Friends, we are thrilled to be able to share this outpouring of support from our allies across the country, not only because of the encouragement to continue our work and the knowledge that our movement is growing, but also because the repression we are facing is very real and very serious. It is when people stop paying attention that harassment and brutality increase and our lives are further endangered by those relentlessly seeking profit. If you can’t join us in East Texas sometime soon, you can help us just as much by educating people in your community about the work we are doing and why it is important. Start by sharing this letter. Would your organization like to sign up? Click here. Love and solidarity,
- Tar Sands Blockaders
October 5, 2012
An Open Letter In Support Of the Tar Sands Blockade
Dear Friends,
As we write, our friends with the Tar Sands Blockade are blocking construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline in the woods of Texas. For the past six months they have built a movement of climate activists, rural landowners, Texans, Oklahomans and people from all over the country to fiercely resist it. For two weeks, they have captured the imagination of the world with a daring tree- sit and bold ground actions near Winnsboro, TX that have delayed TransCanada’s operations.
TransCanada has responded by allowing its employees to operate their heavy machines with reckless disregard for the safety of protestors and tree-sitters. Police have responded with brutal means such as pepper-spray and Tasers against peaceful protestors. Prosecutors have responded with elevated charges.
It is clear what is at stake. NASA’s leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen has called the Keystone XL pipeline, “a fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet.” If all the carbon stored in the Canadian tar sands is released into the earth’s atmosphere it will mean “game over” for the planet.
In 2011, we saw the Tar Sands Action galvanize environmental and social justice communities in an unprecedented show of unity during the sit-ins in front of the White House. Every day members of Indigenous communities, faith communities, labor communities, anti-mountaintop removal movements, anti-fracking movements and many more stepped forward and put their bodies on the line in solidarity. In the year since, we have witnessed people from the Lakota nation in South Dakota and from Moscow, Idaho putting their bodies in roads and highways blocking large transport trucks carrying oil refining equipment to develop further tar sands extraction. Now, the Tar Sands Blockade has taken the next logical step confronting climate change.
If we are determined to prevent the pursuit of extreme energy from destroying our communities, natural systems and climate, then peaceful, yet confrontational, protests like the Tar Sands Blockade are necessary actions for change.
Let us be clear: there is not an inch of daylight in between us and those blocking construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas. We stand with them as we’ve stood with those fighting mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, those defending old growth forests in Cascadia and those challenging nuclear power across this country.
We stand in solidarity with those who stand up for us all.
Sincerely,
Alliance for Appalachia
Alliance of Community Trainers (ACT)
Bexar County (TX) Green Party
Center for Biological Diversity
Chicago Area Peace Action
Communities for a Better Environment
Community to Community
Council of Canadians
CREDO Action
Democracy for America
Earthworks
EcoJive
EcoWatch
Energy Action Coalition
Energy Mia / Our Energy
Fast for the Earth
Friends of the Earth U.S.
Forest Ethics
Gardendale Accountability Project
Green Umbrella (NY)
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives
Global Exchange
Global Justice Ecology Project
Grassroots Global Justice
Greenpeace Canada
Greenpeace U.S.
Indigenous Environmental Network
Missourians for Empowerment and Reform (MORE)
Movement Generation
Nature’s Friends
Occupy the Pipeline
Oil Change International
Peaceful Uprising
Occupy Philidelphia
Platform
Radical Action for Mountain Peoples’ Survival (RAMPS)
Rainforest Action Network
Rising Tide North America
Ruckus Society
Occupy Santa Fe
Seismologick
Sierra Club
smartMeme Strategy & Training Project
Southwest Workers Union
Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards
Students for a Just and Stable Future
Students for Democratic Socialism
Tar Sands Action Seattle
Tarrant County (TX) Green Party
Turkey Creek Community Initiatives
UK Tar Sands Network
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
Occupy Wall Street Sustainability
Webb County (TX) Green Party
Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus
350.org
Loading tweets...
13 comments
2 pings
Skip to comment form ↓
Tarrant County Green Party
October 6, 2012 at 3:31 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Signing on. Contact person – Diane Wood, Tarrant County Green Party 817-800-4249
Tarrant County Green Party
October 6, 2012 at 1:27 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
The Tarrant County Green Party salutes and supports the brave, commtted persons who are willing to sacrifice to save our climate for all of us!!
Phyllis Cole-Dai
October 6, 2012 at 5:40 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Thought we’d already signed on. Please add our name: Fast for the Earth! We’re trying very hard to help spread the word and increase support for your efforts.
Dan Boggs
October 6, 2012 at 8:23 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
The Gardendale Accountability Project signs on! We stand united in opposition to the immoral taking of these folks property (sanctioned by the State of Texas) against their will by a foreign corporation. Dan Boggs , President, Gardendale Accountability Project (432-130-1523)
Osprey Orielle Lake
October 8, 2012 at 4:36 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Please sign on the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus. We stand in solidarity with you! Founder/President
Osprey Orielle Lake.
Chris Young
October 8, 2012 at 6:54 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Pusing the corrosive tar sands “oil” through these pipelines is a recipe for both immediate, local disaster and longterm, global disaster. We are already well along the road to catastophic sea-level rise and temperature rise. The Arctic sea ice end-of-summer melting is decades ahead of predictions and is an apocalyptic tipping point. TransCanada and the other companies involved may justify their actions on the basis of satisfying market demand, but in fact they are committing the worst crimes against humanity in history. Their smug denialism is no longer going to work. They are world-class criminals.
Chris Young
October 8, 2012 at 7:14 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
The photos showing all the beautiful tree platforms and so on really bring home what is being lost with these pipelines. It looks like there could be a thriving eco-tourism business in the woods there, similar to what they have in British Columbia, for example.
Denise Penttila
October 8, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
We are helping to build a large resistance to tar sands here in Maine. Forces from all over New England and Eastern Canada are working and connecting to stand together against big oil and the destruction of our environment. We see what is happening in Texas. We share your struggle. You are an inspiration and wonderful example of thoughtful non-violent resistance. This is the continuing effort of all North Americans who stand together against the destruction of the boreal forrest, the mining of bituman, the refusal of corporations to obey the will of the people. All power is inherent in the people. Governments must surrender to the will of the people. Texas – stay strong. Fight on. Know that we are with you. You lead the way. You show us how. We learn from you. Our fight has begun. We will win. Our’s is a higher calling. Our task is great. The people will not fail. Love, respect and much solidarity from Maine.
Webb County Green Party
October 8, 2012 at 9:51 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Signing on. Webb County Green Party voted unanimously on October 6, 2012 to sign onto this open letter. #solidarity. Find WCGP on facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Webb-County-Green-Party-Partido-Verde-de-Condado-de-Webb/197713903655664
Torch of God
October 9, 2012 at 3:29 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
If we don’t turn our backs on oil, coal & nuclear energy WE ALL DIE, PERIOD! Enough said? Spread!!!
Rev Dele
October 9, 2012 at 8:57 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Nature’s Friends supports “no more ravaging Mother Earth”
Rebecca Waters
October 12, 2012 at 4:28 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
We have to stop the CO2 bombs however we can.
Vincent Pawlowski
October 13, 2012 at 12:21 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Please sign the Association for the Tree of Life onto the letter of support. I am president of ATL, and attended the first Tar Sands Blockade training. Wish I could be there this weekend, but my wife was arrested here in Tucson protesting our local urban coal power plant, and needs my support (and bail!).
Join Our Direct Action Training Camp (Oct 12-14) » Tar Sands Blockade
October 14, 2012 at 5:31 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] 25+ organizations across North America signed onto a letter pledging their [...]
Tar Sands Blockade « Occupy The Polls
October 22, 2012 at 5:11 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] On October 5th several dozen national organizations from several movements signed an open letter in solidarity with the blockade.http://tarsandsblockade.org/opensupportletter/ [...]