Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs Call For UN Intervention

Posted on January 16, 2020 by Jeff Kisling

I’m trying to learn about this conflict between the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project. According to the news article below, some chiefs agreed to the pipeline project. But the Hereditary Chiefs say those chiefs did not have the authority to do that. At the end of this are statements by the Coastal GasLink company.

In the meantime, tensions are escalating, with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) setting up an “exclusion zone.” A year ago the RCMP tore down temporary barriers and arrested 14 land protectors.

URGENT UPDATE: Jan 13, 2020, 2:40pm
RCMP have set up an “exclusion zone” at 27km and are blocking media, Wet’suwet’en people, and food from getting up to our territory.
This is a violation of our human rights, Wet’suwet’en law, and our constitutionally protected rights as Indigenous people.
Last time RCMP set up an “exclusion zone,” they had authorized lethal force against unarmed people. http://unistoten.camp/jan13/

The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs are asking the United Nations to monitor RCMP, government and Coastal GasLink (CGL) actions on their territory as tensions rise in their dispute with CGL.

The request follows a recent directive from the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination (CERD) which states Canada must halt the CGL pipeline project and withdraw RCMP from our territory in order to avoid further violations of Wet’suwet’en, constitutional, and international law.

The pipeline has not received consent from the hereditary chiefs and they say the chiefs who did agree to the development do not have consent to do so within the context of historical Wet’suwet’en law.

Professor Margot Young, a constitutional law expert at UBC’s Allard School of Law also weighed in on the situation, noting that the UN’s concerns can’t simply be cast aside.

“International law is absolutely central to resolution of this situation. All levels of government are bound by treaties signed by Canada, and Canadian constitutional law is to be informed by these human rights obligations.”

Hereditary chiefs call for UN intervention in CGL dispute. Hereditary chiefs have asked the UN to monitor RCMP, government and CGL actions on their territory. BC Local News, Jan 15, 2010

Smithers (BC) – Jan 13, 2020: Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have submitted a formal request to the United Nations to monitor RCMP, government and Coastal GasLink (CGL) actions on our traditional, unceded territory. This request follows the recent directive from the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination (CERD) requiring Canada to halt the CGL pipeline project and withdraw RCMP from our territory in order to avoid further violations of Wet’suwet’en, constitutional, and international law.

This weekend, the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs invoked special communication procedures of the UN Office of the Commissioner of Human Rights. These procedures will allow joint input from UN experts specializing in the human rights protection of Indigenous peoples, human rights defenders, the environment, and those facing forced eviction. These UN human rights experts are independent authorities who monitor compliance with international human rights obligations, including rapporteurs on housing, environment, human rights, Indigenous peoples, and racism.

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs Call For UN Intervention

Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project FAQ

Coastal GasLink has the utmost respect for the First Nations system in British Columbia, whether that be elected or hereditary. It is out of this respect that we never made assumptions about who has decision-making authority. Instead, we strived to engage with all the Indigenous groups along the pipeline route—regardless of history or background—to ensure they’ve had opportunities to be part of our project planning process.

Since the project began in 2012, the Coastal GasLink team has engaged in a wide range of consultation activities with the Office of the Wet’suwet’en and directly with Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs. In fact, more than 1,300 phone calls and emails have occurred to discuss the project over the past six years, including approximately 120 in-person meetings specifically with Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs.

Coastal GasLink is proud of the relationships it has built over the past seven years. We appreciate the strong support we have received from Indigenous groups during this process, including through all 20 project and community agreements that have been reached with the elected Indigenous bands along the project route.

We will ensure that Indigenous communities are informed about our project and have opportunities to provide input on the project.

Indigenous engagement and consultation, Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project
https://www.coastalgaslink.com/about/faqs/
Posted in #NDAPL, decolonize, Indigenous, Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments

Wet’Suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs: No Access Without Consent

Posted on January 15, 2020 by Jeff Kisling

Yesterday I wrote again that we have to understand who we are. What does that mean? It means we must remember, and help others remember the focus of our lives should be to love Mother Earth and each other.

  • We believe the purpose of our lives is to care for Mother Earth and each other
  • We stand for All Our Relations. There is no “other”
  • It is not right to try to divert us from our Spiritual source and center
  • It is not right to concentrate wealth and at the same time force millions to live in poverty and despair
  • Hunger, sickness, homelessness of anyone is wrong
  • It is not right to destroy the land, water and air to extract fossil fuels
  • It is not right to transport fossil fuels in pipelines that will always leak, nor by rail, nor by trucks
  • We stand for peace. There is no “just” war
  • It is never right to take the life of any of our fellow persons. Not in war, nor capital punishment, nor mass or school shooting, police actions, personal conflict
  • It s not right to imprison
  • The land, air and water cannot be “owned”
  • Indigenous peoples who have always loved Mother Earth must give consent, and the ability to deny those who might hurt Her

We have to re-establish our identity. We have to understand who we are and where we fit in the natural order of the world, because our oppressor deals in illusions.

John Trudell

Everywhere people ask, “what can we do?”
The question, what can we do, is the second question.
The first question is “what can we be?”
Because what you can do is a consequence of who you are.
Once you know what you can be, you know what you can do.

Arkan Lushwala

Stay in the prayer.
We stand with you.
For all our relations.

Nahko Bear

I recently became aware of a people who show us what we can be, and have been doing so forever, the Wet’suwet’en people. One year ago, On Monday, January 7, 2019, armed police, some dressed in camouflage fatigues, broke down homemade barriers at a checkpoint on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory and arrested 14 land defenders. Late in the day this year, January 4th, 2020, the Wet’suwet’en House Chiefs representing all 5 clans oversaw the successful eviction of Coastal Gaslink (CGL) employees from Unist’ot’en and Gidimt’en territories.

http://unistoten.camp/wetsuweten-hereditary-chiefs-no-access-without-consent/

January 7, 2020

Late in the day January 4th, 2020 the Wet’suwet’en House Chiefs representing all 5 clans oversaw the successful eviction of Coastal Gaslink (CGL) employees from Unist’ot’en and Gidimt’en territories. An eviction letter was provided to security at Site 9A and the eviction was done peacefully. The eviction letter clearly stated that workers were not to return to the territory without the consent of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.

Coastal GasLink workers have not been permitted to access the territory to continue work since the eviction. As far as we know, CGL intends to commit trespass on Wet’suwet’en lands and continue construction. They will likely rely on RCMP violence to force their way into our territories once more.

Coastal Gaslink has framed their eviction from our territories as an “Unist’ot’en Action,” but this action was taken collectively, in accordance with ‘Anuk nu’at’en, our laws, and on behalf of all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en nation.

There will be no access to Gidimt’en and Dark House territories without the free, prior, and informed consent of the hereditary chiefs.

Today marks the one year anniversary of a heavily militarized raid on Wet’suwet’en territory at the Gidimt’en checkpoint where Wet’suwet’en people and their guests were forcibly removed by the RCMP tactical teams, including snipers authorized to use lethal force. (see below)

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has called upon Canada to immediately halt the construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline until Wet’suwet’en people grant our free, prior, and informed consent to the project. The committee urges Canada to withdraw RCMP from our territories and to prohibit the use of force and lethal weapons against our people.

http://unistoten.camp/wetsuweten-hereditary-chiefs-no-access-without-consent/: No Access Without Consent

The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs demand the following:

  • That the province cease construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline project and suspend permits.
  • That the UNDRIP and our right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) are respected by the state and RCMP.
  • That the RCMP and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en lands, in agreement with the most recent letter provided by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimiation’s (CERD) request.
  • That the provincial and federal government, RCMP and private industry employed by CGL respect our laws and our governance system, and refrain from using any force to access our lands or remove our people.
Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs say they won’t meet with natural gas pipeline company, The Canadian Press, January 10, 2020

RCMP Arrest 14 Wet’Suwet’en Land Defenders on Indigenous Land, January 7, 2019 (last year)

As The Real News reported last month, the Wet’suwet’en Indigenous people of Northern British Columbia and Canada have established checkpoints on their land to prevent pipeline company TransCanada from building a gas pipeline across their territory. The Wet’suwet’en people have never signed treaties with Canada or otherwise ceded their lands, a fact confirmed by Canada’s own Supreme Court in 1997 in a landmark decision known as Delgamuukw. Several days ago, members of the Aboriginal police liaison of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police met with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and indicated the specially trained tactical forces would be deployed to forcibly remove Wet’suwet’en people from sovereign Wet’suwet’en territory.

On Monday, January 7, indeed, armed police, some dressed in camouflage fatigues, broke down homemade barriers at a checkpoint on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory and arrested 14 land defenders. Following the arrests, and as reported by APTN News, hereditary Wet’suwet’en leaders pledged to keep fighting. Chief Madeek, Hereditary Leader of the Gitdumden Clan, declared that “We may have lost this battle, but not the war.” Upon learning of the arrests, civil society organizations from across Canada called for a series of cross-country series of protests in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people, and for the purpose of denouncing the Trudeau government’s heavy-handed tactics on the sovereign land of the Wet’suwet’en. Over 50 such protests took place across Canada on January 8.

Outrage In Canada After Militarized RCMP Arrest 14 Wet’Suwet’en Land Defenders on Sovereign Indigenous Land, DIMITRI LASCARIS, The Real News Network, January 13,2019
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We have to understand who we are

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Jeff Kisling

My life working on environmental issues has taught me that a Spiritual approach to our environmental chaos is what is needed.

The root of our unfolding environmental disaster is the dominant White view that natural resources are commodities that can be owned and consumed without regard to the consequences. That is fed by an economic model that requires continuous grow, and therefore, consumption of resources, even those that are nonrenewable.

That could only have happened by a disconnect from Mother Earth.

I often think of the words of Arkan Lushwala.

Everywhere people ask, “what can we do?”
The question, what can we do, is the second question.
The first question is “what can we be?”
Because what you can do is a consequence of who you are.
Once you know what you can be, you know what you can do.

 Arkan Lushwala

Today the Spirit led me to read similar sentiments by John Trudell.

We have to re-establish our identity. We have to understand who we are and where we fit in the natural order of the world, because our oppressor deals in illusions. They tell us that it is power, but it is not power. They may have all the guns, and they may have all the racist laws and judges, and they may control all the money, but that is not power. These are only imitations of power, and they are only power because in our minds we allow it to be power. But it’s all an imitation.

See, we are power. They deal in violence and repression, we are power. We are a part of the natural world. All of the things in the natural world are a natural part of the creation and feed off the energy of our sacred mother, Earth. We are power. But they have separated us from our spiritual connection to the Earth, so people feel powerless.

We are power, we are a natural part of the creation, we were put here on the sacred mother Earth to serve a purpose. And somewhere in the history of people we’re forgetting what the purpose is. The purpose is to honor the earth, the purpose is to protect the earth, the purpose is to live in balance with the earth, the earth is our mother. And we will never free ourselves as human people, we will never free ourselves as sexual people, we will never free ourselves until we address the issue of how we live in balance with the earth. Because all our resistance and all of our struggle is hollow, it’s false, it’s another one of the oppressor’s hypocrisies. If we do not look out for the welfare of the Earth first, because I don’t care who it is, any child who turns on their mother is living in a terrible, terrible confusion. The Earth is our mother, we must take care of the Earth.

John Trudell, Thanksgiving address (1980): “They deal in violence and repression, we are power”

John Trudell’s words are the introduction to “Love Letters to God” performed by Nahko and directed by Josué Rivas.

No matter what they ever do to us, we must always act for the love of our people and the Earth.  We must not react out of hatred against those who have no sense.

John Trudell

Calling on the tribe to share this message and the debut of our Love Letters to God video far and wide today:

Standing Rock is a dream. The epicenter for our morality and dignity. A place where dark and light communicate and they work it out.

Standing Rock is a vision. The wildest manifestation of our ancestors. The heart of humanity and the blood of the Earth. Water.

An elder said a true warrior always guards the heart of the women and for so long now we’ve forgotten about our mother. Earth is us, we are it. The ones that can heal a relationship that is wounded. The ones that pray over and over. Protect.

Our oral history is vital for our survival and when we blend it with visual art it creates a bond, a prayer. This video is a sacred offering to those that are hurting. Because we must remember that love is the root of all good. Because by giving we open up to receiving. Healing.

We offer this timepiece on a day that ushers in a new era for all protectors and people alike. An era that will need music to act as the thread between front lines and front doors.

Stay in the prayer.
We stand with you.
For all our relations.

Our support goes out to the independent media that has been on the ground at Standing Rock. Without them we would have been in a total black out. Their sacrifice allows us to see the truth.

Nahko and Medicine for the People Love Letters to God
Posted in #NDAPL, Arts, civil disobedience, climate change, Indigenous, Native Americans, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Wet’suwet’en people

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Jeff Kisling

I have just begun to learn about the Wet’suwet’en people. A friend of mine from the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March traveled to the Unist’ot’en camp about 4 years ago, and found it to be a life-changing experience. I also asked other friends I made during the March about this, and they indicated support for these people. Any mistakes in what I write are, of course, my own.

You may wonder why I am trying to learn and write about the Wet’suwet’en people now. The literal answer is I saw this article recently: Hereditary First Nation chiefs issue eviction notice to Coastal GasLink contractors. TC Energy says it signed agreements with all 20 elected First Nations councils along pipeline’s path. Joel Dryden · CBC News · Posted: Jan 05, 2020. Any efforts to stop pipelines catch my interest.

But the deeper reason is that I usually don’t know what I’ll be led to write about when I sit before my laptop first thing in the morning. I say usually, because I am likely to have an idea if I’m writing about something that needs to be broken into a series of posts. Such as today, which builds on previous posts about the Wet’suwet’en people.

I’m interested in learning more about indigenous views and actions to protect Mother Earth. The results of the White dominant culture of profligate consumption of fossil fuels are seen in increasingly frequent and severe incidents of environmental devastation. I ‘m trying to find what we should do now, and hoping indigenous peoples’ practices can help us.

(Yinka Dini – People of this Earth) Unis’tot’en – People of the Headwaters

The Unis’tot’en (C’ihlts’ehkhyu / Big Frog Clan) are the original Wet’suwet’en Yintah Wewat Zenli distinct to the lands of the Wet’suwet’en. Over time in Wet’suwet’en History, the other clans developed and were included throughout Wet’suwet’en Territories. The Unis’tot’en are known as the toughest of the Wet’suwet’en as their territories were not only abundant, but the terrain was known to be very treacherous. The Unis’tot’en recent history includes taking action to protect their lands from Lions Gate Metals at their Tacetsohlhen Bin Yintah, and building a cabin and resistance camp at Talbits Kwah at Gosnell Creek and Wedzin Kwah (Morice River which is a tributary to the Skeena and Bulkley River) from seven proposed pipelines from Tar Sands Gigaproject and LNG from the Horn River Basin Fracturing Projects in the Peace River Region

http://unistoten.camp/
http://unistoten.camp/about/governance-structure/

Governance Structure

The Unist’ot’en homestead is not a protest or demonstration. Our clan is occupying and using our traditional territory as it has for centuries. Our free prior and informed consent protocol is in place at the entrance of or territory as an expression of our jurisdiction and our inherent right to both give and refuse consent. Our homestead is a peaceful expression of our connection to our territory. It is also an example of the continuous use and occupation of our territory of our territory by our clan. Our traditional structures of governance continue to dictate the proper use of and access to our lands and water.

Today all of our Wet’suwet’en territory, including Unist’ot’en territory, is unceded Aboriginal territory. Our traditional indigenous legal systems remain intact and continue to govern our people and our lands. We recognize the authority of these systems.

The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have maintained their use and occupancy of their lands and hereditary governance system. Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs are the Title Holders and maintain the authority and jurisdiction to make decisions on unceded lands. The 22,000 square km of Wet’suwet’en Territory is divided into 5 clans and 13 house groups. Each clan within the Wet’suwet’en Nation has full jurisdiction under their law to control access to their territory.

http://unistoten.camp/about/governance-structure/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA1dihXTjBU
Posted in #NDAPL, climate change, decolonize, Indigenous, Native Americans, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I N V A S I O N

Posted on January 13, 2020 by Jeff Kisling

In this era of “reconciliation”, Indigenous land is still being taken at gunpoint. INVASION is a new film about the Unist’ot’en Camp, Gidimt’en checkpoint and the larger Wet’suwet’en Nation standing up to the Canadian government and corporations who continue colonial violence against Indigenous people.

The Unist’ot’en Camp has been a beacon of resistance for nearly 10 years. It is a healing space for Indigenous people and settlers alike, and an active example of decolonization. The violence, environmental destruction, and disregard for human rights following TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) / Coastal GasLink’s interim injunction has been devastating to bear, but this fight is far from over.

You can pass the hat for donations to send to the camp and hold a discussion about how people can help further Indigenous movements for self-determination. If you plan to fundraise at your screening please use the fundraising guide and let us know about your event so we can help promote it!

We encourage discussion after the film to encourage ongoing organizing efforts to support the Wet’suwet’en. Below are some sample questions you can use to get a discussion going.

  • What is the colonial history of this region? Who occupied these lands before the establishment of the current borders & national government?
  • What does anti-colonial struggle look like in this area?  Are there any active anti-colonial struggles going on?
  • What projects are people in this room currently engaged with that could benefit from applying more of an anti-colonial lens?  What would this actually look like in practice… aside from just token acknowledgement?
  • What are some of the practical things that non-Indigenous activists should know about when working with Indigenous groups, or in Indigenous-led campaigns?  
  • What financial institutions, politicians, or corporations based in your community are supporting the destruction of Wet’suwet’en lands?
  • What are some ways of demonstrating material support for the Unis’tot’en and Wet’suwet’en? How can you support Wet’suwet’en sovereignty from your stand?

#unistoten / #wetsuwetenstrong / #wedzinkwa / #nopipelines / #invasion / #thetimeisnow / #waterislife

Posted in #NDAPL, civil disobedience, climate change, decolonize, Indigenous, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

All CGL workers have now been peacefully evicted from Unist ot en and Gidimt en territories

Posted on January 13, 2020 by Jeff Kisling

Hereditary First Nation chiefs issue eviction notice to Coastal GasLink contractors. TC Energy says it signed agreements with all 20 elected First Nations councils along pipeline’s path. Joel Dryden · CBC News · Posted: Jan 05, 2020

http://unistoten.camp/supportertoolkit2020/?fbclid=IwAR1O89jsvTopnxjYNZueK1fxs_2VKGfVk9Mn4fW_HqM3lGePjWfLMED0Z3k

January 4, 2020

This is an auto-generated transcript of this video that I have tried to clean up as best I can.

So this is a letter that’s signed from
all the heads hereditary Chiefs Unist’ot’en
that’s it in our rightful, we held a feast hall
saying that we did not approve of these
projects and we were ignored and they
ignored our decision and go talk to
other people to try to push their
projects on and their word Unist’ot’en chiefs
went to ___ court case
spent millions of dollars to prove these
were our lands and they proved it in
that courts so what did they do they
changed the courts legislation to make
us look like criminals on her own land
we do this for your kids your grandkids
we don’t have much left they took all
our land already and my client only has
two territories this is one of them and
we use it culturally we hunt we do our
medicines we pick our berries we teach
our kids so this has been sent to David
Pfeiffer so this is a letter and the
Chiefs are now with their blankets down
39 and they’re gonna block that road and
we’re asking you guys to peacefully
leave this vacate this because it’s an
eviction notice from the Unist’ot’en
chiefs so if your boss tells you yes you
guys need to vacate then we’re not going
to block you from going out but once if
you guys refuse then we will close the
road and they’ll probably have to fly
you out they were just sending
a message to the province and the
federal government that they can’t
bulldoze over indigenous lands we’re
making a stand and we’re doing it
peacefully we’re not aggressive we’re
not wanting to harm anybody we’re doing
this peacefully for them to seriously
take us serious that we’re trying to
protect our lands for our kids and our
grandkids.

CGL worker: “all right I gotta go make some phone calls”

She knows. She’s indigenous so she knows
that our people have been
pushed for too long. It’s all about the
government ignoring us and that we have
a right to make the decisions on these things
we believe are going to destroy these lands.


http://unistoten.camp/jan11/
http://unistoten.camp/jan11/
Posted in #NDAPL, decolonize, Indigenous, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sunrise Movement Endorses Bernie Sanders

Posted on January 12, 2020 by Jeff Kisling

Yesterday’s post was not hopeful about people changing to finally begin to address our rapidly worsening environmental chaos: However this all evolves, what we do know is we have to build Beloved communities, to live as best we can as we walk into the future. To do the best we can for our children, and their children, through, hopefully, seven generations. We have to learn “what we can be.” Then we will know what we can do. Fifty years of hoping people would learn that, and seeing so few who have, makes me reluctant to believe change will happen. Waiting longer is not an option now. We are now in the Age of Last Chances.

The one ray of hope for me is the Sunrise Movement, that takes its name from the following hopeful statement.

Together, we will change this country and this world,
sure as the sun rises each morning.

I’ve been following and participating in the Sunrise Movement ever since the Movement jumped into the national spotlight when members staged a sit-in at Speaker Pelosi’s office November, 2018. That sit-in was successful for several reasons.

  • It brought national attention to the Sunrise Movement
  • if FINALLY brought discussions of climate change to Congress
  • It also brought the ideas of a Green New Deal to Congress and the country
  • It brought national attention to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when she came to the sit-in to support the Sunrise youth

The Sunrise youth told moving stories like this one by Jeremy Ornstein.

I believe stories are the only way to stimulate people to change. When we have Sunrise meetings, we use the ZOOM app, audio and video sharing, to connect with each other, and stories are ALWAYS the important part of these meetings. The ability to see each other and hear the passion in voices is a powerful community building tool. We feel we begin to know each other. When the Sunrise Green New Deal Tour came to Des Moines last spring, I actually saw Jeremy (in the video above) walking on the Drake campus, and had a short conversation with him.

Sunrise leader Jeremy Ornstein

Another example of the Sunrise Movement’s effectiveness is how it pulls in people who are already working for environmental justice locally. At the Green New Deal Tour in Des Moines, my friends Trisha and Lakasha were part of the program.

When I attended the National Network Assembly last summer, one of the sessions was about the Sunrise Movement.

I’ve attended Sunrise leadership training meetings. It was an adjustment for me at first to understand this is purposely a youth led movement.

Sunrise’s decision to be youth-led and youth-centered is both a strategic and cultural one. In the climate crisis, young people face an unfortunate reality: every one of us will see the devastating effects of climate change in our lifetime. We have inherited a crisis that we did not create— and there is a story to tell about a new generation of Americans who are standing up to protect their future. Throughout history, we have seen that youth voices hold a unique moral clarity, and the climate crisis is no exception. Choosing to focus on young people is a key part of our strategy to reach millions.

Sunrise is also filling a cultural gap for young people in the movement. Young people today have grown up knowing that the stable climate that human civilization has depended on for millennia could crumble within our lifetimes. Yet, we’ve seen political leaders continue to fail us, often laughing us off or calling us young and naive. That’s been deeply discouraging for many of us. In our society, there aren’t many spaces that trust and uplift the leadership of young people. Young people were searching for a space that would not only allow them to organize but would also give them the community they were searching for. Our youth-centered focus makes sure that we are building a community and anidentity— vital ingredients to keep a movement together.

We need the support of all of you— it just comes in a slightly different form. We love the enthusiasm you’ve shown and appreciate the organizing that you’ve already done to help get us to this point!

Recently the Sunrise Movement asked us members to vote on which presidential candidate to endorse. The overwhelming choice, and my vote, was for Bernie Sanders. I think this endorsement is really important. The Sunrise Movement continues to grow nationally, is well organized and will put a lot of effective work into this coming election.

“Thanks to the Sunrise Movement’s tireless effort to avert climate catastrophe, we as a country are finally recognizing the pivotal moment we are in and the need to act boldly, quickly. I am honored to receive their endorsement and look forward to working together to launch the Green New Deal and build a more just and equitable future.”

Bernie Sanders

The Sunrise Movement and I are urgently asking for you to help now.

We only have 12 months to do it, but we have the people, the tools, and the will to make it happen. And we’ve got plans to kick off the year strong. On January 29th, Sunrisers across the country are going to host “Our Plan to Win the Green New Deal: 2020 Launch Parties” where we’ll show two epic mini-documentaries walking us through what’s at stake and our roadmap for 2020.

Because we need to grow our movement massively in 2020, we’re doing something different. We’re asking everyone in the movement to host one and invite your friends, classmates, or family to join. This kind of personal outreach to groups of people you know has been proven again and again to be the most effective way to bring new people into the movement.

So, whether you’ve been showing up to hub meetings or following us online, I want to ask you to step up — maybe do something you’ve never done before — and help us grow this movement. We’ll get you everything you need: the mini-documentaries, a detailed guide for hosts, and coaching support in case you have any questions.

If you’re anything like me, you’re coming into 2020 feeling a lot of different things: fear, anxiety, dread, confusion, maybe a little excitement and hope. I want to say: you’re not alone. I feel that too. I’ve come to think that’s just what it feels to be a moral and compassionate person living in this kind of moment with such instability and uncertainty.

Let’s rise to this moment together. Sign up to put on a Launch Party with your friends on January 29th.

As I wrote yesterday, this is the Age of Last Chances. I hope you will really dig deep, and not let this last chance fade away. I attended the training session to learn how to put on a Launch Party last week. As always it was a powerful experience. I hope you will especially invite young people you know to get involved, and put on a Launch Party and help grow this Movement.

  • Sunrise Movement No Excuses protest on Capitol Hill, Washington DC Offices visited Hakeem Jeffries and Steny Hoyer.
Posted in climate change, Green New Deal, Sunrise Movement, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Age of Last Chances

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Jeff Kisling

When I reflect on the last year, there’s a certain difficult truth about this age that strikes me. We live in the age of last chances. What do I mean?
We have about a decade, maybe two, left. To stop the intertwined threats of ecological, economic, and political collapse. From beginning to end the world as we know it. Yes, really.

The Age of Last Chances. (Why) 2019’s Lesson is We Have Just a Decade or Two Left to Stop Our Worlds From Ending. Yes, Really by umair haque, Medium.com, Dec 21, 2019

For nearly fifty years I have tried every way I could think of to convince others of the ecological devastation our fossil fuel based culture is causing. I have failed to do so. The question is whether I never found convincing actions or arguments, or was nothing going to make people change?

My Quaker faith teaches we should live/act according to our beliefs. I know that is a common belief of most people and faiths, probably the one thing all share. I thought if I refused to own a car, others might follow that example. So nearly fifty years ago that’s what I did. Fifty years later, I don’t know that a single person was convinced by my example.

Some indigenous peoples extend living according to our beliefs now, to consider how what we do will affect the next seven generations. If we had done so, Mother Earth would be healthy today. We should take up this concept now, even though it is sad to think there may not be a seventh generation, or a sixth, or…

Myself, I’ve got to get to a place where I can accept what Stalin did to people in the Siberian gulags, the scale of it. This, too, is us. This is what we do. That’s why I told my grandson in the book’s prologue, as we stood over the wreckage of that battleship at Pearl Harbor, “This is what we do.” He had no idea that we killed each other on that scale. But I could say to him, “I love you, and I want you to know that this is what we do. And as you grow, you will see a way to help. And I hope that when you do, you choose that path, no matter how hard it is.”

The World We Still Have, Barry Lopez On Restoring Our Lost Intimacy With Nature By Fred Bahnson The Sun Magazine December 2019

It would have been good if out of the destruction of Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, the ongoing nightmare of apocalyptic fires in Australia, would have finally made people realize drastic measures are needed immediately.

MELBOURNE, Australia — The bush fire crisis gripping Australia is piling political pressure on its government to take bolder action on climate change, as the scorching of vast tracts of forest and farmland amplifies demands for a hastier transition away from fossil fuels.

At rallies nationwide Friday, thousands called for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to resign over what they say is his administration’s passivity on an issue that has hit home to millions of Australians as a clear and present danger. The conservative leader has defended his disaster response after facing criticism from victims and firefighters for its perceived inadequacy.

In Melbourne, close to 10,000 people took to the streets, spurning calls from police and the state’s center-left leader, Daniel Andrews, not to risk diverting emergency resources.

Australia fire crisis fuels protests calling for bolder action on climate change By Kate Shuttleworth, The Washington Post, January 10, 2020

The people of Australia are forced to acknowledge the ramifications of climate change now. Unfortunately there are no easy or quick solutions.

How do we get people to recognize we are in the “age of last chances”? This is it? Now?

My fifty years of walking, running, bicycling while automobiles spewing toxic exhaust travel past me makes it seem nothing can kick our fossil fuel addiction.

Everywhere people ask, “what can we do?”
The question, what can we do, is the second question.
The first question is “what can we be?”
Because what you can do is a consequence of who you are.
Once you know what you can be, you know what you can do.

Arkan Lushwala

The end of the world, it turns out, comes on a strange, surreal scale — anywhere from a sudden catastrophe, to a long, slow apocalypse. That is why this age is so hard to process. History isn’t just at one turning point — it’s at a collection of them, each different, yet each the same, too. Either we turn back — or we continue marching towards ecological, economic, political, social disaster. If this age feels so strange, dislocating, alienating, troubled, perhaps that’s why: when else has so much been decided in so short a time, in so many different ways?

The Age of Last Chances. (Why) 2019’s Lesson is We Have Just a Decade or Two Left to Stop Our Worlds From Ending. Yes, Really by umair haque, Medium.com, Dec 21, 2019

The closest thing to an answer that I’ve seen was the example of Standing Rock. The prayers and nonviolent resistance not just there, but prayers from people all over the world. The people knew “what can we be?”

However this all evolves, what we do know is we have to build Beloved communities, to live as best we can as we walk into the future. To do the best we can for our children, and their children, through, hopefully, seven generations.

We have to learn “what we can be.” Then we will know what we can do. Fifty years of hoping people would learn that, and seeing so few who have, makes me reluctant to believe change will happen. Waiting longer is not an option now. We are now in the Age of Last Chances.

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Iraq War Protests

Posted on January 10, 2020 by Jeff Kisling

It is encouraging to see antiwar protests now related to the possibility of new war in the Middle East.

I have an indelible memory of a group of young people, standing in silence, each holding a sign with the name, hometown, age and date of death of a soldier from Indiana who had been killed in the Iraq war. It was a sacred time when they gathered and stood. The audience stood back, also in silence, facing them. (downtown Indianapolis, 2012)

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Here are some other photos from that day, many of which include War is Not the Answer signs from the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)

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Oil = War, Sun = Peace

Posted on January 10, 2020 by Jeff Kisling

My activism began in 1969 as an 18 year old Quaker struggling with my decision to register with the Selective Service System (draft). The 1960′ s were a traumatic time with the horrors of the Vietnam War and the often violent response to the nonviolence of the Civil Rights movement on television screens every night. Those struggles settled down for a number of reasons. But war was always ready to erupt again, and did. Racial justice has not been achieved.

After an extended spiritual struggle I turned in my draft cards and became a draft resister.

I joined the Friends Volunteer Service Mission while in my early 20’s to live and work with kids in inner city Indianapolis. While there, I was led to work to protect Mother Earth. That has been my journey since.

I’ve seen of how armed conflict was evolving since that time. The move to a volunteer army, limited conflicts, the idea of being able to kill those defined as terrorists, remote death by drone strikes that killed many innocent bystanders and Congress not accepting its responsibility to declare war have resulted in endless wars with nations with oil.

I’ve also been increasingly concerned by the multiple causes and results of environmental damage, not just for myself but for all my relations. Continuingly frustrated, sometimes angry at the lack of concern and action to stop poisoning our land, air and water. Astonished at the discovery of increasingly complex, interrelated environmental threats and their ramifications.

We’re waging war against Mother Earth. I believed nothing could be more important than to try to mitigate the damage. Environmental chaos is an existential threat to all life. Massive numbers of animals, birds and people have died. Many species are now extinct. We are likely to join them.

My focus on environmental devastation has meant I haven’t spent much time on other things that are important to me–peace, poverty, homelessness, racial injustice, and immigration. But all of those are significantly influenced by our voracious demand for fossil fuels.

The recent escalating military actions involving the U.S. and Iran have made me reevaluate whether I should pay more attention to anti-war efforts. It seemed to be a choice between work on the evolving environmental chaos or for peace. But the two are intertwined in many ways, so it isn’t really a choice between one or the other. The U.S. military is by far the largest consumer of fossil fuels, and therefore producer of greenhouse gas emissions.

One of the best reasons to dramatically scale back military operations is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

National governments spend trillions of dollars to maintain a military machine that globally possesses an estimated 16,300 nuclear weapons, consumes vast quantities of oil and diverts large amounts of resources, which could otherwise be used to address the issue of climate change.

Say NO to a system which accepts the logic of thousands of weapons of mass destruction and the continual consumption of fossil fuels which science has shown is leading down a path of environmental, social and economic destruction.

No War No Warming
https://www.facebook.com/events/569978219807579/

And although misleading statements are made to justify wars, all of our recent wars, i.e. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, have been to protect fossil fuel sources.

Bill McKibben states “If the world ran on sun, it wouldn’t fight over oil. The climate crisis isn’t the only reason to kick fossil fuels – the prospect of a war to protect Saudi crude reminds us of that.”

Were it not for oil, the Middle East would not be awash in expensive weapons; its political passions would matter no more to the world than those of any other corner of our Earth. Were it not for oil, we would not be beholden to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – indeed, we might be able to bring ourselves to forthrightly condemn its savagery. Were it not for oil, we would never have involved ourselves in a ruinous war with Iraq, destabilising an entire region. (I remember the biting slogan on a sign from an early protest against the war with Saddam Hussein: “How did our oil end up under their sand?”)

But this iteration of the opera is different in one way. An unspoken truth hangs over the whole predictable scene: this will be the first oil war in an age when we widely recognise that we needn’t depend on oil any longer.

No one will ever fight a war over access to sunshine – what would a country do, set up enormous walls to shade everyone else’s panels? (Giant walls are hard to build – just ask Trump.) Fossil fuels are concentrated in a few places, giving those who live atop them enormous power; renewable energy can be found everywhere, the birthright of all humans. A world that runs on sun and wind is a world that can relax.

If the world ran on sun, it wouldn’t fight over oil by Bill McKibben, The Guardian, Sept 18, 2019.

The best path to peace is to stop our dependence on oil by transitioning to renewable energy.

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