Cascadia today: Cascadia says "No Kings" + vote Katie Wilson + BC land defenders avoid jail
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Thousands protest Trump at No Kings rallies across Cascadia
As part of 7 million people participating in 2,600 No Kings protests all over North America, thousands of protesters peacefully demonstrated across Cascadia against authoritarianism in the United States under Donald Trump. Nearly 90,000 rallied and marched in Seattle, 40,000 people turned out in Portland, and protests brought out thousands at protests in places as far ranging as Bend, Oregon and Pocatello, Idaho. Federal agents at the ICE facility in Portland fired tear gas for the hell of it at a crowd of peaceful protesters, many of them in inflatable costumes, according to The Portland Mercury.
It was a day of joy, anger, and creativity. I spoke with many folks at the Seattle protest about Cascadia and how autonomy could serve as a backup plan if the United States can't remove this increasingly fascist government that defies the law and the constitution, attempts to shut down dissent in the media and at universities, is deeply corrupt, and arrests its opponents on fake charges.
Now that we've come out in the streets in creative costumes and celebrated our resistance, it's time to extend the work, as I wrote last week in "It Will Take More than Protests to Fix This." If we are serious about creating an independent, autonomous Cascadia, then:
We are required to make the unimaginable inevitable.
How will we do this? It will involve putting our bodies at risk, confronting federal agents in non-violent but non-cooperative ways. It may involve a general strike, where massive numbers of people shut down the economy by refusing to work.
It could involve a million-person human chain like the Baltic Way, which sparked the Baltic States' independence from the Soviet Union. It will involve humor, defiance, and pranks. It could involve refusing to pay taxes and publicly burning our IRS returns. It will require many of us to do this.
Andrew Engelson
Wet’suwet’en land defenders avoid jail sentences
Three land defenders who were part of a blockade of the Coastal GasLink pipeline across Wet’suwet’en land in northern British Columbia in 2021 avoided jail time as a BC Supreme Court judge handed down three suspended sentences, the Tyee reports. The protests attempted to stop the climate-killing 670-kilometer pipeline that terminated at an LNG port in Kitimat. In addition to to leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, this LNG facility has subjected residents to noise pollution, smoke and asthma-complicating air pollution.
It's time to vote for Katie Wilson as Seattle mayor
Real Change has detailed interviews with the two candidate running for Seattle mayor: incumbent Bruce Harrell and challenger Katie Wilson. For my readers in Seattle, if you want a mayor who fights for renters, supports social housing, will actively work to improve transit service and pedestrian safety, and is critical of Bruce Harrell's embrace of the wealthy, more cops, more surveillance, and more cruel sweeps of homeless encampments, then vote for Katie Wilson.
Andrew Engelson
The debate over glamping in Cascadia
Columbia Insight looks at the rise or privately owned "glamping" sites in the Columbia gorge region – places where you can spend the night in a comfy canvas tent and have all your needs attended to while out in the "wilderness." I mean, if it gets more people out appreciating nature, it's fine– just don't touch actual designated wilderness to build them.
--Andrew Engelson
