Good morning, sisters and brothers. It’s been just over six years since I found myself in a CEP crowd like this. Last time, in this very room, I was a delegate for Local 1129 at the Pulp and Paper Wage Caucus.
MORE THAN 6,000 environmental activists assembled in Pittsburgh for PowerShift 2013, sponsored by the Energy Action Coalition (EAC). This fourth PowerShift reflected the broader changes taking place in the environmental movement, with more emphasis placed on grassroots struggles, climate justice, racism and indigenous rights. This year's conference was the first to be held outside the Washington, D.C., area. The choice of Pittsburgh as the location signifies the deepening of locally based resistance to extreme energy extraction and growing criticism of fracking practices nationwide.
Yes to both. The Context: I recently read And The Band Played On, a history of the early years of the AIDS plague, primarily based on the United States and the emerging gay communities on the east and west coasts. As AIDS became more and more serious, killing more and more people, some activists wanted to hit the panic button, be brutally honest about the fact that sexual practices were a large part of its spread and use explicit sexual education to contain the plague.
