Category: Rising Tide Newsletter

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Stand with Poisoned Inmates

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Graphic by Adam Peck via Think Progress.

This is climate injustice.

In January, thousands of gallons of the toxic coal cleaning chemicals contaminated the drinking supply for 300,000 people and hundreds of inmates at the South Central Regional Jail (SCRJ) in Charleston, WV, were deprived of access to enough safe water.

Many inmates suffered from illness and injury from dehydration or chemical exposure. Some even faced violence and legal repercussions for seeking medical help and for asking for clean water to drink. You can hold SCRJ accountable and ensure the basic human rights for inmates if you speak out right now!

Click here to demand basic human rights and safe water access for inmates at West Virginia’s South Central Regional Jail.

Our allies with West Virginia Water Hub and Radical Action for Mountain People’s Survival (RAMPS) met and corresponded with more than 50 inmates, and based on their stories, it’s clear that this failed crisis response is just the latest example in a larger pattern of abuse, violence, and negligence by the jail’s staff and administration.

WV Water Hub and RAMPS are amplifying the voices of inmates and exposing this horrendous abuse in order to force a response from prison authorities.

Add your voice: sign RAMPS’ petition to demand basic human rights for inmates in coal country.

RAMPS has stated that they are acting “in solidarity with broader movements of resistance to the growing prison state and poisonous extractive industries.” Combined, the systems of state repression and fossil fuel industry profit are creating a perpetual crisis. Like RAMPS, our movements must respond in kind and directly confront fossil fuel expansion, challenge the political power of that system, and act in solidarity with those facing the brunt of the crisis.

That is climate justice.

Help Make Climate Justice A Reality In 2013

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scenes from a tree sit-2Donate to Rising Tide North America and Help Make Climate Justice a Reality in 2013

Our climate movement is fierce.

And we’re not afraid to stand up to the worst drilling and mining companies on the planet.

Over six years ago in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Rising Tide North America emerged as a radical force in the climate movements. Seeking to connect the dots between climate change and social justice, we have built a network throughout North America that has not only fought on the frontlines of climate justice, but challenged the root causes of climate change while there.

Donate to Rising Tide North America and help make climate justice a reality in 2013.

2012 has been a watershed year for the climate movements. Community led campaigns against fracking have sprouted up in OH, PA and NY. Appalachians occupied and shut down the largest strip mining site in West Virginia. Climate activists joined up with Texas landowners to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline.

At the center of each of these environmental mobilizations and campaigns have been Rising Tide chapters and activists. This year, we’ve:

 

  • Started new chapters from Alaska to Santa Cruz, CA to Toronto to Vermont to the Florida Keys.
  • Worked with the Tar Sands Blockade in a direct action campaign to stop the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline.
  • Trained and organized activists for civil disobediences at the Mountain Mobilization in West Virginia, the Coal Exports Action in Helena, Montana and many other events.
  • Coordinated with the “Summer of Solidarity” which included actions against fracking, mountaintop removal and tar sands.


As we begin 2013, we’re asking you to make a donation to Rising Tide North America to keep our momentum building.

Whether its $5, $50 or $500, we’ll take whatever you can give. We’re an all-volunteer network of activists and we don’t take money from large foundations or celebrity donors. We only have you.

Please donate and help us build this movement.

Daring Tree Occupation Launched In Texas To Stop Keystone XL Pipeline

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DARING TREE OCCUPATION LAUNCHED IN TEXAS TO STOP KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE
Texas Treesit Goes Up!

Dear Friends,

Exciting news has broken.

This fight to stop the flow of tar sands oil in Texas has taken a dramatic turn. This morning, courageous actionistas with Rising Tide North Texas and the Tar Sands Blockade have begun tree-sits in rural East Texas blocking the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

These eight people have taken to the trees near Winnsboro,TX in an effort to prevent oil giant TransCanada from building the pipeline from Cushing, OK to Port Arthur, TX on the Gulf Coast. This pipeline has been described as a “carbon bomb” and would signal “game over” for the climate if constructed.

Support the Tar Sands Blockade, by DONATING HERE

These Texas tree-sitters are a last ditch effort to block the construction of the pipeline and halt the flow of tar sands oil. It’s what Rising Tide does best; direct actionistas working with local communities against the root causes of climate change.

But, now more than ever, they need your support. Blockades and mobile actions are being organized nearby and they need bodies and resources. An open call has been put out and we need you to join the Tar Sands Blockade.

Thanks for all you do.

In Solidarity,
Rising Tide North America
Texas KXL Blockade Treesit Goes Up!

Occupy the Climate

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OCCUPY THE CLIMATE

Dear Friends-

The Occupy movements for economic justice and against capital and corporations has exploded across the American political landscape. The momentum is unbelievable and we can hardly keep up.

Whil big banks and Wall Street foreclose on homes and lay people off , the same doomsday economy is also destroying eco-systems, communities and the climate with fossil fuel extraction.  Whether it be natural gas fracking, coal plants, oil refineries, or mountaintop removal mining it all leads to one thing—a slow grinding exploitation of the earth’s resources for the profit of a wealthy few.

Now it’s time to take our mass actions to the doorsteps of the fossil fuel industry and Occupy the Climate.

In the past year, we’ve organized and joined occupation actions from the Dept. of the Interior to the Montana statehouse to the streets of Salt Lake City and St. Louis.

Now we’re part of the movement making the links between Big Oil, Big Coal and Wall Street.

Wild Idaho RTIn the past few months, Wild Idaho Rising Tide occupied the highways and byways of Moscow, Idaho fighting Exxon’s heavy haul tar sands shipments with rowdy street protests. In Texas, Rising Tide North Texas continues to fight natural gas “fracking” and works with Occupy Denton to fight the corporate state.

Just yesterday, a crowd of 12,000 gathered in Washington D.C. to occupy and encircle the White House grounds to send a message of resistance to the TransCanada Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline.  Read more at Tar Sands Action.

Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline!

In the past two weeks, Portland Rising Tide standing shoulder to shoulder with Occupy Portland have taken over Bank of America branches with creative direct action. Bank of America is the biggest funder of coal in the U.S. and the biggest forecloser of homes.  Portland’s N17 – Occupy the Banks will see a stepping up of collaboration with a call for decentralized, non-violent affinity-group based direct action against the funders of the economic/ecologic-crisis.

Thanks for all you do.

With Love and Rage,
Rising Tide North America