THE BORDER

In November of 2017 and 2018, hundreds of people converged at the border wall in Nogales, AZ and Nogales, Sonora, over the course of long weekends.

They shared music and food, and attended panels on both sides of the wall to discuss the situation at the border and beyond.  Those who were legally able to, could cross the border.

In 2017, people could hold hands through the border posts (and did).  By 2018, a rigid metal mesh had been added and people could only touch fingers. By January 2019, multiple long rolls of coiled razor wire stretched across this section of the border wall that splits the town/community/families of Nogales in half. 

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“We Do Not Accept Nor Will We Accept”

Border wall – Nogales, Sonora, MX / Arizona, USA

HONDURAS

In 2017 and 2018, many thousands of people from Central America joined “migrant caravans” and headed en-masse towards the southern border of the US.  The sheer number of people was alarming to many and caught the attention of the world.  Most caravans originated in Honduras, and a large percentage of those traveling north were Hondurans, although many joined from El Salvador and Guatemala also.

In early 2019, a delegation of 75 interfaith leaders and social justice advocates traveled to Honduras with the specific purpose of better understanding the root causes of this mass migration.  The planning was coordinated between groups in the US and HN that had long standing ties.  Our hosts in HN had decades of human rights experience with the communities whose rights were being violated and had deep knowledge of the complex histories and current threats and dynamics.

At meetings with community groups and women’s groups in various regions of the country, our delegation always asked what we, as US citizens, could do to influence our country to act in ways that would be helpful to their situation.  The answers were always simple and unequivocal.  Make your government stop supporting coups (2009) and make your government stop funding the Honduran security forces.  This money does not provide security to Honduras communities and citizens.  It provides funding and training to security forces that protect the corporations and oligarchs that mine the natural resources that threaten the rivers, that grow trees for Palm Oil that threaten the land, that attempt to build mega-dams and tourist destinations that will displace entire communities (many of them indigenous) that have inhabited the land for centuries and beyond.  At the same time that corporations and the elite are being protected with security funding from the US, the people of Honduras are the prey of gangs and victims of police and security force violence and threats.  Women face the additional threat of domestic violence in an extremely patriarchal society.  All of this is met with near total impunity.

At the end of 2021, in a potentially game changing shift in the fortunes of Honduran communities, Xiomara Castro was elected President of Honduras.  Taking office in January of this year, she became the country’s first female president and quickly identified her administration’s top priorities:  participatory democracy, protection of human rights, combating corruption, and improving economic growth and quality of life for Hondurans.  Her challenges will be massive, but the potential for positive change is something communities in Honduras haven’t felt for a very long time.

An Elite Army Battalion Protects the Mining Company

March 2019, Rio Guapinol –  “Security” forces threaten communities that are trying to protect what they need to survive.  Their abuses are treated with near 100% impunity.

Families of Guapinol

March 2019, Rio Guapinol

“We know how bad things can get. So, we keep united, keep looking after each other, caring for our compañeros and compañeras, basically living in fear.  But we are united.”

Families At Risk

In San Pedro Sula and across the country, parents are extremely protective of their children in public spaces. Escalation of gang violence, kidnappings, gang recruitment, extortion and death threats, lead many parents to the US border with their children.

Fuera JOH

March 2019, San Pedro Sula

“Fuera JOH” (pronounced Hō) has become the battle cry in many Honduran communities.  JOH is Juan Orlando Hernández, the president of Honduras from 2014 to January 27, 2022.  Fuera JOH means Out with Juan Orlando Hernández, and is a response to the deep corruption, violence and impunity that mark his years as president.

Guapinol Resist!

Fighting for Water, Health, Land, Freedom for Political Prisoners

Ni Una Muerta Más – Not One More Death

March 2019, San Pedro Sula

A young girl holds a picture of Berta Cáceres, the much respected Lenca indigenous leader and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015.   She was assassinated in 2016 for her opposition to a dam project that threatened her region.  Cáceres was one of many Honduran land and water protectors killed in the past decade, leading Global Witness to declare it the most dangerous country in the world, relative to its size, for activists protecting forests and rivers.

RACIAL JUSTICE

– Demanding fair and equal treatment of Black communities, and accountability and justice when violations have been committed.

In December 2014, thousands marched through the streets of Oakland in the Millions March.  All races were well represented demanding justice following the failure to indict white police officers in the killing of two unarmed black men, Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York.

In 2015, the movement to Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy was born.  In Oakland, CA, the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) uses this framing to organize huge marches and rallies on MLK Day and “brings together thousands of people across race, class and political ideology with a commitment to build a just and equitable Oakland that Dr. King would be proud of.  For decades, MLK’s legacy has been whitewashed. Often portrayed as a passive figure, in truth he was a radical leader demanding rational change: an end to capitalism, to war, to empire, to poverty, and to white supremacy. Communities in Oakland and across the country take this opportunity every year to celebrate the true spirit of this revolutionary.”

In 2020, after the high profile murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery (among many others), massive spontaneous protests erupted all over the country.  The Black Lives Matter movement had, for years, been helping people to recognize the blatant injustices of policing in the US.  When the world watched Derek Chauvin kneel on George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, the world knew and understood what it was seeing.

“Learn The Community You Serve”

June 3, 2020,  F**k Your Curfew – Oakland, CA

“I Can’t Breathe”

Juneteenth 2020

Port of Oakland Shutdown

*This photo is now in the Library of Congress permanent collection

“End White Supremacy”

August 27, 2017 – Berkeley United Against Hate Rally

“Enough”

June 2, 2020 – Justice for Floyd Rally – Marin City, CA

“We Stand For Our People”

January 20, 2020 – Reclaim MLK March & Rally – Oakland, CA

FIGHTING THE LINE 3 TAR SANDS PIPELINE 

From Minnesota to San Francisco

2021 was the year that Indigenous Anishinaabe women in Minnesota led a massive struggle to protect the water and stop the completion of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline set to cross pristine watersheds in the northern and central part of the state.  As the icy Mississippi River thawed in the spring, the Anishinaabe “water protectors” put out a call for people across the country to come to Minnesota to stand with them in the fight.  Many from the Bay Area answered the call while many others organized solidarity actions locally to raise awareness and increase the pressure on the Biden administration to stop the pipeline.

As the summer progressed with over 1000 arrests and all challenges to the pipeline failing, a 256 mile Treaty People* Walk for Water set off from the Mississippi headwaters headed to the state capitol in St Paul.  18 days later, thousands joined the walkers for the final miles of the walk into the capital.  The Treaty People Walk for Water called on Minnesota Governor Walz to honor the treaties, respect indigenous sovereignty, protect the water and sacred wild rice lakes, and revoke the permits for the Line 3 tar sands pipeline for the health of the planet and future generations.

While these efforts ultimately failed to stop the pipeline, they succeeded in bringing together thousands of people across the country to join in an indigenous women-led movement to protect future generations.

*The concept of “Treaty People” acknowledges that the treaties signed between Native Peoples and colonial powers are the established law of the land.  Ensuring that these treaties are honored is the duty of the ancestors of both those signing groups.

We are all Treaty People.

“Protect Water, Honor Treaties, Stop Line 3”

May, 2021 – Minnesota Governor’s Mansion, St Paul, Minnesota

Lakota grandmother from South Dakota stands with Anishinaabe grandmothers, Twin Cities grandmothers and dozens of grandmothers from the Bay Area in front of the MN Governor’s mansion to demand that Governor Walz keep his campaign promise and stop the Line 3 tar sands pipeline.

Tipis at the Minnesota State Capitol – Protesting the Line 3 Tar Sands Pipeline

August, 2021 – Tipis await the arrival of thousands of walkers with the Treaty People Walk for Water.  Indigenous Ceremony would be held at these Tipis for 2 days following the arrival of the walkers amidst rising tension with Capital security.

PROTECT Our Water – NO LINE 3

August, 2021 – On the banks of the Mississippi River

Multiple Generations of Anishinaabe Women at Governor’s Mansion 

Stop Line 3

May, 2021 – Grandmothers Rally at Minnesota Governor’s Mansion, St Paul

Winona LaDuke at the Minnesota State Capital

Executive director and co-founder of Honor the Earth, a Native environmental advocacy organization with a central role in the fight to stop the Line 3 pipeline.  (she was also the Green Party vice presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000)

Treaty People Walk for Water – Indigenous Ribbon Skirts 

Starting at the headwaters of the Mississippi River, the indigenous led Treaty People Walk for Water is seen here on Day 15 of an 18 day, 256 mile walk to the Minnesota state capital.

“DEFUND Line 3” – Golden Gate Bridge

March, 2021

Projections at Crissy Field were one of many Bay Area actions organized in solidarity with the indigenous women-led campaign in Minnesota to stop the Line 3 tar sands pipeline.

Large Solidarity Actions in San Francisco

WELLS FARGO: PROTECT FUTURE GENERATIONS – DEFUND LINE 3 & FOSSIL FUELS!

San Francisco Financial District
Wells Fargo World Headquarters
April 9, 2021

Solidarity Action in San Francisco Financial District

April, 2021 – Young Indigenous women paint a section of a giant street mural calling on Wells Fargo to stop funding the Line 3 tar sands pipeline.

KAYAK-TIVISM

On August 6th this year, the community of Richmond, CA commemorated the 10 year anniversary of the explosion and fire at the Chevron Refinery that sent 15,000 community members to the hospital. The day was filled with a huge rally, a march to the gates of Chevron and the official launch of “kayak-tivism” in the Bay Area!  Organized by The Richmond Our Power Coalition, the kayak action brought together many kayakers and climate activists, following the lead and messaging of those living on the frontlines of the East Bay “refinery corridor”.  

From The Richmond Our Power Coalition:  “The Mission of Our Power Coalition is to advance a Just Transition in Richmond to a regenerative, non-extractive economy, democratically governed by frontline community leadership, and grounded in racial justice.

The Richmond Our Power Coalition is a constellation of nine organizations that are helping to create the vision of a regenerative ecosystem in Richmond, CA.”

Kayak-tivists with Richmond Our Power Coalition – Chevron Long Wharf in Background

Kayak-tivists with Chevron Tank Farm in Background – Point Richmond

“CHEVRON”

“120 YEARS OF HARM”