Author: Jeff Kisling

Another World is Possible

Despite the collapse of capitalism and the current political system based upon it, there are signs of hope. More and more people are joining with others to build better economic and political systems. Or return to systems that worked in the past for hundreds of years.

I am blessed to have gotten to know people who are doing just that. One of my new friends is Jake Grobe who works at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI). Jake joins in our Mutual Aid work in Des Moines. I knew he was going to the People vs Fossil Fuels Week of Action last week in Washington, DC. I saw some of what he posted online while he was there. And we got to visit yesterday when we were at the Mutual Aid food bank. He described being present when the flag outside the Army Corps of Engineers was replaced with one indicating “No Consultation”, which you can see in the video below. Following is from an email message he sent yesterday. I like the things he said about what gives him hope.

Also below is part of a teach-in my friend Ronnie James presented in 2020. “The recent past shows us that mutual aid is not only a tool of survival, but also a tool of revolution.“

In addition, umair haque writes about the problems with hierarchies. “These two forces naturally oppose one another, like fire and ice — hierarchy and progress. And it seems to me one of the great secrets history tries to teach us is that when we find ways to make them work together, then and only then human possibility opens to its fullest horizons.”

Hierarchy is what Mutual Aid is about. Mutual Aid works to avoid vertical hierarchies. And instead to maintain a flat or horizontal hierarchy, where everyone has a voice.

As an example of how our struggles are interconnected, Jake and Ronnie are in the photo below that was taken after we completed the Mutual Aid food giveaway. We are supporting the Wet’suwet’en peoples who are struggling to protect the water and prevent the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline through their pristine lands.

Last week a delegation of CCI members and People’s Action joined thousands in Washington DC for the People vs Fossil Fuels Week of Action. Led by Indigenous and frontline communities, we marched, occupied, and blocked roads alongside faith groups, racial justice groups, and environmental groups to demand federal action to end the era of fossil fuel destruction. 

Words mean nothing without action: call Biden to demand a halt to Line 3.

Despite all the promises, the Biden Administration has approved over 2,500 new oil and gas permits on public land, the fastest pace since 2008. He has let projects like the Line 3 tar sands pipeline in Minnesota go online, already polluting sacred water and violating treaty rights. And as I speak, Biden is surrendering to the demands of two blatantly corrupt Senators to gut the Build Back Better bill of programs needed to address the climate crisis. 

Reeling with all this has been hard to say the least. Here is where I’m finding hope:

  • Indigenous people have been resisting genocide for hundreds of years and many continue to lead the fight on the frontlines – there is a lot to learn.
  • Over 500 of us were arrested in the name of justice last week, many more have put their literal bodies on the line to stop construction of fossil fuel projects, and right now Sunrise youth are going on a hunger strike outside the white house while tens of thousands of workers are on strike.

People seeing their power and using it means we can win, because Mother Earth will regenerate and heal herself, as soon as we stop the harm.

Jake Grobe, Iowa CCI

Perhaps, like me, you think things aren’t going so well in the world today — 1930s style authoritarianism, extremism, and stagnation rock the world like a hurricane once again.
The question then is this: what kind of world do we want? In this essay I’m going to offer three futures. They’ll contrast the tension between hierarchy and progress. You see, the question in ages like this one is whether hierarchies — which make things comfortable for those above the waterline, even during decline and collapse — can make us more capable of change, growth, and maturity, somehow too. So I will write it from a curious perspective, too — that we each decide, in some way, what kind of future we are to create.

These two forces naturally oppose one another, like fire and ice — hierarchy and progress. And it seems to me one of the great secrets history tries to teach us is that when we find ways to make them work together, then and only then human possibility opens to its fullest horizons.

So what kind of future do we want? One with lots of burdensome, bitter, and polarizing hierarchy — groups vying to pull each other down — which flatlines progress? Or one where consensual hierarchy has collapsed into predation — no one can agree to govern or be governed, so monsters rule — which leads to super-charged regress? Or one in which, improbably, hierarchy and progress have learned, improbably, to walk hand in hand? That choice, I think, is the one that will define these times.

(How) We Need To Fix The World. If We Don’t Change the Path We’re On… by umair haque, Eudaimonia and Co, Oct 2021

As bleak as this is, there is a significant amount of resistance and hope to turn the tide we currently suffer under. We stand on the shoulders of giants that have been doing this work for centuries, and there are many lessons we can learn from.

The first, and possibly the most important, is that it was not always this way, which proves it does not have to stay this way. 

What we have is each other. We can and need to take care of each other. We may have limited power on the political stage, a stage they built, but we have the power of numbers.

Those numbers represent unlimited amounts of talents and skills each community can utilize to replace the systems that fail us.  The recent past shows us that mutual aid is not only a tool of survival, but also a tool of revolution.

If we are to survive, and more importantly, thrive, we know what we will have to do.

All Power To The People.

Ronnie James, The Police State and Why We Must Resist, 8/22/2020

Mutual Aid supports the Wet’suwet’en peoples

Critical thinking

I recently wrote about evidence and faith. Faith in the very narrow definition of “blind” faith, basing beliefs and actions on an ideology in contrast to evidence and critical thinking.

Ideology is fueling increasingly violent culture wars today. I often find myself wishing people were better informed and thinking critically. Not in the sense of agreeing with me, but having views based on facts and evidence, when available, and informed by critical thinking.

Critical thinking is a widely accepted educational goal. Its definition is contested, but the competing definitions can be understood as differing conceptions of the same basic concept: careful thinking directed to a goal. Conceptions differ with respect to the scope of such thinking, the type of goal, the criteria and norms for thinking carefully, and the thinking components on which they focus. Its adoption as an educational goal has been recommended on the basis of respect for students’ autonomy and preparing students for success in life and for democratic citizenship. “Critical thinkers” have the dispositions and abilities that lead them to think critically when appropriate.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

sensemaking–the action or process of making sense of or giving meaning to something, especially new developments and experiences.

At the collective level, a loss of sensemaking erodes shared cultural and value structures and renders us incapable of generating the collective wisdom necessary to solve complex societal problems like those described above. When that happens the centre cannot hold.

Threats to sensemaking are manifold. Among the most readily observable sources are the excesses of identity politics, the rapid polarisation of the long-running culture war, the steep and widespread decline in trust in mainstream media and other public institutions, and the rise of mass disinformation technologies, e.g. fake news working in tandem with social media algorithms designed to hijack our limbic systems and erode our cognitive capacities. If these things can confound and divide us both within and between cultures, then we have little hope of generating the coherent dialogue, let alone the collective resolve, that is required to overcome the formidable global-scale problems converging before us.

Pontoon Archipelago or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Collapse. By James Allen, originally published by Medium, June 18, 2019

As James Allen writes here, “at the collective level, a loss of sensemaking erodes shared cultural and value structures.” I think Allen’s focus on shared cultural and value structures is important. We don’t rely strictly on facts to make sense of things.

Critical thinking is how many of us make sense of things new to us.

There are so many new things coming at us. Worsing environmental chaos and collapsing economic and political systems.

But some people choose to allow others to make sense of things for them. Theirs is a conscious choice to abandon critical thinking and embrace leaders who profess to share their culture and values. Authoritarianism can be attractive to these people. This explains the assault on democratic governance. Helps explain refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and reject mask mandates, support voting restrictions, etc.

I’m especially disturbed about recent, widespread attacks against schools and educators who teach about the history of slavery and the genocide of Indigenous peoples. We cannot begin to make progress toward reconciliation without acknowledging the truth.

Some people are saying they don’t want students to be disturbed by those histories. That is appalling, because there is much we should be disturbed by.

Banning books is especially disconcerting and antithetical to education and critical thinking. Other authoritarian regimes have banned books. I realize “other authoritarian regimes” implies ours is one.

Some people are terrified that kids will learn about racism.
Especially white people.
Especially that white KIDS might learn about it.
How would that affect a white child’s self-esteem, they say.
Imagine learning that racism existed in the United States.
A country founded by white people.
(Taken from brown people. Made largely profitable by the enslavement of black people.)
Wouldn’t that make white kids feel bad?
It’s a strange question.
First of all, wouldn’t it make the black and brown kids feel worse than the white kids?
After all, it was their ancestors who were brutalized and subjugated.
Second of all, what does history have to do with your feelings?

Moreover, how would one even teach American history without talking about racism?
This is the United States – a country that built much of its economy on the backs of black people kidnapped from their homes across the sea and then bought and sold here as property.
Not only that but the very land we stand on was once the domain of dark-skinned indigenous people.
People who were tricked, coerced and killed if they did not give up this land – if they did not move on to ever shrinking corners of the continent until they were almost all dead, assimilated or stashed away on reservations.
What would it do to a white child to learn all this?
Provide an accurate account of events, I suppose.

It’s not just the history of racism these children are learning, but they’re starting to think that racism is WRONG.

And that’s a problem because it has an impact on how we view the modern world today.

So if we teach the history of racism, how do we justify saying that it ever ended?
How do we not admit that it merely evolved into the status quo?
That’s really the issue.
Not the past but the present.
It’s not the racism of the antebellum South or even the pre-civil rights period North of the Mason-Dixon line.

IF YOU’RE AFRAID KIDS WILL LEARN RACISM IS BAD, PERHAPS PUBLIC SCHOOL IS NOT FOR YOU By Steven M. Singer, Gadfly On The Wall, October 20, 2021


Martin Luther King, Jr, Memorial

This is the tenth anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr, Memorial in Washington, DC. For years I went to Washington, DC, for the annual meetings of the Friends Committee for National Legislation. I looked forward to seeing and photographing the monuments and memorials.

Asserting Indigenous Sovereignty

My prayers are being answered as Indigenous peoples in the lands called Canada and the United States are asserting their authority. It has long been clear to me that fossil fueled capitalism, which is responsible for the deepening environmental chaos, will not voluntarily stop the rape of Mother Earth.

There were numerous Indigenous led events related to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. My friends in Des Moines, Iowa, have a message related to Christopher Columbus.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Des Moines, Iowa

Indigenous people led, and many were arrested at events related to People Vs Fossil Fuels events last week.
https://landbackfriends.com/?s=people+vs+fossil+fuels

Indigenous leaders released the following statement.

We will no longer allow the U.S. government to separate us from our relationship to the sacred knowledge of Mother Earth and all who depend on her. Her songs have no end, so we must continue the unfinished work of our ancestors who have walked on before us. Because of colonization, our mission has been passed on generation after generation- to protect the sacred. Just as those who walked before us, we continue their song and rise for our youth, for the land, and for the water.  Politicians do not take care of us. Presidents will break their promises but Mother Earth has always given us what we need to thrive. We will not back down until our natural balance is restored.

For the land, for our waters, for our future– we must fight now so our young will thrive. 

You can arrest us, tear gas us, poison us but there will always be more hearts to continue the song until we are all free. 

Indigenous Environmental Network Oct. 14, 2021

Wet’suwet’en

The work to stop the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en lands continues. Investors in the pipeline are warned to stop funding genocide.

On October 17th, Lihkt’samisyu Chiefs Dsta’hyl and Tsebesa took action, decommissioning and seizing construction equipment by the Likht’samisyu Clan in accordance with its laws.

LIHT’SAMISYU TERRITORY – On October 17th, Lihkt’samisyu Chiefs Dsta’hyl and Tsebesa took action as Coastal Gaslink workers continued to trespass on Wet’suwet’en territory in violation of Wet’suwet’en laws and Canada’s own constitution. The Chiefs instructed Coastal Gaslink to remove all equipment from Lihkts’amisyu territory immediately, indicating that otherwise it would be decommissioned and seized by the Likht’samisyu Clan in accordance with its laws.

Full article here: https://realpeoples.media/video-wetsu…

Donations can be made to support the struggle of the Lihkts’amisyu clan of the Wet’suwet’en at the groups Go Fund Me page. You may also contribute by e-transfer. E-transfer donations sent to likhtsamisyu@gmail.com will be deposited into a clan donation account with multiple signers. To find out more, visit https://likhtsamisyu.com/, and follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/likhtsamisyu Twitter at https://twitter.com/Likhtsamisyu and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sovereignli….

In Iowa we held our first vigil to support the Wet’suwet’en in February 2020.

Support for Wet’suwet’en peoples in Des Moines, Iowa, Feb 2020

Last week in Des Moines, after our food distribution work, some of my Mutual Aid friends showed their support for the Wet’suwet’en (using signs from last year’s vigil).

Des Moines, Iowa October 9, 2021

Sleydo’ and our Haudenosaunee relatives discuss impacts of colonization, industry, RCMP and how we are painted by government and media to distract from our true goal of protecting our land and people. Indigenous people understand each other. We all face the same threats. It’s why we stand united with each other. For more information please go to yintahaccess.com Follow us on: Twitter @Gidimten FB @wetsuwetenstrong IG @yintah_access #AllOutForWedzinKwa

#AllOutForWedzinKwa
#DefendWedzinKwa
#WetsuwetenStrong
#WeAreAllOne

Earth’s Bloodstains

I awoke wondering how to bring more attention to the horrors of the institutions of forced assimilation in the lands called the United States and Canada. The atrocities hidden for many years are finally beginning to be exposed as the remains of THOUSANDS of children are being located on the grounds of those institutions.

Even as this history is beginning to show up on social media and websites there is continued silence from mainstream media. Although there is news about a story Anderson Cooper is working on for 60 Minutes (below).

Where is the outrage? As it is sometimes framed, there would be a radically different response if the remains were of white children. Instead, the ongoing silence is the continued erasure of Indigenous peoples.

What really happened and what is still happening today are not what are published in the mainstream media. If you desire truth, you will have to dig for it yourself.

Earth’s bloodstains

One way I discover websites related to my concerns is when I’m notified when one of my blog posts has been re-blogged. Which was how I learned about the website with the provocative title Earth’s Bloodstains that re-blogged my blog post “We don’t give up“.

We don’t give up

Welcome … this site is about exposing our sanitized histories, revealing truth, uncovering earth’s carefully concealed blood stains, exposing the criminals, both past and present who continue to deprive their fellow human beings of the right to a decent existence on planet earth. After twelve years of researching our histories I can only conclude we have been fed layer upon layer of lies. What really happened & what is still happening today are not what are published in the mainstream media. If you desire truth, you will have to dig for it yourself.*

*Please note,  I don’t claim to speak for any group/s of people regarding their own histories. In order for those histories to be known however, I am simply publishing here, histories that have been recorded by non-mainstream indigenous/historians/authors/researchers that we weren’t told, including our own (Aotearoa / New Zealand). So conditioned was I to mainstream versions of history, it was not until I learned about the true history of our own Parihaka in the Taranaki that I woke up to the lies by omission. The official histories taught us in school, were frequently a layer of whitewash, as described by Dr Hirini Moko Mead, the final myth-making phase of colonization. For it is the victors who wrote our histories. I want to expose them. Please contact me if there is anything you know to be incorrect or if you can point me to histories I’ve missed. I am relying on published truth but am aware there are oral histories that likely aren’t in print. 

Earth’s Bloodstains

Exposing the lies of the powerful who mercilessly drive people off lands they’ve inhabited for centuries, who greedily shore up land for themselves alone, shutting out the people, all the while under the cover of ‘law’, a law they carefully craft themselves, for their own ends, and under the guise of ‘economic development’, ‘progress’, ‘civilization’, ‘sustainability’, the great lie that there is not room enough for all on planet earth, all this  in the name of greed, avarice and profit.

Remembering those who sought justice and found none, the many millions who are still being mercilessly slaughtered with swords, poison, fire, lynching, bombs, warfare, guns, drowning, starvation, enslavement, exile, torture, exposure and disease, suffering unspeakable agonies, driven from their homes, incarcerated, raped, abused and enslaved, shipped to the four corners of the earth, enduring trauma that will continue to haunt them and their descendants all their days, visiting the terror upon succeeding generations, driving them in their sadness to suicide, addiction and death even, far from the comfort of hearth and kin, the innocents whose only ‘crime’ was to require a share of the Creator’s earth to live on …

Earth’s Bloodstains

#LANDBACK

Evidence and faith

I find it increasingly difficult to make sense of what is going on today. All the terrible things I had anticipated for the future are suddenly happening now. And things I never imagined, like the assaults on truth and science, come at a time when they are desperately needed.

There are all kinds of ways to divide/categorize the American public: there’s the urban/rural divide, the differences between Republicans and Democrats, people who are college educated versus those who are not…One distinction that is rarely highlighted but incredibly important doesn’t even have a descriptive term–it’s the difference between people who recognize and respect evidence and those who don’t.

Think of it as the difference between people who accept the Enlightenment emphasis on empirical reality and those who are “faith-based.” Being faith-based, at least as I am using the term, doesn’t necessarily mean “religious.” It means preferring an ideological commitment–something taken on faith– to demonstrable reality, and a number of people–many of them highly educated–fall into that category.

There’s nothing wrong with theory, but it’s a framework for empirical exploration, not a substitute. In the end, real world evidence is what matters.

Prize for Evidence, Sheila Kennedy, 10/17/2021

One of the first lessons I learned as I began my career in medical research, was to make sure I wasn’t trying to make evidence fit into my preconception of what the results should be. And I was impressed to discover further research sometimes made sense of a piece of the puzzle we discovered previously that had not fit my expectations.

Or new data might provide further evidence that my preconceptions were wrong. That strengthened my faith, that there is much beyond what we think we know. Mysteries to unravel.

Kennedy states faith-based, as she is using the term, “means preferring an ideological commitment–something taken on faith– to demonstrable reality.” A choice to hold onto beliefs even when the evidence refutes those beliefs.

The question is whether it is possible to continue to believe something when evidence shows that to be false? My answer is no, because I believe the framework of science, a system of verifiable evidence, is part of creation.

But others profess to believe the opposite. People who are told to not believe what they see. Which leaves them open to being manipulated. And not open to persuasion, even when shown evidence contradicting their belief.

It has been common in western thought, from ancient times up until the present, to view reality as divided between an ideal world of spirituality and perfectedness, and a counterpart world of material and practical reality which is fallen and corrupted. This concept began with Plato and was given a theological overlay by Christianity.  It invites the idea that truth and beauty are attractive but insubstantial, and that they are impossible of realization, while the demands of practical reality inevitably require various violent and ugly compromises, and radical departures from ideal concepts of purity and goodness.

Quaker spirituality, as well as other minority streams of Christian mysticism, and most eastern spiritualities, reject this dualistic view of reality.  They affirm a true understanding of our situation, which is that the mundane and the divine are one.  What so many mistakenly see as realms separate and apart are, in truth, so interdependent that one cannot be understood, or even spoken of, without the other.

Peace or Justice: Which Has Precedence? A Quaker Perspective on the Papal Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris Issued by Pope John XXIII on April 11, 1963
By Daniel A. Seeger

To me, faith-based includes truth supported by evidence in science. But it also includes beliefs that are part of a spiritual framework. There is so much in our world that cannot be proven with scientific evidence.

I was raised and continue to be part of a faith community, the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. I attend Sunday meetings for worship, where we sit together in silence, trying to hear what God, or the spirit, or the Creator, or Inner Light is saying to us. Sometimes someone discerns a spiritual message they share with the meeting, speaking out of the silence. We believe the Spirit continues to be active in the world, in our lives, today.

These days, as remains of thousands of children who attended the Native residential schools continue to be located, the question is how this could happen? Especially since those institutions of forced assimilation were run by various religious groups, including Quakers.

I don’t know. Such a terrible history does make me question what I thought I was being led, by the Spirit, to do, that might be causing harm today. I’m praying to be shown what I might do now related to this tragedy.

Let’s demonstrate where power truly lies

It is heartening to see indigenous-led climate actions at the White House, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the US Capitol this week. I admire those who are participating in acts of civil disobedience, with hundreds of arrests. But disappointed in the absence of a response from the Biden administration. And deeply concerned at the latest news that funding to address environmental catastrophe might not be included in the budget negotiations. White House looks to scale back climate initiative after stiff pushback from Manchin

I’m reminded of the days of the Keystone XL pipeline Pledge of Resistance, a national campaign to use civil disobedience to force denial of the permit for the construction of that pipeline which began in 2013. President Obama, with Vice President Biden, did deny the permit. The President was aware of the Keystone resistance. How much that affected his decision isn’t known. (more below).

This week over 530 climate activists were arrested during Indigenous-led civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., calling on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and stop approving fossil fuel projects. Indigenous leaders have issued a series of demands, including the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose offices they occupied on Thursday for the first time since the 1970s. The protests come just weeks before the start of the critical U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, which President Biden and senior Cabinet members are expected to attend. “We’re not going anywhere,” says Siqiñiq Maupin, with Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, who traveled from Alaska to D.C. and was among those arrested during the BIA occupation. “We do not have time for negotiations, for compromises. We need to take this serious and take action now.”

With the stroke of Biden’s pen, he can change the world. But Biden refuses to do it up to this point so we’ve got to use the greatest weapon we have and that is each other.
Miami is a place where climate disasters have become as familiar as sunshine. We are so glad to be joining to descend upon DC and make our voices heard because we cannot negotiate anymore. We cannot negotiate with rising seas, we cannot negotiate with occupied lands, we cannot negotiate with wildfires, we cannot negotiate with intensifying hurricanes. This is a matter of life or death. What we’re asking each and every one of you to do today is to find your inner warrior. Like I said, they don’t listen unless the people are willing to stand together in unity. They demand fossil fuels, we demand that our futures and the next seven generation futures are guaranteed.
They can divide us, or they can unite us. I choose to unite. So, join us, be with us, let’s demonstrate where power truly lies and that is in the hands of the people.

People vs Fossil Fuels

Oct 19 CALL IN DAY OF ACTION – Social Media Toolkit
The time for Biden to act on climate is NOW.

As negotiations around the infrastructure bill drag on, the President has allowed dangerous fossil fuel projects to advance and passed the buck to Congress, allowing his agenda to be delayed and weakened by industry-friendly politicians, including those in his own party, like Senators Manchin and Sinema. We need your help to hold him accountable to the promises he has made.

Here’s what we need you to do:
Call out the administration.
  1. Dial 888-724-8946 and demand that Biden act on climate change.
  2. Here is a script:

My name is ___. I am demanding that President Biden listen to the people who sent him to Washington and take urgent climate action by phasing out fossil fuels, stopping new fossil fuel projects, declaring a national climate emergency, and acting to deploy 100% clean, safe, renewable energy.

Encourage people to sign the petition.

Share our petition and encourage others to sign: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/president-biden-choose-people-over-fossil-fuels/

Amplify the call-in.

Share this call-in using the social media copy below.

Use the hashtag #PeopleVsFossilFuels and the number 888-724-8946

Social Media Copy 
  • On Tuesday, Oct 19th, we’re hosting a #PeopleVsFossilFuels Call-In Day of Action! Join us in calling the White House and @POTUS to demand they declare a climate emergency & stop approving fossil fuel projects! Call here: 888-724-8946
  • Last week hundreds mobilized in front of the White House to demand @POTUS use his executive power to declare a climate emergency. Today, we’re asking you to join us & call on @JoeBiden to declare a climate emergency & #BuildBackFossilFree. Call the White House today: 888-724-8946
https://peoplevsfossilfuels.org/oct-19-call-in-day-of-action-social-media-toolkit/

Nationwide resistance to TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline began when the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), CREDO, and The Other 98% developed the Keystone Pledge of Resistance, March 6, 2013. This movement to stop the pipeline began by creating a website where opponents of the pipeline could sign the Pledge. Over 97,000 people signed.

“I pledge, if necessary, to join others in my community, and engage in acts of dignified, peaceful civil disobedience that could result in my arrest in order to send the message to President Obama and his administration that they must reject the Keystone XL pipeline.”

The Keystone Pledge of Resistance used the threat of nationwide civil disobedience direct actions in an attempt to persuade President Obama to deny the Keystone pipeline permit.
Planning and training are required for a successful direct action. I was fortunate to be trained by Todd Zimmer and Gabe from the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) in Des Moines the summer of 2013, as part of the national Keystone Pledge of Resistance. RAN went to 25 cities in the U.S. that summer to train local leaders to (1) plan the direct action in their city and (2) teach them how to train others in their area. That resulted in about 400 Action Leaders being trained, who in turn trained nearly 4,000 local activists. If the action was triggered, nonviolent direct actions would unfold in at least 25 cities in the country simultaneously.

See: Keystone XL permit canceled

PEOPLE VS. FOSSIL FUELS

#LandBack is Climate Justice. You can see the signs about land back in photos such as the one below from the protests going on in Washington, DC, this week.

Indigenous youths, climate activists to march to U.S. Capitol on final day of People vs. Fossil Fuels protests by Ellie Silverman, The Washington Post, October 15, 2021

Demonstrators head toward the White House on Oct. 11 during a People vs. Fossil Fuels rally in Washington.
© Eric Lee for The Washington Post

This has been a week of actions to pressure President Biden to declare a climate emergency. As of yesterday, nearly four hundred people had been arrested outside the White House.

Washington, D.C. — Demonstrators returned to the White House on Wednesday morning for the third day of the “People vs. Fossil Fuels” mobilization, keeping up the pressure on President Biden to declare a climate emergency and stop all new fossil fuel projects.

Under a giant banner that read “Biden: Our Communities Can’t Wait,” hundreds of people marched to the White House this morning to highlight the dangerous ongoing impacts of the climate crisis across the country and the world. As hundreds rallied in Lafayette Square Park, 90 people sat in at the White House fence, risking arrest for the third straight day of civil disobedience.

The Biden Administration has so far avoided questions and refused to comment on the mass civil disobedience or respond to the demonstrator’s demands. Many in attendance at the White House today and throughout the week come from communities, like Cancer Alley in Louisiana or Native communities, that the administration has made public promises to defend but remain threatened by fossil fuel projects, including pending projects that Biden could reject right now. Many now say those promises are being broken.

Meanwhile, demonstrators will be returning to the White House on Thursday, urging the Biden Administration to finally respond and acknowledge their calls to action. On Friday, the mobilization will march to Congress, where dozens are expected to commit civil disobedience on the steps of the Capitol.

PEOPLE VS. FOSSIL FUELS: NEARLY 400 PEOPLE ARRESTED OUTSIDE WHITE HOUSE By People Vs. Fossil Fuels. October 14, 2021

Here is a list of 25 Executive Orders the President can take now to protect and invest in communities, end the era of fossil fuel production.

Mr. President, you should use all the tools at your disposal to avert further climate devastation while helping people recover from the pandemic. That means using your executive authority from Day One to:

  • Stop the Bad — Stop approving the fossil fuel projects dueling climate chaos.
    Protect the Black, Indigenous, Brown, AAPI and working-class communities that are disproportionately harmed.
  • Build the Good — Declare a climate emergency. Repair the harm caused by environmental racism and Build Back Fossil Free, delivering jobs, justice, and clean energy for all.

#BuildBackFossilFree

People vs Fossil Fuels
Demand #1: President Biden must stop approving fossil fuel projects and speed the end of the fossil fuel era.
Demand #2: President Biden must declare a national climate emergency and launch a just, renewable energy revolution.
Demand #3: President Biden can use the Defense Production Act — the same law he used to respond to the COVID-19 crisis — to oversee a coordinated, economy-wide investment in unionized, just, and renewable energy development.

Dear Relatives, 

We, the undersigned, come from the trenches in the fight against fossil fuels. From fracking sites and oil wells, to pipelines and refineries, to plastic plants and more, we are impacted Indigenous, Brown, Black, and low-income communities living on the frontlines of this climate emergency. Over the years we have written thousands of messages to politicians, attended countless hearings, testified hundreds of times, and have placed our bodies on the line when needed, all the while our government continues to ignore the science and Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge and steers us toward climate catastrophe. 

We have everything to lose and no time to wait. President Biden promised to address the climate emergency and a history of environmental injustice, but so far, his administration continues to allow the fossil fuel industry to poison our communities and desolate our Mother Earth. The President could stop dangerous fossil fuel projects like the Line 3 pipeline and Formosa Plastics plant with a stroke of his pen, but his inaction is continuing widespread environmental injustice and the violation of Indigenous rights and rights of nature. We will hold Biden to his “Justice 40” initiative; we expect him to help stop the destruction of fenceline communities, homelands and neighborhoods by the fossil fuel industry, and demand equity, restorative justice actions for the same.

We are asking you to stand with us. As representatives of communities who have carried the brunt of the harm from fossil fuels for generations, we ask you to join us in solidarity—and risk arrest—in Washington DC, October 11-15, 2021, as part of Build Back Fossil Free’s People vs Fossil Fuels Week of Action. 

We will be going to Washington DC, to the White House itself, to send a clear message: “President Biden, in light of the upcoming COP26 United Nations climate summit, you cannot claim to be a climate leader when you are still supporting fossil fuels. Stand with frontline communities, stand with future generations, stop approving fossil fuel projects, declare a climate emergency now.” 

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s 2021 report led by hundreds of scientists once again made it unmistakably clear: Climate change is here, it’s a crisis, and it’s caused by fossil fuels. The report tells us that the window to stop irreversible harm to all life on Earth is closing while Congress wastes time bickering over baby steps.

If we don’t stand together now, no matter where we live, all of us —you, your children and grandchildren will all eventually live in sacrifice zones of drought, record temperatures, wildland fires, hurricanes, floods, food shortages, pandemics and more. Transitioning away from fossil fuels cannot be put off any longer—we can either come together as a species now, or make this planet uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. 

We know that participating in People vs Fossil Fuels is a big request. This would be a sacrifice of time, money, energy and freedom, and all under the shadow of a resurgence of COVID-19 cases. But we also know the despair many of you feel, the anxiety of this moment, seeing environmental devastation and human rights abuses around you, but not knowing how to help. 

If you have ever marched, rallied, called your representatives, lobbied, signed petitions to urge governmental leaders to act — we call on you to take the next step. Nonviolent civil disobedience is a time-tested tactic for change. Every movement for change—from suffragettes to the Civil Rights movement, has proven that the defining moments are those where people are willing to risk arrest. 

If we all come together, put our bodies on the line in the name of climate justice, we may be able to change the course of history. Please consider joining us on October 11-15 for one day, for the entire week, or for whatever time you can offer.

In solidarity for the protection of Mother Earth and the next seven generations of life,

Dawn Goodwin, RISE Coalition, Stop Line 3
Taysha Martineau, Camp Migizi, Stop Line 3
Winona LaDuke, Honor the Earth, Stop Line 3
Sharon Lavigne, Founder, RISE St. James
John Beard, Jr., Founder and CEO of the Port Arthur Community Action Network
Joye Braun, National Pipelines Organizer with Indigenous Environmental Network
Juan Mancias, Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas
Tasina Sapa Win Smith, Cheyenne River Grassroots Collective
Siqiniq Maupin, Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic 
Crystal Cavalier, Stop MVP Pipeline Organizer
Pueblo Action Alliance Leadership, Tiwa Territories
Casey Camp-Horinek, Environmental Ambassador, Ponca Nation of Oklahoma 
Cesar Aguirre, Central California Environmental Justice Network
Native Movement Alaska

We don’t give up

This first video is an update about what is happening now on the Wet’suwet’en territories.

The video at the end, INVASION, was released in November, 2019, and gives an excellent overview of the struggles of the Wet’suwet’en peoples to protect their land and water. The story is well told, but what really affected me were all the beautiful shots of that pristine land.

We’re occupying this space. People are going to be living here and it’ll be occupied from now on. This project is not a done deal. It’s only one third complete and most of that work is happening in other territories. The Wetsuweten have been resisting this project since day one and will continue to resist this project until it fails.

It’s time to end this once and for all because there’s no way that Wetsuweten are ever going to stand down. There’s no way that we’re ever going to move off of our territories and not be here and occupying them and not be utilizing our Wedzin Kwa, utilizing our territories the way that we’re supposed to be in the way that we have every right to.

So now is the time to let the investors know, let the people who are putting millions and billions of dollars into this project know that it’s going to fail. And let’s put it to rest once and for all because we’re not going anywhere. We’re digging in, the snow’s coming. We anticipated. You know that it’s going to get cold, things are going to get harder but we’re digging in. And this is our territory. This is Wedzin Kwa, the lifeline of our whole territory for all for us and all of our neighbors. And this is the stand that we’re taking, and the position that we’re taking, and we don’t give up.

Molly Wickham, Sleydo’

News Release

Indigenous Environmental Network

On the morning of September 25, 2021, the access road to Coastal GasLink’s (CGL’s) drill site at the Wedzin Kwa river was destroyed. Blockades have been set up and sites have been occupied, to stop the drilling under the sacred headwaters that nourish the Wet’suwet’en Yintah and all those within its catchment area. Cas Yikh and supporters have gained control of the area and refuse to allow this destruction to continue.

Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs were denied access to their own lands, and there has been one arrest confirmed. The Hereditary Chiefs were read the injunction and threatened with arrest, but they held their ground. Despite heavy machinery and heavy Royal Canadian Mounted Police presence, our relatives and supporters are standing strong holding the line, and so far no more arrests have been confirmed. As of Sunday, September 26, the individual arrested has been released and the chiefs and supporters continue to hold the line and successfully hold off any work by Coastal GasLink.

Days ago, Coastal GasLink destroyed our ancient village site, Ts’elkay Kwe. When Gidimt’en Checkpoint spokesperson Sleydo’ attempted to monitor the Coastal GasLink archaeological team and contest the destruction of Wet’suwet’en cultural heritage, she was aggressively intimidated by Coastal GasLink security guards. Tensions have continued to rise on the Yintah as Coastal GasLink pushes a reckless and destructive construction schedule with the support of private security and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Now, Coastal GasLink is ready to begin drilling beneath our sacred headwaters, Wedzin Kwa. We know that this would be disastrous, not only for Wet’suwet’en people, but for all living beings supported by the Wedzin Kwa, and for the communities living downstream. Wedzin Kwa is a spawning ground for salmon and a critical source of pristine drinking water. 

States Sleydo’, Gidimt’en Checkpoint Spokesperson:

“Our way of life is at risk. […] Wedzin Kwa [is the] the river that feeds all of Wet’suwet’en territory and gives life to our nation.”

Coastal Gaslink has been evicted from our territories by the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs who have full jurisdiction over Wet’suwet’en lands. Coastal GasLink is pushing through a 670-kilometer fracked gas pipeline, but under ‘Anuc niwh’it’en (Wet’suwet’en law) all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en have unanimously opposed all pipeline proposals and have not provided free, prior, and informed consent to Coastal Gaslink to do work on Wet’suwet’en lands.

As Coastal GasLink continues to trespass, we will do everything in our power to protect our waters and to uphold our laws. Gidimt’en Checkpoint has issued a call for support, asking people to travel to Cas Yikh territory to stand with them.

Wet’suwet’en blockades erected to stop Coastal Gaslink drilling under sacred headwaters. Drilling would be disastrous for all living beings supported by the Wedzin Kwa. SEP 27, 2021

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.

Following are suggested questions for discussion after seeing the film. The questions can, of course, be used for that lands you live on.

  • 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?

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples delineates and defines the individual and collective rights of Indigenous peoples, including their ownership rights to cultural and ceremonial expression, identity, language, employment, health, education and other issues. It “emphasizes the rights of Indigenous peoples to maintain and strengthen their own institutions, cultures and traditions, and to pursue their development in keeping with their own needs and aspirations”. It “prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples”, and it “promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them and their right to remain distinct and to pursue their own visions of economic and social development”.

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Article 10 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states: Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return.

UNDRIP Article 10: No Forced Removal

The LANDBACK Case Study, Wet’suwet’en and Quakers pictured below can be found here: https://designrr.s3.amazonaws.com/jakislin_at_outlook.com_52440/n-a_615326c8.pdf

Support in Des Moines, Iowa

Warrior Life Podcast

Pam Palmater tweeted this episode of Warrior Life Podcast today. She says this podcast is a response to the call for Wet’suwet’en solidarity. Doing her part to help amplify Wet’suwet’en voices about violent RCMP actions happening right now and how we can help.

She was not able to conduct a face-to-face interview with Gidimt’en spokesperson, Molly Wickham – Sledo. So, she sent a series of questions to Sledo, who recorded her answers to them. The result is a powerful picture of what happened to the Wet’suwet’en in the past, and why it is so important to continue. “I want people to know we have a responsibility to be here doing this work.”

In Episode 111 of Warrior Life Podcast, we hear from Molly Wickham – Sleydo – a Gidimt’en clan member and spokesperson protecting Wet’suwet’en Nation lands and waters from destruction by Coastal Gaslink pipeline. She and other clan members have called for a week of action in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en on Oct.9-15, 2021. This podcast is a respond to that call, doing my part to help amplify Wet’suwet’en voices about violent RCMP actions happening right now and how we can help.

Molly Wickam @Gidimten spokesperson reports RCMP surveilling, harassing, arresting & engaging in violence against Wet’suwet’en land defenders & water protectors. This is genocide in action.
#AllOutForWedzinKwa
#waterislife
#landback
#warriorlifepodcast

Originally tweeted by Pam Palmater (@Pam_Palmater) on October 13, 2021.

I want people to know we have a responsibility to be here doing this work. I want people to know that the only violence that happens here on our territories is at the hands of the state and at the hands of the RCMP, at the hands of the people that are directing the RCMP to bring violence into our communities, to criminalize us, to harass us, to surveil us, to jail us, and essentially to commit genocide. You know if we don’t have our land, if we don’t have our water, if we don’t have a future, our people aren’t going to want to live.

There’s so much at stake and there are so many repercussions of the devastation of our lands and our access to our lands that have that there are on our people that may not seem blatant to the naked eye but if you look deeper and if you think about who we are and our identities as indigenous people, it is tied to our land, it’s tied to our water, it is tied to the fact that we harvest salmon every year and we get together as families and that helps create a sense, a strong sense of identity and a strong sense of who we are. And we know that the people who are killing themselves are the people that don’t have that connection to who they are as an indigenous person, that don’t have the connection to their land, the people that are lost out in the world, the people who are out on the streets, the children that are taken away from their families all relates back to a strong sense of connection belonging and identity as an indigenous person and if we don’t have that our people will die and that’s the genocide.

Molly Wickham – Sleydo

Following is solidarity action for the Wet’suwet’en by the Haudenosaunee .

Gidimt’en Checkpoint
Yesterday at 3:20 PM

Haudenosaunee kick out RCMP out of the yintah

“You can’t push the Wet’suwet’en around!” and “This is Chief Woos’ territory!” can be heard as our Haudenosaunee relatives send the RCMP retreating from their daily harassment patrol at Coyote Camp.

We are so honoured to have our relatives here answer the call. To stand with us against colonial greed and corruption. The Six Nations Confederacy and the Wet’suwet’en have familial ties and children who’s futures we are fighting for together.

“We can hear their war cries. Which is a beautiful sound. The allyship is beautiful.”
-Sleydo’

#AllOutforWedzinKwa
#WeAreAllOne
Skyler Williams Geordon L. Staats

https://twitter.com/quakers_seekers/status/1448265709000302597?s=20

#AllOutforWedzinKwa
#WeAreAllOne
#WetsuwetenStrong