Category: RT Newswire

USE ME! Essentially, this is a catch all for everything. This is probably the ONLY category where things that are not directly related to Rising Tide affiliates/allies should go. For example if a coal company goes out of business (and we didn’t directly cause it) it should probably only go here.

TransCanada Caught Training Police to Treat Peaceful Anti-Keystone XL Activists as “Terrorists”

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For immediate release

June 12, 2013

Contact: Ron Seifert, Tar Sands Blockade, 940-268-5375, kxlblockade@gmail.com

TransCanada Caught Training Police to Treat Peaceful Anti-Keystone XL Activists as “Terrorists”

photo (13)

Slide from TransCanada security PowerPoint presentation featuring Rising Tide and Tar Sands Blockade activists.

Houston, TX — In the midst of recent national controversy surrounding government surveillance of the public, a recent Freedom of Information Act request to the Nebraska State Patrol has exposed evidence that TransCanada provided trainings to federal agents and local Nebraska police to suppress nonviolent activists protesting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline by arresting them on “anti-terrorism statutes.” The presentation slides, obtained by grassroots landowner advocacy group Bold Nebraska, target Tar Sands Blockade activists by name.

“This is clear evidence of the collusion between TransCanada and the federal government assisting local police to unlawfully monitor and harass political protestors,” said Lauren Regan, legal coordinator for Tar Sands Blockade and executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center. “These documents expose the truth that the government is giving the nod to unlawful corporate spying. By slinging false allegations against peaceful activists in this presentation, TransCanada puts them at risk of unwarranted prosecution.”

Although TransCanada’s presentation to authorities contains information about property destruction, sabotage, and booby traps, police in Texas and Oklahoma have never alleged, accused, or charged Tar Sands Blockade activists of any such behaviors. Since August 2012, Tar Sands Blockade has carried out dozens of successful nonviolent direct actions to physically halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas and Oklahoma. All of these acts, as well as every pipeline protest in Nebraska, have maintained strict commitments to nonviolence.

“Try as TransCanada might to slander Tar Sands Blockade and our growing grassroots movement, we know who the real criminals are.” said Ron Seifert, a spokesperson with Tar Sands Blockade who was pictured in the slideshow. “The real criminals are those profiting from this deadly tar sands pipeline by endangering families living along the route and pumping illegal levels of air toxins into fence-line communities.”

“If anything, this shows the effectiveness of campaigns to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and fossil fuel extraction as a whole,” said Scott Parkin, an organizer with Rising Tide North America and a non-violence trainer also pictured in the slideshow. “We’ve been fighting coal, oil and natural gas for a long time using these time-honored tactics and strategies. We’ll continue to use them precisely because they have been so effective in making change throughout American history.”

Grassroots resistance to Keystone XL is growing in Texas and Oklahoma where TransCanada is currently digging up freshly laid sections of the pipeline that failed integrity inspections. The East Texas Observer reports that at least 70 “anomalies,” including dents and shoddy welds in the pipe, were identified in a 60 mile span, and in some areas these imperfections occur at a rate of three per mile.

“A discovery like this presentation reveals that TransCanada has no problem lying to authorities and intentionally misleading the public in pursuit of its own private gain,” says Seifert. “If TransCanada officials cannot be trusted to tell the truth about the peaceful nature of Keystone XL protestors, why should we believe they’ve told the truth about the integrity of their pipeline and the real threats it poses to the hundreds of rivers and creeks that it crosses?”

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The full slideshows can be found at: http://www.tarsandsblockade.org/transcanadapolice/

RTNA Continental Gathering and Spring Actions: June Update

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MTRRTNA Continental Gathering and Spring Actions: June Update

UPCOMING ACTIONS AND ACTION CAMPS

June 15th-23rd – Wild Roots Feral Futures – Southwest Colorado

June 24th-29th – Fearless Summer Week of Action

July 18th-20th – RTNA Continental Gathering – Northern Utah

July 21st-28th – Utah Tar Sands Action Camp – Utah

July 23rd-29th – Trans and Womyn’s Actions Camp – Near Eugene, Oregon

August 8th-12th – Alaska Rising Tide Direct Action Jamoboree – Alaska

 

CONTENTS

Rising Tide North American Continental Gathering – July 18-20 – Utah

This July, many of the members of Rising Tide-affiliated, anti-extraction, and climate justice groups around the U.S., Mexico, and Canada will converge in beautiful Utah to train, discuss, strategize, and develop the structure, dynamics and capacity of the Rising Tide network.

The Rising Tide Continental Gathering will provide a significant venue for networking and forwarding proposals that will impact the course of the burgeoning anti-extraction and climate justice movement.  The gathering will also promote solidarity work with frontline and fenceline communities that must be a part of our struggles.  The network itself is collaboratively creating the agenda for the gathering, ensuring that participants will get out of the gathering what they put into it.  Come, participate, and help it grow.

Read more – RTNA Website

 

Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance Continues Actions in Oklahoma

Actions continue in Oklahoma to blockade the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Among others on May 13th Bob Waldrop, 60, fourth generation Oklahoman and prominent Oklahoma City community member walked onto an active construction site for the Keystone XL pipeline in Seminole County and locked himself to an Excavator, a piece of heavy machinery used in the construction of the pipeline. The next day Bailey and Holly, part of Cross Timbers Earth First!, blocked another construction site. Holly and Bailey are part of an ongoing wave of local Oklahomans who have been resisting the KXL by using direct action. Local Oklahomans explain they aren’t just resisting the KXL but the apathy that has existed for too long in the face of these destructive petro-chemical industries. Bailey explained, “ I am blockading tar sands because I am blockading indifference. I am blockading passivity.”

Read more – Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance

Actions Against Mountaintop Removal

On May 24th activists associated with Mountain Justice, Radical Action for Mountain Peoples’ Survival (RAMPS), and Hands Off Appalachia! entered the Gay Street branch of UBS wealth management services and refused to leave. Inside the office, three activists locked themselves to a large paper maché puppet depicting an investment banker. The non-violent protest was in opposition to UBS’ funding and supporting of the harmful extractive process known as mountaintop removal coal mining. These actions come on the heels of a series of actions that have directly confronted mountaintop removal and the corporations that facilitate this destructive practice.

Read more – Mountain Justice

 

Newswire

 

Upcoming

Rising Tide North America Continental Gathering in Utah; July 18-20

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Click here to register for the Gathering!!

Click Here to Donate to the Gathering!!

Update on the Location:  If you are planning on attending the gathering please orient your travel toward Green River, Utah. If you are flying, either Salt Lake City or Grand Junction are the best bets, although we’d suggest Grand Junction, CO (it’s just closer).  We hear there are really cheap flights from LA and Las Vegas on Allegiant Air ($60!!)  into Grand Junction if you search. From both SLC and Grand Junction there are daily trains directly to Green River for fairly cheap. From SLC the train leaves 3AM; 4pm from Grand Junction. Of course, we can find people accommodations in either location if you plan on arriving early and shuttles or car pools can be available. Just make sure you let us know ASAP.  If you register for the gathering, you’ll receive another email requesting you travel info if you need help getting there. If you don’t register, we don’t know you’re coming!! Again, the accommodations are most likely going to be camping, so come prepared.

Our strength comes from our connection, our power from our unity.

WHAT: Rising Tide Continental Gathering

WHEN: July 18-20, 2013 (17th arrival, 21st departure)

WHERE: Utah; Exact Location TBA

CONTACT: gathering@risingtidenorthamerica.org

INFO: https://risingtidenorthamerica.org/2013/05/gathering/

DONATE: https://www.wepay.com/donations/rising-tide-continental-gathering

The Pitch

This July, many of the members of Rising Tide-affiliated, anti-extraction, and climate justice groups around the U.S., Mexico, and Canada will converge in beautiful Utah to train, discuss, strategize, and develop the structure, dynamics and capacity of the Rising Tide network.

Rising Tide is an international, all-volunteer, grassroots network of groups and individuals who organize locally, promote community-based solutions to the climate crisis, and take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change.  Some network members are called Rising Tide, others are not.  In its essence, Rising Tide seeks to create a broad, long-term, international, collaborative platform for direct action and climate justice organizing.

The Rising Tide North America network consists of groups and local contacts throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico.  Local groups work on a wide variety of issues that pertain to the local communities in which they reside.  If you are already part of the Rising Tide network, if you are interested in joining as an individual or a group, or if you want to find out how a grassroots, horizontally-organized, dedicated network of direct action-oriented, climate justice organizations can change the world, the Rising Tide Continental Gathering may just be the place to come.

All of the groups involved in the Rising Tide network are actively organizing on the ground in their communities.  Many are taking the lead in staging bold direct actions that are altering the course of the climate fight.  Many are participating in national and international projects that are at the forefront of movement building and solidarity work against tar sands, fracked oil and natural gas, and coal exploitation.

The Rising Tide Continental Gathering will provide a significant venue for networking and forwarding proposals that will impact the course of the burgeoning anti-extraction and climate justice movement.  The gathering will also promote solidarity work with frontline and fenceline communities that must be a part of our struggles.  The network itself is
collaboratively creating the agenda for the gathering, ensuring that participants will get out of the gathering what they put into it.  Come, participate, and help it grow.

The Goals

The focus of this year’s Rising Tide Continental Gathering will be:

1. Broaden connections between network groups and share resources

Through meeting each other and being present and working together in the same place, we hope to open space to talk about furthering network communication and collaborations and generally expanding and strengthening our working relationships.

2. Strategize around growing the power of the anti-extraction and climate justice movement

We also hope to create space for developing strategies around our different struggles.  Regional, industry, and affinity breakout sessions will all provide spaces in which we can develop this work, make proposals, and strategize together as a network.

Get Involved

We want the Rising Tide Continental Gathering to be as collaboratively created as possible.  We plan to offer the time for members of the network to talk about their interests.  We also need a lot of help with event outreach, logistics, and fundraising.  Currently, you can plug into four working groups in operation.  Contact us for more information about
helping out.

Why Utah?

Utah is gearing up to be another major front of tar sands and fracking related organizing.  After the Rising Tide Continental Gathering, Utah-based groups Peaceful Uprising, Canyon Country Rising Tide, and Before It Starts are hosting the Utah Tar Sands Action Camp from July 21 to 28.  We are encouraging folks interested in attending the Rising Tide Continental Gathering to also engage in the action camp.  The Rising Tide network chose this specific collaboration as a strategic place to forward anti-extraction and climate justice work in the U.S.  However, we do understand if participant schedules do not permit attendance of both the gathering and the camp.

Basic Logistics

Travel

Please make your travel plans early and orient them toward Salt Lake City.  The gathering will occur at an as of now undetermined,  location in Utah.  We will organize and inform you of emerging pick-up and drop-off travel arrangements to transport everybody who does not already have a ride to and from the gathering site.

We are prioritizing limited travel funding for folks who may be coming from out of the country or at least from far away.  But if you need assistance in getting to the gathering, we are happy to help in any way that we can, through ride shares or possible partial or full travel funding.

Utah Summer

Utah in July has the potential to be hot – really hot.  Please come prepared to be in a likely outdoor environment.  Bring bottles for water, sunscreen, and clothing to be comfortable and to protect yourself from the sun.  We encourage gathering participants to bring camping gear, tents, blankets, or sleeping bags suitable for summer weather.

Updates and Information

Please check our website often for updated info about rideshares, travel, schedules, and site logistics.  As we get closer to the gathering, we will post new ways to be involved, working group updates, and the agendas there.

https://risingtidenorthamerica.org/2013/05/gathering/

Three Arrested at Peabody Coal Shareholders Meeting in Gillette, WY; Mineworkers, Navajo Ask Pointed Questions of CEO Boyce

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3 arrested at Peabody Shareholders meeting in Gillette, mineworkers, Navajo ask pointed questions of CEO Boyce

3 Arrested at Peabody Shareholder Meeting in Gillette
Groups from Wyoming, Black Mesa, St. Louis and Colorado Join Together to Confront World’s Largest Coal Company

GILLETTE, WY– Peabody Energy shareholders affiliated with Powder River Basin Resource Council, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE), CO-FORCE (Coloradans for Fair Rates and Clean Energy), and Forgotten People from Black Mesa/Big Mountain in Arizona converged in Gillette, Wyoming, on Monday, April 29, 2013, at Peabody’s Annual General Meeting. Peabody has always held its meeting near its headquarters in St. Louis, but moved it this year to avoid public scrutiny. After the meeting, an activist affiliated with MORE was arrested dropping a banner saying, “Peabody Attacks: Pensions, Diné Lands, Climate.” 2 other activists were arrested for holding up banner in the parking lot that said “Peabody Abandons Miners.”

Shareholders asked targeted questions to CEO Greg Boyce and the Peabody Board of Directors regarding its current business model which consistently externalizes its costs to coal mine neighbors, workers, and the environment. Peabody’s creation of now-bankrupt Patriot Coal to unload its pension and healthcare obligations to retired miners is a recent example of how Peabody disregards its own workers. Shareholders stood with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in Gillette in demanding that Peabody pay its retired miners what they were promised, while thousands more rallied in St. Louis.

Just as Peabody is threatening the livelihoods of UMWA retirees, Peabody was also confronted today by two residents of the Black Mesa/Big Mountain area in Arizona. For decades, Peabody has been involved in the forced relocation of tens of thousands of Diné and Hopi on Black Mesa. In January, residents of Black Mesa attempted to meet with CEO Greg Boyce in St. Louis. He refused, and twelve people were arrested attempting to deliver a letter from Black Mesa residents to Peabody.

“This winter, we travelled to Peabody’s headquarters in St. Louis to bring them a message from the people of Black Mesa, whom Peabody is displacing from their ancestral lands to expand their strip mines. Instead of holding a dialogue, Boyce hid behind security and hired police; now we have come to Gillette so that we can express our concerns face-to-face,” said Don Yellowman, of Forgotten People on Black Mesa/Big Mountain in Arizona.

Shareholders also drew attention to Peabody’s attempts to cheat American taxpayers by leasing artificially cheap coal from the Bureau of Land Management. This practice is now under unprecedented investigation by the Government Accountability Office, the Department of the Interior, and Congress, and it could pose a large risk to the financial viability of Peabody’s mining efforts in the Powder River Basin. Today, over 135,000 petitions were delivered to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell calling for a moratorium on new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin. The petitions follow an April 15 letter to Secretary Jewell signed by the leaders of 21 environmental, public health, consumer rights and community organizations calling for a moratorium and comprehensive review of the federal coal leasing program.

“Peabody’s chickens have come home to roost,” stated LJ Turner, a Wyoming rancher who lives near Peabody’s North Antelope Rochelle Mine. “For too long, Peabody has ignored the true cost of its coal mines in the Powder River Basin, but now Congress and others are starting to pay attention to the impacts of mining on people, our air and land, and the climate.”

Shareholders’ concerns are underlined by a recent subpoena of Peabody by the Securities and Exchange Commission, related to the building and development of the Prairie State Energy Campus in Marissa, IL. Peabody, once the full developer of the project, sold of 95% of the plant to hundreds of towns and cities across the Midwest who are now paying for the plant’s extreme cost overruns in their monthly bills.