Jeanne,
Is your world upside down? Ours too. It’s scary, but there’s also opportunity in this moment.
DO YOU KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS?
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, we are creating a Mutual Aid Neighborhood Pod model to cultivate community resilience throughout the city and beyond. You may have seen mutual aid groups popping up; this is unique in that we are encouraging and enabling people to take leadership within their neighborhoods, suss out what abundance and needs exist there, and provide for each other. We will also put neighborhood captains in contact with one another, so resources can be distributed between different neighborhoods as needed.
These pods should last well beyond the current crisis and create the kinds of resilient communities we will need to face climate and other disasters in the future.
Does this resonate with you? Join a neighborhood pod here, or better yet, sign up to be a pod captain and lead your neighborhood organizing efforts!
Interested in joining our team? Write Meg O or Anna for a Zoom link to our next meeting: April 26 from 2:00–4:00pm!
MORE FUNDING NEEDED
As we struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s never been clearer that we need progressive taxation to provide relief to those on the forefront of the crisis and to build an environmentally just city for everybody. That’s why 350 Seattle joined the coalition for a city-wide big-business tax—now we need your help. As our mutual aid organizing team develops an organic, grassroots response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re also mobilizing to pressure the city council to act boldly for progressive taxation. If you’re interested in the connection between mutual aid and progressive taxation, here are three things you can do right now:
- Watch our webinar and find all sorts of resources for helping out your neighbors in a time of need.
- Sign our petition to city leadership.
- Join a neighborhood pod here, or sign up to be a pod captain!
EARTHDAY LIVE: STRIKE, DIVEST, VOTE
The COVID-19 crisis means that plans for Earth Day 2020 ― a massive youth-led climate strike; protests at thousands of bank branches; and hundreds of actions across the country to hold our politicians accountable ― have had to be radically altered. But even in the face of a global pandemic, the climate crisis isn’t going away, and neither are we.
Between April 22-24, millions of people around the world are going online for a three-day mobilization to stop the climate emergency. You can sign up to join here.
Day One, April 22nd, will feature voices of the youth-led climate strike movement, as the climate movement demonstrates its collective power through storytelling and community building.
Day Two, April 23rd, will focus on the money pipeline enabling the climate crisis ― holding Wall Street, Congress, and the White House accountable for their role in funding, insuring, and investing in the fossil fuel industry.
Day Three, April 24th, will be a nationwide online youth voter registration day.
All three days will feature both local and national live streams, strategic online actions, community signing and actions, well-known celebrity voices and musical acts, and interviews with climate movement leaders and frontline leaders from across the country, including lead organizers in the resistance to the Keystone XL and Line 3 pipelines.
And more importantly, all three days will be deeply rooted in our current moment of health and economic crisis that is causing such suffering around the world. Sign up here to join Earth Day LIVE.
PEOPLE’S BAILOUT
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the substantial fault lines in our current economic system: a failed healthcare system, income and wealth inequality, and low-income and frontline communities forced to continue to work under unsafe conditions.
As Congress considers more COVID-19 legislation, groups around the country are asking Congress to connect these dots while demanding a People’s Bailout.
Join the chorus of voices for the People’s Bailout by calling your Congressional representative as well as our US Senators, Patty Murray, (206) 553-5545 and Maria Cantwell, (206) 220-6400.
Demand a just recovery that prioritizes and funds those who have been hit first and worst by COVID-19 and the current recession. Congress must not leave anyone behind—not our working families, health workers, Black and Latinx communities, undocumented immigrants, indigenous peoples, or people who are homeless or housing-insecure.
WORSE THAN BUSINESS AS USUAL
It’s not just the fossil fuel companies taking advantage of this moment — the Trump administration has declared fossil fuel projects like the KXL expansion “essential business”, and state legislatures around the US are quietly passing fossil fuel industry-backed anti-protest laws.
But this thread of tweets captures an intense summary of the cynical climate predation being perpetrated by fossil fuel dead-enders in this vulnerable time.
Here are four examples where you can take action…
TRANS MOUNTAIN
First Nations were back in court last Monday to file a new appeal to the Canadian Supreme Court challenging the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. But right now, even with the whole country in lock-down, construction continues at tanker terminals in Burnaby.
Although crowds can’t gather in the streets or outside the courthouse, we want indigenous nations to know they have thousands of people behind them. Pull Together is hosting a briefing and Q&A gathering online:
Pull Together: First Nations Appeals against TMX
Tuesday, April 7, 4:00pm
Join the conversation here.
Join to hear about this new Supreme Court challenge directly from Tsleil Waututh Chief Leah George, Khelsilem Tl’aḵwasik̓a̱n of Squamish Nation, legal expert Eugene Kung, and Pull Together’s own Mary Lovell. And you can support the legal fund here.
COASTAL GASLINK
Pre-construction activity has ramped up on the Coastal GasLink pipeline project, even as COVID-19 has already appeared in the LNG Canada man camp. Here are two things you can do:
First, tell JP Morgan Chase and KKR to stop banking on Coastal GasLink today! Companies like Chase and KKR actively perpetuate the destruction of stolen indigenous lands to fuel the climate crisis.
Second, sign this petition calling for the immediate shut down of work camps in British Columbia, including Site C, Coastal GasLink and Trans Mountain. Workers should be sent home to isolate with their families; the rotation of new workers into camps must stop before the virus spreads into local communities that lack the healthcare infrastructure to take care of the sick.
KALAMA METHANOL
Shameless: In the midst of a global pandemic and a local public health crisis, backers of the Kalama fracked gas-to-methanol refinery are pressuring the Department of Ecology to shortcut their review of this climate-wrecking proposal. So far, Ecology is standing firm—following the law and requiring a thorough analysis of the proposed refinery’s climate-changing pollution.
Let’s reinforce that: tell Ecology to stay the course on the Kalama Methanol Refinery.
If we remain connected and vigilant in this difficult time, we can stop the world’s largest fracked gas-to-methanol refinery and the decades of pollution it would impose on Kalama residents and future generations.
KEYSTONE XL
As the novel coronavirus forces social distancing and community lockdowns, TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) is about to endanger thousands of workers by sending them into rural and tribal communities along the path of its proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Those communities are unequipped to handle the public health threat, much less the increased crime and sexual violence–especially targeting indigenous women–that arises from pipeline worker “man camps.”
Take action with this petition calling on TC Energy to immediately halt all “pre-construction” activity on the Keystone XL project and recall all workers it has already dispatched into the small rural and tribal communities of Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska.
Next, tell Liberty Mutual to stop insuring tar sands. Demand that they stop fueling climate chaos and human rights abuses and drop insurance coverage of the Keystone XL and Trans Mountain pipelines and rule out insuring Line 3 and the entire tar sands sector.
SOLIDARITY
Disestablishment of Mashpee Reservation
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the very tribe that welcomed the Pilgrims in the 1600s, is at risk of losing what is left of their homelands due to a determination by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Litigation to uphold their status as a tribe eligible for the benefits of the Indian Reorganization Act is ongoing, yet the Trump Administration is moving to take their lands out of trust during our current public health emergency.
The Mashpee Wampanoag, the People of the First Light, have occupied the same region for over 12,000 years and have faced diminishment of their homelands since colonization. The latest decision is a blow to tribal sovereignty and undermines the future and sustainability of the tribal nation. The tribe is asking to protect its reservation lands and has put forth the “Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act.” Please add your signature in support of this legislation!
Next, call Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, (202) 224-2551, and urge him to support the forward movement of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act (Senate Bill 2628).
Shutdown Northwest Detention Center
Join a webinar hosted by La Resistencia and learn more about the campaign to shut down the for-profit immigration prison in Tacoma.
Shutdown NWDC Forum 2.0 Webinar
Sunday, April 19, 1:00–3:00pm
Webinar link coming soon! Sign up for La Resistencia’s email list here or follow them on Facebook.
The private prison ban bill was gutted in the legislature and now we’re in the midst of the coronavirus crisis! The Shutdown Coalition will share plans during this forum to pivot and prioritize our Shutdown NWDC energies in 2020. We know we have the power of the people and that we are well positioned to win this campaign!
CRUISING TOWARDS CLIMATE COLLAPSE
Sure, the outbreak of COVID-19 has shown how the cruise industry is the perfect breeding ground for viral illness, but let’s not ignore the constant health threat the cruise industry poses to passengers, crew members, coastal communities and neighborhoods near ports of call: the ships’ smokestack emissions. And for those living near flight paths, the health risks come from cruise passengers flying into SeaTac airport, as the overwhelming majority of them do.
On top of those direct health impacts, consider the indirect costs of exacerbating the climate emergency by expanding a non-essential, greenhouse gas-intensive industry, while failing to reach local or global emissions reductions goals.
Add it all up and you have a public health burden that our community should not be asked to bear. As elected Port of Seattle Commissions President, Peter Steinbrueck said recently: “This region is in a public health emergency and we will cancel the first two sailings of our cruise season; the health, safety, and wellbeing of our residents is our top priority.”
We ask in return: if the health, safety and well-being of our residents is top priority, how can you justify continued support of building a new cruise terminal?
To learn more about the health and environmental impacts of cruise on our community, please follow Seattle Cruise Control or contact Stacy to receive email alerts about important dates and ways to plug in.
PEOPLE POWER
The campaign to create a Public Utility District (PUD) in east King County, replacing Puget Sound Energy and its dirty fossil fuels as the provider of electrical power is going strong but they need your help!
The current COVID-19 crisis, with its necessary “Stay at Home” order and restrictions on large gatherings, has created a major roadblock. To get on the ballot this November, the campaign needs to collect 35,000 signatures by June from registered voters in the proposed PUD area. Because climate change is an issue that will not wait, even in the midst of a global pandemic, the East King County PUD campaign is determined to forge ahead.
Do you live, work or have friends and family in East King County? Please request a petition signature sheet! We have three months and thousands of signatures to gather, but we can make it happen! (While practicing appropriate social distancing.)
Please email Barbra Chevalier, with your name and mailing address. She will snail mail you a petition along with a self-addressed, stamped, return envelope, and email you instructions for gathering signatures. You can also request a petition by visiting www.ekc-pud.org/sign-the-petition.
CALLING ELECTRIC GRID NERDS
Last year’s Clean Energy Transformation Act decreed that the electric sector must decarbonize. Victory! But how exactly will our local for-profit greenwasher, Puget Sound Energy actually do that? Ruh-roh!
After stakeholder pressure, PSE has adopted a new public engagement process. But will they follow it? The next iteration of their recurring 20-year planning process starts this month and runs until Feb 2021, with Zoom meetings and online webinars in May, and equity workshops in August and October. Citizen oversight is needed!
Do you have marathon stamina and a high tolerance for technical mumbo jumbo? Contact David to get involved.
OLYMPIA WRAP UP
This year’s legislative session in Olympia ended with improved climate pollution targets, yes, but little to no meaningful climate action, despite some heavy lifting from 350 WA’s Civic Action Team. Read 350 WA’s take on the session here—and foreshadowing future spending cuts, the Governor’s 147 line item vetoes, canceling almost a half billion dollars, are summarized here.
KEEPING PEOPLE HOUSED
Caring for each other now could be the start of building the world we want to see. At the same time as the pandemic has revealed deep cracks in the system, here in Washington state and elsewhere we’ve suddenly developed the political will to get people some of the help they need:
- Eviction moratoria in Seattle, Washington, some other cities and states and even in HUD-owned public housing.
- Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac foreclosure moratoria (but many homes and small business mortgages are still due in April).
- The housing of 400 homeless people in hotels, not shelters by King County.
- A pause in navigation team sweeps that steal people’s belongings and destroy their only homes—let’s make that permanent!
- A Seattle City Council resolution calling for emergency federal and state rent and mortgage relief without repayment.
Call for renter stories
Thanks to everyone who wrote letters and made phone calls asking for temporary eviction bans—Seattle led the way, and the state of Washington followed.
This is only the beginning—there are loopholes, and many laid-off workers (particularly undocumented people) won’t be able to pay back rent at the end of the moratorium. The Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, and Seattle City Council President Lorena Gonazlez, have each asked for help figuring out what holes need to be filled and building the strongest possible case to get renters the help they need. If you have a story about the struggle to stay housed, a policy idea, or a community request, share it with the Housing Alliance here, and either email your thoughts to CD19_rent@seattle.gov or fill out this form.
Our housing work right now
We’re focused on the big business tax (most of which would go to affordable housing) and protecting people from evictions. Email Alice if you’d like to help with that.
Buildings matter!
Our buildings account for a full third of our greenhouse gas emissions. How can we fix that?
Cities Climate Action Webinar: Focus on Buildings
Saturday, May 2, 9:30–11:00am, Q&A to 11:30am
More information here, webinar registration here.
Learn what the organization Architecture 2030 has done with a few U.S. cities to address the buildings emissions challenge through public policies. Bring questions and take notes!
TRANSPORTATION UPDATE
In the time of COVID-19, with empty streets, quiet skies, cleaner air, and thousands working from home, we see immediate needs and long-term opportunity.
Buses are running
Metro bus ridership is down 72%, and Metro has announced free rides and rear-door boarding, as well as its second round of service cuts, in effect Monday, April 6. Some trips have been restored to ensure social distancing. Other bus systems have also gone rear-door and fare-free. Community Transit driver Scott Ryan has died, and drivers nationwide are pushing for safer practices and more Personal Protective Equipment—see Amalgamated Transportation Union demands here.
Transit rider survey
Transit Riders Union is collecting rider stories and data to help better advocate for what transit riders need right now. If you ride transit, please take their short survey.
Transit funding
And now might be a good time to thank our members of Congress for the $25 billion in transit emergency operating assistance included in the CARES act. During the push for that aid, we learned that 36% of transit trips carry essential workers to work. We’ll need transit even more as economic stresses make car commutes unaffordable for many workers. Washington will get $500 million of that aid, but with plummeting sales tax and farebox revenues, not to mention I-976, we’ll need local funding to get and keep the transit we need. Here’s the best thinking we’ve found on this, by TRU’s Katie Wilson.
#Streets4People campaign
Closing streets with little traffic is inexpensive and immediately creates space for Seattleites to get out and move by bike or on foot while maintaining a healthy social distance. Bogotá has led the way, closing 75 miles of streets to cars to create a network of pedestrian and bike-only lanes. Mexico City, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia are all considering emergency bike networks and street-closures for pedestrians. We’re calling on Seattle to prioritize pedestrians, bikes, and wheelchairs now, so we can all get outside safely!
If you want to join this campaign, please let us know! We need folks to help build the #Streets4people campaign from the ground up. If you’d rather throw down for actions or key moments later (like virtually ’showing up’ to city council), let us know that too and we’ll be in touch. Please reach out to Ingrid!
To catch up on what other cities are doing, check out this Stranger story, and tweets from The Urbanist and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways; for specific proposals for Seattle, check out the Seattle Bike Blog.
Here are two of our posts on Facebook and Twitter, please like, comment and share to help amplify the issue!
ARTFUL ACTIVISM
We welcome all skill levels in any art form, but during these stay home, stay healthy times some skills are needed more than ever!
We’re looking for people with tech, graphic design, and video skills! Yep, we’re thinking How-to Webinars, coordinated individual art actions, and more, so we can still be impactful and connected with art across distance! Comfortable with Zoom, webinar, web presentations? Let’s talk!
We’re also looking for collaborators! How do we use art to talk about the COVID-19 pandemic and the ever-present climate crises? How do we stay sensitive but continue to talk about systems of oppression that are still affecting us? How do we do that through art? Contact Lisa if you’re interested.
CRISIS Art Online Gallery
In response to COVID-19 and in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, CRISIS Art Online Gallery is launching an open call for artwork around the themes of our planet, mental health, rising pandemics, social and climate justice, and wellness to be highlighted in this virtual, collective art gallery. (CRISIS = Creating Resilience In Social Isolation Solidarity.)
YOUR ART HAS POWER! Art can heal and art can bring us together while we are apart in this era of physical distancing. They are accepting digital images of visual art like drawings and paintings, graphics, animations, poetry, spoken word, photography, video performances, music recordings, etc., to be in an online gallery of community creations during this unprecedented time in history.
The CRISIS Art Website Gallery will be going live on Earth Day, April 22nd. You can also post your creations to social media with the hashtag #CRISISArt–that’s how we’re tagging our posts about the website, updates, and winners!
Email submissions or questions to: ssaCRISISArt@gmail.com. Let your creativity be seen, heard, celebrated, loved, and act as a compass guiding us out of this storm.
CALL ON US
We want you to know that we are here for you. If you need to be sung to, call us: 206-472-2167 (Ahlay’s cell phone). If you need a relative to be sung to, call us. If someone you know, or love is dying and needs to be sung to—call us. If there is a funeral… call on us. This is how we are choosing to show up for our community. This is our contribution to a more beautiful world we know is possible.
And we are having our first online song teach-in!
The People’s Echo Online Song Teach-in
Wednesday, April 15, 6:00–8:00pm
More info on this shareable event page, or email Ahlay.
DROP-IN HOURS
Hello, my beautiful friends, I hope you all are staying home and staying healthy. With the Stay Home order extended until May, Drop-In Hours will be cancelled for April. Have questions? Interested in some simple at-home tasks? Please contact Shemona with your interest!
THINGS WE’RE READING
Now is the time to study up on disaster capitalism.
Here’s that maddening FF dead-ender thread again.
This is something that inspires us.
Stay strong and be well!
______________________________
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350 Seattle
1127 10th Ave. East #1
Seattle, WA 98102
United States