#GulfSouthRising — The South is fixin’ to throw down

By
Peaceful Uprising
– February 11, 2015Posted in: Allies, Blog, Events, USA

With looming anniversaries of the deep-water BP oil volcano (5 years) and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (10 years), the Gulf Coast region is uniting to resist the fossil fuel economy with unity and power.

From the organizers:

#GulfSouthRising is a declaration for equitable change. We are a regional movement of coordinated actions and events led by grassroots groups in 2015. Across the Gulf South, we use strategic dates and events to inform and engage frontline communities around the climate crisis and its impact on the region. Together we build toward a just transition away from extractive industries, discriminatory policies and practices that create or maintain inequality. We learn, play and move together to build a healthy, just and sustainable region. Join us!

The movement energy behind #GulfSouthRising seems equally committed to securing resources to help communities in the Gulf South–a frontline region for oil-company exploitation and bayou depletion–survive or thrive in the face of so much adversity.

Follow the website GulfSouthRising.org as dates are announced for specific events (or email info@gulfsouthrising.org). Many communities are organizing plans around the BP Oil disaster anniversary on April 20, which is right around the corner.  Don’t you have something to say to BP? About their use of toxic dispersents to hide their crimes, about their greed and domination, about their business plan that entails the destruction of all life on Earth.

Peaceful Uprising organizers heard a lot about the #GulfSouthRising plans while attending the Extreme Energy Extraction Collaborative Summit in Biloxi, Mississippi. The E3C summit has become a go-to event for grassroots organizers from the across the world (mostly North America) to compare notes, join forces and share ideas about the direction of local, regional and national movements around mineral extraction resistance, environmental justice and the climate crisis.

While in the region, we were able to visit communities in Alabama with grassroots-lead campaigns against local tar sands mining and infrastructure, in Florence/Muscle Shoals as well as Africatown/Mobil.  We’ll have another update on those visits coming soon.