I am with Deep Green Resistance, also known as DGR. My message is for everyone here.

I implore the Department of State to stop the KeystoneXL. Exploiting the tar sands would further the global climate disaster. If you refuse to protect our home, then it’s time for the people to start fighting back effectively.

Tim DeChristopher is a climate activist currently in prison on a two- year sentence for a successful act of civil disobedience. Tim has said, “I think the consequence of not fighting back is far scarier than the consequence of going to prison for a few years.”

The consequence of not fighting back is business as usual, the continued destruction of our home. We are running out of time. Meanwhile, TransCanada gets rich, while others work multiple jobs just to get by. The poor are poor not for lack of jobs, but b/c the rich and the powerful are stealing from the poor.

DGR is a new, radical environmental movement with a plan of action for anyone determined to fight for the planet – and win.

Our strategy involves two separate parts of the movement – an aboveground and an underground. We are the aboveground and therefore our day-to-day work is strictly limited to nonviolence. We are helping to build a strong, effective, aboveground movement using nonviolent civil disobedience to stop the destruction of the planet, and we are promoting the necessity of a militant underground.

Throughout history, many resistance movements have included an underground that does actions against infrastructure, because it is effective. We need to be effective. So for those here today who are able and willing, this part of our message is for you: We need to stop industrial civilization. This will require an underground organization that can engage in decisive attacks on a continental scale. There are manuals—written by your tax dollars—that can tell you how to do this.

For those here today who prefer to be in an aboveground movement and use nonviolence, as we do, our message, like Tim’s message, is that our nonviolent movements will have to do much more in order to be successful.

We can only succeed in our aboveground work if there are massive waves of nonviolent civil disobedience, in sustained campaigns at key nodes of industry. We are currently building a coalition of individuals and organizations to make this happen to stop the Keystone XL.

This means we do a campaign and we don’t go home till it’s done. This means sacrifice; clogging the jails, possibly for months. We will also need a wide base of people willing to support those who put their bodies between industry and the planet. TransCanada and others who profit from the destruction of our lives and the planet are relentless and 100% committed. We must be as relentless and committed in our strategy, bravery, and sacrifice.

Approve the KeystoneXL if you must, but my friends and I will not let it be built.

To find out more, or if your organization is interested in joining the coalition, please speak with me and visit our website – deepgreenresistance.org – to watch for our upcoming announcement of a next step toward stopping the tar sands.

To the Department of State: do what is right. Protect your home. Do not allow the Keystone XL project to go forward. Don’t mess with Texas. Thank you for your time.