AN EXTRAORDINARY CRISIS REQUIRES AN EXTRAORDINARY RESPONSE—THE PEOPLE MUST ACT TO STOP THE GULF CATASTROPHE

Saturday, June 19, 2010 10 am—End Time TBA First Unitarian Universalist Church Sanctuary

5212 South Claiborne Avenue, New Orleans, LA Website: gulfemergencysummit.org
Email: gulfemergencysummit@gmail.com

The BP oil blowout is an environmental catastrophe, bringing great peril to marine and wildlife in the Gulf and threatening ecosystems of the planet. The spill is still out of control and spreading. It jeopardizes communities and livelihoods. The government and BP have proven unable and unwilling to stop the disaster, protect the Gulf, or even tell the truth.

The people must come together now to stop this nightmare.

Millions are sick at heart and looking for ways to act. Many individuals and groups have spoken out, offered suggestions, volunteered to help, protested. BP and the government—pursuing their own interests—have ignored people’s ideas, blocked public participation, suppressed and harassed scientists, and prevented people on the Gulf from taking initiative to keep oil away from shore.

This must not continue. A broad, determined, and powerful “peoples’ response” is urgently needed—to get the truth out, to protect the shores and oceans and deal with the ecological impacts, while exploring deeper causes and solutions.

The Emergency Summit will bring together scientists, people from fishing communities, environmental activists, progressives, radicals and revolutionaries, artists, intellectuals and all who want to halt this horror. There will be testimony on the true scope and impact of the disaster and on what can be done to protect ecosystems, wildlife, and people. We’ll thrash out ways for people to act now—on different fronts and in different ways—and to galvanize many, many more, across the Gulf and beyond.

The world is watching. We must not allow the Gulf and oceans to be devastated. Our mission is nothing less than stopping this catastrophe.

Draft Demands:

1) Stop oil drilling in the Gulf.

2) The government and entire oil industry must allocate all necessary resources to stop the spill and clean up the devastation. Full support, including by compensation, must be given to efforts by people to save the Gulf.

3) No punishment to those taking independent initiative; no gag orders on people hired, contracted, or who volunteer.

4) Full mobilization of scientists and engineers. Release scientific and technical data to the public; no more lying and covering up. Full and open scientific evaluation of emergency measures like the use of dispersants. Fund all necessary scientific and medical research.

5) Full compensation for all losing livelihood and income from the disaster.

6) Provide necessary medical services to those suffering health effects of the spill. Protect the health of and provide necessary equipment for everyone involved in clean up operations. Full disclosure of medical and scientific studies about the effects of the oil disaster.

Initial Endorsers:
William Quigley, Loyola University; Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights*; Michael G. Hadfield, marine biologist, University of Hawaii*; Larry Everest, author Oil, Power and Empire, Revolution newspaper correspondent; John Pearse, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz*; Eloise Williams, Lower Algiers Environmental Committee, New Orleans; Elizabeth Cook, Women United for Social Justice, New Orleans; Andy Washington, Civil Rights Activist, New Orleans; Survivors Village, New Orleans; Ben Gordon, Pax Christi, New Orleans; Debra Sweet, Director, World Can’t Wait; Sharon Jasper, public housing activist, New Orleans; C3-Hands Off Iberville, New Orleans; George Mahdi, social worker, New Orleans; Endesha Juakeli, housing activist, New Orleans; Randy Poindexter, New Orleans; Rebecca Austen, New Orleans; Gilda and Sain Reed, New Orleans

* for identification purposes only

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