VETERAN ACTIVIST AND DIRECT ACTION LEADER PASSES AWAY

A good friend and former activist and direct action coordinator for groups such as Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, Amazon Watch, Forest Action Network, and the Ruckus Society Jeremy Paster passed December 1 after a long fight with cancer. He was 36 years old.

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/about/jeremy-paster

Jeremy had been a longtime advocate for environmental and social justice. For more than a decade, Jeremy Paster was involved in environmental and social justice movements all over the world. As a campaigner with Greenpeace, Jeremy coordinated national efforts to protect U.S. forests, with a focus on the protection of the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska.

Jeremy’s Greenpeace career began when he joined the organization’s canvassing operation in 1995, working on grassroots fundraising projects and local campaign initiatives. Over the next 7 years he worked on various contracts with Greenpeace and in 2002 moved to Washington, D.C. to work full-time as an actions campaigner, coordinating direct actions and acts of civil disobedience. In 2003, he joined the Forests team as a campaigner and spent two months on a Greenpeace ship traveling throughout the Tongass, meeting with activists and local residents, surveying areas already decimated by clearcutting, and documenting pristine areas threatened by logging.

When asked about Greenpeace, Jeremy said “I believe it is our civic duty to work for global solutions to global environmental problems, and sometimes we have to risk our freedom for it.We challenge the “out of sight, out of mind” attitude by going to the source of destruction, whether it’s in the forests, on the high seas, or at corporate headquarters. We are about hard-hitting, non-violent activism that allows change to happen sooner rather than later.”

Before coming to Greenpeace, Jeremy worked for several advocacy groups, including the Rainforest Action Network, Forest Action Network, Amazon Watch, and Acción Ecológica in Ecuador. He also co-founded two non-profit organizations, the Action Resource Center in California, a clearing house for non-violent protest resources, and the Burma Humanitarian Mission, an organization that brings medical and humanitarian supplies to oppressed ethnic minorities in conflict-torn Burma. His activism took him to the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle and to high-profile campaigns against numerous corporations, including Occidental Petroleum, Citigroup, Unocal, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.

“I focus on where environmental destruction and human rights abuses coincide. When the bottom line and corporate profit overshadow humanity and ecology, someone must intervene. This is where Greenpeace comes in,” said Jeremy. “No matter how few resources we have to pit against corporate behemoths, we will fight against injustice.”

Jeremy maintained his ties to the activist community by teaching others the skills he learned over the years. Working with grassroots organizations such as the Ruckus Society, Jeremy used his climbing experience and knowledge of communication tools to train activists to take action against social and environmental injustice.

A graduate of the University of California at San Diego, with a degree in filmmaking, Jeremy was also a documentary filmmaker, rock climber, hiker, qi gong and tai chi enthusiast, and student of holistic medicine.

It is with great sadness that we mourn the loss of our friend and fellow activist Jeremy Paster.

If you would like to know more about Jeremy or sign his memorial guestbook please visit jeremypaster.com.