Did Joe Manchin tell Chuck Schumer that the American Petroleum Institute was going to draft “must-pass” legislation, a pro-fossil fuels side deal, to go along with the Inflation Reduction Act?

On August 3, just a few days before the Senate passed, by a 51-50 vote, that IRA legislation, Bloomberg news released a story about the pro-fossil fuels side deal which should be finally released publicly any day now. Manchin said a month ago that there was a side deal agreement between him and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

This agreement will allegedly allow a vote in September on a yet-to-be-released piece of legislation that will do many bad things: grease the wheels for the destructive Mountain Valley Pipeline to be built; severely undercut the National Environmental Policy Act; speed up the federal permitting process for proposed fossil fuel projects; undercut the power of the federal courts to make decisions that slow down approvals of fossil fuel pipelines and infrastructure; and more.

The Bloomberg article on August 3 reported that “a July 19 draft bill text circulating among lobbyists and lawmakers doesn’t cite any specific, individual project by name. Rather, it is a broad framework aimed at streamlining the permitting process for pipelines and other energy projects under the National Environmental Policy Act. . . The document carries a “Draft – API” watermark. API could stand for the American Petroleum Institute, a powerful lobbying organization for the oil and gas industry. API has had discussions with Manchin staff about the permitting overhaul, and the July 19 date of the document lines up with those discussions, Frank J. Macchiarola, the organization’s senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs, said in an interview. But API didn’t write or edit the document, Macchiarola said.”

Yeah, right. An API watermark isn’t proof of anything. There’s probably lots of people or organizations with the initials “API” who are experts on fossil fuels and are friendly with coal baron Joe Manchin. NOT!

The API crowd are Joe’s people. At an infamous hearing of the Manchin-chaired Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on March 4^th of this year, Manchin said, in the heat of a back-and-forth between him/the Republicans and the three Democrats who make up a majority of the five-person leadership group of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, “you are wearing people out,” in a clear reference to Manchin’s people, the coal, oil and gas CEO’s and those on their boards of directors. “There’s a policy by some of death by a thousand cuts on the fossil fuel industry;” and “I know these people, they’re not going to invest, they’re going to walk away.”

Manchin and the Republicans were upset because a couple of weeks before, by a 3-2 vote, FERC decided to change its decision-making policy when a methane gas pipeline company applies for a permit for an interstate gas pipeline and/or related infrastructure, like compressor stations, export terminals or storage terminals. Instead of a rubber stamp policy, which is literally what it has been for over 20 years at FERC, the Democrats in the majority voted for something different, like specifically taking environmental justice and climate change seriously into account.

The Manchin/Republicans gambit worked. A couple weeks after the March 4 hearing the FERC Democrats reversed course, and this new policy was put on hold, which is still the case five months later.

Will Manchin be successful in this latest effort to keep “these people” in the oil and gas industry happy, with Chuck Schumer using his power in the Senate to make it happen? You don’t need to do it Senator Schumer! You owe nothing to scheming Joe Manchin. Just say, “No Joe, I am not going to allow a vote on a bill drafted by the oil and gas industry, the American Petroleum Institute.”

Chuck Schumer and other Democrats in the Senate and House need to be bombarded for the next month by the people’s movement for climate and environmental justice movement and all people who get it on the urgent need to shift from fossil fuels to clean, jobs-creating, renewable energy. Just say no, Chuck!

Ted Glick works with Beyond Extreme Energy and is president of 350NJ-Rockland. Past writings and other information, including about Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, two books published by him in 2020 and 2021, can be found at https://tedglick.com. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

10 days ago, when the Manchin/Schumer deal was made public, I had major concerns. It requires leases to be sold by the feds to oil/gas companies for drilling on public lands and waters in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska before wind or solar can be built on public lands. It supports carbon capture and sequestration and new nuclear power plants. The specific environmental justice aspects are limited, not enough.

Perhaps most significant, passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was paired with future passage of a separate piece of legislation that would specifically attempt to ensure that the destructive and unneeded Mountain Valley Pipeline is completed and put into operation, while making it easier for new gas/oil pipeline and export projects to get their permits and be built.

The fact that this second piece of legislation, Manchin’s evil monstrosity, has not been officially introduced yet and that the IRA was passed prior to that happening is a good thing. It could mean that, if all of those progressives and liberals who supported the IRA join with the environmental justice and other climate activists who were either skeptical of or opposed to it, we could defeat Manchin’s monstrosity, which will need 60 votes in the Senate to pass. The “no” votes of a lot of Senate Democrats could sink it even if there are a lot of Republican votes in favor, which is likely.

If this is what ends up happening, I would say that, overall, the good provisions of the IRA on climate, health care and taxing the rich will end up making what happens in Congress this August and September on these issues a win, a positive thing. Several reputable analyses of the relative good vs. bad things in terms of action on climate in the IRA have reported that the good far outweigh the bad. It is a positive thing that prescription drug prices are going to be reduced, that Obamacare was extended for three years, and that some limited progressive tax reforms will be enacted.

But if Manchin’s monstrosity if passed, the positives are much less, especially on climate.

Let’s use what remains of the month of August to get it together on a national campaign to defeat the MVP and fast-tracking of fossil fuel infrastructure, to defeat Manchin and the Republicans, to make the months of August and September, 2022, truly a turning point period for the planet, its people and all its life forms.

Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

There are two big national initiatives right now, as of two days ago, to address the climate crisis:

-the call for and organizing to press Biden to declare a climate emergency and then use his Presidential powers unlocked by that to take a series of badly-needed actions, and

-the Biden/Manchin/Schumer/Pelosi “Inflation Reduction Act,” and, announced the same day, the commitment by Biden/Pelosi/Schumer to pass companion legislation by September 30^th. Here’s how that projected companion legislation was described by Manchin in a public statement: “President Biden, Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi have committed to advancing a suite of commonsense permitting reforms this fall that will ensure all energy infrastructure, from transmission to pipelines and export facilities, can be efficiently and responsibly built to deliver energy safely around the country and to our allies.”

Transmission is one thing, pipelines and export facilities another completely. We don’t need more pipelines and export facilities! The International Energy Agency said last year that there should be no more expansion of the fossil fuel industry, as did the Pope about a week ago!

So what should those of us do who get it both on the urgency of the climate crisis and on the need for climate action now which consciously incorporates an environmental justice, race and class lens?

I have not read the 750 page Inflation Reduction Act legislation. I have read several analyses of it by people who have. On that basis it is clear that there are good things and bad things in it. Without question it is a compromise that benefits Manchin and the fossil fuel industry while also doing good things as far as the needed shift from fossil fuels to renewables. It is, truly, “all of the above” legislation, which, frankly, is not what we need right now.

So what should people like Sanders and Warren and AOC and Bush and others who have been champions of climate action at the scale of the problem do when it comes up for a vote? I’d say that, right now, one key thing to do is find out more about this “suite of commonsense permitting reforms,” in Manchin’s words.

If Manchin is going to use his very unfortunate power in the existing Senate—which, by the way, six months from now could be a different reality if the Democrats have 52 or more Senators, a definite possibility–to prevent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act until those “commonsense permitting reforms” are passed—September 30 is a date I saw in the news—that’s a big problem, a very big problem. It means what is now going on is almost certainly just the latest maddening maneuvering by Manchin which, if those “reforms” are not as strong as he wants them to be, then he will end up, once again, after stringing Biden, Congress, climate and progressive activists and the country along, vote no on the “all of the above” compromise. That will not be a good thing for efforts to defeat the Republicans on November 8.

So where I come out right now on all of this is for everyone who gets it on climate to rally behind the call by the 1200 organization strong network, People Vs. Fossils Fuels, for actions on August 2, next week, demanding that Biden declare a Climate Emergency.

The last thing needed right now is for us all to get bogged down in back-and-forth debate for days and weeks over this Manchin/Biden/Pelosi/Schumer initiative. We need to press hard and publicly and right now for what is actually needed, and that is a Climate Emergency declaration. We need actions all over the country now and a continuing drumbeat for action at the scale of the problem: President Biden, Declare a Climate Emergency!

Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

Political movements that are successful over the long-term are those which have clear principles, an understandable and increasingly popular program, a strategy appropriate to time and place, and tactics which embody and advance that strategy and program. Although these four things are interrelated, they are not the same.

Take principles. Without strong principles an organizing effort for social change will not accomplish much. Yet, if it becomes a political force that those in power need to take into account, if not fear, they will try to use the carrot and the stick to weaken the movement by undercutting or coopting leadership. Leaders will say that in order to be effective the movement needs to settle for much less than it is demanding. Over time, or maybe quickly, this will demoralize grassroots members and weaken the movement.

But there’s also the problem of principles being substituted for strategy and tactics. When this happens, the organizing effort becomes so concerned about making compromises, about working with people not so principled, that it becomes a purist organization increasingly isolated from the broad mass movement which history shows is always necessary for major political, social, cultural or economic change.

If our objective is a fundamentally different kind of society, one that is truly democratic and just, which preserves the environment and provides the basic necessities of life to all, which dramatically reverses destructive militarism and obscene disparities in wealth and power, then our strategy must, above all else, flow from the understanding that, in the final analysis, history is made by many millions of people acting in different ways but for the same general purposes, and our tactics must move us toward that objective.

This doesn’t mean that every tactic, every action, must involve hundreds or thousands of people. Sometimes relatively small groups taking dramatic action, taking risks, or being creative and smart about the nature of the action, can have impacts far beyond their numbers. This will happen if they’ve organized and undertaken the action in a way which masses of people can relate to, are interested in, or can understand.

Movements that are going to succeed need tactics that “push the envelope.” They go beyond petitioning, letters to the editor, letters to elected officials, public speaking, conferences, legal demonstrations, support for mainstream/corporate Democrats, etc. Hunger strikes and nonviolent direct action, in particular, both communicate urgency, the need for action to be taken and taken soon by those being targeted or appealed to. Electoral campaigns by strong progressives independent of the two dominant parties, mainly these days using the tactic of running in Democratic primaries, send a message that the time is now to break with the usual political orthodoxy and create something new.

Right now, principles and strategy come into play when considering whether, in good faith, one can use the tactic of supporting opportunistic Congressional Democrats who have achieved political office and some power in part because of their too-often willingness to compromise. The need to defeat the Trumpist Republican alternative because of the danger of so many bad things coming about if there is a Republican takeover of the House and/or Senate on November 8 calls for all of us on the progressive Left to take this question seriously.

There continue to be polls and other indications that, despite Biden’s real political weakness and unpopularity, growing numbers of progressives, liberals and decent people see the importance of a massive turnout to the polls on November 8 as an essential, absolutely necessary, tactic for us over the next 100-plus days.

Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

I have long believed that a silver lining to the very ominous cloud of global overheating is that, hopefully, the nations of the world would unite to turn things around and, in doing so, lay the basis for grassroots and governmental global cooperation on many other urgent issues leading to the kind of system change needed. To some extent this has begun to happen through the annual United Nations climate conferences and the adoption of agreements that are too weak, but are of some value, to jointly take action to shift away from fossil fuels.

This world political process has been one factor in the growth worldwide of wind and solar energy. However, because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the disastrous war since, these political and economic processes are definitely in jeopardy. One huge example is the vote taken by the European Parliament a week ago labeling methane gas and nuclear as “renewable energy” because Russian oil and gas is now verboten. European countries are now turning to the US and other countries to urge them to ramp up their oil and gas production and export it to Europe to replace what they’ve been getting for years from Russia.

Putin’s invasion and attempted military overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government is the primary reason for this war, but the rhetoric and pronouncements of Biden and others in his administration has not been helpful to ending it—just the opposite. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin saying, several months ago, that this war would go on for years was particularly problematic.

The US and European governments have not just provided support, including major military support, to Ukraine. Most have gone out of their way to make it more difficult for a ceasefire to go into effect. It’s like we’re being wrenched back decades to the Cold War between the US and the USSR.

It is not too late, and not too early, for the US and Europe to make a course correction. Now that the war has bogged down in the Donbas region, an area that has been one of the most Russian-friendly of anywhere in Ukraine, the United States should call for an immediate ceasefire and urge other countries to do the same. The relative stalemate in the Donbas and the suffering by both civilians and troops on both sides provides very strong reasons why an initiative for a ceasefire in place now could generate significant support from many nations, including some who have been giving support to Russia.

Another reason why a political campaign for a ceasefire in place makes sense is the mounting cost of the Russian destruction in Ukraine. President Zelensky has called for the world to come up with $750 billion for Ukrainian reconstruction. That’s an awful lot of money for one relatively small country. Think of what could be done with that much money when it comes to worldwide hunger, renewable energy, healthcare, education, pandemic vaccines and more.

Throwing the world off in its essential task of shifting off of fossil fuels as rapidly as possible—causing immense suffering for millions of Ukrainians and a huge problem of how to rebuild what has been destroyed—risking a many-years-long cold war between the US/Europe and Russia/China, including the heightened risk of nuclear war: these are immense negatives.

The Biden Administration has cast this as an historic struggle between good (the US and Europe) and evil (Russia and China). Although Putin stands out in the evil rankings right now, the US and Europe have a long history of colonialism, imperialism, racism, war and domination of the Global South. It’s time to see the big picture and the futility of this war as it is now being fought. It’s time for a diplomatic offensive for a ceasefire in place in Ukraine.

Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

“It’s really important that the bloc of white people—and whiteness as a project—has been falling apart. White folks who have been moved—by the Movement for Black Lives, the recession, the pandemic, the  climate crisis—are looking at white people on the other side of the political divide, and saying, ‘I am less like you than I am like a Black person.’ That is a meaningful thing that our movements are accomplishing, and in my read, for the first time in the history of this country we have the cultural, social, material, and economic conditions to actually break apart whiteness as the majority-bloc. The opportunities for us to transform what’s going on in this country are really powerful.”
            -Sendolo Diaminah, of the Carolina Federation, in the book Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections

For months, as Joe Biden’s polling numbers have come down and stayed down in the low 40’s, the outlook for the Democrats maintaining a majority in the House and getting a majority in the Senate come election day November 8 has not been good. Biden’s unpopularity, due in large part to Manchin and Sinema’s killing of Build Back Better legislation in the Senate, has been a definite drag. But there are signs that things are changing.

A poll by CBS/You Gov that came out this week reported that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade has motivated left of center voters. 50% of Democrats said that this decision motivates them to come out and vote, as compared to only 20% of Republicans. This is no small thing given the crucial importance of voter turnout to the winning of elections.

More significantly, an NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll also out this week reported that in just two months there has been a turnaround as far as voter party preference. Right now, “48% say they are more likely to vote for a Democratic candidate in the fall and 41% more likely to vote for a Republican. In April, Republicans led on that question in the poll 47% to 44%.”

The Roe Vs. Wade decision is not the only reason, I believe, for this shift. Also involved is the impact of the public hearings of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol. Not all but a good number of these hearings have been carried by Fox News, it should be noted. The continuing series of revelations, mainly by former Trump Administration figures, of the blatant criminality of Mafioso Trump in his efforts to take power have got to be demoralizing for more than a few Trump supporters, which in turn is likely to suppress Republican voter turnout on November 8.  

But as the saying goes, polls don’t vote, people do. And that’s why the recently published book, Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections, is such a timely, valuable source to inspire and educate those of us on the progressive side of the political divide, those of us who must rise to the occasion in the fall of 2022 as we did in 2018 and 2020. As Bill Fletcher, Jr. has written, “An effective electoral strategy and practice—one that is carried out at scale and makes our base communities stronger and more connected—is absolutely essential for building a powerful US left. By providing a detailed accounting and in-depth analysis of progressive electoral engagement in 2020, Power Concedes Nothing makes a huge contribution to getting us there.”

The book is comprehensive. There are 22 chapters grouped into five sections: Building Progressive Power in the States, Communities of Color Drive the Win, Workers on the Doors [Canvassing], Bernie, Democratic Socialism and the Primary Battles, and Mobilizing Voters Across the Country.

A major strength of the book is the first section, one third of the pages, which carries articles about the experiences and tactics used in 2020 by independent progressives in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania and California. Held in common by all of these organizing efforts is the importance of door to door, in person outreach, or, less effective, phone outreach when the pandemic required it.

Art Reyes III and Eli Day of We the People Michigan wrote of what they learned: “We learned that state power infrastructure matters in the fight to reshape our country. We also learned that multiracial organizing against authoritarian forces is possible even in one of the most segregated states—but only if we are intentional about campaign structure, deliberate about state strategy, explicit about race, diligent in preparing more than the right, and clear that we must build trust early before the stakes are high. These lessons [are] important for anyone looking to stave off future attacks on our fragile democracy, and those building movements to expand and deepen it.”

How they worked together was critical: “We had simple but clear agreements: we would approach the work with joy; we would treat core team meetings as sacred; we would have agendas for every meeting; we would engage, challenge and push each other with respect and love; we would assume best intentions but acknowledge the impact of our action; we wouldn’t let things fester; we would hold ourselves accountable to maintaining anti-racist values; we would be transparent with each other and we would trust the group.”

There is so much more in this book of immediate and long-term value. If you want fuel for the coming next few months of all-hands-on-deck organizing to defeat those who are such a threat to so many people and to life itself on this planet, get and read Power Concedes Nothing: http://powerconcedesnothing.convergencemag.com.

  Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

I’ve attended a lot of special ceremonies over my lifetime remembering or honoring people I know. Most memorable ones include my mom and dad’s retirement dinner in 1986 in Bangor, Maine, my son’s graduation from Rutgers University in 2005, the funerals of my (many) aunts and uncles and my parents, and two dinners in New York City in the 1980s honoring anti-racist, southern, progressive leaders Anne Braden and Victoria Gray-Adams.

Today’s special ceremony across the street from my house at the Demarest local elementary school was different. This one honored Dominick Delli Paoli, retiring after 22 years as a crossing guard at the age of 92. For all of those later years of his life, he helped to get kids between the ages of 5 and 11 safely across Broughton Avenue in Bloomfield, NJ every school morning and afternoon.

But Dominick was so much more, and that is why he was honored in the elementary school gym today by hundreds of excited, appreciative and beautiful children, as well as the school principal, teachers, other staff and a few neighbors.

Up until the last couple of years when his health declined, Dominick usually didn’t go home after the morning shift. He went inside the school, volunteering to help in any way he could. If the custodial staff needed an extra hand for something he was available. He often helped out teachers by reading to their students; he also assisted in the cafeteria. When school was dismissed, he returned to his work as a crossing guard before he returned home.

Dominick came to work early, and what he did while waiting for the kids to arrive was to walk past the homes across the street from the school. If there was a newspaper that had been thrown onto a driveway he would pick it up and put it next to the front door.

I remember a time when I saw Dominick after returning from one of my early morning bike rides. I was feeling down, feeling as I sometimes do the weight of our wounded and struggling world, wondering if the work that I and many others are doing to change it is ever going to yield significant results. I had ridden my bike into the garage where I park it, and as I came out Dominick surprised me by being right there. In his hands was our daily-delivered newspaper, and he offered it to me. I took it, mumbled a thank you and went inside.

Immediately, I started feeling different. That small act of Dominick’s, knowing it to be something he does regularly out of the goodness of his heart, really affected me. It was as if he were an angel being there to pick me up in my hour of need, my need for inspiration. I was very touched, and changed.

At today’s retirement ceremony Dominick was presented with one plaque from the school and at least 100 handmade cards and posters from the Demarest children. After the brief ceremony honoring him, Dominick didn’t speak, too overwhelmed to do so he said later. But he acted. He began walking down the aisle, shaking hands and hugging any of the children who wanted that personal contact. Many, many did.

After the kids and their teachers left the auditorium back to their rooms, a few of us who knew him and the principal talked for a few minutes. Dominick reminisced about the many things which he did as a volunteer in the school for so many years. He talked about how much he enjoyed doing so, how much he loved the children. That was why he did what he did.

Dominick is a very special person, but he’s not alone. There are people like him everywhere, in every country, every city, every town, every neighborhood. They are the salt of the earth people who give hope, who quietly and modestly hold things together by their example and their love. Long live the example of Dominick Delli Paoli!

 Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

How will we transform US society in all the ways that are needed? One absolutely essential element, one we do not have right now, is a broadly-based alliance of mass movements and organizations working together, challenging corporate power, taking action, growing and generating the political energy and will necessary to overcome the tiny minority of dangerous, ultra-rich white men which currently dominates the US and most of the world.

This alliance must function as a welcoming, democratic, movement of movements: for racial and gender justice and equality; for the right to organize and unionize on the job; against militarism and for justice-based peace; for detoxification and protection of our natural environment and a rapid shift from dirty and dangerous fossil fuels and nukes to clean, renewable energy sources; for immigrant rights, reproductive rights and an end to mass incarceration; for a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage, tuition-free public higher education and student debt cancellation; and more.

There are many issues that make up the overall program of an alliance, some of which are listed above. There is no lack of issues, and no lack of progressive coalitions and campaigns which, over many years, have put together extensive platforms on them. But as of right now, in 2022, there is no unifying, organized, movement of movements, a broad progressive united front.

We need leaders of the many movements and organizations to recognize that this is an essential, strategic objective, and we need conscious work to take place in 2022 to begin bringing it into being!

Extensive and inclusive platforms are one key to bringing together the movement of movements which can win power. There are many different focuses of organizing and action on a wide range of important issues. Those committed to working for change in their particular area(s) of interest, for whatever personal reasons, are not going to stop doing so because of the potential emergence of a politically powerful alliance, but they will be won to the alliance and increasingly get involved in building it to the extent that they see it helping to win victories on their primary issues.

An overriding, central demand of the alliance movement must be for a redistribution of wealth and power. This is absolutely fundamental. There is no way that all of the various issues of a popular alliance can be adequately addressed absent the serious taxing of the wealth of the greedy rich, as well as a major reduction in militarism and money for war.

It is also absolutely essential that our deepening and serious climate crisis, and related environmental crises, be a top priority of the alliance. Over the last decade, this has become a major issue for many different movements. The process of making this urgently-needed renewable energy revolution, off fossil fuels and onto a jobs-creating, clean energy path, has great potential to move us towards a very different, much more just, peaceful and egalitarian world. The broad support for a Green New Deal shows that this is widely recognized.

An important aspect of a renewable energy revolution that is not always appreciated is that it will organically lead growing numbers of people toward a more deeply-felt appreciation for and connection to our natural environment. This is something very much needed in our increasingly urbanized society. We must develop an ecological consciousness and a will to act on it on a mass scale if we are to have any hope of developing the kind of future new society which sees itself as one with nature, not its exploitative and destructive master.

Indigenous culture and wisdom has been and will continue to be a key aspect of all of this. Central to that culture, going back millennia in what is now the United States as well as in other parts of the world, is an appreciation for and connection to nature. Indigenous people for many years have been playing a leading role in the climate movement throughout the Americas.

This alliance will include those who are political independents as well as progressive Democrats, and maybe some grassroots Republicans, but it must be independent of both the Republicans and the Democratic Party.

As I am writing this we are five months away from a very important national election. Many of the groups that must be part of this alliance are/will be deeply involved in election campaigns to try to prevent the regressive Republicans from taking over the House and/or the Senate. This is important work. After November 8, however, and before the new year, would be a good time for work to begin in earnest toward the building of this absolutely essential, currently missing piece in the fight for a just, democratic and peaceful future.

(Most of the above is taken from the final chapter, “A Winning Strategy for Power, Already Underway,” of the author’s book 21^st Century Revolution: Through Higher Love, Racial Justice and Democratic Cooperation.)

 Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.

Without question, one of the high points of the 12-day Walk for Appalachia’s Future, now in its 8th day, was the visit a big group of us made to the site of the 932-straight-days, heroic Yellow Finch tree sit on land in Elliston, Va. where the Mountain Valley Pipeline destroyers planned to put an essential part of their more than 300 mile, fracked gas pipeline. The MVP destroyers were able to finally bring the tree sit down about 14 months ago, but soon after that time all of the other actions and organizing and lawsuits made it impossible for the MVP’ers to do any more destruction or construction at this site or any others.
 
As some of us sat in downed trees where the tree sit had been, listening to people who had taken part in it, it was impossible not to be awed by what they had accomplished through their sacrifice. The Mountain Valley Pipeline is in deep trouble.
 
Another high point of the Walk was the memorial service Sunday morning, May 29 organized by leading pipeline fighter Maury Johnson with Russell Chisholm and Donna Pitt of Preserve Giles in Newport,Va. Rev. Morris Fleischer of the local Methodist church led a service on a village green. The service commemorated the many fighters against the MVP, mountaintop coal removal and other injustices in West Virginia and Virginia who are no longer with us. Rev. Fleischer’s words connected us to Biblical history and the Hebrew prophets, and the pictures and words about each of those no longer with us made the connection to the recent past: Mirijana Beram, Judy Bonds, Diane Brady, Mary Pearl Compton, Beth Covington, Robert Dilday, Earl Echols, Warren Ellison, Lauren Forman, Tim Fullen, Larry Gibson, Clarence Givens, Chris Hale, Bill Hughes, George Jones, Sandy Miller, April Pierson-Keating, Timmy South, Fred Vest and Karen Yolton.
 
There were many other things of note on this Walk so far:
 
-the West Virginia Rising, 30 foot long beautiful banner saying, “Manchin Stop Burning Our Future” unfurled on the steps of the West Virginia state capitol building and across the river from Sen. Joe Manchin's Charleston home;
 
-the magnificently informative presentation made by Autumn Crowe of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition in White Sulfur Springs about the multi-colored and in danger of extinction Candy Darter fish found in the area where the MVP wants to do their damage to streams, fish, insects, animals,mountains, land, air, water and people;
 
-the heartbreaking scenes of MVP-caused destruction at pipeline resister Maury Johnson’s farm near Hans Creek, WV;
 
-the unplanned direct action at an out-in-the-open, corroding pipeline site, of which there are many in the area, along the Greenbrier River, with 20 or so of us crossing the deteriorating boards on the ground to get to the pipes to show media people along with us up close how big a 42 inch in diameter really is;
 
-the presentation by Alyssa Carpenter, president of a group fighting to stop the massive, open air burning of toxic waste at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant near Roanoke, Va., a practice which is clearly the cause of significantly higher thyroid and cancer rates than the state average; and,

-the presentation by Roanoke Black community leader Jordan Bell about the decades of “Negro removal”, deliberate neglect and racism practiced by the local and state power structure, as well as his stories about those community leaders who have fought these practices and for their community to be treated justly. Following this presentation local pipeline fighter and community activist Crystal Melo led us to a demonstration at the local jail protesting the maltreatment at that institution, including 10 deaths over the last few years.
 
The Walk for Appalachia’s Future is primarily about the Mountain Valley Pipeline. We are following its projected route from central West Virginia through southwest Virginia down to north central North Carolina.We will end the Walk with actions June 3 and 4 in Virginia’s capital city, Richmond. But in addition to demanding “Cancel MVP,” we are also calling for “Jobs and Justice” and “Renewable Energy.” In the leaflet we are passing out by the thousands along the way we say it’s time to “get serious about creating good jobs for working people in Appalachia in 21st century industries like wind and solar energy!” We are trying to connect the dots between the issues, calling for “corrupt politicians to stop doing the bidding of the coal,oil and gas industries” and all the rest of the big money interests that dominate governments everywhere.
 
Our children and grandchildren need leadership for the just and sustainable future that is possible if we fight for it. Learn more, including about the June 3/4 actions, at Facebook: WalkForAppalachiasFuture.
 
 
Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy and president of 350NJ-Rockland. He is the author of Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, published in 2020 and 2021. More information can be found at , and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick (https://tedglick.com). 

The shooting rampage in Buffalo, NY by the young racist/fascist that killed 10 Black people has filled me with mixed emotions. One, of course, is sadness and anger at this outrageous loss of innocent lives because of the ideology and practices of the extreme rightwing, neo-fascist movement in this country, a movement which is explicitly or implicitly supported by much of the machinery and the state and national leadership of the Republican Party.

Another feeling is deep weariness about the too-strong foothold that these violent extremists continue to have in the USA. It’s not hard to understand why they do, given Trump’s victory in 2016 and strong showing in 2020. Any country where those things happened is a country with some very big problems.

The problems, however, are more than the obvious ones of white supremacist ideology, groups organized on the basis of it, and a racist/fascist/misogynist/heterosexist subculture maintained and built via social media, Fox media and other poisonous sources.

What else is there? I’d say another very big culprit is the dominance of corporate interests over the Democratic Party. What’s the connection?

At one time the Democratic Party was generally seen by working class people of all races and nationalities as their party. This began in the 1930’s with FDR’s support of the rising labor movement led by the Congress of Industrial Unions, the CIO. It continued with the national Democratic Party’s support, begrudgingly, eventually, of the Black Freedom Movement in the ‘50s and ‘60s. But over the next couple of decades things changed with the rise of the pro-corporate Democratic Leadership Council in the ‘80s, leading to the election of Bill Clinton twice in the ‘90s.

Clinton was directly responsible for the passage of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and other initiatives to open up more of the world for the penetration of US-based, transnational corporations. This led to an acceleration of the process of millions of good-paying, US working class jobs being lost as companies picked up and moved south of the border to Mexico or Central America or overseas to China and other Asian countries. For very good reasons, large numbers of working class people of all races were turned off to both Republicans and Democrats.

Into this breach came the rightwing populists who played on both white people’s racism, a very real thing then and now, and their anger at big business, to pull lots of white working class people their way. IMHO, there’s a direct connection between those developments and the rise of the violent racist/fascist/misogynist/heterosexist movement we saw raise its ugly head, once again, in Buffalo.

So yes, we should do everything we can as far as trying to pass strong gun control legislation, outlawing violent hate speech and advocacy, pushing to prioritize domestic rightwing extremism when it comes to law enforcement, and more, but these alone aren’t going to solve this deep-seated problem. Ultimately, what will solve it is a consistently progressive movement of movements, a progressive alliance, independent of the Democrat and Republican parties. This alliance must have anti-racism at its center, and its white members must understand, and act on that understanding, that they are expected to speak out and organize among white working class people day after day as much as they can. We must counter racist ideology and help those influenced by it see that it is only by joining together across lines of race, gender, nationality, color and other differences, taking on the obscenely rich and power-mad rulers, that we can create a very different and hopeful future for all of us.

Ted Glick is an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy, President of 350NJ-Rockland and author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21^st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.