Pennsylvania Sierra Club
Last month, after the Nebraska Supreme Court approved a route for the Keystone XL pipeline through the state by overturning a lower court's ruling that the law behind it was unconstitutional, thousands of people came together in more than 150 communities in all 50 states to urge President Obama to reject the pipeline once and for all.
One of those rallies was in Philadelphia, below, where some 100 activists, mostly from the Sierra Club and 350 Philadelphia, marched through downtown Philly -- known locally as Center City -- to the Philadelphia office of Senator Bob Casey to urge him to vote "No" on Keystone when it came to a vote in the U.S. Senate. (On January 29, Casey voted to approve the pipeline.)
"Our philosophy in Philly is to collaborate with other groups," says Philadelphia-based Beyond Coal campaign organizer Gary Lytle, below at left. "We've built a lot of local alliances -- it's the culture of the Sierra Club here in Philly -- and 350.org wanted to respond to the Nebraska court's decision as well. We decided to stage our rally during rush hour at Love Park, a prominent location in the heart of Center City next to City Hall."
Lytle says the Club and 350 had originally planned for a sidewalk journey to Senator Casey's office, "but our crowd was too large for the sidewalks, so Philly's finest cleared JFK Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in Center City, for our march. Folks had brought bullhorns and massive banners, and thanks to the police there were plenty of flashing lights, so we drew a lot of attention, chanting and singing the whole way to Senator Casey's doorstep."
Immediately after the event, the marchers mobilized at the nearby Friends Center and decided they should all go to the upcoming MLK March on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to reinforce the message that social justice and environmental justice are linked. "It's a message we're really embracing," Lytle says. "And on January 19, the MLK March organizers allowed us to show our social justice partners that the environmental movement stands by their side."
Lytle says that the Club's Philly Beyond Coal campaign has been "a shining example in the City of Brotherly Love," with a sizable African American and military veteran volunteer base.
"We've made a point of reaching out to the African American and veteran communities," says Lytle, a veteran himself. "I'd been volunteering with the Club's Philly Group for over two years before I became a Beyond Coal organizer last fall. I spend a lot of time at the Veterans Multi-Service Center, and a large percentage of vets are African American, so that created a bridge for us."
Lytle estimates that nearly half of Philadelphia Beyond Coal's activists are African American. "To be honest, I didn't even realize that was so special or unusual," he says. But he acknowledges that when the Club's Southeastern Pennsylvania Group started recruiting African Americans and vets in earnest, "they had to learn the language of talking to military veterans and African Americans who were down on their luck or getting back on their feet. These are people who have paid their dues. But we kept at it, and now, of my ten core organizers, four are African American and three are vets."
Below, Lytle with Sharita Colter, a leading volunteer activist and the daughter of a veteral, at a December rally in support the EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan. Colter has spken at rallies and events in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington, D.C.
Lytle says he struggled with PTSD (posttraumatic stress syndrome) when he came out of the military. "I needed a cause I could pour myself into, and to a large degree, I'd say this work saved my life. From a personal perspective, the message of protecting the planet sounds similar to protecting my country, family, and children, and I think a lot of veterans feel the same way."
Below, Philly vets for clean energy at last year's Reject and Protect event in Washington, D.C., to urge that the Keystone pipeline be rejected.
A subgroup within the Philadelphia Beyond Coal campaign is Veterans for Clean Air. Lytle proudly points out that at the People's Climate March last September in New York City, which drew over 400,000 marchers, a contingent of Veterans for Clean Air activists were at the very front of the march. That's them, below.
"There are a lot of similarities in the goals of veterans the goals of the environmental movement," Lytle says. "Vets are people who've dedicated themselves to something so meaningful, and now they have an opportunity to do it again."
All photos courtesy of the Pennsylvania Sierra Club