Tag: Bay Area

Bay Area: Climate Strikers Plan to Disrupt Banks Fueling the Climate Crisis

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MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: September 25, 2019

CONTACT: Hilary McQuie 510-333-8554, hilarymcquie@gmail.com

Climate Strikers Plan to Disrupt Banks Fueling the Climate Crisis

Local groups join together in Financial District, during Global Climate Strike Week, to demand: fossil fuel divestment & green justice investment.

WHAT: Nonviolent direct action to disrupt key locations of financial institutions and government offices along or near Montgomery St. while embodying solutions to climate chaos and injustice through street murals, music and popular education in the streets.

VISUALS: Colorful banners, street murals, speakers, and rallies.

WHEN: Wednesday, September 25. Starting at 7am and continuing until 5pm.

WHERE: Wall St West, starting at Market and Montgomery in San Francisco.

WHO: Initiated by Idle No More SFBay, Diablo Rising Tide, 1000 Grandmothers, Society of Fearless Grandmothers, and Extinction Rebellion SF

WHY: This event is part of the Global Climate Strike, a series of coordinated actions happening in hundreds of cities all over the world between September 20 and 27 and represents a widespread escalation in the movement to stop those fueling the climate crisis. Other local events can be found at https://climatejusticesf.org/

––Spokespeople are all available for interview. Contact Hilary McQuie 510-333-8554 ––

Isabella Zizi, Idle No More SFBay: “As Indigenous Peoples, we understand the imbalance and devastation that Mother Earth and the sacred system of life is facing right now as the Amazon is burning and our glaciers are melting. The younger generations are depending on us to take initiative upon our own hands and protect their future.”

Idle No More SFBay is a group of Native Americans and allies working to create positive change concerning Indigenous rights, the rights of Mother Earth, and the rights of the coming generations to a sustainable and healthy environment.

Hilary McQuie, Diablo Rising Tide: “We’re coming together to demand that the banks that are funding the Climate Crisis divest immediately from fossil fuels extraction and infrastructure, and start repairing the damage by investing in frontline communities and a just transition.”

Diablo Rising Tide is the local chapter of Rising Tide, an international grassroots network that promotes community-based solutions to the climate crisis and take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change.

Nancy Feinstein, 1000 Grandmothers: “Grandmothers know, in every cell of our bodies, that our love for our children, and all children for the next 7 generations – means that we must each step forward in this climate crisis; – we must unite with others, to do everything we can, to shut the fossil fuel industry down. NOW.”

1000 Grandmothers is a group of elder women activists working to address the climate crisis.

Pennie Opal Plant, Society of Fearless Grandmothers: “As older women, many of us didn’t realize the horrible price for what we enjoyed in the latter part of the 20th century which created a theft of the future of the younger ones. The climate emergency is critical and the majority of elected officials and policy makers have not acted fast enough. It is up to us to interrupt business as usual.”

Society of Fearless Grandmothers is a group of grandmother age women who understand that we have an important role in ensuring the safety and future of humanity.

Alycee Lane, Extinction Rebellion SF:“We act because our climate crisis is a racist crisis. It is a crisis Wall Street perpetrated on the backs of those who contributed least to climate change and yet are most harmed by it – Black people, Indigenous people, people of color and poor communities here and around the globe. We act, therefore, as a matter of justice.”

Extinction Rebellion SF is the local chapter of an international organization that uses nonviolent civil disobedience in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimize the risk of social collapse due to climate change.

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San Francisco: Strike for Climate Justice on September 25th!

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Cross-posted from Diablo Rising Tide

Strike for Climate Justice!

This September, millions of people will take collective action to demand climate justice.

Join us in San Francisco for a mass non-violent direct action on September 25th to confront the corporations and governments responsible for this crisis.

Wednesday Sept 25th: Direct Action – 7am at Montgomery & Market in downtown San Francisco

RSVP for the action!

DISRUPT: THE CLIMATE WRECKERS IN THEIR CORPORATE SUITES: We have identified and will take nonviolent direct action to disrupt key locations of climate of corporations, financial institutions and government offices along or near Montgomery St.We’re asking affinity groups to take nonviolent direct action and disrupt these locations.

CREATE: SOLUTIONS IN THE STREETS: We will paint 20 circular street murals of solutions to climate chaos and injustice along Montgomery St., together with music and popular education about solutions, transforming “Wall St West” (Montgomery St) into a positive vision of solutions. There is a Bay Area tradition of large scale community street murals for climate justice, culminating last Sept in 50 street murals of solutions in the streets around SF Civic Center.

We are asking affinity groups–and mural teams from our communities–to commit to one mural. Music and education is also encouraged along the streets.

SUSTAIN: We will not just show up for an hour or two, but like other catalytic climate justice actions around the world. We will sustain our action for the full workday, beginning at 7am and continuing to 5pm. The public is invited to join us.

The first KICK OFF MEETNG for the September 25th “Strike for Climate Justice” will be September 4th at the Omni Commons in Oakland. Details here.

Read the full Call to Action here.

Initiated by Idle No More SF Bay, Extinction Rebellion SF Bay, Diablo Rising Tide, 1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations, and the Society of Fearless Grandmothers

For more info: https://www.climatejusticesf.org/

Climate Justice Activists Protest and Occupy French Consulate in San Francisco

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Press Release

For Immediate Release

Hi-Res Pictures Here

Video

Climate Justice Activists Protest and Occupy French Consulate in San Francisco

Activists occupy lobby calling on French government to lift ban on climate marches at U.N. climate talks, act on climate change.

SAN FRANCISCO–At 930am this morning, a group of eight  Bayparis SF 5 Area protesters entered the lobby of the French Consulate in San Francisco’s financial district to speak with the consular general. The demonstrators  dressed in blue, covered their mouths with French flag tape to call attention to the repression of climate organizers during the ongoing United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) talks in Paris. Another 20 people rallied outside the consulate doors with signs and banners. The protest calls on the French government to lift a prohibition of public marches during the COP. The group called on the French government  to stop the acceleration of global climate disruption by pushing for a strong international agreement to regulate carbon emissions.

Citing concerns about the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, on November 19 the French government announced a ban on public gatherings and protests, interrupting a Global Climate March planned for 29 November, at which 200,000 people from around the world were expected to march. A December 12th climate mobilization was banned as well.  Under a veil of national security, French police  wrongly placed 24 French climate organizers under house arrest and began turning back international activists at its borders. On November 29th, French police attacked peaceful protesters at the Place de Republique with tear gas, pepper spray and violently arrested over 200 people.

Protesters at today’s San Francisco action say that France’s heightened security rules endanger citizens’ ability to participate meaningfully in these international climate talks.

‘Many political leaders now acknowledge Climate Change presents a real security threat to the future of nations.” said protest organizer Lynn Stone, with local climate justice group Diablo Rising Tide. “Stifling free speech during the Paris climate talks is a tragic mistake. Paris should not fear and restrict climate justice protesters when the real threat is climate change.”

The talks in Paris come at a critical juncture in world history as more action is needed on climate as storms, floods and droughts increase in intensity each year. Despite the obstacles faced by protesters in Paris, an additional  700,000 people are estimated to have marched in cities throughout the world last weekend calling for heads of state and COP negotiators to rise to the occasion of the climate crisis. Over 50 major cities saw huge demonstrations.

In Oakland, on November 21st, over 5,000 marched for climate action after hearing the same call to action. Action oriented climate justice groups like Diablo Rising Tide have vowed to pressure corporate and political leaders on the issue of fossil fuel extraction, infrastructure and combustion in Northern California.

protest CJ Paris“As a coastal region and a hotbed of environmental innovation, these climate talks are especially relevant to life in the Bay Area,” said Scott Parkin, also with Diablo Rising Tide. “Numerous Bay Area organizations have sent representatives to Paris to join others from around the globe, and the recent crackdown prevents citizens here and around the world from making their voices heard.”

On September 28th, Diablo Rising Tide organized Flood Wall Street West which saw over 250 people march to the offices of Chevron, Wells Fargo and Bank of the West in San Francisco’s Financial District.. The mass civil disobedience shut down the corporate headquarters of Bank of the West for the day and led to the arrests of a dozen climate activists. Bank of the West is a subsidiary of French bank BNP-Paribas, a lead financier of the coal sector in France.

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Diablo Rising Tide is the Bay Area chapter of Rising Tide North America network. Rising Tide is an all-volunteer climate network in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico who confront the root causes of climate change with protests and grassroots organizing.The larger Rising Tide network spans four continents and works with activists in North and South America, Europe, and Australia.