooded with new members this past week – all of them, across the entire political spectrum in Norway.

22:33 A Facebook poll in Norway reveals that 80% oppose the death penalty. I wish I had comparison numbers, but my guess is that opposition to the death penalty has increased after events on 22.7.2011.

22:37 ‎10,000 Norwegians have joined a Facebook support group for the killer’s mother, acknowledging that she is suffering too, encouraging her to accept the love we offer.
next day at 07:49 Update: 38,000 have joined

23:44 I cried watching a video snippet of Norwegians gathered at the Islamic Mission Mosque in Oslo to remember the Norwegians who died last Friday. The imam and those interviewed talked about how proud they were to be Norwegian. Notice how many times I said “Norwegian”? The emphasis was on this shared identity.

July 27

20:09 The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation has decided not to provide coverage of the upcoming Norwegian Rifle Championship (July 30 – August 6).

20:23 I am SOOO grateful to the Crown Prince, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Lutheran Bishop for going the World Islamic Mission Mosque for a memorial event yesterday!

July 28

08:40 Opponents of a multi-faith center at Stiklestad have dropped their objections.

08:45 Askøy Mayor Knut Hanselmann (The Progressive Party, the political party that opposes immigration to Norway) says the consequence of the terror attacks must be that Progressives stop claiming that immigration destroys Norwegian culture. Instead, they will focus on use of resources.

09:00 The Hacker group Anonymous is encouraging people to download Anders Behring Breivik’s manifesto, make playful editorial changes and publish the altered version. They hope that, in the end, no-one will know what the original manifesto said – and prevent ABB’s manifesto from becoming the permanent legacy he was hoping to create. (Dagbladet 28.7.2011) I confess to having mixed feelings about this proposal, but finally come down on the side of opposing making changes – that would be censorship and is not compatible with democracy.

19:08 I have been wondering what it is like for Norwegian soldiers bombing Libya and soldiering in Afghanistan to hear our Prime Minister and other Norwegians going crazy over how the only way to respond to violence is with love. Ahem.

23:01 Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg just said in an interview that one of the things that gives him joy now is that he sees people hugging each other everywhere he goes.

23:23 Life is beginning to return to a regular rythm in Norway (not “normal”). Just listened to a fascinating discussion on whether Norwegians would have chosen the route of love and civility in response to hatred if the killings had been done by a Muslim. The responses varied, but everyone agreed that we were lucky not to have been tested in that way.

July 29

13:23 There’s a facebook page in support of the Norwegian killer’s lawyer, commending him for serving the principles of democracy by ensuring his legal rights are honored: 46,000 supporters. Then there’s a facebook page for those who don’t think any lawyer should agree to represent the killer: 7 supporters.

July 30

07:17 Norway is bringing its F-16s home. No more bombing Libya. Apparently the decision was announced to the press on 7/22, before the killings, but it didn’t make it into the papers because everyone’s attention was on the killings. The reason given was “Mission accomplished” – Gaddafi’s ability to haarm the civilian population is dramatically reduced.

July 31

14:48 Secondly, [Verdens Gang] has been doing the “aren’t Norwegians wonderfully loving” coverage for 10 days. After 10 days, they do an “aren’t Norwegians bigots?” story. How about we do more nuanced writing all along, rather than alternating between worshiping and reviling people. No-one is all hero (not even Gandhi or MLK), no-one is all villain (not even ABB).

14:58 Despite the crisis in Norway last week, Norwegians sustained or may even have increased donations to relief agencies that support those who are starving in Somalia and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa.

18:51 Anders Behring Breivik’s father has said he wishes his son had committed suicide. His mother does not wish to see him. A facebook group has sprung up in support of the parents. It has 70,000 members.

19:45 Although some Norwegian Muslims were harrassed in Oslo last Friday (before everyone knew that the terrorist is a Norwegian), many Muslims now say that “ethnic Norwegians” are going out of their way to smile, acknowledge, engage, encourage.

20:05 Ole Jørgen Anfindsen, right wing blogger and Islam critic, says the anti-Muslim rhetoric that pre-dates 7/22 is now “unusable” and he acknowledges that the hard line that he and his colleagues took could contribute to “crazy people running amuck”.

20:11 Grocery store chain Coop has stopped selling violent computer games as a gesture of respect to those whose loved ones died on 7/22.

22:06 NRK tv reports on a poll showing that 26% have a more positive view of multiculturalism now, 9.3% more negative, 49.1% are unchanged. Researchers caution against reading too much into it, as many may just be trying to distance themselves from Ander Breivik’s actions.

August 4

07:20 Erna Solberg, leader of Hoeyre (Conservative, pro-Israel party) says attitudes towards Muslims in recent years are reminiscent of the ways Jews were treated in the 1930s.

07:25 I: Whenever Anders Behring Breivik’s picture appears on the front page of a newspaper, ordinary customers are increasingly turning the papers around in the displays, so his face is hidden. Journalists and editors are pleading with people not to do that, as they consider it a form of censorship.

II: But regular people don’t think ABB should be rewardedfor his acts by having his pictures everywhere, and they want survivors of the trauma to be free to enter public spaces without seeing the face of the killer.

• Spanish activists, known as “the Indignants,” have set off from Madrid on a long march to Brussels to protest what they see as governments bowing to financial markets and ignoring the needs of their own people in the economic crisis.

• Thousands of Greek taxi drivers marched in central Athens on Tuesday to protest government plans to open up their sector to competition.

• Police in Denmark detained six environmental activists on Tuesday protesting the felling of trees in a forest to make room for a research centre for wind turbines.

• Three leaders of a Starbucks Corp union in Chile have begun a hunger strike as their members push on with the first labor stoppage at company-operated Starbucks cafes.

• Young protesters seeking to oust Senegal’s aging president filled the streets outside a central courthouse in the capital, Dakar, on Tuesday, a day after the police arrested a rapper and prominent democracy activist.

• About a dozen activists—including Illinois Representative Luis V. Gutierrez—were arrested after they sat down on the White House sidewalk Tuesday, following a rally where demonstrators denounced the Obama administration for deporting more than one million immigrants in the last two years.

• About 200 protesters gathered Tuesday morning outside the Convention Center in Philadelphia to demand wheelchair-accessible taxicabs. The rally was held on the 21st anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

• India’s biggest traders’ association held a series of demonstrations Tuesday against proposals to allow supermarket chains like Wal-Mart and Tesco into the country’s retail sector.

• Tens of thousands of anti-regime demonstrators marched through Yemeni streets on Tuesday to condemn what they said were government attacks on protesters the day before.

• Thousands of demonstrators, including Islamists, held peaceful rallies in Rabat, Casablanca and Tangiers Sunday to demand greater political reforms and social justice in Morocco.

• Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed 16 people in attacks in the city of Homs on Tuesday, residents said, an escalation of a crackdown against a focal point for pro-democracy protests.

• The Israeli navy intercepted a French boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists as the vessel attempted to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

• Thousands took to the streets of Bissau Tuesday for the second rally in five days to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior, accused of hindering an assassination probe.

• More than 3,000 democracy supporters led by Aung San Suu Kyi marched Tuesday in Myanmar’s biggest city in honor of her father, the nation’s independence hero. The short march was the biggest public demonstration since 2007, when the military junta launched a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

• Over the weekend, residents of Southwest Ranches, Florida protested the proposed construction of a privately run immigration detention center.

• In the Philippines, college students in Manila and Quezon City walked out of their classes on Tuesday to protest what they called the Aquino administration’s neglect of the education sector.

• Dozens of Romanians protested Tuesday against a Canadian company’s plans to open a gold mine in Transylvania and called on the culture minister to resign over his support to this project.

• The two-week strike by 120,000 members of the National Union of Metalworkers’ of South Africa (NUMSA) ended over the weekend when union members accepted a three-year contract from the Steel and Engineering Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA), the main metal employers’ federation in South Africa.

• More than 100 environmental activists from across the country descended on Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s office Tuesday to demand that he rescind his support for the Keystone XL oil pipeline and the ExxonMobil megaload transportation project. Six of the activists are occupying the lobby of the governor’s office indefinitely.

• Thousands of Egyptians marched on the cabinet headquarters in central Cairo on Tuesday to demand the removal of the ruling military council. Meanwhile, in Alexandria, hundreds of demonstrators cordoned off the stock exchange building, posting a sign that reads, “Closed until all revolution demands are met!”

• Hundreds gathered outside the White House on Monday to protest the Colombia free trade agreement, which they say will kill jobs here, and threaten communities in Colombia.

• Thousands of Greek Cypriots have marched on the presidential palace in Nicosia to protest the deaths of 12 people in a blast at a navy base.

• Several dozen union workers gathered at a downtown state office building yesterday to protest Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s decision to block raises for 33,000 employees.

• Opponents of Senate Bill 1070, Arizona’s immigration law, marched to Chase Field Tuesday afternoon to picket outside Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game.

• Workers at state-owned Corporacion del Cobre de Chile, the world’s biggest copper producer, went on strike Monday to protest a modernization plan they see as a step toward privatization.

• South Korean female activist Kim Jin-Suk began the 188th day of a sit-in on Tuesday atop a giant crane to protest major layoffs at a South Korean shipyard.

• Hundreds of Afghans took to the streets Monday to protest cross-border shelling from Pakistan that has killed dozens of people in recent weeks.

• More than a hundred people gathered in Morris Cove—New Haven, Connecticut’s easternmost area—last weekend to protest the Army Corps of Engineers’ plan to dump 250,000 cubic yards of toxic dredging waste in New Haven Harbor. They were joined by a flotilla of 43 kayaks and power boats, which processed around the dumping site.

• Thousands of people took to the streets in Spain on Sunday to protest against corruption, precariousness, unemployment, and a political structure that favors a two-party system. The demonstrations were followed by a peaceful sit-in with hundreds camping at Madrid’s main square la “Puerta del Sol.”

• More than 170 Greenpeace activists dressed in business suits and carrying brief cases blocked the doors of a conference center in Brussels where delegates of the European Business Summit were meeting this morning. Only those representing businesses that support a 30 percent cut in Europe’s climate damaging emissions were allowed entry.

• Two activists supporting Rainforest Action Network unfurled a 35 foot banner across The Walt Disney Company’s two-story entrance arch in Burbank, CA that read “Disney: Destroying Indonesia’s Rainforests.” Dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, they then blocked the main entrance gates, preventing Disney’s executives from arriving to work.

• Hundreds of protesters flooded the streets outside of JPMorgan Chase’s offices in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday morning to protest the number of foreclosures issued by the bank since receiving federal bailout money.

• Syrian protesters gathered in the suburbs of the capital and the central city of Homs on Monday, following reports of the discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of anti-government activists.

• About 100 students at Cobb County’s Pebblebrook High School left class early Tuesday to protest Georgia’s new immigration law, which authorizes local and state police to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects and arrest undocumented immigrants and take them to federal jails.

• Brazilians in Sao Paulo held a communal barbeque last week to protest the neighborhood elite who squashed plans for a subway station out of fear that it would have led to the arrival of “drug addicts, beggars, a different people, promoting the degradation of its sacred streets and increasing the number of police incidents.”