Frankly, next month’s election is critical to our ability to protect the climate that sustains us hinges on the outcome of next month’s election. And since the incumbent has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, the best way to prevent a stolen election is to make sure it is a landslide.
DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
There are only 23 days until the election. Whatever can we do? Well, two decades ago, political scientists Alan Gerber and Donald Green kicked off the empirical literature on how to mobilize voters with their book Get Out The Vote. The book’s fourth edition was released last year and it remains one of the best sources of evidence on what maximizes voter turnout. Its conclusions? If we want people to vote this November, we should be getting on the phones.
There are excellent voter mobilization phone banks happening every day between now and the election, and we strongly encourage you to sign up for one:
Phonebank with NextGen America
Every day, multiple times
RSVP and more details here.
New to phone-banking? NextGen has excellent trainings, Wednesdays at 2:00pm.
Phonebank with 350.org and the Environmental Voter Project
Multiple days, various times
Sign up here.
Whatever we do, let’s make sure that when November 4th rolls around, we have no regrets―that we can wake up knowing that we’ve done everything we can to make sure as many people as possible got out and voted.
PREPARE TO DEFEND
Let’s be honest, Donald Trump is trying to cheat and steal this election because he knows he is losing. The chances that there will be a need for popular mobilization to defend the election results after November 3rd appear high. Groups across the country have been coming together and organizing to ensure that every vote is counted, and the people swear in a duly elected government in January.
At 350 Seattle we’ve been making plans and preparations for how we can have the strongest impact locally. Here’s a great way to get your head around this topic, offered at two different times:
Preparing to Defend the Election: How to Plug in Locally
Thursday, October 15, 5:30–7:00pm
Register for Thursday here.
Tuesday, October 20, 6:00–7:30pm
Register for Tuesday here.
Join us for an informational meeting to learn more about national strategies for protecting the results and how you can plug in locally! And if you want to help create banner art for #EveryVoteCounts, contact Lisa.
INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY
Monday is a day of celebration of and by Indigenous People, Communities, and Cultures.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Monday, October 12, 2:00pm
Virtual, hosted by Daybreak Star, available here and on the Seattle Channel.
The City of Seattle, after extensive pressure from the Indigenous community and allies, re-named the second Monday in October to honor Native American cultures and traditions, rather than calling it “Columbus Day.” You can learn more here about this national effort, then check out the celebrations around the country and right here in Seattle through the month of October.
Real Rent Duwamish
For those of us who are not Indigenous to this place, one way we are asked to support and acknowledge that we are living on stolen Coast Salish Land, is to pay Real Rent to the Duwamish. They are a 700+ member tribe who have been fighting for Federal recognition for many years and still don’t receive Federal assistance.
Andwe invite you to join our deep dive into the history of Indigenous resistance to the expansion of the U.S. empire.
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Wednesday, October 21, 6:00–7:30pm
Online discussion of Chapters 10–end.
To join, email bookclub@350Seattle.org.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
As the election draws our attention, and it must, we understand that climate justice requires racial justice and deep systemic change addressing the intertwined crises we face. Thank you for all the ways you are participating on and off the streets!
Opportunities
Calendar of all BLM events in Seattle in all neighborhoods, by many groups.
Important protest guides and safety info
Keeping Yourself Healthy & Safe at a Protest – 350 Seattle webinar recording.
The Seattle-King County Black Lives Matter Protest Guide
A guide put together by some local Seattle street medics, with graphics.
Give better: How do we decide when, where and how much to give? How do our social and racial identities shape our relationships with money and giving? What does it look like to center the giving of money as part of our anti-racist practice?
Anti-Racist Giving Workshop
Tuesday, October 13, 5:30–8:00pm
Registration and more information.
SJF (Social Justice Fund) and CARW (Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites) have teamed up to present this interactive workshop where we’ll work through these questions and more together and begin to build your personal social justice giving plan.
2021 #SOLIDARITYBUDGET
Seattle’s Green New Deal is rooted in the value that everyone―no matter where they live, what they look like, or what’s in their wallet―deserves a healthy future. That’s why we stand with the dozens of organizations calling for a#SolidarityBudget that divests from police, divests from pollution and invests in community.
Can you send a message to City leaders in support of the #SolidarityBudget?
Whether it is police violence or the slow violence of smoke-filled skies, Seattle’s Green New Deal actions must confront these injustices head on as we work towards reducing our climate pollution. For the next two months, 350 Seattle and Sunrise Seattle will be organizing with love and power: visioning an abolitionist and Green New Deal future together; engaging our friends and family; showing up to Council meetings; and keeping the pressure on City leaders to win a budget that values Black lives and a healthy climate future for all.
Learn more and get involved! Join our weekly organizing call to learn about the #SolidarityBudget, how 350 Seattle and Sunrise Seattle are teaming up for anti-racist climate organizing this fall, and how YOU can plug in!
Volunteer onboarding and weekly update call
Every Monday! 5:45–6:30pm, new volunteer onboarding; 6:30–7:00pm weekly update
Online, RSVP here.
Can’t make those times? Schedule a short 1-1 phone call with our volunteer onboarding team (an equally good way to learn and plug in!). Sign up here.
SOLIDARITY TEAM
Fighting climate destruction means fighting against all the systems that fuel the destruction of our planet, including white supremacy, colonialism, heteropatriarchy, classism, ableism and more. We invite you to join the Solidarity team as we work to build coalition across justice-oriented movements.
Using our node model, smaller groups partner with organizations and communities pushing forward specific issues, like economic justice, immigration justice, indigenous sovereignty, and prison abolition. Nodes meet at least once a month, in addition to a larger monthly meeting for the whole Solidarity Team.
We seek real power shifts and transformational change. We engage in both action and reflection as we work to avoid recreating the same systems we seek to change.
To get involved, contact Anna or Meg for more information or a link to our next online meeting.
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
If you missed a presentation in our Racial Justice is Climate Justice Learning Series, or attended but want to follow up with more learning, check out the extensive Racial Justice is Climate Justice Recordings and Resources page supporting the four-part series: Abolition, Defund the Police, Affordable Housing, and Environmental Justice.
And mark your calendars, next month 350 National wraps up its (free!) Online Solidarity School with a final workshop:
From Recovery to Restoration: Holding Politicians Accountable & Organizing for a Just Transition
Wednesday, November 11, 5:00pm Pacific
Register here (Eastern time shown). Shareable tweet and Facebook post.
TACOMA LNG RESISTANCE
Puget Sound Energy’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility, currently under construction on the ancestral tidelands of the Puyallup Tribe, is a disaster waiting to happen for communities in the shadow of its toxic emissions, communities in British Columbia where the gas will be fracked, our orcas on the brink of extinction, and our climate on the edge of collapse. It’s not too late to keep this dangerous facility from becoming operational! Legal appeals will be heard in March 2021. Check out this inspiring video from a recent art car caravan action!
We have two impactful events this week that illuminate PSE’s bad gas problem.
Protecting Tacoma’s Health: Teach-in
Wednesday, October 14, 6:00–7:30pm
Register here, and shareable event page here.
Four expert panelists share their unique perspectives and explore the threats to our health and wellbeing posed by the LNG facility to Tacoma and beyond. This teach-in will include opportunities to ask questions and participate in a larger discussion. We’ll end with a brief training on ways you can get involved now, and easy next steps to join the resistance.
Yehow: short documentary screening and discussion
Thursday, October 15, 7:00pm–8:30pm
Register here and shareable event page here.
Yehow tells the story of two women coming together to fight a pipeline expansion project in South Snohomish county, uncovering major climate and environmental impacts along the way.
Following the screening, join a discussion with the filmmakers about Puget Sound Energy — the company responsible for this pipeline, the controversial Tacoma LNG gas facility, and questionable practices including gas advertising campaigns directed at children, blocking local attempts to create public power utility districts, slowing the transition to renewables, and meddling with our local elections.
It’s time we put the health and safety of communities above corporate profits and business as usual.
Get involved:
- Help write letters to elected officials and news outlets with this Writing Guide!
- Join the Tacoma LNG Resistance Team! Fill out this volunteer form or contact Anna, and we will help you plug into education and outreach, artful actions, social media amplification, or a special project.
- Hear about campaign updates and calls to action―to subscribe, just send an email to: standwithpuyallup-subscribe@lists.350seattle.org.
COASTAL GAS LINK
In Wet’suwet’en territory the struggle against the Coastal GasLink pipeline continues. Test drilling beneath Wedzin Kwa―the river that feeds all of Wet’suwet’en territory―is only weeks away. Here’s a video about what’s at stake, and here’s background on the financial backing of the pipeline.
Both the Unist’ot’en village and Gidemt’en checkpoint are seeking long term supporters who can come out and support on the ground for multiple weeks or months. Many projects need finishing as winter approaches and people with outdoor skills and a commitment to work hard and follow indigenous leadership are needed.
Unist’ot’en village application; checkpoint application. Full-time cooks are needed; for more information, please write to feedthefrontlines@gmail.com. And here’s the legal fund.
STOP THE MONEY PIPELINE
Chase
Last week, JPMorgan Chase announced that they intend to align their business model with the Paris Agreement. In their announcement, they also said that by next spring they will set 2030 climate targets for their lending to the oil and gas industry, the power sector, and the automotive industry.
Chase’s new commitment is nowhere near enough and is nowhere near action at the scale of the crisis ― however, it is significant. The world’s largest provider of money to the fossil fuel industry has essentially just said that it is beginning to make plansto stop giving money to the fossil fuel industry. That’s a pretty clear signal that the fossil fuel game is coming to an end.
As 350 Seattle’s Alec Connon wrote in Common Dreams, the only reason we’re seeing this announcement is because of the hundreds of actions and protests over the last few years in Seattle and beyond. We hope that y’all can take a moment to celebrate, knowing that this development is something that so many of you have helped make happen. (And then, when you’re done celebrating, please take a minute to demand that Chase follow up their words with actions by calling Jamie Dimon, emailing their Board Members, and Tweeting at them!)
Tar Sands Day of Action
On October 2, hundreds of people around the globe joined together to demand that Chase, Liberty Mutual, BlackRock and all financial institutions stop backing the destructive tar sands sector and respect Indigenous rights. Activists took to the streets outside Chase branches, Liberty Mutual offices, and BlackRock buildings in three countries and a dozen cities, calling on these companies to #StopTheMoneyPipeline.
At the same time, more than five hundred people joined live for an online rally to hear directly from Indigenous and community leaders on the frontlines of resistance to tar sands extraction, pipeline, and refinery projects, including Nigel Robinson, Tara Houska, and Kanahus Manuel. The rally also included nearly twenty actions that you can take from your home to pressure these corporations. Check out a recording of the rally and take all twenty actions on Stop the Money Pipeline’s website here.
And as ever, you can stay up-to-date with everything happening with Stop the Money Pipeline by signing up here.
CLOSE COLSTRIP
Hey, so we’re not the only ones who think that Puget Sound Energy’s sneaky attempt to offload their share of the Colstrip coal power plant in Montana to a company that will keep the coal burning until 2039 is not in the best interest of PSE ratepayers–the Office of Public Counsel and the Utility and Transportation Commission’s own staff think so, too!
So, whether you’re a PSE ratepayer or just a living being, add your voice! Send a comment here.
Rather write your own? Here’s some talking points! Call toll-free 1-888-333-9882, submit comments in writing here, or email comments@utc.wa.gov. Be sure to reference Docket UE-200115.
CRUISING TOWARDS CLIMATE COLLAPSE
The pandemic has shined a light on some of the health impacts of cruise ships to both the passengers and crew onboard, as well as the port communities that host them. We know that along with being floating petri dishes for infectious viral outbreaks, particulate matter from the ship’s smokestack causes ailments like asthma, heart disease, cancer, or early death, while also exacerbating the spread and intensity of COVID-19.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) called for cruising to be halted until February 2021, and over 50,000 people signed a petition or wrote comments supporting a pause on the non-essential luxury travel. However, the CDC recommendation was overridden by the Trump administration, and the no-sail order will now expire on October 31st. This decision puts the profits of the few above the health and safety of the many.
Unfortunately, Port of Seattle Commissioners show the same skewed priorities in their plans to build a new, 3rd cruise ship terminal in Pioneer Square. Those plans were paused indefinitely while waiting to learn the fate of the Alaska cruise market, but Commissioners still refuse to take non-monetary factors into consideration when the expansion project gets reassessed.
For months, environmental activists, health professionals, and impacted local residents have implored the Port of Seattle to take into account the effects of expanding a greenhouse gas intensive industry during a climate emergency, the impacts to public health, the poor working conditions and pay of onboard hospitality staff, and the impacts on our endangered orcas and other marine life from water pollution, vessel noise, and ship strikes.
Port of Seattle Commission Meetings
Tuesdays, October 13 and 27, 12:00pm
Instructions for how to participate via phone here.
Sign up and speak from the heart about why protecting and prioritizing the health of our communities should be the priority. Let the Commission know how you feel about cruise ships possibly returning to dock in Seattle while the pandemic still rages, and about expanding an industry we know to be toxic and harmful for the Salish Sea and all its residents.
ARE YOU A UNION MEMBER?
Unions are among the most important and powerful forces in the Seattle/King County community. 350 Seattle has allied with unions numerous times in recent years, and we want to do much more—so we’re reaching out to build more connection with local union members.
Many workers at the City of Seattle, King County, State of Washington, K-12, higher education, healthcare, aerospace, construction, grocery, port, and airport are union members.
Are you a union member? Do you have a climate-concerned friend who is? Please let us know.
We’d love to connect with you on ways you can contribute to the fight for climate justice!
NEIGHBORHOOD MUTUAL AID PODS
Seattle Mutual Aid: Neighborhood Pods! Call out especially to South end folks to please consider starting up a pod in your neighborhood! We have very few in the South end, where there are more requests coming in. All other areas also are important, so please join in!
Sign up to be a pod captain and lead your neighborhood organizing efforts! We’ve got lots of tools and people to help you get it going and figure things out along the way! Let Lisa know if you are interested in other volunteer opportunities. Or join a neighborhood pod here.
THANKS FOR THE BIKES!
Our bike collection in collaboration with Bike Works was a huge success! 290 bikes, many parts and accessories, and over $2,000 donated to Bike Works―a win for Climate and Social Justice! Our Transportation and Neighborhood Mutual Aid teams thank you!
If you missed it and still want to donate, Bike Works is always collecting, and they are offering virtual tours of their facilities and process. We’ll likely do another collection with them next year.
ARTFUL ACTIVISM
If you are interested in helping create banner art for #every vote counts, please contact Lisa. More information coming soon.
Join the Artful Workgroup and get on our email list: We welcome all skill levels in any art form. During these stay home, stay healthy times, we can still be impactful and connected with art across distance! We’re working from home putting art on the web, or in small socially distanced groups or individually making art outside.
We’re looking for people with tech, graphic design, and video skills, for folks comfortable with Zoom, webinar, and web presentations, since that’s the main way we’re gathering in large numbers and sharing ideas these days. Contact Lisa.
We’re also looking for those with creative guerilla art ideas, for those ready to do painted mural, chalk art, and other creative outdoor social distance art forms at any skill level. Contact Lisa
Do you have skills in any art form? We are always building out our teams in photography/videography, graphic design, music, sewing, prop building, and visual arts. And we’re looking to build teams in dance, spoken word, gorilla art, and theater. Sign up here to be added to our general Artful Activism List and tell us what skills and interests you have!
350 Seattle’s YouTube page is growing! Check out this recent training we did on Keeping Yourself Healthy and Safe at a Protest and the recording of the How to Edit a Video on Your Phone webinar. Just a small part of the DIY How-To videos, webinars, trainings and other awesome content we’re hosting there!
THE PEOPLE’S ECHO
The People’s Echo works to create and sustain anti-racist environments and gender inclusivity in the spaces we manifest. We are a group of white and bi-racial, gender non-conforming and cis-women singing for the healing of ourselves, each other, and the earth. Every month we invite the broader community to join us as we share songs we have caught together and songs that are medicine for us in these mysterious times. Our goal is to settle into our bodies, calm our nervous systems and empower others to lead in song.
People’s Echo Song Teach In
Wednesday, October 28, 6:00–7:30pm
To get the TPE newsletter, go here and click “Subscribe” on the left.
CLIMATE GRIEF AND EMPOWERMENT
Using The Work That Reconnects practices developed by Joanna Macy and drawing on longstanding wisdom traditions, this monthly group for adults will gather to deeply feel, digest, and move through grief in the face of social injustice and the climate crisis and toward empowerment. Climate is but one doorway into an intersectional understanding of the current social and ecological crises in which we find ourselves—crises with roots deeply entangled in colonization, white supremacy, patriarchy, and our current economic system.
This form of group work allows people to transmute and release pain, fear, and grief so we can show up for our ourselves, our families, and our communities with presence and courage.
Climate Grief and Empowerment Group – November Meeting
Saturday, November 14, 10:00–11:30am
Online event, register here.
Free of charge for adults 18+. You can attend as many or as few offerings as you like, and suggested donations of $10-15 are welcome and used to directly fund the group. Co-sponsored by 350 Seattle and Climate Action Families. Questions? Contact climategrief@350seattle.org.
GET INVOLVED!
Here are some really great ways to start on that path of engagement! Check out our updated Volunteer Opportunities List. Opportunities range from low commitment to high, introductory to skilled. All you have to do is find something you’re excited about and reach out! Unless otherwise noted, all opportunities can be done from home!
Unsure what you want to do? Still have questions about who we are and what we do? Schedule a time to chat with Shemona either by phone or video chat.
OUR MONTHLY SUSTAINER DRIVE WAS AWESOME!
We’re happy to report that we not only hit our original goal of 75 new monthly sustainers, but we actually surpassed it! We have 105 new and increased monthly donors!
Thank you to all of you who signed up to be a monthly donor. Your monthly donation enables us to do the work that we do, and throughout this turbulent year, we have continued to do all we can to forward the struggle for climate justice. Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for keeping us community powered.
Missed the chance to sign up? Never fear! You can support the work we do at 350 Seattle by becoming a monthly donor! Sign up here!
That’s it for now—remember, turn out those voters for a no regrets November!