Valve Turners & Plowshares Activists in Des Moines

The Four Necessity Valve Turners will join Des Moines Catholic Workers for the annual Midwest Catholic Worker Faith & Resistance Retreat (pictured Four Necessity Valve Turners Daniel Yildirim, Brenna Cussen-Anglada, Michele Naar-Obed, and Des Moines Catholic Workers Jakob & Ryna)

Are you in or around Des Moines, and curious to hear more about the Four Necessity Valve Turners and the tradition of non-violent civil disobedience that formed them? Come to the annual Midwest Catholic Worker Faith and Resistance retreat March 15-17 at Trinity UMC (1548 8th St., Des Moine, Iowa)!_ Two of the Four Necessity Valve Turners (Brenna Cussen Anglada of St Isidore Catholic Worker Farm, Cuba City, WI and Allyson Polman, formerly of Mustard Seed Catholic Worker Farm in Ames, Iowa) will speak at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday, March 16th. Afterwards, four of the Kings Bay Plowshares Activists (Carmen Trotta, 55, of the New York City CW; Clare Grady, 59, of Ithaca NY CW; Martha Hennessy, 62, of the New York City CW; Patrick O’Neill, 61, of the Fr. Charlie Mulholland CW, Garner, NC) will speak for 1 hour by Skype starting at 3 p.m on Saturday March 16. ----

What is the Annual Catholic Worker Faith and Resistance Retreat? For over a decade, Catholic Workers throughout the Midwest have joined together to amplify local organizing while forming ourselves more deeply in the non-violent civil disobedience tradition of our movement. Five years ago in 2014 on St Patrick's Day the Midwest CW Faith and Resistance Retreat was hosted by the Des Moines Catholic Worker and Veterans for Peace, concluding with a protest at the announced site of a yet to be build Iowa National Guard Armed Drone Command Center (more information here). This year the Midwest Catholic Workers are returning to DM for their annual Faith and Resistance Retreat. All are welcome. Friday, March 15 at 7:30 pm, Speakers: Catholic Worker Plowshares activists - Sisters Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte Saturday, March 16 at 7 pm, Speaker: Kathy Kelly with Voices for Creative Nonviolence Sunday, March 17 at 1 pm, St Pat's Day Rally and Direct Action at Iowa Air National Guard Drone Command Center (3100 McKinley Ave, Des Moines) All are welcome to the talks, retreat and Sunday Rally and Direct Action. If planning to risk arrest, the Sunday morning nonviolence training session is required.

--- Detailed Schedule for March 15 – 17, 2019 Midwest CW Faith and Resistance Retreat: Friday March 15 - 4 p.m. Arrival at Trinity UMC (1548 8th St., Des Moines, Iowa) 6 p.m. Supper @ Dingman CW House (1310 7th St. - 3 blocks from the church). 7:30 p.m. Program with Srs Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert @ Trinity UMC Saturday March 16 - 7 a.m. Breakfast - Dingman House 9 a.m. Trinity UMC - Welcome, overview, announcements, introductions of Catholic Worker communities, Veterans For Peace chapters and individuals 9:45 a.m. Two of the "Four Necessity Valve Turners" Brenna Cussen Anglada and Allyson Polman report on their action and give an update on court proceedings 10:30 a.m. Trinity UMC - Brief history of past Midwest F&R Retreats & report on DM's2 yr drone campaign. Choose Round Table Topics for afternoon sessions... Noon Lunch 1:30 p.m. First Set Round Tables- Trinity UMC 3 p.m. Skype with Kings Bay Plowshares Activists – Trinity UMC 4:15 p.m. Second Set Round Tables - Trinity UMC 5: 30 p.m. Supper 7 p.m. Program with Kathy Kelly at Trinity UMC Sunday March 17 7 a.m. Breakfast - Dingman CW 9 a.m. Liturgy – Dingman CW (Liturgy contact: Madeleine Terry (515) 868-7765) 10 a.m. Make commitment to nonviolence, present action plan, write statement and proceed to nonviolent direct action planning - Dingman CW Noon Lunch 12: 30 p.m. Car pool to site RETREAT NOTES: HOUSING: Between the church and the DMCW houses there's lots of floor space for folks to occupy... The Church has no shower facilities and very limited toilet facilities. Showers will be available at the DMCW houses. Trinity UMC is 3 blocks north of the DMCW. All are welcome. NEED A BED? If you need a bed or have other needs beyond floor space, let us know! For more information and to RSVP (this is not mandatory but is very helpful!) contact Frank Cordaro, DMCW, frank.cordaro@gmail.com 515 490 2490 Jakob Whitson, DMCW, jakobwhitson@gmail.com 785 340 2458 Gilbert Landolt, DMCW & Pres. DM Vets For Peace, peacevet@hotmail.com 515 657 0354 Phil Berrigan CW House, 713 Indiana Ave. Des Moines IA 50305 ---- NONVIOLENCE STATEMENT for the March 15-17 Midwest CW and VFP Faith and Resistance Retreat and St Patrick's Day Witness CW'ers and VFP are committed to nonviolence and nonviolent action. All participants in events and protest hosted by the DMCW and the DM VFP March 15-17, 2019 are expected to share this commitment to nonviolence and nonviolent action. While nonviolence is defined in different ways by different people in different contexts, and while there exists the need to continue discussion and debate on how nonviolence and nonviolent action is conceived. The Midwest CW and VFP Faith and Resistance Retreat and St Patrick's Day Witness is adopting the following principles for March 15-17, 2019 We will act with love, openness, compassion, and respect toward all who we encounter and their surroundings. We will not be violent in our actions, words, or otherwise -toward any person or property. We will act fairly and honestly with people regardless of the situation or the role they play. We will remain calm and aware at all times. We will prepare ourselves before we act, and will recognize our opposition is to the US Military wars of empire and its weapons systems, not to individual members of the military, counter protesters, police and security people we may encounter. We will keep a clear state of mind, refraining from the use of drugs or alcohol, other than for medical purposes and we will not bring any illegal drugs or alcohol to the March 15-17 events. We will carry no weapons. We will seek dialogue with those who may disagree with us and maintain a spirit of openness, friendliness and respect towards all with whom we engage. We will gather and act in a manner that reflects the world we choose to create. *Statement adapted from 2014 St Pat's CW/VFP F&R Retreat DM IA Nonviolence Statement

March 29th: A Discussion with Four Necessity

Spring is a season of hope for both permaculture and protest

A Discussion with the Four Necessity Valve Turners: Permaculture, Direct Action, and the Catholic Worker Movement

Join us for an evening with some of the Four Necessity Valve Turners. On February 4th, in a courageous and faith-filled act of civil disobedience a small group of Catholic Workers and farmers shut off the tar sands oil flowing through Enbridge’s Lines 3 and 4. They were arrested and have been charged with a felony for aiding and abetting destruction of a pipeline. The panel will engage with questions around the connections between farming, permaculture, the Catholic Worker movement, and using direct action to confront the climate crisis.

The event is on Friday March 29th at Spirit Catholic Community (2201 1st Ave S, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404).

6-7pm - snacks and socializing 7-7:45pm - Four Necessity Valve Turners panel 7:45-8:30 - questions and discussion

facebook event page: //www.facebook.com/events/369612697218671/

We hope to see you there!

The Risks of Profiting from Climate Change

By Daniel Yildirim

Daniel Yildirim, one of the Four Necessity Valve Turners, reflects on science, money, climate change, and the fossil fuel industry

On February 23, the Duluth Tribune published this "Reader's View" by Debjyoti Dwivedy, under the title, "Halting Line 3 Endangers Environment":

"On the morning of Feb. 12, Gov. Tim Walz announced he was backing a lawsuit against Line 3, a proposed replacement project for an oil pipeline that carries Canadian crude across northern Minnesota to refineries throughout the Midwest ("Walz continuing Line 3 appeal").   But delaying its construction actually endangers the environment. If Line 3 isn't built, Canadians will still produce that crude and will ship the oil via rail, which is 4.5 times more prone to spills than pipelines. Minnesota safety officials already are expressing concern about the uptick in oil trains passing through our state. Stalling the project not only hurts the environment. The new Line 3 would add $2 billion to Minnesota's economy and generate more than $330 million in worker wages and $19 million dollars in property taxes."

Chiding those who oppose oil pipelines, because oil trains are more dangerous, is a textbook example of the "false dichotomy" logical fallacy. It is akin to saying, "we'd better let the school bus driver smoke cannabis while he is driving our kids, because if we don't--he will definitely get blind drunk! And if he is drunk he will be 4.5 times more likely to crash the bus than if he is merely high. People opposed to stoned bus drivers are making our kids less safe!" Fire the bus driver. Hire a sober one. This matter is too important to be negotiated over with grossly irresponsible actors. Why do we as the public act like an abused dog in the face of fossil fuel industry violence? Every year their addiction to wealth and privilege increases the level of terror and privation due to climate change that our children will face when they are adults.  But of course the author of this piece doesn't even mention climate change. He is only referring to risks due to spills. Although devastating, these risks are hardly even comparable to those posed by climate change. Researchers predict that 3.7 degrees of warming (very likely, if we continue to allow the fossil fuel industry to have their way) would result in $551 trillion in global damages --roughly twice as much wealth as exists in the world today. In terms of risk to human life, even at 1.5 to 2 degrees of warming (the most conservative possible outcome), the IPCC predicts 150 million human lives will be lost. That's equivalent to 25 holocausts. And that is a best-case scenario. The longer we wait, the more we let the fossil fuel industry push us around, the worse it gets. Those of us with more than a passing interest in the future of humanity (not to mention the planetary biosphere) are making every effort to halt the burning of fossil fuels at all levels--extraction, transportation, refinement and combustion. But let's return to the author's main premise: that oil trains are more prone to accidents than pipelines. Putting aside the fact that we are opposed to oil trains too (activists have had some huge successes resisting oil trains passing through their communities--for example, in Benicia and Santa Maria in California, and Vancouver in Oregon), is it true that pipelines are safer? The author quotes the figure so often employed by pipeline advocates: that trains are 4.5 times more likely to cause spills. Where does that statistic come from? As it turns out, it comes from the Fraser Institute, an "independent" Canadian think tank which has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from the Koch brothers and Exxon-Mobil. What does our own government say? According to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA),

“Overall, oil spills [occur] more frequently with pipelines than rail cars. For example, in 2015, there were 252 pipeline spills reported to PHMSA involving crude oil, versus 44 for the rail industry. The year prior, the frequency of spills at pipes was about 62 percent greater than rail, the data shows.”

Oil companies use a combination of rail and pipelines to maximize profits in a fluctuating market.  Pipelines are generally cheaper to operate, and thus their existence means larger profit margins for the industry. And of course, pipeline corporations, like Enbridge, base their whole business on a positive public perception of their product. One final point. The author writes, "If Line 3 isn't built, Canadians will still produce that crude, and will ship the oil via rail." This is related to a common trope in the world of fossil fuel apologism, what I call the "if I don't do it, somebody else will" defense. Usually when people use this argument to excuse personal behavior, it is generally understood that they are scraping the bottom of the barrel of moral arguments. "Even I admit that what I'm doing is wrong," they say, "but it's gonna happen whether I do it or not, so I might as well be the one who benefits." Would anyone teach their children that kind of moral logic? Would anyone's pastor smile and nod their consent to such a proposal? How would Jesus respond to the money-changers at the temple, if they shrugged and said, "if I don't do it, someone else will"? Underneath all of this lies the ideology of the free market, which dictates that if something is profitable, its occurrence is inevitable. It is an ideology that every day increases the scale of death and destruction our world will face in the future. Our only hope is that this ideology is abolished and replaced with an ethic of personal responsibility, in which no atrocity is inevitable, and the only logical course of action is to obey one's own heart, and defend the sacredness of life.