June 14, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EXXON PROPOSES BURNING HUMANITY FOR FUEL IF CLIMATE CALAMITY HITS
Conference organizer fails to have Yes Men arrested

Text of speech, photos, video: http://www.vivoleum.com/event/
GO-EXPO statement: http://newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2007/14/c5086.html
Press conference before this event, Friday, Calgary: http://arusha.org/event/7214
Contact: mailto:fuel@theyesmen.org
More links at end of release.

Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC)
representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen
at GO-EXPO, Canada's largest oil conference, held at Stampede Park in
Calgary, Alberta, today.

The speech was billed beforehand by the GO-EXPO organizers as the
major highlight of this year's conference, which had 20,000
attendees. In it, the "NPC rep" was expected to deliver the long-awaited
conclusions of a study commissioned by US Energy Secretary
Samuel Bodman. The NPC is headed by former ExxonMobil CEO Lee
Raymond, who is also the chair of the study. (See link at end.)

In the actual speech, the "NPC rep" announced that current U.S. and
Canadian energy policies (notably the massive, carbon-intensive
exploitation of Alberta's oil sands, and the development of liquid
coal) are increasing the chances of huge global calamities. But he
reassured the audience that in the worst case scenario, the oil
industry could "keep fuel flowing" by transforming the billions of
people who die into oil.

"We need something like whales, but infinitely more abundant," said
"NPC rep" "Shepard Wolff" (actually Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men),
before describing the technology used to render human flesh into a
new Exxon oil product called Vivoleum. 3-D animations of the process
brought it to life.

"Vivoleum works in perfect synergy with the continued expansion of
fossil fuel production," noted "Exxon rep" "Florian Osenberg" (Yes
Man Mike Bonanno). "With more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of
disaster, but that means more feedstock for Vivoleum. Fuel will
continue to flow for those of us left."

The oilmen listened to the lecture with attention, and then lit
"commemorative candles" supposedly made of Vivoleum obtained from the
flesh of an "Exxon janitor" who died as a result of cleaning up a
toxic spill. The audience only reacted when the janitor, in a video
tribute, announced that he wished to be transformed into candles
after his death, and all became crystal-clear.

At that point, Simon Mellor, Commercial & Business Development
Director for the company putting on the event, strode up and
physically forced the Yes Men from the stage. As Mellor escorted
Bonanno out the door, a dozen journalists surrounded Bichlbaum, who,
still in character as "Shepard Wolff," explained to them the
rationale for Vivoleum.

"We've got to get ready. After all, fossil fuel development like that
of my company is increasing the chances of catastrophic climate
change, which could lead to massive calamities, causing migration and
conflicts that would likely disable the pipelines and oil wells.
Without oil we could no longer produce or transport food, and most of
humanity would starve. That would be a tragedy, but at least all
those bodies could be turned into fuel for the rest of us."

"We're not talking about killing anyone," added the "NPC rep." "We're
talking about using them after nature has done the hard work. After
all, 150,000 people already die from climate-change related effects
every year. That's only going to go up - maybe way, way up. Will it
all go to waste? That would be cruel."

Security guards then dragged Bichlbaum away from the reporters, and
he and Bonanno were detained until Calgary Police Service officers
could arrive. The policemen, determining that no major infractions
had been committed, permitted the Yes Men to leave.

Canada's oil sands, along with "liquid coal," are keystones of Bush's
Energy Security plan. Mining the oil sands is one of the dirtiest
forms of oil production and has turned Canada into one of the world's
worst carbon emitters. The production of "liquid coal" has twice the
carbon footprint as that of ordinary gasoline. Such technologies
increase the likelihood of massive climate catastrophes that will
condemn to death untold millions of people, mainly poor.

"If our idea of energy security is to increase the chances of climate
calamity, we have a very funny sense of what security really is,"
Bonanno said. "While ExxonMobil continues to post record profits,
they use their money to persuade governments to do nothing about
climate change. This is a crime against humanity."

"Putting the former Exxon CEO in charge of the NPC, and soliciting
his advice on our energy future, is like putting the wolf in charge
of the flock," said "Shepard Wolff" (Bichlbaum). "Exxon has done more
damage to the environment and to our chances of survival than any
other company on earth. Why should we let them determine our future?"

About the NPC and ExxonMobil: http://ga3.org/campaign/lee_raymond/explanation
About the Alberta oil sands: http://www.sierraclub.ca/prairie/tarnation.htm
About liquid coal: http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/liquidcoal/

US Social Forum – Another US is Possible!

(To hear the Ruckus Report Back, listen to the archive of KPFK from Tuesday July 3, 2007 between 7-8am PST, where Adrienne Maree Brown spoke about the US Social Forum with Margaret Prescod!)

This post is a bit long, but we’re just happy to report back to y’all that the first US Social Forum was spectacular! Five days of marching, workshops, panels and plenaries, art and performance, networking, meeting, showering, hugging and partying simultaneously; we are exhausted and elated!
THE TRAININGS, WORKSHOPS and PANELS:

Starting Thursday morning, the Direct Action Track we offered with Midnight Special Law Collective, Smartmeme, Art in Action, Wellstone Action and others was packed. Together, we covered Introduction to Nonviolent Direct Action, Blockades, Creative Visuals, Storytelling, Bird Dogging Candidates and more. We also had an ongoing open art space. At the same time, our dear Satya was supporting the security needs of the forum.

To see the kind of schedule we kept, check out www.ruckus.org/ussf. Our training space was in a prime location at the Task Force for the Homeless, just one block from the heart of the forum, and we had participants from both the Forum and the Task Force’s community.

Friday we unveiled a new curriculum called ‘Bird dogging Candidates: Election Direct Action‘ for the core team of Healthcare-NOW. In a tent under the hot sun, core campaigners working for a sensible, achievable universal health care plan practiced messaging and bird dogging actions.

Saturday, Adrienne Maree joined Medea Benjamin, David Cobb and Biko Baker for a panel on Elections for Radicals, with an emphasis on the role of action in election protection and election reform.

The Not Your Soldier program, which Ruckus co-supports with War Resisters League, also hosted four panels which included many amazing organizers from the Not Your Soldier Advisory Board, sharing counter-recruitment practices with youth from across the country. The project also unveiled it’s brand new website!

THE ACTIONS and MARCHES:

First things first – the Opening March was full of gorgeous puppets, banners, t-shirts and art, created by a team of artists from the local community and many of Ruckus’ long-time artist partners. It was beautiful, musical, powerful, and oh so hot! As masses descended upon the Atlanta Civic Center to begin the forum, the energy of excitement, anticipation and joy to be in each other’s presence was tangible.
Saturday morning we supported the India Resource Center with partners including the Indigenous Environmental Network, United Students Against Sweatshops, Grassroots Global Justice, Southwest Network for Economic and Environmental Justice, Southwest Workers Union, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Massachusetts Global Action, and NYC AIDS Housing Network to bring Coca-Cola’s offenses in India and around the world right to their front door. With a balloon banner and signs created in the ongoing art space, a die-in of USSF participants, and a rally at the brand new World of Coke, we made sure that Coca-Cola felt the presence of the 10,000 strong social justice community in their hometown.

THE PARTIES:

Thursday night we officially brought the Ruckus at ATL-United, a humongous party at super-friendly local venue Django’s. Working with amazing partners including MyBloc.net, Right to the City, Future5000, Change the Game and Give Thanks!, we had a non-stop flow of forum participants of all ages from 9pm till 3am in the morning. The ecstatic dancing wasn’t slowed by the pouring rain, the stink bomb someone dropped on the downstairs dance floor, or the wall to wall bodies as our own DJ Willie Maze (aka Marty Aranaydo, Indigenous People’s Power Project Director) amazed the crowd by mashing Oakland and Atlanta’s best music together. Also on the decks were local mega-stars Karl Injex, Oja and Omar! We had live performances by Rebel Diaz and the remarkable, mindblowing Hot 8 Brass Band out of New Orleans.

Saturday evening, after another long day of training, The Ruckus Society joined the War Resisters League to host the Not Your Soldier party in the Youth Tent. With amazing performances by the groundbreaking poets Climbing PoeTree, a poetry/saxophone/singing trio from Cincinatti, Art in Action youth, Rebel Diaz, Tre Vasquez and many many more!

AND JUST LIKE THAT…

On Sunday morning the people of the US Social Forum brought their resolutions before the entire crowd, and then USSF staffer Alice Lovelace sent us on our way with a fiery poetic speech that reminded us that with this event we had proven that another America – which we know is so necessary – is indeed possible. She incited us to take the seeds sewn in this space back into our community.

We want to shout out the amazing Ruckus all volunteer training and logistics crew: Jia Ching Chen, Gopal Dayaneni, Kate Loewe, Kate Berrigan, Celeste Faison, Sagnicthe Salazar, Mattie Weiss, Meighan Davis, Cesar Maxit, Nisha Anand, Jamie Gooley, and Madeline Gardner, as well as Indigenous People’s Power Advisory Board Members Healther Milton-Lightning, Sharon Lungo and Robert Chanate.

With so much love, full of hope and ready for more work!

The Ruckus Staff – Adrienne, Megan, Marty, Satya, Hannah and our newest additions Associate Development Director Sabba Syal and Intern Janine Carmona

Still floating off of the amazing US Social Forum – what a wonderful outcome to an amazing amount of deep and hard work from so many people. The love and comraderie throughout the event was tangible, and I know it came from the meticulous work beforehand.

I wanted to just put in a thought on this Medea Benjamin pie thing – in general I am a fan of all things mischievous and rebellious, critiques that are joyful…but I don’t think that those of us who stand for nonviolent transparent face to face restorative and just movement building can/should really celebrate this pie-ing of Medea Benjamin.

Medea makes her mistakes, her organizations Code Pink and Global Exchange make their mistakes, absolutely. I have often been frustrated with Code Pink’s direct action approach, which doesn’t play well with others. But Medea is also an incredibly hard worker as are most of the people who work with her that I’ve encountered, even if they do things differently from how I would do them. Isn’t she welcome to her own opinion?

Not one of us is a perfect organizer, or has a perfect analysis – many of those who I saw laughing over Medea’s pie are also part of the same non-profit industrial complex and playing the same games with funders and front lines…the learning comes from loving honest critiques that respect the work and goals that we share. The learning comes from acknowledging our shared situation in this complex and engaging everyone we can in putting forth the vision and steps towards the movement we want. That could mean saying Medea, fall back…instead of physically attacking her.

With so many amazing targets that we need to unite and focus our attention on who are working Against us and this world of ours, is this really the way we build solidarity, maximize what resources we have, strengthen alliances through fierce communication…?

I could be way off, perhaps the Bakers Without Borders have tried sitting down with Medea and offering her their critique, and suggestions for what she and her organizations could do that would be more respectful of the movement at large. Perhaps they were at their wit’s end and felt that the only way to make their point was to publicly humiliate her.

I have argued with Medea before over a variety of topics, I’ve disagreed with her staff on serious things. I’ve also witnessed how she has sacrificed sleep, given every moment of time she has, tried to maintain hope, and fully dedicated herself to trying to stop the war, keeping up that work every single days since the war started.
I look forward to the day when this movement of ours is better at loving and lifting up and learning than at hating.