It’s Getting Hot In Here

Here’s a first-hand account from Kelly Blynn, Step It Up coordinator and a member of the NoWarNoWarming legal team.

“This is what we are doing,” as Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus put it so simply yesterday afternoon as he addresssed the gathering of seasoned and brand new activists at a Presbyterian Church in D.C. The church was the site of the preparations and trainings for the No War No Warming action today. As Yearwood spoke, artists in the back of the sanctuary finished stenciling signs, and put the finishing touches on banners, paper maiche globes, and several polar bear costumes. Today marks a historic day in the progressive movement, when two important dots are connected — the war and global warming — through a dozen or so creative direct actions on Capitol Hill.

As Congressmen and hill staffers made their way to work this morning, 200 people from a broad coalition of groups peacefully demonstrated outside the Cannon House Office Building, with 70 of them risking arrest to show Congress that we need real action now on these two issues. Through critical mass bike rides, rapping and dancing polar bears on the steps of the House Building, sit-ins on Independence Ave., and an oil rig erected in the middle of an intersection, they sufficiently caused a ruckus and shut things down for at least a few hours. The action was very important today, both in the attention it drew from media and politicians, and the connections it bridged between these movements. Today was just a beginning - we all know there will have to be much more actions like this in the next year or two. And it was a great beginning - to see so many young people risking arrest for the first time, wearing polar bear suits or shirts covered in wind turbines, alongside veterans of civil disobedience who were there to offer support, guidance and teaching. Many of these folks are still in jail, but we’re here at the CodePink headquarters working hard to offer them support and get them out safe as soon as we can.

With limited time, money, and energy, we often find ourselves becoming wholly focused on one issue, or even one organization, and are often unable to pick our heads up and see that our work and our energy could be strengthened through solidarity with other causes and organizations. When more oil is used in combat in Iraq on a single day, than the entire country of Bangladesh (pop. 150 million) uses in a day, we know it is time to connect the dots. It is time to get in the way of the way. So let’s keep this movement moving! See you at the next action - Step It Up and Powershift in two weeks!

A few links:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nowarnowarming
www.youtube.com/nowarnowarming
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i7EAtIpIs4oZP8lIPHXobu2zPZnQ
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/22/AR2007102200450.html?hpid=topnews