Summer of Heat

In the 13 days since the launch of the Summer of Heat, there have been 7 actions and 184 arrests at the headquarters of the world’s largest funder of fossil fuels, Citibank.

This past week was youth and Palestinian solidarity week (which meant that millennials like me got to take a step back and catch our breath). On Tuesday, youth organized a Climate Justice Means Free Palestine rally, which turned into a brief occupation of Citi’s headquarters as young people called out both Citi’s role in the atrocities in Gaza and fossil fuels.

But on Friday, the youth were back, blockading Citi’s HQ with 4 fifteen foot long pipelines that spelled out: Citibank Stop Funding Death.

I don’t know if it was because of the record-breaking heat, or because it was the seventh protest at the headquarters in 10 business days, but whatever the reason, Citi employees were much more irascible than at previous actions.

One middle-aged man in a suit violently pushed a young student. Another kicked a climate defender in the shin. When one climate defender pointed out that hundreds of people have died at the annual hajj pilgrimage due to extreme heat, she was told by a Citi worker to “take a xanax”.

Because, yeah, I suppose taking a numbing painkiller is one way to respond to the fact that corporations like Citibank are pushing our world toward climate breakdown.

It’s been a full two weeks already, but there’s not a lot of time for rest. Starting today is the Summer of Heat – Gulf South Solidarity Week.

As part of one of the largest build-outs of new fossil fuel projects happening anywhere in the world, dozens of new LNG, oil export, and petrochemical projects are slated to be built along the coastlines of Texas and Louisiana. And so, this week, we’re honored to welcome 170+ community organizers and frontline leaders from the Gulf South to New York.

All week, we’ll be organizing actions (there are at least five that I know of), before the week culminates on Friday in the largest Summer of Heat action so far: the Gulf South Rising, Fossil Banks Sinking March and Mass Civil Disobedience.

The goal on Friday is to have 1,000+ people march from Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street was launched in 2011, to the headquarters of Citibank, where more than 100 people will engage in nonviolent civil disobedience to demand an end to fossil fuels. If you’re in New York, I hope you’ll join us―because we need you.

I’m not going to lie. This is tiring. Organizing action after action; working 12, 13, 14 hours a day; it takes a toll. I’ve been arrested three times in the past two weeks; twice at actions when I wasn’t anticipating it. On Friday, I was arrested, without warning, as I tried to calm down an irate security guard. As the heat rises in New York, the temperature at our protests is growing, too.

But, tiring as it may be, as the deadly heat currently scorching the world―from the US and Mexico to the Middle East; from Greece to Egypt― reminds us: the fight to end fossil fuels could not be more important.

And so even if we are tired, the stakes make it easy to keep going. So does the community and the courage and the beauty that is spilling out of this campaign, and the fact that we’re already starting to inspire other actions around the country and the world.

And so on this Sunday, I’m already looking forward to the week ahead.

In Solidarity
– Alec, Stop the Money Pipeline coalition co-director

PS: If you’re wondering what you can do, one of the key things we’re asking people to do right now (besides show up) is to make a donation. If you’re in a position to make a donation, it’s greatly appreciated.

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