The Usable Past with Marie Nahikian

This episode begins with 1970 national conference/protest about looming environmental crisis, a prelude to the first Earth Day and is contrasted with 50 years later witnessing the October 2019 Climate Strike. Includes incidents with Robert O. Anderson, CEO of Atlantic Richfield Oil, Extinction Rebellion, Secretary of Interior Walter Hickel, NY Times columnist Floyd Norris and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist & scientist Laurie Garrett, the Chicago 7/8, Liberation News Service and the Hog Farmers.

Show Notes

The 1970 event is viewed as a Prelude to Earth Day, one of the very earliest national environmental protests in February 1970 before Earth Day in April. Marie Nahikian hosts this podcast and was the organizer/conference coordinator. The conference participants were college newspaper editors and was, it turns out a significant organizing strategy as college newspaper across the nation wrote about the environmental crisis and encouraged the participation in Earth Day. Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day and Dennis Hayes, Director of Earth Day in 1970 both attended the What's the Difference if We Don't Wake Up conference in Washington, DC in 1970. Additional information, notes and conference publications can be found at www.theusablepast.com. 

What is The Usable Past with Marie Nahikian?

Veteran community organizer Marie Nahikian hosts The Usable Past, where activists share their stories of past and present organizing for better housing, food, banks, jobs, environmental and social justice. A Brooklyn resident, Marie most recently worked with U.S. Housing & Urban Development under President Obama and has participated in building 5,000 affordable homes in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York. Marie has been a neighborhood, civil rights, housing and labor organizer, a community journalist, and in 1977 was a founder of WPFW-FM Pacifica radio in Washington, DC.