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Protest Chevron August 15, 2009 – Join the Mobilization for Climate Justice!
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Phyo:
Support global calls for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom!
Rally, March and nonviolent civil disobedience!
Be united against Chevron to stop its crimes in Burma, Ecuador and even in our backyard in Richmond.
Burma supporters, please join the chevron protest with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi masks, pictures, banners, signs to call for her immediate freedom.
SATURDAY, August 15th, 2009
Richmond BART Station
16th Street (+ MacDonald Avenue), 6 Raymond Ave, CA
11:30am Festival/Rally, 1:00pm March on Chevron oil refinery, followed by nonviolent civil disobedience
More info: 510 550 2836, mcjbay@gmail.com
Website: actforclimatejustice.org
FEATURING:
A Welcome by Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin
Dr. Henry Clark (West County Toxics Coalition)
Ana Orozco (Communities for a Better Environment)
Torm Nompraseurt (Laotian Organizing Project - APEN)
Jeff Ritterman (Physicians for Social Responsibility)
& MORE
And revolutionary PERFORMERS:
Deuce Eclipse & Bangdata (myspace.com/bangdata)
Kiwi (illafonte.com)
Teatro Familias Unidas of Somos Mayfair (somosmayfair.org)
Virtuous(myspace.com/vturf)
Brass Liberation Orchestra (brassliberation.org)
& Spoken Word Artists (TBD)
**Please come prepared for the march! Bring water and prepare for sun. Transportation alternatives will be provided for those in need and shuttles provided back to BART.
In solidarity with Richmond community groups, the Bay Area will come together THIS SATURDAY to fight for climate justice, healthy communities and healthy jobs in Richmond, the Bay and communities around the world. Tired of hearing about climate change? Then do something. In order to bring our climate back to the safe zone and avoid catastrophic consequences, we need to make massive emissions cuts now. There’s only one way we can achieve that: we need to turn the political heat way up — — and push back the corporate and business lobbyists who use false solutions (clean coal and carbon trading) to keep polluting and profiting.
This action marks the launch of the Mobilization for Climate Justice West (MCJ-West) whose goal is to empower community-based movements and networks to lead a global movement in confronting the root causes of climate change--a global economic system that creates poverty, war and climate chaos.
We will gather at the Richmond BART station for a festival/rally of inspirational live performances, speakers, live art and food. At 1pm, we will march towards the Chevron oil refinery, where there will be a protest and nonviolent civil disobedience. JOIN US!!!
Join us to support :
* Clean air and healthy jobs for Richmond & the Bay! Cap the Crude!
Rather than expand the refinery to burn dirtier, heavier, more polluting crude oil - Chevron should immediately agree to Cap the Crude, make the refinery cleaner and safer for the community and its workers and shift to renewable clean energy.
* Corporations Out of Copenhagen!
People, not corporations, should drive the critical climate talks in Copenhagen. We want Chevron and all corporate lobbyists out of these talks, while asserting people power the voices of frontline communities.
* Environmental, Labor and Economic Justice!
Chevron is trying to drive a wedge between community interests of jobs and public health - in a community needing BOTH. For the long-term resilience of our communities, we need a clean, democratic, safe energy economy that creates local, family-supporting jobs in Richmond.
What You Can Do :
* Participate in nonviolent civil disobedience: Action Orientation at Noon at Rally site.
* Help paint and make signs, flags and banner for Aug 15 at our next art build!
Thursday, Aug 13, 5-8pm at 326 Clifton Street, Oakland
(off the South end of College Ave, just before it runs into Broadway - just a few blocks from Rockridge BART)
Please bring friends to paint and snacks/drinks to share. Questions?: David 510 967-7377
* Become a volunteer to help on Aug 15! Interested?: Email Joseph at joaaelst@gmail.com. Volunteer check-in at 10am on Saturday.
* Come out on August 15! Bring you friends, colleagues, and family!
* Join us for MCJ-West's future actions and events - including West Coast Climate Convergence (Sept 18-20) and or next mobilizations on Oct 24th and Nov 30th!
* Learn more by visiting our Website: http://actforclimatejustice.org/west or watching our video teach-in on climate justice, Chevron and Copenhagen, filmed by Bill Carpenter.
Mobilization for Climate Justice West is a collaboration of:
Art in Action – Asian-Pacific Environmental Network – Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice – Bay Localize – Burmese American Democratic Alliance (BADA) – Communities for a Better Environment – Contra Costa Greens – Direct Action to Stop the War – Earth First! – Environmental Justice & Climate Change Initiative – Filipino American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity (FACES) – Forest Ethics – Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives – Global Exchange – Global Justice Ecology Project – Greenpeace – Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice – Headrush – International Forum on Globalization – Justice in Nigeria Now! – International Rivers – Movement Generation – Pacific Environment – Poor Magazine – Rainforest Action Network – Richmond Mayor's Task Force on Environmental Justice and Health – Richmond Progressive Alliance – Ruckus Society – Rising Tide North America – Solidarity – West County Toxics Coalition – Youth In Focus – 350.org
ISN
Phyo:
500 protest chevron at richmond refinery for climate justice, to cap the crude
Demand chevron “cap the crude,” provide safe jobs, and call for climate justice in lead up to climate talks in copenhagen
Richmond, CA – Hundreds of Richmond community members joined climate change advocates, public health experts, local government and labor leaders today in a colorful march, protest and non-violent civil disobedience at Chevron’s Richmond refinery. After a festival outside the Richmond BART station with music, dancers and speakers, and an hour-long march that wound through the city streets, a mass die-in and nonviolent civil disobedience took place at the refinery gates. Thirteen people were arrested.
The actions outside Chevron were organized by a new coalition–The Mobilization for Climate Justice-West–whose goals are to get Chevron to “cap the crude” at its Richmond refinery and to get al l corporations, including Chevron, out of the international climate talks in Copenhagen in December. Chevron wants to process heavier crude at its Richmond refinery. Refining heavier crude will result in more air pollution, greater greenhouse gas emissions and disease.
“Chevron has the opportunity to do the right thing,” said Mayor of Richmond, Gayle McLaughlin. “They just need to agree to capping the crude at the level they currently refine. We want them to put Richmond’s residents to work modernizing and replacing the 80 year old boilers, which sadly they chose to remove from the project several months ago. ” “We want Chevron to build a cleaner and safer refinery,” said Ana Orozco of Communities for A Better Environment. ”We want the union jobs to continue to build a refinery that is cleaner and safer for our community. Our community has been put at risk for too long.”
“Chevron has clearly attempted to drive a wedge between workers and the Richmond community in order to avoid being held accountable to the community’s demand for clean air and a healthy environment,” said Charles Smith, Chief Steward of AFSCME Local 444, “We support the community in this struggle.”
After a peaceful, celebratory march through the streets of Richmond, the marchers arrived at the gates of the refinery and were met with a heavy police presence. Participants staged a mass die-in while Suanu Bere of Nigeria, Nyunt Than of Burma, Nathan Brinley, a US veteran of the Iraq War, and speakers from Richmond described the death caused by Chevron and its operations around the world. “What is unique about Chevron is the network of Chevron-affected communities that have joined together in opposition to the brutality of the company’s operations,” said Antonia Juhasz, director of the Chevron Program at Global Exchange. “We are here with groups from across the Bay Area and around the world, banding together to create a mass people’s movement to achieve meaningful policy change to force Chevron and the entire oil industry to be cleaner, safer, more humane, and equitable everywhere.”
After the die-in, a “clean-up crew” entered into the refinery through the police barricade in an attempt to make the refinery cleaner and safer. Thirteen “cleaners” were arrested, including Reverend Kenneth Davis of Richmond, while rally participants supported them with chants and songs. The chalk outlines of the dead remained after the protesters left the refinery.
“The North Richmond community is on the frontline of Chevron’s chemical assault. We have experienced a lifetime of chemical exposure, asthma, cancer and death. These are human rights violations. West County Toxics Coalition will fight until there is no net increase in emission from the Chevron Hydrogen Expansion Project,” said Henry Clarke, the Executive Director of the West County Toxics Coalition.
The protest at Chevron was part of a campaign to generate political pressure and “street heat” leading up to the international climate change talks to be held in Copenhagen in December. Other protests will be held later in the year and in other parts of the country.
“People, not corporations, should drive the critical climate talks in Copenhagen,” said Ananda Lee Tan, a member of the Mobilization for Climate Justice spokescouncil and the U.S. Campaign Coordinator for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. “To date, at the United Nation’s climate talks, corporate lobbyists have outnumbered representatives of governments and civil society groups by a ratio of as high as 4 to 1. We want Chevron and all corpor ate lobbyists banned from, and frontline community voices represented at these talks.” ”The MCJ seeks to empower community-based activist groups and networks to lead a global climate justice movement in confronting the root causes of climate change at home,” said Torm Nompraseurt of theAsian Pacific Environmental Network, “while defining community priorities and self-determination pathways for a new energy economy.”
The Mobilization for Climate Justice-West includes more than 35 diverse groups: AFSCME Local 444, Amazon Watch, Art in Action, Asian-Pacific Environmental Network, Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice, Bay Localize, Burmese American Democratic Association, Communities for a Better Environment, Contra Costa Greens, Direct Action to Stop the War, Earth First!, Environmental Justice & Climate Change Initiative, Filipino American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity (FACES), Forest Ethics, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Global Exchange, Global Justice Ecology Project, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, Greenpeace, Headrush, International Forum on Globalization, International Rivers, Justice in Nigeria Now!, Movement Generation, Pacific Environment, Poor Magazine, Rainforest Action Network, Richmond Mayor’s Task Force on Environmental Justice and Health, Progressive Bengali Network, Richmond Progressive Alliance, Ruckus Society, Rising Tide North America, Solidarity, West County Toxics Coalition, Youth In Focus, 350.org
For more information, see west.actforclimatejustice.org/
For photos of today’s rally, march and non-violent civil disobedience, see
http://www.actforclimatejustice.org/west
Click here for more photos and news on this protest.
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