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.

Stop Camp Grayling Protesters Hang Banner, Light Fireworks at DNR Director’s Home.”

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cross-posted from Stop Camp Grayling

For immediate release:

Stop Camp Grayling Protesters Hang Banner, Light Fireworks at DNR Director’s Home.

Forest defenders descend on DNR director Dan Eichenger’s home to demand he reject the land-use agreement with the Michigan National Guard… (and) call on the DNR to return the land to its rightful stewards: the Ojibwa, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples.

’We know the military exists to bring pain and misery to our relatives and our earth,’ said a group member. ‘The war machine must be stopped, and our targets have names and addresses. ’We will be back.’

Full release:

Redwood Nation Earth First!: 50 Join “Hell No!” Rally at CalFire Office in Ft. Bragg, CA

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Lockdown at Calfire Ft. Bragg office protest Oct. 20 “Hell No” Rally to protest Calfire´s insufficient Co-Managment proposal. Photos by Redwood Nation Earth First!

For immediate release

Oct. 21, 2022

Contact: Naomi Wagner 707-502-6181, 707-459-0548

 “Hell No!” Rally at Ft. Bragg CalFire Office

Community Rejects CalFire Proposal for Co-management of Caspar 500 in Jackson Forest

Ft. Bragg, CA –On Thursday over fifty people with signs and banners proclaiming “Pomo Land Back” and “Hands Off Caspar,” rallied at the Town Hall in Ft. Bragg, then marched to the CalFire office to protest vehemently against the regulatory agency’s recent bogus proposal for “co-management” with local Indigenous tribes, now policy of the state of California, of Jackson Demonstration State Forest (JDSF)

CalFire’s take-or-leave it proposal, delivered in a Sept. 26 letter from Registered Professional Forester Kirk O’Dwyer to Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians Historic Preservation Officer, Priscilla Hunter, offered only 75 acres for tribal co-management on a portion of the hotly contested “Caspar 500” 500 acre timber harvest plan (THP) least valued by the contracted timber company and failed even to mention protection of numerous sacred and cultural sites that are at the heart of tribal concerns.

Native activists and community members expressed outrage at the “broken promise” of CalFire’s much vaunted “vision” for co-management of Jackson, the ancestral home of the northern Yuki and Pomo tribes. For Priscilla Hunter, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, a CalFire proposed vision that does not address ancestral cultural site protection measures is not a vision at all acceptable to the Native community.

Her position is that years of logging, road building and skid trail operations straight through ancestral sites must be halted. In the Caspar 500 and Soda Gulch THP’s, both already approved for logging operations, road building is once again proposed straight through archaeological sites. Also currently under development by CalFire is a proposed THP that would place a road straight though Three Chop Village, which is considered the most important archaeological site in all of Mendocino County. So although Tribal Co-Management is given lip service in the CalFire Vision Statement in reality they are proceeding to unilaterally propose THP operations that continue to desecrate Sacred Sites.

The crowd chanted, prayed and beseeched CalFire to change its policies and take the opportunity to implement true equal co-management with the Tribes throughout the 50,000 acre publicly owned forest.

Four people locked themselves together in front of CalFire’s front doors, which displayed a “Closed” sign during regular working hours, using the metal lockboxes that are the hallmark of Earth First! style nonviolent Civil Disobedience. No arrests were made.

“This lockdown may be symbolic today,” long time forest activist Naomi Wagner told CalFire, “but if you try to cut trees in Caspar 500, or bulldoze Sacred Sites, this will be our response.” Wagner called CalFire a “captured regulatory agency controlled by the timber industry” and called out Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC), the largest forestland owner in Mendocino and Humboldt counties, specifically. MRC logs in Jackson, sits on the Jackson Advisory Committee and on the California Board of Forestry. She called for a buy-out of Willits Redwood Company’s contract on Caspar 500. CalFire was allocated $10 million for non-timber harvest related expenses this year and is slated to receive another $10 million in 2023. Girvin said Calfire is still preparing THPs however, without co-management plans or tribal consent.

Thirteen-year-old middle school student Ravel spoke passionately to the urgent need to protect redwoods for carbon storage and climate stabilization and queried CalFire: “We know you [Calfire] know about climate change, but do you care? Do you care about my future and your children’s future?”

Anna Marie Stenberg, one of the four locking down, promised CalFire the people wouldn’t stop protesting until their demands were met and a “moratorium” on cutting trees was reinstated so that dialogue could resume. CalFire had paused logging activities for some months during government-to-government negotiations with the Pomo but recently reneged, giving timber companies the green light to log again. This betrayal of good faith prompted Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Priscilla Hunter to demand: “No more broken promises!” Larry Aguilera, also locked down, prayed for help to win CalFire over to a better management system for the forest, one dedicated to restoration and protection for all.

The Coalition to Save Jackson Forest issued a response opposing the terms of the O’Dwyer letter, calling for a moratorium and enumerating six specific demands.

  • Restoration of good-faith negotiations with the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians
  • Protection measures for sacred sites
  • Implementation of the Betts Commission Report (1999) recommendations to protect the many sacred sites within JDSF, including the Caspar 500 and Soda Gulch sites.
  • An Indigenous model of management and scientific inquiry within JDSF that prioritizes forest protection and restoration over profit.
  • Cessation of all herbicide and hack and squirt operations in JDSF in support of both Tribal cultural values and the goals of the Measure V Initiative passed overwhelmingly by the citizens of Mendocino County.

Climate protestors occupy oil terminal in Montreal

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pic via collectifantigone

cross-posted from Montreal CTV

3 days of resistance to World Bank/IMF feature hundreds of activists, mobile DJ booth, bike blockade, and more.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | October 12, 2022

Washington, DC, October 12 – Beginning today and through Friday, a global coalition of activists will demonstrate at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings to demand that these institutions end their investment in fossil fuels, cancel the debt they claim Global South countries owe, and pay climate reparations.

Three days of resistance to World Bank/IMF feature hundreds of activists, mobile DJ booth, bike blockade, and more.

WHAT: Over 400 activists from around the world are planning three days of demonstrations with large-scale props and amplified sound, including a bike blockade, a mock trial, educational events, and a massive noise demonstration. On Friday, the week of action comes to an end with a festival of resistance envisioning the world we deserve, and a march featuring representations of international financial institutions in a literal bed with Big Oil. These demonstrations follow weeks of action by climate activists to remove World Bank president David Malpass, who refused to acknowledge climate change.

WHO: ShutDownDC, Arm in Arm For Climate (Washington, DC), The Big Shift Global, CODEPINK, Debt for Climate, Democratic Socialists of America International Committee, Extinction Rebellion (Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New York City), Glasgow Actions Team, GreenFaith, Justice is Global, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, others.

WHEN:

  • Wednesday, October 12, 5:00 PM, Edward R. Murrow Park (H St. and 18th St. NW): Bike blockade of the G20 dinner featuring 100 cyclists and a mobile DJ booth
  • 8:00 PM, Murrow Park: Teach-in: “How neoliberalism conquered the world and how the world is fighting back”
  • Thursday, October 13, 10:00 AM – noon, Murrow Park (rain location: George Washington University, Rome Hall Room 204, 801 22nd St. NW, Washington, DC 20052): Mock trial of the IMF and World Bank
  • 1:00 PM, Murrow Park: Soccer-themed noise demonstration outside the G20 press conference
  • Friday, October 14, 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM, Murrow Park: Festival of Resistance celebrating and welcoming the world we want to live in
  • Noon, Murrow Park: The Big Shift Global march – featuring international financial institutions in a literal bed with Big Oil – and rally calling on the IMF and World Bank to stop funding fossil fuel projects.

 

Detailed schedule available at https://www.forpeopleforplanet.earth/calendar/

WHY: The week of October 10th, the World Bank and IMF are holding their annual meetings in Washington, DC.* Drawing on decades of resistance to these institutions and following the leadership of organizations and individuals representing this global fight, activists are demanding that they cancel all debt, pay climate and colonial reparations to countries in the Global South, and stop funding fossil fuel projects.

The people making decisions at the IMF and World Bank meetings have historically chosen to advance colonialism, contribute to climate change, and make it harder for everyday people to survive events like natural disasters and pandemics. At this year’s meetings, they will continue to prioritize extractive energy markets over Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice, and profits for transnational corporations over the economic futures of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.

The decisions made at these meetings will most directly affect those who have contributed the least to the climate catastrophe and yet are the most indebted to the IMF and World Bank – like the tens of millions of people displaced last month as a result of flooding in Pakistan. The creative direct actions occurring this week are a powerful tool allowing activists to uplift the experiences and demands of our neighbors in the Global South.

HOW: For press inquiries please contact Basav Sen with ShutDownDC at media@shutdowndc.org or 513-262-2750.

*Washington DC is unceded territory of the Piscataway Conoy people. Learn more about The Cedarville Band of Piscataways and paying land tax, their collective choice for reparations here: CBPI, Inc. | Instagram, YouTube | Linktree

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#ShutDownDC is an organizing space where individuals and groups can come together to organize direct action in the fight for justice.