Hello Friends.

Welcome to the March Edition of the 350 Seattle Newsletter, your monthly digest from all the different teams, campaigns, and individuals that make up this extended family. Stay warm and stay safe!

Prop 1A won a resounding victory! Seattle chose to tax wealthy corporations to fund permanently affordable, publicly owned, mix-income, green social housing.

We supported House Our Neighbors (HON) in this effort since early 2024, and we are honored to share a piece of this win. HON’s incredible leadership and vision brought us one step closer to housing justice for our communities.

Prop 1A was up against the Chamber of Commerce, Microsoft, Amazon, the Mayor and a majority of our City Council. They introduced an alternative, Prop 1B, designed to siphon $10 million from an existing revenue source that traditionally funds affordable housing. They intentionally pushed Prop 1A to the special election ballot in February, with full knowledge that special elections have lower turnout than general elections.

Corporate interests came in with nearly half a million dollars in less than a month to kill Prop 1A. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on deceptive mailers, signed by Mayor Harrell. Well. It’s safe to say our opposition’s efforts failed big time. Turnout was not only higher than in previous years, but Prop 1A claimed the win by a margin of over 25%. For a deep dive analysis on how the Prop 1A campaign earned this victory, check out this piece.

350 Seattle decided to support this campaign because housing justice and climate justice are deeply intertwined. Social housing is an intersectional solution to the climate crisis – it will help tackle deep-rooted inequities in housing, bring down climate pollution, create high-quality skilled union jobs, and improve overall quality of life for many of our communities. And now this future is entirely possible and within reach thanks to Prop 1A.

This win in Seattle has the potential to bring with it ripple effects across the county, state and perhaps even the country. And with the devastation being wrought by the Trump Administration, I think we all needed this. The Prop 1A win shows that local action and organizing are indeed more important than ever, and are the most powerful tools we have to effect change.

Join House Our Neighbors for a post election celebration on March 4th. RSVP HERE.

I saw you: on Zoom freaking out over these new executive orders, but then you turned that despair into action. You made a compelling video that encourages folks to take legislative action at the state level! That was really cool and I think you rock

Join the 350 WA Civic Action Team and you’ll receive two Action Alerts in your inbox each week of the session, with astonishingly easy to take actions on dozens and dozens of climate and justice bills.

Sign up today! We have the chance to pass state policies on energy, clean air, transportation, housing, forestry, salmon, recycling, human justice, and so much more.

Even if you are busy and only have 5 minutes a week to take action with us, it all adds up.

So far this legislative session we’ve taken a collective total of over 19,000 advocacy actions together. We’re making climate justice impossible to ignore in Olympia, and you’re invited to join the 350 WA CAT!

Welcome back to the Research Team Fun Facts Corner, where we share some of the projects we’ve researched with information about nice things we could have. This month’s fun fact is that King County owns more than 200 parcels of land that could easily be developed into affordable housing units, so the nice thing we are oh so close to having is…

County-wide social housing! 🏘️💚

Prop1A winning by a 26-point margin makes it clearer than ever that social housing is a powerful model for addressing the housing crisis, and King County is slowly getting in on the action. Last year King County Council approved the first steps toward CM Zahilay’s proposal for a $1 billion workforce housing initiative that closely matches the definition of Seattle’s own social housing model. Thanks to some research team members showing up to give public comment, and following the lead of the Seattle Social Housing Developer, it even contains initial language about building to Passive House standards!

Are you pumped about social housing, curious about its future in King County, or want to do research that informs meaningful action? Email Ammar or Linnea to learn more about the research team’s projects and get involved!

I saw you: connecting with each other and focusing on our inclusive goals, despite right-wing attempts to overwhelm and divide us.

For 30 years the Northwest Forest Plan has directed management in National Forests across western Washington, Oregon and northern California — over 24.5 million acres. The original aim was to protect and restore old-growth forests and health stream habitat for threatened species, while still allowing commercial logging.

Shortcomings to the original plan include the Forest Service’s failure to meaningfully consult with federally recognized Tribes. A revision process was begun in 2015, shelved during the first Trump administration and resumed in 2023 with a federal advisory committee (FAC). In 2024 the FAC’s consensus recommendations included significant changes regarding Tribal inclusion in forest management, authorizing Indigenous cultural burning, prescribed burning and managed wildfire to further community sustainability and restore ecological integrity.

Now the Forest Service has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement that could expand Tribal inclusion across the NWFP area through expanded cultural harvesting and access, co-stewardship agreements, fire stewardship, workforce development, and youth education.

Please take a moment to sign on to this letter calling for the full suite of Tribal inclusion measures to be adopted.

Tribal inclusion is only part of the story, though! To dig in more check out this robust comment toolkit from PNW Forest Climate Alliance — it covers the background of the NWFP, the good and bad parts of the DEIS and includes a sample comment for you to adapt and personalize. Get your comment in by March 17th!

Climate Community Night is the time when all our community members–from long-term volunteers to newly engaged activists to climate-curious folks– come together to eat, build community, and take action together.

March 6, 2025 at the 350 Seattle office. RSVP here!

March’s gathering is all about climate justice in Olympia and the work of our Civic Action Team (CAT)! Also, it’s gonna be cat-themed! You may be thinking, didn’t that happen last month? No, because it snowed! But it’s a long legislative session, and CAT (and cats) are intrepid in the face of obstacles and minor setbacks, so here we go again!

Did you miss that it’s gonna be cat-themed? The furry kind 😀 We’ll kick things off with a cutest cat contest, the winner to be featured in the April newsletter (decide by ranked choice voting, of course). Send your cutest kitty pic to jess@350seattle.org.

This is a family friendly event; all ages and abilities are welcome. Bring yourself, for sure, and if you can, something for the potluck! Feel free to pop in for as long as you are able, or come for the whole evening–in any case, we hope to see you there!

Greetings from the 350 Seattle Anti-War x Climate Collective workgroup (AWxCC). Our new meeting time is on the 4th Wednesday of each month 6:30-7:30 PM. We’re going to start using the open source conferencing app Jitsi, instead of Zoom! Contact Mary to join the team Signal thread. The meeting invite will be shared there.

Want to try out getting involved? Here are two specific projects we invite new and continuing volunteers to:

 

Re-Imagine Seafair…Without the Blue Angels: Help us create a survey for sharing among communities most impacted by the annual military air show in Seattle, and across Seattle/King County communities. Contact Aedan.

Boycott Chevron: weekly protests against Chevron’s role in fueling Israel’s apartheid and genocide. This is a targeted boycott that is part of the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) movement and supported by American Friends Service Committee. IG @seattlechevronbds. Every Saturday 2-4pm  at the Shoreline Chevron 15510 Aurora Ave N. If you would like to help one of our members as a liaison to the local Chevron boycott group, please contact Mary.

And here are two upcoming events to put on your calendar!

March 11, 6:30-8pm, Seattle Anti-War Coalition (SAWC) online meeting with Friends of the Congo: Learn about the worsening war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its links to the extraction of cobalt and other rare earths for battery production. Register here to attend the online discussion.

April 11-12, 9am-5pm both days: “Rebuilding the Anti-Nuclear Weapons Movement Together,” free and open to the public, 2-day conference sponsored by WA Physicians for Social Responsibility on behalf of WA Against Nuclear War (350 Seattle is a member of the WANW coalition). Friday-Saturday with optional road trip Sunday to Ground Zero in Poulsbo, next to Naval Base Bangor. The conference will take place at Seattle First Baptist Church (1111 Harvard Ave. Seattle, 98122 on Capitol Hill). Register here to attend.

I saw you: The recycling in the office was overflowing and I noticed some really insightful thoughts and ideas about public transit and Green New Deal in Seattle??

Join REI workers to launch their VOTE NO campaign on REI’s corporate Board of Directors!

The REI Board recently shocked members by endorsing billionaire and big oil ally, Doug Burgum, to run the Department of Interior, threatening our public lands including national parks, public lands, fish and wildlife. Burgum has said his first order of business is opening public lands up to oil drilling, and roll back protections for endangered species.

REI has rejected the board candidacy application of our very own Shemona Moreno and is expected to reject Tefere Gebre of Greenpeace USA as a board candidate as well. REI’s Board is out of control in other ways, including:

REI is accused of union busting, including hiring the anti-union law firm Morgan Lewis, “which has worked for Amazon and Trump, and is currently echoing Elon Musk’s contentions that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is unconstitutional.”

REI staff REI is risking REI employee health and safety and violating OSHA laws.

REI staff say REI is ignoring sexual harassment issues.

REI is accused of sourcing from companies that violate labor and human rights.

REI changed its rules to ban staff from running for the board of directors

REI just can’t do anything right these days. Join us for a rally at REI HQ Monday at 12.

Looking for ways to fight the coup?

The Troublemakers got you! Elon Musk’s DOGE is on a crime spree, bringing down our infrastructure, safety net, and democracy—so Troublemakers is helping to organize the #TeslaTakedown. The first protest was about 40 folks, then nearly 100, then 350+. We’re having actions EVERY SATURDAY.

Want to help organize, strategize, or fill a role?

If you can only show up for now, actions are listed weekly at teslatakedown.com.

On Fridays, stand in solidarity with federal workers and stand against the coup, at Federal Building Fridays, 915 2nd Ave., 11:30am-1:30pm. Bring banners! Bring chants and songs, pots and pans! Or just come—your support is most important of all.

The Aviation Team now is part of a “yes” campaign for more frequent and reliable rail service as an alternative to the expansion of SeaTac airport. We are looking for a volunteer to help figure out which unions might benefit from this and how.

We are also part of the King County International Airport Community Coalition, which is focusing on leaded fuel used in small planes. We’d like there to be unleaded options before all the private jets descend for the Men’s FIFA World Cup in 2026. (Well, actually, we’d like no one to take private jets, but at a minimum it shouldn’t harm the health of children living near Boeing Field.)

If any of this interests you, contact Laura to get involved or register here for our next Team meeting on March 11 from 7-8 pm, on Zoom.

Due to the strong headwinds we’re currently facing on federal policy action, the Federal Policy Team is expanding our scope to include policy action at the state level. In the last few months we have been working on a couple of projects at the state level–our Agriculture subgroup is helping to push a bill in the Washington State legislature that would monitor methane. We’re working on a campaign to push Governor Ferguson to petition the EPA to monitor microplastics as a water toxin. Please sign the petition to urge him to do so here.

We’d love to see you in person! Please join us at Federal Building Fridays, which we are organizing along with other groups including the Troublemakers. Every Friday from 11:30-1:30,  some of us will rally, chant, sing and speak in front of the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building, 915 2nd Ave, Seattle, to show solidarity with federal workers and every vulnerable group scapegoated by the Trump administration!

We meet the first Wednesday of every month at 5pm. To find out more and take more actions, please join our next meeting, March 5th at 5 pm. We will discuss our recent meeting with a staff member from Rep. Jayapal’s DC office, our campaign to help stop plastic pollution, our plans to help stop the Trump/Musk agenda, and more! To get the Zoom link, sign up for our listserv. Or, email either Beth or Linnea.

Friday, March 7 ⋅ 5:45 – 8:00PM we are hosting the Climate Action Families Climate Justice Honors!

To the upside down and back! This is our yearly party to honor and give awards to CAF’s Climate Champions!Our climate alliance is sturdy even when it feels like our planet has flipped upside down. On Friday, March 7th, we celebrate a year of action and major milestones in our community with a Party!

Dinner, awards, and Eggo Waffle ice cream bar. 80s gear optional but encouraged! RSVP HERE

On Saturday, March 29th, we are also hosting a Youth Climate Justice Intro Training.

Join us or another fun-filled youth training to practice activism and join the climate alliance! We’ll have games, art, movement, and hands-on activities to make learning about environmental action fun- and empower the next generation of our climate alliance.

Accessibility and Inclusion: Our priority is inclusivity, ensuring everyone interested can join us in this vital effort. This training is FREE, lunch is included, and the building is ADA-accessible.

⭐ These trainings are welcome to everyone- new participants and returning participants all encouraged! Participants from grades 3rd to 8th grades will dive into the essentials of effective advocacy for a just and sustainable future.

RSVP HERE

Interested in joining a supportive space to learn together and engage in thoughtful discussions?  Then consider joining Book Club for one of our upcoming meetings!

On March 9th, we will be discussing the science fiction classic ‘The Dispossessed’ by Ursula K. Le Guin.  Our first discussion touched on a variety of topics including individual versus collective decision-making, utopias, anarchy, and the role of society.  We are looking forward to our second and final discussion from 2:30-4:30 both on Zoom and in-person at the 350 office.

March 23rd and April 6th, we will be discussing ‘A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy’ by Jane McAlevey.  As community organizers, we have much that we can learn from the histories of unions.  We are looking forward to learning more about how we can collaborate with unions and what their history can teach us as climate organizers.

You can check out our complete reading list for the year here.

We also wanted to share that we are currently exploring ways to share the thoughts and lessons from what we learn with the broader community.  We aren’t sure on the exact format, but we are hoping to share some lessons we learned the first two months of 2025 around Elite Capture and Non-reformist Reforms with everyone in the next month or two.  Stay tuned!

If you are interested in staying connected with the Book Club, you can sign up through this form and we will get you looped in to our emails and signal channel!

Times of crisis remind us that we need one another. When the scope and scale of the problems we face seem insurmountable, and the news media feeds our fears and anxieties, we need to remember that we are not alone.

Come join us for the next Climate Grief and Empowerment Group, where we process our climate-related emotions in community. We meet monthly on every second Saturday.Together, we’ll engage in collective practices that deepen our capacity for dwelling with difficult emotions and strengthen strategies for coping in uncertain times.

Our upcoming Climate Grief and Empowerment Group Monthly Gatherings are:

Saturday, March 8th, from 10:00 am to 11:45am, and
Saturday, April 12th, from 10:00 am to 11:45am

Register here for each session you plan to attend.

We welcome adults (18+) for as many or as few meetings as you would like! The Climate Grief and Empowerment Group is co-sponsored by 350 Seattle and Climate Action Families, out of the recognition that ongoing emotional support plays a critical role in building community resilience and robust social movements.

In case you missed it, last month we shared an interview with Lisa, our Artful Team lead.

Art, performance, and music are critical parts of movements for social change. Got skills you want to share? Or just enjoy making art, singing, or drumming? Or want to do some backend non-art type of art support role? We need you! Join our Artful team!

Join the Artful Team and/or the Artful Alerts list!
Sign up here to get on the Artful email list for monthly info on upcoming community art opportunities and to let us know your skill sets! (Scroll all the way down that web page to sign up.) Skills welcome and appreciated! AND… no art experience yet? no problem! Join us! We’ll teach you as you go! You’ll love to be part of making the art for our actions in a supportive, learning, fun, and connecting atmosphere with other people who care enough to show up, and who accept you as you are. Come have fun with us, building powerful beauty for the movement, getting out there with us to put that art into action at events and actions!

RSVP for Upcoming Art Builds! No experience needed, just energy and smiles! Join us for camaraderie while doing meaningful, beautiful and powerful work!

Huge Gratitude to all those who have been coming out and to those also who have stayed late or come in again to finish pieces so they are ready in time! We so appreciate you!

Next Mini Art Build: Thursday, March 6: 6:30-8:30 Climate Community Night at the 350 Seattle office in the U-District: Come get a taste of working on art and meet a couple of us at the artful table, and meet and get to know many 350 Seattle people, teams, and opportunities in this fabulous space with a potluck as well!

Next Art Build: Saturday, March 8th, 1-5pm, Capital Hill near light rail. Join us for a lovely time together in a new space!! RSVP for details.

Put Art into Action – Want an important job at actions and events – to show up as you are able to transport, set up/take down the art, invite people to participate and see that it’s displayed well with the support of art leads? Please sign up to learn more!

Want to be even more involved? We are always welcoming new people into our teams of volunteers, those who help others participate (with art leads support) and our leads team itself. Maybe you’re experienced in facilitating, or organizing, or have skills in performance arts (theater, spoken word, music, dance, and beyond), visual arts (graphic design, painting, drawing, screen printing, building props, sewing, and so much more). Or maybe you are an organized person, or you like data and want to help with the imagery or photo library behind the scenes, or people with creative strategic humor and energy who like to brainstorm.  We also need people at art builds, and more with skill sets like DJs, snacks setup and cleanup, and welcomer – is that you? (See the Volunteer Opportunities Doc linked at the end of the newsletter for more details.)

Whatever calls you to the Artful Team, this team is for you! Contact Lisa at art@350seattle.org

Here’s another way you can participate to create a more resilient activist community!

Resources Lists Coordinator: We’re looking for a volunteer for 1-2 hours /wk at home on your own time to upkeep our Activist, Community, and local BIPOC business Resources Lists!

Data and people outreach skills/willingness to learn is all you need! contact lisamarcus@350seattle.org for more info.

Do you have a skill or service you would like to offer at low or no cost to the 350 Seattle activist community as a way to take part in and support the work we do? No matter your strengths and skills, there is a place for you! Maybe you’re able to offer tax prep help, or a free acupuncture session, or pet sitting. All skills are welcome! Please fill out this form with your own offerings, and we’ll reach out to confirm details. We’re excited to hear from you!

Consider patronizing local Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) -owned businesses! Here is a list of some local community BIPOC businesses to support, with additional lists linked at the bottom. Can you pick one new BIPOC-owned business to support this month??

Lastly, take a minute to bookmark our Community Activist Resource List, full of helpful resources of all kinds. Feel free to share with others in our broader movement community who may be interested!

“A huge shout out to Annie who has been making sure that Climate Community Nights move forward and grow. In particular, she has worked hard to create systems that make it easier for us to host these events monthly and make each month’s event relevant to the work we are doing across the organization.” – Ryan

“I am excited to celebrate our incredible team of Co-Leads in the CAT Campaign’s Bill Tracker Team – David C, Max, and Zach! We had a need for more leadership this year to guide and support our fabulous team of policy trackers, and these three stepped up into the role of Co-Leads last fall and have done an absolutely wonderful job! Thank you for sharing your time and talents with us and making it possible for our big team to thrive in this long legislative session. You three are much appreciated!” – Grace 

“Shout out to the CAT team for ongoing support of our efforts in this year’s State legislative session!” – Laura

Want a way to search all of the ways you can be involved with 350 Seattle? We compiled a (nearly) comprehensive list that is deemed the Volunteer Opportunities Doc. Our teams keep this document updated so if between newsletters you are scratching your head, this resource is for you.

Solidarity,

– 350 Seattle Staff Collective