All posts by CPNN Coordinator

About CPNN Coordinator

Dr David Adams is the coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network. He retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the Unit for the International Year for the Culture of Peace, proclaimed for the Year 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly.

Millions of Italians Join General Strike for Gaza

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by Leopoldo Tartaglia from Labor Notes

More than 2 million people filled public squares across Italy on October 3 during a one-day general strike in support of the people of Gaza and against the ongoing genocide there. The strike, called by the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL) and grassroots unions, drew extraordinary participation from workers, students, families, and dozens of secular and religious associations.

The strike was part of a week of massive actions that began on October 1, when the Israeli navy blocked the Global Sumud Flotilla that was carrying aid to Gaza. The flotilla, launched in August, aimed to break the Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid and end the devastating attack on the people of Gaza. Among the hundreds of volunteers on board the boats were 40 Italians, including four legislators and some rank-and-file members of CGIL and the Grassroots Base Union (USB).


Two million people joined a general strike called by Italian unions to defend the flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. Photo: FIOM CGIL Nazionale

News of Israel’s action, and its arrest of those aboard the flotilla, sent people into the streets in dozens of cities across Italy. The next day, crowds gathered in front of the Colosseum in Rome, and in main squares and government buildings throughout the country. The CGIL, Italy’s largest labor confederation, then called a general strike for October 3 “in defense of the Global Sumud Flotilla, constitutional values, to stop the genocide, and in support of the people of Gaza.”

Another enormous wave of protest came on October 4, when a million people poured into the center of Rome chanting “Free Palestine.” It was a level of participation unmatched in recent history. Young people, families, and ordinary citizens joined members of unions and civic organizations in the river of people filling the streets of Italy’s capital. “We wanted to liberate Palestine, and instead Palestine is liberating us,” read one brilliant sign. The protest was organized by the Palestinian Student Movement and the Palestinian Arab Democratic Union, and included the CGIL, the USB, student and university groups, the National Association of Partisans, and the Arci (the Italian Cultural and Recreational Association).

In a statement, CGIL called the October 3 general strike a success. According to CGIL, 300,000 people marched in Rome that day. About 100,000 marched in each of the Italian cities of Milan, Bologna, Florence, and Turin. Naples, Genoa, Palermo, and Venice also held huge protests. In all, over 100 cities participated.

The day was characterized by a peaceful and democratic atmosphere. CGIL General Secretary Maurizio Landini emphasized “the extraordinary and unprecedented participation of young people, who are demanding a future of peace and social justice, with stable employment and a fight against precarious employment.”

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Question related to this article:
 
How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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BIGGER PICTURE

October 3 was not the first general strike for Gaza. The CGIL, with over 5.1 million members and affiliated with the ITUC, called a national strike on September 16, the day after the Netanyahu government decided to launch the final invasion of Gaza City. Most trade unions—except public sector workers, who are barred from striking—called a four-hour strike. But in some areas the strike lasted eight hours. Everywhere, in hundreds of cities, the protests and demonstrations were packed.

The grassroots union USB had already called a general strike for September 22, and that day too was characterized by enormous participation, especially since it involved schools and gave tens of thousands of students, from middle school to college, a chance to join protests in cities across the country.

Separately, in their governing bodies, the CGIL, the USB, and other grassroots unions announced that they would call a “political strike” in defense of the Italian Constitution, whose Article 11 “repudiates war,” if the Global Sumud Flotilla was attacked by Israeli armed forces. A press conference was held on the eve of the October 3 general strike, coordinated by the Italian spokespersons of the Global Sumud Flotilla, to explain what was behind the general strike, with the joint participation of CGIL, USB, and other grassroots unions.

In recent months, awareness has grown within the CGIL and among Italian workers of the connection between the genocide in Palestine and the larger political picture in Italy and Europe. In the face of the war in Ukraine, tariffs, and growing anti-immigrant sentiment, many European governments are pushing for rearmament and taking a more authoritarian stance—to the detriment of working people. The Italian government, led by neo-fascist Giorgia Meloni, has become more subservient to both President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The peaceful and nonviolent action of the Global Sumud Flotilla has served as a catalyst for a growing opposition movement in Italy, including a campaign to boycott and blockade weapons and goods destined for Israel. Meanwhile, the CGIL is organizing a national demonstration, “Democracy at Work,” in Rome on October 25 that will stand against rearmament, against genocide, and for peace, the welfare state, and the rights of young people, workers, and pensioners.

Leopoldo Tartaglia, a former official of CGIL’s International Department, is now a member of the National Pensioners’ Union’s national assembly. This article was translated from Italian by Peter Olney.

(Editor’s Note: Thank you to the Transcend Media Service for calling this article to our attention.)

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Uncategorized

Paris Anti-War Conference

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

Email received from No to Nato List

COUNTERFIRE – October 8, 2025 – Welfare not warfare goes international 

An international mass meeting against war and genocide took place on Sunday in Paris. Four thousand people, including delegations from nineteen countries, filled out the Dome de Paris. The arena was a sea of Palestine flags and flags of socialist and anti-war organisations.

The scale of the meeting was a breakthrough for the international movement against genocide in Gaza and the rearmament of Europe. …

Following the Italian general strike, unions in Spain have called a national walkout on 15 October. Activists from Germany, Denmark and Portugal spoke about how the national demonstrations in London have given inspiration and confidence to activists in their countries to organise their own mass demonstrations.

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Question related to this article:
 
How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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There was a great feeling of unity and solidarity, but also a sense of urgency. European governments have been central to facilitating Israel’s genocide, in prolonging the war in Ukraine, and in spending hundreds of billions more on weapons. 

The meeting demanded ‘not a penny, not a weapon, not a human life for war.’

StoptheWar Coalition – October 8, 2025 – International meeting in Paris  

Activists and politicians from Europe and North America have held an anti-war conference in Paris. The event was aimed at coordinating the European-wide opposition to the Genocide in Gaza and the war drive of the European Union. 

150 delegates from 20 different countries and more than 4,000 people attending the meeting. Below the broadcast of the meeting in English. Speakers from many countries.

At about 1,48 min an overview of the huge size of the event.

https://www.youtube.com/live/lXG4g2iFj5E

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Europe, Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY,

The fake “peace agreement” versus real peace with justice

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An email received from Mazin Qumsiyeh on October 11.

A temporary ceasefire and release of some Palestinians in a prisoner exchange is not a “peace agreement” and it is far from what is needed: ending colonization, freedom for the >10,000 political prisoners still in Israeli gulags (also tortured nearly100 died under torture in the last two years), return of the milions of refugees, and accountability for genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid. That is why this global uprising (intifada) will not stop until freedom, justice, and equality are attained. 

Here are brief answers I gave to questions about the agreement for Gaza

1. How has life in the West Bank changed for you and your community during the past two years of conflict?

The WB was illegally occupied since 1967 (ICJ ruling) but it was not merely an occupation but intensive colonization and ethnic cleansing. The attacks on our people accelerated in the last two years with over 60,000 made homeless in the West Bank and denial of freedom of movement (including hundreds f new gates installed in these two years separating the remaining concentration camps/ghettos of the West Bank ).

2. What is your assessment of the new peace deal that brought an end to the fighting in Gaza?

It is not a peace deal. It is an agreement to pause the genocide which will not work because the beligerant occupier (“Israel”) has not respected a single agreement it signed since its founding. Even the agreement to join the UN was conditional or respecting the UN Charter and UN resolutions issued before and after 1949. This continued to even breaking the signed ceasefire agreement of last year. I have 0% confidence that this latest agreement would be respected even on the simple aspect of “pausing” the genocide and ethnic cleansing going on since 1948.

3. In your view, why did war drag on for two years despite multiple ceasefire attempts?

Simply put because colonization can only be done with violence. And the war on our people has gone on not for two years but for 77 years without ending (sustained by Western government support).  Israel as a colonization entity is the active face of colonization. The USA  for example broke similar agreements for “pauses” in colonization with natives in North America and broke every single one of them.

4. What kind of humanitarian and environmental toll has the conflict taken on Palestinian society?

It is now well documented fro UN agencies, human rights groups (like Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, even Israeli group B’Tselem). In brief it is genocide, ecoide, scholasticide,  medicide, and veriticide. More at ongaza.org

5. Why do you think it took the IDF so long to rescue all the hostages?

The terrorist organization that deceptively calls itself “IDF” was not interested in rescuing their captives (not “hostages”) and they only got people back via exchange of prisoners (not rescue). The IGF (Israeli Genocide Forces) actually killed many of their own soldiers and civilians on 7 Oct. 2023 by activating the Hannibal directive to prevent their capture. The resistance was aiming to capture colonizers (living on stolen Palestinian lands) to exchange for some of the over 11,000 political prisoners illegally held in Israeli jails. Again see ongaza.org

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Question related to this article:

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

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6. How significant was international involvement—particularly from the U.S.—in reaching the final agreement?

This is the first genocide in human history that is not executed by one government. It is executed by a number of governments directly supporting and aiding. (participating). This includes the USA, UK, France, Egypt, Germany, Australia etc. Many of these countries have governments dominated or highly influenced by the Zionist agenda. Under influence of a growing popular protest against the genocide around the world, some of those countries are trying to wiggle out from pressure in an effort to save “Israel” from growing global isolation. Trump ws blackmailed via videos/files collected by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghiseline Maxwell (Mossad agents). He is simply a narcissistic collaborator with genocide!

7. What concrete steps do you think are necessary now to turn this peace deal into a sustainable, lasting solution?

Again not a “peace deal”. What needs to be done is apply boycotts, divestments, sanctions (BDS) on this rogue state that violates the International conventions (Geneva convention, Conventions against Apartheid and Genocide). BDS was used against apartheid South Africa and needs to be applied here also. For more see bdsmovement.net

8. How do you see the Palestine Museum of Natural History contributing to rebuilding and healing efforts in the aftermath of war?

Our institute (PIBS, palestinenature.org) which includes museums, botanic garden, and many other sections is focused on “sustainable human and natural communities” Our motto is respect: for ourselves (empowerment) for others (regardless of religious or other background), and for nature.  Conflict, colonizations, oppression are obviously areas we challenge and work on in JOINT struggle with all people of various background

9. Looking ahead, what gives you optimism—or concern—about the future relationship between Palestinians and Israelis?

What gives me optimism first and foremost is the heroic resilience and resistance (together making sumud) of our Palestinian people everywhere and the millions of other people mobilizing for human rights and for justice (including the right of refugees to return and also environmental justice). What gives me concern is the depth of depravity that greedy individuals in power go to destroying our planet and our people and profiting from colonization and genocide. . . .

Stay Humane, act, and keep hope and Palestine alive

Mazin Qumsiyeh
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director
Palestine Museum of Natural History
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability
Bethlehem University
Occupied Palestine
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinenature.org
facebook pages
Personal https://www.facebook.com/mazin.qumsiyeh.9
Institute https://www.facebook.com/PIBS.PMNH

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HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast

The Struggle for Peace of Syrian Women, ICIP Peace in Progress Award 2025

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from the International Catalan Institute for Peace

On Thursday, September 18, during the week marking the International Day of Peace, ICIP presented the 2025 Peace in Progress Award to Women Now for Development, a leading Syrian women’s organisation. The award honours the network for its work in supporting, protecting, and empowering Syrian women—both inside the country and in exile—as a powerful symbol of resistance and feminist solidarity in the face of violence.

Women Now for Development was founded in 2012 as a community initiative to support women and girls in the early days of the Syrian revolution. Its initial aim was to create safe spaces where women could meet, share knowledge, and exchange experiences. Since then, it has become a leading feminist organisation working both in war zones and in conflict-affected contexts, inside and outside Syria. The network has helped shape a generation of women who continue resisting violence and building hope amidst destruction.

The ceremony was opened by ICIP president Xavier Masllorens, who underlined the importance of “recognising people and organisations that work against the tide, upholding dignity,” which is the essence of the ICIP Award. In today’s turbulent context for peace, Masllorens lamented the lack of action on conflict prevention. He also stressed the need to work for peace: “Not preventing means giving up on deeply analysing the true causes of conflicts, and that constitutes a collective failure with devastating consequences (…). Today, we have the conditions to work with a new paradigm in conflict resolution between communities, peoples, nations, and states. A paradigm that is unprecedented but not impossible, which we call a culture of peace: a world without misery, more just and equal.”

Next, Palestinian poet and translator of Syrian origin, Mohamad Bitari, offered a tribute to the award-winning organisation and highlighted that the ICIP Award “is a homage to the memory of Syrian women, and to all that they have given for a more just, free, and safe country. It is also a tribute to every woman in the world who has refused to be only a victim, and has chosen to be active, courageous, and transformative.”

A recognition of women’s struggle

In his remarks, Bitari recalled many Syrian women who have marked the country’s resistance through their social and political activism. Many of them suffered repression at the hands of the Syrian regime and received support and protection from Women Now for Development.

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Questions related to this article:

Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?

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On behalf of the award-winning organisation, the award was accepted by executive director Lubna Alkanawati and the organisation’s director in Lebanon, Roulah Al Rekbie. In their acceptance speeches, they emphasised the repression and displacement suffered by Syrian women for decades. They highlighted that the ICIP Award makes their struggle visible and places women at the centre of peacebuilding: “This recognition gives us strength to keep moving forward, to transform pain into action. It reminds us that the struggle continues, that we will keep working to ensure that Syrian women have a voice of their own,” said Al Rekbie. For her part, Alkanawati dedicated the award to the “women of Syria, Sudan, Palestine, Yemen, Iran, and Afghanistan, and all places where women suffer from occupation, extremism, and patriarchy.” The organisation will allocate the prize to funding support programs for survivors of sexual violence.

A third representative of the organisation, Muzna Al Jundi, who was unable to travel to Barcelona due to visa difficulties, participated through a video message to thank the organisation for the award from northwest Syria.

The President of the Catalan Parliament, Josep Rull, closed the ceremony with words of gratitude to ICIP and to the award-winning organisation. “Today is an act of recognition, of hope, and of collective dignity,” he said. Rull praised the work of Women Now for Development and ICIP for the quality of the Peace in Progress Award. He also warned that this award comes in an “absolutely devastating international context” and called for “the participation and perspective of women in peacebuilding and reconciliation processes.”

The genocide in Gaza was a recurring theme throughout the ceremony. The ICIP president began his remarks with a moment of silence in solidarity with Palestine, which the audience joined, standing. Poet Mohamad Bitari also remembered the people of Palestine, “subjected to systematic genocide and constant aggression that continues day after day before the eyes of the world.”

The ceremony opened and closed with a musical performance by the Syrian duo Athrodeel.

The ICIP Peace in Progress Award, established in 2011, aims to publicly recognise individuals, organisations, or institutions that have worked and contributed in a significant and sustained way to the promotion and construction of peace. The award consists of public recognition, a sculpture created by Nobel Peace Prize laureate, artist, and activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel entitled Porta de Sol, and a monetary prize of 6,000 euros.

Over its fourteen-year history, the ICIP Award has recognised individuals and groups from Catalonia, Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Mexico, and Algeria for their struggle in favour of reconciliation, truth, justice, or equality, with a focus also on the empowerment of women and a gender perspective.

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Mideast, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

When Maria Corina Machado Wins the Nobel Peace Prize, “Peace” Has Lost Its Meaning

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

An article by Michelle Ellner from Codepink

When I saw the headline Maria Corina Machado wins the Peace Prize, I almost laughed at the absurdity. But I didn’t, because there’s nothing funny about rewarding someone whose politics have brought so much suffering. Anyone who knows what she stands for knows there’s nothing remotely peaceful about her politics.

If this is what counts as “peace” in 2025, then the prize itself has lost every ounce of credibility. I’m Venezuelan-American, and I know exactly what Machado represents.


If this is what counts as “peace” in 2025, then the prize itself has lost every ounce of credibility. I’m Venezuelan-American, and I know exactly what Machado represents.

She’s the smiling face of Washington’s regime-change machine, the polished spokesperson for sanctions, privatization, and foreign intervention dressed up as democracy.

Machado’s politics are steeped in violence. She has called for foreign intervention, even appealing directly to Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of Gaza’s annihilation, to help “liberate” Venezuela with bombs under the banner of “freedom,” She has demanded sanctions, that silent form of warfare whose effects – as studies in The Lancet and other journals have shown – have killed more people than war, cutting off medicine, food, and energy to entire populations.

Machado has spent her entire political life promoting division, eroding Venezuela’s sovereignty and denying its people the right to live with dignity.

This is who Maria Corina Machado really is:

° She helped lead the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew a democratically elected president, and signed the Carmona Decree that erased the Constitution and dissolved every public institution overnight.

° She worked hand in hand with Washington to justify regime change, using her platform to demand foreign military intervention to “liberate” Venezuela through force.

° She cheered on Donald Trump’s threats of invasion and his naval deployments in the Caribbean, a show of force that risks igniting regional war under the pretext of “combating narcotrafficking.” While Trump sent warships and froze assets, Machado stood ready to serve as his local proxy, promising to deliver Venezuela’s sovereignty on a silver platter.

° She pushed for the U.S. sanctions that strangled the economy, knowing exactly who would pay the price: the poor, the sick, the working class. 

° She helped construct the so-called “interim government” a Washington backed puppet show run by a self-appointed “president” who looted Venezuela’s resources abroad while children at home went hungry.

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Question related to this article:
 
The Nobel Peace Prize: Does it go to the right people?

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° She vows to reopen Venezuela’s embassy in Jerusalem, aligning herself openly with the same apartheid state that bombs hospitals and calls it self-defense.

° Now she wants to hand over the country’s oil, water, and infrastructure to private corporations. This is the same recipe that made Latin America the laboratory of neoliberal misery in the 1990s.

Machado was also one of the political architects of La Salida, the 2014 opposition campaign that called for escalated protests, including guarimba tactics. Those weren’t “peaceful protests” as the foreign press claimed; they were organized barricades meant to paralyze the country and force the government’s fall. Streets were blocked with burning trash and barbed wire, buses carrying workers were torched, and people suspected of being Chavista were beaten or killed. Even ambulances and doctors were attacked. Some Cuban medical brigades were nearly burned alive. Public buildings, food trucks, and schools were destroyed. Entire neighborhoods were held hostage by fear while opposition leaders like Machado cheered from the sidelines and called it “resistance.”

She praises Trump’s “decisive action” against what she calls a “criminal enterprise,” aligning herself with the same man who cages migrant children and tears families apart under ICE’s watch, while Venezuelan mothers search for their children disappeared by U.S. migration policies.

Machado isn’t a symbol of peace or progress. She is part of a global alliance between fascism, Zionism, and neoliberalism, an axis that justifies domination in the language of democracy and peace. In Venezuela, that alliance has meant coups, sanctions, and privatization. In Gaza, it means genocide and the erasure of a people. The ideology is the same: a belief that some lives are disposable, that sovereignty is negotiable, and that violence can be sold as order.

If Henry Kissinger could win a Peace Prize, why not María Corina Machado? Maybe next year they’ll give one to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation for “compassion under occupation.”

Every time this award is handed to an architect of violence disguised as diplomacy, it spits in the face of those who actually fight for peace: the Palestinian medics digging bodies from rubble, the journalists risking their lives in Gaza to document the truth and the humanitarian workers of the Flotilla sailing to break the siege and deliver aid to starving children in Gaza, with nothing but courage and conviction.

But real peace is not negotiated in boardrooms or awarded on stages. Real peace is built by women organizing food networks during blockades, by Indigenous communities defending rivers from extraction, by workers who refuse to be starved into obedience, by Venezuelan mothers mobilizing to demand the return of children seized under U.S. ICE and migration policies and by nations that choose sovereignty over servitude. That’s the peace Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine, and every nation of the Global South deserves.

Tell the Nobel Committee: The Peace Prize belongs to Gaza’s journalists, not María Corina Machado!

And Join our Venezuela Rapid Response Team!

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, Latin America,

Mayors for Peace Action Plan (2025–2029)

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

Excerpts from Mayors for Peace Action Plan

Here are excerpts from the action plan adopted during the Mayors for Peace General Conference.

1. Realize a world without nuclear weapons

* Hold Mayors for Peace Atomic Bomb Poster Exhibitions around the world

* Pass down atomic bomb experiences through testimonies Outreach for TPNW Support International Advocacy

* Conduct activities urging all states, including nuclear weapon states and their allies, to join the TPNW at the earliest possible date

* Foster solidarity with global hibakusha

*Deliver messages from cities at international disarmament conferences

*Issue open letters advocating for a world without nuclear weapons or war

* Conduct member city-led activities calling on their respective national governments to contribute to the abolition of nuclear weapons

* Conduct petition drives urging all states to join the TPNW promptly

* Promote youth-centered citizen activity and interactions

Promote outreach regarding the current international nuclear weapons situation

Support research, education, and human resource development related to nuclear disarmament

2. Realize safe and resilient cities

* Promote local initiatives to address global issues

* Facilitate understanding of global issues

* Build diverse and inclusive cities that “leave no one behind”

* Share results and make use of the network

* Hold regional conferences led by Lead Cities

*;Build regional networks across the world

* Collaborate with the international community on global social issues

* Enhance City PR through international cooperation

Questions for this article:

How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?

3. Promote a culture of peace

* Conduct initiatives to convey the realities of the atomic bombings and war

* Pass down the experiences of the atomic bombings and war through testimonies

* Distribute and nurture seeds and seedlings from atomic-bombed trees

* Promote peace and disarmament education

* Promote peace education through initiatives such as the annual Children’s Art Competition “Peaceful Towns”

* Expand programs to host youth in the atomic bombed cities, such as the Youth Exchange for Peace Support Program

* Send young people to international disarmament conferences

* Support the establishment of Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Courses at more universities

* Promote citizen-led peace culture activities

* Promote global exchange among citizens rooted in the culture of peace

* Hold outreach events through art and sports

* Promote the culture of peace by using social media and other accessible platforms

* Raise peace awareness in conjunction with international commemorative days

* Promote peace culture activities utilizing local resources

Implement region-specific measures and collaborate with diverse

4. Promote sustainable organizational development

Strengthen membership recruitment activities in regions worldwide

* Support new member cities 1) Collect and share good practices from member cities

* Establish a Lead Cities-led implementation system

* Strengthen collaboration with member cities and human resource development through the Mayors for Peace Internship Program

* Develop an information infrastructure to strengthen collaboration among member cities

* Collaborate with local government organizations, such as USCM, NFLA, UCLG

Collaborate with international organizations and NGOs, such as the UN, ICRC, and ICAN

* Strengthen collaboration with peace research institutions such as the HiroshimaPlatform forPeaceStudies andEducation, RECNA, and UNIDIR

* Collaborate with museums around the world that convey the realities of the atomic bombings and war

* Promote public relations to gain wider support

* Strengthen communication through social media and other platforms

* Operate the Mayors for Peace Supporter System

* Strengthen the membership fee system

* Broaden fundraising efforts
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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, East Asia, global,

Jane Goodall: Remembering Dr. Jane

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An article from the Jane Goodall website

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace and world-renowned ethologist, conservationist, and humanitarian, has died at the age of 91 of natural causes.

Dr. Jane was known around the world for her 65-year study of wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania. However, in the latter part of her life she expanded her focus and became a global advocate for human rights, animal welfare, species and environmental protection, and many other crucial issues.

Jane was passionate about empowering young people to become involved in conservation and humanitarian projects and she led many educational initiatives focused on both wild and captive chimpanzees. She was always guided by her fascination with the mysteries of evolution, and her staunch belief in the fundamental need to respect all forms of life on Earth.

Born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall, Jane was the eldest daughter of businessman and racing car driver Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall and writer Margaret Myfanwe Joseph.

Jane was passionate about wildlife from early childhood, and she read avidly about the natural world. Her dream was to travel to Africa, learn more about animals, and write books about them. Having worked as a waitress to save enough money for a sea passage to Kenya, Jane was advised to try to meet respected paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey. Louis employed her as a secretary at the National Museum in Nairobi, and this led to her being offered the opportunity to spend time with Louis and Mary Leakey in at the Olduvai Gorge in search of fossils.

Having witnessed Jane’s patience and determination there, Louis asked her to travel to Tanzania, to study families of wild chimpanzees in the forest of Gombe.
Looking back, Jane always said she’d have “studied any animal” but felt extremely lucky to have been given the chance to study man’s closest living relative in the wild.

On July 14th, 1960, Jane arrived in Gombe for the first time. It was here that she developed her unique understanding of chimpanzee behaviour and made the ground-breaking discovery that chimpanzees use tools. An observation that has been credited with “redefining what it means to be human.”

Knowing Jane’s work would only be taken seriously if she was academically qualified, and despite her having no degree, Louis arranged for Jane to study for a PhD in Ethology at Newnham College, Cambridge. Jane’s doctoral thesis, The Behaviour of Free-living Chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream Reserve, was completed in 1965. Her three-month study evolved into an extraordinary research program lasting decades and it is still ongoing today.

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Questions related to this article:

How can we carry forward the work of the great peace and justice activists who went before us?

(Article continued from the column on the left)

Jane was married twice. Her first husband, Hugo van Lawick, was a Dutch baron and wildlife photographer working for National Geographic when they met. Jane and Hugo divorced in 1974, and Jane later married Derek Bryceson, a member of Tanzania’s parliament and a former director of Tanzania’s National Parks. Derek died in 1980.

During her life Jane authored more than 27 books for adults and children, and featured in numerous documentaries and films, as well as two major IMAX productions. In 2019, National Geographic opened Becoming Jane, a travelling exhibit focused on her life’s work, which is still touring across the United States. Her latest publication, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, has been translated into more than 20 languages.

Her awards and accolades span the scale of human achievement. In 2002, she was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. Two years later, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) at Buckingham Palace. Jane was also awarded the United States Presidential Medial of Freedom, French Légion d’honneur, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, Japan’s prestigious Kyoto Prize, the Ghandi-King Award for Nonviolence, The Medal of Tanzania, and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. In addition, she has been recognized by local governments, educational establishments, and charities around the world.

Jane founded the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in 1977, initially to support the research at Gombe. There are now 25 JGI offices operating diverse programs around the world.

In 1991, Jane founded Roots & Shoots, her global humanitarian and environmental program for young people of all ages. The initiative began with just 12 high school students in Dar es Salaam. Today, Roots & Shoots is active in over 75 countries. Roots & Shoots members are empowered to become involved in hands-on programs to affect positive change for animals, the environment, and their local communities.

In 2017, Jane founded the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation, to ensure the ongoing stability of the core programs she’d created – her life’s work.

Throughout her life and remarkable career, Jane inspired generations of scientists, brought hope to countless people from all walks of life, and urged us all to remember that “every single one of us makes a difference every day – it is up to us as to the kind of difference we make.” Her legacy continues with the ongoing research at Gombe, the community-led conservation program Tacare, the work of the sanctuaries Chimp Eden in South Africa and Tchimpounga in the Republic of the Congo, and Roots & Shoots empowering young people to become involved in hands on programs for the community, animals and the environment.

Though Jane travelled 300 days a year, her home was in Bournemouth, United Kingdom, in the house her grandmother and mother had lived in before her. Her sister Judy Waters and her family played a huge role in supporting Jane’s work over the decades, providing a warm welcome whenever she returned home. Jane is survived by her son Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick (affectionately known as Grub) and her three grandchildren, Merlin, Angel, and Nick.

(Editor’s note: Thank you to the Transcend News Service for calling out attention to this article.

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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, global

As Israeli Forces Seize Final Sumud Boat, Another Flotilla Sails Toward Gaza

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by Jessica Corbett in Common Dreams (reprinted under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

As Israeli forces on Friday captured the last remaining vessel from the Global Sumud Flotilla that aimed to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and deliver humanitarian aid, another group of boats was headed for the Palestinian territory.

The 11 vessels, most of which started sailing last week, are “carrying over 150 healthcare workers, journalists, and activists,” according to organizers, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and Thousand Madleens to Gaza.

“As journalists and medical professionals, we carry the responsibility to speak truth and preserve life,” said Dr. Ricardo Corradini, a general surgeon from Italy, in a statement. “This mission is an appeal to our colleagues—and to the institutions that represent us globally—to break their silence, uphold their ethics, and stand on the right side of history.”

FFC highlighted earlier this week that the ship “Conscience, bombed by Israel off the coast of Malta in May 2025, has returned to serve as a vehicle for medics and media determined to reach their colleagues in besieged Gaza.”

Huwaida Arraf, an FFC steering committee member aboard Conscience, said that it “is the latest and largest boat in this historic flotilla—and its name represents not only steadfast resistance to Israel’s illegal blockade, but a call to awaken the conscience of the world.”

Since Israeli forces began intercepting Global Sumud Flotilla vessels late Wednesday, a fresh wave of global protests has occurred. People around the world have repeatedly taken to the streets over the past two years, as Israel has responded to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack by devastating infrastructure across Gaza, including healthcare facilities, wounding at least 169,165 Palestinians, and slaughtering at least 66,288.

Experts warn the true death toll in Gaza is likely much higher. Among the dead are many doctors and nurses—one count, from Healthcare Workers Watch, said at least 1,200 as of February. Israel’s killing of Gaza’s healthcare professionals continued this week with the death of Omar Hayek from Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The Israeli attack that killed Hayek and wounded four others “took place on a street where our teams were waiting to take a bus to the MSF field hospital in Deir al-Balah. All staff were wearing MSF vests, clearly identifying them as medical humanitarian workers,” the group said Thursday. “We express deep sorrow and outrage over the killing, which occurs less than two weeks after another MSF colleague, Hussein Alnajjar, was killed by the Israeli forces, in Deir al-Balah.”

Also among the dead are over 200 journalists, with recent tallies ranging from 223 to 270. The Israeli government has prevented international reporters from entering Gaza—and has been widely accused of intentionally killing Palestinian journalists who have reported on the genocide while trying to survive it.

Global press freedom groups have frequently spoken out against Irsael’s treatment of journalists, including this week, when Israeli forces took members of the media into custody while blocking the Global Sumud Flotilla from reaching Gaza.

“Arresting journalists and preventing them from doing their work is a serious violation of the right to inform and be informed,” said Martin Roux, head of the Crisis Desk at Reporters Without Borders, or Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), in a Thursday statement.

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Question related to this article:
 
How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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“RSF condemns the illegal arrest of the news professionals who were on board these ships to cover a humanitarian operation of unprecedented scale,” Roux continued. “The Israeli army, which has killed over 210 Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, is continuing its media blockade of the Gaza Strip with these illegal arrests at sea, with the obvious goal of covering up the crimes it is committing against the Palestinian population. RSF urges Israel to respect the status of journalists, protect them, and guarantee their safety in accordance with international law.”

Early Friday, the flotilla announced on Instagram that “Marinette, the last remaining boat of the Global Sumud Flotilla, was intercepted at 10:29 am local time, approximately 42.5 nautical miles from Gaza.”

According to the flotilla, whose more than 450 members included politicians, actors, and activists from dozens of countries:

“Over 38 hours, Israeli occupation naval forces illegally intercepted all 42 of our vessels—each carrying humanitarian aid, volunteers, and the determination to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza.

“Marinette sailed forward with the spirit of sumud—steadfastness—even after seeing the fate of 41 boats before her.

“But this is not the end of our mission. Our determination to confront Israel’s atrocities and stand with the Palestinian people remains unshaken.

“As people rise up in cities worldwide to demand an end to these horrors and to take a stand for humanity, we rise together with one voice.

“We will not stop until the genocide ends. We will not stop until Palestine is free.”

Until the interception, the flotilla faced repeated attacks widely believed to be from Israel, whose Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday continued to smear the peaceful humanitarian mission as the “Hamas-Sumud provocation” and a “sham.”

“Already four Italian citizens have been deported. The rest are in the process of being deported. Israel is keen to end this procedure as quickly as possible,” the ministry said on social media. “All are safe and in good health.”

In a video circulating online, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir can be seen repeatedly calling Global Sumud Flotilla activists “terrorists” as they were waiting for their transfer to an Israeli prison

In a Friday statement about the Global Sumud Flotilla, Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights group in the United States, said that “the detention of these humanitarian volunteers, including American citizens, is deeply troubling and completely unacceptable.”

“These are civilians engaged in delivering essential aid to people in desperate need in Gaza,” he continued. “Denying them legal counsel, holding them incommunicado, and putting them at risk for simply performing humanitarian work is a flagrant violation of human rights and the principles the United States stands for. We urge the US government to act immediately to secure their safe release and make clear that targeting Americans performing humanitarian missions will not be tolerated.”

Under President Donald Trump and his Democratic predecessor, the United States has provided Israel with diplomatic support on the global stage and billions of dollars in military aid. Joined at the White House on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court—Trump unveiled a proposed peace plan for Gaza.

In a long post on his Truth Social platform Friday morning, Trump railed against Hamas and gave the group that has governed Gaza for the past two decades until Sunday at 6:00 pm Eastern Time to agree to his proposal. Trump wrote, “If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas.”

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Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Bernie Sanders: We Must Fight Like Hell Against Trump’s Authoritarianism

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article by Bernie Sanders in Common Dreams (reprinted  under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Make no mistakes about it, we are living in dangerous and unprecedented times as we combat Trump‘s oligarchy, authoritarianism, kleptocracy, and his horrific attacks against working families.


Demonstrators march through downtown protesting the agenda of the Trump Administration on September 30, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

We have more income and wealth inequality than we’ve ever had; we have more corporate control of the media than we’ve ever had; we have more billionaire money buying elections than we’ve ever had.

We have a major housing and educational crisis, people are going to the grocery store and can’t afford the food their families need, and we have a health care system that is completely broken.

Meanwhile, we have a president who is a pathological liar, who has little regard for the rule of law, who is suing media outlets that criticize him, threatening to jail his political opponents and talking about the military invading U.S. cities as practice.

History has always taught us that real change never takes place from the top on down. It always occurs from the bottom on up. It occurs when ordinary people get sick and tired of oppression and injustice—and fight back.

And on Tuesday night, as you know, the government shut down because—for the first time in modern history—Donald Trump and the Republican Party are approaching a budget conversation that requires 60 votes with a take it or leave it approach.

I will not take it.

I will not allow Donald Trump and the Republican Party to take away health care from 15 million people by making the largest cut to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in history.

I will not allow Donald Trump and the Republican Party to increase health insurance premiums by 75 percent, on average, for over 20 million Americans who get their health care through the Affordable Care Act.

I will not allow Donald Trump and the Republican Party to fund this by giving a $1 trillion tax break to people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the other oligarchs in the top 1 percent.

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Questions related to this article:

The struggle for human rights, is it gathering force in the USA?

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I will not allow Donald Trump and the Republican Party to undermine modern medicine and the health and well-being of our children by rejecting the scientific evidence regarding vaccines.

I will not allow Donald Trump and the Republican Party to allow this country to be moved toward authoritarianism by putting federal troops on city streets without a request from a governor or mayor.

I was asked ahead of the vote if I would just continue to vote NO over and over again until these issues are addressed, and you are damn right I will.

Donald Trump and my colleagues in the Republican Party may not stay up late at night worrying about people who can’t afford health care, the medicine they need to survive, groceries and an education for their children, but I do.

Republicans will not have my vote to fund the government unless they find a sense of morality and do the right thing on health care, income and wealth inequality, and stopping Donald Trump’s march toward authoritarianism.

I want the Republicans to go back to their districts and ask their constituents whether or not they believe it’s a good idea to take away health care from millions of Americans to give Bezos and Musk a tax break.

I suspect they will not like the answer they hear.

So no. Republicans will not have my vote to fund the government unless they find a sense of morality and do the right thing on health care, income and wealth inequality, and stopping Donald Trump’s march toward authoritarianism.

Until that happens it is important for all of us to stand up and make our voices heard.

Will it be easy? Of course not.

Is it possible? Only if everyone does their part.

Let me remind you, history has always taught us that real change never takes place from the top on down. It always occurs from the bottom on up. It occurs when ordinary people get sick and tired of oppression and injustice—and fight back. That is the history of the founding of our nation, the abolitionist movement, the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement and more.

Sisters and brothers, we are living in dangerous times. Maybe more dangerous than any point in American history since the Civil War.

But this is a struggle that, for ourselves and future generations, we cannot lose.

Let us go forward together in solidarity

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DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, HUMAN RIGHTS, North America

Students Stage Walkouts in Dozens of Spanish Cities to ‘Stop the Genocide’ in Gaza

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by Brett Wilkins from Common Dreams (reprinted  under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Tens of thousands of students walked out of classrooms in cities and towns across Spain on Thursday to protest Israel’s ongoing US-backed genocide in Gaza and abduction of Global Sumud Flotilla members, dozens of whom are Spanish.


Students in Málaga, Spain march behind a banner reading “Stop Everything to Stop the Genocide” on October 2, 2025. (Photo by Jesus Merida/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The National Students’ Union organized Thursday’s protests under the slogan “stop the genocide against the Palestinian people.” Demonstrations, which took part in at least 39 cities and towns, varied in size from small groups to thousands who turned out in Barcelona and the capital Madrid, where students held banners with messages like “Stop Everything to Stop the Genocide,” “All Eyes on the Global Sumud Flotilla,” and “Free Palestine!”

“We’re not going to look the other way,” the union said in a statement. “The Palestinian cause is the cause of the youth and the millions who stand for human rights and social justice. That is why… we called the general student strike to empty the classrooms and fill the streets with dignity.”

Maria, a Spanish student interviewed by Turkey’s Anadolu Ajansı in Madrid, said: “While young people like us are being killed and subjected to genocide in Palestine, we cannot be in class. The whole world must do everything it can to stop this genocide.”

Another Madrid protester, Francesca—an Italian student studying in Spain—told Anadolu that “we must pressure governments to stop Israel.”

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Question related to this article:
 
How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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“Allowing genocide in full view of the world is unacceptable,” she added. “The killing of women, children, and students in Palestine must end.”

In Barcelona—whose former leftist Mayor Ada Colau was among the dozens of Spaniards who set sail for Gaza from the port city—an estimated 6,500 students and others took to the streets Thursday.

“What I can do is be here, with my presence,” student Donia Armani told El País. “The more people, the better; so the Palestinians will not be alone.”

Armani’s mother added, “The Palestinians are like a brotherly people, we feel a lot from the absurd images we see.”

Ana, a 14-year-old student protesting in Barcelona, said: “I think it’s very bad what’s happening,” adding that Israel does “not let food arrive and also bombs them, which causes many, especially small children, to die, and I am very sorry.”

Thursday’s walkouts took place as Israeli forces continued assaulting Gaza on Thursday, killing scores of Palestinians amid a backdrop of ongoing famine and forced displacement. Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 66,225 Palestinians in Gaza, although experts say the actual death toll is much higher. At least 168,938 other Palestinians have been wounded, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead.

Spain’s socialist-led government has been a leading critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, taking numerous proactive steps including cutting off arms transfers to the erstwhile ally, prohibiting the shipment of fuel to the Israeli military, formally recognizing Palestinian statehood, and backing South Africa’s genocide case currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry says at least 30 Spaniards are among the many Global Sumud Flotilla activists seized by Israeli forces in international waters overnight Thursday while attempting to deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza.

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Europe, Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY,