60 Arrested at No War, No Warming Protests in Washington

No War, No Warming was the theme of a day of civil disobedience in Washington, D.C. on Monday. Hundreds of people converged on the U.S. Capitol Building to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Bush administration’s record on climate change. At least sixty-one people were arrested after some blocked a street near the Cannon House Office Building. Some of the protesters were in polar bear costumes. Before the arrests, independent journalist Robin Bell of Bell Visuals caught the polar bears’ arrival at the Capitol Building.

• Polar Bears Protest

The musical voices of the polar bear protesters, among the hundreds who took part in the No War, No Warming day of action in Washington on Monday. (Video courtesy of Robin Bell of Bell Visuals, bellvisuals.com). Ted Glick was one of the organizers of the No War, No Warming protest. He is Coordinator of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council and is now on the fiftieth day of a Climate Emergency Fast. He joins us on the phone from Washington.

• Ted Glick, One of the organizers of Monday’s No War, No Warming protest. He is Coordinator of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council on the fiftieth day of a Climate Emergency Fast.

AMY GOODMAN: “No War, No Warming,” the theme of a day of civil disobedience in Washington, D.C. Monday. Hundreds of people converged on the US Capitol Building to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Bush administration’s record on climate change. At least sixty-one people were arrested after some blocked a street near the Cannon House Office Building. Some of the protesters were in polar bear costumes. Before the arrests, independent journalist Robin Bell of Bell Visuals caught the polar bears’ arrival at the Capitol Building.

POLAR BEAR PROTESTERS: [rapping] Money for healthcare, not for war. Tax the rich to help the poor. Homes, not jails. Books, not bars. Bikes, not bombs. Clean-fueled cars. Jobs in organic, wind and solar. Help the poor, while we’re helping the polar. Jobs in solar, wind and organic. Help the people, while we’re helping the planet. We want answers. We [inaudible]. The world could be burning. We’ve got to keep turning [inaudible] the solution to war and pollution.

AMY GOODMAN: The musical voices of the polar bear protesters, among the hundreds who took part in the “No War, No Warming” day of action in Washington Monday. The video, courtesy of Robin Bell of bellvisuals.com.

Ted Glick was one of the organizers of the protest, coordinator of the US Climate Emergency Council, now on the fiftieth day of a Climate Emergency Fast, joining us on the phone from Washington, D.C. Ted, how much weight have you lost?

TED GLICK: Somewhere around thirty-five pounds.

AMY GOODMAN: And the purpose yesterday? Were you one of those more-than-sixty people arrested?

TED GLICK: I was. I was arrested as part of what was the fifth wave of a series of actions, coordinated affinity groups that took action throughout the morning. It was actually a great day.

AMY GOODMAN: What are you trying to accomplish? What are the connections that you’re making?

TED GLICK: Well, I think most people understand that the Iraq war is all about oil. It’s a war for oil, has nothing to do with terrorism. It’s made things worse, in terms of al-Qaeda and terrorism; everybody sees that who’s got a functioning brain, who’s not influenced by the propaganda of this administration. It’s a war for oil.

We get the oil. We burn the oil. We heat up the earth. We aggravate and make worse conditions of life for people all over the world, as global warming has its impacts: droughts, floods, sea-level rise. That’s going to lead to more and more climate refugees, going to increase conflict, lead to more war. It’s a vicious cycle.

We have to end these wars, get off of our war addiction and our fossil fuel addiction, move to clean energy and be about justice, be about peace, be about clean energy. That’s the way forward.

This action was all about beginning to shift into a different direction by taking stronger action. The peace movement, the climate movement, the justice movements, we need to be coming together, and we need to be stepping up our tactics, stepping up our actions, and letting our government know we are not going to accept what they are doing, whether it’s Republicans or Democrats.

The reality is, a year after the Democrats took over Congress, virtually nothing has changed, as far as the major issues, in particular in terms of the war, in particular in terms of warming. And that’s why we were out there. That’s why many of us got arrested. And this is just the beginning; this is not the end of anything.

AMY GOODMAN: Ted Glick, thanks very much for being with us, one of the organizers of Monday’s “No War, No Warming” protest, a coordinator of the US Climate Emergency Council, on the fiftieth day of a Climate Emergency Fast, one of the more-than-sixty people arrested in Washington.

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