2017-05-01
by
Eleanor Goldfield
This past Saturday, 200k people walked through downtown Washington DC for the “People’s Climate March.” I’ll dig more into specific commentary in this week’s episode of Act Out, but for right now I’ll just say that it is always impressive to see that amount of people in the streets. However, as someone who has attended many many marches, I have come to see details that betray a dangerously vague and all too systemically friendly paradigm. In these images, some of those details are quite clear.
The people power displayed on Saturday came overwhelmingly from indigenous and frontline communities. The intensity that echoed through the streets was not brought by an NGO or a white middle-class woman. It was brought by the people who fight not only ecological devastation everyday but the constructs of it: racism, colonialism and of course, capitalism.
These images and indeed my Act Out! special episode seek to share that power not as an empty postcard but as a demand – a demand for us to stand up as allies or indeed frontline community members ourselves. It is not a government request. It is not even an NGO request. It is a people to people no-bullshit, wake the fuck up, get the fuck up and do something demand.
So, with that in mind, my special airs Wednesday on Free Speech TV and online .
Feel free to spread and share images. Credit Eleanor Goldfield/Art Killing Apathy unless otherwise noted.
Image by Chris Owens
Image by Chris Owens
Image by Chris Owens
Image by Chris Owens
