Friday, November 2, 2018

New Yorkers ramp up pressure on Governor Cuomo to stop the Williams Pipeline

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New York, NY - New Yorkers took direct action outside Governor Andrew Cuomo’s New York City office on November 2, 2018 sending a clear message: Be a real climate leader and stop the Williams NESE Pipeline. Dozens of activists rallied before dropping a 25-foot banner across the street, and delivering a letter opposing the pipeline signed by 211 New York organizations. 


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“If Cuomo is at all serious about addressing the growing climate crisis, he must reject the Williams fracked gas pipeline,” Alex Beauchamp, Northeast Region Director, Food & Water Watch. “Today, New Yorkers sent a strong signal to the governor – we’re sick of his empty rhetoric on climate change. It’s time for him to take bold action, and that starts by rejecting this dangerous pipeline.”



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The Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline is proposed construction of a 23-mile pipeline extension from New Jersey, cutting through the waters of New York along the Staten Island coast, past Coney Island and into the Rockaways. 



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Participants of today’s action include representatives from New York Communities for Change, Sane Energy Project, Food & Water Watch, 350Brooklyn, Stop the Williams Pipeline Coalition, 350.org, Fossil Free, TK TK, and more.



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“Six years after Superstorm Sandy hit, this fracked gas pipeline threatens the very communities most impacted and still recovering from that devastating storm,” said Kim Fraczek with Sane Energy Project. “With UN reports warning that we have just over a decade for meaningful action on climate, we need Governor Cuomo to be a real climate leader and stop fossil fuel projects like the Williams Pipeline.”



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Over the last two months, a series of investigative reports published by WNYC and Capital & Main revealed potentially egregious conflicts of interest between high-level officials in Albany and the Williams Pipeline Company. One found that found that former CIO Vicki Fuller left her position at New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office in July, immediately assumed a director position with Williams Pipeline Company, and increased investments in the company by $80 million even as its stock dropped.  



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In September, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer announced his opposition to the Williams Pipeline, recognizing it as a “monumental step backwards.” Numerous elected officials are joining in a growing opposition letter. Across New York State, pressure is mounting for Governor Cuomo to make New York a model for a just transition to 100% renewable energy and ending all fossil fuel projects, especially fracked gas infrastructure. 



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In April, 2,000 people marched through Albany and 55 were arrested while sitting-in at the Governor’s office. In September, 3,000 people marched through Lower Manhattan for Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice, and seven people were arrested the next day after blocking the intersection outside Governor Cuomo’s office demanding he “Rise to the Climate Crisis.”



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“This is New York we’re talking about,” said Sara Gronim with 350Brooklyn. “With the Trump administration attacking our climate and communities, New Yorkers demand elected officials who will rise to the crisis, and put our health and safety ahead of fossil fuel interests.” 



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In addition, Andrew Cuomo appointed Maggie Moran, a lobbyist for Williams Co., as his gubernatorial re-election campaign full-time general consultant in charge of managing day-to-day operations and strategy. Moran has presented on the topic of “Natural Gas Infrastructure Advocacy” at a Williams Companies conference in May 2018.


New Yorkers urge Governor Cuomo to stop Williams Pipeline


#Activism, #ActOnClimate, #BannerDrop, #ClimateChange, #ClimateCrisis, #climatejustice, #CommunitiesFightBack, #CuomoWalkTheTalk, #DefendPeoplePower, #EnergyDemocracy, #EnergyIndependence, #environment, #FossilFree, #GovernorCuomo, #infrackstructure, #KeepItIntheGround, #MakePollutersPay, #MakeREVreal, #NewYork, #NoPipelines, #NYC, #OffFossilFuels, #RenewableEnergy, #‎Solidarity, #StopNESE, #StopWilliams, ‪#‎weareallconnected‬, #YOUAREHERE

© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Día de los Muertos call to community: Life has no borders

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New York, NY - New York immigrant community and allies gathered to celebrate Día de los Muertos on November 1, 2018 in Washington Square Park followed by a procession to the ICE offices on Varick Street.
This is a call to unite during a day of remembrance and traditions that hold us together. We call on you to honor el Día de los Muertos by reminding everyone that life has no borders.
On this day, we remember those who have been forcefully separated by the cruel, profit-making system; we remember all those family members who cannot be with us today, who have suffered a social death in deportation.
On this day, we call upon those who we remember to join us in celebration and let their Spirits guide us to fight for a better world, to share, laugh, learn, grow, to live with dignity and without fear.
On this day, we remind ourselves to surrender our prejudices, to purge the brutality of separation, ignorance, fear, and blindness. We re-imagine the experience of death and create different worlds.
We invite you to bring ritual elements to remember and celebrate those you have lost. If you can’t join us in this evening of communion, ceremony and healing, we invite you to use these intentions in your own ceremonies or in the spaces where you will remember your loved ones and those who have been forcefully displaced from your communities. 

Día de los Muertos call to community: Life has no borders

#AbolishICE #Activism #BordersAreDeath #CentralAmericanExodus #DiaDeLosMuertos #HereToStay #ICEfreeNY #immigration #IStandWithRavi #LoveTrumpsHate #MovementIsLife #NewSanctuaryCoalition #NewYork #NoBorders #NoHumanIsIlegal #NoWall #NYC #RaviRagbir #RefugeesWelcome #ResistTrump #SanctuaryCaravan #SanctuaryCity #Solidarity #StopDeportations #StopICEraids #WashingtonSquare

© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963


Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Call to Action: TYS Laundromat, Pay Your Workers What You Owe

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New York, NY - The TYS Laundromat workers held a picket line on October 31, 2018 outside the laundromat at 215 E 116th St, East Harlem. Minimum wage, overtime pay and appropriate protective gear. These were the demands that workers at TYS Laundromat in East Harlem fought for and won. But now TYS is cutting workers' schedules as a retaliation against the workers rights to organize.
For many years, the workers at TYS Laundromat have suffered from wage theft. For their work and dedication, they were regularly paid a sub-minimum wage without overtime pay.
The TYS Laundromat workers are saying "No more". Their demands to TYS are simple:

* Treat your workers with respect.
* Provide a safe work environment with appropriate safety gear and conditions.
* Pay a minimum wage with overtime.
* Come to the negotiation table in good faith for compensation of back wages.
TYS has met the workers' demands by paying the minimum wage and providing safety equipment. But now TYS is refusing to negotiate with its employees. They have cut their business hours and taken an additional day of work away from their employees, cutting workers' schedules by 13 hours a week. This is unacceptable. It is a clear retaliation against the workers, violating their rights to compensation and their rights to organize.
What do we do when the boss retaliates? Fight back!
Together we will demonstrate our community strength and let TYS Laundromat know that retaliation will not be tolerated.

Call to Action: TYS Laundromat, Pay Your Workers What You Owe

#Activism #demonstration #DirectAction #EastHarlem #FairContracts #FairWages #Harlem #HastaLaHuelga #Labor #LaborRights #LaundromatWorkers #LaundryWorkersCenter #LivingWage #LWC #MinimumWage #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkers #NYC #RetailLaundromats #safety #Solidarity #StreetVendorProject #TYSLaundromat #Union #WageTheft #WorkerRights #WorkersPower

© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

NYC Rise Up with Pittsburgh - Solidarity vigil with gun violence victims

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New York, NY - Members of the Jewish community and allies gathered in Battery Park on October 30, 2018, holding a candlelight vigil to demonstrate support for the victims of white nationalism in Pittsburgh and resist this administration’s bigotry. Together, #WeWillOutliveThem. 
Today, Trump went to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh Jewish leaders and allies are calling on Trump to denounce white nationalism and violence in all its forms — and they’re ready to resist him.
This is one of several solidarity events across the country. Now is the time to turn out, show solidarity, and hold each other close.
* We must drown out Trump’s empty words as he enables white nationalists. 
* We must resist his attack on immigrant communities as he prepares an executive order to end birthright citizenship.
* We must come together in solidarity, love, and community.


NYC Solidarity with Pittsburgh gun violence victims

#Activism #attack #BatteryPark #CandlelightVigil #demonstration #DomesticTerrorism #enough #GunControl #GunViolence #HateCrime #JewishCommunity #massacre #MassShooting #nationalism #NewYork #NotMyPresident #NYC #Pittsburgh #‎Solidarity #stopgunviolence #StopTheHate #Synagogue #trumpvsallofus #victims #Vigil #WeAreNotAfraid #WhiteSupremacy #WeWillOutliveThem

© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Baby Trump balloon in New York City as part of Impeachment Parade

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New York, NY - Hundreds of New Yorkers joined activist groups By the People and Baby Trump Tour at the Impeachment Parade organized on October 28, 2018 at Battery Park. The event featured the infamous 20-foot-high Baby Trump Balloon, which made Trump feel 'unwelcome' in the UK. 
This parade was organized to kick off mass campaign to mobilize millions of Americans to support impeachment and remove Trump's Administration from power and allow the people to build a country that works for all of us.
The Baby Trump Balloon, a 20-foot tall balloon depicting the president as a petulant child, wearing a diaper and holding a cell phone in his tiny hands, has been on a nationwide “Baby Trump Tour”. The tour has gone from Bedminster to Palm Beach (near Mar-a-Lago) alongside a rally for Power to Puerto Rico, to the Women’s March in Chicago, to Politicon in Los Angeles, and more.
The parade comes the weekend after a wave of attempted bombings targeted Trump’s top political opponents, just before the 2018 midterm election.
America must defend the freedom and dignity of all those who call it home. But Donald Trump is separating families and children, promoting religious discrimination, encouraging white supremacists, obstructing justice, and working with a foreign dictator to undermine our democracy.  
We must decide what kind of country we want to live in. Do we want to live in a country by and for a corrupt few? Or a country by and for all of us, no matter the color of our skin, the religion we practice or the people we love?
Resisting this President and his administration is not a political action, it is one of survival. He has proven every day since elected that he is unfit to serve as our country’s leader. We must use every tool at our disposal to push back. 
Ego and insecurity is Trump’s Achilles’ Heel - help us take aim at it together, and give Trump the parade he really deserves! We think it's time he started to feel unwelcome in the US too. Impeachment will stop this president. 

NYC: Impeachment Parade with Baby Trump Balloon

#Activism #BabyTrumpTour #balloon #BatteryPark #ByThePeople #collusion #corruption #DefendDemocracy #demonstration #DirectAction #DonaldTrump #DumpTrump #FakePrez #impeach #ImpeachmentParade #ImpeachTrump #LoveTrumpsHate #MangoMussolini #NewYork #NotMyPresident #NYC #PeacefulProtest #PeacefulResistance #ResistTrump #revolution #treason #TrumpBalloon #trumpvsallofus

© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963

Friday, October 26, 2018

Defense Rests in Historic Climate Trial for Activists Who Crawled Into Fracked Gas Pipeline

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Cortlandt, New York - This week defense attorney David Dorfman made a compelling case that his clients Rebecca Berlin, David Publow and Janet González crawled into a segment of 42 inch diameter steel pipe in Cortlandt, New York in October 2016, halting construction of the Spectra/Enbridge AIM pipeline for 18 hours, in order to prevent a greater harm.  
Judge Kimberly Ragazzo is set to make a verdict on the case on January 8, 2019. In July, Ragazzo ruled the pipeline crawlers would be allowed to present the necessity defense, meaning their unlawful actions were necessary to prevent a greater, imminent harm. 
If Judge Ragazzo finds Berlin, Publow and González not guilty by reason of necessity, it will be the first time for a criminal trial employing a climate related necessity defense and could have implications for communities trying to stop fossil fuel pipelines across the country.  
The Spectra/Enbridge AIM pipeline transports fracked gas from Pennsylvania through New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The high pressure pipeline runs within 105 feet of critical safety infrastructure at the decaying Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, endangering 20 million people in the New York metropolitan area in the event of a rupture. 
Earlier this week expert witnesses testified that in addition to its dangerous placement near Indian Point, the fracked gas pipeline already substantially contributes to climate change and exposes the local community to carcinogens and other toxic components of fracked gas. 
The defendants also took the stand this week testifying that they, along with the local community opposing the pipeline, exhausted all legal means before resorting to civil disobedience and were forced to take action when elected officials like Governor Cuomo and Senators Schumer and Gillibrand failed to exercise the full extent of their powers to stop the pipeline. 
The local community and New Yorkers across the state are still calling on Governor Cuomo to be a true climate leader and shut off the gas in the pipeline. 

Defense Rests in Historic Climate Trial

#Activism #ActOnClimate #AIMpipeline #CivilDisobedience #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #climatejustice #ClimateTrial #ClosingStatements #Cortlandt #CourtHearing #courthouse #CourtSupport #CuomoWalkTheTalk #FossilFree #Fracking #IndianPoint #infrackstructure #KeepItIntheGround #Methane #NecessityDefense #NewYork #NoPipelines #NuclearPowerPlant #NYC #OffFossilFuels #ResistAIMpipeline #ResistSpectra #SAPE #SEnRG #StopAIMpipeline #StopSpectra #WalkTheTalk #WaterProtectors #WeSayNo 

© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963