Direct Action Training and Planning to Confront Dirty Energy Invasions

Wild Idaho Rising Tide and Spokane Rising Tide activists enthusiastically invite regional community members eager to design and stage arrestable protests to the second Stand Up! Fight Back! Against Fossil Fuels in the Northwest! information sharing, brainstorming, and strategizing session.  Opponents of coal, fracked natural gas and oil, and tar sands extraction and transportation projects are converging from northern Idaho and eastern Washington for these urgent non-violent direct action training and planning workshops.  Duplicate gatherings will occur between 10 am and 4 pm on Saturday, November 9, at the Liberty Park United Methodist Church, 1526 East Eleventh Avenue in Spokane, Washington, and from 12 noon to 5 pm on Sunday, November 10, at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho.  Workshop participants will learn direct action methods as they share their experiences protecting the public environment and health from corporate pillage, while preparing to confront coal and shale oil trains before November 18 port scoping period deadlines as well as the next tar sands megaloads when they move through the region to Alberta.

Extraction, transportation, and production of carbon-dense, dirty energy fuels across the Northwest increasingly threaten the wellbeing of people, places, and the planet with their risky and toxic byproducts of polluted air, water, land, policies, and perspectives.  Incoming Alberta tar sands megaloads and pipelines, expanding hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for natural gas, and outgoing coal, shale oil, and tar sands trains bound for West Coast export terminals crisscross our region, as they transform our continent into a resource colony serving Asia and the world.  Governments consistently fail to defend their citizens from the ravages of some of the largest multinational corporations on Earth, as they together plunder our public resources, taxpayer coffers, and civil liberties in pursuit of their billions in profits.  Fracking Idaho farmlands for gas and North Dakota and Alberta grasslands for shale oil, strip-mining Montana and Wyoming prairies for coal, and steam blasting Alberta boreal forests and bogs for tar sands challenge the conscious and quality of life of Pacific and Inland Northwest residents and businesses.  The railroad industry increasingly hauls countless gallons of explosive oil and tons of dusty coal every day around our remote lakes, within our river valleys, and through our ranches, farms, and cities, to ports on the Oregon and Washington coasts and rivers and ultimately Asia, hastening climate chaos.

Because conventional avenues for citizen recourse to corporate crooks and colluded public officials predictably succumb to industry influenced rules, laws, elections, and bribes, Northwesterners must challenge this corruption and confront the root causes of ecological and economic oppression and devastation in more creative and assertive ways.  On Saturday and Sunday, November 9 and 10, Spokane and Wild Idaho Rising Tides encourage concerned people throughout the region to push back the boundaries of their resistance to industrial invasions, with new allies, tactics, skills, and strategies.  Workshop facilitators will adapt training to the needs and knowledge of the group, will lead interactive role plays based on real-life scenarios, and will offer the information necessary to stall and stop the forces that are destabilizing our climate and destroying our democracy.  Event organizers expect participants to graciously contribute their insights throughout the workshop, to provide potluck food and beverages, and to immediately apply their new skills and understanding to the process of arranging upcoming actions.  Please print and post the color, letter-sized Stand Up Fight Back Flyer and urge family, friends, and co-workers to attend these worthwhile and inspiring discussions and presentations during this day of educational opportunity.

Workshop Dates & Locations

* Saturday, November 9, 10 am to 4 pm at the Liberty Park United Methodist Church, 1526 East Eleventh Avenue in Spokane, Washington

* Sunday, November 10, 12 noon to 5 pm at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho

Workshop Schedules

10 am Saturday / 12 noon Sunday: Opening Introductions, Intentions, & Issues

11 am Saturday / 1 pm Sunday: Community Organizing & Outreach

12 noon Saturday: Potluck Lunch & Networking

1 pm Saturday / 2 pm Sunday: Campaign Strategies & Creative Tactics

2 pm Saturday / 3 pm Sunday: Non-Violent Direct Action Training

3 pm Saturday / 4 pm Sunday: Action & Blockade Planning

Community Organizing & Outreach

Finding ways for activists to recruit volunteers, Creating consensus and group working relationships, Coordinating events and gatherings, Building a network of alliances and movements

Campaign Strategies & Creative Tactics

Planning and implementing cohesive, effective campaigns that create change, Setting objectives and goals, Identifying and choosing targets, Designing strategies and tactics, Crafting innovative messages and imagery, Engaging the media, Evaluating existing campaigns

Non-Violent Direct Action Training

Using direct action effectively and strategically, Forming affinity groups, Establishing roles, Preparing and staging direct actions, Creating props, chants, and street theater, Managing and de-escalating conflict, Considering legal implications

Action & Blockade Planning

Coherently coordinating upcoming actions, Deploying hard and soft blockades and flash mobs, Stopping people and vehicles, Blocking intersections, roads, and access points, Avoiding authorities’ reaches, Making and utilizing traditional equipment