Dear comrades,
On the way to southern and eastern Idaho megaload protests starting on Thursday night, please accept Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) apologies for the lateness of overdue newsletters about months of megaload, Idaho gas drilling, oil and coal export, and Keystone XL pipeline updates. As always, the intensity of regional campaigns carrying our shared resistance work forward overwhelms the few, much appreciated organizers who consistently give their all. We offer our unconditional gratitude to the WIRT and allied activists who have provided physical and/or fiscal support over our three years together. But WIRT needs to function more like the collective it was intended to be, as the few shouldering most of the necessary tasks are years past burn-out and are eager to establish a balance between outgoing and incoming energy and resources. Please contact WIRT to lead, assist, and/or participate in one or all of these activities:
* Round 3: Idaho & Montana Tar Sands Megaload Protests!
Based on the ever-changing schedule of transports in transit, WIRT will regularly update the tentative dates, times, places, and carpool arrangements of these events on the WIRT website and facebook pages.
* Third Thursday Monthly WIRT Potluck and Meeting
Thursday, February 20, 7:00 pm
The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street, Moscow, Idaho
WIRT needs a second email contact person to step forward, to assist the regional organizing efforts of Northwest Rising Tide groups, not to mention invest some work in WIRT endeavors.
* A Healing Walk through the Alberta Tar Sands
Thursday, February 27, 7:00 to 8:30 pm
Center for Undergraduate Education (CUE) Room 202, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
Six local participants in the Tar Sands Healing Walk will share a presentation and audience discussion connecting Alberta tar sands development with local and regional megaloads, huge pipeline projects, impacts on people and places, and overarching climate change, cultural, and ethical issues.
* Tribal and Climate Activists Gathering about Mammoet Megaloads
Friday, February 28, 3:00 to 5:00 pm
Benewah Medical and Wellness Center, 1100 A Street, Plummer, Idaho
As described in a January 29 message to core WIRT and Nez Perce activists, a few of us have been talking about holding a meeting and maybe a tar sands/megaload teach-in, film screening, or action-planning session on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation, involving Nez Perce and Coeur d’Alene tribal members and Moscow and Coeur d’Alene activists. Because three 1.6-million-pound Mammoet megaloads, for a Great Falls tar sands refinery tripling its capacity, could roll up Highway 95 sometime in February, WIRT activists and allies need to arrange resistance soon, to stand with Nez Perce, Coeur d’Alene, and other tribal activists in protest and protection when the time comes. All meeting participants are welcome to drive and/or ride with activists attending the following Missoula convergence.
* Non-Violent Direct Action Workshop
Saturday and possibly Sunday, March 1 and 2, times and places to be arranged
Missoula, Montana
Indian Peoples Action and Rising Tide North America are coordinating a rare, interior Northwest weekend of direct action trainings in various skills such as blockades and media outreach.
Saturday, March 1, 10:00 am check-in and line-up
Eagles Lodge, corner of Main and A Streets, Moscow, Idaho
* Keystone XL Public Comment Period Deadline
Friday, March 7, 11:59 pm
(Numerous Big Green talking points, form letters, petitions, etc. on various websites)
Although trained as trainers, WIRT is still ambivalent about staging a workshop and action to support the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance, while tar sands infrastructure rolls relatively unchallenged through regional communities.
* Northwest Rising Tide Groups’ Regional Direct Action Training
Mid-March 2014, times and places to be arranged
Bellingham, Washington
* Grabbing Back Contributors Panel Discussion at the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair
Saturday, March 22, time to be arranged (facebook event)
The Crucible, 1260 Seventh Street, Oakland, California
Thanks to Earth First! Journal editor Alexander Reid Ross (‘Sasha’), regional tribal and climate activism will appear as “Resistance to Alberta Tar Sands Megaloads in Idaho and Beyond” by Helen Yost of WIRT and Sasha of Portland Rising Tide, in Grabbing Back: Essays Against the Global Land Grab, published by AK Press this spring. This powerful and insightful (incite-full!), grassroots anthology tells the stories of global, frontline, community struggles to resist the ongoing onslaught of corporate colonization and industrial destruction of the people and places we together love and protect.
* Third Annual Celebration of Wild Idaho Rising Tide
Saturday, March 29, 7:00 pm to midnight (2013 event notice)
1912 Center Great Room, 412 East Third Street, Moscow, Idaho
For voluntary admission donations, revel in a benefit concert along with a potluck, beer and wine, and a slide show and videos to savor the successes of the Moscow group whose exuberant activism confronts the causes of climate change. WIRT still needs musicians, donated auction/raffle items, bartenders, flyer designers, organizers, etc. for our annual anniversary fundraising party.
Saturday, April 12, 10:00 am to 7:00 pm
East City Park, 900 East Third Street, Moscow, Idaho
* Northwest Rising Tide Groups’ Coordinated Regional Actions
Late May/early June 2014, times and places to be arranged
Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington
* Third Annual Tar Sands Solidarity Journey
Wednesday to Tuesday, June 25 to July 1, times and places to be arranged (2013 event notice)
Moscow, Idaho, and other locations to Fort McMurray, Alberta, and back
Carpools and caravans to the fifth annual Tar Sands Healing Walk
* Fifth Annual Tar Sand Healing Walk
Friday and Saturday, June 27 and 28, times and places to be arranged
Anzac and Fort McMurray, Alberta
An indigenous-led pilgrimage of healing and resistance through the heart of tar sands development north of Fort McMurray, Alberta
Wild Idaho Rising Tide
P.O. Box 9817, Moscow, Idaho 83843
WildIdahoRisingTide.org
Facebook.com/WildIdaho.RisingTide
Twitter.com/WildIdahoRT
208-301-8039
Wild Idaho Rising Tide 