It’s Getting Hot In Here

Never has there been a more dire time for defense of the planet. Increase your abilities to defend the Earth through learning the skills of climbing. We will offer a variety of trainings for forest defense and urban actions suitable for all skill levels from beginner to advanced.

Workshops include: Basic Climbing and Anchoring, Traverses, Tree to Tree Transfers, Basic Structure Rigging and Haul Systems, Tripods, Bipods, and Monopods, Advanced Structure Rigging, Large Scale Banner Hanging, and Basic Rescue and Training Set Ups.

To attend the camp contact:

efclimbers@gmail.com

www.efclimbers.net

About the climbers guild

The Earth First! Climbers Guild exists to enable direct action climbing and rigging trainers to communicate with each other to be able to set up training events and continue to produce guides on climbing and rigging as well as standardize the training process to create a safer and more effective environment in EF! direct action situations.

To become a Guild trainer you must be intimately familiar with all aspects of safety and rope work that are presented in the guild guides. Furthermore, to train others under the name of the Earth First! Climbers Guild, the steps as outlined in the guides must be followed. This is to insure a standardization of safe climbing practices.

The Guild will work to maintain a diverse membership and will implement codes of conduct at all events. Guild events will be geared toward the empowerment of all individuals who have a desire to learn.

Guild members will make a commitment to never be under the influence of any drug while training, teaching, or engaging in any climbing activities that are a part of an action or larger campaign. As trainers and skilled climbers, guild members have a responsibility to set the best possible example for those individuals learning from us. It is never acceptable to use any substance that could potentially impair judgment while climbing.

Reclaim Power Southeast Action Camp

August 18-22 – Western North Carolina

Day of Action August 22, Location TBA

www.reclaimpowersoutheast.org

People working for justice, peace and a sustainable future in the Southeast are coming together for a long weekend of workshops, trainings, strategizing, and direct action! Our region faces a range of threats from coal mining and nuclear waste and rising sea levels to racist anti-immigrant laws and the military industrial complex. It’s time to come together and reclaim our power.

We will train and build skills to take effective action on social justice and peace as well as energy and climate justice campaigns active in our region. We will work together to hone “tried and true” tactics — and maybe dream up new ones to try! On Monday we will put our new skills into practice with an exciting day of action (location TBA)

The camp will be hosted on a beautiful site with a swimming pond almost on the state line between the Carolinas, a short 40 minutes South of Asheville. Camping at the site or accommodations in town are available. See Housing information here.

Workshops will include: community organizing, anti-oppression, nonviolent direct action 101, debunking false solutions to climate change, blockades, sustainable living systems, action climbing, media, disaster response, street medic training, fighting nukes and coal, and much more.  Program Schedule is under construction — and available here.

ACTION MEDIC TRAINING — A submersion program — participants will be part of camp life, but take a separate “track” of trainings focused expressly on becoming qualified to serve your community as a medic during non-violent direct actions. For more info and to register into this program — please inquire: info@reclaimpowersoutheast.org

All ages and skill levels welcome. Come for renewal — or come for your first activist training and dive in. We welcome both expertise and also new ideas and perspectives to freshen the stream of action. Everyone has something to share that others can learn from!

www.reclaimpowersoutheast.org

Reclaim Power Southeast Action Camp
August 18-22 – Western North Carolina
-Day of Action August 22, Location TBA-

www.reclaimpowersoutheast.org

People working for justice, peace and a sustainable future in the Southeast are coming together for a long weekend of workshops, trainings, strategizing, and direct action! Our region faces a range of threats from coal mining, nuclear waste and rising sea levels to racist anti-immigrant laws and the military industrial complex. It’s time to come together and reclaim our power.

We will train and build skills to take effective action on social justice and peace as well as energy and climate justice campaigns active in our region. We will work together to hone “tried and true” tactics — and maybe dream up new ones to try! On Monday we will put our new skills into practice with an exciting day of action (location TBA)

The camp will be hosted on a beautiful site with a swimming pond almost on the state line between the Carolinas, a short 40 minutes South of Asheville. Camping at the site or accommodations in town are available.

Workshops will include: community organizing, anti-oppression, nonviolent direct action 101, debunking false solutions to climate change, blockades, sustainable living systems, action climbing, media, disaster response, street medic training, fighting nukes and coal, and much more.

ACTION MEDIC TRAINING — A submersion program — participants will be part of camp life, but take a separate “track” of trainings focused expressly on becoming qualified to serve your community as a medic during non-violent direct actions. For more info and to register into this program — please inquire: info@reclaimpowersoutheast.org

All ages and skill levels welcome. Come for renewal — or come for your first activist training and dive in. We welcome both expertise and also new ideas and perspectives to freshen the stream of action. Everyone has something to share that others can learn from!

www.reclaimpowersoutheast.org

On May 5 activists with Katuah Earth First! managed to sneak a banner intoDuke Energy’s annual shareholder meeting in Charlotte, NC. Just as the question and comment session was wrapping up, the activists unfurled a large banner reading, “Carbon Free, Nuclear Free” in an act of protest against Duke’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels and nukes.

To the activists surprise, they were not bothered by security and were able to eventually leave the building without arrest, where they joined a crowd of about 50 protesters demanding that Duke rapidly shift to sustainable energy sources.

Duke is apparently suffering some setbacks for both its planned nuclear and coal plants. The nuclear disaster in Japan has helped to derail legislation in NC that would have made it easier for Duke to finance its nuke plants. And in Indiana Duke is facing mounting costs to finish its Edwardsport coal plant. Duke is also being investigated for “undue influence” (ahem, bribery) of politicians in Indiana. The scandal has already cost 3 Duke executives there jobs.

Eco-activists weren’t the only ones out protesting Duke. Protestors with the conservative group FreedomWorks turned out to oppose Duke’s $10 million contribution to host the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte in 2012. Well, there is one thing we can agree on with the FreedomWorks folks. We don’t want those spineless, corporate ass-kissing Democrats throwing their party in our state either!

Residents from Gulf Coast, Appalachia and interior West join students and
climate justice activists in calling for more action on extractive industry.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Scott Parkin; on site mobile- 415-235-0596;
Henia Belalia; on site mobile- 510-529-8927
Email— extraction@risingtidenorthamerica.org

Photos available at www.risingtidenorthamerica.org

6:40pm (EST) UPDATE: Police are reporting 21 people have been arrested,
including youth and adults from across the country. Residents of Utah,
Wyoming, Texas, Vermont, Georgia, Washington DC and California were among
those arrested while occupying the Department of Interior offices.

Washington D.C.— Over a thousand climate activists marched from Lafayette
Park to the Department of the Interior’s headquarters in Washington D.C.
today. Reclaim Power coincided with the end of Powershift, a mass youth
climate conference, and came only 2 days before the anniversary of the BP
Gulf Oil Disaster. As many as 300 protesters ran inside the headquarters
in a Wisconsin-style occupation calling for the abolition of offshore oil
drilling, coal mining and tar sands extraction. In an act of civil
disobedience, young and old alike occupied the lobby for over an hour,
smiling and singing protest songs.

The Dept. of Interior has oversight over two agencies, the Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) and the Office of
Surface Mining (OSM), which are responsible for the BP Oil Spill,
mountaintop removal coal mining and tar sands oil drilling in southern
Utah. Furthermore, the Dept. of Interior just opened up over 7,000 acres
of land to industry for coal extraction in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

“Our demonstration today is to show that Wyoming might be small in
population but mighty in heart,” said Kevin Uransky, a resident from
Wyoming’s coalfields and member of High Country Rising Tide participating
in the sit-in.  “We don’t want to just stand by and allow big corporations
to destroy our homes, our way of life, and some of last open, beautiful,
and undeveloped terrain left in the United States.  We want to show that
Wyoming has a voice not to be drowned out by those of more represented
states, we have a voice, we have an opinion, and we want to be heard.”

Reclaim Power is being led by residents of residents of the Gulf Coast,
Appalachia and the interior West – regions directly impacted by heinous
oil, gas and coal extractive industries. Participants are calling for the
Obama Administration and the federal agency to phase out harmful mining
and drilling practices and facilitate transitions to sustainable local
energy systems.
Continue reading ‘UPDATE: 21 Arrested Staging Sit-in at Dept. of Interior Demanding Phase Out of Fossil Fuels’

For immediate release

March 21, 2011

Contact: Rae Breaux 818-271-0386

extraction@risingtidenorthamerica.org

www.extractionaction.net

Groups to mark Gulf Oil Spill anniversary with direct action against fossil fuel extraction.

On April 20^th dozens of environmental, climate, and social justice groups will target government and corporate operations with aggressive protests and civil disobedience in an International Day of Direct Action Against Extraction being organized by Rising Tide North America. The protests will commemorate the 1 year anniversary of BP’s Gulf Oil Disaster by demanding an end to the environmental destruction and climate destabilization created by fossil fuel and other extractive industries.

“The Gulf Oil Disaster was the worst manifestation of the disasters that are created by extractive industries on a daily basis.” Said, Rae Breaux of Rising Tide North America. “Communities around the world are terrorized by corporate and state ventures to extract fossil fuels. On top of poisoning our water and polluting our air, extractive industries are at the root of our climate crisis. If we have any hope of averting the worst affects of climate change we must leave fossil fuels in the ground.”

The day of action will feature protests by Gulf Coast residents fighting offshore drilling, Appalachians resisting mountaintop removal coal mining, Pennsylvania and New York residents opposing natural gas hydrofracking, Canadians fighting tar sands mining in Alberta, as well as other community groups engaged in fights against extractive industries. Protests are also planned for the UK, New Zealand, and Australia.

The day of action also seeks to highlight the ruthless manner in which extractive industries treat workers and the communities they operate in. “These companies come into our communities to make millions off of our natural resources and leave behind nothing but poverty and deadly working conditions.  Said, Matt Wilkerson of Rising Tide North America. The 11 workers who died on BP’s oil rig and the 29 who perished in Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch coal mine were killed by the same thing; corporate greed. These deaths are not accidents. They are the direct result of these companies cutting corners in pursuit of profit.” Continue reading ‘Groups to mark Gulf Oil Spill anniversary with direct action against fossil fuel extraction’

Take Action for the Earth and our Communities April 20.

1 year anniversary of the BP Oil Spill

Communities around the world are under attack from extractive industries that poison our families, kill our loved ones on the job, and destroy the ecosystems we cherish. The BP oil spill was unfortunately just one of an endless string of disasters born of an economic system that must endlessly consume the Earth’s  resources.

Extraction is the act of taking without giving anything back. Extraction takes workers lives so  corporations can make a few more bucks. Extraction takes clean water and air and gives us blackened oceans and a climate in chaos. Extraction takes the natural wealth of communities and ecosystems and leaves behind poverty and ecological wastelands.

For a stable climate, clean air and water, we must stop the extraction of fossil fuels and other “resources.”  From the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf Coast, people are fighting back against the extractiveindustries  that have declared war on our planet. Rising Tide is calling for a day of direct action against extraction on the 1 year anniversary of the BP oil spill.

On April 20th take it to the point of production.  Shut down a well site, occupy a mine, take over an office, blockade a bank. Nobody’s community should be a sacrifice  zone.

For climate justice and a livable planet,

Rising Tide North America

www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/extraction Continue reading ‘Leave it in the ground! Day of Direct Action Against Extraction: April 20th’

Communities around the world are under attack from extractive industries that poison our families, kill our loved ones on the job, and destroy the ecosystems we cherish. The BP oil spill was unfortunately just one of an endless string of disasters born of an economic system that must endlessly consume the Earth’s  resources.

Extraction is the act of taking without giving anything back. Extraction takes workers lives so  corporations can make a few more bucks. Extraction takes clean water and air and gives us blackened oceans and a climate in chaos. Extraction takes the natural wealth of communities and ecosystems and leaves behind poverty and ecological wastelands.

For a stable climate, clean air and water, we must stop the extraction of fossil fuels and other “resources.”  From the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf Coast, people are fighting back against the extractiveindustries  that have declared war on our planet. Rising Tide is calling for a day of direct action against extraction on the 1 year anniversary of the BP oil spill.

On April 20th take it to the point of production.  Shut down a well site, occupy a mine, take over an office, blockade a bank. Nobody’s community should be a sacrifice  zone.

For climate justice and a livable planet,

Rising Tide North America

[click for printable poster]

JOIN THE CHAIN REACTION

www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/extraction

I just got back from the Earth First! Rendezvous in Stratton, ME where activists from all over the country gathered under the banner “No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth.” True to the slogan, EF! activists ended the camp with civil disobedience against a controversial industrial wind project being built in the Maine North Woods. Activists blockaded the entrance to the construction site while others stopped a semi-truck carrying a massive turbine blade and locked themselves to it. This action will no doubt be controversial within the environmental/climate movement. Hopefully it will spark RESPECTFUL debate in our movement about the role industrial wind should play in combating climate change. Is our movement diverse and resilient enough to have communities like Coal River fighting for wind pr0jects in their backyard, while others are fighting against them? Are we ready to get beyond unquestioning support of all wind power and really confront some of the major problems that are presented by industrial wind projects being built by multinational corporations?

While I am not from Maine I felt compelled to lend my solidarity to this action for a number of reasons:

-It is important to make clear that this action was not against ALL wind. It was against corporate run industrial wind projects that impact rural communities and sensitive ecosystems. We are in full support of small scale, community run wind projects.

-The wind power being built in Maine is not replacing any fossil fuel plants. It is all additional capacity, so in reality no emissions are being reduced. We would be far better off reducing consumption and improving efficiency rather than producing more electricity.

-These wind farms are being built in sensitive wild areas that are home to the endangered lynx and migratory birds as well as rare alpine ecosystems. We can’t ignore the impacts that industrial wind has on an ecosystem. We cannot right these impacts off as collateral damage.

-The wind farms are being built by Transcanada, a major player in the Alberta tar sands. These wind farms are not producing electricity for Maine. It is all being sold to other states. Maine residents shouldn’t have to have their wildlands carved up so that an oil company can greenwash its image while turning a profit selling electricity to the grid.

With that said lets get a discussion going on these issues around large scale wind projects.

Here’s the press release from the action:

Stratton, Maine- At about 8 a.m., Tuesday July 6, at least fifty Earth First! activists blockaded Goldbrook Rd, the access point to the Kibby Mountain wind project outside the town of Stratton, halting the construction of 22 industrial wind turbines on the delicate Alpine ecosystems of Maine’s western boundary mountains. The action comes just before the Land Use Regulation Commission’s (LURC) meeting July 7 to consider a proposal for a similar project on neighboring Sisk Mountain, and on the heels of the national Earth First! Round River Rendezvous, hosted this year by Maine Earth First! Continue reading ‘Earth First! blocks industrial wind project under construction in the Maine North Woods’

The US Social Forum just wrapped up in Detroit. For 5 days 15,000 people from the labor, environmental, social justice, and  peace movements (among many others) gathered under the banner of “Another World is Possible. Another US is Necessary.” To me one of the most exciting parts of the USSF was the Ecojustice People’s Movement Assembly where representatives from grassroots environmental and climate justice groups came together to find common cause and plant the seeds for an uncompromising, justice based environmental movement in this country. Indigenous peoples, Gulf Coast residents, Appalachians, and inner city residents on the frontlines of the fossil fuel industry’s war on our planet and their allies came together to draft the following statement. To me this is a very exciting step forward in the fight for a clean and just future. And our movement would do well to align itself with the principles it lays out.

Declaration from the US Social Forum’s Ecojustice People’s Movement Assembly

As participants from diverse social movements throughout North America responding to the ecological, economic and social crisis created by corporate-controlled industrial production and exploitation of land, water, soil, air, work and life; we honor the struggles and are inspired by the resiliency of the people of Detroit. Detroit has epitomized the inevitable boom and bust cycles and class, race and gender oppression that Capitalism inflicts on communities; however this city has also come to represent a beacon of hope for communities across the US.

Detroit is a window into the future. Through this window we see an inspiring site of deeply grassroots and living visions of a just and democratic community. Community resistance to corporate polluters in Detroit, including oil refineries, coal power plants and the world’s largest waste incinerator, continue to hold the frontline against the destruction of the planet. Meanwhile resistance to such corporatization strategies such as predatory lending, water privatization, prisons and police brutality are matched with equally powerful models of resilience; such as community gardens, cooperative economics, freedom schools and transformative justice. Detroit can be a model of the Just Transition to sustainable communities that we require; one in which exploitive jobs that cause ecological devastation and compromised health are replaced with meaningful work in our own interests; restoring our labor and our resources to the web of life. Continue reading ‘Declaration from the US Social Forum’s Ecojustice People’s Movement Assembly’