SAL/UER participation in the March to End Fossil Fuels, September 17
Our delegation will march as part of the March to End Fossil Fuels, from 1 – 4 pm. The route is being changed, stay tuned.
If you will be marching with us, we need you to fill out this form. https://www.rc.org/workshop/salnycmarch2023
Our plan for that day:
- Meet at 12 East 41st at 9:00 am to do introductions, land acknowledgement, discharge, organize ourselves, and rehearse with the “hands;” or individuals can meet us at a place to be determined. Wear a SAL or UER t-shirt and carry a SAL bag. Bring lunch, snacks, water, snacks with you or pick it up on the way but before 12 pm.
- At these meetings we will distribute SAL t-shirts, bags, and metro cards to people who need them; the hands, signs, and banners we will be displaying as we march; and a packet of SAL materials and flyers to give away (carry in SAL bag or your backpack).
- We will march as a SAL/UER group. Those people carrying the hands will be identified in advance, and that will be their only march role. The rest of us will rotate carrying the banners and circulating in the crowd and talking to people as is possible. Some of us will carry large posters announcing our events, with QR codes for more information. Others will have lists of our handouts, with QR codes, in English and Spanish.
- We may be asked to provide our own security/marshalls; if you are trained and willing to play that role for our group that please let us know.
- Please have a buddy that you stick with throughout the march.
- If things go well, the march and rally will be huge outreach opportunities for us. We ask each event to have a team who is marching to carry a sign about your event and be prepared to do a listening project connected to your event at the rally. That team, need not be part of our delegation (some of you will not be here yet); if you can find others who will do this for your event under your leader’s/lead organizer’s supervision, that is fine.
- At the rally after the march, we will have many listening projects focused on SAL event themes. We will also have “pop-up” workshops with listening circles on these topics: climate anxiety, burnout. We would like pairs of people ready to lead these (preferable Global Majority paired with a white person). They will be short, we have outlines we can share with the leaders.
- We will end our day at the final rally near the UN (we assume) for most of us, but return to pick up things left at 12 East 41st as needed. We have to be out of that space by 5 pm.
- If there is a huge turnout, the march may get stuck, or the rally location maybe too crowded to enter, or you may get separated from SAL/UER. We will use Signal to communicate, but sometimes large crowds jam cell reception and we may lose cell communication. If you can’t find us and can’t get into the rally, we will meet back at 12 East 41st Street by 4:30 pm. Or you may want to go home or back to the BnB.
THE HANDS PROJECT
During the march, we want to have 30 co-counselors marching with three-foot-tall hands in all different skin colors that through body language "say" STOP or HELLO. The back of each hand will have a SAL logo with the words "Sustaining All Life." The top of the back will say "Stop Fossil Fuels." The backs will use bright colors.
We want to have a dramatic performing aspect to the hands, so we will have choreography and rehearsal. We are looking for drummers. The hands can drum with the beat, say STOP, wave HELLO, tremble and shake, whatever we need them to do, and they'll move in unison.
We have scheduled a series of art builds at the Extinction Rebellion NYC studio, and we are looking for co-counselors and their friends to join us in creating the artwork. These builds are SAL/UER events and will use RC practices without jargon. It is also important that our project reflect SAL’s priority of ending racism alongside our work to end the climate crisis.
We hope this will be a vibrant SAL contingent at the march that reflects the liberation work we have done as RCers. We hope that Global Majority RCers will take their visible, rightful place in ending racism, oppression, and the climate emergency. We hope GMs create and march with these hands and invite friends and loved ones. We want to make visible our relationships across constituencies and march alongside each other. We hope white RCers who can attend the march will discharge and reach for your beloved Global Majority people in your life, offer this idea, and use the opportunity to back their leadership. We have also shared this idea with other groups, and at least one other organization will join with us in this multi-media/multi-racial art event. Hopefully we will fill the streets with 100s of hands marching together.
No RC or artmaking experience is necessary to join the art builds! To sign up for an art build, go to this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-Bb0tU_3ZzoXSZr6zDY2-q0u4HKfiEKy8Hr4l8-ynA4/edit
We would love to have as many Global Majority RCers as possible carry a hand in the march (and some of our white delegates as well). If you or a friend (Global Majority?) want to carry a hand in the march, but can’t attend an art build, please fill out this form to tell us the name of the person carrying the sign, their email, the skin tone of the person carrying the hand (see the photo on the form, choices are 1 - 4). The person who will carry the sign must meet us at 9 am at 12 East 41st or at noon at the entrance to Central Park at 64th Street and 5th Avenue. Please indicate where you will meet us.