Climate Rally for Bernie Sanders Draws 1,000 Anti-Fracking Activists in Upstate New York

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/news/2016/04/11/climate-rally-bernie-sanders-draws-1000-anti-fracking-activists-upstate-new-york/

Yesterday afternoon, in an old vaudeville music hall in downtown Kingston, New York, Bernie Sanders’ campaign held a rally “for clean energy and safe climate” to build support for the presidential candidate and mobilize the Hudson Valley, Catskills and Southern Tier to fight climate change in advance of New York’s Democratic primary election on April 19.

Sanders himself was not on hand—nor was he part of the billing. Nevertheless, more than 1,000 people packed the damp, chilly hall to standing room only capacity to hear from anti-fracking leaders, as well as organizers from the campaign itself, who instructed the audience members in the art of door-to-door canvassing, signed them up for tours of duty, and, when the rally ended, sent them out into the community to knock on doors, phone bank and turn out the vote.

Spirits were high. Excitement was palpable. Chants and ovations were loud and long. It was a moment when elements of the grassroots anti-fracking movement in New York State joined hands with the larger political groundswell behind the Sanders campaign.

Serving as master of ceremonies, environmental justice organizer Anthony Rogers-Wright set a tone of urgency.

“We must abolish the system of oppression known as climate change … We are out of time. We have to get radical … We are talking about keeping our planet alive. Our children are our landlords; we are renting from them.”