A year earlier there had been an explosion at Chevron's Richmond oil refinery. To remind everybody of the problem and its solutions, the local environmental community organized a march and rally to bring it to mind again. Thanks to Dave and Carol, I got there in plenty of time to see it all. The first thing that inspired me to take out my camera was the opening ceremony.

     

The guy with the sage smudge and feather is some sort of Native American Spiritual Leader. He said that because of all the things that have happened there are only four million Native Americans in the country, but despite that it's still true that "we will put it all on the line for grandmother earth, because we know that we get everything we need from her." He also thanked us all for showing up to represent for the truth.

The woman listed all of the different tribes whose blood ran in her veins. Among them were English, German, Cherokee, and Choctaw. Then she explained that the stack of signs are for us to carry in the march if we didn't bring something of our own. She also explained that the sunflower is the symbol of the march because sunflowers draw toxins out of the soil when they grow. She hoped that each of us would carry one during the event. After the singer lead us in a song there would be speakers, and then the march would start.

The singer did what I would characterize as a pow-wow song. The rhythm of his drum contrasted well with the wailing vocal. It was repetitive enough that soon enough I could hear people around me wailing along. Made me want to dance and feel empowered to march for grandmother earth!

     

There was only a breif quiet moment. Then the MC started things on the main stage, the bed of a large pickup truck with a good sound system. He introduced a series of poets that had interesting thoughts I wish I could remember well enough to share.

  

By this time the plaza was getting crowded with people brandishing signs.

This guy was from Iraq Veterans Against War. He wanted us to know his people were here!

  

Each of their presentations was short and sweet.

     

  

The woman in the UNITE HERE shirt represented all her union brothers and sisters. She listed the many labor unions represented among us, including the nurses, the BART workers, and some SEIU locals.

Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin announced that Monday morning her city would be filing papers to sue Chevron for the damage caused by their culture of ignoring problems like corroded pipes because they weren't being forced to fix them. She explained that she was taking this action on behalf of the 15,000 people who live in the city that had been hurt by the toxic chemicals released in that fire a year ago.

  

Then she read us a solidarity ad that the people of Ecuador had put in the paper that morning. To read it yourself please click on her picture above.

     

Then we started marching. There was also lots of chanting. Things like a leader yelling "what do we want?" Then all with voices said "Separation of oil and state!" Then the leader asking in the same voice "When do we want it?" Everybody knows the answer to that one: "NOW!" It was fun.

     

  

  

  

        

        

  

  

By this time we were a bit more spread out. There were people behind me as far as I could see, and people ahead of me as far as I could see. Later the media told me there at least two thousand of us marching on Chevron.

  

     

I rather suspect the fruit bar vendor was just marching for greenbacks. Lots of us got something!

     

The General Strike guy told me that he'd gotten the picture of a kid from a Chevron ad.

  

     

     

  

     

     

     

     

     

  

  

At that point in time the battery in my camera died. I was only a block or two from the back of the march, but I couldn't show you any highlights from the rest of it. Sorry about that. :-(

There was another rally at the end, but the main points were the same ones I'd heard at the beginning. After that they did some mass civil disobedience. I didn't stick around to see it, but I heard from the media that 200+ were arrested. On the way home scanning the radio dial for a traffic report we heard some positive coverage of it all. Click here for KQED's version of the story.

The following Monday the City of Richmond did file their suit. Chevron surprised me by pleading no contest. I think the ruling was that they would have to pay two million dollars. That's a much better ending than most of these stories get!