Announcements – Page 35 – Rising Tide North America

Home » Category "Announcements" (Page 35)

Let’s Shut Down KKR, All Day. #WetsuwetenStrong

By sparki April 23, 2020 April 23, 2020 Announcements, Featured News, Front, RT Newswire, RT Press Releases, RT Reportbacks

This Earth Week, we’re flooding the US-based investment firm KKR &Co with calls, emails, and tweets to stop the company from buying the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

The Coastal GasLink pipeline threatens Wet’suwet’en land, water, air, and people.

KKR has plans to purchase 65% of the Coastal GasLink pipeline with Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCo). KKR is a US-based private equity firm with an atrocious record of putting profits over people.

The good news? The sale won’t close til June. Which means we still have time to stop it.

If we #ShutDownKKR, we can stop the financing of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline — but we need to mobilize online together right now.

Here’s what you can do to join the KKR communications blockade TODAY and #ShutDownKKR:

Email KKR today by using our easy messaging tool by clicking here.
Call KKR by dialing 1-888-593-5407 and following the instructions you hear from us. Need some talking points for your call? No problem. See below.
Tweet at @KKR_Co and tell them just how awful they are for ignoring Wet’suwet’en concerns about their rights, the climate, land air and water. Need some tweet inspiration? See below!

Why is this important right now?

Despite the COVID-19 crisis, TC Energy is still going ahead with Coastal GasLink pipeline construction and sending more workers and federal police officers onto Wet’suwet’en territories, putting communities at even more risk. Billionaire oil and gas CEOs see the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to push through whatever they can when the world is looking the other way.

KKR must be held accountable for ignoring the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, putting Indigenous land and people at risk, endangering Indigenous women by building man camps along the route, and fueling the climate crisis.

Here’s a facebook event link for today’s communication blockade, if you’d like to share with your friends.

Thanks for taking action online today, and let us know how it goes by replying this to email!

Shutdown DC Spoofs IMF Debt Cancellation Announcement

By sparki April 16, 2020 April 16, 2020 Announcements, Facebook, Featured News, Front, RT Newswire, RT Press Releases, RT Reportbacks

repost from Shutdown DC

Earlier today we sent around an email with an almost unbelievable announcement: the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions were canceling ALL of debt for 111 countries that were experiencing a moderate or high risk of debt distress. Payments on these debts take essential resources out of the budgets of many of the world’s poorest countries. The structural adjustment policies that accompany these loans act as a tool of colonial domination, allowing rich countries to mandate that the world’s poorest nations make painful cuts to vital social programs.

Throughout the day, dozens of people reached out to ask if we had been duped. Some even asked if this was the work of the notorious laughtavist pranksters, “The Yes Men.”

The truth is, this is not real. The IMF did not cancel all debt. #ShutDownDC activists created the IMF2020.org website and announcement (but we’re humbled to be compared to the Yes Men). But it is also true that canceling all debts for low and moderate income countries is not only the right thing to do, it’s essential at this moment.

The IMF and other financial institutions did announce some small debt relief measures at around the same time as we sent out the email. But these measures are disgustingly inadequate. The IMF’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT), for instance, provided less assistance than the US Federal Government provided to large corporations in the most recent bailout package.

We are in the midst of a global pandemic, and the world’s poorest countries need to be able to mobilize every available resource to provide for the health and wellbeing of people who have been made vulnerable to this virus. And when we emerge from the pandemic, there is no going back to the old normal. We need to build to a new normal where we’ve dismantled the interlocking systems of oppression that created this incessant stream of climate, public health and economic crises.

So the IMF has not canceled all debt yet. But they are responding to the pressure and we need to keep up the pressure! Our friends at Jubilee USA are campaigning for much needed reforms among the international financial institutions like the IMF. Sign their petition and support their work!

And today’s action also shows that we CAN take disruptive action during the global pandemic both online AND in person. Over the next several months, physical distancing and wearing face covering is going to be essential to slow the spread of COVID-19 and keep our communities safe. We all have a responsibility to act responsibly. But we also can’t afford to sit on the sidelines while people die, the corporations line up to fill their pockets and the government quietly rolls back protections. We need to be responsible and keep each other safe and healthy, but we also need to continue to fight a just and sustainable future.

Between Earth Day and May Day, we’re going to take bold action (both online AND in person) to take aim at the interlocking systems that are creating the crises our communities are suffering from and build a collaborative framework for a healthier, more just and more sustainable world.

We’re working on some exciting action plans for those 10 days–imagine using lots of eco-friendly paint to paint a mutual on a side street in front of an evil billionaire’s home, or hanging massive banners in iconic locations around the district, or using bicycles to haul solar powered PA system around town bring the voices of front line communities to the institutions that are facilitating the destruction of their communities.

Join our next organizing conference call– the last weekly call before Earth Day to find out what the plans are and how YOU can plug in! Thursday, April 16 at 7pm eastern.

Talk real soon!

#ShutDownDC

Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Groups Call on Private Equity Firm to Stop Investments in the Coastal GasLink Pipeline and Respect Indigenous Sovereignty

By sparki March 24, 2020 March 24, 2020 Announcements, Featured News, Front, RT Newswire, RT Press Releases, RT Reportbacks

Press Contacts:

Annie Banks Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Front Bay Area 510-631-4653

Emily Luba Wet’suwet’en Solidarity U.K. 074 294 63976

Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Groups Call on Private Equity Firm to Stop Investments in the Coastal GasLink Pipeline and Respect Indigenous Sovereignty

Online event part of international protests targeting Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., calling to stop construction of the controversial British Columbia pipeline.

COAST SALISH TERRITORIES: This week, a coalition of groups, including Rising Tide North America, Wet’suwet’en Solidarity UK, Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Front Bay Area and Greenpeace USA, launched a virtual “day of action” against Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and individuals sent over 7,500 emails, and 275 phone calls in a communication’s blockade to the private equity firm’s CEOs, New York headquarters, plus California and London offices.

Today’s day of action is in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs currently resisting the illegal construction of the Coast GasLink pipeline slated to cut through our territories at a huge environmental, social, and economic cost. The resistance to the Coastal GasLink project has been widespread, including rail blockades, port shutdowns, government office occupations, and sit-ins at legislatures and banks investing in this illegal pipeline project. As an organizer from London explains, “it is incredibly key that we put global pressure on KKR & Co. From the heart of the British empire, we are watching Indigenous genocide continue in so-called Canada at the hands of Coastal GasLink.”

“Despite the COVID-19 crisis, TC Energy is still going ahead with construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline and sending more workers and federal police officers onto Wet’suwet’en territories, putting communities at even more risk,” said organizer Vanessa Butterworth of Rising Tide North America. “Billionaire oil and gas CEOs see the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to push through whatever they can when the world is looking the other way.”

KKR has plans to purchase 65% of the Coastal GasLink pipeline with Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCo).

This 670-kilometer-long pipeline would carry fracked gas from northeast BC to a future liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the coast, the largest of its kind ever proposed in Canada. The pipeline would cut through Wet’suwet’en territory, which is divided into 5 clans and 13 house groups, and stretches over 22,000 square kilometres, wherein each clan has full jurisdiction to control access to its territory. The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have maintained their land use, occupancy, hereditary governance system, and are the title holders with authority and jurisdiction to make decisions about unceded lands, including the land where the pipeline is scheduled to be built.

For more information about other Wet’suwet’en solidarity actions around the globe, please see https://actionnetwork.org/letters/messagekkr

###

All Eyes on the Frontlines: Coronavirus Mutual Aid

By Mia March 16, 2020 March 18, 2020 Announcements, Featured News, Front, RT Newswire, RT Press Releases, RT Reportbacks

As the coronavirus spreads across North America, communities are coming together in mutual-aid to support those most vulnerable to COVID-19. Communities on the frontlines of capitalism’s violence, including low-income workers, communities of color, people with disabilities, the houseless, and those who are incarcerated, are among those who will be disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and efforts to contain the coronavirus. We need all eyes on the frontlines.

In response to the coronavirus, community-based mutual aid groups are forming to support each other by sharing resources, running errands, providing financial support, and emotional care to each other. Today, over 30 groups have emerged to provide community-based mutual-aid in response to the coronavirus.

To find one in your community, follow these links and scroll down for a list of COVID-19 Mutual Aid Groups.

While the Trump Administration and global elite botch the coronavirus response, set plans to push through an oil and gas bailout, and leave communities scrambling on their own, we must keep organizing for all forms of social, economic, and environmental justice. The only way to stop Trump’s plans to exacerbate one crisis with another, is acting up now.

Here are a few things you can do this week:

Ensure Safe Housing For All:

In this time of global pandemic, ensuring housing for all is more important than ever. This winter, Oakland moms took on one of the nation’s most notorious landlords and won. Yesterday, Mom’s in Los Angeles followed suit and seized their own house to try to stay safe during the pandemic.

Learn about their campaign and join a webinar from Moms4Housing Oakland and Bargaining for the Common Good network partner, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) about the successful campaign in Oakland that brought the issue of affordable housing and investor speculation to national attention. Register at this link!

Act in Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en:

As we all take measures to address the coronavirus in our own communities, Rising Tide North America is continuing to act in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and their fight to stop the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. Our organizing cannot stop. This is when they’ll try to take everything. All eyes on the frontlines. All eyes on Wet’suwet’en.

KKR is in the process of buying 65% of Coastal GasLink. If we can stop the sale, we can help stop the pipeline from being built. While you’re home this week, take 5 minutes to tweet, email, or call KKR and tell them to divest from the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. Don’t forget to sign the #ShutDownKKR petition. It has 125,000 signatures and growing!

Sample Tweets:

We cannot stop organizing. This is when they’ll try to take everything. All eyes on the frontlines. All eyes on Wet’suwet’en. #ShutDownKKR: http://bit.ly/stop_kkr
After laying off more than 33K Toys R Us employees, @KKR_co is now coming after the Wet’suwet’en land with the Coastal GasLink pipeline construction. Rise up with the #WetsuwetenStrong! Tell KKR to divest from the Coastal GasLink pipeline: http://bit.ly/stop_kkr

Read the #ShutDownKKR: Get Your Hands Off Wet’suwet’en Lands! Toolkit for more information on how you can take action.

Advocate and Act for a Just Response to Coronavirus

For more ideas on how you can take action for a just response to the coronavirus, visit and read: