A direct attack on migrants

Yesterday, four volunteers with No More Deaths/No Más Muertes went to federal court in Tucson, Arizona to defend their right to bring water, food, and basic medical aid to migrants crossing into the United States.

These charges are a direct attack on No More Deaths/No Más Muertes — and their ability to mitigate the direct effects of the humanitarian crisis perpetuated by the United States’ racist border and (long standing) economic policies. They also show yet another way Trump seeks to criminalize brown bodies and perpetuate truly vicious acts against people who are in the most need of aid and refuge.

Support the No More Deaths/No Más Muertes legal defense campaign by donating, volunteering, or organizing a fundraiser in your area.

These charges have interrupted and criminalized the important work of No More Deaths. A total of eight people were arrested delivering water to paths traveled by migrants in a southern Arizona wilderness area — and in the middle of the militarized border zone. They’re being charged with crimes related to wildlife refuge restrictions. A ninth arrest, of No More Deaths volunteer Scott Warren, resulted in felony charges related to providing humanitarian aid to migrants.

Since 2004, this group has been delivering humanitarian aid to migrants in the Arizona desert — where so many people die or are brutalized, detained, and separated from their family by border patrol.

Now No More Deaths/No Más Muertes needs your help to drop the bullshit charges against them.

Support the No More Deaths/No Más Muertes legal defense campaign by donating, volunteering, or organizing a fundraiser in your area.

We know that the flow of migrants is only likely to accelerate as the climate crisis gets worse. In the next fifty years, many of the places will become uninhabitable and tens of millions will likely be forced to look for new homes. We also know that climate change is itself a product of deeper economic and social systems of oppression based on the economic interests of industrialized nations. That’s why we need groups like No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes to create avenues for mutual aid to flow to those who are left out, persecuted, and killed by the state.

No More Deaths/No Más Muertes has been a radical ally of Rising Tide for years, and any support or attention we can draw to their work is helpful. Please follow their efforts and the ongoing legal challenges, donate if you are able and volunteer if you can.

To help, you can spread the word about the No More Deaths/No Más Muertes charges by watching and sharing their interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!

We denounce the racist weaponization of the Wilderness Act against humanitarian aid workers to reinforce an agenda of indigenous erasure and settler-colonialist notions of ecological purity.

Salem, OR: Pipeline Resistors Disrupt Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s Inauguration

Cross-posted from EF! Newswire

Happy inauguration day Governor Kate Brown! We are in Salem to demand you #walkyourclimatetalk this year by stowing up with frontline communities to #stopJordanCove.

Pipeline Resistors Disrupt Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s Inauguration

[SALEM, OR] — Activists with Southern Oregon Rising Tide interrupted Governor Kate Brown’s inaugural State of the State address this afternoon to demand the Governor direct state agencies to deny the proposed Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and fracked gas pipeline. Following the Governor’s swearing-in ceremony, the activists unfurled a large banner reading “Hey Kate: Walk your climate talk. Support the frontlines, stop the pipeline.”

At the same time, more pipeline resistors gathered on the front steps of the Capitol building with large banners calling on the Governor to live up to her promises to take strong action on climate change.

“Governor Brown talks a big talk about climate change, but she’s remained silent on the largest fossil fuel proposal in the state and claims it’s a federal decision, not a state decision,” said Alex Budd of Southern Oregon Rising Tide. “Our state has the power to stop Jordan Cove LNG and it’s time our Governor shows up for communities who have been on the frontlines of this project for over 13 years.”

Governor Kate Brown has stated in interviews that Jordan Cove LNG is a federal decision, however, the state of Oregon denied permits and stopped a much smaller LNG export terminal proposed on the Columbia River in 2011. Additionally, the Department of State Lands stopped a coal export terminal by denying the same permit they are currently considering for Jordan Cove LNG in 2014.

Supporters at Governor Kate Brown’s inauguration today were given goodie bags full of recommendations for the Governor to help her live up to her rhetoric around climate change. We know climate leaders don’t build pipelines, but does she?

If built, the Jordan Cove LNG terminal would become the largest source of climate pollution in Oregon and open up fracked gas exports from the West Coast of the United States. A recent report from the research organization, Oil Change International, concluded that the full lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of the project would be equal to over 15 times the Boardman Coal plant, which is set to be shut down in 2020 because of pollution concerns.

“In our region, hotter, drier summers mean longer and more intense wildfire seasons,” said Zac Wilner, a wildland firefighter from Jackson County. “Governor Brown should know that it is unacceptable to permit any new fossil fuel infrastructure, especially an explosive gas pipeline through Southern Oregon’s most fire-prone forests.”

Just last week, thousands showed up to Department of State Lands hearings across Klamath, Douglas, Jackson, and Coos counties to ask the agency to deny ‘Removal-Fill’ permits for the 229-mile highly explosive gas pipeline and mega-export terminal. The DSL who could issue the permit is overseen by the Oregon State Land Board, which is tasked with denying permits that jeopardize Oregon’s clean water and is headed by Governor Kate Brown. Impacted Tribal members, landowners, students, and more expressed concerns around the project crossing waterways nearly 500 times. Construction of the pipeline would risk the clean drinking water of over 150,000 people in Southern Oregon. The final DSL hearing on Jordan Cove will take place tomorrow, January 15, in Salem at the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs, with a rally starting at 4:15pm.

“Our communities aren’t backing down in the face of this project; we will continue to take action to defend water, land, and communities,” said Grace Warner of Southern Oregon Rising Tide.

Southern Oregon Rising Tide is dedicated to promoting community- based solutions to the climate crisis and taking direct action to confront the root causes of climate change. We are based in the mountains and rivers of rural Southern Oregon, with most of our members living on ancestral Takelma land in so-called Jackson and Josephine Counties.

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Local Advocacy Groups Shut Down California Public Utilities Commission Hearing over PG&E’s Culpability in Northern California Wildfires

November 29, 2018

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Photos and video available here: bit.ly/nopgebailoutphotos

Online petition and statement can be found here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/no-pge-bailout

Local Advocacy Groups Shut Down California Public Utilities Commission Hearing over PG&E’s Culpability in Northern California Wildfires

San Francisco, CA: A coalition of local Bay Area groups shut down the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) public hearing on PG&E’s safety culture today to call for the privately-owned utility to take complete financial responsibility for all fires caused by its negligence and contributions to climate change.

Overwhelming evidence shows that PG&E is solely responsible for starting the recent “Camp Fire”, one of the deadliest and most destructive fires in California history. State investigators have also determined they are responsible for at least 16 other fires last fall, 12 of which were deadly, and 11 of which clearly violated laws requiring proper maintenance and safety standards. Yet, the state of California is willing to pass on costs to the affected populations instead of the private San Francisco-based utility — whose CEO could receive more than $12 million in bonuses this year.

The coalition stands with all residents impacted by the fires, and refuses to allow the California Public Utilities Commission, CPUC President Michael J. Picker, and other politicians to bail out PG&E by forcing customers to pay for their negligence that destroyed 14,000 homes, claimed 88 lives, and has 203 people still missing.

The coalition also recognizes PG&E’s role in contributing to the increase in climate catastrophes, like the two week-long smoke-filled skies over Northern California, by investing in massive fossil fuel infrastructure across California.

“The people who have to live with the consequences of your past decisions to subsidize shareholders and dirty energy infrastructure should not also have to inherit the debts of this irresponsible corporation,” observed the coalition in an online petition and statement.

In addition, the state of California hasn’t provided respirator masks, shelter, or relief for thousands of homeless and vulnerable folks, but now wants to bail out a bloated, investor-owned utility that has spent millions to defeat efforts that would usher in safer, renewable energy. Lawmakers need to prioritize lives, health and the climate, not the financial stability of PG&E.

“People across northern California were forced to endure the smoke from this fire for two weeks.” said Esther Goolsby, East Oakland organizer for Communities for a Better Environment. “Particularly vulnerable were Black, Brown and low-income communities, who face the brunt of the Bay Area’s pollution every day. Toxic air smothered us, but only volunteers like Mask Oakland came to help. Left unchallenged, this pattern of institutional and regulatory neglect ensures climate change hits marginalized groups first and worst.”

“We have an alternative to the monopoly utilities; Community Choice Energy, where the public is in control of the electrical system,” said Jessica Tovar from Local Clean Energy Alliance and East Bay Clean Power Alliance. “We need to democratize energy by putting in the hands of the people, not the corporations driven by profit. If we had decentralized energy — local clean energy — we wouldn’t need the transmission lines that caused the fires in the first place.”

“We’re in a state of emergency where climate disasters are more frequently disrupting, displacing, and even killing people across the country. We need our state to take climate change seriously before it’s too late and that means investing in community-led renewable energy systems that are local and regional — not CEOs and shareholders who make millions and millions in profit.” said Scott Parkin of Diablo Rising Tide.

The coalition is made up of the following groups: Mask Oakland, Local Clean Energy Alliance, East Bay Clean Power Alliance, Communities for a Better Environment, Diablo Rising Tide, Democratic Socialists of America and others. There will be a convening this Saturday, December 1st to discuss how to group will take next steps.

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Community Members Blockade Oil Train in Downtown Vancouver, WA

Community Members Blockade Oil Train in the Face of Police Presence in Downtown Vancouver, WA with Pop-up Sunflower Garden

On Site Media Contact: Jessie Braverman, (617) 833-9766
Media Contact: Sophie Scholl, (360) 601-7187
Vancouver, WA — Community members blocked an oil train in downtown Vancouver, WA in a creative direct action calling for an end to oil trains, oil terminals, and all fossil fuels. Community activists erected a pop-up garden of sunflowers on train tracks in Vancouver, WA today, even in the face of police presence, to block an oil train. The blockaders locked themselves to large sunflower pots adapted to serve as blockade devices. Three people arrested. Community members are taking non-violent direct action to demand Governor Inslee reject the Vancouver Tesoro Savage Oil Terminal and all other proposed fossil fuel infrastructure in the State of Washington.
Where: 101 W 11th St, Vancouver WA 98660
The train, BNSF unit 5956, is carrying Bakken Crude Oil, a highly volatile oil notorious for derailments and explosions such as the recent derailment and fire in Mosier, OR on June 3rd, 2016. The Mosier oil train derailment ignited a wave of massive public opposition to oil train traffic, including from government officials and train operators. “Our community and our planet are under attack, yet the political response has been amoral and inadequate. We were here on the tracks a year after the Mosier oil train derailment and nothing has changed,” said Jessie Braverman. “The trains are still coming and new fossil fuel projects are still being proposed; we’re in the midst of a worldwide climate emergency and we’re fighting back.”
The derailment and explosion in Mosier is just one manifestation of our society’s dependence on fossil fuels. This incident is not an anomaly, as fossil fuel extraction, production, and transportation continually present a threat to human life and natural ecosystems; we have been subsidizing them not only with money but with lives. In these early days of the sixth great extinction and a devastating climate crisis, community members are reclaiming their power to confront this rogue industry. “It’s now or never. We’re up against the wire and nobody — no politician, no agency, no industry — is stepping up to resolve the climate crisis,” said Mike, a resident of Portland, OR, who is locked to a flower pot on the rail tracks. “It’s time for the people to step up to resolve this crisis before we run out of time.”
Community members are calling on Governnor Jay Inslee to reject the proposed Tesoro Savage Vancouver Oil Terminal, which would be the largest oil-by-rail terminal in North America. The terminal would ship out 360,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil and bring up to four additional oil trains into the Columbia Gorge each day. 
Governor Jay Inslee, a self-proclaimed advocate for climate action, has overseen a state government that has failed to craft an emissions reductions strategy, despite being repeatedly ordered to do so by the courts. The Governor is flagrantly endangering the people of Washington state. Washington continues to move towards a dizzying array of new fossil fuel developments. “If I can stop an oil train, Governor Jay Inslee can stop an oil terminal,said Chris, one of two individuals locked down to flower pots on the rail tracks.
 
For on site interviews, contact Jessie Braverman, 617-833-9766. 
    
    
    
More information via the Shut Down Fossil Fuels- 
Twitter:@shutdownff 
    
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