On July 30, in the face of the headlines blaring across the country, “The well is capped and the crisis is over!,” about five hundred people, in some 21 different cities and towns across the U.S. (as well as Venezuela and Costa Rica), and from different walks of life and ages, took part in the Emergency Committee to Stop the Gulf Oil Disaster’s “100 Days of Outrage Demand 100 Actions.
Some highlights: a UC Berkeley protest against BP’s role in the Gulf and its partnership with the University which got wide local coverage and broke into the national media; a half dozen actions or contributions from Louisiana – ground zero in the crisis; a 265 stanza-100 Days of Outrage collective poem; letters from children to those affected; bike rides dedicated to the 100 days; photos and quotes from people sent to the Committee’s website for posting; an hour-long radio program in Hawaii dedicated to the catastrophe.
The Emergency Committee called for this day of action (which was organized on an emergency basis in just over a week):
“Because the oil gusher may not be capped, Because 100-200 million gallons of oil & 2 million gallons of dispersants still foul the Gulf, Because wetlands, shores, wild and marine life are still threatened, Because peoples’ health still isn’t protected, Because the truth is still not out, Because we’re not stopping until the well is sealed and the Gulf is healed.” (Read the rest of the call for the 100 Days of Outrage: Here).
This was aimed at helping “open avenues for many more people to act, starting now—on different fronts and in different ways—with a shared sense of urgency,” as the Emergency Committee’s Mission Statement puts. The reports and contributions are available at www.stopgulfoildisaster.org, and if you haven’t sent in your action summation, photo and comment, please do so.
The day was part of an ongoing effort to build the kind of mass action and truth telling, on a powerful societal wide basis (on a level impossible for the national media to ignore), urgently needed to fully stop this worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.
A variety of people quickly stepped up to organize protests, events, or contributions across the country, sometimes creating new and unorthodox ways for people who don’t usually “protest” to contribute. Reports from the day give a sense of how widespread the deeply-felt anger and heartbreak is over the devastation to the environment, which we just began to tap into, and the disgust people feel -- principally at BP, but also at the government. People were encouraged to take pictures of themselves and send them to the Committee with comments; money and greed were common themes, with some indicting capitalism itself.
Thirty-five people demonstrated, with a speak-out and rally at the construction site where BP's new "research" facility is being built on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The $500 million gift BP gave to the University is turning into the new "Energy Biosciences Institute." As a part of the action, black sticky "oil" dripped all over the fence and posters. Some protesters dipped their hands in it, and the (stuffed animals) wildlife specimens tied to the fence were covered in the goo as well. A lot of people stepped to the mike to voice their outrage and heartbreak at what BP and governmental handling have done to NOT solve the crisis. Several talked about the need for the people -- the public -- to make demands for “real solutions.” This was the only action that broke through and put the 100 Days of Outrage into the national press, with coverage in , SF Gate, the Washington Post, Associated Press, National Public Radio, the LA Times, all 3 local TV news channels (Bay News 9, Local CBS, Local ABC) internet news sites, and in the Daily Californian (UC Berkeley’s newspaper).
A number of actions – collective and individual – took place across Louisiana. In New Orleans, the Emergency Committee held a press conference and speak-out in front the Joint Unified Command Headquarters (BP and all the US government agencies involved in the oil disaster). People spoke from different viewpoints about why they stepped out on the 100th day – one, because this was threatening a region their family had lived in for many generations; others because 100-200 million gallons of oil and two million gallons of dispersants are still in the gulf while headlines claim the crisis is over; because this was a capitalist oil disaster and revolution and communism were needed to save the planet; yet another, because they didn’t want their daughters to inherit a devastated world. A long black banner – The People Must Act to Stop the Gulf Oil Catastrophe - 100 Days of Outrage was displayed as commuters drove by.
From there members of the Emergency Committee went to an outdoor seafood market in Westwego, a town on the gulf where many of the residents are commercial fisher-people. Several of the owners/workers spoke about how the oil disaster has devastated their business and how BP is not compensating their losses. Half the concessions in the market were closed and many of them took snapshots and gave us quotes to post on the website. A Black youth hip hop group from Grand Isle, a community on Louisiana’s southern coast, hit hard by the oil disaster, sent their Youtube song called “Sorry Ain’t Enough No More.” A film showing the night before in Baton Rouge was dedicated to the 100 Days of Outrage. Lee, a Louisiana native from Plaquemines Parish, recorded a moving youtube statement for the day. One person from Metairie (near New Orleans), designed a billboard with Tony Hayward, the head of BP, raising a cheer with a bottle a beer as he says “The Bulk of your Disaster should be off the Record.”
Fredrick-Douglass, a professor and poet from Connecticut who came to New Orleans off the Committee’s call for volunteers, developed a “100 days of Outrage Collective poem” organized through his Facebook page. His call was answered by 83 poets (mainly in Connecticut) creating an eight part collective piece consisting of 265 stanzas. 14-year-old Raven Ventura’s read: “Forever my generation will remember BP, because you took the ocean from me.” The entire poem is now available online to be read at venues all over the country. The poets ranged in age from 12 years old to 60. We received another song on Youtube called “Don’t Go Near the Water” contributed by a musician in New York.
In Philadelphia a critical mass bike ride was dedicated to the 100 days. Paul Torres, an artist from Alhambra, California who heard about us on National Public Radio contributed a photo of one of his oil paintings. It portrayed a disturbing scene of an environmentally decaying society, oil spewing into the air behind a deformed human as “business as usual” continued on. Another person “took the liberty of redesigning BP’s website” on youtube as website with plumes of oil spreading across the page until it page cannot be seen any longer
“Stop the Drilling, Stop the Spilling, Stop Killing Out Planet,” said the sign in Kalamazoo, MI, where several people demonstrated the connection between the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster and the oil disaster that occurred just several days earlier in Kalamazoo.
Seattle, Washington had a “Flashmob.” “In a busy park on this sunny afternoon, a woman stood up in the middle of a large open area and opened a black umbrella over her head with "StopGulfOilDisaster.org" painted on it in white letters. This was the signal for other participants to join in. Michael Jackson's Earth Song was playing through a loud sound system. Seemingly out of nowhere, 20 other people appeared, taking off their top layer of clothing to reveal white t-shirts they'd painted, expressing why they decided to act on the 100th day of the oil disaster. As people stood in a circle with their t-shirts facing out, passersby stopped and others in the park came closer to watch. One person in the flash mob went around the circle and painted an oil-streaked tear on each participant's face.” They said, “One thing we learned from the variety of shirts people created, was the many deeply felt reasons people are angry and heartbroken about this catastrophe. Sentiments ranged from outrage about sea turtles being burned alive, to philosophical quotes about what it means to be alive and connected to nature, to condemnations of what the capitalist system is doing to the planet, to support for the people and ecosystems of the Gulf Coast.”
World Can’t Wait in New York City called for people to meet in Union Square, a major historic NYC gathering place, especially on Friday afternoons and evenings. Young, old, tourists, couples, and whole families eagerly participated in expressing their outrage by designing their own posters to hold while a professional photographer took their photos in a garden area. “We were moved that mothers with strollers, whole families on vacation, and even a major Broadway star stopped to watch. The photos challenge the idea that only well-off middle class people are concerned with nature and the environment. A 12 year old Mexican boy made a sign saying “the sea was there” with fanciful fish, and “BP, you stole the sea from me” with dead fish floating in blobs of oil. Many expressed their outrage with BP by making signs written in English, Spanish and four other languages. One sign said, “I was going to put oil in my car and then I said F**k it, then I dumped it into my garden. [signed, BP]” A performance artist brought stuffed animals and dipped them in the fake oil, then put on a show. 115 photos were taken in all! Several are displayed on our website and soon all of them will be made available.
Victoria Allen of St. Louis emailed the Emergency Committee: "I plan on sending you guys $100.00. Not use any plastic all day. Only drive to work and back. Not buy any gas. Only use the electricity I can't live without. Eliminate all cosmetics, lotions, etc that have any petroleum products. I'll say the Prayer for the Gulf of Mexico 100 times. I'll talk to 100 people about how this has been handled. I'll email the president 100 times."
There were actions with a single person standing for four hours in a busy intersection holding a sign “Take a Stand, 100 Days of Outrage” while another person went to the metro stop in Chicago to pass out hundreds of the Emergency Committee’s mission statement. Three people in Philadelphia dressed in black plastic bags (oil balls) and stood outside an opening of a new Apple store, passing out the mission statement holding signs that said "Cleaning up the Gulf Oil Spill -- There Is No App For That." Hundreds of people were waiting in line waiting to get in to the store, many taking their pictures. A couple people in Atlanta went downtown where a critical mass bike ride was gathering and sent 14 snapshots with quotes from bike riders and others as a part of the Emergency Committee’s call to send in photos and quotes to be posted on the website.
In Costa Rica, an artist redesigned the front page of the Times-Picayune (the major New Orleans newspaper) with a giant monster coming up out of the Gulf and a headline blaring “BP Oil Eco-Catastrophe Spawns Giant Monster!” Children from Chicago and New York wrote letters to the children in the Gulf expressing their sympathy. A drum circle and prayer took place at a Native American leadership training in Minneapolis. Two youth, aged 11 and 14, from a group called Youth Defending Youth in a small town in California, made a sign that said “Fish Died, Fishers Cried, BP Lied, Our Earth Fried” and stood on the road in their town. If people stopped they gave them a list of BP brands to boycott. Two women from Seattle held signs, “We can walk on the moon! Why can’t all the brains at our disposal fix this?” and “Mother Earth, her inhabitants are precious more than $” These are some examples of how people protested around the country, as a part of a suggestion from the Emergency Committee to send in snapshots/quotes to post our website marking the 100th day of the disaster.
This day showed the need and potential for a massive society wide response to this “environmental catastrophe, bringing great peril to ecosystems and wildlife in the Gulf and beyond, even globally.*” As the situation evolves, it remains a big challenge and responsibility to mobilize “a broad, determined, and powerful peoples’ response—across society with “all hands on deck,*” It continues to be true, as the mission statement says that neither “BP nor the Government are unable and unwilling to deal with all dimensions of the crisis or even tell the truth.”
*From the mission statement, Emergency Committee to Stop the Gulf Oil Disaster
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