BREAKING: 20+ Midwest Youth Arrested In Front of John Kerry’s House Protesting Illegal Tar Sands Pipeline
Over 20 youth and students from Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and other states, under the banner of #MidwestUnrest, were just arrested in front of Secretary of State John Kerry’s home in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC for protesting the Alberta Clipper tar sands pipeline. The pipeline was quietly approved by the State Department via a backdoor deal which allowed the massive project, which would transport quantities of oil comparable to the Keystone XL pipeline through Minnesota, to forego an environmental review.
After trying to petition the State Department, rally support from other politicians, and other attempts to engage with the political process, these young constituents had enough enough of their cries for justice being ignored. In response, they issued a call to action — a call to escalate — and they hopped on buses to Washington, D.C. to bring their message to Secretary John Kerry’s front door.
Knowing about the action in advance, the police set up barricades in front of the house...but that didn’t stop these young people:
A crowd of DC allies came out to support the activists and let Secretary Kerry know that we are all paying attention to his State Department’s backdoor deals:
Eventually the police began moving in, but the crowd kept singing and chanting:
In the end, it became clear that—chained together like a human pipeline— these youth would not be moved. So after over 4 hours in front of the Kerry’s home, police moved in to arrest them.
Still, their message was heard, and this is just the beginning.
Secretary Kerry knows the threat that climate change poses to our future, and he himself committed civil disobedience in his youth as a part of the Vietnam war movement, standing up for what he believed was right. Young people will not sit idly by while our future is sold away to those wishing to make a quick profit. We are asking Secretary Kerry to stand with us. While our leaders may prefer silence or empty words over action, we are rising up. We are unstoppable, because we know that another world is possible.
You can join us in organizing together for a just clean energy future at: http://bit.ly/FUTUREPOWER
Donate to support #MidwestUnrest activists here: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/help-support-midwest-unrest
