Over the last few months, Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists and allies have been working diligently at online education through various channels and on interpersonal outreach at dozens of regional events*, to mobilize hundreds of inland Northwest residents to participate in the Break Free from Fossil Fuels mass action in Anacortes, Washington, on May 13 to 15. After contributing copious amounts of time, energy, and funds to reach out to you and request your participation, and to contact about 60 people from Idaho and eastern Washington signed up through the Break Free Pacific Northwest website, we hope to hear from you: Are you training and traveling to Anacortes?

WIRT is forming carpools and ride shares or possibly renting a van and caravanning with activists from Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington who plan to put their bodies in the way of the government-assisted fossil fuel industry, by non-violently protesting and/or risking arrest. Please RSVP about your travel arrangements if you have not already responded, and catch these associated, upcoming events in Spokane:

May 7: Inland NW Break Free Planning & Training Workshop

After workshops in Moscow on Tuesday evening and in Sandpoint on Wednesday evening, WIRT is holding the third Inland Northwest Break Free logistics planning and direct action training session at 4 pm on Saturday, May 7, at the Liberty Park United Methodist Church, 1526 East Eleventh Avenue in Spokane, Washington. Encouraging local empowerment and resulting strong, urgent actions against volatile oil trains, dirty coal cars, and explosive natural gas facilities, these free workshops offer guidance on:

Personal grounding for direct actions

Transportation and lodging options

Knowing your rights

Possible legal consequences of protests

Action roles and tactics

Action planning and practice

We welcome your friends and families at these gatherings providing workshop materials, snacks, and beverages. Please forward this event announcement to your comrades and invite them to support this historic protest by attending this well-anticipated workshop and the thousands-strong Break Free action in mid-May.  For further information and to discuss these opportunities, please call, text, email, or facebook message WIRT through the enclosed contact channels.

May 12: Not Your Average Climate Rally

Activists of the Spokane community and Occupy movement are hosting a parody party of a climate rally at the intersection of North Division Street and East Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Spokane, Washington, next Thursday, May 12, from 12 noon to 1 pm. As Break Free Northwest participants converge from Montana, Idaho, and eastern Washington, to head to the Anacortes area fossil fuel resistance actions, Spokane friends are staging a fun and supportive send-off celebration with music, speakers, poetry, drumming, and dancing.  Please bring your voice, guitar or other instruments, drums, and props of solar panels, wind turbines, etc. and join us!

Onward together!

Wild Idaho Rising Tide

WildIdahoRisingTide.org

Facebook.com/WildIdaho.RisingTide

Twitter.com/WildIdahoRT

208-301-8039

* This Changes Everything screenings and panel discussions in Moscow, Idaho, on March 29 and in Sandpoint, Idaho, on March 30

* The Fifth Annual Celebration of Wild Idaho Rising Tide in Moscow, Idaho, on April 2

* Bill McKibben’s keynote address for the Washington State University Humanities Week in Pullman, Washington, on April 13

* Earth Day Spokane 2016 in Spokane, Washington, on April 23

* Stopping Coal and Oil Trains through Civil Disobedience panel discussion in Spokane, Washington, on April 23

* Inland Northwest Break Free planning and training workshops in Moscow, Idaho, on May 3, in Sandpoint, Idaho, on May 4, and in Spokane, Washington, on May 7

* WIRT’s weekly Climate Justice Forum radio program on KRFP Radio Free Moscow every Wednesday between 1:30 and 3 pm PDT