The group has initiated a yearlong training program called “Bold School” with the objective to educate and create a new batch of powerful, peaceful activists.
Bold School will address post-capitalism economics, and guest speakers will include two Westminster economics professors.
“I think there’re lots of reasons college students should be involved,” said Peaceful Uprising director Henia Belalia, a former Greenpeace worker from San Francisco, who came to Utah to support Tim DeChristopher during his trial. “Historically speaking, so much change has come from college students.”
Peaceful Uprising is an organization created in the wake of climate change activist Tim DeChristopher’s 1.8 million dollar cumulative bids on public lands.
On December 19, 2008, DeChristopher walked into a Bureau of Land Management auction of Utah’s Red Rock public lands to protest the auction. DeChristopher placed and won bids on 14 parcels of land before he was removed from the auction by federal agents.
On April 1, 2009, DeChristopher was indicted for making false statements as well as two felony count violations of the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act.
After more than two and a half years in a hard fought, nationally publicized legal battle, DeChristopher was tried and sentenced to two years in federal prison.
“The thing about the movement to resist in a state that’s very conservative,” Belalia said. “That movement is even more radical because it’s pushing back against something so much stronger.”
The next Bold School event will be held on Saturday, Jan. 26 beginning at 10 a.m. at the Wasatch Commons (1411 S. Utah St. SLC, UT). It is scheduled to run until 4:30 p.m.
“Changes happen because ordinary people decided to do extraordinary things,” said Belalia.
