Three months ago about 600,000 people took action in New York City and in 700 other localities around the world calling for an end to the fossil fuel era. According to mass media sources, the big September 17 March to End Fossil Fuels brought 75,000 people into the heart of Manhattan for an historic action. In addition to those big numbers, there were hundreds of people arrested in NYC before and after the 17^th in nonviolent blockades targeting fossil fuel supporting banks and other financial institutions like the Federal Reserve.

Imho, this was the primary reason that two days ago, for the first time ever in 30 years of these conferences and however weakly, the nations of the world at the Dubai United Nations climate conference said that “transitioning away from fossil fuels” is a good thing. Street heat and growing numbers of nonviolent direct actions on the climate emergency had an impact.

These actions are not going to end anytime soon. Words are one thing, but action on the part of governments to advance a rapid shift off polluting fossil fuels is where the raging battle over what the future will be like will be won or lost.

A major focus of the climate justice movement right now is the plan by the methane gas industry to dramatically escalate the number of LNG export terminals to ship fracked gas around the world. This is particularly planned for the Gulf Coast states of Texas and Louisiana. There are about 20 proposed new LNG plants, in addition to the seven that are already up and running. The biggest, new proposed one is Calcasieu Pass (CP2) in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, which if built would add massive amounts of gas to what is already being exported.

A letter signed by 238 organizations and released just a couple of days ago called for a halt to the LNG gas rush, saying, “CP2 LNG is a prime example of the environmental injustice of gas export expansion… [and] is emblematic of the broader trend of the ways in which LNG export expansion disproportionately impacts low-income and communities of color along the Gulf Coast, many of whom rely on coastal livelihoods and who are already overburdened by industrial pollution from the fossil fuel industry.”

Who is all this gas intended for? Those pushing this scheme say it’s needed because of the Russia/Ukraine war, that Europe needs this gas because the Russian invasion and the response to it has severely diminished the amount of gas available to them. This may have been true in the early days of the war, but recent reports say that it’s no longer the case. Warmer than usual weather and developments within the methane gas industry internationally have led to an oversupply of gas in Europe and worldwide right now.

This early-war dynamic was what coal baron and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairperson Joe Manchin used 20 months ago as he acted, successfully, to intimidate the leadership of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, into reversing a decision they had just made to have more rigorous reviews of gas industry expansion permit applications.

Not only was Manchin successful in forcing one of the three Democrats in the majority (of 5 commissioners) to change his vote, killing that new policy; he later stonewalled Biden and refused to hold a hearing on Biden’s nomination of Richard Glick, the FERC Chair who developed the policy improvements, for a second term when his term ran out at the end of 2022. Since those Manchin actions, and under the leadership of Democrat Willie Phillips, FERC has returned to the rubber-stamping ways that have existed for literally decades, with the exception of a brief time in 2021 and into the winter of 2022 under Glick’s leadership.

According to analysis done by former FERC employee Andy Hinz of Beyond Extreme Energy, since Manchin’s intervention close to 80 new coal plants’ worth of greenhouse gases have been approved by FERC.

To move forward, FERC and the Department of Energy must sign off on CP2 and the other proposed LNG export terminals. They’re the deciders. There is deep concern based on past practice that the Biden Administration, despite what happened at Dubai, will give the go-ahead for more approvals for unneeded and destructive fossil fuel infrastructure expansion.

Momentum is building within the climate justice movement to go to the mat on this one, to use all the tools in our toolbox, including nonviolent direct action. 220,000 people signed on to November petitions demanding no expansion of the LNG industry. Gulf Coast groups are making plans for mid-January action in New Orleans when the gas industry is having a big conference. And just last evening, Bill McKibben announced that he and frontline leaders, youth leaders, and climate leaders from around the world are calling on activists to join them in nonviolent direct action at the US Department of Energy’s headquarters in Washington DC February 6-8, 2024 unless and until they start treating LNG and fossil fuel exports like the climate-wrecking problem they are.

Once again, it’s time for the street heat that can force change in the corporate and government suites. We need to keep building the visible climate justice movement that, now and going forward, can bring about the transformative change the world desperately needs.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

I remember how I felt on October 7^th and 8^th as the news reports came out about the killings and kidnappings by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in what is now southern Israel. It was a terrible feeling. It would have been one thing if the attacks had been solely, or primarily, directed at Israeli military bases in that area. It was something else altogether when the targets were not just those bases but also about 20 towns and, worst of all, a music festival taking place.

I suspected that some of the coverage was distorted and over-the-top, such as the loudly trumpeted claim that those who broke out of Gaza had killed—implicitly, deliberately—40 Israeli babies. The last I’ve seen of that particularly egregious claim was a news report many weeks ago that there were three babies killed. But 1200 killed and over 200 kidnapped, the majority in both cases non-military, is very disturbing.

I’ve thought of other revolutionary organizations fighting for liberation that I’ve known about over my lifetime, and I can’t think of any who did something similar. During the Cuban revolution, as one example, the July 26^th Movement had a policy of treating the wounds of dictator Batista government troops they had just fought with and releasing them. And the Vietnamese independence fighters, engaged in warfare for over 30 years between 1945 and 1975 against first the French and then the Americans, wars that were tremendously destructive, never did anything similar to what happened on October 7^th.

Since that day Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, with at least 15,000 people killed, two-thirds women and children, the destruction of close to half of all buildings in Gaza, and many hundreds of thousands of Gazans desperately trying to survive, has generated massive anger by many people all over the world. The far-right-wing Israeli government has shown the world how little it values the lives of any Palestinians. They clearly intend, if they can get away with it, to take over all of historic Palestine, “from the river to the sea,” displacing millions of Palestinians who now live either in Gaza or the West Bank.

Appreciating this context for what has been going on for decades in this part of the world, and the particular reality of the racist and anti-democratic Netanyahu government, Hamas’ actions are understandable. It is a fact that oppression breeds resistance, and decades-long, brutal oppression almost always breeds violent resistance.

What about Israel’s stated intention, supported by no less than Bernie Sanders, to eliminate Hamas?

How can that happen without the continued genocidal destruction of Gaza? Instead of 15,000 dead, maybe it will be twice that, or even more. Gaza could become uninhabitable, or at least the northern half of it, with major destruction and loss of life in southern Gaza. And even after all of that, including the likely death of many of the remaining hostages, how is this going to in any way destroy the will of the Palestinian people to fight back?

I said to my wife last week that if Israel “eliminates” Hamas, the way they are trying to do so will eventually and undoubtedly multiply by many times over the number of young men ready to be suicide bombers or risk death in some other way to hit back at their brutal, genocidal oppressors and murderers.

And, of course, there is the very real possibility of this current war escalating into something much bigger and more widespread. Is the “elimination” of Hamas worth that?

Indeed, war is not the answer!

As a majority of US Americans and a big majority of the world’s nations want, it is time for a definitive ceasefire and a continuation of the negotiations that have freed, so far, dozens of Israelis and scores of Palestinians. Those negotiations, right now and going forward, are the only—THE ONLY—hope for true peace with justice for the long-suffering Palestinians, as well as Israelis.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

Standing on a corner,
alone,
in the early morning
half-dark, half-light,

You, waiting for
the commuter bus
to take you to
the Big Apple,

Me, on one of my
3/4 times a week
long distance bike rides,
approaching you,
30-20-10 feet away,

And our eyes meet,
followed a second or two later
by a smile,
an involuntary acknowledgement,
you to me
and vice-versa,
that though we
don’t know each other
and may never see
each other again,

Today, this morning,
for literally one second,
we felt the warmth,
the quiet joy,
the reassurance
of human connection.

I wrote this poem in 2016. I was reminded of it by something which happened yesterday morning.

I’ve been sick for a week and a half, needing to stay home and concentrate on trying to get well. I felt pressure to do so not just because I didn’t feel good and couldn’t do much work but because of a public event that happened two days ago, Thursday. At this event I was the only performer, singing/leading six songs, reading poetry, and reading excerpts from my two books published in 2020 and 2021. Fortunately, I recovered enough to make the event, and based on the input I got from those in attendance I did a pretty good job of it. But I was disappointed that more people weren’t there.

I was also feeling anxiety about Israel’s genocidal destruction of Gaza and the state of the world generally. So when I went out early the next morning to look for the newspaper which is delivered to our house, I was not in good spirits at all.

The paper wasn’t there, but as I took in the morning sunset across the street for a minute, up pulls a car and someone gets out of it. It was the newspaper deliveryman. He walked over, put out his hand and gave me the paper, and we spoke very briefly, me asking about his family, he telling me to give his best wishes to my wife, with whom he has talked in the past. As he went back to his car and I turned to walk back into my house, I felt very noticeably different. Instead of being down and anxious, I felt good, felt like something very small but very important had just happened.

Something very similar to this happened a few years ago with a crossing guard who we knew bringing our paper to me as I pulled into the driveway on my bike after one of my early morning rides.

What is it about human connection, friendly interaction with others, that can have such an immediate positive impact? Clearly, it’s something about the way that we are constructed with all our feelings and anxieties and hopes and fears. That “something” can be found in almost every human being, based on my experience and readings. All of us, whatever our other deficiencies, need friendly human contact.

How does this relate to the continuing, urgently-needed, historic process of positive social change?

Think about it this way: anyone who has done organizing knows that a situation where you are able to talk with someone else with some friendliness or even just basic mutual respect is going to be much more conducive to positive discussion than a situation of open disrespect or hostility. It’s not that a conflictual interaction can’t in some cases ultimately lead to positive personal and idea-change, but it’s harder, and definitely less productive numerically as far as results.

To me, this is common sense, but for too many revolutionaries in the past and still some today, it’s not. Some, I’m sure, would see these views as too “liberal,” not tough enough to fight the power.

I don’t think so. And here’s some back-up, via one of Che Guevera’s most famous sayings: “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”

Yes, yes, yes.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

“Global efforts to address climate change are already clouded by bitterness and distrust among countries of the world. Now a widening gyre of conflict in the Middle East threatens to fracture an already divided world, raise oil and gas prices at a time of persistently high global inflation, and direct financial resources to the business of fighting wars instead of the business of slowing down climate change.”

-Somini Sengupta and Jim Tankersley, New York Times, “War Imperils Action on Climate Change,” 10/24/23

I’ve believed for 20 years that a silver lining to the worldwide climate crisis is the possibility that when the nations of the world join together to get off fossil fuels and onto a truly clean and renewable energy path, the set of political and economic dynamics making that happen will open up a potential path to a much more just and peaceful world. I continue to believe that is a possibility.

But the world’s nations are NOT joining together right now in a substantive way to get off fossil fuels, with too many of them supporting false solutions like “carbon capture and sequestration.” In addition, we are now experiencing both the rise of 21^st century fascist movements and devastating wars in Ukraine and now Palestine/Israel.

In the USA, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia led the Biden Administration to ramp up production of methane gas and the expansion of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals, primarily along the Texas and Louisiana coast. That major greenhouse gas is now being shipped primarily to Europe to deal with Europe’s loss of energy resources because of the war. And despite a clear military stalemate, and a growing number of voices and countries calling for a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement, there is no indication that the Biden Administration has changed its position of no negotiations and  all-out military support for Ukraine.

As far as the Palestine/Israel war, a major danger is the spread of this conflict throughout the Middle East if Israel continues with its genocidal destruction of Gaza, escalation of violent settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, and tens of thousands of civilian Palestinian deaths as a result. It is realistic to expect that if those things happen, if a ceasefire is not soon put into place, the street demonstrations already taking place in massive numbers in not just the Middle East but many other parts of the world, including the US, are going to get even bigger, more angry and more militant.

For the US arms industry, this is what they want. In today’s Guardian newspaper an article entitled, “’Hamas Has Created Additional Demand’: Wall Street Eyes Big Profits From War,” says at one point: ‘Morgan Stanley’s head of aerospace and defense equity research, Kristine Liwag, took a similar approach to the conflict during Raytheon’s 24 October earnings call: ‘Looking at [the White House’s $106bn supplemental funding request], you’ve got equipment for Ukraine, air and missile defense for Israel, and replenishment of stockpiles for both. And this seems to fit quite nicely with the Raytheon Defense portfolio,’ said Liwag, whose employer holds over $3bn in Raytheon stock.”

No War, No Warming: this is a slogan that emerged in the mid-2000’s after the US invasion of Iraq and as the seriousness of the climate crisis began to be appreciated. It’s still appropriate right now, although there is a better, more clear articulation of the problem: No War, No Fossil Fuels.

Who is the enemy of peace, justice and a healthy, healing environment? It’s the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about over 60 years ago, but it’s also the fossil fuel industry. It’s all of the other polluting, undemocratic and destructive corporations. It’s the system, the domination of political and economic life by the billionaire class. As long as this class, the 1%, rules the world, our children and grandchildren face a truly awful future.

In the words of a song from the global justice movement 20-plus years ago, “Rise up, keep the spirit alive, come together, have to organize. Rise up, we don’t have long, come together, keep our movement strong.”

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

I’ve been arrested three times so far this year for nonviolent direct actions (nvda) on the climate crisis. I don’t think I’ve ever been arrested more than once in a single year before this year; since my first arrest in 1970 I’ve been arrested about 30 times.

I risked arrest with about 100 others a week ago in southwest Virginia, fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Five of us—not me–were arrested, four on purpose after locking down to four pipeline construction vehicles at two different construction sites. Both sites were pretty much shut down for the whole day, the main objective of these actions.

In two of my three arrests this year, one at Chase Bank in DC in March and one at the Federal Reserve in NYC about a month ago, I was not one of the primary organizers. I responded to the initiative of others, glad they had done so and pleased to join in and contribute what I could in the action buildup. The third one in April was one I helped to initiate and make happen, a blockade of an entrance to where a new methane gas compressor station was being built in West Milford, NJ

There have been many more, climate-focused, risk arrest actions this year, among them: many actions, probably at least 20, by the new and youth-led group Climate Defiance; over 200 arrests during the Wave of Action week before and after the big September 17th March to End Fossil Fuels in NYC; the disruption of the corporate sponsored US Tennis Open in NYC in September; about 20 MVP resisters in total arrested since August in Appalachia; many thousands in the Netherlands; Greta Thunberg just last week; 20 people in Boston last month; 14 at the East Hampton Town Airport in July in NY; and more, probably many more.

Next up as a major focus for US climate justice and other activists is the Asian Pacific Economic Consortium in San Francisco, Ca. in mid-November.

Then there are the hundreds of members of Jewish Voices for Peace, including 12 rabbis, arrested last week at the White House calling for a much-needed ceasefire in Palestine/Israel. Almost certainly there are going to be more such nvda actions to try to prevent an escalation of this decades-long, murderous and brutal conflict.

Both of these issues, the climate crisis and war in the Middle East, are very urgent. I think that the rise of climate nvda over the last six or so months is partly related to the many massive weather disasters around the world over the course of the hottest summer on record in the Northern Hemisphere. And the killings and kidnappings by Hamas in southern Israel, followed by the massive destruction wreaked upon Gaza afterwards by Israel, are a very big, very disturbing set of realities. It is to the credit of many groups in the USA and elsewhere that there has been such a rapid action response behind the call for an immediate ceasefire, something which polling reports is supported by a majority of US Americans.

However, as important as nvda is as a tactic, it’s just that: a tactic. It is not a strategy for either the kind of deep and wide societal transformation we need or even for an ongoing campaign on a specific major issue.

Take the fight against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. There is no question that the 932-consecutive-days tree sit from 2018 to 2021 by Appalachians Against Pipelines had a huge role in preventing the MVP from being completed. The actions now being organized by AAP are critical both for the delays in construction caused as well as to strengthen the morale of the overall movement, generate media coverage of the resistance and keep hope alive. But also important, right now, is the campaign being waged by others on the issue of corroded pipelines—pipelines that have literally been left outside exposed to the elements for as much as five years. That campaign has already had some impact on the actions of the federal agency, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, PHMSA, which is supposed to be regulating MVP. And also important is the monitoring of construction, observing and taking pictures of MVP’s violations to be used potentially in court filings, as well as to press regulators to step in.

I’ve been part of activist groups in the past that had difficulty understanding this essential lesson of history: purist politics or the arrogant attitude of “my way is the only way” very rarely work. And if they do work in the short term, sooner or later the inherent problems with those ways of approaching the project of social change will lead to corruption, at least, if not an eventual failure overall.

Each of us taking the kind of actions we believe will be most effective, while always being willing to listen to and dialogue about why others with similar political views see things differently—this is an essential building block to ultimate victory and a new world.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

A recent article by Bill McKibben in which I am quoted has motivated me to write a Future Hope column focused on the issue: what should independent progressives be doing about the Presidential election? 

One thing we should be doing is already being done: being visible, demonstrative and in the streets taking action on the major issues. Two weeks ago this is what the broadly-based climate justice movement did for a number of days in New York City, with the big day being the 75,000 person March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17.

Who was the main target of this action? It was Joe Biden, since, as the President, he is the one person who has the power through Executive Orders to escalate the government’s actions to shift rapidly from fossil fuels to clean renewables like wind and solar. With the House of Representatives controlled by the MAGA Republicans, there is zero hope for any significant action from Congress until a new one is seated in January of 2025.

I’m sure some people who get it on the seriousness of the climate crisis and the need for action now didn’t come to the 9/17 action because of concern that the focus on calling out Biden might hurt his reelection chances. That’s an understandable concern. But there is a very strong argument to be made that the chances of Biden defeating Trump, or any Democrat defeating any Republican in the Presidential race, are very tied to how much independent grassroots activism there continues to be over the coming months. The overall progressive movement needs to continue the current upswing of activism both to win victories on issues and to maximize the progressive voter turnout before and on November 5, 2024.

Who can defeat Trump or any other Republican? Only Biden or the Democrat. No one else. So if you believe that 21^st century fascism needs to be electorally defeated if we are to have any hope of avoiding full-on climate and societal unraveling in the years ahead, our tactics have to reflect that.

Does this mean that Cornel West shouldn’t be running for President as a Green Party candidate? Not necessarily. The continued existence of the Green Party and West’s campaign are a reflection of a political current that is much stronger than the electoral showing of that party over the last 25 years, which has been a decidedly weak showing. The average national popular vote of GP Presidential candidates between 2000 (Nader) and 2020 (Hawkins) is below 1%; Hawkins got about 1/3 of 1%.

The latest I’ve seen as far as West and the polls is that he’s at 4-5%. The likelihood of those numbers going up is not very high given the MAGA threat that most progressives appreciate. And I remember when Nader ran in 2000, he was at 5% in the polls going into the last weekend before the election, and he ended up with about half that, 2.7%, on election day.

At the same time that there’s been such a poor vote showing for GP Presidential candidates, the number of GP members on local levels who have won local office has also gone down over the last 20 years. In the early 2000s there were about 220 such local officeholders; in 2020 Hawkins said there were 135, and my guess is that if it’s any higher now it’s not by much.

A Cornel West candidacy could help keep the pressure on Biden/whomever and other Democrats running for office to be stronger on the issues, which will help to generate the massive turnout of progressives, especially young people, that is the key to not just a defeat of the Trumpists but a decisive defeat. But, and this is a HUGE “but,” is the GP going to go all out to get on the ballot in states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, the battleground states where Presidential elections are won or lost because of the anachronistic but still-very-real Electoral College? And if they are on the ballot in any of those states, what will West and the GP say about what voters should do?

All the past GP Presidential candidates have made very few distinctions. They’ve not said with any consistency, if at all, that the Republicans, especially in these Trump years, are worse than the Dems on most issues. They’ve not said that in the battleground states where the GP is on the ballot they are OK with progressives voting for the Democrat, much less encourage that. Because they haven’t done so, large numbers of progressives have not voted for them even though, like myself, they’re more in agreement with the GP on most issues than the Democrats.

It is very difficult to believe that Cornel West doesn’t care whether or not his candidacy leads to the election of Trump or some other Republican. I hope that he is thinking about how to run a campaign that doesn’t do that, particularly what he says about trying to get on the ballot in the battleground states. And I hope that if he agrees that the GP needs to do and say things differently this time around he will have the courage to say that and stand by it as he gets pushback from longtime GP leaders.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

The first time I heard the chant it was while helping to block the street in front of leading fossil fuel financer Black Rock in lower Manhattan last Wednesday the 13th: “We need clean air, not another billionaire!” The dozens of people I was taking action with also liked it, and we kept chanting loud and long while we watched the traffic back up and for when the police were going to move in on us.

Then there was the other one: “Tax the Rich, Tax the Mother-F—ing Rich!”, also a big hit all throughout the week of actions in New York City. The most memorable time chanting it for me was on the morning of the 18^th. I was with a group of 27 other people arrested, handcuffed and stuffed into an old police bus after blocking one of the entrances to the Federal Reserve bank in the Wall Street area. As the bus pulled away heading towards 1 Police Plaza and hours of processing, someone started up this chant. We must have chanted it for at least 5-6 minutes with no let up and loud-loud-loud as the bus traveled through the Wall Street area streets. And since our windows were partly open, there’s no question a lot of people heard us.

This was the spirit of the week of resistance to end fossil fuels and build another world, another world that looks much more possible now that we’ve shown each other just what we can do when we work hard together in a cooperative and respectful way.

It is just tremendous, a huge and very important thing that, according to mainstream media reports, 75,000 people took part in the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17. The organizers of the march did their job and did it well, and masses of people responded. It was and is, clearly, a movement moment.

It’s special that almost 200 arrests were made for the many acts of determined nonviolent direct action throughout the week.

It is a very big deal that there were many hundreds, possibly close to a thousand, local actions happening around the country and around the world over this weekend. The world is rising up together again on this most critical of issues, the rapidly deepening climate emergency.

And the mix of people! From where I was on Sunday, deep in the middle of the march, it was great to experience:

-the racial diversity—predominantly white but with a stronger mix of people of the global majority/people of color than I expected; and,

-the issue diversity—anti-militarism, feminism, youth, plastics, labor, elders and more, all in the context of the overall climate justice focus of the action.

Then there was the press coverage, lots and lots of it. One of special note is the New York Times on the day after the march displaying a big color picture on the front page, with a very good article and more pictures inside that front section of the paper.

This was a week not to be forgotten. This week really can be a turning point moment for climate justice-centered, mass movement-building. But what is next? Here are my thoughts:

This showing, this showing to one another what we can do when unified, has to continue. A top priority has to be support for the many battles raging against new fossil fuel pipelines like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, LNG export terminals in the Gulf states and elsewhere, other infrastructure, and oil and gas leases. All of us need to do whatever we can when the calls go out for supportive acts of resistance, whether electronic or in person, responding as best as we can.

But we need more. The success of this week that was, this historic week in NYC and around the world, was seen and heard about by literally tens of millions of people who had no idea that our movement was this big, this unified, this organizationally capable. We need to take visible action in local areas all over the country, and maybe the world, on a regular basis, in part to give these new people an on ramp into the world of activism for justice.

Young people with Fridays for Future gave leadership on this tactic beginning years ago via the local, distributed-but-connected actions on the same Friday day. Jane Fonda’s Fire Drill Fridays did something similar for a while, and national webinars are still being done monthly.

What if one of the main follow-ups from this historic week is something similar: End Fossil Fuels Fridays, every month, like the first Friday of every month. Local groups would use the political framework of the March’s four demands and the context language going with them—see below–but they would determine what specifically is done each month, what important local or other fights are prioritized and what exactly happens. A diversity of nonviolent tactics would be the overarching tactical approach.

Can we do this? After what we’ve just done, of course we can. Is there a better idea? Very possibly. Let’s discuss! But not too long, sisters, brothers, cousins, friends. Every day we need to go about our life-saving work acting with the urgency, but also with the love and compassion, that the times require.

We need clean air, not another billionaire!

From www.endfossilfuels.us:

We call on Biden to:

-STOP FEDERAL APPROVALS for new fossil fuel projects and REPEAL permits for climate bombs like the Willow project and the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

-PHASE OUT FOSSIL FUEL DRILLING on our public lands and waters.

-DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY to halt fossil fuel exports and investments abroad, and turbo-charge the build-out of more just, resilient distributed energy (like rooftop and community solar).

-PROVIDE A JUST TRANSITION to a renewable energy future* that generates millions of jobs while supporting workers’ and community rights, job security, and employment equity.

*Our renewable energy future must not repeat the violence of the extractive past. Justice must ground the transition off fossil fuels to redress the climate, colonialist, racist, socioeconomic, and ecological injustices of the fossil fuel era. 

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

Three weeks ago there were 370 organizations which had endorsed the March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City on September 17. Today, there are about 530. There were 335 local Fridays for Future climate strike actions around the world planned for September 15 and 17. Today there are 570. There were 35 other local actions planned for September 17 in other parts of the USA and around the world. Today there are 115. In addition, in New York City, there are nonviolent direct actions from September 12-15 and on September 18-19 being organized at the headquarters of fossil fuel companies and the banks and other corporations which prop them up.

Why is all of this happening? One reason is the fact that on a worldwide level the month of July was the hottest on record ever, leading to massive wildfires and brutal heat waves in many parts of the world. It is very clear, absolutely factual, that we are in a worldwide climate emergency.

Another reason is the leadership of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who called for and has been organizing a Climate Ambition Summit at the United Nations in NYC on September 20^th. He has been consistently saying that the price of entry for countries to take part in the summit will be specific, new, upgraded plans by individual countries to step up their actions to shift away from fossil fuels. In his words, “there will be no room for back-sliders, greenwashers, blame-shifters or repackaging of announcements of previous years.”

But the most important reason for these exciting and historic developments is the skillful and dedicated organizing of many people and organizations, grounded in many years of collective experience, including effective unity-building among a broad cross-section of movements.

Because of this collective movement experience the lead organizers had the wisdom to strengthen the demands of the march a couple of weeks ago, adding a fourth demand calling for “a just transition to a renewable energy future that generates millions of jobs while supporting workers’ and community rights, job security and employment equity.”   They also strengthened the environmental justice language of the march, adding: “Our renewable energy future must not repeat the violence of the extractive past. Justice must ground the transition off fossil fuels to redress the climate, colonialist, racist, socioeconomic and ecological injustices of the fossil fuel era.”

As I write there are two weeks left until the big September 17 day. That’s a lot of time for many more people to learn about and plan to attend the actions in NYC and around the world. More groups should be endorsing. More of us should be making phone calls and talking up September 17^th. More of us should be checking out the plans for nonviolent direct action in NYC September 12-19.

It’s an all hands on deck moment for our severely wounded earth, its many struggling peoples and our children and grandchildren, born and unborn. It’s rise up time.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

The work I have been doing the last two months helping to organize a massive March to End Fossil Fuels September 17 in NYC has brought back memories of something that happened from April 19-24, 1971 in Washington, DC.

Over the course of that week, while the war in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos raged, the then-newly-formed organization, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, camped out on the DC Mall and each day engaged in anti-war actions that received a ton of press coverage. The culmination was an action at the US Capitol on the 23^rd where 700 or more veterans threw away medals they had received for their Vietnam actions over a high fence and onto the steps of the Capitol.

Then, the next day, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took part in permitted demonstrations in Washington, DC and San Francisco. Four years later, on April 30, 1975, the US military was completely out of Vietnam. There’s little doubt in my mind that this week of creative, determined and massive action was a turning point in the decade-long effort to end that war.

Will the actions planned for the week leading up to, after and including the September 17^th mass demonstration, and the September 20^th United Nations “Climate Ambition Summit” which is the reason for all of this mobilizing, be ultimately seen as a key turning point in humanity’s efforts to end the era of fossil fuels and shift rapidly to wind, solar and other truly clean renewable energy sources? Only history will answer that question, but I think it is a real possibility.

One reason is that it is looking like UN Secretary Antonio Guterres is standing firm against what must be more than a little pressure on him to moderate his intentions as far as the Climate Ambition Summit. When it was announced months ago he said that the purpose is to generate “credible, serious and new climate action and nature-based solutions that will move the needle forward and respond to the urgency of the climate crisis. There will be no room for back-sliders, greenwashers, blame-shifters or repackaging of announcements of previous years.” Indeed, one of the reasons why this mass mobilization is so important is to have his back and strengthen him in his strong stance.

Another reason is the positive response to a coalition organizing nonviolent direct actions in the week before September 17^th, beginning on September 12^th. Throughout that week and then on September 18^th, many hundreds, possibly thousands over the course of those days, will be taking action at some of the myriad number of corporate and financial targets in Manhattan: oil and gas companies, and the big banks and insurance companies which are propping them up.

September 17^th itself is building a lot of momentum. There are now over 370 organizations which have endorsed, from local frontline groups fighting new fossil fuel infrastructure to major national groups like the NAACP, Sierra Club and Third Act. There are at least 90 “hubs,” groupings of people on the basis of geography, issue or some other affinity, which are organizing to bring out tens of thousands of people. 40 high schools in New York City have organized groups which are mobilizing. The action that day is going to be big and impactful.

The youth organization Fridays for Future has called for international days of climate striking on September 15^th and 17^th. As of now, more than a month away, there are 335 locations all around the world which have signed up and are organizing local actions. And there are other actions elsewhere, about 35 as of now, planned in other parts of the USA and the world.

A lot can happen in a month, an awful lot. We need to do something every day over the coming month, no matter how small or big, to make these September days of action all that they can be. History and a realistic hope for a truly new world are calling!

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.   

“Meanwhile, remember that attitude is everything. Live simply, be kinder than necessary, offer compassion, for everyone is fighting some kind of battle. Love generously, care deeply, speak kindly. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. . . It is about learning to dance in the rain.”

Jyoti Chrystal, 2008

These words, written by a founder of a “yoga and healing” center in Montclair, NJ, have been prominently displayed in the kitchen of our house for many years. They may have been put there in 2009 by my wife, a yoga practitioner, when Jyoti passed on at the age of 64. I’ve read them probably hundreds of times, and when I do I take a minute to reflect on them.

They are literally words to live by, not just for individuals but for the internal life of the progressive organizations which are so essential, and whose ultimate working unity is so necessary if we are to prevent worldwide climate catastrophe and the breakdown of ecosystems and human societies; bring into being a truly different world.

Attitude is everything

For much of humankind’s patriarchal and warring history going back thousands of years, the most prevalent “attitude” of those with political and economic power has been all about control and domination: men over women, Europeans over everyone else, those with wealth over people working and struggling to survive. And that’s still, on the surface, predominantly the way it is. But over the past 70 or so years there have been major and successful challenges to the worst aspects of this imperialistic, arrogant attitude and set of practices:

-the overthrow of racist European and US colonialism in Africa, Asia and South and Central America;
-the rise of an international women’s movement advancing women’s rights and leadership and a more cooperative way of organizational decision-making; and,
-the challenge to deeply-rooted heterosexist and homophobic ideas and practices by a broadly based movement for the rights of lgbtq+ people.

Increasingly, as I observe and experience it, progressive groups in the United States have a very different attitude when it comes to ways of work. One example is from a group, Beyond Extreme Energy, which I work with. Here’s some of what we say in our organizational principles document:

“BXE is committed to the liberation of all people of the world, and therefore embraces anti-oppression action and opportunities for restorative justice. Power and privilege are omnipresent in our group dynamics and we must continually struggle with how we challenge them in our collaborative work. We strive to acknowledge privilege and domination when they appear and work to actively counter them as they manifest in our work in everything we do, in and outside of organizing spaces. The privileged need to keep other privileged people accountable and not rely on the oppressed to raise the issue. Listening happens first in our anti-oppression practices.”

Offer compassion for everyone is fighting some kind of battle:

On a personal level, both inside organizations and in our daily interactions with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and people we pass on the street, we must practice compassion. It is true that “everyone is fighting some kind of battle.” All of us will die. All of us will get sick. All of us have disagreements and fights with others that can be very difficult. All of us have fears and anxieties of one kind or another.

Knowing this, internalizing this knowledge, we need to be able to connect with other people even if we’ve never before met them, or even if we’ve known them a long time and have had more than a few serious disagreements. We need to develop our listening skills. We need to do unto others as we would like to have done unto us. We have to be willing to forgive. With this attitude, positive personal changes and, over time, political changes can come about.

Life is about learning to dance in the rain

Right now “the rain” we’re experiencing includes the climate emergency, the MAGA neo-fascist threat, war and militarism with the possibility of nuclear war, and widespread poverty and economic insecurity amidst increasing economic and racial inequality. But by building a loving, cooperative mass movement for systemic change, we can help one another stay strong individually.

Frankly, down through history, most of those who have come before us have faced worse challenges. They didn’t face the realistic possibility that ecosystems and societies all over the world would unravel, but the lived experience of many of them was much harder: Indigenous nations devastated by the European onslaught, Africans subjected to vile, debilitating chattel slavery and Jim Crow segregation, workers forced to endure 60 hours or more work weeks with subsistence wages, and more.

So what should our attitude be? I believe it should be one of appreciation that we are living at a decisive time in the history of the human race and the planet. We collectively have the opportunity to make a very big difference not just for our children and grandchildren but for many generations to come. Si, se puede!

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.