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GULF SOUTH RISING!

Gulf South Rising (GSR) is a regional movement of coordinated actions and events to highlight the impact of the global climate crisis on the Gulf South region (TX, LA, MS, AL, FL).

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About Us

A few words ABOUT US

a coordinated regional movement

Gulf South Rising (GSR) is a regional movement of coordinated actions and events to highlight the impact of the global climate crisis on the Gulf South region (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida). Through collaborative events and actions around strategic dates in 2015 GSR demands a just transition away from extractive industries, discriminatory policies and unjust practices that hinder equitable recovery from disaster and impedes the development of sustainable communities.

Our PRINCIPLES

Organizations committed to the Gulf South Rising initiative made a decision to follow the Jemez Principles of Environmental Justice established by Black, indigenous, Mexican, and Asian movement veterans in 1996:

#1 Be Inclusive

#2 Emphasis on Bottom-Up Organizing

#3 Let People Speak for Themselves

#4 Work Together In Solidarity and Mutuality

#5 Build Just Relationships Among Ourselves

#6 Commitment to Self-Transformation

Our GOALS

our demands!

Grassroots leaders across the Gulf South are organizing collaborative events and actions around strategic dates in 2015, including the 5th anniversary of the BP Oil Crisis and the 10th anniversary of the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, among other turning points. Frontline communities demand a just transition away from extractive industries and discriminatory and unjust practices that hinder equitable recovery from disaster and impedes the development of sustainable communities.

The year-long initiative

builds regional movement infrastructure;
convenes frontline communities around collective healing and ecological equity;
advances regional efforts of indigenous tribal and land sovereignty; and,
shifts the regional narrative from resilience to resistance.

Our VALUES

Based on 10 years of challenges and triumphs working in the Gulf South, we established the following values:

Honor local, frontline leadership
Transparency and accountability of processes
Shared liberation

GSR Strategy Document

Gulf South Rising is an open source organizing tool to connect the realities and shared liberation of all frontline communities in the region. For more on Our Strategy please download the Gulf South Rising 2015 Strategy Document

Download the Document

WHO WE ARE

We are not an organization. We are not a coalition. We are front-line communities in the Gulf South rising together for justice and equity,

Gulf South Rising Participants include:

1st Unitarian Church, New Orleans – New Orleans, LA

350.org – Louisiana

350.org – Southeast Region, USA

Advancing Equity & Opportunity Coalition – Southeast, USA

Advocates for Environmental Human Rights – New Orleans, LA

Alabama Rivers Alliance – Birmingham, AL

Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network- Birmingham, AL

Alternate ROOTS – Southeast Regional

Bayou Interfaith Shared Organizing (BISCO) – Thibodaux, LA

Black Spring NOLA – New Orleans, LA

Black Youth Project – NOLA- New Orleans, LA

Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal – New Orleans, LA

Coastal Women for Change – Biloxi, MS

Community In-power and Development Association Inc – Port Arthur, TX

Cry You One Ensemble – New Orleans, LA

Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University – New Orleans, LA

Divest Tulane – New Orleans, LA

Do it for the Youth – New Orleans, LA

East St. Tammany – NAACP, Slidell, LA

European Dissent- New Orleans, LA

Fight for 15- Louisiana – New Orleans, LA

Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center – New Orleans, LA

Greater New Orleans Organizers Roundtable – New Orleans, LA

Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy – Slidell LA & Gulf South Regional Anchor

Gulf Future Coalition – Gulf Coast South Regional

Gulf Resotration Network – New Orleans, LA

Gulfport Branch- NAACP – Gulfport, MS

GO FISH Coalition – Southeast, LA

Hijra House – Bay St. Louis MS

Immaculate Heart, CDC – Lucedale, MS

Junebug Theater Company – New Orleans, LA

Louisiana Oystermen’s Association – LA

Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation – New Orleans, LA

Mississippi Coalition of Vietnamese Fisherfolk and Families – Biloxi, MS

National Council of Elders – Southern Cohort, USA

Oseola McCarty Youth Development Center – Hattiesburg, MS

Public Lab – New Orleans, LA

Project South – Southeast Region & Atlanta, GA

S.T.E.P.S Coalition – Biloxi, MS

Seminole Nation – Florida

Sierra Club Chapter – Mobile, AL

Sierra Club Chapter – New Orleans, LA

So-called Media – New Orleans, LA

South Alabama Center for Fair Housing – Mobile, AL

Southern Movement Assembly – Southern, USA

Southwest Workers Union – San Antonio, TX

t.e.j.a.s. – Houston TX

The Ordinary Peoples Society (TOPS) – Dothan, AL

The Star Institute- New Orleans, LA

Tulane Environmental Law Clinic @ Tulane University- New Orleans, LA

United Houma Nation – South Louisiana

University Sin Fronteras – TX, GA, FL, & Regional

VAYLA – New Orleans, LA

Voice of the Ex-offender (VOTE) – New Orleans, LA

Women with a Vision – New Orleans, LA

Workplace Justice Project @ Loyola College of Law – New Orleans, LA

Zion Traveler Cooperative – Braithwaite, LA

National Allies of Gulf South Rising

350.org

Center for Law, Energy & the Environment @ UC Berkeley

Center for Social Inclusion

Climate Justice Alliance

Color of Change

Core Align- Memphis, Tennessee

Energy Action Coalition

Environmental Action Network

Georgia WAND

Greenpeace

Movement Generation

Natural Resources Defense Council

Oxfam America

Sierra Club

Sierra Club Student Coalition

US Climate Action Network (USCAN)

Young Climate Leaders Network

*Anchors in each state are in highlighted

Why Gulf South

From the extreme extraction of fossil fuels to the pollution and the severe weather that follows…

the Gulf South is on the frontline on climate change in the United States. For generations, the Gulf South has been a sacrifice zone, with levels of pollution and extraction that provide benefit to the nation, but create irreparable harm in our region.

Today, frontline communities in the Gulf South include:

residents living in coastal areas,
neighborhoods near fossil fuel refining and toxic pollution,
and, marginalized communities that constantly have opportunity, democracy and natural resources extracted.

The extreme extraction of limited resources and the subsequent pollution; the lack of corporate accountability and the subsequent lack of government responsibility have damaged the land, people and systems of democracy of the Gulf South.

Gulf South Rising

acknowledges that the global climate crisis is rooted in economic theories that promote mass consumption of limited resources, laws that maintain inequity and social hierarchies and governance processes that limit civic participation.

Take Action!

Here are actions you can take to stand in solidarity with the Gulf South:

Send a message to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) advocating for strengthening the U.S. toxic dispersant rule
- Almost 5 years after 1.84 million gallons of toxic dispersants were dumped in the Gulf during the BP drilling disaster, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finally proposed a new rule for the use of dispersants during oil spills. Although these reforms aren’t perfect, they do require science and safety information that will allow the U.S. Coast Guard and EPA to make better informed decision about the use of dispersants. Tell EPA to make these reforms as strong as possible!
Sign the petition to BP asking them to stop attempting to discredit Gulf scientists every time a new study comes out.
- BP is working hard to make sure that we forget about the 210 million gallons of oil that gushed into the Gulf for 87 days. Researchers all over the country are working hard to evaluate the damage done to Gulf communities and wildlife habitats, but each time a new study is released, BP’s PR pros sweep it under the rug in an attempt to discredit the important research.
- It’s time to send BP a wakeup call! The Gulf cannot be fully restored until BP takes responsibility and stops the PR spin. Join us in asking BP to work with researchers to restore the Gulf to its full potential.
Donate to Gulf South Rising
Interact With Social Media
- Twitter: @gulfsouthrising
- Hashtag: #GulfSouthRising
- FB Posts: Gulf South Rising

Sample Tweets (click to automatically send) :

“We stand with Gulf Coast communities 5yrs after the BP oil disaster. BP pay what you owe. #GulfSouthRising; @gulfsouthrising”

“Gulf Coast communities have paid the price for all of us. Ban toxic dispersants. #GulfSouthRising; @gulfsouthrising”

“As goes the Gulf South, so goes the nation. We support Gulf South Rising! #GulfSouthRising; @gulfsouthrising”

Sign on to support GULF SOUTH RISING

Madeline Voitier

e-mail- Madeline@gcclp.org

phone – 985.643.6186

Eric Harrison

e-mail- Eric@gcclp.org

phone – 985.788.7658

Events

Upcoming Events

*To access different calendar views for our upcoming events please click the the button to the left currently labeled “stream” and pick another view.

Previous Events

Gulf South Rising Marks 5th Year Since BP Oil Drilling Disaster with “Week of Action”

Gulf South – Gulf South Rising, a movement of community organizations, civic groups, and faith-based organizations in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, is marking the 5th year since BP’s devastating oil disaster with a “Week of Action” (April 15-22nd). Five years since the beginning of the BP disaster, the Gulf’s people and wildlife continue to reel from the damages of BP’s negligence. Coastal residents are struggling to maintain their livelihoods and culture, while they wrestle with health problems from exposure to oil and toxic chemical dispersants. In the face of this devastation, Gulf coast residents are banding together and rising up to call for the restoration of our Gulf communities, cultures and environment.

Recent events to remember the Gulf of Mexico’s losses due to the BP oil disaster include:

An interfaith memorial and jazz funeral procession ending at BP headquarters in Houston, TX (April 20th)
A “Soaked in Oil” march in downtown New Orleans, LA (April 20th)
“Come Fish Off My Boat”, an open invitation to local, state, and federal decision makers, as well as to members of the media, to spend a day fishing with Gulf Coast fisherfolk in Mississippi and Louisiana who were affected by the BP disaster (April 16th-22nd)
Additional events in Alabama and Florida

In a prepared statement, Chief Thomas Dardar of southern Louisiana’s United Houma Nation noted, “The Gulf drilling disaster is an absolute threat on who we are as Houma people and our way of life. Our homeland and the health of our people are at risk as we deal with the long-term effects of this catastrophe.”

Thao Vu, Director of the Mississippi Coalition of Vietnamese Fisher Folk & Families and lead organizer of “Come Fish Off My Boat” said, “BP needs to tell the truth. This disaster is still affecting our communities.”

A full list of events to commemorate the 5-year anniversary of the BP disaster can be found at www.GulfSouthRising.org

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What the Hands do the Heart Learns!

Movement Generation’s Ecological Justice Training

Camp Beckwith (10400 Beckwith Ln, Fairhope, AL 36532)

May 25-29, 2015

(Start Time: Monday, May 25, 2015 Lunch at 12:00pm – End Time: Friday May 29,2015 Lunch at 12:00pm)

#GulfSouthRising

Movement Generation’s Justice & Ecology Project (MG) began as a response to the impact Hurricane Katrina/Rita had on the Gulf Coast. MG inspires and engages in trans-formative action towards the liberation and restoration of land, labor, and culture. Since 2005, they’ve engaged hundreds of organizations and thousands of community leaders, activists, and organizers through inttensive strategy retreats, political education, campaign development, alliance building , and direct action to advance a justice-based approach to ecology.

Gulf South Community leaders explored:

Real Solutions and False Promises to the ecological crisis
Core concepts of climate and ecological science
Biological and cultural diversity as well as ancestry
The roots of the ecological crisis in in the economy
Just Translation and Resilience Bused-Organizing Frameworks and strategies

Donations!

Thank you for your interest in contributing to Gulf South Rising.

Your support contributes to the strength of Gulf South Frontline Communities for the next 10 years!

The funds raised from registration donations to the K10 Week of Action will go into the Gulf South Rising 2016 Community Fund. The Community Fund represents an incredible manifestation of the shared vision of hundreds and thousands of community people living on the frontlines of ecological, economic, and racial injustice in the Gulf South. Peoples Movement Assemblies across the Gulf South over the last five years generated a powerful vision of community-controlled funds that will be redistributed for disaster response, preparedness, and community building.

Donate Here!