Seattle

Shell Oil Rig Coming To Seattle Despite Port Vote To Delay

May 13, 2015 Coral Garnick, www.seattletimes.com Resist! Arctic drilling, Kayactivists, Seattle, Shell Oil

Since Shell ignore the request of the Port of Seattle to delay their arrival, the Kayactivists participating in the Paddle in Seattle are ready to greet Shell when it comes to Seattle on May 16th. Hundreds of Kayactivists have been trained, the project has already gotten national attention in The New York Times, as well as international news coverage, and the cover of local newspapers, as well as garnering continued coverage from multiple television outlets. It is going to be a highly visible, creative and aggressive action to say sHell No! On Thursday May 14th they are holding their FINAL Kayaktivism Training before the Flotilla. Reserve your kayak & RSVP for the May 16th Paddle In Seattle so we can send you the most up to date information!!! Port of Seattle commissioners asked that Shell’s Arctic drilling rigs delay their arrival at Seattle’s waterfront while the port appeals a city ruling that a new permit is needed. But Foss Maritime expects to move ahead with the planned arrival of the Polar Pioneer on Thursday.

Direct Action To Block Shell’s Seattle Operations

May 13, 2015 Jennifer Baker, www.revolution-news.com Educate! Environment, Oil & Gas, Seattle, shell

Days after the Foss Maritime announced that they intended to defy Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, and illegally host Shell’s Arctic drilling fleet, Seattle activists have blockaded Shell’s Seattle fuel transfer station by erecting a tripod. Seattle resident Annie Lukins, who is suspended from the top of the tripod, says she made the decision to block the facility because like everyone who lives near the shore, she has a stake in stopping Shell. “Shell already knows the impacts of drilling in the arctic. They are placing themselves in defiance of climate science, in defiance of the treaty subsistence rights of the Inupiat, and in defiance of our elected official here in Seattle. I’m here because I’m not the only young person who wants to raise her children near the shore.

Do Black Lives Matter In Seattle As Much As Tacos Do?

May 11, 2015 Reagan Jackson, www.seattleglobalist.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Racial Justice, Seattle

Now its time for Seattle to affirm the same. In this liberal bubble where pets are treated like people and everyone must recycle and compost, in a city with the nation’s highest minimum wage, where we regularly tout our progressive values, I felt a disconnect. In the middle of the street on a gorgeous sunny Saturday I looked around at the 200 others in attendance and wondered, where is everyone else? Why aren’t there thousands here standing with us? Shortly after the march, I caught the light rail to the International District for the Taco Truck Showdown and had my question answered. Half of Seattle was shoved into the two-block corridor lined on either side with food cards pedaling tacos from every ethnic background. There were pho tacos, duck tacos, Hawaiian tacos, curried goat tacos, chicken tikka tacos and so much more. And people were lined up for hours to stuff their face.

Momentum Builds For Paddle In Seattle To Say sHell No!

April 23, 2015 Backbone Campaign, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Arctic drilling, Kayactivists, Oil, Seattle

From May 16 to May 18, join us in Seattle for three days of creative, people-powered resistance to Shell and the climate crisis. We will converge on the Seattle waterfront by land and sea, transforming Terminal 5 and Harbor Island into a festival of resistance that will nonviolently block Shell's preparations for Arctic drilling. While we confront Shell, we stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples and people of color who endure the brunt of extraction and climate chaos. We will unite in creative action, including a mass water-based blockade, and an event focused on working to honor our connections with this beautiful and complex planet. These events will build to a day of Mass Direct Action on Monday, May 18, when we will use nonviolent action to SHUT DOWN SHELL and all operations related to their Arctic expedition.

Seattle Activists Fight Building Of New Youth Jail

April 21, 2015 Megan Sherman, www.therealnews.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Mass Incarceration, Racial Justice, Seattle

With the prospect for a new $210 million juvenile jail looming in Seattle, a coalition of activists group held what's known as a people's tribunal to formulate strategies to fight it. Ariel Hart, a youth organizer with YUIR, Youth Undoing Institutional Racism, talks about the purpose of the tribunal. ARIEL HART, YOUTH ORGANIZER, YUIR: It is important that as we're organizing, as we're trying to talk to the politicians and dismantle the system that we're building and we're healing and we're growing our community. SHERMAN: The struggle to block the jail comes as troubling statistics show African-American youth are disproportionately ensnared in the city's juvenile justice system.

Seattle’s Fight For 15 Carries On

April 13, 2015 Steve Leigh, www.socialistworker.org Resist! City Council, Living Wage, Seattle

NEARLY A year after the Seattle City Council passed a $15 an hour ordinance, thousands of Seattle workers got a raise on April 1. According to the ordinance, which passed after a grassroots campaign of actions demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage, Seattle workers will now get a minimum of $10 an hour. This is part of a long phase-in until all workers get at least $15 an hour by 2021. With a built-in cost-of-living clause, all workers are expected to make $18 per hour by 2025. The state minimum wage is currently $9.47. Businesses employing fewer than 500 workers and providing health care or tips have to pay $10 an hour. Businesses employing more than 500 workers nationwide and smaller businesses that don't provide tips or health care must pay $11.

Groups Deploy Blimp With Message To Port Of Seattle

April 4, 2015 Gary M. Chittim, www.king5.com Resist! Environment, Oil & Gas, Seattle

Groups launched an unmanned blimp over the Port of Seattle Thursday in an effort to recruit more opponents of a plan to provide space for arctic drilling equipment. Shell's arctic offshore drilling fleet is expected to arrive this month for storage and preparation ahead of a new round of exploratory drilling in the Chuckchi Sea. The groups included the Backbone Campaign, 350 Seattle and Rising Tide Seattle. The tethered blimp rose 200 feet over the port in full view of morning commuters. A banner on the sides spelled out: "sHELLNO.org. Join the Flotilla!"

Seattle Residents Urge Port To Reverse Shell Oil Lease Deal

April 3, 2015 Betsy Lopez-Wagner, www.earthjustice.org Resist! Environment, Oil & Gas, Seattle, shell

“Your child, my grandchild and the unborn grandchild of our grandchildren are going to live with what we do to this society.” Those were Seattleite Jack Smith’s words to the Port of Seattle’s five commissioners on March 24, minutes before the port re-affirmed its two-year lease with Foss Maritime. In a motion that could be described as too little, too late, the port added a 30-day public comment period for future leases after getting pushback for signing the last lease without the public’s knowledge. Smith was one of several dozen protestors who spoke out in objection of the port conducting lease negotiations in secret with Foss Maritime where it agreed to host and service Shell’s Arctic drilling exploration vessels, solidifying a $13 million two-year lease.

Seven Lessons From Seattle City Council Vote Against Fast Track

April 1, 2015 Stan Sorscher, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Democracy, Politics, Seattle, TPP

Seattle City Council members started this debate as informed citizens, but not trade experts. They quickly came up the learning curve over several weeks. They heard plenty from corporate advocates, who abound in the Seattle area. They also heard (start at the 6:30 mark in the video) from workers, environmentalists, social justice groups, and the faith community. While they were studying this issue, WikiLeaks released a new draft of the notorious investment chapter of the TPP. Council members looked at dozens of letters written by members of Congress to our negotiators. A letter from Jay Inslee, Governor of the most trade dependent state in the union, opposing a key provision in TPP was so persuasive it was cited twice in the resolution.

Shell’s Battle for Seattle

March 21, 2015 Joel Connelly, www.blog.seattlepi.com Resist! Oil & Gas, Seattle

The Port of Seattle has quietly inked a two-year lease under which Shell Oil will use Terminal 5 on the Seattle waterfront as the base for its efforts to drill in Arctic waters of Alaska’s Chukchi Sea. With rapid authorization, negotiation and signing of the lease — reminiscent of how decisions on the waterfront used to be greased — the port has secured a $13.17 million deal and forestalled efforts by the region’s environmental groups to stop it. The lease, covering 50 acres of Terminal 5, is with Foss Maritime, which offers an array of supply and tug escort services. A Foss tug towed Shell’s drilling ship, the Noble Explorer, away from a beach in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in July 2012 after the ship slipped its moorings.

McDonald’s Sues Seattle Over $15 Wage, Cites 14th Amendment

March 17, 2015 Bill Fold, www.thebillfold.com Educate! Law, McDonald's, Seattle

McDonald’s is not having a very good week. First, McDonald’s asked the band Ex Cops to play a gig at the McDonald’s SXSW Showcase, using the words “There isn’t a budget for an artist fee (unfortunately).” Then, just as the furor of McDonald’s asking artists to play for exposure—”as well as POSSIBLY mentioned on McDonald’s social media accounts like Facebook (57MM likes!)”—is dying down, we get this: Last summer, the City of Seattle passed a law that will raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. But in a bizarre twist, Ronald McDonald and friends are suing the city. On March 10, they’ll be in a federal courtroom, complaining that the new minimum wage violates a constitutional provision that was written to protect newly-freed slaves after the Civil War.

The Most Dangerous Woman In America

March 17, 2015 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com Educate! Elections, Government, Politics, Seattle, Socialism

Kshama Sawant, the socialist on the City Council, is up for re-election this year. Since joining the council in January of 2014 she has helped push through a gradual raising of the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Seattle. She has expanded funding for social services and blocked, along with housing advocates, an attempt by the Seattle Housing Authority to allow a rent increase of up to 400 percent. She has successfully lobbied for city money to support tent encampments and is fighting for an excise tax on millionaires. And for this she has become the bête noire of the Establishment, especially the Democratic Party. The corporate powers, from Seattle’s mayor to the Chamber of Commerce and the area’s Democratic Party, are determined she be defeated, and these local corporate elites have the national elites behind them.

Port Of Seattle Sued Over Shell’s Arctic Drilling Fleet

March 11, 2015 Earth Justice, www.earthjustice.org Resist! Environment, Law, Seattle

A coalition of conservation organizations filed a lawsuit today against the Port of Seattle and the Port Commissioners, challenging the Port’s entry into a lease with Foss Maritime to open Terminal 5 to Shell’s Arctic drilling fleet without public proceedings or environmental review. The lawsuit charges that the lease will change the use of Terminal 5 by converting it into a homeport for Shell’s Arctic drilling fleet, which will need extensive maintenance and repairs after being battered in the Arctic conditions. The lease would allow Shell’s drill ships to be housed at the Port, including theNoble Discoverer which was the subject of 8 felony convictions and over $12 million in fines and community service last December, including for discharging oil-contaminated water in violation of water pollution laws.

Port Of Seattle Dodged Public Input, Hosts Arctic Drilling Rigs

February 14, 2015 Sydney Brownstone, www.thestranger.com Educate! Law, Oil & Gas, Seattle

Last month, the Port Commission held only one public meeting on the quietly negotiated deal, during which port commissioners all expressed some degree of environmental angst. (Remember, the port's slogan is "Where a sustainable world is headed.") At the end of the meeting, however, port commissioners ultimately allowed the decision to progress. Commissioner Courtney Gregoire (Christine Gregoire's daughter) called for "much more robust discussion" on environmental issues going forward. But when it came to the Shell lease, that never happened. Then last night, the Seattle Times reported that port CEO Ted Fick sent a letter to Earthjustice, the environmental group, revealing that he had already signed the lease.

Seattle Activist Organizing To Block Shell’s Arctic Drilling

February 7, 2015 Martha Baskin, www.truth-out.org Resist! Energy, Environment, Oil & Gas, Seattle

Can a coalition of national and state environmental organizations that has vowed to stop Seattle from becoming the home port for Shell's Arctic oil drilling rigs send a message to the oil industry? "Hell yes," said Peter Goldman, a member of the coalition and attorney with the Washington Forest Law Center. "They know what's going on here. If we make it more expensive for them to operate by denying them the city of Seattle, we are essentially pushing the tipping point over to the point of no return to where they're going to go away and not come back." While the timing appears coincidental, a day after the coalition held a press conference on Seattle's waterfront, Shell's CFO announced it will pursue a drilling program in Alaska's Chukshi Sea this year.

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