Direct action in the climate movement on the rise

I spent
the past couple of days talking with a longtime movement friend of mine
who has been organizing civil disobedience and mass mobilizations since
the 1970’s. She told me about organizing a thousand person blockade at C.I.A. headquarters in 1987 as part of the anti-apartheid and Central American solidarity
movements. In those days, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Oliver
North and many other nasties made a bloody mess of the region in the
name of “liberty” and “democracy.” And good moral people from a wide
spectrum responded by putting their bodies, livelihoods and reputations
on the line. During that particular mobilization she said they trained
out in the open in the middle of the Capital for a shutdown that
resulted in over 600 arrests.

And many have happend since then in places like Seattle (WTO 1999),
San Francisco (anti-war shutdown, 2003), Washington D.C (too many times
to count). But not so much on the climate front.

It’s gotten me thinking about the different direct actions that have
been going on around the world on coal and climate. As our parents and
grandparents did in Langley 20 years ago, good moral people are now
responding to the climate crisis and subsequent climate injustice by
putting their bodies on the line as well.

Ben Block, reporter with Worldwatch Institute, just penned a great article
about the growing protest and direct action movement around coal and
climate. In it he cites the growing youth climate movement, the fact
that over half of new coal fired power plants have been defeated
through various legal, regulatory, political, community, and direct
actions channels and the increasing use of civil disobedience.

“Climate activists worldwide are raising the stakes, with many
turning to civil disobedience to make their voices heard. Actions
in recent months have ranged from chaining themselves to coal conveyor
belts in Sydney, to forming port blockades in the Netherlands, to
scaling smokestacks in the United Kingdom.

The rise in activism reflects growing frustration against the
continued, and expanding, use of coal as a source of energy. The fuel,
while affordable, is directly linked to climate change and air
pollution. “

We have an opening for this work. Luminaries such as Al Gore
and climatologist James Hansen have advocated for greater use of civil
disobedience by the climate movement. Mainstream media outlets like Time magazine have reported on the growing use NVDA strategies as a moral response to global warming. Last week, the Sierra Club won a court case that puts new coal fired development on hold for a year or more.

Our friends in the U.K. and Australia have stepped up on the action front. In the U.K. six Greenpeace activists were acquitted after using a “necessity” defense arguing that global warming is such a threat to humanity that breaking the law is becoming the only alternative.

Now we’re seeing the U.S. coal and climate movement begin to step it
up as well. Groups like Blue Ridge Earth First! and Rainforest Action
Network have escalated the fight against the Dominion plant in solidarity with the residents of Wise, Virginia. Mountain Justice and various Appalachian communities continue the struggle in Appalachia against mountaintop removal. And Rising Tide
and Earth First! groups put their bodies on the line from Florida to
Washington State. Out of the coalfields, in the suburbs and cities,
students, radicals and concerned citizens are pressuring the coal financiers, Bank of America and Citibank, to withdraw their capital from coal and carbon intensive industry.

The landscape is changing and we’re moving forward with our
strategies and actions. It’s time to train, plan, organize, mobilize
and take action. No matter how big or how small, every action counts.

The big actions, like the one my friend worked on at the C.I.A., are
coming on the climate front, it’s only a matter of time. Maybe sooner
than we think as 350.org founder Bill McKibben says- “It’ll happen. Keep your eyes open in D.C.,“