Thousands Protest Fracking in Oakland

Thousands of activists from all over California marched on February 7 from downtown Oakland to Lake Merritt to demand a ban on and an end to fracking. The day before, about 70 activists blocked the entrance to the State Office Building in San Francisco; 12 were arrested. Fracking is an environmental nightmare that involves pumping a mix of water, sand, and chemicals into the ground (including methane and propane) that spreads for miles underground, forcing the gas and oil up a well through fissures in the rock, where it is collected, put into trains, and sent off through cities and small towns, through farmlands, forests, and wild lands, to refineries thousands of miles away. There was a large contingent of people from the Marshall Islands where climate change (which fracking contributes to) is causing both drought and rising seas, with portions of the islands literally disappearing, while food and water supplies dwindle. The demonstration brought together more than 100 grassroots groups, from labor to indigenous to environmental justice organizations. The protest was called the March for Real Climate Leadership. Many people carried signs in the shape of puzzle pieces, urging California Governor Jerry Brown and other “leaders” to be a “piece of the solution.” The Revolution Club marched with a banner “The Capitalist System Is Destroying our Planet. Revolution Is the Solution.” Revolution Books distributed literature. There was vigorous discussion of capitalism and revolution throughout the day.