Category: RT Press Releases

Climate Justice Forum: Nevada Lithium Mine Resisters, Idaho Oil & Gas Lease Hearing, Oregon Rail Bridge Fire, Minnesota & B.C. Pipeline Protests 5-12-21

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cross-posted from Wild Idaho Rising Tide

The Wednesday, May 12, 2021, Climate Justice Forum radio program, produced by regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT), features Protect Thacker Pass organizers and indigenous residents discussing encamped resistance to a proposed, massive, Nevada, lithium mine.

We also share news and reflections about an Idaho hearing on forced oil and gas leasing terms, an Oregon railroad bridge fire, and trainings, blockades, and upcoming actions against tar sands pipeline expansions in Minnesota and British Columbia.

Broadcast for nine years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow, every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm Pacific time, on-air at 90.3 FM and online, the show describes continent-wide, grassroots opposition to fossil fuel projects, the root causes of climate change, thanks to generous, anonymous listeners who adopted program host Helen Yost as their KRFP DJ.

Pipeline Fighters Sentenced to Jail Time for Tree-sits

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cross-posted from Appalachians Against the Pipeline
This week a Montgomery County judge sentenced the Yellow Finch treesitters to spend as many days in jail as they spent in the trees blocking the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Here is a message from Acre in Western Virginia Regional Jail after they were sentenced:
“Hi everyone. You probably just saw my sentence in the paper. I want folks to know regardless of how I’ve been charged, I stand behind my actions. I’ll go day for day tree for jail any day of the week to stop the damn pipeline.
I want people watching who may consider taking action against injustice to not be dissuaded by the law, to know the court is only there to protect the interests of wealthy corporate elite. That by jailing people for protecting the land and water, they show us time and time again how the judicial system is a right hand in colonialism and how it wears the blood of innocent life left in its wake.
Refugees from climate change are on the rise, immigrants remain locked in cages separated from their families dying at our border. And the jails are packed with people preyed upon by both the state and prison industry, exploited for labor and cash and tax cuts. Prison is modern slavery and should be abolished.
To those reading this weighing the efficacy of their actions, planning for the next protest: never forget you are standing for what is right! They may have me in a concrete box, but the woods and nature is something I hold with me always. I can still feel the coming birdsong and blossoms of late spring like a steady pulse. I can feel the soil and running water in my blood.
To believe this world was given to us to do what we want to it, to build monuments to our own ego, is backwards and dangerous. We are only a small part of this place and our relationship with the land and air and water is critical. It’s a fatal error to alienate and place ourselves above all the crawling and swimming and flying and growing things. Earth comes first remember? Show the world what you believe in.
Land for its own autonomy. Dirt for dirt’s sake.”
Donate to support continued resistance to the Mountain Valley Pipeline:
Join us! Email:
appalachiansagainstpipelines@protonmail.com

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Galveston, TX: Diane Wilson arrested calling for a stop of dredging of Matagorda Bay

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cross-posted from Hunger Strike to Stop the Dredging and Stop Oil Exports
Diane Wilson and allies begin Hunger Strike Lockdown at US Army Corps Office in Galveston to demand the USACE #StopTheDredging of the Matagorda Ship Channel!!!
Diane and allies are calling on the USACE to cancel plans to dredge the Matagorda Ship Channel and for President Biden to evoke authorization for the planned Matagorda Ship Channel Deepening Project. They are also joining the national chorus of voices calling for an end to oil exports.
Over the past month, 81 organizations sent a letter to @POTUS calling on him to revoke authorization for the project, 500+ individuals have signed a petition to Biden, 35 kayaktivists rallied for a flotilla in Lavaca bay, 40+ people across the globe have fasted in solidarity with Diane, and all the local fisherfolk have signed a petition in opposition to the project.
Diane and allies are calling on the USACE to cancel plans to dredge the Matagorda Ship Channel and for President Biden to evoke authorization for the planned Matagorda Ship Channel Deepening Project. They are also joining the national chorus of voices calling for an end to oil exports.
Diane has been dedicated to protecting her community from industrial pollution for decades. Last year she won a historic $50M Clean Water Act settlement against “serial offender” Formosa Plastics and has been working to deploy resources from the settlement to clean up the Bay and revitalize the area’s fisheries. She is currently working with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives to develop a multiracial fishing coop. But Max Midstream’s oil export dredging plan threatens to destroy the fragile ecosystems and sustainable economy Diane is working so hard to restore.
Today’s action comes after over a month of Diane’s hunger strike and silence from the USACE and POTUS. Over the past month, Diane and her supporters have called and emailed the Corps’ Galveston office countless times, asking for a meeting to discuss deep concerns over the planned dredging project. USACE has ignored these requests and has not yet offered to meet with Diane.
Today’s action emphasizes the urgency of Diane’s demand.
“There comes a time when the home needs defending and line needs drawing. Now is that time”
Diane and Ann Wright were later arrested and taken to the Galveston County jail.
You can listen to a recent interview with Diane here.

Water Protectors Blockade Enbridge Line 3 Man Camp During MMIWG2S Awareness Week

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cross-posted from Giniw Collective

May 6, 2021
(Backus, MN) This morning, 11 protectors locked to each other in front of both entrances to Enbridge’s Backus, MN, man camp location to stop destruction of the sacred and stand against the community harms fossil fuels bring. Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2-Spirit relatives is an epidemic throughout Indian Country. Many of the water protectors this morning are grandparents.
Thousands of out-of-state workers have poured into northern Minnesota, despite Enbridge’s promises to employ mostly in-state. It asserted 75% would be Minnesotans, the number of locals actually employed by the company sits at 33%.
The violence committed on our land becomes the violence committed on our people. A MMIW-sensitivity training session for workers here to destroy Indigenous land will never be enough. 3 Ojibwe nations are suing against approval of Enbridge’s Line 3 project. The Line 3 project should’ve never been approved and the unnecessary risks to local communities never experienced.
Alex Chatfield, a father and social worker from Massachusetts, said, “Together with other members of my Episcopal Church, I have been fighting to protect the Earth’s climate for my children and vulnerable people on the front lines of the climate emergency.”
Marla Marcum, a (co)Founder of the Climate Disobedience Center and a person of faith who lives on Cherokee lands in Knoxville’s, Tennessee, said, “I feel called to take this action in solidarity with the Indigenous leaders who defend the lands and waters that are most directly impacted by Line 3 and the communities who search for and mourn the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two spirit relatives taken from them by pipeline construction man camps like this one.”
Rachel Wyon, a mother and climate justice advocate from Massachusetts, said, “I answered the call to stand with Indigenous mothers and grandmothers here fighting to Stop Line 3, demanding respect for their sovereign treaties and telling the world to wake up and stop the destruction of our sacred Mother Earth by fossil fuel extraction — Resist Line 3 and Keep it in the Ground for all living beings and future generations.”
Melinda Tuhus, a climate activist and grandmother from New Haven Connecticut, said, “I came to fight line 3 in support of indigenous sovereignty and a livable planet for everyone.”
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