Isabella Zizi Speaks at Stanford Law

​“Shaking the Foundations” is an annual public interest law conference that brings together law
students, practitioners, academics, and interested members of the public who share a
commitment to using the law for positive social change, and who what to discuss innovative
strategies and solutions to the world’s most pressing social justice issues, hosted at the
Stanford Law School. This year it took place on Saturday March 4, and included panels on
Housing and the Right to Counsel; Rethinking the Meaning of Juvenile Justice; Decarceration
and Abolition; and Climate Disobedience-- which featured Idle No More SF Bay’s own Isabella
Zizi, who presented alongside Sandra Kwak (10Power; Extinction Rebellion) and Alex Marquardt
(Climate Defense Project). This panel focused on the intersection of criminal law and
environmental activism today, and called on panelists to describe how land defenders and
water protectors balance their safety from police violence and incarceration with the needs of
their communities and the earth; whether the movement to combat the climate crisis called for
more radical measures (including the destruction of private property involved in climate
extraction), and how legal practitioners can support those on the front lines of our global fight
against environmental destruction.
​
In the first clip uploaded here, Izzie describes her experience as a frontline individual growing
up in Richmond, a community that has been impacted by environmental racism for years. On
August 6 2012 a black cloud from the Chevron refinery in Richmond enveloped her
neighborhood. From that moment on, she vowed that no other family should have to
experience this. She expressed gratitude to her elders, mentors, and teachers, and encouraged
the audience to step out of their comfort zone and defend their communities. “Why be
compliant with a system that has never offered justice to us as people?” She encouraged the
law students to stand by communities when there’s a call to action, for example now with the
forest defenders in Georgia who are working to stop the construction of Cop City. This might
entail being on the front line, or making art and phone calls, cooking, cleaning, or offering
medical resources.

In the second clip, Izzie describes the Refinery Corridor Healing Walks that worked to connect
the five towns in the East Bay that host active refineries: Pittsburg, Martinez, Venetia, Rodeo,
and Richmond, where Shell, Tesoro, Valero, Philips 66, and Chevron currently operate. This 50
mile walk was inspired by the Longest Walk and the Tar Sands Walks, and worked to not only
connect one refinery town to the next, but also to educate everyone about what they’re driving
past and living next door to. Through these walks, Idle No More SF Bay was also able to build
relationships with other Indigenous leaders who are dealing with these same industries, for
examples tribes impacted by the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota currently being drilled by
Shell, and tribes in Ecuador who are also dealing with Chevron extracting oil from their
territories. There was a call to action for Kinder Morgan facilities in connection to Keystone XL
pipeline, and when activists found out there was a port in Richmond transporting oil by boat
they blockaded the fence for several hours, costing the company thousands of dollars. “Little
victories like that connects us to amazing people.”

The conference also featured a Keynote Address by Dr. Clarence B Jones, who has had a
fascinating career ranging from investment banking firms on Wall Street to serving as a
speechwriter and counsel to Martin Luther King Jr, coordinating legal defense in the Supreme
Court and drafting settlement agreements to end demonstrations and desegregate department
stores and public accommodations in Birmingham Alabama. Dr. Jones advised students that
they needed to invest their time in defending what is right, and to be impeccable in their
knowledge of the law. He was very pleased and inspired to meet Isabella, and expressed
gratitude to her for sharing her words and experiences as a signatory on the Indigenous
Women of the Americas Defenders of Mother Earth Treaty, and a resident of Richmond fighting
her whole life against the refineries there.