Seattle

24 Activists Detained As Arctic Oil Rig Heads Out Of Seattle

June 16, 2015 Phuong Le, www.komonews.com Resist! Environment, Oil & Gas, Seattle

By Phuong Le in KomoNews - The U.S. Coast Guard detained two dozen protesters who formed a blockade with kayaks and other vessels Monday to try to stop Royal Dutch Shell's drill rig as it left Seattle on its way to explore for oil in the Arctic Ocean. The protesters were scooped up from the water because they were violating the safety zone around the Polar Pioneer, which departed around 6 a.m., Coast Guard Lt. Dana Warr said. They would be released after receiving violation notices that carry a $500 penalty, he said. About a dozen "kayaktivists" paddled out around 4 a.m. to try to prevent the 400-foot-long rig from leaving, said Cassady Sharp, a Greenpeace spokeswoman. Several dozen supporters in kayaks and canoes lined up behind them, she said.

Newsletter: Billionaires Fear Revolt As People Power Grows

June 14, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Arctic drilling, Austerity, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Commons, fast track, HIV/AIDS, indigenous, Inequality, Movement of Movements, Seattle, Solidarity, TISA, TPP

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. Last week there was a populist revolt from across the political spectrum. Congress received tens of thousands of phone calls every day from people who are clear which side they are on: they want people and planet before profits; they want an open, transparent democracy not a secretive oligarchy. The campaign to stop Fast Track for corporate trade agreements like the TPP is a clarifying moment. It is democracy vs. oligarchs making decisions for us. It is transparency vs. secret law. It is the people vs. big business. It is a mobilized people vs. big money. These are the issues that unite people into a movement of movements. These are conflicts that let us know who is on the side of the people.

Seattle’s Best From Lawrence Lessig To sHellno

June 11, 2015 Eleanor Goldfield, www.occupy.com Educate! Internet, Oil & Gas, Seattle, sHellNo!, TPP

By Eleanor Goldfield in Occupy - This week we’re bringing you Seattle’s Best, on land and on sea, starting with the Seattle premiere of the documentary "Killswitch: The Battle to Control the Internet," where Lawrence Lessig and Marianne Williamson talked money in politics to a packed Town Hall. Next up, #ShellNo continued their fight against the Arctic Destroyer, this time with the help of a seahorse, an Arctic Angel and a solar-powered barge. Finally, this could be the week that the House votes on Fast Track, the fast forward button for corporate trade deals. We’ll give you tools to help stop this train wreck as artist Stephanie McMillan gives you inspiration to keep fighting. @ActOutOnOccupy facebook.com/ActOutOnOccupy occupy.com/actout

Port Commission Meeting Ends W/ Police Pushing People Out

June 10, 2015 Sydney Brownstone, www.thestranger.com Resist! Environmental Justice, police brutality, Seattle

By Sydney Brownstone in The Stranger - This afternoon's public port commission meeting started with a peaceful die-in staged by Filipino climate activists on the steps of Port in Seattle headquarters. It ended with police officers aggressively pushing people—including one person with a cane who was looking for a disability ramp—out of the building. After the die-in, a group of environmental activists filled most of the chairs in the port commission meeting room, holding signs and waiting for their turn to speak. A couple of people in the room commented loudly and cursed during staff briefings. In response, port commissioners adjourned the meeting before the public comment period. Things quickly escalated from there.

ShellNo! Protestors Locked Down At Port Of Seattle Need You!

June 10, 2015 Back Bone Campaign, www.campaign.r20.constantcontact.com Resist! Oil & Gas, Seattle, sHellNo!

By Back Bone Campaign - Early this morning activists set up and deployed a range of technical blockades outside entrances to the port using U-locks, chains, lockboxes, rocking chairs, and other devices. Every entrance of the port was shut down, effectively stopping work on the rig. To sustain this bold action, we need YOU! Come on down and join us right now for an inspiring blockade. Bring your camera, musical instruments, banners, and passion for justice. As we all know, time is of the essence when it comes to stopping the Polar Polluter and its evil twin, the Noble Destroyer. "Shell only has until the end of June to make it up to the Arctic in time to drill this summer. We want to stop them from leaving," said Blaine Doherty, who is sitting in the road chained to another Seattle resident.

Will The Climate Justice Movement “Seattle” The Paris Talks?

June 9, 2015 Canadians, www.canadians.org Resist! Civil Disobedience, Climate Change, Paris, Seattle

By Canadians - While the New York Times editorial board says, "The Paris [climate summit] may well be the world’s last, best chance to get a grip on a problem that, absent urgent action over the next decade, could spin out of control", most are already bracing for another massive failure by the political elite at what is being disparagingly described as the "Conference of Polluters". Rising Tide North America is calling for a series of mass actions across the United States and Canada. They note, "From September to the end of November, Flood the System envisions an escalating series of direct actions and demonstrations targeting the economic and political systems at the root of the crisis, inspired by recent movements led by low-wage workers, immigrants, and communities responding to police brutality."

30,000 Teachers Walk Out In Protest Of Big Class Sizes

June 6, 2015 Mario Vasquez, www.inthesetimes.com Resist! Education, Seattle, Teachers, Washington

By Mario Vasquez in In These Times - On Tuesday, May 19, thousands of demonstrators marched through downtown Seattle to support a rolling strike by public school teachers across Washington state. The teachers are protesting what they say are unacceptably high class sizes and low pay, stemming from their state legislature’s failure to fully fund public education. Six thousand teachers and supporters from Seattle Public Schools and the nearby districts of Mercer Island and Issaquah shut down intersections for blocks in the largest coordinated action since the rolling walkout began on April 22. In total, at least 30,000 teachers in 65 striking school districts have participated in one-day strikes.

Year After Seattle Raises Minimum Wage, No Economic Disaster

June 5, 2015 Working Washington, www.workingwa.org Educate! Fast Food, Seattle, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Working Washington - In the year between the first Seattle fast food strikes and the passage Seattle’s landmark $15 minimum wage law, we heard all kinds of of sky-is-falling predictions from business owners, academics, and others. Week after week, self-appointed experts showed up in the news, insisting that they knew best. It was Economics 101, they’d say: higher wages would surely sink the economy. Businesses would be destroyed.Franchises would cease to exist. Prices would rise 25% or more. Open for business signs would go dark, owners would move to Texas, and Seattle would become a city of Cheesecake Factories. Their arguments are pretty much the same stuff as business lobbyists have been saying since child labor laws were passed. And yet they were treated as credible sources in Seattle’s public debate.

In Seattle, The Rent Is Too Damn High

June 5, 2015 Katie Herzog, www.grist.org Educate! Cost of living, Gentrification, Housing, Seattle

By Katie Herzog in Grist - The median home price in Seattle is now $535,000, a 19 percent increase since March 2014, and the market is so competitive that bidding wars are common. “I would say about 50 percent of homes are going over the asking price in the first week, and 16 percent are cash offers,” says longtime Seattle real estate agent Penny Bolton. “I just had a client who sold her house for a million-five. She paid $30,000 for it in the late ’70s, early ’80s.” With numbers like that, it’s a good time to be a seller in Seattle. A buyer? Not so much. When asked what the market is like for his clients, realtor Christian Nossum says, “Just today I had a buyer win a situation where there were 33 other offers. They were lucky No. 34 and they had to pay over $150,000 more than the asking price. If that doesn’t show how crazy the market is, I don’t know what does.”

Protests Against Shell Arctic Drilling Will Continue, sHELLno!

June 1, 2015 Martha Baskin, www.truth-out.org Resist! Climate Justice, Environment, Oil & Gas, Seattle

By Martha Baskin in Truthout - When the Port of Seattle offered Royal Dutch Shell a home port for its Arctic drilling fleet, it didn't take long for climate justice to become the rallying cry. Add the fact that Seattle - along with the rest of the country - is experiencing a widespread, deepening awareness across generations and cultures of the rapid pace of climate change, and the fuse was ready to be lit. Sarra Tekola and Katrina Pestano are climate justice activists living in Seattle. Both are involved in the ongoing battle to stop Shell from drilling in the Arctic this summer. Both have roots in the global South, a deepening awareness of the climate crisis faced by their generation - Tekola is 22 and Pestano is 31 - and a stake in the various cultures and places they call home.

Indigenous Activists Reach Westminster Shell Investor Meeting

May 22, 2015 UK Tar Sands Network, www.no-tar-sands.org Resist! Indigenous Women, Oil & Gas, Seattle, shell, United Kingdom (UK)

Today, under the shadow of Big Ben, a delegation of indigenous women was joined by campaigners to protest Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic. Mae Hank and Faith Gemmill-Fredson travelled to Shell’s Annual General meetings in the Netherlands and London directly after taking action in Seattle last Saturday on a mass “flotilla” where kayaktivists blocked Shell’s Polar Pioneer drilling rig docked at the Port. At the shareholders meeting in London handmade black origami “roses of resistance” were laid at the entrance by UK Tar Sands Network and Platform to demand an end to the expansion of the Canadian tar sands and the exploitation of people in Nigeria plus standing with communities resisting Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic this summer. A box of resistance roses were hand delivered to the Shell board.

sHellNo Protesters Slow Work At Oil Rig With Mass Blockade

May 19, 2015 Hal Bernton, www.seattletimes.com Resist! Civil Disobedience, Oil & Gas, Seattle, shell

The Terminal 5 protest against Shell’s massive Polar Pioneer oil rig ended peacefully Monday afternoon as protesters vacated gates they had sought to block. “We’re going to end today together and united as we have been through this whole process,” said Ahmed Gaya, one of the organizers, to several hundred protesters. By the time the protesters left, police officers had secured control of a main gate, using their bikes to form a line across the roadway. The decision to end the protest came out of meetings among protest organizers. There was concern that if they stayed longer, their numbers might dwindle. They determined to leave as a group.

How Indigenous Kayactivists Protest Against Shell

May 19, 2015 Sydney Brownstone, www.thestranger.com Resist! indigenous, Oil & Gas, Resistance, Seattle, Transportation

It was hard to miss. Draped over the boardwalk at Jack Block Park on Saturday, a 300-square-foot cutout of a solemn face looked out over the water-based protest against the Polar Pioneer, the Arctic drilling rig floating in Elliott Bay. "Chief Seattle is watching," it read. Looking at the sign probably made some people uncomfortable. Seattle is named after the Duwamish-Suquamish Chief Seattle, and his profile is plastered all over official letterheads and various pieces of Northwest kitsch. Still, sloganizing the face of a man who helped "Seattle" exist—in that he signed a treaty in 1855 giving over 54,000 acres of land to the federal government in exchange for an unfulfilled promise of treaty rights and a reservation for his descendants—can feel like a grotesque kind of tokenism when, often, there are no native people present to explain what it means.

Thousands Of Kayactivists Protest Shell Arctic Drilling

May 16, 2015 David Rosen, www.westseattleherald.com Resist! Arctic drilling, Kayactivists, Seattle

Thousands of kayaktivists took to the water on Elliott Bay to protest against Shell's hideous oil drilling rig, The Polar Pioneer on May 16, 2015. People from sHellNo.org, Greenpeace, and other organizations as well as many media outlets from around the US showed up to support and document the huge flotilla event. Zoe Buckley Lennox, a student/volunteer for Greenpeace spoke to the Herald, " My mission is to stop Arctic drilling of course and at the moment I'm here to help shine a light on the fact that Shell has already brought their rigs here and planning on heading up to the Arctic and drilling for oil in the next 60 days, knowing well that there may be a 75 percent chance there might be a massive oil spill if they do go up there and develop."

Shell Oil Rig Docks In Seattle

May 15, 2015 Alison Morrow, Amy Moreno, and Alex Rozier, www.king5.com Resist! Environment, Oil & Gas, Seattle, Transportation

A 400-foot-long offshore oil drilling rig pulled by tugs arrived in Seattle Thursday afternoon, despite environmentalists' protests and the city's opposition to letting it dock here. The Polar Pioneer arrived in Elliott Bay at about 1:50 p.m. after a 12-hour journey from Port Angeles. It made its way through the Duwamish River toward Harbor Island and docked at Terminal 5 around 5 p.m. The Polar Pioneer is one of two drill rigs petroleum giant Royal Dutch Shell plans to park at leased space from Maritime Foss at the Port of Seattle, where it will load its Arctic drilling rigs and other vessels with supplies and personnel. It is preparing to explore for oil this summer in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast.

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