Return to Week of Action (March 16-23)

Planned Actions to Stop Tar Sands Profiteers

Join the March Week of Action to Stop Tar Sands Profiteers! Check out the map below to find an action being organized near you! Actions are listed below the map as well. Don’t see an action near you? Check this page regularly and/or organize your own action! Check out our list of suggested offices of tar sands profiteers. Click here to sign up and we’ll be in touch shortly.


View a larger March Week of Action map

(Note: red question-marks on the map questionmark represent actions whose details are intentionally left out.)

List of Planned Actions


CALIFORNIA

Los Angeles
Tar Sands Blockade Solidarity, Los Angeles
RALLY AT JOHN HANCOCK LIFE INSURANCE CO
Friday, March 22nd, 1pm Sharp
841 Apollo st, El Segundo, CA 90245
We will be chanting, dancing, picketing and passing out flyers at the John Hancock Life Insurance office in El Segunda, CA. John Hancock is the U.S. wing of Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, which owns over 4 million shares in TransCanada, the company building the Keystone XL pipeline. We must pressure them to stop investing their money in dirty, deadly energy, and show solidarity with all tar sands blockaders, indigenous resistors, and victims of this environmental racism.
There will be some signs and megaphones provided, but any posters or propaganda you can make on your own would be appreciated.
For more info, or to let us know if you can make it out, contact Grayson at yes2plants@riseup.net, (310) 941-5480
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/events/224694091001965

San Francisco
NEXT STEP to STOP KEYSTONE XL: PREPARE FOR NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION!
Organized by Bay Area 350.org, Tar Sands Blockade, Idle No More, Rising Tide S.F.
Saturday, March 23rd, 1-3:30pm
90 7th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
An informative & fun afternoon for: anyone who is interested in participating in upcoming nonviolent direct action – and – those who are willing to support others risking arrest – and – folks who just want to find out more before they decide.
Facilitated by a team of experienced trainers, we’ll prepare ourselves to engage in nonviolent direct action to stop the Keystone Pipeline. The training will include a short Keystone Tar Sands XL Pipeline Teach-In with the latest updates. We will also have a group action photo to show the world we are getting ready for action, including a mock takeover of the SF Federal Building.
Please RSVP if you can attend: NextStepAction2013@gmail.com & dress for the weather.
Idle No More, 11am to 1pm. Prayers, Round Dance. Everyone welcome.
Website: www.facebook.com/events/423144381112775

COLORADO

Denver
Colorado Extraction Resistance
Rally and Direct Action Teach-in
Friday, March 22nd, 5:30pm
Governor’s Mansion (400 E 8th Ave @Logan St. Denver, CO)
In solidarity with the Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance week of action we are calling for a public denunciation of Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper for his ever increasingly obvious role as a spokesperson for the corrupt oil & gas industry. For far too long, Hickenlooper has misused his authority to force Colorado to allow the destructive practice of hydraulic fracturing which poisons our air, our water, our land, and our bodies. We will be converging on the Governor’s mansion to make it clear that he does not represent us, and that Colorado is ready to stand up to the toxic extraction industry. Bring signs, banners, puppets, chains, and u-locks (for educational lockdown demonstrations) and of course fracking fluid!
More info here: coloradoer.tk

Boulder
Details TBA!

Connecticut

New Haven
Protest Against TD Bank
Saturday, March 23rd, 10am-12pm
TD Bank: 994 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT 06511
Join Capitalism vs The Climate, 350CT, and others on the green across from TD Bank to protest the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline! TD Bank is one of the biggest financiers of the pipeline–let’s tell them to stop funding dirty, unsustainable energy and start putting people and the environment before profits!    Bring a cardboard box decorated with your favorite anti-KXL/anti-tar sands/anti-fossil fuels/anti-capitalist slogans and images and help us build a “wall of resistance” against TD Bank, TransCanada, and anyone else who stands to profit from this destructive project! Join us in an anti-tar sands remix of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”! Help us pass out leaflets and inform the public about why (and how) to oppose this pipeline and all pipelines!
Facebook Event: www.facebook.com/events/459435204129183

Delaware

Newark (Tuesday)
Tar Sands Blockade Solidarity Action!
Tuesday, March 19th, 5pm
Newark (AMTRAK/SEPTA) Train Station – 429 South College Avenue
Join us on Tuesday in Newark for a Delaware anti-tarsands action during the National Week of Action against Tar Sands Profiteers! We’ll hold our tar sands banner and signs in front of the very place where the toxic tar sands are being held in rail cars as they wait to be unloaded and processed at the Delaware City refinery. Take a stand against tar sands in our state and be a part of the growing international movement to keep dirty tar sands in the ground where they belong! You can park in the Amtrak parking lot near the bottom of the bridge and we’ll meet up at the base of the bridge at 5pm.
Website: www.facebook.com/events/498522246872792

Newark (Friday)
TD for Tar Sands – Move Your Money!
Friday, March 22nd, 3pm
230 East Delaware Avenue, Newark, DE 19711
Join Delaware Sierra Club and Occupy Delaware for a “Move Your Money” action at TD Bank in Newark for their continued financial support for TransCanada and tar sands! Delaware is getting railroaded by tar sands, which are are not only more than 3x worse for our warming climate, but much more carcinogenic and polluting to refine. As you know, the last thing Delaware needs is more cancer-causing air pollution.
Join us on Friday to take a real tangible action to stop funding for tar sands in our state, while becoming a part of the growing international movement to keep dirty tar sands in the ground!
Website: www.facebook.com/events/551809661506892

Louisiana

New Orleans
St. Patty’s Rally and March
Sunday, March 17th, 5:30pm
Jackson Square, Decatur Street
Rally and March, meet on the steps of Jackson Square and wear St. Patrick’s Day attire!

Massachusetts

Boston (Sunday)
St. Patrick’s Peace Parade: People’s Parade for Peace, Equality, Jobs, Climate Justice, Social & Economic Justice. UNITE, PARTICIPATE, CELEBRATE
Sunday, March 17th
Assemble Time: 2pm Parade Start: 3pm
Start Location: D Street and West Broadway, South Boston, near the Broadway Station on the Red Line. Look for white “Vets For Peace” Flags
Come join the Climate Justice division of the parade. We’ll be focusing our energy and our voices on keeping the tar sands in the ground! The Soul ‘n Roll band Melodeego is joining us. Get creative, learn some amazing new anti-tar sands call and response chants, meet up with others who are working on tar sands and other climate struggles. Have fun. Engage the crowd and challenge them to think about their future! We are proud to join the Veterans for Peace to kick off our Boston area week of action!!
Contact: Marla Marcum, marla.marcum@gmail.com, (781) 475-0996
Website: www.facebook.com/events/242916262450591

Boston (Wednesday)
RAN Boston Fights BAC (Bank of America Corporation)!
Wednesday, March 20th, 12:30pm
100 Federal St., Bank of America building
Rainforest Action Network (RAN) invites allies from around Boston to call out Bank of America as the top U.S. funder of coal, catastrophic climate change and extreme weather events like drought, wildfires and super-storm hurricanes. Boston is home to the bank’s chief decision-makers, so we are in a unique position to ramp up the pressure, for our own safety and for those hurting most from climate change and coal mining impacts. Boston communities are uniting for climate justice, gathering at 100 Federal St. to demand the bank STOP pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the dirty and dangerous energy infrastructure and jobs of the past and START investing NOW in our clean energy and green jobs future. Bring a friend or two with you!
Contact: Vanessa Green, vgreen@ran.org, (617) 230-8942
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/488752407851480

Westborough
Protest Keystone XL Pipeline at TransCanada Office in Westborough
Friday, March 22nd, 1pm
TransCanada’s Westborough office: 110 Turnpike Rd, Westborough, MA 01581
Join Veterans For Peace and others in demonstrating at TransCanada.
Contact: NateGoldshlag, nateg@pobox.com, (617) 548-3588
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/475837855815595

Minnesota

Minneapolis
Keystone XL Action with Senator Klobuchar!
Monday, March 18th, 1:30pm
1200 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55415
We have a fight on our hands in Congress. Big oil’s highest-paid representatives have introduced new legislation that could require President Obama to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
This will come down to the Senate, where we will face a tight vote to keep the pipeline stopped, and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar could be a deciding vote.
MN350.org is organizing a press event outside of Sen. Klobuchar’s Minneapolis office on Monday, March 18 at 1:30 to deliver the message in person that it’s absolutely critical she stand with us against the pipeline. Can you be there on Monday?
Click here to RSVP: act.350.org/signup/mn-kxl-senate-push
If you can’t make the event, take a moment to give the Senator’s office a call to give her the message: act.350.org/call/kxl-swing-calls-2013
Website: www.facebook.com/events/264330293701504

New York

New York (Wednesday)
Tar Sands Action!
Wednesday, March 20th, 11am
495 Central ave, White Plains, NY 10606
We are planning an action with Hudson Valley Earth First and the Green Team in solidarity with Tar Sands Blockade. We will be demonstrating at TD Bank, one of the major investors in TransCanada.
Our goals are to:
• Demand TD Bank to stop investing in TransCanada and the KXL pipeline
• Discourage those who would use this company
For car pooling information, please contact us at: push.ideasintoaction@gmail.com
Website: www.facebook.com/events/518672108175690

New York (Saturday)

Divest From TD Bank Day of Action!
Saturday, March 23rd, noon
Union Square (14th Street & Broadway), New York, NY
Join Occupy the Pipeline, 350.org and Sane Energy Project as we Call Out TD Bank for Greenwashing their Image!
We are Calling for All Concerned Citizens to Stop Providing Tar Dollars for Total Destruction! If you have money in TD Bank we think it’s time to MOVE YOUR MONEY.
Facebook Event: www.facebook.com/events/316100778493659

North Carolina

Asheville
PROTEST AGAINST THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE
Friday March 22nd
Meet at 4:30pm at Pritchard Park: 4 College Street (downtown Asheville)
March at 4:45pm to TD Bank (huge investor in KXL)
This event is being organized by Katuah Earth First!
Website: www.katuahearthfirst.org

Oklahoma

Ponca City
March 18th-22nd
A coalition of Great Plains residents against the Tar Sands is excited to announce a training camp in March, this time in Oklahoma. Long a stronghold of the oil empire we must ignite a fire of resistance in the belly of the beast. See you there!
Contact: gptsresistance@riseup.net
TO SIGN UP, go to: www.gptarsandsresistance.org/direct-action-training-camp-in-oklahoma

Oregon

Portland (Monday)
Tar Sands Solidarity- Tour of Portland’s Worst Polluters Ride
Monday, March 18th, 2pm
Holladay Park Plaza: 1300 NE 16th Avenue
Meet at Holladay Park at 2:00 for some information and discussion before we ride at 3pm to tour Portland’s Worst Polluters, many of whom also happen to be Tar Sands Profiteers.
There will be good music and merriment to accompany our sense of outrage at people who would profit from destruction of the planet. It might sound strange, but there’s no better way to demonstrate the absurdity of our current societal course than to contrast it with positive energy.
Dust off your bike and let’s ride on these fools!
Website: www.facebook.com/events/457105747694297

Portland (Thursday)
~ IDLE NO MORE Day of Action ~
Thursday, March 21st, 9am
Montgomery Park (in front of cafeteria), 2701 NW Vaughn
Please come & play/activate on Thursday morning at 9am in honor of the IDLE NO MORE Day of Action to stop the Tar Sand Oil Pipelines.
Contact: Kelly Angelica, 503-849-9648

Portland (Friday 5pm)
Tar Sands Solidarity- Tour of Portland’s Worst Polluters Ride, Round 2
Friday, March 22nd, 5pm
Holladay Park Plaza: 1300 NE 16th Avenue
Meet at Holladay Park at 5:00pm for some information and discussion before we ride at 5:30pm to tour Portland’s Worst Polluters, many of whom also happen to be Tar Sands Profiteers.
There will be good music and merriment to accompany our sense of outrage at people who would profit from destruction of the planet. It might sound strange, but there’s no better way to demonstrate the absurdity of our current societal course than to contrast it with positive energy.
Dust off your bike and let’s ride on these fools!
Website: www.facebook.com/events/457105747694297

Portland (Friday 6pm)
~ WORLD WATER DAY Gathering ~
Friday, March 22nd, 6pm
Under the East side of the Hawthorne Bridge
If you believe water is Sacred, please join us under the EAST side of the Hawthorne Bridge this Friday, March 22, at 6PM as we share ceremony for our sacred lifeblood, WATER.
Without water, we become ill and die…every living thing of the planet becomes ill and dies. We are fast approaching no turning back. It is now our turn to heal and care for water and for the next generations of children, animals, fish, birds, and wildlife. It is our turn, our responsibility, to be a voice for water and for all who depend on the lifeblood of the Earth, including and most importantly, the Earth!!!
More details to come….
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/360515057400491

Tennessee

Memphis
“What The Frack, Valero?” hosted by the Tennessee Sierra Club
Saturday, March 23rd, 8am
543 W Mallory Ave, Memphis, TN (Martin Luther King Riverside Park, right by the Valero refinery)
Valero is one of the primary players in the Keystone XL Pipeline project and the main refiner of Bakken crude from the fracked fields of North Dakota and Montana. We’re gonna let them know how we feel about it.
We will be gathering at Martin Luther King Jr. Park to protest against Valero Energy Corporation’s involvement in the Keystone XL Pipeline. We will also highlight their involvement in the fracking of the Bakken formation in North Dakota and the subsequent waste of natural gas being flared off there.
Media will be invited from 9 ’til 11am with an official press conference at 10am.
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/156589894497629

Texas

Dallas/Fort Worth (Tuesday)
“Texas + Tar Sands, the 411” an information session and protest action-prep workshop hosted by the Horizon UU Church Environmental Justice Task Force
Tuesday, March 19th, 7pm
Horizon Unitarian Universalist Church: 1641 W. Hebron Parkway, Carrollton, Texas 75010
This info-sharing and protest sign-making workshop at Horizon UU Church coincides with a “week of action to stop tar sands profiteers” from March 16th to March 23rd promoted by the Tar Sands Blockade. Join us. Protests across the entire continent are expected, and bound to happen in the D/FW area— this workshop will show you exactly why and how you can get involved.
For more information or to let us know you’re coming/want to protest/need a ride, send a message to: alytharp@riseup.net
Website: www.facebook.com/events/436540379753810

Dallas/Fort Worth (Thursday)
Idle No More/North TX Light Brigade Night of Solidarity
Thursday, March 21st, 8pm
Churchill Way and 75 N. Central Expressway, Dallas, TX
“NO TARSANDS” light brigade SIGN!
North Texas Light Brigade will have a night of solidarity with Tar Sands Blockade and Idle No More DFW. We will shine our message “NO TARSANDS”!
Website: www.facebook.com/events/496421767083961

Dallas/Fort Worth (Friday)
Protest John Hancock Life Insurance Co
Friday, March 22nd, 4-6pm
5215 N O’Connor Blvd, Irving, TX 75039
Come protest this tar sands profiteer! John Hancock owns more than 3.5 million shares in TransCanada, and many of their parent company ManuLife’s top stock holdings are in tar sands mining and distribution companies. We’ll meet at four in the afternoon but you can call their office during the day at (972) 869-3046 to criticize their deadly investment strategy!
For more info contact: alytharp@riseup.net
This action is being hosted/promoted by Dallas MoveOn Council, the Horizon UU Church Environmental Justice Task Force, Occupy Dallas, and members of Tar Sands Blockade. All are welcome.

Galveston
Seaside Rally
Saturday, March 16th & 23rd, 1-2pm
Menard Park in Galveston: Seawall Blvd & 28th St Galveston, TX 77550
Protest destructive policies that feed climate change and other gross inequalities. Beautiful view of the Gulf, the Pleasure Pier and Lots of traffic. Bring a sign to make your statement to try to wake up some Americans and Spring Breakers!

Houston (Tuesday Afternoon)
Speak Out Against Tar Sands
Tuesday, March 19th, 1:30-4pm
Houston City Hall Annex, 900 Bagby Street, Public Level, Houston, TX 77002
Speak out to City Council about the dangers tar sands represent to our community and why they should oppose bringing them here for refining. Call (832) 393-1100 by noon on Tuesday to sign up to speak.
Contact: Ben Franklin, (832) 297-8595, veryloudben@gmail.com
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/320452404723765

Houston (Tuesday Evening)
Film Screening and Q&A with Blockaders
Tuesday, March 19th, 7:30pm
East Side Social Center, 4202 Canal St.
The Democratic Socialists of America-Houston are hosting a film screening of Blockadia Rising! followed by a Q&A with longtime members of Tar Sands Blockade at The East Side Social Center.

Houston (Thursday)
Put Tar Sands Profiteers on Trial
Thursday, March 21st, 4-5pm
515 Rusk Street, Houston, TX 77002
BP is currently on trial in federal court in Houston for their disastrous 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The crimes of the tar sands profiteers are no less devastating, so they should be put on trial too! From destroying old growth forest to poisoning indigenous peoples and communities of color, TransCanada, Valero, and all the rest need to answer for their crimes. Join us in calling for these corporations to be held accountable and to denounce state repression of activists who are standing up for what is right.
Contact: Ben Franklin, veryloudben@gmail.com
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/438086466265448

San Antonio
Students United for Socioeconomic Justice Action against Valero Energy Corporate Headquarters
Friday, March 22nd, 3-5pm
1 Valero Way: on the UTSA campus, across the street from Valero
Action supported by People’s Power Coalition in Solidarity with Idle No More, Bexar County Green Party, Southwest Workers Union, Texas Indigenous Council.
Valero, we recall you when you were Diamond Shamrock; we remember LoVaca, Nustar–we know you and your works. Expect us.
Contact: Timothy Garcia Giddens, tihkal@gmail.com, 210-248-6993
www.bexargreens.org

Utah

Salt Lake City
Saturday, March 16th, 10am-4pm
Sunday, March 17th, 1pm-4pm
LOCATION: Federation of Mexican Clubs, 344 Goshen St.
SPONSORED BY: Deep Green Resistance, Great Basin Chapter
PRESENTATIONS & TRAININGS:- Goshute Tribal Chairman Ed Naranjo on the SNWA (Southern Nevada Water Authority) proposed water pipeline to steal groundwater from the Goshute Reservation.- Local Idle No More organizers- Utah Tar Sands Resistance on the proposed Tar Sands projects in eastern Utah.- Non-Violent Civil Disobedience training from Peaceful Uprising- Liberal vs. Radical and the need for organized underground resistance from Deep Green Resistance
COST: Suggested donation $5-10, all proceeds go to the Unist’ot’en Camp and Tar Sands Blockade.
NO ONE WILL BE TURNED AWAY for lack of funds.

Salt Lake City
Break the Toxic Chokehold of Tar Sands
Saturday, March 23rd, noon
2300 North & 1100 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116
Utah Tar Sands Resistance and allies will rally together at the Chevron refinery as part of the cross-continental Week of Actions to Stop Tar Sands Profiteers (March 16–23). Chevron is already refining toxic tar sands oil from Canada, and it plans to refine the oil from the first tar sands mine in the United States, set to begin in eastern Utah in 2013. We will rise up in solidarity to show investors that tar sands is a toxic investment.
Website: www.facebook.com/events/507445342650939

Vermont

Montpelier
Move Your Money from TD Bank!
Wednesday, March 20, 4:40-5:30pm
State Street & Main Street, Montpelier, VT 05602
We are doing a week of outreach to find out if there are local folks who do their banking with T.D. Bank who would be willing to change banks, and “move their money” during this action, which will include a flash-mob style action outside the bank with banners, music, and leaf-letting, as well as a statement read inside the bank about why folks are withdrawing their money, and protesting T.D. Bank and its funding of the Tar Sands.
For more info contact: greenmountainef@hotmail.com

Washington

Seattle
Rally to stop construction of KXL pipeline
Monday, March 18th, 11am-12:30pm
6725 116th Ave NE, Kirkland, WA 98033
By pressuring all the companies, investors, and financiers that are associated with, and profit from the Keystone XL pipeline, we will have a better chance of stopping it. As part of the Stop Tar Sands Profiteers! week of action, we’ll gather outside Michels’ Kirkland offices to demand Michels stop building the Keystone XL pipeline, which is putting our future and that of our children and grandchildren in ever greater peril.
Website: www.facebook.com/events/490061621048217

Washington, D.C.

Holy Days Climate Action March 21/White House
Thursday, March 21st, noon
Lafayette Park and White House sidewalk
Religiously and spiritually rooted Americans of all traditions will gather at the White House at noon on March 21 for a moral act of loving nonviolent civil disobedience. This action, organized by the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate (IMAC), will make clear to President Obama that his inspired pledge to halt the destruction of the Earth from climate change requires that he take bold and courageous actions, including rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
The action is being taken at this time in connection with Holy Week and Passover, beginning just a few days after this action. As we observe the upcoming holy days, our ancient sacred wisdoms remind us that top-down power must be called to account for us to win through to the Promised Land, the Beloved Community.
For more info go to interfaithactiononclimatechange.org.
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/432688993483255

March against Keystone XL! Protest/Dance!
Thursday, March 21st 1-3pm
Canadian Embassy, 501 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC
Come march, dance, and protest with us to save the planet from climate change and save the Canadian wilderness from certain destruction. Bring a homemade sign and your Flashdance pants. We’ll bring the beats.
If you’ve wanted to be part of a flash mob to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline, now is your chance to bring your shake.
For more information, contact dcrisingtide@riseup.net.
Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/572300286116447

Rally Against TD Bank
Saturday, March 23rd, 10am
North side of the Fountain at Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.; the meeting spot is 1 block from the Dupont Circle Metro station.
Details: please dress for the outdoors; after a short training we will march 1/2 mile to a TD Bank branch, organize into a rally outside and/or inside the bank branch. If time and people permit, we will march to a second branch and do the same. Total time: 1-2 hours. The action will occur rain or shine.
CONTACT: Ted Conwell, Founder of Climate First!
P.O. Box 5815
Takoma Park, MD 20912
(301) 589-7598
tconwell@climatefirst.us
Website: www.facebook.com/climate1st

Permanent link to this article: https://tarsandsblockade.org/weekofaction/planned_actions/