Fracking for oil and gas poses a direct and immediate threat to our drinking water, our health and our communities. But the oil and gas industry is ramping up its PR machine to try and convince the public and decision makers that fracking is safe. It’s time to fight back in our communities with a Global Frackdown!
There is a tremendous amount of organizing going on across the world to protect our water and our communities from fracking.
Together as a movement, in the past year we have:
Passed over 200 local measures across the United States to ban fracking (including state-level legislation in Vermont);
Stopped fracking in Bulgaria and France;
Pushed for moratoriums in multiple regions in Europe;
Obtained a moratorium on fracking in South Africa;
Defeated state legislation that would have expanded fracking;
Prevented plans to open the Delaware River Basin to fracking;
Worked to stop pipelines and facilities to export fracked gas from coast to coast.
The Global Frackdown will unite concerned citizens everywhere for a day of action on September 22, 2012 to send a message to elected officials in our communities and across the globe that we want a future fueled by clean, renewable energy, not dirty, polluting fossil fuels.
This Fall as the United States debates its energy future and the oil and gas industry escalates its public relations offensive, it’s critical that our elected officials – some of whom are running scared – hear the truth in a powerful way from their constituents. It’s time to expose the oil and gas industry’s propaganda for what it is. It’s time to hold our elected officials accountable. It’s time for a Global Frackdown!
Participants in the Global Frackdown will be organizing events in their communities to challenge decision makers to oppose fracking, united around a common mission statement calling for a ban on fracking and investment in a clean energy future.
Are you ready for the Frackdown? Sign up to endorse the day of action or join or host and event in your area.
About Fracking
Fracking, technically known as hydraulic fracturing, is a highly water-intensive and relatively new process that injects millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals thousands of feet beneath the ground to obtain previously hard-to-reach oil and gas deposits. This polluting process is:
Endangering our drinking water supplies
Polluting our air
Releasing dangerous levels of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that can migrate into nearby wells, causing home explosions
Negatively impacting agricultural communities
Perpetuating our addiction to fossil fuels
Learn more about the risks fracking imposes on our water, air and communities.
Occupy Denver has taken the lead on this and is organizing a variety of events around the first presidential debate to be held there October 3rd. Events include a People’s Forum with live entertainment and opportunities to share stories and a People’s Dialogue to discuss the top issues that are chosen in the survey. And Occupy NOLA is holding a People’s Convention on Octcober 27.
The results of the Occupy the Debates survey and events will be collected nationally and shared with presidential candidates for response and posted on the OccupytheDebates.org prior to Election Day.
Please join the call if you are planning or are interested in holding an Occupy the Debate event and changing the debate to the issues that we the people care about, not the corporations! You can also contact us at info@occupythedebates.org.
We recognize that within the current political structure, which is dominated by corporate power and concentrated wealth, lawmakers will not adequately address the many crises faced by the nation and the planet. Thus, we will continue to protest, to educate and organize and to build alternative systems that place human needs over corporate greed.
International activists involved in the Indignado and Occupy movements have begun a campaign to create GlobalNoise, a worldwide cacerolazo, or casserole march, on Saturday, October 13th, 2012. The hope is that local Occupations and Collectives will take up the call to march, using the method of a casserole march to highlight whatever issues are the most important to their community.
Historically, banging on a pot has been a universally understood means to gain attention. From children to adults, we all know that a pot or pan can be easily used as a makeshift drum or an alarm. With #globalNOISE, it’s both. The casserole march has its origins as a means to call attention to problems facing the community that the power structure is not addressing, using a method that is hard to ignore. In the past, this form of activism has been used to draw attention to education reform, starvation, government corruption, inequality in resources, and more.
It has been revived recently in the international Occupy and Spanish Indignados movements, and most notably by the Student movement in Canada. Since then, it has spread worldwide. It is from these historical references and recent examples that the idea of a coordinated worldwide cacerolazo emerged. An international showing of frustration and unrest on a global scale that would be hard to ignore. A GlobalNoise.
How to make noise with kitchen equipment
The basic idea behind potbanging is simple. Using any cooking spoon or utensil, you hit the bottom of an empty pot, a pan, or some similarly shaped non-glass kitchen equipment. In our experience, metal or wooden cooking spoons make the best drum sticks.
Alternative instruments
The goal of the GlobalNoise initiative is to draw attention to itself, indeed that is the very idea behind a casserole march. And while kitchen equipment may be the first choice, it is most certainly not the only choice. Remember, the goal is to draw attention. If you don’t have access to kitchen equipment, you can use whatever will make noise, even actual instruments, like whistles, horns, vuvuzelas, or even drums. DIY instruments or established noise makers don’t matter, just make noise. You can even encourage drivers to join in with their horns as you pass them on the march. In Spain, they call that “Pitodromo”.
As you can see there´s no limit to the imaginative way you choose to make some noise. And if you have any interesting and fun ways in mind, please share it with us. We love suggestions. post on our facebook page, tweet at us (@potbanging), or join the working group!
To mark the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall
Street, a coalition of students, educators, and community groups will host the Free University
Week—creating education that is democratic, critical, and accessible to all. This event will be
held in Madison Square Park from Tuesday through Friday, September 18 - 21, from 2pm to
7pm, and on Saturday, September 22, from 10am to 2pm. Participants will gather in solidarity
with Occupy Wall Street’s one year anniversary, as well as with education movements in
Chicago, Quebec, Chile, and beyond.
Just across the street from the Free University, on Tuesday evening, the Barack Obama
presidential campaign will hold a $40,000 a plate fundraiser at the 40/40 Club, hosted by Jay-Z
and Beyoncé and attended by the president. The cost and exclusivity of the event is a reminder of
both the increasing concentration of wealth in U.S. society and the inaccessibility of the political
system to ordinary people. “The fact that the 1% can spend $40,000 on an evening, while
millions of people have tens of thousands of dollars in debt hanging over their lives for getting
an education, shows that the system is out of balance. We need free education for all, as
demonstrated in the Free University, now more than ever,” said organizer Carwil Bjork-James.
Of the over 130 scheduled workshops at the Free University Week, highlights include: ‘On
Disasters and Encampments’ with Rebecca Solnit; ‘Occupying Language: A Conversation’ with
Marina Sitrin and Dario Azzellini; ‘The NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium’ with Ben
Katchor; ‘Strike Debt’ workshop series with Pamela Brown, George Caffentzis, Nick Mirzoeff,
and Andrew Ross; ‘Student Unionism’ workshop series with a member of Quebec’s CLASSE
student union, an Occupy Wall Street Screenprinters art shop, and an ‘Occupy Guitarmy’
musicianship certificate program.
The first Free University on May Day, 2012, welcomed over 2,000 participants for dozens of
classes and workshops in Madison Square Park. This week-long reprise rides the momentum of
Occupy Wall Street’s September 17 actions, in addition to other demonstrations against
neoliberal assaults on democracy and social justice. These include the ongoing Chicago teachers’
strike, the recent victory of the ‘Hot and Crusty’ workers' occupation in NYC, and the recent
victory of the Quebec student movement that defeated a 75% tuition increase and ousted Premier Jean Charest. The Free University Week constitutes a hub of political education in New York
City that will enhance the movement’s clarity, confidence, and direction for years to come.
