It’s Getting Hot In Here

Monday in Charlotte, well over 300 people made their way through downtown Charlotte to Duke Energy’s headquarters for a peaceful civil disobedience. 44 were arrested in the civil disobedience.

Duke Energy is building a coal fired power plant in Cliffside NC (between Charlotte and Asheville). Beyond expected air and water quality problems it creates, the plant will emit 6 million tons of CO2 every year for the next 50 years. And on top of that, North Carolina is the largest consumer of mountaintop removal coal (after Georgia).

Plants like this are why we’re mobilizing the No Coal movement.

There are a lot of news articles and blogs out already, but I wanted to capture some of my thoughts about the past couple of weeks organizing here in Charlotte. So, last night I typed up some stuff:

1. Building a diverse coalition– This action was organized in Charlotte NC, a place where on and off for over 20 years I’ve visited alot (lots of old friends there). Charlotte doesn’t have a typical activist base or alternative scene, but in recent months it showed me that it has an engaged populace that is determined to fight for environmental and social justice. The majority of people at this rally were not the typical activist base that I work with–they were elders, clergy, soccer moms, western NC hippies, students, physicians and a lot of middle class people not typically seen at San Francisco or DC protests. Marchers included Bank of America employees and Duke stockholders. The ages of the arrestees ranged from 19 to 85. It touched me like I haven’t been touched in many years as an organizer. It was really a broad-based group of people that came out.

We’re seeking to build a movement outside our traditional base and this action was it. 

2. Privilege, engagement and incarceration–I often am cautious when in jail not to be disrespectful to the other inmates held with me. I shy away from letting others know I’m in for protesting, that my goal was to get arrested and that I’m getting out shortly. This time, I got put in a holding tank with a mixture of protesters and general population. The general population was mostly African-American and Latino youth in jail for petty shit like driving on suspended licenses and minor drug possession. Basically “DWB” (Driving While Black). Also in my cell was an anti-mountaintop removal activist and a few of the core Stop Cliffside organizers. They engaged in a socio-economic discussion where the Appalachian described life in southern West Virginia and the 3 million tons of explosives dropped on West Virginia everyday. The folks in general population really got that oppression in the coalfields and understood why we were standing up. The jails are full of those marginalized along class and race lines. We fight for environmental and social justice, yet often forget those fogotten in our failed criminal justice system.

3. Appalachian folks–It’s always great to work with folks fighting mountaintop removal in Appalachia. Many came down to support the Stop Cliffside coalition’s action at Duke HQ. Larry Gibson and Bo Webb from WV, Jane Branham from Wise County VA, Micky McCoy from Kentucky all joined the rally and action. I got arrested with many of them and am proud of that.

4. The Action Team–A lot of my friends from Rising Tide, Greenpeace, Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero (many of which worked on the Capitol Climate Action) either got arrested or did support work on this action. Combined with the locals, it made for a powerful group of folks that helped facilitate the action. I also want to mention that while it’s sexy and glamorous to take the arrest role, the person on the other end of the jail support line is brings a real sense of relief when sitting around in jail.

The fight against Cliffside has left me feeling a different kind of inspiration that comes from genuine movement building and bringing new people into the process. My Appalachian friends and actionista comrades always leave me feeling loved and supported.

As we crossed the line to tresspass on Duke’s property and waited for arrest, we linked arms and chanted “Stop Cliffside, No New Coal.” Behind me I could hear hundreds from the crowd chanting along with us, before me I saw the future of our movement.