Tag Archives: Activism

Features

Bad Faith: Anti-LGBTQIA+ Activists Are Repurposing a Decades-Old Anti-Abortion Strategy

by Megan Burbank

As conservative legislators continue attacks on gender-affirming care nationwide, the same small group of political actors is showing up again and again to sow fear about this life-saving medical care. While the spate of attacks on gender-affirming care might seem recent, the rhetorical strategies propelling it are straight out of the Moral Majority’s anti-abortion playbook from the 1980s. The reemergence of these strategies exemplifies the obvious nexus between anti-abortion and anti-trans policy, and should prompt a look back at the true origins of the anti-abortion movement, which also relied on selective storytelling.

Continue reading Bad Faith: Anti-LGBTQIA+ Activists Are Repurposing a Decades-Old Anti-Abortion Strategy →
Features

Thinking of Counter-Protesting Abortion Protesters? There Are Better Ways to Help

by Megan Burbank

As a reproductive health policy reporter, my inbox is a rich text. Every day, I field a deeply chaotic assortment of messages from abortion-rights activists, reproductive health care providers, and anti-abortion organizations peddling misinformation about abortion. (I also get weird invitations to take part in “collabs” that have nothing to do with my beat; if you do this to me, I delete without reading, sorry!) Among these messages, the latter usually presents the biggest minefield for myths about abortion: The anti-abortion movement has propagated many since the rise of the Moral Majority after Roe v. Wade was decided, and the narrative they lean heavily on — that abortion harms women and ruins lives — is easily dispatched if you look at existing data on how most people feel about abortion.

Continue reading Thinking of Counter-Protesting Abortion Protesters? There Are Better Ways to Help →
Community

Empowered Minds Unleashed: ILPS’ Solidarity School and WA-BLOC’s Summer Freedom Schools

Local activists and organizers subvert classic approaches to education.

by Victor Simoes

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) Solidarity School and Washington Building Leaders of Change (WA-BLOC) Freedom Schools are redefining the learning experience offered by academic institutions. Organized by a collaboration of passionate educators, grassroots organizations, and community effort, these two programs extend the educational journey beyond the standardized curriculum, drawing inspiration from the historic Freedom Schools of the Civil Rights Movement. 

Continue reading Empowered Minds Unleashed: ILPS’ Solidarity School and WA-BLOC’s Summer Freedom Schools →
News

Students Chain Selves to UW Power Plant, Calling for Decarbonization by 2035

by Marian Mohamed and Kenneth Tran, GZR Newsroom

(This article is jointly published between Ground Zero Radio, an initiative of the Vera Project, and the South Seattle Emerald.)

On Friday, May 19, a coalition of climate justice student activists, local community organizations, and student groups gathered at the University of Washington (UW) campus to call on the university — specifically UW President Ana Mari Cauce and Provost Mark Richards — to make a written commitment to a “95% by 2035” decarbonization goal in the campus’s direct energy portfolio and to use construction as an opportunity to increase campus accessibility. The protest included a march and speeches. According to UW Sustainability and UW Facilities articles, 93% of campus emissions derive from the methane gas plant, which produces steam to heat and cool the university’s buildings.

Continue reading Students Chain Selves to UW Power Plant, Calling for Decarbonization by 2035 →
Features

Youth Activists Deliver Climate Demands to Amazon HQ

by Alex Garland

In 2019, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made a slew of promises regarding the company’s Climate Pledge, which, according to its website, aims “to build a cross-sector community of companies, organizations, individuals, and partners working together to address the climate crisis and solve the challenges of decarbonizing our economy.” 

Continue reading Youth Activists Deliver Climate Demands to Amazon HQ →
News

Youth Lobby Day Highlights Underlying Issues Around Gun Violence

by Dominique Morales and Marian Mohamed, GZR Newsroom

(This article is jointly published between Ground Zero Radio, an initiative of the Vera Project, and the South Seattle Emerald.)

Inside the heart of the Washington State Capitol building in Olympia, a sea of students in bright-orange shirts filled the Columbia Room. These students, representing different schools from all over Seattle, were getting ready to walk over to the steps of the Capitol to demand one thing: the end of gun violence in their communities. 

Continue reading Youth Lobby Day Highlights Underlying Issues Around Gun Violence →
Arts & Culture

New Play ‘11th & Pine’ Tells Behind-the-Scenes Story of Seattle’s CHOP

“This is a people’s history,” says playwright Nikki Yeboah. “I want us as a city to lift this story.”

by Amanda Ong

From March 17 to March 19, Erickson Theatre will host a staged reading of 11th & Pine, a new play about the organizer experience of the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), presented by Sound Theatre Company. Initially known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) before being renamed to CHOP, the organized protest against police brutality held in Cal Anderson Park in 2020 was one of the longest and most robust protests Seattle has seen to date. Written by Nikki Yeboah, a professor of playwriting at the University of Washington, and directed by Leah Adcock-Starr, 11th & Pine was written in conjunction with oral histories from CHOP’s organizers.

Continue reading New Play ‘11th & Pine’ Tells Behind-the-Scenes Story of Seattle’s CHOP →
Community

‘Makibaka! Huwag Matakot!’ Seattle Filipino Youth Attend Anakbayan U.S.A.’s Fourth National Congress

by Victor Simoes

The Seattle Globalist was a daily online publication that covered the connections between local and global issues in Seattle. The Emerald is keeping alive its legacy of highlighting our city’s diverse voices by regularly publishing and re-publishing stories aligned with the Globalist’s mission. 

In early February, Anakbayan South Seattle (ABSS) sent 14 organizers to the Bay Area for the Anakbayan U.S.A. Fourth National Congress and the BAYAN U.S.A. Seventh National Congress. This gathering of over 300 people from across the country aimed to unite on a program to strengthen the National Democratic Movement in the U.S. through a series of actions, workshops, and discussions centered around the call “Laban Bayan! Unite the masses to defeat the fascist U.S.-Marcos II regime and fight for national democracy!” 

Continue reading ‘Makibaka! Huwag Matakot!’ Seattle Filipino Youth Attend Anakbayan U.S.A.’s Fourth National Congress →
Features

Poor People’s Campaign: Building the Platform — Part 4

by Chardonnay Beaver

In 1967, after fighting against Jim Crow segregation and winning many civil rights victories for Black and Brown Americans, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and many others, called for a “revolution of values” in America.

Continue reading Poor People’s Campaign: Building the Platform — Part 4 →
News

Cindy Domingo Reflects on Philippine Election Results

by Ronnie Estoque

The Seattle Globalist was a daily online publication that covered the connections between local and global issues in Seattle. The Emerald is keeping alive its legacy of highlighting our city’s diverse voices by regularly publishing and re-publishing stories aligned with the Globalist’s mission. 

Filipino American activist and community member Cindy Domingo was a vital leader in the 1970s movement against the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. She led international solidarity campaigns on the University of Washington campus and became an active organizer of the Union of Democratic Filipinos (Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino KDP) in both Seattle and Oakland. 

Continue reading Cindy Domingo Reflects on Philippine Election Results →