Bay Area: Indigenous and Climate Activists Blockade #OilyWells Fargo HQ

Swarming the front of Oily Wells.

via Oily Wells

Today in San Francisco, a coalition of over 50 organizations, organized by 350 Silicon Valley, blockaded the global headquarters of Well Fargo.

The action culminated a 3-day 34-mile march at the front door of the banking giant’s global headquarters with an Indigenous grandmother’s led sit-in across the front doors and a simultaneously organized barrel blockade across San Francisco’s iconic California Street.

Below is 350 Silicon Valley’s press release and lots of reasons Wells Fargo needs to be put out of business:

SF Rally Targets “OilyWells” Fargo’s Funding of Big Oil

Alarmed by Climate Crisis, Hundreds Expected as Multi-Day March Ends

PALO ALTO, CA – At a mass rally in front of Wells Fargo Bank’s global headquarters at noon (PDT) today, demonstrators will call on Big Oil’s largest lender to halt its financing of fossil fuels and invest instead in clean energy solutions to the climate crisis

The rally aims to expose another aspect of the scandal-plagued bank’s unethical practices—its central role in the ever-expanding oil and gas industry—at a time when the U.N. has called for “rapid and far reaching” action within 12 years to avert environmental, social and economic catastrophe caused by ever-rising carbon emissions.

Idle No More SF Bay blocking the front doors to Wells Fargo world HQ.

The rally caps the historic 3-day March for Fossil Fuel Freedom (34 miles from Palo Alto to SF) with hundreds of marchers from more than 50 Bay Area grassroots organizations. Marchers paused at a series of “stagecoach stops” to hear talks by former Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, Redwood City Mayor Ian Bain, and other prominent environmental and labor activists; and to sing along with The Raging Grannies and Thrive Street Choir. The march and associated events are all part of a campaign, led by 350 Silicon Valley, to rename the nation’s fourth largest bank “Oily Wells.”

“Oily Wells has a dirty-energy secret, backing the biggest new projects and profiting handsomely from climate chaos” says Stew Plock, vice president of 350 Silicon Valley, lead organizer of the rally. “If they don’t quit, then consumers and investors should quit them.”

The bank is a leading lender to the fracking industry and on pipelines carrying Canadian tar sands, one of the most environmentally damaging sources of fuel (including the proposed Line 3 in Minnesota and Keystone XL in the Midwest). [EDITOR’S NOTE: For more on Wells Fargo’s dirty-energy funding, see the 10th annual Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card, led by Rainforest Action Network, embargoed until March 20.]

Barrel blockade.

“We urge Oily Wells to become the first major U.S. bank to avoid all fossil fuel infrastructure projects, as a few big European banks have already begun to do,” says Isabella Zizi, an organizer with Idle No More SF Bay. “If you cut off the flow of money, you can cut off the flow of oil. That’s why the divestment movement is so important.”

350 Silicon Valley’s partners include SEIU 1021 and 521, Sierra Club, Diablo Rising Tide, Idle No More SF Bay, Rainforest Action Network, Sunrise Movement, California Interfaith Power & Light, Sunflower Alliance, and Extinction Rebellion. They join hundreds of other groups in calling for divestment from fossil fuels, and a prohibition on oil and gas infrastructure.

###

For complete details, visit https://oilywells.com/.

 

Support RTNA in 2018

Holy s&*t, 2017 was f*#$ed up. From the continuing onslaught of the Trump Agenda to the rise of the fascists, 2017 revealed the truly rotten core of the system we’ve been fighting for years. Our enemy is visible — and the task is huge.

In 2017, we saw people rising to combat hate. Our movements continued to hold those in power accountable. We shut down airports, fought oil and gas companies, protested police abuse of Black and Brown bodies. Our people fought fascists from California to Appalachia, and threw down in DC when one was inaugurated as president.

We know that we need to be more prepared in 2018. Will you help support our continued work with a donation?

In 2018, our movements need to be strong and nimble. The climate is changing, both literally and metaphorically, and the future is a bit murky. We know we need to build a long term radical movement that is able to take on oppressive powers — a movement built from the bottom up, from the grassroots, in the communities that are on the frontlines of struggle.

In 2017, Rising Tide supported grassroots and frontline meeting spaces, anti-fracking communities, the J20 defendants, prison abolitionists, and so many more. We couldn’t do any of this without you. In 2018, we will continue to support our frontline fighters and to build movement infrastructure that can sustain us for the long haul.

Donate what you can — $15, $50 or even $500 — to support direct action and movement building in 2018. Any amount you contribute will go to supporting the work of Rising Tide North America.

With hope for a courageous, bold, rebellious (and less f!#$ed up)  2018,

Rising Tide North America

Protesters Blockade Kinder Morgan Richmond Terminal Demanding Halt to Trans Mountain Tar Sands Pipeline


For immediate release, July 24, 2017

Contact: Patrick McCully, Rainforest Action Network – 628 224 8168
Isabella Zizi, Idle No More SF Bay – 510 932 0978
For High Resolution Photos, please contact Christopher Herrera at christopher@ran.org

Action Alert: Monday, July 24, 7:30 a.m.
1006 Canal Blvd, Richmond, CA 94804

Please donate to support the legal fund of these activists.

Protesters Blockade Kinder Morgan Richmond Terminal
Demanding Halt to Trans Mountain Tar Sands Pipeline

Richmond, CA – Protesters blocked three gates of the Kinder Morgan Richmond Terminal this morning, securing themselves to oil barrels and a 12-foot-long mock oil pipeline that reads “No Consent. No Pipeline.” The local activists are demanding that the company halt its new Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada. The controversial project would triple the capacity of an existing pipeline from Edmonton, Calgary to Burnaby, British Columbia to 890,000 barrels per day — facilitating increased extraction of tar sands oil, one of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuels.

“It’s important for me to stand up today for my indigenous brothers and sisters of the First Nations,” said Isabella Zizi of Idle No More SF Bay. “This crude tar sands oil will not just be affecting those up in Canada. It will likely be transported to the West Coast and potentially to here in my hometown of Richmond. Our lands, our waterways and our air needs are constantly being overlooked by these industries. We, as indigenous people, cannot and should not be swept under the rug. If any of these elements are harmed, all life will suffer the consequences.”

Kinder Morgan, a spin-off from Enron, is one of North America’s largest energy infrastructure companies. The company claims it will start construction on its 715-mile Trans Mountain pipeline in September despite fierce opposition to the project from numerous First Nations and other communities and cities along its path. The recently elected government of British Columbia also opposes the project.

Oil from the Kinder Morgan pipeline would be loaded onto oil tankers in Burnaby. This would lead to a massive increase of tanker traffic in the waters of the Pacific Northwest – and potentially in San Francisco Bay. Any spills of tar sands crude would be nearly impossible to clean up because when tar sands oil spills in water – it sinks. Refining the tar sands crude in Richmond would worsen air pollution in local communities.

“We are already over-taxed when it comes to pollution in our community and toxins in our bodies,” said Andres Soto of Communities for a Better Environment. “Kinder Morgan doesn’t care about their workers. They’re making them sacrifice their health and the health of their families in order to put food on the table. We demand clean jobs for our community. We refuse tar sands oil.”

“We are determined to prevent the pursuit of extreme energy from destroying our communities, natural systems and climate, therefore confrontational protests like this action are necessary for change,” said Corazon Amada, an organizer with Diablo Rising Tide. Amada was one of several activists who were risking arrest during this peaceful protest. “We stand in solidarity with those everywhere fighting to stop Kinder Morgan.”

Last month, over 28 major banks were warned not to finance the expansion project in a letter signed by over 20 Indigenous and environmental groups. The letter cites The Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion’s call for an international campaign to divest from any financial institution that funds Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline. More than 130 Indigenous Nations have already signed the The Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion.

“The bank’s financing Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline are violating Indigenous rights, clean water, clean air and the climate,” said Patrick McCully, Climate and Energy Program Director at Rainforest Action Network. “We intend to hold these banks accountable. And our primary target is JPMorgan Chase, the largest Wall Street funder of tar sands .”

###

Diablo Rising Tide is the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Rising Tide North America. Rising Tide North America is an all-volunteer grassroots organizing network in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico who confronts the root causes of climate change with non-violent direct action and grassroots organizing and education. You can find out more at www.diablorisingtide.org.

 

An Open Letter from Environmental & Climate Justice Organizations on May Day

via Climate Workers

An Open Letter from Environmental & Climate Justice Organizations on May Day

Worker power, immigrant rights, and racial justice must be at the heart of environmental and climate movements

As environmental and climate justice organizations, we declare our support for protests planned for International Workers Day (“May Day”), May 1st, 2017 and for workers who choose to participate by honoring the general strike.

International Workers’ Day was first established to commemorate the deaths of workers fighting for the 8-hour work day in Chicago in 1886. It has long been a day to uplift the struggles, honor the sacrifices, and celebrate the triumphs of working people across the world. The day has taken special significance in the U.S. since May 1st, 2006 when 1.5 million immigrants and their allies took to the streets to protest racist immigration policies.

Today, workers face unprecedented attacks on wages, benefits, workplace safety, and the right to organize free from fear and retaliation. But we know that we are all stronger when workers in our communities have safe, fair, and dignified employment with which they can support their families without fear of deportation or violence.

The effects of our fossil fuel economy fall first and worst on working class communities, communities of color, immigrants, and indigenous peoples who have not only contributed the least to climate disruption, but have the least resources to shoulder the burden of a transition to a new, climate-friendly economy. It is these frontline communities who are also at the forefront of change and whose solutions and leadership we most need.

As organizations working to transition our economy away from profit-seeking resource extraction toward ecological resilience and economic democracy, we know that worker power has to be at the heart of that transition.

We urgently need the wisdom and skills of millions of workers to transform our food, water, waste, transit, and energy systems in order to live within the finite resources of this planet that we call home. But the Trump agenda only promises jobs building more prison cells, border walls, bombs, and oil pipelines. Workers deserve not only fair wages, but work that makes our ecosystems and communities more resilient, not destroys them.

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. No significant social change in this country has come without tremendous risk and sacrifice by ordinary people – from workers who walk off the job to water protectors facing down water cannons and attack dogs.

As environmental and climate justice organizations, we support workers who choose to walk off their jobs on May 1st because we know that the fight to protect land, water, air and soil is inseparable from the fight to protect the life and dignity of workers, migrants, and communities of color.

To workers participating in protests on May 1st, we say: “Thank you. You deserve better. And we’ve got your back.”

To that end, we join with unions and worker-led organizations throughout the country in asking that there be NO RETALIATION against any worker – union or non union – who exercises their rights by taking time off from work on May 1. Further, should workers face retaliation, we pledge our strong support for efforts to defend those workers.

To sign your organization onto letter and to specify what type of support you can pledge, click here.

 

AUTHORED BY

Climate Workers and Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project

 

SIGNED BY

350.org

350 Bay Area

350 Mass for a Better Future

350 Santa Barbara

Amazon Watch

AMP Creeks Council

Asian Pacific Environmental Network

Azul

Bay Area Justice Funders Network

Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice

Bay Area System Change Not Climate Change

Beyond Extreme Energy

Blue Heart

California Environmental Justice Alliance

Center for Economic Democracy

Center for Environmental Health

Center for Popular Democracy

Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment

Climate Justice Alliance

Climate Justice Project

Climate Workers

CODEPINK

CoFED

Corporate Accountability International

Diablo Rising Tide

Filipino / American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity (FACES)

Food Empowerment Project

Food First

Friends of Broward Detainees

Friends of the Earth

Fund for Democratic Communities

GAIA: Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives

Global Climate Convergence

Global Environmental Justice Project

Grassroots Global Justice

Greenbelt Climate Action Network

Greenpeace

Groundswell Fund

Industrial Workers of the World

Labor Network for Sustainability

Liberty Tree Foundation

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization

Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE)

Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project

Movement Strategy Center

NAACP Portland Branch

National Economic and Social Rights Initiative

New Economy Coalition

New Jim Crow Movement – Vallejo

No Coal in Oakland

North Bay Organizing Project

Oakland Climate Action Coalition

Occidental Arts and Ecology Center

Oil Change International

People’s Action

People’s Climate Movement – Bay Area

PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental & Economic Rights)

Post Carbon Institute

Power Shift Network

Pesticide Action Network North America

Planting Justice

Popular Resistance

Railroad Workers United

Raizes Collective

Rainforest Action Network

Real Pickles

Right to the City Boston

Rising Tide North America

Rising Tide Sacramento

Sierra Club

Sierra Club Massachusetts Chapter

Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter

Sonoma County Conservation Action

Students for a Just & Stable Future

Sunflower Alliance

SustainUS

The LEAP

Urban Habitat

U.S. Department of of Arts and Culture

U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives

U.S. Human Rights Network