Saturday, Nov. 9, noon-2pm: (Please forward this to people you know, and urge them to come, too)
5th monthly protest at TD Banks (major investor in Tar Sands oil pipelines) in Springfield, Northampton, Amherst, and Greenfield
Come if you can to the Springfield protest. Our goal is for this one to be the biggest, so that we finally get coverage of our message by the region’s major newspaper (the Republican) and network TV stations. More details below.
Central theme and media hook : “Funeral for Our Future”—10 participants carry mock black coffin covered with oil, singing “They are digging us a hole, They are digging us a hole, Six feet underground, Where the Tar Sands oil will flow.” . . . and other verses. The rest of the crowd will join in and sing too. {This theme was powerfully used at a February protest in Boston:http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=cNPcCjZVBUs}
Scroll down for list of speakers and other background info
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--I’m stepping down in mid-November as coordinator of this campaign . . . who’ll step up?
Since April, I’ve been leading this campaign to Boycott TD Bank until it stops investing in Tar Sands oil pipelines. Also, some of us have been training and preparing to use Civil Resistance (a.k.a ‘Civil Disobedience’, or non-violent direct action) as part of the campaign to capture the media and public’s attention about the climate crisis, and stopping the Keystone pipeline as one urgent essential step.
I now plan to step back, after the Nov. 9 protests, to pursue other priorities in my life; I do plan to attend future protests, including joining others engaging in CR, such as when the Pledge of Resistance calls for action by its 75,000 signers.
So I invite anyone to step forward and take the baton from me. On Monday Oct. 21, I’ll be meeting with the leaders of Climate Action Now of western Mass to see if they will endorse and carry on the TD Bank campaign. I’ll be glad to orient and train anyone who’d like to work on it, including passing over my files of contacts, both individuals and organizations in the valley, and my list-serve of over 700 names.