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.

Breaking: Two Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Idaho

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via Wild Idaho Rising Tide

News from Moscow Idaho, two arrested blockading Exxon’s megaload trucks bound with tar sands equipment for Alberta.

Early News: More Protesters Arrested for Blocking Tar Sands “Megaloads” in Moscow, Idaho

PRELIMINARY NEWS RELEASE

March 5, 2012

Four remarkably brave activists eluded the barricades and put their bodies between enormous Alberta tar sands upgrader parts and the ecological and climate devastation they will visit on us all.  As three of the last five of 78 ExxonMobil/Imperial Oil megaloads moved through downtown Moscow, Idaho, two protesters were arrested for linking arms and sitting down in Washington Street late Sunday night, March 4.  Police arrested two men but pulled two women to the side and detained and released them when the convoy passed.  The women did not appreciate the discrimination.

In a video by Joshua Yeidel of a KRFP Radio Free Moscow interview, We Won’t Be Accessories to Genocide: Moscow ID, March 4, 2012, one of the dismissed women explained her and her many allies’ motivations for marching, chanting, and even obstructing megaloads and risking arrest in cold and dark winter conditions.  “We’re not going to be accessories to genocide and climate change and increased cancer rates and all the other ecological damages that the tar sands intends to cause…”

Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and community members have gathered along Moscow streets to raise their voices in protest more than forty times since July 15, 2011, when the first transports of outsourced equipment rumbled up to 425,000 pounds on Highway 95 from the Port of Lewiston to the climate-wrecking tar sands.  Despite heavy, industry-sponsored police presence and closure of entire rights-of-way, some citizens have entered the crosswalks and streets to briefly block the shipments and halt their ecological death march, before state, county, and city police officers surround, harass, and drag them away and/or arrest them.

For a video shot by Joshua Yeidel of Sunday night’s action, Megaloads and Arrests, Moscow, Idaho, March 4, 2012, please see this video.

Fifty-one of Zachary Johnson’s photos of the March 4 demonstration are available on the Wild Idaho Rising Tide Facebook page

WIRT members extend our gratitude, love, and highest esteem to the four good souls who sacrificed their freedom to stand up for what’s right last night and to all of the supportive citizens on the streets and sidewalks, who spoke out and bore witness for a greener planet, healthier humanity, and a livable, worthwhile future for everyone’s descendants.  Please join friends and activists at 9 am on Monday, March 5, at the Latah County Courthouse for the arraignments of Cass Davis and Jim Prall.  One of their spouses reported that they are doing well in jail.  Besides this brief press release compiled from WIRT activists’ input, we will send a more comprehensive, campaign-inclusive story later today.

Meanwhile, for more news, photos, videos, and interviews, please see the WIRT Facebook page and web site/blog and listen to the Climate Justice Forum radio program on Mondays at 7:30 to 9:00 pm PST on KRFP Radio Free Moscow.

Rising Tide North America Statement of Solidarity with Occupy Oakland

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Rising Tide North America Statement of Solidarity with Occupy Oakland

San Francisco, CA– The climate justice group Rising Tide North America released this statement in response to the brutal attack against Occupy Oakland on Jan. 28th by the Oakland Police Department and subsequent lies and misinformation being spread by Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and her administration:

“Rising Tide North America stands in solidarity with Occupy Oakland and the marchers in the Jan. 28 “Move In Day” march that was brutally attacked by the Oakland police department. The march was meant to turn an abandoned building into a social center that would provide services that the original Occupy Oakland encampment had provided to the local community before being evicted by the city of Oakland.

“The Oakland Police responded to the “Move-In Day” march with violence and brutality. They used batons and chemical weapons on peaceful protestors, and “kettling” techniques to detain and arrest over 250 marchers. Furthermore, stories are now emerging from the Alameda County jail that police and jailers brutalized detained Occupy Oakland marchers, refused to provide necessary medication and medical treatment and denied them access to legal counsel.

“Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has also begun a media campaign calling on Occupy Wall Street leaders to “disown” Occupy Oakland. But instead Quan’s actions show how truly out of touch she is with the city of Oakland and the country at large. While Oakland schools are being closed and families evicted, Quan’s police force responds to the non-violent opening of a community center with rubber bullets and tear gas. While corporations are handed the keys to the city by Mayor Quan, non-violent protestors are brutalized while in custody.

“The same corporate state that is profiting from foreclosures upon low income people’s homes, laying off workers and eliminating essential public services is also profiting from the climate crisis and rampant environmental destruction. As we have watched uprisings from the Middle East to the Midwest, the actions and words of ordinary people are beginning to be heard more and more. Singling out Occupy Oakland for prosecution and misinformation only further pierces the veil our elected and corporate leaders have over the general public.

“The power of all Occupys to stand up to police and state pressure in defiance of Corporate America gives us hope. Rising Tide North America supports the Occupy Movement and will continue to stand in solidarity with them. In the words of the International Workers of the World: “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

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Rising Tide North America is an all volunteer climate justice network with over 50 chapters and local contacts that works to confront the root causes of climate change.

Rising Tide North America: 5 years and Still Going Strong

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Dear Friends-

Five years ago in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Rising Tide North America (RTNA) emerged as a radical force in the climate movements. Seeking to make the connection between climate change and social justice, RTNA has built a climate justice network throughout Canada, Mexico and the United States that includes over 60 chapters, local contacts and ally groups.

SUPPORT RISING TIDE NORTH AMERICA

send a donation check payable to:

Rising Tide North America
PO Box 1588
Hood River, OR 97031

While Big Green groups spent millions of their members dollars on failed climate legislation and international agreements in Washington and Copenhagen, Rising Tide has spent the past five years building and organizing movements to challenge the root causes of climate change committed to these core principles:

  • Solidarity with frontline communities. From the coalfields of Appalachia to tar sands ravaged Alberta to the coal-polluted neighborhoods of Chicago, we’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with those most impacted by climate change and fossil fuel extraction. And will continue to do so.
  • Building a grassroots direct action climate movement. Lobbying and elections have failed us. The political system is corrupted by corporate dollars. Just in 2011, from the Dept. of Interior to the Montana state house to the streets of Salt Lake City and St. Louis to the highways and byways of red state Idaho, we’ve used people powered direct action against greedy corporations and craven politicians.
  • Calling out the false solutions to climate change. Industry shamefully tries to shift the climate debate with promises of “clean coal”and “ethical oil,” but we knew better. Bankers and investment traders try to profit from climate change by turning carbon into a commodity, but we said “NO!” These false solutions won’t solve our climate problems and they must be called out again and again.

For five years, our network has grown throughout Canada, Mexico and the United States. For five years we’ve stood with the most impacted by climate change. For five years, we’ve built a direct action movement to stop climate change and end fossil fuel extraction. For five years, we’ve challenged the root causes of climate change.

Now as we enter our sixth year, we´re supporting our grassroots network more and more.

Please support Rising Tide North America with your donation.

Thanks for all you do,
Rising Tide North America

John Stewart, UK’s “most effective environmentalist” barred from entering US

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Environmentalists from across America and Europe are surprised and outraged that John Stewart, voted the UK’s “most effective environmentalist,” was barred from entering the US. Stewart was invited to the US by a coalition of environmental organizations.


On September 29, Stewart, who does not have a criminal record and meets the requirements for the US Visa Waiver program, had his visa waiver rescinded mid-flight. He was questioned by the FBI, the Secret Service, and immigration for six hours at New York’s JFK Airport before being put back on a plane to London.

American environmental campaigners had planned a month-long speaking tour for Stewart, set to begin on October 1. Stewart had been instrumental in the campaign to stop a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport. He had chaired the diverse coalition of neighbors, environmental activists, fiscal conservatives, and local politicians which persuaded the Conservative government to scrap plans for a new runway. In 2008 the Independent on Sunday voted Stewart “the UK’s most effective environmentalist.”

Environmentalist Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, says that barring a community organizer from entering the U.S. is a dangerous statement. He continued, “We need more voices, not fewer, explaining the dangers of climate change and the rational responses we must make. And though it’s a backhanded testament to John Stewart’s effectiveness, this is sad news for all of us hoping to hear what he had to say.”

Stewart said, “What seemed to concern them was that I would be discussing, as part of my talk, the role that peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience played in the Heathrow Campaign. I wouldn’t be able to explain the campaign without doing so. In any case, it is completely legitimate to discuss the role of an activity which has featured so heavily in so many historical campaigns, from the American Civil Rights Movement, to the Suffragettes’ fight for the right of women to vote in the UK.”

Stewart has also won support from across Europe and the UK. Earlier today, Conservative member of the British Parliament Zac Goldsmith tweeted: “Heathrow campaigner, John Stewart barred from US. A heroic campaigner, and a gent. Utterly scandalous.”

U.S. organizers have spent over a year planning the month-long national lecture tour on aviation and the environment, and are shocked and embarrassed at their government’s actions. Another invited speaker, award-winning Scottish climate activist Dan Glass, was effectively blocked from participating because his visa application was delayed indefinitely due to special “administrative processing.”

“John Stewart is a mainstream environmentalist who we invited because of his ability to work with everybody, and because of his role in helping influence people like British Prime Minister David Cameron in choosing bold green solutions,” says Barnali Ghosh, a San Francisco tour organizer. “Americans needs to be hearing from more centrists who can build left-right coalitions.” Seattle organizer Debi Wagner asks why Stewart’s visa was rescinded mid-flight. “Barring environmentalists won’t make us any safer or healthier.”

New York organizer Dr. Frans Verhagen is outraged, but affirms that the tour will go ahead. “We will use videoconferencing to ensure that John Stewart and Dan Glass can still address our meetings. Our lecture tour still begins in New York tomorrow, as planned.”

The Aviation Justice Express is a coalition of airport watchdog, climate action, and sustainable transportation groups and activists. Endorsers include 350.org, US Citizens Aviation Watch, Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution, Sane Aviation for Everyone, Shut This Airport Nightmare Down, All Aboard Washington, AirportWatch, So We Stand, and Left Field Films.

original article: http://aviationjustice.org/2011/09/30/john-stewart-barred-from-us/

Media contact
Anirvan Chatterjee
Aviation Justice Express
anirvan at chatterjee.net
+1 415-944-9121