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The Rigors of Organizing: On the Road with the German Climate Resistance

 

The Rigors of Organizing: On the Road with the German

Climate Resistance

Image Source Delphi234 – Wikimedia Commons

Recently, press in the United States told the story of the great transition that the German Coal Commission announced. Benevolent governments like Germany are deciding to make a just transition away from coal and have even set an end date, 2038, for a long-term orderly transition to occur. The mainstream media is hailing this transition as a model for the rest of the world.

There are two problems with this narrative. First, the current German plan renders it impossible for Germany to meet its goals under the Paris accords. Despite what the German governmental spin is, Germany’s proposed coal exit is well behind the 2030 exit of other European countries and includes a transition to fracked gas.

Second, the narrative overlooks the fact of how pressure is exerted and change is made. In the case of Germany, a powerful people’s movement takes over coal mines, sits in trees and engages in mass disruption and civic disobedience in order to exert pressure on the system.

Ende Gelände,which in English means “here and no further,” is a broad coalition that has spent the better part of four years playing a significant role in the German climate resistance. They have organized annual takeovers of a lignite coal mine. Last fall, Ende Gelände was part of a mass mobilization of 50,000 people who came to defend over 80 tree-sit occupations in the Hambach forest, which is regularly encroached upon to clear land for mining. Ende Gelände is less an organization than a broad-based coalition and a true movement, which comes out of the rich tradition of German anti-nuclear organizing, a regular set of European climate camps, and local resistance and “buergerliche (citizen’s) initiatives. Many different small organizations and affinity groups have comprised and undergirded the larger Ende Gelände mobilizations.

The rigor of the organizing is apparent. A year of work before the first mine takeover resulted in Ende Gelände organizing 150 direct action trainings and helping participants to form countless affinity groups. On top of that they organized a vast infrastructure that could maintain a camp of thousands, train a large number of medics as well as creating a space welcoming of a wide array of cultural workers.

Currently, activists from Ende Gelände and the climate camps, along with Rising Tide North America are touring the United States. Ende Gelände will share what they have learned which includes three major takeaways for us. First, they will share the discipline of what they do. Summers of climate camp and hundreds of direct action trainings have created the rigor through which hundreds of autonomous affinity groups can be prepared for mass direct action. As so much of the approach involves recruitment of new organizations, Ende Gelände is skilled at providing a way for everyone to participate at a variety of levels of risk. Second, too often social movements in the United States get co-opted or organized out of taking the boldest actions, because of the need for financial resources. Once organizers and money arrive, what could be truly disruptive actions become much more scripted and lose some power. Ende Gelände organized the nonprofit sector in Germany to support its aims, rather than the other way around. Finally, Ende Gelände will share their tactical acumen. These are activists who overcome their considerable fears are willing to push past police lines, water cannons and pepper spray.

As an anti-capitalist direct action network, Rising Tide is interested in using this tour to supercharge a disruptive flank in the North American climate movement. There are many current heroes in this work. Appalachians Against Pipelines have been holding tree-sits resisting the Mountain Valley Pipeline for over a year. Water Protectors in Northern Minnesota are living through their second winter surviving frigid conditions to stop Line 3. The organizers at L’eau Est La Vie camp have risked life and limb and felony charges in their struggle against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline. Affinity groups like the Valve Turners, including a recent action by four Catholic Workers in Northern Minnesota, risk prison time for their acts of courage and resistance. And, most of this modern wave of predominantly Indigenous-led activism emanates from Standing Rock, which significantly changed how millions of people viewed issues of extraction and Indigenous sovereignty.

The German movement, despite its scale, is a cautionary note that collectively, we need disruption at unprecedented levels in order to solve the climate crisis. If being able to mobilize 50,000 people and intermittently shut down mines with a fairly progressive government still leaves us short of Paris, then what scale and scope of disruption might be needed in the United States to deal with a hostile government where both parties are held captive to fossil fuel interests?

Ende Gelände has some of the same questions for us. They wonder about the interplay of direct action versus organizing in smaller rural communities, and how one makes common cause with those who feel like they benefit the most from mining. It is not only the scale, but also the who is involved.

Rising Tide North America views the Ende Gelände tour as a potential catalyst for more. We wonder if people will be inspired to join the resistance camps in Minnesota or build new ones. We hope that cities resound with takeovers of fossil company headquarters, disruption of shareholder meetings, and mass shutdowns of global financial institutions financing the extraction state.

We hope you join us for the Ende Gelände tour, either in person or online in the webinars being organized by Rising Tide . More importantly, we hope you join a freewheeling, scheming, free-form direct action disruptive movement at the points of resistance or at home where you live. One action, one camp, one long-term occupation in our vast country is insufficient. We look forward to your creativity, strategy and willingness to do the hard work to build a disruptive movement.

For a list of EG tour stops and how to follow the tour, you can sign up here.

Jeff Ordower is a long-time community and labor organizer and a member of the Rising Tide Collective, who is currently peripatetic.

Support RTNA in 2018

Holy s&*t, 2017 was f*#$ed up. From the continuing onslaught of the Trump Agenda to the rise of the fascists, 2017 revealed the truly rotten core of the system we’ve been fighting for years. Our enemy is visible — and the task is huge.

In 2017, we saw people rising to combat hate. Our movements continued to hold those in power accountable. We shut down airports, fought oil and gas companies, protested police abuse of Black and Brown bodies. Our people fought fascists from California to Appalachia, and threw down in DC when one was inaugurated as president.

We know that we need to be more prepared in 2018. Will you help support our continued work with a donation?

In 2018, our movements need to be strong and nimble. The climate is changing, both literally and metaphorically, and the future is a bit murky. We know we need to build a long term radical movement that is able to take on oppressive powers — a movement built from the bottom up, from the grassroots, in the communities that are on the frontlines of struggle.

In 2017, Rising Tide supported grassroots and frontline meeting spaces, anti-fracking communities, the J20 defendants, prison abolitionists, and so many more. We couldn’t do any of this without you. In 2018, we will continue to support our frontline fighters and to build movement infrastructure that can sustain us for the long haul.

Donate what you can — $15, $50 or even $500 — to support direct action and movement building in 2018. Any amount you contribute will go to supporting the work of Rising Tide North America.

With hope for a courageous, bold, rebellious (and less f!#$ed up)  2018,

Rising Tide North America

Protesters Blockade Kinder Morgan Richmond Terminal Demanding Halt to Trans Mountain Tar Sands Pipeline


For immediate release, July 24, 2017

Contact: Patrick McCully, Rainforest Action Network – 628 224 8168
Isabella Zizi, Idle No More SF Bay – 510 932 0978
For High Resolution Photos, please contact Christopher Herrera at christopher@ran.org

Action Alert: Monday, July 24, 7:30 a.m.
1006 Canal Blvd, Richmond, CA 94804

Please donate to support the legal fund of these activists.

Protesters Blockade Kinder Morgan Richmond Terminal
Demanding Halt to Trans Mountain Tar Sands Pipeline

Richmond, CA – Protesters blocked three gates of the Kinder Morgan Richmond Terminal this morning, securing themselves to oil barrels and a 12-foot-long mock oil pipeline that reads “No Consent. No Pipeline.” The local activists are demanding that the company halt its new Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada. The controversial project would triple the capacity of an existing pipeline from Edmonton, Calgary to Burnaby, British Columbia to 890,000 barrels per day — facilitating increased extraction of tar sands oil, one of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuels.

“It’s important for me to stand up today for my indigenous brothers and sisters of the First Nations,” said Isabella Zizi of Idle No More SF Bay. “This crude tar sands oil will not just be affecting those up in Canada. It will likely be transported to the West Coast and potentially to here in my hometown of Richmond. Our lands, our waterways and our air needs are constantly being overlooked by these industries. We, as indigenous people, cannot and should not be swept under the rug. If any of these elements are harmed, all life will suffer the consequences.”

Kinder Morgan, a spin-off from Enron, is one of North America’s largest energy infrastructure companies. The company claims it will start construction on its 715-mile Trans Mountain pipeline in September despite fierce opposition to the project from numerous First Nations and other communities and cities along its path. The recently elected government of British Columbia also opposes the project.

Oil from the Kinder Morgan pipeline would be loaded onto oil tankers in Burnaby. This would lead to a massive increase of tanker traffic in the waters of the Pacific Northwest – and potentially in San Francisco Bay. Any spills of tar sands crude would be nearly impossible to clean up because when tar sands oil spills in water – it sinks. Refining the tar sands crude in Richmond would worsen air pollution in local communities.

“We are already over-taxed when it comes to pollution in our community and toxins in our bodies,” said Andres Soto of Communities for a Better Environment. “Kinder Morgan doesn’t care about their workers. They’re making them sacrifice their health and the health of their families in order to put food on the table. We demand clean jobs for our community. We refuse tar sands oil.”

“We are determined to prevent the pursuit of extreme energy from destroying our communities, natural systems and climate, therefore confrontational protests like this action are necessary for change,” said Corazon Amada, an organizer with Diablo Rising Tide. Amada was one of several activists who were risking arrest during this peaceful protest. “We stand in solidarity with those everywhere fighting to stop Kinder Morgan.”

Last month, over 28 major banks were warned not to finance the expansion project in a letter signed by over 20 Indigenous and environmental groups. The letter cites The Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion’s call for an international campaign to divest from any financial institution that funds Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline. More than 130 Indigenous Nations have already signed the The Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion.

“The bank’s financing Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline are violating Indigenous rights, clean water, clean air and the climate,” said Patrick McCully, Climate and Energy Program Director at Rainforest Action Network. “We intend to hold these banks accountable. And our primary target is JPMorgan Chase, the largest Wall Street funder of tar sands .”

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Diablo Rising Tide is the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Rising Tide North America. Rising Tide North America is an all-volunteer grassroots organizing network in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico who confronts the root causes of climate change with non-violent direct action and grassroots organizing and education. You can find out more at www.diablorisingtide.org.