@LeatherCubAndrew Oh hey, my former coven was all about fighting back. They started a group -- the #ThomasMortonAlliance -- which allied with other radical groups (like #EarthFirst). The time has come for alliances to happen again. And for us all to learn how to fight back. #Pagans and #witches (and anyone #NonChristian) have targets on our backs as much as everyone else. We need to fight for #MotherEarth. All of us!!!
And yes, our coven (Cylch y Lleud Haidd) and the #ThomasMortonAlliance are mentioned in early editions of #DrawingDownTheMoon" by #MargotAdler (who was a friend of my high priestess).
So, fracturing amongst the various environmental and social justice groups has been going on as long as I've been in the movement. But there have always been those (like myself and some of my colleagues in #EarthFirst and the #ThomasMortonAlliance and #AIM) that saw #HumanRights abuses and #EnvironmentalPollution as being connected -- and that #CorporateGreed was the main driver of most of the issues facing our planet!
Hear Me Out: In 2025, Climate Activists Should Spend Less Time on Climate
If you’re a climate activist who doesn’t know what to do for the next four years, the answer is remarkably simple: Join other movements.
“[Climate is] not more urgent than kids being ripped away from their families and dying in the desert—anyone who tries to win that argument is monstrous themselves. We either merge, join forces, or we lose,” #NaomiKlein, 2019.
Sophie Shepherd
Jan 09, 2025, Common Dreams
"Yet my optimism arises out of a different trend in the climate movement: Climate activists are (finally) showing up for other movements.
"Historically, the climate movement has attempted to isolate itself from other political and social issues, arguing that climate policy is 'just science.' This majority-white movement has failed to see that fossil fuel emissions are part of a larger history of the Global North #colonizing and exploiting both people and the planet for decades. The climate crisis is a symptom of a broader exploitative system. To change that system, we need a united left that will fight for all people—not just those who identify as environmentalists.
"In 2020, climate activists were rightfully berated for not showing up enough for the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Thankfully, I think many climate activists heard that message because today, they have come out in droves for #Palestine.
"Many of the college students who organized campus encampments last spring to urge their school administrators to divest from Israel and the U.S. imperial war machine were students who had previously organized for climate justice. I witnessed this firsthand at the Claremont Colleges when I was a senior: The student organizations demanding fossil fuel divestment fell to the wayside as the crisis in Gaza intensified. Globally, many climate organizations chose to speak out and take direct action to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
"But none of these climate activists had stopped caring about the climate. In fact, they often pointed out that Israel’s actions were not just #genocide, but #ecocide as well. The onslaught of #bombs dropped on Gaza will contaminate the soil and groundwater in the region for decades. And the destruction has produced at least 54.5 million tons of carbon dioxide, equal to the annual emissions of 16 coal-fired power plants.
"Climate activists cannot claim to fight for a just future and stay silent about genocide. 'If we, as climate activists, aren’t able to see and speak up against the current #marginalization and oppression and killing of people today, then I don’t think we should be able to call ourselves #climatejustice [activists],' climate champion #GretaThunberg told Al Jazeera in early December 2024.
"As Trump prepares to enter the White House, we will undoubtedly see more people oppressed and killed. Among the many groups who are vulnerable under his administration are undocumented immigrants, whom Trump has vowed to round up and deport.
"Migrant justice has long been intertwined with climate justice. As climate change makes many areas around the world uninhabitable, climate refugees have no choice but to leave their home.
In response to Trump’s election, climate organizers Jeff Ordower and Ahmed Gaya called on their fellow activists to bring their experiences of shutting down pipelines and coal plants to fight the incarceration and deportation we can expect under Trump. Climate activists should answer this call: The struggles for migrant justice and climate justice are intertwined, and we must meet the needs of the current moment.
"'[Climate is] not more urgent than kids being ripped away from their families and dying in the desert—anyone who tries to win that argument is monstrous themselves. We either merge, join forces, or we lose,' writer and activist Naomi Klein said in 2019.
"With Trump as president, things will undoubtedly get worse before they get better. We need to build a strong left to fight fascism during Trump’s presidency and to build a just green future in its aftermath. To do so, climate activists must put their words into action when they say they fight for every living being."
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/climate-movement-fight-fascism?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon
#WaterIsLife #NoGenocide #NoBombs #HumanRightsAreNeverWrong
So, the next section takes to task the glorification of #AIM leaders like #DennisBanks and #RussellMeans, and some of the #ToxicMasculinity within the group's ranks. I experienced this first hand with a coven-mate (who was a member of AIM) -- he and I would butt heads about a lot of things, and he truly had the attitude that he was always right and that he should be running the show. It got old after a while and I eventually left the groups (both my coven and our political group, the #ThomasMortonAlliance). Ego and emotional / physical abuse used to be a part of a lot of groups -- even Winona LaDuke was caught up in an incident that happened under her watch involving an abuse of power and sexual coercion. So yeah, I agree 100% with Klee's assessment of some of AIM's leadership and the "cult of personality" around certain figures.
"As Billie Pierre stated in her defense of Graham and Looking Cloud, 'A basic principle of any resistance movement is
non-collaboration with our enemy.'
"The context of extreme State repression and consequential internal paranoia and divisions within movements and how it
impacts ongoing struggles today is necessary to study. AIM and their Indigenous feminist counterpart Women of All Red Nations, have lessons unlearned that should be studied, challenged, and confronted outside of settler colonial state narratives that continue to undermine and attack Indigenous resistance. There are also serious reasons many young Indigenous People are wary of AIM, from the toxic misogynistic legacy that has remained unaccounted for, to the imposition of force in frontlines where they have tended to overbear local organizers. Though they’ve maintained leadership with their 'Grand Council' over scattered semi-autonomous chapters, AIM’s contemporary presence has depended on its legacy. It’s largely an institution that dwells on its past achievements. Though those achievements may be great, this doesn’t provide much opening for reflection and necessary transformation to be relevant to young folks who have grown up in what we might consider a 'post-Red Power, post-AIM' world. As AIM has aspired to be 'a catalyst for Indian Sovereignty,' the terms have only grown muddied with the actions of their celebrities. From Russell Means abusing a Diné elder, then attempting to dodge accountability by attacking Navajo Nation tribal sovereignty, to the trails of women used and abused by him, Dennis Banks, and the other personalities that still comprise AIM’s celebrity forces.
"This anguishing resentment of AIM and their ongoing impositions, is part of what motivated a young Indigenous person
to cut down the AIM flag that was flying over a sacred fire at the Winnemucca Community Resistance Camp in so-called
Nevada in 2021."
Pages 183-184, #KleeBenally, #NoSpiritualSurrender
And as for my past activism, I was the youngest member of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Aliiance, and a founder of the #ThomasMortonAlliance -- a pagan group whose motto was "Earth Religion, Earthly Concerns". One of the TMA founders was a Wiccan feminist. Another was a Native American activist. I met both of them through the Clamshell Alliance years ago. During the mid-late 1980s to early 1990s, we worked with #HumanRights groups and even collaborated with the local #EarthFirst group. Unfortunately, tragedy tore our group apart, but several members went on to become journalists (I was one of them), and continued to participate and organize events. I'm not as active as I used to be, but thanks to the internet, I know things were even worse than I suspected...
#Activism #IsItLikeToday #Coverups #Greenwashing #Oligarchy #Capitalism
So, TBH, I was a teen member of the #ClamshellAlliance, and later became an member of #EarthFirst and the #ThomasMortonAlliance (a #Pagan group dedicated to the defense of #MotherEarth). I've been fighting for our Mother my whole life and I'm willing to die for Her. This is the real deal. We live or die based on what we do now...
"I wanna be a witness
Or a victim to your spell
Crackling in lightening
Dressed in shadows
Red like a carousel
I want to be there
When the savage comes
I want to be there
When the savage comes
When your savage earth heart
... Cuts through
Will you lay all of your
Deepest wildest secrets bare?
Will you let all of those
Rumbling old gods take rage?
I want to be there
When the savage comes
I want to be there
When the savage comes
When your savage earth heart
Cuts through!"
- Michael Scott, The Waterboys, 1982
#ClimateCrisis #Ecocide #WaterIsLife #WorldOceansDay #Wildfires #AirPollution #Corporations #Capitalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BwX8uaOCww
