Wetlands Works Summer 2001
Legendary Nightclub & Activism Center to Close its Doors
After close to thirteen years at 161 Hudson Street in New York, land mark live music venue and radical activism center Wetlands Preserve will be closing at its current location. The gentrification of the city has caught up with the venerable club, and as of September 15 the building will be sold and turned into condos.
Founder Larry Bloch's intention was to open a watering hole for activists and a center for environmental activity and to use revenue from the club to support activist work. Since opening in 1989, Wetlands has spent in excess of a million dollars running the in-house Activism Center. We have worked to build a united front against all oppression and against the conquest of the planet. Our activists recognize that the Center's four campaign areas-- rainforests, human rights, U.S. environment, and animal rights—are deeply intertwined in a world where all life is treated as a commodity. Straying from the safe ground occupied by most eco-businesses, Wetlands embraces radicalism and nonviolent militancy. The Center has organized numerous high profile occupations, banner drops and blockades at targets including Home Depot, Macy's, Mitsubishi, Texaco, Gap, NYC Parks Department, and New York University. The nightclub has been the host of weekly educational forums designed to inspire action on critical issues. Over the years guest speakers have included Paul Watson, the McLibel 2, Julia Butterfly, members of MOVE, Darryl Cherney, Judi Bari, Allen Ginsberg and countless other movers and shakers in a broad range of movements for social change.
Wetlands has become an institution among musicians and fans. The club booked jam, rock, punk, hardcore, hip hop, reggae, ska, funk, jazz and electronic music. Some of the most prominent bands in contemporary music played the club early in their careers, including Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Blues Traveler, Pearl Jam, Macy Gray and Rage Against the Machine. While progressive politics were never a requirement to play at Wetlands, many radical musicians have taken the stage, including Michael Franti and Spearhead, Dead Prez, Consoldated, Earth Crisis, Black 47 and Propagandhi.
The current Wetlands management team is looking for a new space to call home, but with real estate prices soaring and music clubs closing left and right, the nightclub's future is uncertain. The Activism Center is searching for office space so it can continue its work regardless of whether the club is able to reopen. Without concert revenues, however, this will be a great financial challenge. We welcome donations and other assistance. Checks can be made out to Rainforest Relief (please write Wetlands in the memo line) and mailed to: (before Sept 10th) The Activism Center at Wetlands , PO Box 344, New York, NY 10108.
Political Action for Animals Lobbies State Officials to Empower Municipalities and Counties to Ban Trapping
The news that the Wetlands Preserve nightclub is closing has not prevented a very busy summer for Political Action for Animals (PA4A), as we have worked to pass Assembly Bill 5202 (A5202), sponsored by Pete Grannis, and its Senate companion S3739. These bills will give counties and municipalities in New York State the power to regulate or ban trapping. At present, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, in effect the government arm of the hunting and trapping lobbies, has fiercely guarded control over trapping as a state power, and has successfully overturned three county trapping bans. We have met with representatives of Senators Roy Goodman, John Marchi and Guy Velella and Assemblyman Scott Stringer to ask them to pressure the leaders in their respective houses to push these bills to a vote. The lobby meetings have gone well, and we have more scheduled in the upcoming weeks. On the streets of the New York City, PA4A has also collected hundreds of petitions to present to elected officials, primarily in the Assembly District 62, represented by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. If the bill is to pass the Assembly, Silver must schedule it for a floor vote. Ensuring that elected officials continue hearing from constituents on this issue, we have made around a thousand phone calls to our supporters, asking them to call, fax, or write their elected officials to express their support for these bills. If you’d like to help join us every Monday at 6pm at Hudson Square Café (Hudson and Canal), 3 blocks north of Wetlands, for our volunteer meetings.
U'wa Tribe and Supporters Celebrate Oxy's Failure to Find Oil
End to Drilling on Tribe’s Ancestral Land and De-Militarization Urged
The news long awaited by the U'wa tribe and their thousands of supporters has finally arrived: the US-based Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) announced that it has failed to find oil at the Gibraltar 1 well site on the tribe's ancestral land in Northeastern Colombia. The company has begun removing equipment from the site, a positive turn of events for the non-violent resistance campaign waged by the U'wa, an indigenous community of 8,000 who live high in the Andean cloud forests. The announcement by Oxy comes as thousands of U'wa are taking part in a traditional three month spiritual retreat for fasting, meditation, teaching, singing, and prayer. The U'wa have been praying and using traditional rituals to "hide the oil" from Oxy's drill. While the U'wa called this development a "cultural triumph," the tribe pointed out that their ancestral land is still threatened by oil exploration by the Spanish company Repsol, who is just beginning exploratory drilling in the Capachos 1 block. "This is a battle that we have won, but the war continues, because the U'wa territory is not only Gibraltar 1," said Roberto Perez, President of the U'wa Traditional Authority. "The blood spilled from the… supporters who were killed, the loss of our U'wa children in the violent evictions, the humiliations of the armed forces, the cries of the U'wa children and elders in the peaceful mobilizations, the challenge to resist the aggressions by the Colombian State and Oxy, will not go unpunished. It will be a bittersweet memory that will remain in the minds of those who participate in this process," said Perez.
Kevin Koenig, campaigner for Amazon Watch, said, "this is an important victory and a real milestone in the larger struggle to win recognition and respect for indigenous peoples rights around the world. Unfortunately, until we address our society’s addiction to fossil fuels by transitioning to renewable energy sources, the world's remaining pristine ecosystems and traditional cultures will continue to be threatened by unscrupulous oil corporations."
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