St. Louis 99% Head to DC to Take Back the Capitol

Press release:

Workers, students, jobless Missourians and members of Occupy STL will head to Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5 to join with thousands of protesters from around the country to Take Back the Capitol and send a message that Congress needs to represent the 99 percent, not just the 1 percent.

Over the past few months the country has begun to focus on the growing disparity between the 99 percent and the 1 percent, and its impact on our cities and neighborhoods. Thousands of Americans will converge on Washington, D.C., starting on Dec. 5 to participate in four days of protest to make the voices of the 99 percent heard and counter the influence of the 1 percent.

“I'm part of the 99 percent that politicians in Washington have been ignoring, and it is time that Congress listens to us, not just corporate lobbyists from K Street and their campaign contributions." said Jonathan McFarland. "We're going down there to the corridors of power to make our presence felt. We need good jobs and an end to foreclosures now.”

The situation for the 99 percent is dire. Nearly 14 million workers in the United States are without jobs; median incomes for most workers have fallen 6.7 percent in the two years since the recession of 2009; and income inequality is at its worst since the 1920s. And while the middle class and working people are suffering, taxes for the 1 percent are at an all-time low.

Student Newspaper Highlights

There's a lot of great content that comes from St. Louis students every week. Here are a few highlights I've found from the past week:

StudLife Editorial on efforts to increase campus sustainability at Wash U.

A report on Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof's talk at Graham Chapel and call to combat discrimination against women.

A report on the student response to the Global Energy Future Symposium.

And, in fact, the students who organized the protest had their own excellent take on the events.

The SAE fraternity helping to build homes in North St. Louis.

A call for students to get more involved politically.

The University News at SLU reminds students to register to vote.

The SLU SGA is working on educating students about the flood in Pakistan and raising money for relief funds.

The Transit Alliance at SLU will be celebrating Metro.

The UMSL Current's discussion of the Ed Martin/ Russ Carnahan debate surpsingly cited the St. Louis Activist Hub blog.

Ryan Krull asks questions about the new proposals to expand the governments ability to wiretap.

The Current editorial board also took both Republicans and Democrats (but mostly Republicans) to task for not fighting hard enough for the environment.

There was a report on the "30 states, 30 Mosques" tour that stopped at Webster University.

The Webster Journal also had a nice report on a visit from Emmy-winning filmmaker Larry Lansburgh, who talked about a group of Ecuadorians who fended of oil companies from the rainforest.

Let me know if there are other articles that I missed!

Washington University Alums Get Award From Sierra Club

Pretty cool:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Three current Green Corps organizers - Kady McFadden, Todd Zimmer, and Jennifer Marienau - are among a group of students from Washington University in St. Louis selected to receive a 2010 national award from the Sierra Club.

Prior to joining Green Corps this August, the three were leaders of the Washington University Climate Justice Alliance. They have been selected to receive the club’s Joseph Barbosa Award, which honors club members under the age of 30 who have a demonstrated record of service to the environment.

The group is being recognized for their efforts to make their fellow students – and the general public – aware of the hidden costs of “clean coal.” In April 2010, the students organized a nationally recognized “Great Coal Debate” that featured Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, and Fred Palmer, vice president of public relations for Peabody Energy. The debate was moderated by Bryan Walsh, environmental correspondent for TIME magazine.

Six members of the group shared their organizing efforts at a June 2010 conference sponsored by the Sierra Student Coalition.

“I have worked with hundreds of students in the U.S. youth climate movement, and these students are some of the strongest, most strategic young people that this movement has ever seen,” said Lindsey Berger, Midwest regional organizer for the Sierra Student Coalition. “They have shown more dedication, more leadership and more results in the short period I have known them than some grassroots organizers do in years of work.”

The award will be presented Sept. 25 during the Sierra Club’s Annual Dinner in San Francisco. It comes with a $500 prize that the students will use to help fund a four-day symposium they are organizing titled “Global Energy Future” that will be held at Washington University in October.

The Great Coal Debate, put on last year, was probably the best organized student activist event I've ever seen. I don't know how they possibly could have done a better job making a powerful case against the continued use of coal to a huge audience. Todd and Jennifer were friends of mine, and it's bittersweet to hear about them kicking butt in other parts of the country rather than in St. Louis, but the good news is that there's still an amazing group of environmental activists at Washington University who have great things planned for this year.

WashU Students Stand Up for Their Energy Future

A little background to the story. On Monday, Washington University hosted an "America's Energy Future" conference on the Danforth Campus. No doubt strongly influenced by the huge donations they've received from coal companies and the fact that the CEOs from Peabody and Arch Coal are on their Board of Trustees, they focused much of the discussion on "clean coal" as an environmentally friendly way to meet all of our energy needs. The only problems: "clean coal" is nothing more than a marketing term, as truly clean ways to use coal have yet to be developed. And even if carbon can be sequestered efficiently, coal still has a number of problems such as devastating extraction techniques and problems with storing the highly toxic biproducts.

But as you can see below, the students at WashU were not about to let coal CEOs (who, BTW, have been at the forefront of denying climate change over the past twenty years) tell them what future environmentalism should look like:



I'm really proud to say I know many of the students involved in planning this action. As should be obvious, I love all kinds of progressive activism. But I especially love events where intelligent newcomers stand up to crusty old ideas that hide behind the veil of "seriousness" and the status quo. These students made a powerful statement, and did so in a very thoughtful way, and I really hope they can inspire others to fight against the inertia that keeps holding our country back.

UPDATE: Here's a list of all of the press coverage from @Neutralized :

Missouri Power Shift http://www.missouri.powershift09.org/

National Power Shift http://www.powershift09.org...

River Front Times http://bit.ly/2haqSG
Sierra Student Coalition http://tinyurl.com/y8m4acr

It's Getting Hot In Here http://tinyurl.com/ylb7v49

Campus Progress http://tinyurl.com/yzf83of
Student Life http://www.studlife.com/

Student Union http://www.su.wustl.edu
Earth Stream http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Pollution-and-Warming/VIDEO-WashU-flashmob-confronts-Coal-Executives_18_196__214066.html

STL Today http://tinyurl.com/yjagf3k
Rainforest Action Network http://understory.ran.org/2009/11/04/flashmob-at-americas-energy-future-conference-at-washington-university-in-st-louis/

Earth Blips http://earthblips.dailyradar.com/video/green-action-flashmob/
KWMU/NPR http://tinyurl.com/ylh8rse

Business Week http://bx.businessweek.com/coal-futures/flashmob-at-americas-energy-future-conference-at-washington-university-in-st-louis/1077134806114860128-30d3c1c51e7cc97b0cbe9df6e8475fbd/