Hey y’all,

It’s the first day of negotiations here at the UNFCC COP 16 and already governments (including our host country Mexico) are championing false solutions like REDD’s.  Ruckus, along with our allies, are pushing community rooted solutions at home and here at the COP. IEN has put forward some working principles for climate justice to guide our work, actions and messaging. I’m posting them here, and invite you to share these with your community and more importantly integrate them into your work.

INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK

FOUR PRINCIPLES for CLIMATE JUSTICE

“Industrialized society must redefine its’ relationship with the sacredness of Mother Earth”

1. Leave Fossil Fuels in the Ground

Leave the coal in the hole – the oil in the soil – the tar sand in the land. Offshore accidents prove oil and water don’t mix. Climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels. Stop it at the source. Limit people’s consumption. Efficiency is meaningless without sufficiency. The transition to a low-carbon economy is not just about technology but about re-distributing economic and ecological space. In recognizing the root causes of climate change, people of the world must call upon the industrialized countries and the world to work towards decreasing dependency on fossil fuels. Demand a call for a moratorium on all new exploration for oil, gas and coal as a first step towards the full phase-out of fossil fuels, without nuclear power, with a just transition to sustainable jobs, energy and environment.

2. Demand Real and Effective Solutions

End the promotion of false solutions such as carbon trading, carbon offsets, using forests and agriculture as offsets, agro-fuels, carbon storage and sequestration, clean coal technologies, geoengineering, mega hydro dams and nuclear power. These allow the rich industrialized countries to avoid their responsibility to take major changes. False solutions allow polluting corporations to increase their profits; allow Northern countries to disregard their high levels of consumption and expand production and release of greenhouse gas emissions and conduct “business as usual” practices. Promote a just transition to a low-carbon society that protects people’s rights, jobs and well-being.

3. Industrialized – Developed Countries take Responsibility

The burden of adjustment to the climate crisis must be borne by those who created it. This means:

o Demand industrialized countries agree to an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol for the second commitment period from 2013 to 2017 under which developed countries must agree to significant domestic emissions reductions of at least 50% based on 1990 levels, excluding carbon markets or other offset mechanisms that mask the failure of actual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

o Based on the principle of historical common but differentiated responsibilities, demand

developed countries to commit with quantifiable goals of emission reduction that will allow the return of the concentration of greenhouse gases to 300 parts per million (ppm), limiting the increase in the average world temperature to a maximum of 1 degree Celsius.

o A minimum of 95% cut in greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized countries by 2050 based on 1990 levels.

o An end to over-production for over-consumption, and a dramatic reduction in wasteful

consumption and production of waste by Northern and Southern elites.

o Developed countries, assuming their historical responsibility must recognize and honor their climate and ecological debt in all of its dimensions as the basis for a just, effective, and scientific solution to climate change. Restore to developing countries the atmospheric space that is occupied by their greenhouse gas emissions. This implies the decolonization of the atmosphere through the reduction and absorption of their emissions.

o Demand financial support from the North to the South to help with the cost of adjusting to the effects of climate change and continuing to develop along sustainable lines and it must be subject to democratic control.

o Honor these debts as part of a broader debt to Mother Earth by adopting and implementing the Cochabamba People’s Accord and the proposed Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. The focus must not be only on financial compensation, but also on restorative justice, understood as the restitution of integrity to our Mother Earth and all Life.

4. Living in a Good Way on Mother Earth

o Climate justice calls upon governments, corporations and the peoples of the world to restore, revaluate and strengthen the knowledge, wisdom and ancestral practices of Indigenous Peoples, affirmed in our experiences and the proposal for “Living in a Good Way”, recognizing Mother Earth as a living being with which we have an indivisible, interdependent, complementary and spiritual relationship.

o The world must forge a new economic system that restores harmony with nature and among human beings. We can only achieve balance with nature if there is equity among human beings. The capitalist system has imposed upon us a mindset that seeks competition, progress and unlimited growth. This production-consumption regime pursues profits without limit, separating human beings from nature. It establishes a mindset that seeks to dominate nature, turning everything into a commodity: the land, water, air (carbon), forests, agriculture, flora and fauna, biodiversity, genes and even indigenous traditional knowledge. Under capitalism, Mother Earth is turned into nothing more than a source of raw materials. Human beings are seen as consumers and a means of production, that is, persons whose worth is defined by what they have, not by what they are. Humanity is at a crossroads: we can either continue taking the path of capitalism, depredation and death, or take the road of harmony with nature and respect for the Circle of Life.

o The “shared vision” for “Long-term Cooperative Action” (UNFCCC Ad Hoc Working Group) must not be reduced in climate change negotiations to defining temperature-increase and greenhouse gas concentration limits in the atmosphere. Rather, it must undertake a balanced, comprehensive series of financial, technological and adaptation measures, measures addressing capacity building, production patterns and consumption, and other essential measures such as recognition of the rights of Mother Earth in order to restore harmony with nature.

~Digging Out the Root Causes of Climate Change – Ending CO2colonalism~

For more information:

INDIGENOUS ENVIROMENTAL NETWORK – Native Energy and Climate Campaign

Main office: P.O. Box 485, Bemidji, Minnesota USA 56619

Telephone: + 1 218 751 4967; Fax: + 1 218 751 0561

Email: ien@igc.org or ienenergy@igc.org; Web: www.ienearth.org

For More information on the dangers of REDD, go to: http://www.ienearth.org/REDD/index.html

Hey All. Sharon here. I’m here in Cancun, (its my fifth day in fact) preparing for the UNFCC COP16 negotiations which begin tomorrow. We are here once again accompanying an Indigenous delegation brought together by our friends from the Indigenous Environmental Network. This year, much like last year in Copenhagen our goal is to design and support actions that elevate the voices of Indigenous People within the negotiations- making sure the concerns and solutions being brought here are not swept under the table.

This COP, IEN is launching its own website for COP16 for live streaming of events, workshops and actions that IEN and its allies are a part of. I invite you to follow our work this year- and most of all take bold actions at home in support of community solutions (heard about La Villa Campesina’s call for thousands of Cancuns?).

see you on the front lines

Sharon

Respect Indigenous Peoples RIghts action in Copenhagen

Starting next week all eyes will turn towards Mexico as the UNFCCC gathers in Cancun to begin another round of Climate Negotiations, the COP-16. Thousands will travel to Cancun by land, air and sea to influence the international negotiations where forests, water, and Indigenous Rights (among others) are commodified and waged like poker chips on the global card table.

Allied movements from the Global South and North are coming to the United Nations this year with our own People’s Agreement towards an ecologically just future that embodies not just the rights of humans, but the rights of Mother Earth and all her creations.

Last year at COP15 in Copenhagen, Ruckus took a stand with our friends from the Indigenous Environmental Network to create actions that brought voices of Indigenous Peoples to the forefront of world media and posed direct challenges to our world leaders.

This year in Cancun we stand ready to link arms with our friends again to challenge destructive policies like REDD (so-called “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation”), which are being pushed down our throats as false solutions to climate change, but in actuality cause even more problems while doing nothing to curb climate change. (Want to know more about why REDD is a false solution? Read up here).

I landed in Cancun this morning, and the rest of our Ruckus Action Team is arriving over the next few days to hit the ground running prepping for actions over the next two weeks of COP-16 negotiations.  Don’t miss out on the action! Stay virtually connected throughout the negotiations and peoples mobilization by following us on Facebook and Twitter and here on our blog for all the latest action updates from COP-16.

And while some of us are in Cancun, Ruckus is also joining our allies at home in the U.S. to respond to La Via Campesina’s call for actions this Dec 7th to create ‘thousands of Cancuns’. We encourage YOU to hit the streets with your neighbors this December 7th and practice bold acts of resilience and community sustainability.

Remember, actions speak louder than words, and they start at home!  Local Organizing Cools the Planet!

In Solidarity from Cancun,
Sharon 

At the recent Advanced Action Boot Camp for Eco-justice, participants and trainers engaged in a discussion to develop protocols for working as allies in impacted communities. It was an honest and powerful discussion. We made a commitment to share and honor these protocols in our work, individually and organizationally.

Here are the protocols:

Allies and Impacted Community Protocols

Overall:

• Develop long-term relationships and long-term visions
• Have a reflective process
• Understand the different repercussions for different groups involved
• Empower folks!
• Provide a ‘radical’ space
• Don’t romanticize community struggle or the work relationships you form
• Know where the strategic moments are for outside actions and ‘out there’ tactics
• Leave skills (+ resources) in the community. Train community folks how to train.
• Stay open to evaluation and feedback on both sides – go both ways to build understanding
• Keep a larger picture and cumulative vision (versus staying in your issue-based perspective)…[there are complex dynamics and politics involved which can perpetuate the problem]
• Be transparent: where does the money come from?
• Reframe the story and build ‘truth’ for a power shift
• Apply FPIC- [Free Prior & Informed Consent]
• Apply “cultural competency” take time, traditions, language, identity, culture, gender; honor cultural values around body
• Know your story & how it relates to the work; acknowledge the work that has already been done
• Measure success by the community’ goals
• “Mandar Obedeciendo” Honor Impacted Leadership
• Be transparent about direct action, seek culturally and community appropriate action strategies, be accountable!
• De-jargon-ify
• Sacred Reciprocity

Within your institution:

• Push your organization to make change (advocate). Change your model of organizing – create space to learn
• Understand who within your organization is appropriate to work with certain communities
• Know/document the organizational history and relationships from the past
• Strategic ‘outing’ of organizations and policies, be open about your agenda
• Work for victory on behalf of the community’s – your charge is to support community demands
• Draw up a Memorandum of understanding (MOU)
• Have each other’s backs organizationally
• Be aware of outside leaders in organizing – utilize the community, stop importing!
• Stop “saving” people, being a hero – recognize the dignity and power of other humans you wish to stand beside in the work
• Integrate an anti-colonial framework
• Devote time to building with communities – go in early, build relationships and a process with communities
• Know strengths, weaknesses, capacity, don’t overestimate, over promise and fall short
• Facilitate connections between impacted communities
• Seek spokespeople from the impacted community; follow community’s message; don’t expect branding,
• As you gain resources from your work, resource the community you are working with!

As an individual:

• Take responsibility for your privilege
• Be self aware, and engage in assessment and learning
• Build relationships and trust – devote TIME to building with communities
• Be willing to change your own behavior, and take responsibility for your own actions
• Never tell someone else’s story
• Work with patience, not everyone is on your timeline



These are the presenter’s notes from the Action Strategy Presentation on SB1070, offered by organizers working with Puente and NDLON over the past few months:

Presentation on the state of the Migrant Rights movement

There are four historical pillars to the current immigration struggle:

1. “Who’s the illegal, pilgrim?” In 1492, the colonization of the original people of the Americas began. For a settler colony to suggest that it can document the original people and limit their traditional migration of the continent is a hypocrisy. No one is undocumented because our blood serves as our documents.

2. “We are here because you were there.” Migration of Global Capital – the idea that the resources of communities in one part of the world can make people wealthy in another part of the world. The same corporations leaving US workers unemployed take up shop in the third world, displacing people from their ancestral land into cities and then across the border.

3. Criminalization and stolen labor – The historic resolution of intra-white conflict is the criminalization of people of color. From Indian patrols and fugitive slaves to the disparity in sentencing of folks with 3 strikes policy to the prison industrial complex. The increase in detention and internalizing border patrol is an extension of this legacy. Migrant rights is more and more a criminal justice issue meaning that migrant rights groups have learning to do from the historic Black-led struggle against criminalization.

4. Climate Chaos – we’re heading into the largest migration in history due to our making large swaths of the planet uninhabitable at a time of narrowing the definition and protection of national identity.

—————-

There are two different and incompatible approaches to dealing with migration.

1. Legalization: granting full rights and inclusion for the 12 million+ who’s labor contributes to making this country run
or

2. Criminalization: treating those who have migrated to the US as criminals. This is the strategy of the right. One of attrition where they attempt to make life so unbearable for migrant communities (and anyone else caught up in their policies) that people “self-deport.” The poli/migra (or police/ICE collaborations such as 287g and secure communities) is a main strategy seen most clearly in Arizona but pushed by the Obama administration to apply to the entire country by 2013 where local law enforcement enforces federal immigration laws.

—-

Comprehensive Immigration Reform has been the dominant strategy emanating from Washington which essentially concedes a large amount of right-wing demands such as fines, English requirements, and limited eligibility for citizenship in order to achieve some amount of progress toward legalization.

However, there is currently a shift away from the grand compromise strategy of Washington. Young people are courageously pushing for the DREAM Act as a stand-alone bill to grant a pathway to citizenship for young people who attend college.

More so, the fight around the poli/migra and ICE access programs is the central fight for migrant rights. As seen in Arizona where Sheriff Arpaio raids communities in ski masks and has forced pregnant women to give birth in shackles, empowering local police to enforce immigration laws results in the terrorizing of migrant, indigenous, and communities of color more broadly. Instead of a conciliatory strategy of prayer and voting, communities are raising their voices with slogans like “Undocumented and Unafraid” or “Arrest Arpaio Not the People.”

While this has all been building for years Arizona’s SB 1070 galvanized the movement internationally. Now we see the battleground fairly clearly. There are 5 frontline states and 20 cities where SB1070-like policies are being seeded. In places where we can move forward, we will push for municipalities to opt-out of secure communities and refuse to collaborate with ICE. Where there is copy-cat legislation, we will support local groups’ defense.

This is a defining issue for our time and one that determines what humanity means for our generation. Ultimately, the migration fight is NOT a migration fight – it’s about the changing conditions of the United States where white people will soon no longer be a majority at the same time as more and more people within the United States are facing scarcity. The direction we choose for migrant rights is an answer to the question of how we are together as a people. Will we invoke historic resolutions to hardship and resolve the short-term needs of a few through economic opportunity via expanding border patrol and detention centers or will we stand shoulder to shoulder with those already at the bottom of the economic ladder and reimagine a new way forward based on mutual support and a recognition of our interconnectedness and the abundance that lies beyond the fences they build.

This week we are heading into Advanced Action Boot Camp for Eco-Justice!! We feel like this is a perfect time to explain what eco-justice is and what it means to Ruckus.

Ruckus has been looking for the right way to say what it is we care about for a long time. There are so many injustices in the world, and we could legitimately spend good time fighting all of them – but that wouldn’t necessarily help us actually change anything.

Over the years we have gone through lots of words and images – jargon, rhetoric, circles that curved in on themselves trying to connect the issues we were working on, to find the root cause that ties it all together.

We had landed on sustainability and self-determination for a while – still not perfect but fairly close. Then we got an invitation from some Ruckus network members to participate in a new initiative they helped create: Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project.

We went through a series of trainings with them on the current crisis we face, the false solutions that are being sold to us, and the real solutions we want/need to organize towards. This process was exciting because it aligned deeply with the conversations we’d been having for years, highlighting the intersections we’d been noticing.

The main lesson is: environment and economy are the roots that intertwine at the deepest level. Our economic woes are not just related to environmental concerns, they are the direct result of disrespecting the natural world. We need a justice that fundamentally evolves our economic and ecological relationships.

And the sense of urgency that we – and I am sure most of you – feel…that’s absolutely valid.

It is no longer optional to pay attention – we are in that moment of crisis where the planet is being over-taxed, over-used, and over-trashed. We have to drastically change the way we think of cities, communities, and our relationship to the planet, and we cannot wait for permission to do so from those who don’t grasp the coming crisis, or think it won’t impact them. We must stand up now for all people, and for the planet.

While we are here training organizers from all over the US and Canada in advanced action tactics, we encourage you to check out some of the following resources that go deeper on EcoJustice:

The Environmental Justice Principles, 1991

Bali Principles of Climate Justice, 2002

The Cochabamba Protocol, 2010

Movement Generation’s awesome resource page, 2008-present

Yesterday in the skies above Phoenix, 5 activists pulled off this brilliant action in solidarity with Arizona-based communities who stand against the enactment of SB1070.

TODAY, WE NEED YOUR HELP BAILING THEM OUT AND GETTING THEM BACK ON THE STREETS OF ARIZONA FOR MORE ACTION!!

Can you help us get $1,760 together to get these remarkable activists out of a Phoenix jail cell?

Donate TODAY!!

In love and solidarity,

Adrienne Maree Brown + John Sellers

PS. 287g is the parent law of SB1070, and in spite of 11th hour shifts, this struggle is not close to over!

We have dropped the Stop Hate banner in Arizona just hours before SB1070 goes into effect. We will not comply, we will not be silent, and we ask you to join us.

Statement from the Activists:

“SB 1070 and the federal program 287g are hateful laws. President Obama has the power to immediately stop them both.

We came to Arizona to support those at the epicenter of one of the largest human rights crises of our time. We join Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Cardinal Mahoney, and an outraged global community in denouncing SB 1070 in its entirety.

We know a partial injunction is not a solution for the people already living under Sheriff Arpaio’s terror, the day laborers who will be treated as criminals, or the communities soon to see their police enforcing immigration laws.

We say ‘stop hate’ because SB 1070 is not immigration policy. Like the experience of the Irish, Italian, Chinese or others, SB 1070 is simply scapegoating and targeting of the most vulnerable among us in these uncertain times; times that should call us to stand together as a people. Within days of SB 1070 passing, we witnessed vicious hate crimes against Latinos in the Southwest. We know that hateful laws legitimize hateful acts and that tolerating their passage signals a dangerous direction for the country.

We call on President Obama to do more than sue the state. Actions speak louder than lawyers. President Obama could solve the human rights crisis in Arizona with the stroke of a pen. Obama’s 287g program is what gave birth to the monster in Arizona he is now trying to slay. Stopping the hate means not just stopping SB 1070 and Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona but stopping all the Arpaios that the president’s ice access program is creating all across the country.”

Check the video!

Follow at @puenteaz, @nohateinaz, or search #altoarizona to see the latest updates today, and for the next few days as we support the community to escalate this campaign.

Ruckus is proud to be supporting this action effort in Arizona right now! We will update y’all as information comes!

While Judge Deliberates, Arizona Communities Pledge Non-Compliance on July 29th. With or Without SB 1070 Injunction, Human Rights Crisis in Arizona Continues

What: National Day of Non-Compliance with Arizona’s SB 1070. Protests, Rallies, & Peaceful Resistance.
When: July 29th, 2010.
Who: Puente Movement, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Somos America, and allies
Where: 9:00am pacific Sheriff Arpaio’s Office. 1st ave & Washington. Rally & Civil Disobedience
4:00pm pacific County Jail. 5th ave & Madison. Concert & Rally

(Phoenix, Arizona) On July 22nd, civil rights groups and the United States Department of Justice presented arguments in two separate hearings to block the implementation of SB1070 in Phoenix, Arizona. During the hearings, hundreds rallied outside the courthouse to demonstrate opposition to the racial profiling law. The day ended with seven individuals arrested in acts of civil disobedience after blocking the main intersection in front of the courthouse with a banner that read, “Stop SB1070: We Will Not Comply.”

Last week’s civil disobedience marks an escalation of a growing movement for human rights in response immoral and unjust immigration laws. The recent 100,000 person march on May 29th as well as the groundswell of community efforts in the past two months has galvanized the nation in opposition to Arizona’s anti-immigrant, racial profiling law.

July 29th, the day SB1070 goes into effect, marks a “Day of Non-Compliance” for groups across the state and throughout the country. In Phoenix, groups will rally at 9:00am outside of Sheriff Arpaio’s office and hold a concert outside Arpaio’s county jail at 4:00pm that afternoon.

Carlos Garcia of Puente explained, “In Maricopa County, we’ve been living under SB 1070 conditions without the law in effect. The Judge’s decision will not stop the rampant racial profiling, extreme terror, inhumane detention, and persecution lived under Sheriff Arpaio and others like him. Our community’s response will continue to grow until real justice comes to Arizona.”

Pablo Alvarado, Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, also acknowledged the deeper roots of Arizona’s crisis, “Empowering states and cities to enforce federal immigration laws is a dangerous trend that led to the rise of SB1070. A real solution to the growing hatred and targeting of people of color requires President Obama to assert the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration laws. Anything short of that leaves communities in jeopardy.”

Throughout the state there will be marches, rallies, religious events, and decentralized acts of civil disobedience. San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, and other cities are also rallying on the 29th in support of Arizona to protest SB1070 and unjust immigration enforcement policies. Community groups against SB1070 vow to continue to protest, organize, and boycott against this unjust law.
http://altoarizona.com. follow on twitter @ndlon & @puenteaz & @nohateinaz
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This past weekend a group of concerned mothers from the Seattle area took their message to the top of the most glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states – Mount Rainier.

Calling themselves Climb Against Coal - these self-proclaimed Mountain Momma’s summited the 14,411 feet of the mountain in support of the Coal Free Washington campaign.

Their goal was to raise awareness about the need to end our reliance on coal, and specifically to call for the closure of Washington State’s only remaining coal-fired power plant in Centralia, operated by Transalta. This power plant is the single largest source of global warming pollution in the state, and a major cause of respiratory diseases and premature deaths.

As the summit team was coming back down the mountain,  a support team laid out a nearly 75,000 square foot “No Coal” banner on the Inner Glacier – which is believed to be the largest banner in the history of the movement! The banner was viewable from nearby peaks nearly a mile away from the Glacier.  The nearly 2-acre banner took 15 volunteers all morning to layout, using several thousand feet of landscaping fabric.

Climb Against Coal

Back down below on solid land, friends and families of the climbers gathered to show their support. Dozens of parents, children, grandparents, and friends cheered on the climbers and the banner, and helped educate passing hikers and climbers to these important issues.

To learn more about the campaign – visit www.ClimbAgainstCoal.org

See more photos on Flickr: