https://socialistaction.org/2016/08/17/10000-protesters-demand-clean-energy-revolution/
10,000 protesters demand ‘Clean Energy Revolution’
/ 11 hours ago
Aug. 2016 Steingrabber
By CHRISTINE MARIE
“People gonna rise like the water,” the most poignant of the new songs
of the climate justice movement, makes a strong prediction. And the
potential breadth and power of that people was on display in a new way
on July 24, as close to 10,000 marchers took to the streets on a
sweltering day (97 degrees) before the opening of the Democratic Party
Convention in Philadelphia.
The march began at City Hall after a press conference anchored by
front-line activists from communities devastated by extreme extraction
from Pennsylvania to Honduras. There Teresa Hill of ACTION United
condemned the plans to turn Philadelphia into a major “energy hub” for
fracked gas, whose methane emissions are alone capable of taking us to a
climate tipping point. Laura Zuñiga Cáceres, daughter of the slain
Honduran environmental and Lenca warrior Berta Cáceres, closed with the
now immortal words of her famous mother, “Wake up Humanity! Time is
running out!”
While there have been larger marches, the July 24 “March for a Clean
Energy Revolution” focused more pointedly on the immediate dangers of
the fracking process and the massive infrastructure that is being
constructed around the United States for fracked gas, which is
obstructing the effort for an emergency transition to renewable energy.
The unequivocal demands for a ban on fracking, keeping fossil fuels in
the ground, and a quick and just transition to 100% renewable energy
represent the vanguard of the movement and the terms on which the
growing movement will be most effectively mobilized.
The insistence that both political parties were failing humanity on the
climate front came through loud and clear. Mark Schlosberg, the
organizing director for Food & Water Watch, the group that leads
Americans Against Fracking and brought 900 national and local groups to
endorse the march, built the demonstration by forcefully arguing, “both
parties’ platforms fall far short of addressing the climate emergency we
are in.”
These principled demands and the unwillingness to subordinate the
movement to the Democratic Party agenda brought together a large number
of activists from front-line communities in a display of determination
to take back the earth from those who would sacrifice them and the land
for profit. Participants included those struggling against the assault
on their health in the Pennsylvania gas fields; those living next to the
radioactive tailings ponds of the Southwest and the potential storage
sites at Seneca Falls, N.Y.; and those from the urban centers where
parked oil trains deprive their children of breath.
At the final rally, in front of Independence Hall, Theresa Hill of the
Green Justice Philadelphia Coalition pointed out that the local
refineries are located exclusively in economically depressed
neighborhoods: “And they think that people of color and low-income
people won’t fight back. But as we said to the CEO of this oil refinery,
who still hopes to expand the refinery, we are saying NO! … We will
fight! Fight for our right to breathe!” Marchers reflected the
understanding of the enormity of this struggle in chants such as
“Hydo-fracking: Shut it Down!; Oil Pipelines: Shut it Down!; the Whole
Damn System: Shut it Down!”
One of the constituencies that were most warmly welcomed was that of
public health advocates and workers. The organizer of the health
contingent, Karuna Jagger of Breast Cancer Action, rallied the crowd at
the final rally when she said, “We are marching to demand an end to
fracking and other dangerous drilling practices that rely on toxic
chemicals and are linked to an array of deadly diseases and disorders.”
The devastating impact of the fracking on working-class lives is now
documented in rising number of white papers. Sandra Steingraber, the
science adviser to Food & Water Watch, wrote in the wake of the march
that the number of premature births—premature birth being the number one
predictor of infant mortality—rose 40% if one was forced by economic
circumstances to live amidst the drilling pads despoiling large swaths
of the U.S.
Labor organizers who have stepped up to help combat the climate crisis
very visibly built the demonstration. Joe Uhlein of the Labor
Sustainability Network and the convener of the Labor Climate Convergence
in January of this year, urged trade unionists to attend. “It is time
for those of us in the labor movement to rise to the challenge and
become a central player in the movement to build a sustainable future
for the planet and its people—not only for the survival and wellbeing of
all, but also for organized labor’s own self-interest,” he wrote in a
blog post called “Why Trade Unionists Should March for a Clean Energy
Revolution.”
The labor contingent at the march, which included groups from AFSCME and
the postal workers union was modestly impressive and reflected the
patient and systematic outreach and education being carried out in labor
councils, union locals, and other labor bodies from one coast to another.
A Peace and Climate Justice contingent, initiated by Peace Action and
built by Code Pink, organized its members under the demands: Slash the
Pentagon and world military budgets, provide strong aid to climate
refugees, and fund green energy, targeting 100% clean by 2030. The
adoption by the peace community of the latter demand is reflective of
the now broad acceptance of the real science of climate change, a
science that is unanimous in concluding that we must have an emergency
transition that begins today and is extremely advanced just 14 years
from now.
Fortunately, Mark Jacobson and his team at Stanford have made it crystal
clear that current technology will allow us to complete a transition to
a 100% renewable energy grid by 2050. The only obstacle is the political
elite who refuses to take responsibility for organizing this transition.
Front-line marchers included participants in the “Indigenous Leaders
Protect Our Public Lands Caravan,” a group of youth activists and elders
from Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona who traveled to
Philadelphia on a nickel and hope. The 17 spokespeople for the Native
American victims of extreme extraction by the fuel industry also
anchored the impressive Summit for a Clean Energy Revolution, held the
day before the march at the Friends Center in Philadelphia.
Other contingents included those organized by the faith community, by
elders, by advocates of a nuclear-free transition from carbon, for those
leading the drive to popularize local 100% renewable solutions, by SURJ
(Showing Up for Racial Justice), and students. The success of this
march, organized effectively despite the tremendous negative pressures
of the bourgeois electoral season—bodes well for the next steps in our
efforts to build a massive movement independent of the Democratic and
Republican parties and reliant on its own power in the streets.
(Photo) Participants in the July 24 Clean Energy Revolution March
included biologist and author Sandra Steingraber (ctr.), of Food & Water
Watch.
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August 17, 2016 in Environment, Philadelphia, Uncategorized. Tags:
climate, Democrats, fracking
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