Through the ongoing participation of Northwest fossil fuels resisters in public events, hearings, marches, and media stories, we have clearly registered our opposition to the expansion of coal, oil, and gas infrastructure projects across the region. Accelerating impacts of climate change call for ever stronger messages and unified, non-violent, civilly disobedient, direct actions.  For months, Pacific Northwest organizers have been planning a Break Free from Fossil Fuels action, a mass 350.org and allied protest of two crude oil refineries at March Point near Anacortes, Washington, on May 13 to 15, 2016 (http://breakfreepnw.org/).  Please join us in risking arrest or supporting others as part of ongoing Northwest resistance to fossil fuels.

In late March 2016, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) and allies promised hundreds of participants in well-attended screenings and panel discussions of the global climate activism documentary This Changes Everything in Moscow and Sandpoint, Idaho, and at WIRT’s Fifth Annual Celebration in Moscow, that we intend to stage regional direct action and kayaktivist trainings before the Anacortes uprising.  Over the last month, we have incessantly requested that our western Oregon and Washington colleagues send trainers to the inland Northwest, to further recruit, mobilize, and prepare activists for the mid-May Break Free Pacific Northwest action.  After pouring years of energy into supporting opposition to Washington state fossil fuel infrastructure projects, we are understandably eager for some West Coast input toward receptive inland Northwest frontlines.

A small team of Oregon comrades generously proposed to travel to northern Idaho and eastern Washington and present several trainings on consecutive days, among a dozen similar workshops scheduled across the region. But considering the time and expense involved in providing guidance to predictably low Idaho turnouts, they decided to cancel their plans.

Unwilling to sacrifice our networks to the strong tendency to discount interior Northwest activism, due to low participation numbers, unnecessary competition and targeted suppression from larger groups, and the limited capacity of a few climate activism organizers dismissed by their communities as too radical or criminal, WIRT is now hosting three Break Free logistics planning and direct action training convergences. Although we would prefer to concentrate our efforts on local empowerment and resulting strong, relatively urgent actions like those against tar sands megaloads and Shell Arctic drilling armadas, not to mention volatile bomb trains and explosive gas facilities, please expand our work supporting this historic protest by attending these workshops:

* Tuesday, May 3, 7 pm at The Attic, up the back stairs of 314 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho

* Wednesday, May 4, 7 pm at the WIRT office, 301 North First Avenue in Sandpoint, Idaho

* Saturday, May 7, 4 pm at the Liberty Park United Methodist Church, 1526 East Eleventh Avenue in Spokane, Washington

These free, local, three-hour training and planning sessions include:

* Personal grounding for direct actions

* Possible legal consequences of protests

* Knowing your rights

* Action roles and tactics

* Action planning and practice

* Travel and lodging logistics

WIRT welcomes your friends and families at these gatherings. Trainers and organizers will provide workshop materials, snacks, and beverages.  Please wear comfortable clothes, bring a notebook, and arrive on time.  We will share a wealth of information, and some of the participants will prepare to risk arrest in Anacortes.  Discussions will include transportation options for the action, considering van rental for the north Idahoans who signed up through breakfreepnw.org and caravans with groups traveling from Montana, Spokane, and southern Idaho.

After the Break Free demonstration, we are encouraging kayaktivist trainers to support with an advance workshop another attempted flotilla action around the Lake Pend Oreille rail bridge this summer, protesting a proposed second span. WIRT activists will continue to challenge Idahoans to exercise direct action against fossil fuels, knowing that the places where change is most difficult are exactly the places where it is most needed and capable of inspiring personal initiative.

For further information or answers to questions, please call, text, email, or facebook message WIRT through the enclosed contact channels, to discuss these opportunities. We would greatly appreciate your RSVP to these workshop invitations soon.  Alert us to any transportation issues that may complicate your attendance, so we can arrange ride-shares.  Please profusely print and post the linked, color PDF version of the Inland NW Break Free Workshops Flyer, and forward this event announcement to your comrades, inviting them to these well-anticipated workshops and to the thousands-strong Break Free action in mid-May.

In solidarity and gratitude for your ongoing activism,

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

WildIdahoRisingTide.org

Facebook.com/WildIdaho.RisingTide

Twitter.com/WildIdahoRT

208-301-8039