Reflections
on a Revolutionary Among Us
l
Peace activist Elizabeth McAlister, under
arrest in 2001
On this holiday in which we celebrate
independence and the courage of our revolutionary heroes, a word about a
different kind of revolutionary, and her exercise of the free speech and
religious practice the founders fought for.
Elizabeth McAlister has lived at Jonah House,
on the West Side of Baltimore, for most of the last 50 years. She and her
husband, the anti-war activist Philip Berrigan, founded Jonah House as part of
a network of Catholic Worker Houses across the country. Philip was one of the
Catonsville Nine, who burned draft records in 1968, setting-off a series of
similar actions across the country. He died in 2002, but McAlister has
continued to protest against violence and war, in particular, nuclear weapons.
In April, on the 50th anniversary of Martin
Luther King’s assassination, McAlister and six others cut through a fence and
entered the King’s Bay Naval Submarine Base in Camden County, GA, which is home
to a fleet of Trident Submarines, which carry nuclear war heads.
The group’s purpose was to commit what they
call a Ploughshares Action, based on a phrase from Isaiah in the Bible:
“They will beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword
against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”
The first Ploughshares Action took place in
1980. Since then, more than 100 similar protests have occurred in the United
States and around the world.
When Elizabeth McAlister and her fellow
activists entered the King’s Bay Naval Base, they were arrested, as they hoped
they would be. They want a trial, so they can introduce evidence that contends
that nuclear weapons are illegal, and that the United States is in violation of
American and International law by using them, or even threatening to use them.
It’s not a widely held legal theory.
In a world that presents the kind of
threats it presents, making an argument for complete nuclear disarmament is a
tough sell, and many abhor the group’s strategy of breaking the law in civil
disobedience. But these activists are afforded the right under our constitution
to press their case, and they do so, animated by an intense faith in God, and
their understanding of the message articulated by Jesus in the Christian New
Testament.
A pre-trial motion is scheduled for early
next month. I spoke with one of their lawyers, who thinks that a trial might
take place in November or December. Three of the activists posted bond, and
were released from Federal prison. They are wearing ankle bracelets and are
confined to their homes. McAlister and three others chose to stay in jail, in
Brunswick, GA, and as they await trial, they’re engaging in prison ministry,
helping their fellow inmates communicate with lawyers and families, and deal
with the stress of incarceration.
We’ll have updates as this case proceeds in
the courts. And on this holiday when we celebrate the conviction and commitment
to the democratic principles of our revolutionary forbearers, let’s pause to
consider Elizabeth McAlister, a former nun, who at age 78 is so completely committed
to her principles of non-violence that she is willing to forego her own
physical freedom, and exercise her right to freedom of speech to make a point
about the world’s right to be free of the threat of nuclear destruction.
As we celebrate the courage and sacrifice
of our founders, let’s also acknowledge the courage and sacrifice it sometimes
takes to make use of the freedoms those revolutionaries fought for. I’m
Tom Hall. Happy holiday.
Women in Asia Are
Confronting Fracking in the US to Eliminate Plastic Byproducts
July
7, 2018
Heaps of plastic waste cover
the shores of Manila Bay in the Philippines. Myrna Dominguez remembers when an
abundance of fish inhabited its waters — locals would catch enough to feed
their families and sell at the market. Today, she says, they are catching more
plastic than fish.
“We’re very afraid that if this
is not addressed, the bay, which 100,000 small fishers rely on, will no longer
be viable for them,” Dominguez says.
In May, Dominguez and Indian
labor organizer Lakshmi Narayan visited communities in the US that are affected
by pollution from oil extraction and plastic production, to show the effects
that these processes have on communities overseas. The “Stopping Plastic Where
It Starts Tour,” organized by #Breakfreefromplastic and Earthworks, is part of
a project that aims to reduce plastic consumption and production by raising
awareness about the impacts of plastic production on the communities at either
end of its supply chain.
Dominguez and Narayan,
representing communities in Asia experiencing the effects of plastic pollution,
visited places in the US experiencing the impacts of hydraulic fracturing
(fracking) oil and gas production — an industry that is producing the raw
materials to build plastic.
Dominguez is the policy and
advocacy adviser of the Asia Pacific Network on Food Sovereignty, which
campaigns to protect the rights of small food producers such as fishers and
farmers, and to preserve fishing grounds and cultural lands of indigenous
communities.
Narayan is the co-founder of
Solid Waste and Collection Handling, a cooperative of waste-pickers in Pune,
India, who collect waste throughout the city and separate it into categories
for proper disposal.
Both women represent groups
from Asian countries that are dealing with the effects of plastic pollution —
particularly plastic that is produced and distributed by US companies.
“I’m hoping this tour will
change American people’s views of how they live every day, and how it impacts
poor countries like us,” Dominguez says. “If America gets a cold, the
Philippines gets the flu. We’re very dependent on the US, so whatever happens
here affects us too.”
The Philippines is the third largest
ocean plastic polluter in the world — it also has the most persistent
poverty rate in Southeast Asia. In 2017, the US was the third largest
plastic exporter in the world, exporting $6.8 billion worth of plastic items.
Single-use plastic products,
such as straws and other utensils — and products packaged in plastic, including
toiletries and food — are produced by transnational companies and marketed to
people in places like the Philippines at low costs. The plastic waste from
these products ends up in landfills or marine areas like Manila Bay.
Plastic manufacturers are not
responsible for the disposal of their products, so the burden is placed on
people in the Philippines, who do not have the resources to properly dispose of
all the waste, Dominguez says.
“People have realized there’s
no easy, technological solution to the problem of ocean plastic waste, and the
only way to stop ocean plastic is to stop plastic,” says Jennifer Krill. Krill
is the executive director of Earthworks, an environmental and social justice
organization dedicated to protecting communities and the environment from the
impacts of mining and energy extraction.
“If we were to somehow recover
all that waste from the ocean, we would still have to put it in a landfill or
in an incinerator, and there would be significant environmental impacts from
those solutions. The better solution would be to not make so much of it to
begin with.”
Truthout
doesn't take corporate money.
And
we don't shy away from confronting the root causes of injustice. Support our
work with a donation now!
That’s why Dominguez and
Narayan traveled to the US, where the women visited communities affected by
fracking. In the US, a fracking boom is helping fuel plastic production
worldwide by providing a necessary building block of plastic: ethane. Dominguez
and Narayan visited communities experiencing the impacts of fracking in Texas,
Louisiana, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. They also visited Washington DC.
In Texas, for example, a major
fracking boom is underway. A new report by IHS Markit shows the Permian Basin
in West Texas is expecting a surge in oil production — more than double
by 2023 — in large part because of fracking, which has made
trapped oil and gas accessible.
Fracking involves pumping
water, sand, and chemicals underground to release gas and oil from rock. The
shale formations used for extracting oil and gas in the US are high in ethane,
which is wasted in the extraction process unless the industry has a way to
bring it to market.
“Currently what we’re seeing is
a major build-out of new petrochemical manufacturing in order for the industry
to recover that waste ethane and convert it into plastic, most of which is also
going to become waste, but along the way they’ll make a lot of money
manufacturing it into plastic,” Krill says.
Earthworks — one of the
organizations that organized the tour — has recently introduced a Community
Empowerment Project to provide communities near oil and gas facilities with
data on methane and ethane pollution from nearby oil and gas extraction sites
by using an optical gas imaging camera that makes invisible ethane — and
methane — pollution from these sites visible.
Not only does methane and
ethane pollution contribute to climate change, but it also causes health issues
for people who live near oil and gas facilities — in the US, that’s more
than 17 million people.
Residents who live near these
facilities have reported
experiencing respiratory problems such as asthma and coughing,
eye, nose, and throat irritation, headaches, nausea, dizziness, trouble sleeping,
and fatigue.
The organization has been
taking the camera to oil and gas wells, pipelines, and compressor stations to
show government regulators and companies that the methane and ethane pollution
problem is real. Gas imaging videos are available on Earthworks’ YouTube
channel for citizens to use as evidence when urging regulators in their states
to require operators clean up the gas waste.
“It hasn’t stopped pollution —
it hasn’t been as effective as we’d like it to be yet,” Krill says about
the project. But she hopes it will be. “The industry likes to say ‘There’s no
pollution, we’re very clean,’ and with this video evidence it’s hard to deny
that there’s a serious problem with oil and gas extraction.”
On a global scale, the
#Breakfreefromplastic movement, made up of 1,000 organizations worldwide, has
been focused on creating “zero-waste cities” in Malaysia, India, and the
Philippines — teaching communities about separating organic from inorganic
waste, composting, and recycling.
Narayan, who represents the
waste-pickers who collect and separate waste in Pune, India, says the process
of recycling plastics into reusable materials is so expensive that the waste is
often not recyclable at all.
#Breakfreefromplastic also
focuses on making the public aware of their consumption habits in hopes of
reducing the use of one-use plastic products, and pushing for “corporate
accountability,” says Jed Alegado, the Asia Pacific communications officer for
#Breakfreefromplastic.
“Corporations that have the
money to come up with these products should invest in more sustainable and
ecological distribution systems for their products,” Alegado says. “They
shouldn’t pass the burden to consumers and governments for the plastic waste
they are creating.”
Growing up in the Philippines,
Dominguez recalls using coconut shells as plates, and eating food with her bare
hands — before large companies had convinced the world that plastic products
are a necessity, she says.
Dominguez is optimistic that
change can occur by educating and inspiring people to reduce their use of
plastic products and become vocal about how the government handles waste.
“If we are going to stop
plastic we need to stop plastic where it starts,” Krill says. “We can’t let
greed get in the way of common sense and sustainability.”
This piece was reprinted by Truthout
with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without
permission or license from the source.
Isabelle Morrison is a solutions reporting intern for YES!
Follow her on Twitter.
©2018 Truthout
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
No comments:
Post a Comment