WNV’s top stories of 2022

It gives us great pleasure to look back and see what stories most excited, inspired and gripped readers over the last year. And this year, we had a lot more stories to go through!

Thanks to reader support — which is what makes Waging Nonviolence possible — we were able to increase our movement coverage by 40 percent in 2023. 

Not surprisingly, a number of our stories on resistance in Ukraine and Russia topped the list, but it also includes coverage of abortion protests, mutual aid and climate activism. And at the end, we’ve added a few of our favorite stories this year from Kashmir, Brazil and beyond that continue to resonate with us. 

It’s been an honor to share the stories by so many courageous journalists and organizers. But running this publication is still a labor of love that depends on support from readers like you. To operating in a deficit in 2022, we still need to raise $6,000 by the end of the year.  So, if you are able, please consider making a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation today. 

WNV’s most-read stories of 2022

10. There’s no place for burnout in a burning world 
By Charlie Wood
Climate activists can start to build a stronger culture of care by taking burnout seriously and understanding its root causes.

9. Why climate activists need to celebrate — even if we’re not feeling like it 
By Daniel Hunter
The Inflation Reduction Act is not the best we can do for the climate, but claiming its success builds a more powerful movement for future wins.

8. Should we disrupt the Democratic Party or try to take it over? 
By Mark Engler and Paul Engler 
How movements settle the debate on whether to engage with political parties from the inside or outside will have a profound impact on their effectiveness.

7. A people’s guide to stopping the war in Ukraine 
By Andrei Trubceac
Here are 20 concrete actions each of us can take to support peace and relief efforts in Ukraine, and strike at the root causes of war.

6. Why the abortion rights movement needs to get more personal
By Erin Mazursky
As a queer kid, I struggled to understand what choice means. Now, as a parent, I see it as central to ensuring fundamental freedoms for all of us.

5. Defections are crucial to ending Putin’s war — Russian soldiers looking for a way out need support 
By David Cortright
To undermine the war in Ukraine, U.S. antiwar veterans back a strategy of offering sanctuary and legal advice to defecting Russian troops.

4. Community groups and activists pivot to mutual aid amid ongoing water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi By Sara Herschander
With 150,000 residents still lacking safe drinking water, grassroots organizations are scrambling to address a crisis decades in the making.

3. Facing severe repression, Russians are turning to antiwar graffiti 
By Colleen Wood and Alexis Lerner
As the Kremlin cracks down on antiwar protests, subversive street art critiquing the war in Ukraine is proliferating across Russia.

2. Movements and leaders have seasons — it’s important to know which one you are in 
By Carlos Saavedra 
Learning to attune to the cycles of our own leadership can help us know when to do the right thing at the right time.

1. Ukraine’s secret weapon may prove to be civilian resistance 
By Daniel Hunter
Unarmed Ukrainians changing road signs, blocking tanks and confronting the Russian military are showing their bravery and strategic brilliance.

Additional favorites from the editors

Meet the volunteer brigades and artists fighting forest fires and deforestation in Brazil
By Marianna Olinger
As wildfires ravage the Amazon, street artists have joined forces with the volunteer firefighters risking their lives to stop Bolsonaro’s assault on the environment.

The mobilization for Yemen is a powerful model for today’s peace movement
By Sarah Freeman-Woolpert
By emphasizing support and solidarity, groups led primarily by Yemeni-American women are building momentum to end the world’s “forgotten war.”

No longer simply surviving, Kashmir’s trans community is learning to fight for its rights
By Safeena Wani
Young trans people in Kashmir are building support networks to face a system of oppression, as elders lend advice and admiration.

If doomsday prepping has taught me anything, it’s that we can’t survive alone
By Frida Berrigan
There is a strong tendency within survivalism to separate from a society that is failing, but retreat is not the answer. We need mutual aid and community.

The climate movement was built for a world before climate change — it’s time for a new approach By Cam Fenton
We need a mass movement that can deal with climate disasters. That means training people to both protect and mobilize their communities.

​​Climate activists across the Global South and North unite to stop the East Africa Crude Oil PipelineBy Nick Engelfried
As a movement born in Uganda and Tanzania arrives in the United States, activists are drawing strength from lessons of earlier pipeline battles.

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