PORT TOWNSEND — Shoes will stand in for protesters at Haller Fountain on Saturday.
A ShoeStrike for the Climate is planned from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the fountain at Washington and Taylor streets in Port Townsend.
Because people cannot gather in large numbers safely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, shoes displayed at ShoeStrikes for the Climate represent those who otherwise would have been present at the demonstration and also represent those impacted by climate change, say organizers.
The international ShoeStrike for the Climate movement is modeled on the SkoStrejk (school strike) and ShoeStrike movements that started in Sweden.
Social distance
Port Townsend ShoeStrike participants have collected shoes of friends and family who want to participate in person but can’t because of public safety issues with COVID-19.
The shoes will be arranged in rows with signs about climate change.
Members of the Extinction Rebellion Red Rebel Brigade are expected to appear at some point.
Red Rebel Brigade was devised by Doug Francisco and Justine Squire from Bristol’s Invisible Circus for the Extinction Rebellion Spring uprising April 2019 in London, according to redrebelbrigade.com.
Its roots are in a slow motion mime show called Blanco that Invisible Circus toured for many years as a street show in the ’90s.
Visitors to Saturday’s shoe display in Port Townsend are invited to bring shoes.
They will be told about the proposed liquid natural gas (LNG) facility in Tacoma, the proposed methanol facility in Kalama, and Chase Bank investment in the fossil fuel industry, organizers said.
They will be asked to make a pledge to take actions against climate change.
“While the coronavirus ravages the country and the world, there is another, larger problem — one for which there will be no vaccine. This problem is the climate emergency,” organizers said in a press release.
“In the U.S. and across the world, it is people of color who are being most impacted by climate change — dying of heat stroke, starvation and thirst,” the release said. “Their homes are more likely to be situated near refineries or other toxic locations, and droughts cause climate refugees to flee their homes.”
For information about the ShoeStrike for the Climate in Port Townsend or elsewhere, contact Port Townsend resident Polly Lyle, press liaison, at pollylyle@me.com.
