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On March 15th 2008, Direct Action To Stop The War (DASW) organized a rally and action at the Chevron Richmond Refinery to kick start a series of nation-wide protests to mark the 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq, and expose Chevron’s links to war, global warming and environmental racism. Operating under a public tactic-framework of stopping all stolen Iraqi oil from entering or leaving the Chevron Refinery by boat, bike and blockade, activists stopped all trucks from refueling at the refinery for ½ a day. The action was one of the largest direct actions taking place in the United States to protest the fifth anniversary of the war.

This action also reveals some of the changes that are taking place within the direct-action arm of the movement against the war in Iraq. What are they?

Although both activists and the media expressed positive surprise at the healthy turnout, the people on the streets in San Francisco and elsewhere was far lower than the numbers seen in 2003, with 500,000 people protesting in New York City, and 20,000 people (with 2150 arrests) shutting down San Francisco’s financial district. Interestingly, over the past five years, opposition to the war has moved from being a marginal to a mainstream sentiment. Why this discrepancy?

David Solnit, organizer with DASW in 2003 and 2008 and member of Courage To Resist, argues that comparisons between 2003 and 2008 in terms of overall turnout are not an accurate reflection of our success or of the powerful shifts taking place in the anti-war movement. “For one, we’re at a different time in history,” he says. The 2003 actions were built upon a year long campaign to stop the U.S. from invading Iraq; it was a historical moment. In contrast, in the case of DASW took four months to organize 2008’s actions for what was essentially, and unfortunately, one of many anniversaries. Solnit also maintains that focusing on turnout at marches “ignores the thousands of people who are below the media’s radar belt, involved in sustained community campaigns against the institutions that are holding up the war, like military recruiting stations, shifting power relations and creating a crisis for the military industrial complex.” “In 2008, we need a different measuring stick” he says.

In contrast to 2003, this year DASW made a strategic decision to prioritize targets that were directly propping up the war in Iraq, such as military recruiting stations, corporations that profit and provide services to the war and media corporations that have a bias against the war. Understanding that sustained, ongoing campaigns are generally more effective than one-off mass actions, DASW also prioritized targets that were already subject to ongoing campaigns so activist-energy on the day of the action could be channeled into supporting existing struggles.

Based on these principles, Chevron is an obvious target. Chevron is a major pillar of the war. According to the Department of Energy, the oil multinational’s Richmond facility refines around 1.1 million barrels of stolen Iraqi oil a month. Chevron is also lobbying the U.S. Government and the Iraqi Parliament to pass the Iraqi Oil Law, which would allow for 2/3rds of Iraq’s oil fields to be controlled by foreign oil companies, such as Chevron.

The speaker list of the rally on March 15th reveals the breadth of the ongoing campaigns against Chevron. Intermingled with a variety of folk bands, rappers and hip hop artists, we had the newly elected Green Party Mayor of Richmond, Gail McLaughlin, Henry Clark from West County Toxics Coalition and Jessica Tovar from Communities for a Better Environment criticized the Richmond refinery’s role in polluting local communities, increasing asthma, cancer and death rates. They called on Richmond City Council deny Chevron’s current request to expand their refinery to prevent them from refining dirtier crude, increasing pollution, greenhouse gases and mercury emissions. Amazon Watch and the Filipino American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity were among those that criticized Chevron’s polluting activities worldwide; from Ecuador to the Philippines to Nigeria and Burma. Nina Rizzo from Global Exchange exposed the link between Chevron and global warming (oil). DASW organizers shared information about the ongoing campaigns against Chevron via pamphlets on the day, and organized for anti-war activists to attend the Richmond City Council Planning Commission meeting to oppose Chevron’s proposal to expand the refinery.

Highlighting the interconnectedness of various struggles is another strategy that has become more common within the anti-war movement. Last year for the first time there were two actions – one in Washington DC in October, the other at Chevron’s headquarters in San Ramon in March - that linked “war and warming” - the uniting factor being oil. Such a strategy has its benefits. By building alliances between movements and organizations around common interests it allows us to build the power we need to challenge the U.S. Government’s war. Solnit articulates another benefit of this cross-merging of issues when we says: “Actions like this also make the impacts of the war more tangible. Instead of just talking about 4000 dead soldiers, we’re also talking about the people in communities near the Chevron refinery who have cancer and asthma, we’re talking about corporations that are making billions from the war as our economy tanks.”

According to Jen Angel, DASW organizer, countering apathy and keeping people involved in direct action during an election year needs to be a key focus for the direct arm of the anti-war movement. “When we articulate a compelling and effective strategy then people will stay involved; when we don’t people who are frustrated look to the Democratic Party who say, “we’ll make the changes for you, we’ll pull out of Iraq, but they won’t.”

Unfortunately, there are many factors that work against people believing that direct action works. For instance, Chevron consistently claimed to the media that it’s operations were “not affected” by the protests. Mainstream media coverage also consistently failed to mention up and coming actions that viewers and readers could participate in. A one-off action tends to look weak when it’s not couched within the contexts of the broader movement of which it is part. Imagine the story: “Activists swarmed refinery for half a day then left with questionable impact on operations.” Would you get involved in an action like that?

But the Chevron action was effective. DASW didn’t meet its visionary goal of stopping all stolen Iraqi oil from entering or leaving the refinery. The fondly-named DASW Yacht Club (some boats and a kayak) sailed around the refinery’s pier but didn’t stop tankers from docking, and employees still entered the refinery. But no truck entered the refinery for ½ to fuel as a result of DASW’s blockade at Chevron’s truck entrance. Trucks usually enter the refinery every three to five minutes. It’s the job of organizers to perpetuate these success stories.

Indeed, perhaps one of the most powerful medicine to apathy is actually being a part of organizing powerful actions where people can witness their own collective power, be it through stopping oil trucks, filling highways with people not cars, and generating enough political strength to create an atmosphere where we control the action. On M15, those who wanted to get arrested had to even provoke the police (apparently blocking a highway wasn’t enough) into arresting them. This was achieved by rapidly removing police barricades and threatening to enter the refinery, which they eventually agreed to do on live television (as requested by us) at the day’s end.

"People have the power to stop the refinery any time we want to, to stop the processing of stolen Iraqi oil," said Richmond resident and long-time environmental justice activist, Dr. Henry Clark, from the West County Toxics Coalition, to the San Jose Mercury on March 15th. This is true. Our generation of change makers have a lot of power. The protests in Seattle in ’99 in opposition to the World Trade Organization and beyond was a key ingredient in a larger effort by citizens in both the global north and south that has led to the WTO’s steady demise. People power against the war in Iraq will yield similar results.

Learn more of ongoing campaigns to stop global warming, war and pollution: go to www.actagainstwar.net.

Jessica Bell
Organizer, Direct Action To Stop The War
415 425 8837
jessicambell@gmail.com
3208 Shattuck Ave