Arabelle Schoenberg: In a Symbolic Step, Yale Partially Divests from Fossil Fuels

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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In a Symbolic Step, Yale Partially Divests from Fossil Fuels

Posted April 20, 2016

Speech by Arabelle Schoenberg, a member of Fossil Free Yale, recorded and produced by Melinda Tuhus

The second week of April saw a major escalation of climate activists on college campuses across the U.S. demanding their universities divest from fossil fuel holdings. At Yale University, a push for divestment coincided with the Global Colloquium of University Presidents which featured an address by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaking on the issue of preserving cultural heritage. The April 12 speech was attended by 30 university presidents from all over the world, including several from the U.S.

An hour before the event, Yale announced that it had divested $10 million in coal and tar sands investments out of its $25.6 billion endowment. Yale's Chief Investment Officer David Swenson said the rationale for the change was, in part, due to a determination that such investments are unlikely to be profitable if carbon pricing is ever implemented in the future. Carbon pricing is designed to reflect the true destructive cost to the climate and the environment of burning fossil fuels. Swenson said Yale's endowment portfolio now includes only minor investments in coal and oil.

Immediately following the UN secretary's keynote address, where he spoke about his support for Yale climate activists' call for all universities to fully divest from fossil fuels, 120 students and community members attended a rally organized by the group Fossil Free Yale and the Association of Native Americans at Yale. Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus attended the rally and recorded first-year student and Fossil Free Yale activist Arabelle Schoenberg, as she spoke at the rally about Yale's divestment announcement.

ARABELLE SCHOENBERG: Today has been a huge day for divestment. (applause)

Fossil Free Yale (FFY) has been doing a ton of work with ANAAY, which is the Association of Native Americans at Yale.

A lot has happened today; it's been kind of a whirlwind day for all of us. We're outside right now the Global Colloquium of University Presidents, so presidents from Yale, Brown, Columbia, Princeton, NYU and Penn are hosting Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, for the keynote address for this colloquium. They are uniting under the theme of "Preserving Cultural Heritage: Challenges and Strategies." So, FFY heard about this and we were like, man, that sounds very hypocritical. How can these presidents claim to value cultural diversity and cultural legacy without even engaging in a conversation concerning the literal destruction of communities and victims of the extractive fossil fuel industry?

So, Ban Ki-moon just delivered the keynote address, and we had a bunch of members of FFY inside the room with him. He spoke on climate change, he spoke on climate justice. So Ban Ki-moon has spoken directly against the power of the influence of fossil fuel companies and the harm they inflict primarily on low income, the indigenous and communities of color. He has urged companies to "reduce their investments in coal and in a fossil fuel-based economy," and he believes that "saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty and advancing economic growth are one and the same fight."

So FFY believes it is important to note that climate change is much more than just an environmental issue; it's also deeply, deeply human and personal. So earlier this afternoon, in preparation for this event, we received news one hour prior to the beginning of our action, that Yale has decided to remove $10 million of our endowment from a few fossil fuel companies (cheers).

So this is a huge victory, right? Yale has used this, unfortunately not as a chance to expose the social harm or stigmatize these powerful companies but as an economic tactic, saying this makes financial sense, because in the future, coal and oil will no longer be economically profitable.

Yale has framed this choice as a confirmation of [Yale President Peter] Salovey's sustainability initiative rather than acknowledging the work of groups like FFY and ANAAY, who intend to frame divestment as a tactic for the stigmatization of the companies that harm so many people.

Given the lack of information we have been given, it seems apparent that Yale has made a deliberate attempt to kind of mess with this action today, and we don't really think this timing is coincidental. But it's also important to recognize that Yale has heard us and Yale's scared. (Applause).

So it was hard for me, at first when we got this information, to realize and to begin to understand that the university really is acting secretly; the university is acting behind closed doors and kind of intending to mess with and sabotage the work of these student groups who have been working so hard to create this event.

But all that aside, it's also really important to recognize this recent change as a huge victory for divestment, especially at Yale. Regardless of intent, Yale's corporation members are starting to talk about climate change and to change their behavior. This victory is small and there's still a lot of work to do and it's really important that we continue to keep fighting for what we believe in and that we don't rest until we start to see concrete change here at Yale and also around the world. (Applause)

So, this victory comes at a really meaningful time in conjunction with other divestment campaigns around the country. So, today, students at UMass Amherst are currently, at this second, engaged in a sit-in, so they have a hundred people who are sitting in and we got word of a potential 50 arrests of students at UMass Amherst. And we also had word from Harvard, where four students have been arrested for their action as well.

So, basically, we just want to talk about this in the context of the greater divestment movement around the country and really that universities and people in power are really starting to see us, and not only are they starting to hear us, but they're also starting to listen. And Yale's statement today demonstrates that they're starting to respond to student activists on campus. And this partial victory is an important first step – although it doesn't reflect an ethics-based universitywide commitment to divestment, hopefully it represents a change in the consciousness of these universities and really a step toward what we've been fighting for all along. So thank you guys all for coming. (Applause)

For more information visit Fossil Free Yale at fossilfreeyale.org and the Association of Native Americans at Yale at nacc.yalecollege.yale.edu/students-alumni/association-native-americans-yale-anaay.