URGENT: An anonymous donor has agreed to match ALL donations up to $50,000 until April 25, the day my sentence expires. Please help us prepare for Chevron’s next attacks and expand our ability to protect all Earth Defenders by contributing today and have DOUBLE the impact. →
On this holiday weekend, I am entering a period of deep reflection. I just received word I cannot attend a Passover Seder tonight with my family because our hosts live in a private home in Manhattan and the prison authorities need to “inspect” the house and ensure it has a landline before they will let me go there. So I will be doing my own Seder alone at home tonight. Despite my tussles with the prison authorities, I’m so happy and it really has to do with each of YOU.
You might not know this, but YOU helped me get through one of the most intense challenges of my life. It was heartbreaking, mind-breaking, and body-breaking all at the same time. There literally were days when I was on indefinite detention in our apartment awaiting a trial with the courthouse closed due to COVID when I felt I could scarcely take another single step. The emotional toll of standing for the Indigenous communities in Ecuador poisoned by Chevron – while I was being imprisoned, defamed, and attacked by the company and its 60 law firms and 2,000 lawyers – was an unimaginable assault on virtually every aspect of my body and soul. But you were there for me with your letters, your donations, your phone calls, your support, and your love. Whether you just signed up for our email list, signed the pardon letter, or donated one dollar (as many did) or $10,000, I made it this far because of you.
So thank you.
As I near the end of my sentence on April 25, I can’t help but reflect back on the nearly 1,000 days that I have been detained illegally due to Chevron’s retaliation campaign – including the 45 days that I spent locked down in the Danbury prison during a COVID outbreak. And how I got through it. Without the solidarity, without the hundreds of letters I received on the inside, without the support from Amnesty International and Amazon Watch and so many environmental organizations, Chevron might actually have vanquished our incredible team.
But because of your support, we have emerged stronger than ever. If Chevron’s goal was to extinguish the Ecuador pollution case and silence me, the company failed spectacularly. Consider what has happened because of YOU over the course of my 983-day detention:
**Our social media presence has exploded. I had 2,000 followers on Twitter when the ankle bracelet was attached in August 2019; we now have 170,000 today in addition to 27,000 on Instagram. The leverage this gives us to go over the heads of the mainstream media (which for the most part is ignoring my story) to push our message of justice and human rights to the broader public is invaluable. This is real power.
**Last month, I literally received at least 20 million impressions on social media as we pushed the truth about Chevron’s destruction of the Amazon and the heroic story of the affected communities as well as larger human rights issues. The 30-second video of my ankle bracelet being cut off received 530,000 views in less than one day!
**We are now being followed by major leaders: Congresspersons like Jim McGovern, AOC, Cori Bush, and Rashida Tlaib; artists and celebrities such as Mark Ruffalo, Roger Waters, Sting and Susan Sarandon; political influencers such as Marianne Williamson; major independent journalists like Katie Halper, Briahna Joy Gray, Krystal Ball, Chris Hedges, Nomiki Konst, Jordan Chariton, and Will Menaker (Chapo Trap House); dozens of Nobel laureates; and environmental activists the world over such as Greenpeace Founder Rex Weyler and Greta Thunberg. Just the other day I was visited by Chris Smalls, the brilliant organizer who just defeated Amazon in a paradigm-shifting union election here in New York.
**One of our main challenges was to build an email list of supporters that we could rely on and mobilize, be it signing the pardon letter or helping us defray expenses. This list has grown far beyond our wildest expectations: we started with 5,000 names after a “Free Donziger” event in the winter of 2020; we now have 90,000 names on our email list and it is growing exponentially.
With the future this bright, we must use the opportunity of my release on April 25 to grow our grassroots movement even more. Our main goals over the next three months are to a) protect me from attacks by Chevron; b) go on offense so that Chevron is forced to pay the Ecuador pollution judgment; c) get my law license reinstated after it was unfairly taken without a hearing; d) pressure President Biden to issue a pardon; and e) fight for human rights around the globe from a bigger platform that goes well beyond the Ecuador case.
Some of this work will involve the expenditure of substantial sums on legal fees and organizing expenses. It is critical to have sufficient funds to ensure all of this can happen in the most robust way possible.
Our immediate goal is to raise $100,000 by the time of my release on April 25. Please donate $2,500, $1,000, $500, $250, $100, $50, $25, $10 or whatever you can today.
I want to be clear that all donations regardless of amount will be treated with the same care, affection, and appreciation by me and our entire team. Please remember this is a great time to give because all donations up to $50,000 that come in by midnight April 25 will be matched. →
The funds that we raise in the lead-up to April 25 will be used to power the next leg of our campaign. We of course need significant resources to neutralize the continued harassment of me by Chevron and Judge Kaplan via a pending civil case that continues with several unresolved issues (including whether Chevron can gain access to my computer and cell phone and my confidential attorney-client protected communications). We also need to continue our exoneration strategy to erase my conviction via a pardon from President Biden.
Chevron intentionally made me the face of its corporate retaliation campaign for a reason: they wanted to use me to send a message of intimidation to all lawyers and Earth Defenders who dare try to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable. Because of your support, we are only growing stronger from the attacks and I am now positioned to be a leading voice on human rights and environmental justice. Our fight continues.
Please consider donating today.
In solidarity,
Steven Donziger
P.S. Mark the date: For those in New York, please come to our street party on my release date of April 25 at 6:00 p.m. ET at 104 and Broadway.
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