The valve turners are producing a series of videos on each of the activists who turned the valves and shut down 15% of the US oil supply on October 11, 2016. Each of them are ordinary individuals with a compelling vision of action in these times of crisis. Michael Foster goes to trial October 2nd in North Dakota.

The valve turners are producting a series of videos on each of the activists who turned the valves and shut down 15% of the US oil supply on October 11, 2016. Each of them are ordinary individuals with a compelling vision of action in these times of crisis. We are happy to help share their story.

Thanks to Climate Disobedience Center Fellow, Nicky Bradford, for this great overview of Day 1 of Ken Ward's re-trial in Skagit County, Washington.

You'll find the post and links to social media updates here (on the front page of ShutItDown.Today).

Jeremy Brecher, noted labor historian, is out with a new book growing out of his earlier work, Climate Insurgency: A Strategy for Survival. I got to review the book in Waging Nonviolence, where I write:

"To the outward eye, the climate movement looks to be back on its heels, reeling from the ascendancy of a fossil fuel regime, the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the zombie Keystone XL and the threatened departure of the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. And there’s not much I can offer, as a climate organizer, to dissuade one from that opinion. The one major effort thus far was a massive march on Washington, D.C. that was planned when most expected Hillary Clinton to be in the White House. So we’re left wondering: What the hell are we supposed to do now?

Into this breach steps Jeremy Brecher’s slim new volume Against Doom: A Climate Insurgency Manual. Neither glitzy, eloquent nor subtle, Brecher methodically lays out an interlocking vision of direct action within a constitutional legal framework to build the powerful nonviolent climate insurgency necessary to turn the ship around. “Against Doom” smartly connects disparate threads of the existing climate movement and pulls them together with strategic vision."

Read the full review over at Waging Nonviolence.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 10, 2017

Contact:
Kelsey Skaggs
Climate Defence Project
510-883-3118
[email protected]

Jay O’Hara
Climate Disobedience Center
774-313-0881
[email protected]

Mount Vernon, WA — A Washington state judge has ruled that Ken Ward, a climate activist who who helped to temporarily block the flow of tar sands oil from Canada to the United States in an October protest, cannot present the climate necessity defense at his trial scheduled to begin on May 22. The decision — which limits Mr. Ward’s constitutional right to defend himself in court — bars Mr. Ward from from arguing to a jury that his actions were necessary, and prohibits him from calling expert witnesses to testify about the ongoing harms of climate change and the need for grassroots civil disobedience to impel policy change.

Historic Climate Trials Begin Today in Skagit County

Activists who “shook the North American energy industry”, not cowed In new political era

Over the years that I’ve been giving speeches, workshops, and interviews, I have frequently said that the climate movement is going to have to get a lot tougher.  I usually say this in the context of acknowledging the hard truths of the catastrophic levels of climate change that are now inevitable, based on my assumption that it would take some time to toughen up enough to be ready to deal with difficult situations when they arrive.  My experience in DC last week protesting the inauguration of the Trump regime has caused me to question and deepen some of those assumptions about how to approach these challenging times.

On Friday, January 20th, I was part of the climate movement contingent that was blocking the Red Gate checkpoint for people entering the inauguration ceremonies.  The inauguration had a massive security barrier around the National Mall with several large, airport style screening areas that funneled people into the secured area.  As other social justice movements blocked other gates, our crew of about 400 climate activists blockaded the checkpoint marked Red Gate at 3rd St. and D St. NW.  Around 8am, we stretched across the street with several lines of people with linked arms and unfurled banners about climate justice.

It was immediately a chaotic scene.  Several Trump supporters who happened to be mixed up in our large group took a while to figure out what was going on.  Some turned around or tried to go around us. The police started escorting some Trump supporters over a small wall to our right and through the grass behind us, but this was a slow, single-file trickle compared to the wide flow of people for which the checkpoint was designed. 

Climate Disobedience Center Co-Founder, Ken Ward, heads to trial January 30th

Ken Ward is headed to trial on January 30th for shutting down a tar sands pipeline. We'll be tweeting from @ClimateDisobey and posting at the action Facebook page. You can learn more about the action and trial support at ShutItDown.Today. Please consider a donation to help us support Ken and the other Valve Turners throughout the trial process.

The day before he took the action, Ken talked about his thoughts the day before he took action in October 2016. 

On October 11th, 5 activists shut down all five pipelines carrying Canadian tar sands into the US. This is their story.