Friday, DC Students for a Democratic Society and DC Rising Tide led a direct action parade against the Fossil Hawks. The War on Terror and the Corporate War on the Earth are one in the same. The same corporations that lead the world in CO2 pollution are the main lobbying force behind the Resource Terror Wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Palestine. The Fossil Hawks are growing ever wealthier off the war while military recruiters feast on 50% youth unemployment like vultures.
“Young people are turning up the pressure because we are not convinced by Obama’s promises to draw back from war and support a clean energy-driven economic recovery,” says Brian Menifee, Howard University student activist.
video from dc.indymedia.org
Stay tuned for more footage from the parade, including our Green Jobs Not War action at the Armed Forces Recruiting Center.
From the press release…
WASHINGTON DC – Young anti-war and environmental organizers are mobilizing in response to the failure of the UN Copenhagen climate talks, escalation of the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the crisis of 50% youth unemployment. “Young people are turning up the pressure because we are not convinced by Obama’s promises to draw back from war and support a clean energy-driven economic recovery,” says Brian Menifee, Howard University student activist.
Funk the Warming participants will parade and dance with a mobile sound system behind a banner reading, “Student Power for Climate Justice, Down with the Fossil Hawks.” Organizers have choreographed a diverse sequence of rowdy non-violent actions targeting corporate and military sites on K Street. “We’re dropping beats, not bombs to show that youth have the power and creativity to build a peaceful green economic recovery,” explains GWU student activist, Drew Sherlock.
Chevron and Halliburton will be targeted for their involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and their contribution to global warming. Halliburton provides military logistics, oilfield services, and builds power plants. Chevron owns Unocal, the company that planned the trans-Afghanistan pipeline in the 1990s. Sam Daly from DC Rising Tide: “Piping Central Asian gas and oil through Afghanistan and controlling Iraqi oilfields are the true motivations behind the US occupations. Resource wars abuse the earth and exploit the young people who inevitably fight them.”
Military recruitment is flourishing thanks to mass youth unemployment and the $20 billion recruiting budget. Meanwhile, the Green Jobs training program is pinching its meager $500 million stimulus funding. Brian Menifee: “College tuition hikes are out of control and too many of our peers can’t afford school or find a job other than war. We want green jobs and education not these resource wars that are killing our future.”
Students from American University, George Mason University, UMD College Park, Howard U, GWU, Arne Arundel Community College, and local high schools will make-up the groundswell of the parade. DC Students for a Democratic Society, an education justice network, and DC Rising Tide, a direct action climate justice collective, are coordinating the event
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Thanks for drawing the connection here between climate destabilization and military escalation in the Middle East. This is a link we need to underline more often!
Looked like a good time, even if things did get shut down by the police pretty quickly. The partnership between SDS and Rising Tide seems like a really exciting and beneficial one…I’m interested to see what goes down next!
protesting at catapillar reminded me of buying all those children’s books with pictures of trucks. my son really liked those. unfortunately it’s true, they profit a lot from MTR. luckily, there were also pictures of high speed trains!
but the worse book was given to him by his granddad, who knew he liked truck pictures books. it was a tonka truck and it came with a toy bulldozer. it had a story. the story was of how the pretty little bulldozer transformed the bland piece of farmland into a wonderful mini-mall and parking lot!! oh the joy!!!
u know, u probably didn’t get much msm press from this event. not sure if congress/white house/companies took notice either…. r u being perceived as just a bunch of kids? making too much noise? should we start a parent’s movement to go with?? i mean, my son is 7 now. in 11 years, he’ll be old enough to be drafted. he was born the year we invaded iraq, i’d had hoped that he would not be old enough to live thru this war with understanding. he can read and write and tie his shoes. b4 i know it he’ll go off to college. or, in 11 years from now, he’ll learn how to hold a gun. this is not what my tax dollars should go to. no parent wants this for their children.
they found oil under Venezuela. we’re already making up reasons to pick a fight with them, been taking jabs at Chavez whenever we can. when will it end?
I was in Adams Morgan recently and saw the posters for this event and they were the worst posters I have ever seen. The font for the important info was a script font in a very small size. It looked like SDS was trying to put an entire manifesto on a poster for wheatpasting. I am not a fan of ANSWER at all but at least I can tell what is going on from looking at their poster from a far, I don’t have to get in close with a magnifying glass to read it. Though at the very least they didn’t use comic sans though it might have made things a little more readable with their tiny font sizes. Their poster for their new event had a little bigger font but was still hard to read. Basically all the date time and location should be in large font big and bold, then a brief (very brief) description can follow but mainly this is something you want people too see quickly and know what is up. It was almost like SDS didn’t actually want people to come.
It was also a shame the way they attacked veganism at the Indymedia post. You might think when protesting global warming and climate destruction you might mention one of the biggest causes of it, The Animal Industry, not mentioning the human exploitation and the animal cruelty that goes on, even. Or at the very least not attack it. Though I have this strange feeling if clean coal was mentioned SDS might support it not knowing what it is but seeing the word clean and assuming it is “eco-friendly”. It doesn’t make sense some assbackwards thinking. Maybe Rising Tide was thinking about doing a protest and then SDS got word and tried to take over organizing so it could be more of an anti war protest instead of an anti warming protest. Which is fine you just need to advertise it as that.
hilarious. you’re right that the poster was weak. however, you’re out of touch with the reality the imperialism and global warming cannot be separated. also, your speculation about the rt-dcsds connection is ridiculous. you clearly have no idea what you’re spouting about. we worked together on this one.
sam daly