What a visceral relief it is — a door is now open to the future we need.
10 EXECUTIVE ACTIONS
For the country and the world to go through that door, though, will require a tremendous amount of work and love, starting now. Please send this message to the Biden/Harris administration, and make sure that they know we need them to take bold action on climate justice starting on day one.
NOW IS THE TIME TO GET INVOLVED
Yes, damn it, we’re in a climate emergency and struggling to undo systemic racism while surviving the global pandemic, and we recognize that we can’t return to the old status quo. If you have the time, inspiration, or energy, now is the time to get involved.
Check out our updated Volunteer Opportunities List. Opportunities range from low commitment to high, introductory to skilled, local to federal. Unless otherwise noted, all opportunities can be done from home.
Unsure how you want to contribute? Still have questions about who we are and what we do? Schedule a time to chat with Shemona either by phone or video chat.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
Our work continues: Protect Every Person! Black Lives Matter is deeply related to the election. There are marches in support of Black lives every day, and bigger events that continue to need support on and off the streets.
We are asking all our 350 Seattle folx to continue to show up or re-engage in whatever ways we can. King County Equity Now, Every Day March, Morning March, The Engage Team, and the Black Action Coalition organizers are putting this work forward, helping to unite our long divided movement, and bringing solid demands for Black lives and positive change for all into being.
We need each other, and we need to protect each other. Thank you for all the ways you participate, 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.
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
The Our People Gonna Rise repeat training series is moving to Zoom due to Covid, and Undoing Anti-Black Racism is now rescheduled as two parts, each two hours on Zoom with a little home exploration between the two.
Undoing Anti-Black Racism
Sundays, November 22 and December 13, 10:00am–Noon
If you registered for the original March 7 date you should have already received an email about the reschedule. Registration is currently full, but you can get on the wait list here.
Complete descriptions of the workshops and registration are here. (Allies to Immigrants will be rescheduled for early 2021). Questions? Contact Lisa.
And here are recordings and resources for the four part series Racial Justice is Climate Justice: Abolition, Defund the Police, Affordable Housing, and Environmental Justice.
And next month, join us for this special opportunity to hear from a local, long time organizer for prison abolition who seriously drops the knowledge:
Why Abolition: Deep Dive into Slavery, Prisons and Movements of Resistance
Tuesday, December 8, 6:00–7:30pm
Tickets will be available here, shareable event page here.
BP, (they/them) will guide us through the history of slavery, formation of police and prisons and offer a powerful framework for prison abolition and strategies of resistance today. The workshop will be a mix of presentation and participant engagement with a focus on the devastating impact the prison industrial complex has on community and the environment.
This workshop is donation based, funds are greatly appreciated to support BP in their life and organizing. No one turned away for lack of funds, all are welcome. We hope you can join us.
2021 #SOLIDARITY BUDGET
Yes, we’re celebrating this weekend’s election results, but we know that we are just getting started on lots of necessary work.
Here in Seattle, we can lead the way—by passing a 2021 City Budget that is anti-racist, pro-Black and moving towards a healthy future for all. With just a few weeks until City Council votes on the 2021 Budget on November 23rd, now is a critical time to keep the pressure on Mayor Durkan and City Council.
Join 350 Seattle and Sunrise Seattle as we team up to build Green New Deal power for a city budget that rises to the overlapping crises of systemic racism, the global pandemic and climate change.
Learn more and get involved! Our weekly call team hosts a new volunteer onboarding session EVERY Monday night, before our weekly organizing update call.
Seattle GND for a Solidarity Budget: Weekly Call
Every Monday, 5:45–6:30pm new volunteer onboarding; 6:30–7:00pm weekly update
Zoom, online. RSVP here
If you can’t make the Monday calls, we encourage you to schedule a short 1-1 phone call with our volunteer onboarding team. 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 show up for all justice-oriented movements.
Using our node model, smaller groups partner with organizations and communities pushing forward specific issues, like immigration justice and indigenous sovereignty and solidarity. 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.
TACOMA LNG RESISTANCE
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Puget Sound Energy’s Liquefied Natural Gas facility violates Puyallup Tribal Treaty rights and locks us into decades of fracked gas usage, while creating health and safety risks for already burdened communities.
With legal appeals scheduled for March 2021, the upcoming months will be a critical time for spreading awareness and solidarity. We’re planning education, outreach, art, and action—so, plenty of ways to plug in and use your skills to help make sure this facility never becomes operational.
Tacoma LNG Resistance Organizing Meeting!
Thursday, November 19, 12:00pm
Register here and shareable event page here.
Can’t make it on the 19th? Fill out this volunteer form or email Anna.
To get campaign updates and calls to action, subscribe to our listserv by sending an email.
Learn more about the Tacoma LNG Resistance here, or check out the recording of our recent event with Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, Protecting Tacoma’s Health: A Teach-In on the dangers of fracked gas in the Port of Tacoma.
STOP THE MONEY PIPELINE
Indigenous Women’s Tar Sands Letter
More than forty Indigenous women from communities impacted by the development of tar sands oil have sent an open letter to major banks, insurers, and asset managers. They are calling on the financial sector to respect Indigenous rights and stop providing financial support for the industry that is destroying their homelands. Please email and call Wall Street CEOs to demand that they meet with the Indigenous women.
Liberty Mutual
Insurance giant Liberty Mutual claims it’s taken major steps to curb climate change, but it’s still insuring fossil fuel expansion projects like the Keystone XL and Trans Mountain tar sands pipelines. On top of that, Liberty refuses to meet with Indigenous leaders and other frontline communities impacted by these projects. That’s why we teamed up with the Insure Our Future campaign to set the record straight with a new website: Liberty’s Climate Crisis. It breaks down Liberty Mutual’s complicity in environmental injustice and reveals how wholly inadequate Liberty’s current sustainability policies are. Check it out here, and share on social media and especially with any friends or family that work at Liberty Mutual!
Chase
Last month, Chase announced it intends to align their business model with the Paris Agreement and that they will be setting 2030 climate targets for their lending to the oil and gas industry, the power sector, and the automotive industry. Sounds promising, but in the months ahead, we’ll be putting on as much pressure as possible to make sure that they follow up their words with actions. You can help by sending an email to their execs and calling Jamie Dimon to demand they meet with the Indigenous women who have recently written to them. We also recommend the online Takeover Chase action!
And as ever, you can stay up-to-date with everything happening with Stop the Money Pipeline by signing up here.
COLSTRIP REALITY CHECK
Bowing to pressure from ratepayers, twenty-two legislators, the King County Executive, the City of Bainbridge Island and regulatory staff, Puget Sound Energy and NorthWestern Energy withdrew their disingenuous request to transfer ownership of Colstrip Unit 4 and associated transmission assets.
Thank you to all who provided comments and reached out to elected officials! This takes us one step closer to the closure of the dirtiest coal plant in the west.
CRUISING TOWARDS CLIMATE COLLAPSE
Cruise Companies are pushing for sailings to begin again as soon as possible, despite the continuing pandemic, dangerously putting profits above public health. Can we trust companies like Carnival, convicted multiple times for illegally dumping in protected waters, to implement and follow enhanced safety protocols? Are our local healthcare facilities prepared to handle disembarking passengers after an onboard outbreak, or hotspots in communities that passengers frequent such as Pike Place or Pioneer Square? Knowing the link between COVID-19 and particulate matter, and knowing that cruise companies left many low-wage workers stranded on ships for months, can we in good conscience ignore our complicity in these equity issues?
Some popular cruise destinations, such as Key West, are using the current pause on sailings as a time to reflect on the impacts the current cruise ship model has on their waters, natural spaces, marine life, utilities, small businesses, and community member health and happiness. Here in the Salish Sea, we can also use this time to make sure Port of Seattle Commissioners hear our concerns regarding beginning cruise ship sailings before it’s safe, our local impacts from these giant floating cities, and the reasons to permanently cancel plans for building an additional 3rd cruise ship terminal in Pioneer Square.
Take Action!
Sign up for Public Comment at Port of Seattle Commission Meetings—speak from the heart about why protecting and prioritizing the health of our communities should be their priority. Let them know how you feel about possibly allowing cruise ships 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.
Port of Seattle Commission Meetings
Tuesday, November 10, 12:00pm
Instructions for how to participate via phone here.
Our maritime team has some research projects we would like help with as we explore less polluting options for ocean going vessels—if you can help, please contact Stacy!
RETURN OF THE SALMON
“Salmon are at the center of our cultural and spiritual identity, diet, and way of life. It’s unconscionable and arrogant to think man can improve upon our Creator’s perfection as a justification for corporate ambition and greed.” Fawn Sharp, Quinault Indian Nation President, said that in response to a Federal Court declaration finding genetically engineered salmon unlawful. Let’s celebrate!
Return of the Salmon: The Human Connection
Thursday, November 12, 6:00 pm
Shareable event details on Facebook here, and Instagram here.
This virtual event will focus on the integral role salmon play today in tribal religion, culture, and physical sustenance to the Coast Salish people—as well as how newcomers to the region forge a connection with, and learn to protect, salmon.
With the return of the salmon to streams through the Salish Sea this fall—and the 50th anniversary of the tear gassing of Puyallup fishers that led to a landmark legal ruling called the Boldt decision that reaffirmed the rights of Washington’s Indian tribes to fish—this is an apt time to honor, listen, and learn about these connections.
CLIMATE ASSEMBLY
In Winter 2021, the country’s first online People’s Assembly on Climate will be held here in Washington state.
For anyone who missed last month’s info session on organizing the Assembly, you can view the recording of the event here.
The virtual WA Climate Assembly will bring together diverse groups of people who reside in Washington State to discuss how our state can reduce climate pollution.
And while Assembly members are chosen at random, you can contribute to the process in a number of ways, including providing input on the Assembly scope and agenda, submitting your policy recommendations, promoting the Assembly and its recommendations, and contributing financially.
Apply for a support role and help shape the Assembly’s design. There are several exciting ways you can contribute to this process!
MUTUAL AID NEIGHBORHOOD PODS
Connecting with neighbors builds resilience and safety, and it can be fun to have community nearby and satisfying to care for one another. Pod captains also connect across the city so that those pods with more resources can help those with fewer.
Want to take on a specific task to do from home? We’re looking for a volunteer to match requesters to responders for groceries, meds, etc. for a couple hours per week on average. Let Lisa know if you are interested in this or other volunteer opportunities or have questions.
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! Or join a neighborhood pod here.
ARTFUL ACTIVISM
Learn about our region’s rich history of protest art, while producing your own artistic call-to-action in this digital hands-on workshop. Artist Shemona Moreno will share information about 350 Seattle’s Artful Activism and guide workshop participants through their own art project!
Workshopping Democracy: The Art of Protest
Hosted by Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI)
Free, with $5 suggested ticket price. Register here.
Did you see the “Count Every Vote” overpass banner that some of you helped to make at the last art build? Did you experience the joy of all the people honking and waving in approval? We caught a People’s Echo Song while doing it last week! We’re still recruiting for future bannering needs—please contact Stan for more information or to sign up!
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, in small socially distanced masked outdoor art builds, or individually making art outside.
We are hosting occasional in-person social distanced masked art builds at Gasworks Park now! The first of those, last weekend, was connecting and gorgeous by the sparkling water, and we got a lot of beautiful art made for current actions! Join our list to get notified about upcoming ones!
Do you have experience in any art form? 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
We are always building out our teams in photography/videography, music, sewing, prop building, and visual arts. And we’re looking to build teams in dance, spoken word, and theater.
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 is a song collective based in Seattle, creating and sharing music for social and climate justice. Join us for these November events and let’s use our voices to motivate and celebrate positive change!
Walking Song Teach-in #SolidarityBudget District 6
Tuesday, November 17, 6:00–7:30pm
Exact Location TBD
More details and RSVP here. Please wear a mask!
Walking Song Teach-in #SolidarityBudget District 7
Friday, November 20, 6:00–7:30pm
Exact Location TBD
More details and RSVP here. Please wear a mask!
TPE Song Teach-In
Wednesday, November 25, 6 PM-7:30 PM
Online
For any questions about TPE or these events, email Hillary.
We also invite you to sign up for our listserv with an email for more updates from The People’s Echo!
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.
THERE’S STILL OTHER WAYS GET INVOLVED!
Like we said at the top, now is the time!
Check out our updated Volunteer Opportunities List. Opportunities range from low commitment to high, introductory to skilled, from local to federal. 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.
Link arms, friends, it’s time to get to work!