The April 7 'Up With Chris Hayes' segments on civil disobedience and the climate movement were excellent, especially the coverage of Tim DeChristopher. None-the-less, there were a few points that I think should have been discussed and deserve further attention.

1. When bringing attention to injustice through civil disobedience, sometimes it is strategic to break an unjust law – like in the case of Thoreau not paying his taxes or the Freedom Riders who sat-in together at segregated lunch counters. Similarly, Tim DeChristopher shut down an illegal auction from proceeding with a spontaneous act of civil disobedience.

But when doing civil disobedience it isn’t necessary to break an unjust law and this is crucial in the context of the climate movement since there are so few opportunities to break unjust laws pertaining directly to climate change. The climate movement will have to find more opportunities like the Tar Sands Action sit-in at the White House where we broke an obscure law prohibiting protest within the “post card zone”. This could entail occupying Congressional offices and campaign headquarters, blocking bridges, using bicycles to block traffic during rush hour, disrupting Congress, etc..  Either way, the fundamental reason for doing civil disobedience is to shine a light on injustice and communicate the urgency of a crisis.

2. Civil disobedience actions must be sustained. Fortunately, the 99% Spring is explicitly building toward this. As we have witnessed over and over, politicians and corporations can ignore single day actions even if the media does its job covering the protest. The 2-week Tar Sands Action at the White House is a prime example. We wouldn’t have received the media attention we did had it been a single day or even weekend long action – there is just too much happening in the world. Actions must be sustained, or else they will be ignored.

3. Activists are more powerful when they do civil disobedience on their own terms. When we occupy and camp out in public spaces we are setting ourselves up for middle of the night raids and police brutality that goes undocumented. The police understand that if they pepper spray and use violence to break up Occupy encampments during the day that videos and photos will end up in the media. In terms of civil disobedience, occupations of public spaces give the state the upper hand. They can force activists to do civil disobedience unexpectedly, whenever they want, at any hour of the night. While this may have fanned the fire, I think it ultimately hands power over to the state. Not always, but actions are usually most effective when they are planned, principled and carried out on the activists’ own terms.
 

4. If we are going to rewire our globe with renewable energy there will need to be a rising tax on carbon pollution. Van Jones mentioned the carbon tax, but there was no discussion about its necessity. At the end of the day we can remove all fossil fuel subsidies and the fossil fuel industry would still be the most profitable in the world. Ending subsidies has to be framed as a stepping-stone to a carbon tax. This reality for some reason has not taken hold in the media and deserves a thorough review.

5. Lastly, civil disobedience in any movement today should primarily be carried out in places where videos, photos, tweets, etc. can be instantly shared with the world. While activists blocking trains filled with coal from leaving Appalachia or standing in front of the machines as they dig the trench for the southern leg of Keystone XL would be honorable actions, in today’s new media driven world it is best when information can be shared instantly. After participating in the 5-day 50-mile March on Blair Mountain and then working as a videographer during the 2-week Tar Sands Action sit-in at the White House I could see a clear distinction. During the march through West Virginia coal country we had very limited cell phone reception and internet access, making it hard to share updates from this incredibly powerful and inspiring action with the outside world. On the other hand, doing civil disobedience at the White House provided the opportunity to easily share stories/updates through social media and YouTube and in turn build awareness.

JUSTICE SERVED

We want justice served

but we don’t want justice served 

on a Styrofoam plate

hot and dry and flooded

We want justice served

in a hand thrown 

earthen bowl with decorations 

that make our jaws drop

We want justice served 

on the mountain top
in the snow

with our community 

held and embraced like a soup

like the one from which we came

justice

for each and every 

mode of divine presence 

on Mother Earth

TRUTH AND SWEET SPOTS

Truth is there are two sweet spots sitting patiently in silent meditation, waiting for us to send them to their nirvana.

Let me try to explain what’s been haunting me.

People are like institutions, in that they both have sweet spots with bundles of nerve endings that when stimulated from the right angle, with the right amount of force and duration, elicit powerful responses. In 2012, the climate movement and the 99% movement must continue to locate these pressure points that will make our demands heard by the guardians of the plutocracy. In my estimation, this means targeting Congress with a civil disobedience campaign with no end date.

Tim DeChristopher found a ingenious sweet spot by posing as a bidder to shut down an illegal 2008 federal oil and gas auction in Utah and then taking his case to trial. In August 2011, Tar Sands Action (like other grassroots campaigns in the past) found one at the White House’s postcard zone, where civil disobedience campaigns get the attention of both the media and the Executive Branch. After 1,253 arrests over a two-week period, the Keystone XL pipeline was soon a major political issue for the Obama administration.

In Washington, in the context of civil disobedience, the key analogy is this: the two galleries from which visitors can disrupt proceedings on the House and Senate floors are to the Legislative Branch as the postcard zone is to the Executive. This is where the grassroots can project its voice and be heard. And fortunately, C-SPAN kindly televises and live streams all civil disobedience actions in Congress.  The place is also packed with media makers of all stripes ready to report on the goings on within the Capitol building.

So whether we take action to call for an amendment to overturn Citizens United, an end to oil subsidies or a carbon tax (or all three simultaneously) we must recognize the need to communicate our demands inside the walls of Congress. Just as DeChristopher realized that staying outside in the cold, holding a protest sign is often fruitless; occupiers and climate activists alike must go inside. It is there we will confront the power holders in person and create a greater tension.

With Keystone stopped for the time being, we must move ahead, swiftly and boldly as a tribe of truth tellers. Our voices, our bodies, and our spirits as bits, we must target the foundations of injustice and ‘Drill, baby drill!’ By the 2012 election it must be clear to incumbents and challengers alike that climate deniers and skeptics will no longer find a work at the Capitol or at the White House. That is the challenge we face as a movement.

We have to prove to ourselves and prove to the corporate oligarchs and corrupted politicians that we are a movement that is not only fighting for fairness, but is also steadfast in our commitment to the truth.

Actually Mr. Gingrich -- We are the 99%

TO REWIRE WITH RENEWABLES THE 99% MUST END

THE TYRANNY OF OIL, GAS AND COAL

As 2012 approaches and movement strategies are being shaped within the 99% movement and the climate justice movement, we stand at a pivotal moment in history. The climate crisis is bearing down on us stronger than ever, the ecological crisis is deepening, and economic, social and environmental injustices are escalating. With our hijacked democracy in gridlock we’ve taken to the streets and sparked what many, including Dr. Cornel West, would describe as a ‘deep democratic awakening’. How do we yield the paradigm level changes that are needed to heal the earth and make our human world both just and sustainable? That’s the question of our time. None-the-less, solving the climate crisis will require us to rewire the globe with renewable energy and put an end to the tyranny of oil, gas and coal. To do this I propose that the 99% movement and the climate justice movement initiate a sustained civil disobedience campaign targeting climate deniers in the U.S. Congress to dramatize the need for their ouster.

To end the extraction and burning of fossil fuels it is necessary to put a rising price on carbon pollution. For Americans, this means that rewiring our country with renewable energy will require the U.S. Congress and our President pass a new law that taxes the most profitable industry in the history of the world. The revenue generated would then be distributed in its entirety on a per capita basis back to the American people to buffer rising energy costs. A monthly dividend check would give the 99% the ability to become more energy efficient and afford the transition to renewable energy. A highly centralized energy sector in which the 1% have become richer and richer would be transformed into a highly decentralized sector in which the 99% power their lives with rooftop solar panels and a host of other renewable energy technologies. This policy is called ‘fee-and-dividend’ – you can download a PDF of a legislative proposal at: www.citizensclimatelobby.org/. If enacted, the thriving fossil fuel industry could potentially be put to an end in the matter of a decade.

Electing a Congress to pass ‘fee-and-dividend’ would require a massive and sustained civil disobedience campaign to shine a light on the urgency of climate change. One of the central lessons we can take away from the Tar Sands Action campaign to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline is that civil disobedience gets the goods. A 2-week long sit-in at the White House led to 1,253 arrests and an explosion in media hits. During the sit-in and in the weeks to follow the American people were educated by our mass media and social media – they learned the who, what, where, when and why of the tar sands in Alberta, Canada. The media and the American people began to evaluate the costs and the benefits of the proposed pipeline and the events that unfolded were nothing short of remarkable. The big environmental groups came together against Keystone, Republicans and Democrats found common ground in opposition, the New York Times wrote a timely editorial and an in-depth investigation of pipeline safety, Nobel laureates a wrote letter to the President, and a State Department scandal broke (among other developments). The Obama administration responded by sending the pipeline proposal back to the drawing board, promising a thorough and independent review that will include climate change. If we had instead decided to pass around a petition, hold permitted protests, submit op-eds to the newspapers, and make phone calls to our elected officials this fight would very likely not have gained the momentum it needed. Of course I think we all wish it weren’t the case, but as history has proven over and over there comes a time when we have no other choice but to take a stand. As the Tar Sands Action and the Occupy movement have demonstrated, it is time for direct action.

If our movements were to get behind this line of reasoning, I believe that it would leads us into a sustained civil disobedience campaign targeting the U.S. House and Senate calling for 1. an immediate end to all fossil fuel subsidies and 2. a comprehensive renewable energy bill centered around ‘fee-and-dividend’. It would trigger a grassroots mobilization with all hands on deck and everyone playing to their strengths. On the ground it would likely mean occupying House and Senate offices and disrupting debate in Congress from the House gallery and the Senate gallery. In addition, mic checking and bird-dogging Congress’ climate deniers would help maintain pressure when Congress was not in session.

A few months ago I disrupted the House of Representatives with 8 others on the day that Power Shift 2011 began. (Here’s a video.) Our intent was to spark a conversation within Power Shift about the need for civil disobedience in the climate movement and to speak directly to our elected officials about the urgency that the climate crisis demands. We were handcuffed by the Capitol police and transported to a D.C. police station where they booked and held us for the afternoon and early evening. In the end, we all took a settlement offer, completed 32-hours of community service for a non-profit of our choosing, and waited out a 4-month stay away from the Capitol grounds. It was a minor sacrifice relative to the suffering endured today by our frontline communities and the suffering to come if we continue to extract and burn fossil fuels. As I look back, disrupting Congress with my fist raised and singing ‘We Shall Overcome’ was the possibly first time I felt fully engaged as an American citizen.

If we were to begin this campaign when Congress reconvened in January 2012 it could potentially put a proposal to end fossil fuel subsidies up for a vote during the 112^th Congress and make ‘fee-and-dividend’ a key election issue in November. While ending fossil fuel subsidies would do little to curb carbon pollution and would only reduce the national debt by an estimated $122 billion over 10-years, it would be a small step in the right direction. Putting a significant price on carbon would get us on the path to a renewable energy future and put the fossil fuel industry in the grave where it belongs. Maybe we’d achieve one or both of these goals during the 112^th and 113^th Congresses, maybe we wouldn’t. What’s critical is that we start to wake up our elected officials and fellow Americans who are asleep at the wheel on climate change. Now is our hour. It’s up to us to end the tyranny of oil, gas, and coal.

Steve Liptay

@Liptay

Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine!

Not Ours to Lose

A selection of videos I put together for Tar Sands Action during the two-week sit-in at the White House (Aug 20 - Sept 3)