We are the ones we have been waiting for.

The Department of Justice plans to build power plants on the sacred Natural Medicine Lake Highlands near Mt. Shasta. These are spiritual places for the Native peoples of California, and are just another instance of the colonialism and genocide that continues to this day against Indigenous people in the U.S. and beyond.

Could you imagine if they wanted to pollute and destroy Jerusalem to build power plants over the Churches, Synagogues, and Mosques in the area for a quick buck? Why does that seem ridiculous, and this kind of destruction of sacred sites so commonplace? Our government still doesn’t recognize the right to self determination of Native peoples, nor do they acknowledge their beliefs as legitimate religion.

On Friday, April 6, 2007, I joined Native activists and other Environmental Justice allies for a rally at the Department of Justice Office. The Rally itself was beautiful. An intergenerational and multi-racial group of activists stood in a circle. Rather than simply gathering around to see a couple hand-picked speakers, the megaphone was passed around to give each person an opportunity to speak and meet one another. Some people gave fiery and rousing speeches, while others simply said they were here to support.

The demonstration and rally was organized by Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites, Seventh Generation Fund, International Indian Treaty Council, Indigenous Environmental Network, Citizens of the Pitt River Nation, and Redding Rancheria Cultural Department. And involved allies like Rainforest Action Network.

Some background from Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites:

On 2/21/07 the US Department of Justice (DOJ), acting on behalf of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service (FS), requested that the 9th Circuit Court review the issues involving the proposed plans to build geothermal power plants in the Medicine Lake Highlands, a mountainous region held sacred to many Native Nations. In November 2006, a panel of the 9th Circuit unanimously ruled that the agencies not only violated the cultural rights of the Pit River Nation but also failed to uphold provisions of the National Environmental Protection and National Historic Preservation Acts. In their ruling the Court of Appeals found that the above Federal Agencies had never adequately considered whether the Highlands should be developed for energy at all. As a result, the Court rejected the leases that would have allowed Calpine Energy Company to build geothermal plants.

With DOJ’s recent request to the 9th Circuit Court, the department may try to claim that the issue brought by the tribal government and supported by a panel of the 9 th Circuit is irrelevant. They may argue that the Native peoples who traditionally use the Highlands did not protest a new 40-year lease agreement that superseded the previous lease agreement.

In the 1980s, BLM decided to lease the Highlands for geothermal development, but did not go through the required tribal government consultation process mandated by U.S. law. Pit River, Modoc, Wintu and other Native peoples have been opposing these plans ever since they learned that their holy place would be violated. From a Native rights perspective, Medicine Lake Highlands is essential to the free exercise of Tribal religious beliefs and the encroachment of the proposed electrical power generating plant, represents a gross infringement of their constitutional and civil liberties. Native Peoples have never endorsed energy development in this pristine and sacred region nor will they ever. In fact, as far back as June 5, 1970, the late Mickey Gemmill, a distinguished cultural leader of the Pit River Nation issued a “Proclamation: To the President of the United States and the American People” that stated “We are the rightful and legal owner of the land. No amount of money can buy the Mother Earth; therefore, the California Indian Land Claims Commission has no meaning. The Earth is our Mother and we cannot sell her.” From this statement it is clear that the Native peoples that hold the Highlands sacrosanct would never support the pollution and money generating plans of the federal government and energy companies that would cause irreversible damage to the sacred and natural Medicine Lake region.

“Clearly, DOJ, BLM, FS, and Calpine energy company are grasping at straws with their latest legal argument to try to open up the Highlands for energy development,” said Radley Davis, Co-Chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites.

James Hayward Sr., Co-Chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites, said “If the Creator wanted such development in that area there would not be large amounts of dangerous arsenic and mercury in the ground to contend with. A panel of the 9 th Circuit and a lower court have already spent a great deal of time and other resources reviewing the case and it is time for developers to leave the Highlands alone. “

DYING FOR COAL.

(Adi Nochur from SSC)

People hacked up black tar. They cried black tears. Paramedics in biohazard suits desperately tried to save their lives. It was a lively day for the financial district of Boston. We left major banks and financial institutions nervous, scared, and on their toes.

Here’s a video of the carnage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xoaoNm7hVE

(cut it and paste it in your browser, its not a link)

Last Wednesday across the country in major cities from Dallas to New York, Rainforest Action Network activists stormed branches of Merrill Lynch to hold them accountable for funding TXU, a corporation trying to build 11 coal-fired power plants.
I had the privilege of coordinating the Boston action.

(Mike Da Cruz and Will Lambek of Brown SDS)

It’s hard to describe how big of an impact these coal plants would have. First of all they are planned to mostly be built in rural Texas communities, and I shouldn’t have to outline the class implications of building toxic dumps in low income communities and giving their children asthma. The local connections ran deep, as a similar company is trying to build a power plant in a low income community of color nearby in Chelsea. The power plant is being built right across from an elementary school.

The global impacts are staggering. These plants will release 78 million tons of greenhouse gases. That’s more than many countries. More than 21 combined U.S. states. More than 14 million new cars on the road. More than all of BP releases. More than Japan’s entire commitment to the Kyoto protocols - this one project would cancel out the Kyoto Protocols for the country of Japan. It’s one of the biggest steps backwards our country could take in the fight against climate chaos.

(Carly Huebner and Heidi Cooper)

We saw we had about a 3 month window to either stop or seriously scale back the project. So we went for it.

RAN’s strategy is to follow the money. Crazy how so often captialism’s at the root of things, isn’t it?. Some activists were challenging TXU on legal grounds, others through community pressure, others were trying to block their permits, other people were even activating the business community. But we know that even if TXU got it’s permits, they couldn’t function without financial backing. Three major banks were funding TXU: Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch. So far we have secured 20 banks who won’t mess with TXU. Merrill Lynch was the strategic target.

There were actions across the country, but no standing RAN chapters in Boston yet. Most of the folks who came out were various friends, allies, and SDSers (from chapters in Providence, Boston, and New York). SDSers in Portland Oregon had a demo in PDX, and SDSers were rocking in the big New York Action too (from chapters in NYC, and New Jersey), which had a “Billionaires for Coal” meme (an amazing action that got really major media. Look for accounts of it elsewhere!).

Pictures of that action here:
http://www.digitalrailroad.net/astern/Production/PhotoGroupView.aspx?pbid=4&msa=1&pgid=7690967

In ours, people violently died and hacked up pollution that was really hot fudge. We were going to originally splatter charcoal around and smear it all over ourselves, but we figured that with it being ash Wednesday and all, the messaging might be confusing. Then we were gonna sling brownie batter around, but didn’t want to waste brownies (or potential-brownies).

(Will Lambek and I)

After the climate change murders, we marched inside to deliver a letter from the RAN executive director to the CEO of Merrill Lynch. We were told that Merrill Lynch had briefed security that we’d be coming, and under no circumstances would they come down and chat with us.

(Will Chalmus and I)

Turns out they were feeling the heat though. Breaking news has it that TXU is crumbling, and the 11 power plants have now been scaled down to 3. Amazing. We’re still waiting for details and the dust to settle; and I imagine we cannot fairly take credit for this…but collectively in the last few months across the country activists took down 8 of these disgusting things. It gives me more inspiration to gear up for bigger fights.

We can’t stop here. No new coal. Period. Congress isn’t gonna regulate carbon. And as long as Wall Street continues to fund this stuff, we gotta fight.

Global warming is increasingly becoming THE issue of our generation. Everyone in our society is talking about it…except for most radical folks on the Left, for some reason. Al Gore is telling people that if they turn off their lights then they are doing their part. That’s not true. This is real, its looming and dramatic, and there are real power structures and people who are making it happen. It’s going to affect people in our generation the most; it is a youth issue. The people fucking the world are gonna be dead before they see the full effects of this….and then we will be dead, if we don’t do something. It disproportionately affects people who live in the Global South and folks of color in the US (Katrina, Stan, Tsunamis…).

We need to radicalize and polarize this issue. Its one of the most fertile vehicles to build a multi-issue mass movement in this country that can also confront the war, immigrant rights and other pressing issues. The emerging post-issue groups like SDS really need to take this seriously I think…

The action made the front cover of the Boston Metro, IndyMedia, was in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Spare Change News, and some local TV and radio. Maybe Newsweek too, we’ll see.
Holler.

The NYC and other actions made the New York Times, a million financial journals, and city papers across the country.

If you are hammering away at the brand of a company and need to increase the pressure and public visibility of your campaign, coordinated, publicized street theater works. plain and simple.

(Ivy)

here is some of the Boston media:

IndyMedia:
http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/198290/index.php

Wall Street Journal:
http://blogs.wsj.com/energy/2007/02/26/billionaires-for-coal-group-skeptical-of-txu-deal/

PDF of the front cover of the Boston Metro:
http://metropoint.metro.lu/20070222_Boston.pdf

Internet version of the Metro article:
http://boston.metro.us/metro/local/article/Protesting_Merrill_Lynchs_support_of_coal_plants/7105.html

the Herald:
http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=184301

more pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rainforestactionnetwork/sets/72157594549323351/

(Will Chalmus, Mandee Schwartz, Jenny Venezia, Carly Huebner, and Heidi Cooper)

(Neena Pathak and Will Lambek)

(Will Lambek and I)

(Grace Yasamura from Rainforest Action Network)

(Heidi Cooper)

*All photos by Jonathan McIntosh

(Unfortunately this site won’t let me embed videos, so there will be links to fun youtube videos throughout the article. click on them!).

The Ohio University campus has been rocked this year by a decidedly anti-democratic, unaccountable administration, pushing unpopular policies without any student input whatsoever. “Free Speech Zones” on campus attempt to shut out discourse and protest. Arbitrary fees around popular student parties and holidays, the sudden cuts of Athens Varsity Sports teams, and indulgent pay bonuses for Administrators have left students feeling alienated and without control of their college. Ohio University is being run like a corporation rather than an educational institution.

SDS has risen up to advocate for student syndicalism and a radical vision of a democratic university, and built an impressive coalition in the process. The SDS free speech demonstration on Friday, Feb 2nd, was attended not just by activists, but students most activists groups wouldn’t think to try to organize – including athletes and Frat boys.

I was invited to come to OU in Athens by their SDS chapter and the umbrella activist group InterAct, to do workshops, trainings, and other action support, both as an SDSer and also as an organizer from Rainforest Action Network (RAN). Trainings with SDS ranged from sustainable organization building to campaign strategy, while I got to connect with InterAct about collaborating on a few RAN-related projects including shutting down a corporation called TXU building dirty coal fired power plants (but that is a separate entry entirely).

We woke the morning of the demo to a new blanket of snow coating the campus. It was beautiful. We met in a nearby coffee shop early to tie up loose ends. Somehow a PBS news crew found us an hour early and interviewed Olivia and Sarah.

The snow was falling as students gathered around the civil war monument – an area NOT in a free speech zone. A student read the plaque outside the monument - one that discussed liberties that we’re supposed to have in this country, and about 150 students gathered around the SDS banner hanging from the monument.

Initially, energy seemed low. Some folks didn’t even want to chant. I soon realized this was a good thing; about 90% of the people there had likely never been to a demonstration before. Despite the lack of racial diversity, in other respects the diversity of students there was staggering. SDS managed to mobilize a wide cross section of campus, including students with a wide range of interests and backgrounds - people who would have never come out to a demonstration if it werent for Athens SDS’ strategy to simply be relevant.

After the president of the Graduate Student Union spoke, Will Klatt gave a speech about the corporatization of our universities:

( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6yrstQEac8

I was also invited to speak about Free Speech Zones:

( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8UqyFd_yiI

After which I convinced folks that chanting can be fun and it doesn’t make you a hippy:

( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYcsRGtxhuo

Rosemary Esch announced SDS’ demands on the administration:

( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKzVC3lQ1dw

And Dylan spoke about SDS being inspired by Malcolm X and organizing students AS students:

( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn2nY1J4nUw

People were fired up and marched to the presidents office. Energy was high, people were dancing and chanting and whoopin and hollerin.

We reached the chief of police and demanded entrance.

And got it.
The cop actually turned out to be a pretty nice guy. Most of his background in stopping “civil disturbance” had been shutting down KKK rallies, so he seemed pretty down that we were actually trying to do something positive. Always important to remember to try to get inside the head of the police if you confront them - on campuses at least, they usually just don’t want to look bad in front of their bosses. If you can challenge their power and authority and get what you want, while still making it so they can play it off to their superior like they had control over the situation, then not only do you win and alter the power dynamics, but you usually eliminate the chance of arrest.

When we found out the president was in hiding, we decided to have a spokescouncil to see what to do next.

Strategically, it was useful for a lot of reasons. Not only did we want to democratically decide what to do next, but it helped all the participants in the demo - people with very different backgrounds and experience levels in activism - feel ownership over the march. Part of the strategy of the demo was to engage and activate people as much as possible. It worked (I’ll explain how in a minute).

( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhchlJCEyMk

We decided to march to a meeting of Vision Ohio - where administrators were proposing additions for the campus to business leaders, without student input.

We danced:

( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=044vliYDgM8

And went inside the new student building and shook things up:

( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5z-6-Oe0Hc

And tracked down the Dean.

A student issued the demands:

( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i_xgwpEWEw

And he pinkey-swore Sarah that they would be responded to by the president before the deadline that SDS issued.

( see video: )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow4TtcHuWpQ

Afterwards we found out where the Vision Ohio meeting was, had a spokescouncil, and headed down there. The cop asked us to not be disruptive, and we thought that was appropriate. We pinkey-swore that we wouldn’t, and we kept our end of the bargain. Tactically, it was a great move, as in any action you need to make sure to exit on your own terms. We had already gotten what we wanted, and we decided to push it further - but if we had ended up getting kicked out it woudln’t have been useful to us at all. It would have killed the energy and disheartened all the new folks involved. Instead we just ate all the cookies and soda at the Vision Ohio meeting and did interviews with lots of press.

Like I said, SDS is trying to be relevant. It’s actually quite a revolutionary thing to do, given how most “radical” groups on campuses are content to build exclusionary, elitist subcultures and regress into them (and then wonder why all the other students are “apathetic” since they can’t relate). Building on the anger from the recent sports cuts and other assaults on campus, the whole demonstration was cultivated to activate people and give them a sense of ownership over the demo.

At the end, we pushed that idea even further. We announced that we were going to have a strategy session workshop, and it wasn’t just for SDS - everyone was invited to come shape SDS’ strategy. If SDS is supposed to be building a student movement, their vision and strategy has gotta be shaped by real students, not just a small section of them. We wanted it as participatory as possible.

I was asked to facilitate the training/workshop. Some of the best ideas came from people who had not only never thought strategically before, but had never thought about activism period before. In the session we identified clear concepts about what it means to strategize campaigns – differentiated between campaigning for change or simply protesting it, between specific goals, broader vision, and the difference between being guided by a strategy rather than a random assortment of tactics. We identified power holders in the administration, how they were related to other power holders, what their points of weakness were, and how to leverage our own power to target them. We identified what the different kinds of tactics are, how to build and escalate them, and brainstormed on how to use them to connect with allies, be accountable to other students and student groups, build power, and win concrete victories each step of the way.

I left the strategy session feeling like Athens SDS is really experimenting with models of organizing that are pretty new for our generation. The push for genuine participation by the general student body in their strategy - indeed thinking strategically at all - is a welcome change to the alienating subcultural elitist bullshit that seems to confine a huge part of the student left (the mostly-white sections of it at least). The need to be open minded, to be positive, to build up rather than tear down, and to be open to other “nonactivist” voices is a huge step in the maturity and sophistication of the activism at OU.

Until we can organize students in their own interest as students, we will be stuck in the thoughtlessness of doing self-congratulatory actions simply to “piss people off.” OU activists are realizing that militance is about strategy, vision and goals, about being serious, grounded, thoughtful and long-term. Often times young radicals get confused, thinking that tactics themselves can be militant or not. Tactics are only as militant insofar as they are strategic to achieving radical goals - and often “fucking shit up” is the clear road to marginalization and impotence. Athens SDS is building power on campus for real, being relevant for real, and being in it for the long haul. And they are doing it with concrete victories.

Nothing builds a movement like winning.

We live in a generation of cynicism. Students nowadays are perhaps (legitimately) more skeptical than any other generation in history. It’s not “apathy” so much as its grounded in an assessment that ‘we don’t have the power to make change’. When you organize on campus and you WIN - you show people that they are powerful, that they can make change, that win is enough to shatter the illusion of impotence. The shattering of that illusion is often a radicalizing process. It so deeply rocks the way we have been taught to view the world that it forces us to shift our perspective just to make sense of the things around us. That’s the process that I saw in Athens, Ohio. While SDS chapters across the country are thinking about how they can radicalize their campuses, Athens is providing a useful (if situationally specific) model.

As is important with every victory, its crucial to celebrate. So after the punk rock dance party, activists were gonna head over to the fraternity house, to which everyone was invited by a frat boy in the march. Unlikely alliances indeed!

(here is a little bit of media around the event. From Speakeasy Magazine and The Post:
http://speakeasymag.com/index.php/campuslife/article/news_020407_001 http://thepost.baker.ohiou.edu/articles/2007/02/02/news/17457.html )

Last weekend was the Walk for Life in downtown San Francisco. Every year thousands of churchmembers, all dressed in black, get bussed in from various parts of California to make a statement in this den of sin known as the Bay Area. And every year we show up to greet them.

Whatever anyone says about the issues, whatever anyone says about organizing and tactics and strategy, there is one thing that will always be true: we are way better dancers than they are.

The few hundred folks that came out to the counterprotest were certainly colorful. We repped fun street theater, witty songs sung by trannies, passionate speeches, creative slogans, bigger banners, not to mention lotsa anger and smiles. We were funny. Amidst all the screaming and laughing, I looked out into the street to see the thousands of anti-choicers. I could have thought of all the women left without options, all the women who are killed because of the “pro life” agenda. I didn’t. Instead, I thought, “DAMN, THESE FOOLS ARE BOOORING.” They Plodded along in silence, no chanting, no singing, no nothing. All wore plain black t-shirts. All had matching signs. All were directed by the march organizers, who made sure no one stepped out of line.

But of course, that’s the point. While us queers and freaks were out galavanting around, they maintained what they perceived as their dignity and civility. And while we were clearly having more fun, I tried to be a little bit more thoughtful about their tactics.

I always have a complicated relationship to the celebratory aspect of our demonstrations. I love puppets, creative slogans, autonomous actions etc. Our demonstrations are celebrations of life, of love, of reclaiming space. But at what point does all that become trivializing? Back in the day demonstrations were often taken seriously because they represented a real threat. They screamed “HEY! WE’RE PISSED! AND WE’RE ORGANIZED!” Mass mobilizations were sometimes effective because power holders knew that if they ignored the demo, there would be rioting or worse later. Nowadays when we take to the streets, we yell and scream and chant and then….go home and watch TV. Of course we are ignored.

I looked out at the anti-choicers, all wearing black, silent, with consistent messaging, and I imagined our side being organized enough to have people show up to a mass mobilization dressed the same. The idea of uniforms in a mass demonstration is enough to make any anti-authoritarian cringe. But entertain the idea for just a second. If you’re a power-holder, would you feel more threatened by 300,000 disorganized people plodding around in circles, or by 300,000 people all dressed alike, shouting with one voice? I know which one would freak me out more. Just sayin’. The precedent is already there, from black blocs to unions. When most unions mobilize, they wear union shirts and have the same signs. They’re organized. But they’re often small. Imagine if it was hundreds of thousands of people. There’s an anti-authoritarian precedent for that too - just look at the Global Justice demonstrations against the IMF, WTO, and World Bank, in Asia from Korea to Japan. I dunno, just a thought.

Despite the uniformity of the Walk for Life, the protestors actually captured a wide variety of nuance in their beliefs - nuance that ‘our side’ often fails to recognize. A whole lot of our signs were simply anti-religious, as if that would somehow have any effect on people other than reinforce their presently held ideas. We acted like everyone in the Walk for Life was some ultra-right fundamentalist fascist. But what about the otherwise-progressive Latino communities that showed up because of their grounding in Catholocism? What about the people with signs like “No War, No Death Penalty, No Abortion”? How do we confront and account for those? We didn’t. We dehumanize them just as much as they dehumanize us. I didn’t know how to respond to these folks:

…at least not in a way that that was conducive to a good slogan.

I went to the counterprotest with the intention of having fun, pissing some anti-choicers off, and networking. To those ends, I think it was a success. But I left realizing that we actually don’t have many resources on counter-demonstrations: what their purpose is, how to strategize and plan them, what tactics make sense, etc. By the end of the day folks from the Ruckus Society were talking about putting together a good counter-demo manual. I think its something the movement needs right now.

But for now, I’ll just chuckle that I got to dress flamboyantly and shout my head off behind a banner that said “do you really want US to have kids?”