Aid & Abet

A public read-out for Justice in Oaxaca, Mexico.

MONDAY MARCH 26, 12 NOON
MEXICAN CONSULATE
532 Folsom St, btwn. 1st St. and 2nd St.
San Francisco, CA
3 blocks S. of Montgomery BART

With:
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Blood on the Border
Arnaldo Garcia, poet and immigrant rights organizer
Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark
Susan Galleymore, of Motherspeak and military mom.
Larry Bogad, author of Electoral Guerrilla Theatre and a veteran of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army.
Aryeh Shell, Herstory Project
More…

Afterwards:
ATTEND THE PRE-TRIAL OF OAXACA RIGHTS SUPPORTER DAVID SOLNIT CHARGED WITH FELONY
MONDAY MARCH 26, 1:30 PM
HALL OF JUSTICE
850 Bryant, btwn. 6th St and 7th St
5 blocks S. of Civic Center BART

“A number of thick files contain the details of human rights abuses
committed in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, where a social uprising
lasting more than six months was put down by force by police and illegal
armed groups, leaving 20 people dead, 349 under arrest and 370 injured.

“If it hadn’t been for the international and national pressure added to
the accusations by human rights organizations, the repression would have
been even more violent, and there would still be dozens of people under
arrest; of that we are certain,”

–Adrián Ramírez, president of the non-governmental Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights (LIMEDDHH)

Bay Area activist David Solnit is charged with felony vandalism for
allegedly throwing red paint on the entrance to the San Francisco Mexican
Consulate on Halloween night 2006, during a series of international
vigils, protests and actions against the human rights emergency in Oaxaca.
Mexico. A few days before, schoolteacher Emilio Alfonso Fabián, Oaxaca
resident Eudocia Olivera Díaz and independent journalist and community
activist Brad Will were shot and killed on the barricades of Oaxaca on
October 27, 2006 by paramilitary vigilantes connected to the state.

David’s felony charge is a draconian response to peaceful protest and
presents a grave threat to free speech. It is a waste of thousands of
dollars of limited City resources. Now more than ever, it is crucial for
the Bay Area to continue its tradition as a place where dissenting voices
and opinions are not silenced. Please attend the Pre-trial to show
support.

This week Brad Will’s family is visiting Mexico demanding justice for
Brad, for other journalists in Mexico, and for the people of Oaxaca. “The
cycle of impunity related to crimes against journalists and human rights
violations in Mexico must end,” said Craig Will, Brad’s older brother.

Email for more information.

On Monday, March 19, my affinity group (Bay Rising), planned a protest, rally, and direct action at Chevron’s world headquarters in San Ramon, CA. The purpose of targeting Chevron was to link climate chaos, empire, and war for oil, and the event was timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the illegal war in Iraq as well as the introduction of the oil law into the Iraqi Parliament this month. If you want to know more about the oil law, you can read Antonia Juhasz’s editorial in the New York Times from March 13, 2007.

I was excited to work on this event because I’m not excited by rallies. I’m not excited by die-ins. Although I think both serve useful purposes, those types of events were not ones that I was ready to devote tons of time and energy to. The purpose of the direct action component of the event was to put our bodies on the line in a more-than-symbolic way and draw attention to the Iraq oil law by doing something that is not done every day, as well as to disrupt business-as-usual for this megacorp.

So what happened? Along with 11 of my friends and many supporters, I locked myself to oil barrels and blocked Chevron’s main gate from 6:30 a.m. until 11 a.m., when the action was declared a success and everyone unlocked. I was prepared to be arrested doing this. By blockading the main gate, every employee who went to work that day had to sneak in through a back entrance, and I’ll be that every employee who made it to work was thinking more about us than doing there job. In addition to disrupting Chevron’s day, we used banners and messages to get the word out to people passing by and everyone else through the media. Not only that, but there was amazing street theater performances of a funeral for the last piece of ice on earth, a tug of war between oil execs and “the people,” and an appearance by representatives of the Ronald Reagan Home for the Criminally Insane. At 9:00 a.m. there was a rally with lots of different speakers who are variously affected by Chevron’s policies, from Richmond, CA to Ecuador, to Iraq. Over 100 people attended, and considering that it was in San Ramon, was at 7 a.m., and competed with other anti-war events, that’s a huge number.

So what are my thoughts on this? First, Chevron is definitely media savvy. Prior to our arrival, they covered up their huge corporate sign that sits at their front entrance. When I heard that they covered it up, I thought they just threw a tarp over it. But, no, they had someone build a metal box that completely encased the sign, to prevent it from being prominently featured behind protestors in photos of the event. They also decided to not arrest any protesters, including those locked down at the front gate. It is better for them if the public does not see photos of protesters getting arrested at the front gates.

Why did I risk arrest? Because I am a privileged white American. To quote Propagandhi, “I recognize the irony that the very system I oppose affords me the luxury of biting the hand that feeds. But that’s exactly why privileged fucks like me should feel obliged to whine and kick and scream–until everyone has everything they need.” What does that mean? It means that I need to be doing everything I can to stop injustice, and I am often not doing enough. If it means that I need to put my body on the line and maybe spend some hours or days in jail to do it, fine. A temporary loss of liberty is not even a big sacrifice for someone like me who is relatively stable financially, has supportive friends, and an understanding employer.

Beyond that, I believe that for change to happen all avenues of protest and resistance must be explored and experimented with. We’ve done mass rallies, and they have been strategic and have made an impact. Now we need to try new things and re-experiment with old things. This war has entered its fifth year, and we need to do more to stop it. Climate change is now a crisis. Now is the time.

To do that, we need to act in a way that is strategic and self-reflective. The protest at Chevron was targeted, specific, and had a clear message. It was relevant. Direct action is just one tool of many that activists can be used strategically.

What I wanted most for the event and my participation in it was for other people, far and wide, to see it and be inspired to act in some large or small way themselves, just as I have been inspired by the recent actions in Tacoma and Pittsburgh. In the very least, I wanted prompt someone to ponder what was so important to me that I would risk arrest for it.

If you want to know more about the action as well as Chevrons link to war for oil, empire, and climate chaos, visit the Protest Chevron site.

Also, please visit Josh Russell’s blog, where he has an amazing wrap up with tons of photos and links to all the amazing press and media coverage, and read this post by organizer Jess at Wiretap Mag.

I’d like to publicly thank everyone who worked on this event. Working with such an amazing group of dedicated organizers was inspiring for me.

Oh yeah, and in that picture on the top, I’m the one sitting down on the far left.

PRESS ALERT

Thursday, Mar 15th, 2007

Contact: Jen Angel, 510 910 5627
Leila Salazar, 510-772-0889

ON 4-YR ANNIVERSARY OF IRAQ WAR
CHEVRON TARGETED FOR WAR AND WARMING

MONDAY, MARCH 19 — 7:00-11:00AM

GROUPS DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE, HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL, AND AN END TO OIL WARS

RALLY, PROTEST AND DIRECT ACTION

What:  On the 4-year anniversary of the Iraq war, a nonviolent direct action, protest and rally at Chevron’s world headquarters to protest Chevron’s role in driving the Iraqi war for oil, polluting communities worldwide, and contributing to global climate chaos.

The protest is in conjunction with people from across Europe and the U.S. who, on March 18th and 19th, are demanding that international oil corporations, including Chevron, keep their “Hands Off Iraqi Oil!”

Where: Chevron World Headquarters, 6001 Bollinger Canyon Road, San Ramon, CA.   0.3 miles down the Bollinger Canyon Road Exit off Hwy 680S.

When: Monday, Mar. 19th, 2007 – 7.00am to 11.00am. RALLY – including Speakers – at 9:00am.

Who: Organized by Affinity Groups: Bay Rising, Tug of Oil War, & Failure to Disperse. Endorsed by Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice/U.S. Labor Against the War, Communities for a Better Environment, West County Toxics Coalition, Oil Change International, Global Exchange, and Students for a Democratic Society. Participants will include concerned citizens of all walks of life.

Speakers at the 9:00am rally include Antonia Juhasz of Oil Change International whose Op Ed, “Whose Oil is It, Anyway?” ran in the New York Times on March 13, Michael Eisenscher, U.S. Labor Against the War, Henry Clark, West County Toxics Coalition, & Jessica Tovar, Communities for a Better Environment.

Why:   Chevron is set to become a big “winner” in Iraq as the country’s oil system is about to be all-but-privatized as a result of four long years of war.  The brainchild of the Bush Administration and U.S. oil companies, a new Iraqi oil law, if passed, would transform Iraq’s oil system from one controlled by the Iraqi government and all-but-closed to U.S. oil corporations to one open to U.S. corporate control.

Despite significant opposition from Iraq’s five trade union federations—representing hundreds of thousands of workers, the law goes before the Iraqi Parliament within days.  If passed, Chevron will be a front-runner to control Iraq’s oil for a generation or more under some of the most corporate-friendly terms available in the world.

Chevron’s oil operations negatively impact communities and the environment not just in Iraq but worldwide.  In Richmond, despite community demands for the company to clean up or get out, Chevron’s oil refinery continues to spew a deadly array of cancer-causing dioxins and other chemicals on largely African American, South East Asian and Latino communities.

As the nation’s 2nd largest oil corporation and the 4th largest in the world, Chevron is a leading player in contributing to global warming, one of the most dangerous environmental threats facing humanity.

###

From a friend:

—–

Friends,

Many friends and activists from the Puget Sound are right now gearing up for the most gutsy, hopeful and powerful antiwar resistance of the year– and they need our help to make it happen. Check out these images.

Last year Olympia activists disrupted the shipment of Strykers–urban tanks such those used to occupy Baghdad- for ten days. This spring powerful organzing prevented them from being shipped out of the Port of Olympia. Instead, 300 of the Strykers are being moved to the Port of Tacoma to be shipped out this weekend and many people will do what they can to disrupt them. They are the same type of Strykers that were used to support the attacks on Iraqi Trade Union and the Journalists Union offices in Baghdad in the last couple of weeks. If we support Lt. Watada and other GI resisters taking a stand for the US constituion and international law, this is our chance to do the same.

Please do 2 things:
1) Circulate the email below to anyone you know in the Northwest or folks or groups who may have connections in the NW and ask them to do the same.

2) Come to Tacoma. Bring your friends, family or organizations with you. If you can’t make it follow closelsy, donate $, keep your community and networks informed, etc.

FORWARD WIDELY!

NW Call to Action–Converge on Tacoma to Resist Escalation of the War

Rally Against Iraq Escalation Friday from 4-7 PM
To be followed by acts of war resistance down at the port

In Tacoma, Washington, we are witnessing Bush‚s “surge” right here, right NOW. The armored Strykers are being brought from Ft. Lewis to the Port of Tacoma. We expect the Strykers of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry will be loaded onto military ships bound for the Persian Gulf starting Friday, which normally takes three days. That gives us less than a week to act. By slowing or stopping the Strykers from being loaded, we are drawing attention to the criminal escalation of the Iraq War against the will of the American people. Join the Port Resistance!! KEEP THE 4TH HOME!!! Tues. March 6th to Sun. March 12th or until Strykers have left the port.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7th

4-6 PM Vigil Against Escalation and War Over I-5
Called by the Tacoma Puppetistas. Come one, come all!
Pacific on bridge over I-5
[Driving Directions: Take Exit 133 to City Center Take 21st St. Exit, take LEFT On Pacific Ave, take another LEFT. Take Right on 28th St. and park. Walk a bit up the hill and wave at the 1,000s of cars driving past.

Public Transport is an excellent way to arrive just a few minutes walk from the courthouse. Simply step off the bus or Sounder train, walk on Puyallup Avenue TOWARDS downtown, take a LEFT on Pacific and walk up the hill a couple blocks to the bridge over I-5.]]

THURSDAY, MARCH 8th

4-6 PM Vigil Against Escalation and War Over I-5
Called by the Tacoma Puppetistas. Come one, come all!
Pacific on bridge over I-5
[Directions same as above.]

FRIDAY, MARCH 9th

4-6 PM Rally and March Against Escalating the Iraq War
Called by the Tacoma and Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (PMR)
Federal Courthouse at 1717 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma. (directions
below)
Large Banners visible from nearby freeway welcome.

6-7 PM Strategy and Affinity Group Discussion at or near Federal Courthouse

[Driving directions: Take Exit 133 to City Center...Take 21st St. Exit, take LEFT...Continue on 21st past Pacific and look for a spot to park. Then come back down the hill to Pacific and look left.

Public Transport is an excellent way to arrive just a few minutes walk from the courthouse. So are AMTRAK and Greyhound. Simply step off the bus, Sounder or AMTRAK train, walk on Puyallup Avenue TOWARDS downtown, take a LEFT on Pacific and walk four blocks to the Federal Courthouse. Or ask anyone where the LINK streetcar is (one block off Puyallup) and take it (for FREE) from the Dome Station TWO STOPS to the Federal Courthouse/WA State Hist. Museum. Mass transit is a really great option to get to this Tacoma action.]

Events are developing rapidly–MORE TBA soon!

Need or offering housing in Tacoma? Contact facilitator@tacomasds.org

The Iraq war is now being brought home in profound ways.

Protests began late Sunday night as the Army started moving Stryker vehicles through the port of Tacoma . Monday morning three individuals, one veteran and two students were arrested for trying to block a shipment of Stryker Brigade armored vehicles and were held in jail on $10,000 bail.

Caitlin Esworthy, was arrested within seconds after the Tacoma Police Disorder Response Team confronted the protesters. Wally Cuddeford, a navy veteran, was then brutally dragged on his stomach just after his arrest was captured on video.

Another protester, Jeff Berryhill was later shot by a rubber bullet as he nonviolently held a sign at the edge of the street. Police also aimed shotguns and tasers directly at protesters. The Tacoma police appeared to become less violent after the TV media finally arrived. Media who want eyewitness testimony of the arrests should call Zoltan Grossman at 360-359-8871 or Patrick Edelbacher at 925-518-9060.

OUR ACTIONS ARE NOT AGAINST THE TROOPS. Block the Strykers; save the troops from escalation of the war. Approximately 300 Stryker vehicles that are being shipped to Iraq from the Port of Tacoma IN ADVANCE of the deployment of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Lewis . The 4th Brigade is being deployed earlier than planned, as part of George Bush’s suicidal “surge.” They are being deployed so quickly that they are forced to skip their final desert training in California . THE WORST THING that will endanger the troops is to ship them over to Iraq. Our actions are being conducted out of concern for the lives of US soldiers and, equally, the lives of Iraqi people.

The protests are part of a continuation of actions that begun last year against the use of the Port of Olympia to ship offensive weapons to Iraq . (Background information – click Port 2006.) Last year the shipments were made during broad daylight and the Olympia community responded with strong resistance. This year the military decided to avoid the Port of Olympia instead using the port of Tacoma under the cover of darkness.

We expect the Strykers will be loaded onto military ships bound for the Persian Gulf on Friday. That gives us less than a week to act. By slowing or stopping the Strykers from being loaded, we are drawing attention to the criminal escalation of the Iraq War against the will of the American people. Join the Port Resistance!! Mon. March 5 – Sun. March 12 or until Strykers have left the port.

For more Port Militarization Resistance information check:

ufppc.org
tacomasds.org
omjp.org
seattle.indymedia.org

Please Circulate Widely:

4 Years of War for Oil — Enough! Basta!

End Chevron’s Oil Crimes from Richmond to Iraq

STOP THE IRAQ OIL THEFT LAW!

1. NO BLOOD OR OIL!
2. CLIMATE JUSTICE NOW!
3. TO STOP WAR, END EMPIRE!

MON MARCH 19, 7-11am

Protest, Rally, & Nonviolent Direct Action
Chevron World Headquarters
San Ramon, CA

6001 Bollinger Canyon Road at Sunset, just east of Hwy 680
(From Walnut Creek BART: a short ride on County Connection shuttle 121, or flat 12 mile bike ride: we’re also working on providing transportation.)

We encourage you to wear Red.

For nonviolent direct action preparation, transportation, to get involved and for more info:
www.MySpace.com/ProtestChevron

1: OIL

EXPOSE THE OIL AGENDA BEHIND THE WAR

It’s simple: Before the war U.S. and British oil companies were all but shut out of Iraq’s oil. Now, they’re getting ready to take control of it and Chevron’s at the front of the pack. Within a year of the invasion, Chevron’s profits nearly doubled, and each year since then, Chevron has set new record profits, with 2006 the company’s most profitable year ever. Those profits have been driven by Iraqi oil, which Chevron refines in Richmond.

HANDS OFF IRAQI OIL!

We join activists from across Europe and the U.S. who, on March 18 & 19, will demand that Big Oil and our governments get their “Hands Off Iraqi Oil!” We will expose the Iraqi Oil Theft Law that would turn Iraq’s oil over to foreign oil companies including Chevron.

WHAT IS “THE IRAQ OIL THEFT LAW”?

The brainchild of the Bush administration and U.S. oil companies, a new oil law nearing passage in Iraq would radically transform Iraq from a nationalized oil system all but closed to U.S. oil companies, to a commercialized system, all-but-privatized, and open to private foreign corporate control.

Iraqi Trade Unions Unite to Oppose Undemocratic Oil Law

In a joint statement Iraq’s five trade union federations rejected “the handing of control over oil to foreign companies, whose aim is to make big profits at the expense of the Iraqi people, and to rob the national wealth, according to long-term, unfair contracts, that undermine the sovereignty of the state and the dignity of the Iraqi people”.

“The Iraqi people refuse to allow the future of oil to be decided behind closed doors.”

Support real democracy in Iraq. End the US occupation of Iraq.

Defeat the oil theft law. Hands off Iraqi oil.

2: CLIMATE

WE DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE NOW!

With just 4% of the world’s population, we in the US release 25% of all global carbon emissions. Oil and oil-driven consumption are a primary cause of greenhouse gas pollutants which fuel climate crisis. Chevron is the 2nd largest oil company in the U.S. and the 5th largest in the world.

Chevron sabotages domestic efforts to transition to a green economy and refuses to invest in any significant way in alternative forms of green energy.

WE DEMAND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE NOW!

Chevron poisons local communities from Richmond, to Ecuador and Nigeria. The Chevron refinery in Richmond spews a deadly array of toxins into the air, water, and land, including cancer-causing dioxins, on the largely African American, South East Asian, and Latino communities. The refinery and plant have had hundreds of accidents, including fires, spills, leaks, explosions, toxic gas releases, flaring, and air contaminations causing severe illness, including asthma and deadly cancers, for the people of Richmond. The people of Richmond are fighting back and demanding that Chevron clean up or get out.

We need to imagine a world without Chevron, its oil, and its climate chaos.

3: EMPIRE

WE RECOGNIZE THAT TO STOP WAR, WE MUST END EMPIRE.

To end current and future U.S. wars and occupations, to stop climate chaos, to increase democracy and human rights at home, to redirect resources to urgent human and environmental needs, to take apart a global economic and political system that benefits mega corporations at the expense of the planet, we must change the underlying U.S. government policies of empire.

“Empire” is now used by both critics and advocates to describe the unparalleled U.S. system of economic, political, cultural, and military domination. We pay a high price to live in an Empire, including $441 billion a year on a military of over 2 1/2 million soldiers with more than 700 bases spread across 130 countries fighting ever-increasing wars to feed the Empire and expand its control.

To Stop Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, etc. etc. etc., we must end Empire!

PLEASE JOIN US!
http://www.myspace.com/protestchevron

I’ve been very interested to read and hear about a resurgence of civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action in the U.S. anti-war movement. It’s very exciting that people around the country are starting to accept that they have the power to stop the war through excersizing collective power instead of petitioning politicians. There are a few things I would like to highlight.

First, I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of two recent (and in one case, on-going) actions:

1. Blockade of the National Robotics Engineering Center, part of Carnegie Mellon University) outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Organizing Group on March 2. You can read news reports and see pictures at POG’s M2 site. In this successful action, POG and supporters blockaded a facility and successfully shut it down for a day, protesting the collaboration of the university with the Pentagon.
2. Port Militarization Resistance in Olympia and Tacoma Washington. The Army ships Stryker Fighting Vehicles from Ft. Lewis, Washington through the Port of Olympia. Last year, activists blockaded the Port, delaying this shipment, and causing Ron Jacobs to comment, “Two, Three, Many Olympias,” echoing the famous sentiment issued following the student revolt led by SDS at Columbia University in 1968 during the height of Vietnam War protests. Because of this resistance, the Army has begun moving vehicles into place at the Port of Tacoma, and activists are mobilizing. Portland Indymedia has updates on the current situation. Read this excellent press release from the Tacoma Port Militarization Resistance group.

As well as an upcoming major action happening in the San Francisco Bay Area on March 19, 2007, the Protest, Rally, and Nonviolent Direct Action at Chevron’s World Headquarters in San Ramon, California.

I find these actions really inspiring. Also, there have been a lot of good writing on the same topic, in particular the recent Indypendent article by Jessica Lee and Dan Berger and Andy Cornell’s article on Wiretap.

And finally, a shout out to Toledo activists, including  Chester Chambers, Marylin Bernstein, Ann Abowd, Laurence Coleman, Jeff Klein, Trudy Bond, and Steve Miller, who have been sitting in at the offices of Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Sen. George Voinovich demanding they vote to block funding for the troop surge. Yay for activism in small cities and not just on the coasts!!

Jen