Category Archives: Memorials

Native Americans Hold National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving

“‘Thanksgiving’ is a white-washed holiday designed to conceal its true origins of violence, genocide, land theft, and forced assimilation,” said the Indigenous Environmental Network.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-28-2024 by Common Dreams

*Photo: United American Indians of New England/Facebook*

In contrast with Thanksgiving celebrations across the United States on Thursday, Native Americans held a National Day of Mourning, promoted accurate history, and championed Indigenous voices and struggles.

Despite rainy conditions, the United American Indians of New England held its 55th annual National Day of Mourning at Cole’s Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Kisha James, who is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and also Oglala Lakota, shared how her grandfather founded the event in 1970 and pledged to continue to “tear down the Thanksgiving mythology.”

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For one survivor, the 1920 Election Day massacre in Florida was ‘the night the devil got loose’

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By Jerald Podair, Lawrence University. Published 11-1-2024 by The Conversation

*A historical marker memorializing July Perry’s lynching Screenshot: YouTube*

Mose Norman, a Black registered voter, was ready to cast his ballot for presidential candidate Warren G. Harding.

But when he arrived at his polling place on Election Day, Nov. 2, 1920, in the orange grove town of Ocoee, Florida, near Orlando, Norman was turned away by white election officials because of supposed unpaid poll taxes. His name and the names of hundreds of other registered Black voters had been removed from the rolls by white poll workers.

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‘A True Hero’: Pay Equity Crusader Lilly Ledbetter Dies at 86

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“Let’s honor her by continuing to challenge discrimination in all forms—and finally closing the wage gap.”

By Julia Conley. Published 10-14-2024 by Common Dreams

*Lilly Ledbetter speaks during the second day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Photo: Qqqqqq/Wikimedia Commons/CC*

Labor unions and women’s advocacy groups on Monday paid tribute to Lilly Ledbetter, the former Goodyear employee whose fight for equal pay made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress, after her death at the age of 86—with economic justice advocates hailing Ledbetter as “an icon.”

“Lilly Ledbetter simply wanted to be paid the same as her male Goodyear co-workers,” said the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) on social media. But to workers who have benefited from the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, added the union, “she was a true hero.”

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NATO Announces Nuclear Drills as Nobel Goes to Atomic Weapon Abolitionists

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Disarmament advocate Beatrice Fihn stressed that the exercise is practice for “wiping out hundreds of thousands of civilians” with weapons that would also “flatten cities and poison survivors.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 10-11-2024 by Common Dreams

The NATO military block announced Friday that its annual nuclear exercise is set to begin next week—news that arrived just as Japanese atomic bomb survivors who advocate for disarmament received the Nobel Peace Prize.

“There is bad timing, there is dropping a brick… and then there is this. Nice work,” the Geneva Nuclear Disarmament Initiative said in response to NATO Spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah on social media.

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Hiroshima Survivors Warn Against Nuclear War 79 Years After US Bombing

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“The world needs to stop nuclear war from ever happening again,” said one hibakusha. “But when I turn on the news, I see politicians talk about deploying more weapons, more tanks. How could they?”

By Brett Wilkins. Published 8-6-2024 by Common Dreams

*The Memorial Cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Photo: Balon Greyjoy/Wikimedia Commons/CC*

As the number of people who survived the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki rapidly dwindles 79 years after the attacks, hibakusha—the Japanese word for the survivors—and others are imploring humanity to do everything possible to avert another nuclear war.

“People still don’t get it. The atomic bomb isn’t a simple weapon. I speak as someone who suffers until this day: The world needs to stop nuclear war from ever happening again,” Shigeaki Mori, who was an 8-year-old boy on his way to school on the morning of August 6, 1945, told The New York Times. “But when I turn on the news, I see politicians talk about deploying more weapons, more tanks. How could they? I wish for the day they stop that.”

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5 Years After El Paso Shooting, Calls for Fighting Gun Violence and Racism

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“When politicians use ‘great replacement’ conspiracies and xenophobia to stoke fear and divide us, real people pay the price in blood,” said Democratic Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 8-4-2024 by Common Dreams

*The remnants in January 2020 of the makeshift memorial erected after the August 3, 2019 mass shooting at the Cielo Vista Walmart. Photo: TomStar81/Wikimedia Commons/CC*

Saturday marked five years since a self-described white nationalist killed 23 people and injured 22 others with an AK-47-style semiautomatic rifle at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and the anniversary sparked fresh calls for efforts to combat gun violence and racism.

“Five years after a man armed with hate and a gun drove into our community and stole the lives of 23 of our friends and neighbors, we still feel the pain of their absence,” said Myndi Luevanos, a volunteer with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action in El Paso, in a statement. “Since the shooting, our leaders have refused to meet the moment, failing to enact common-sense gun safety measures that could save lives and address the disproportionate rate of gun violence faced by the Latinx community in Texas.”

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China turns to private hackers as it cracks down on online activists on Tiananmen Square anniversary

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By Christopher K. Tong, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Published 5-31-2024 by The Conversation.

Every year ahead of the June 4 commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Chinese government tightens online censorship to suppress domestic discussion of the event.

Critics, dissidents and international groups anticipate an uptick in cyber activity ranging from emails with malicious links to network attacks in the days and weeks leading up to the anniversary.

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Gaza Journalists Killed by Israel Honored on World Press Freedom Day

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“To claim these deaths are accidental is not only incredulous, it is insulting to the memory of professionals who lived their lives in service of truth and accuracy,” said one expert.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 5-3-2024 by Common Dreams

*World Press Freedom Day: Gaza journalists remember slain colleagues. Screenshot: YouTube*

As the international community marked World Press Freedom Day on Friday, journalists and advocates across the globe mourned and celebrated those killed in Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip.

The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has publicly identified at least 97 media workers killed since Israel launched its retaliatory war on October 7: 92 Palestinian, three Lebanese, and two Israeli reporters.

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Rwandan genocide, 30 years on: Omitting women’s memories encourages incomplete understanding of violence

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*A father is searching for his missing child using ICRC assistance during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Photo: British Red Cross/flickr/CC*

By Anneliese M. Schenk-Day, Ohio State University. Published 4-5-2024 by The Conversation

The eruption of violence that Rwanda experienced beginning on the evening of April 6, 1994, continues to haunt the central African nation 30 years on – it has also changed the country’s gender dynamics.

The genocide resulted in hundreds of thousands of men being killed, with many more fleeing the country or being incarcerated. It left a previously male-centered society with hundreds of thousands of female-headed households. Of course, women were also subjected to the violence itself, with many killed and between 250,000 and 500,000 raped in the three months of genocide.

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Instead of Holocaust Museum, Detour Signs Direct Israel’s Herzog to The Hague

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“How is it possible that such a sacred space is being used to normalize genocide today?” asked one Dutch Jewish organizer behind the protest.

By Common Dreams. Published 3-10-24

Human rights activists of Amnesty International hold traffic boards showing the way to the International Criminal Court for the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog on March 10, 2024 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The President of Israel is in Amsterdam to open the Holocaust Museum. Photo: Trita Parsi/X

Human rights activists in The Netherlands greeted Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday with large protests and directed him towards the International Criminal Court at The Hague over his nation’s alleged war crimes against the Palestinian people in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Herzog was in Amsterdam to attend the opening of the new National Holocaust Museum, but demonstrators said Herzog’s presence needed to be challenged given the large scale death and destruction that Israel’s military has unleashed in Gaza over the last five months.

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Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Category Archives: Memorials