Raging Grannies Serve as a Voice for the Future
March 2017
On March 3rd, 2017, the University of Oregon held its annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference. The EMU ballroom seated environmental lawyers, students, and activists, who spent the day attending meetings and lectures. As a choir of voices came from down the hallway, all heads turned to watch a band of 30 grannies march into the room.
White-haired, wearing frumpy clothes and floppy hats, some shuffled onto the stage with walkers and canes. “Break ’em on down, Break ‘em on down, Break ‘em on down, these walls between us,” they sang. And not only did they sing, they rapped, they danced, and interspersed in their performance, were calls to action and cries to bring attention to climate change.
As Portland Granny, Denise Busch Standley, began popping and locking it with moves that resembled the robot, she led the grannies in their final dance. The crowd cheered, whistled, and clapped to the beat as the grannies shimmied and boogied to The Black Eyed Peas song, “One Tribe.” They clearly charmed the audience, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.
This fun, unique, and passionate group of women are some of Eugene’s most ardent social justice activists. They may be elderly but their old age is no hindrance on their enthusiasm. These women are part of an international organization know as The Raging Grannies, and this particular performance included grannies from Eugene, Portland, and Corvallis.
The Raging Grannies Eugene attend rallies, protests, conferences, and community gatherings, where they sing and dance to spread awareness regarding climate change and various other social issues. This spunky group of women uses their catchy lyrics and funky grooves to spark conversation regarding major concerns, in their own exceptional way.
But the grannies aren’t just a silly group of women who get together once a week to sing songs and have a laugh. “We're going to look like we’re just these sweet little old ladies but if you listen to our words, we’re pissed. And we want to make sure that you know that you can’t do something and nobody reacts… that is the agenda,” states Eugene Raging Granny Linda Ague.
The Eugene Grannies are part of an international organization called The Raging Grannies; a social justice network that has more than 50 “gaggles” in the United States. The original Raging Grannies, founded in 1987 in Victoria, B.C., have since grown worldwide. In addition to Canada and the United States, the organization has formed gaggles in Australia, Great Britain, Israel, and New Zealand. Each gaggle chooses its own issues to support based on what they feel is most relevant to their community.
The Eugene gaggle, which averages at about the age of 65, began in 2013 by Raging Granny Laurie Granger. It has since grown to a membership in the twenties. From the beginning, the Eugene Grannies decided to take on climate change as their main focus. It seemed like a natural choice in a community that already had a very active climate culture. They decided their mission would be to raise awareness about this serious issue, and if necessary, use their elderly status to protect younger activists from police aggression.
The grannies understand that they are limited by their age; therefore, they raise awareness by aligning with local organizations that are more directly active in the fight against climate change. The grannies’ claim to fame proves to be their politically charged original songs. At their weekly meetings, they reconstruct familiar songs to include their views about major social and political justice issues. They sing these songs at their rallies and protests, and draw further attention through choreographed dances, props, and their traditional granny garb.
“These people are funny, they’re not afraid to make fools out of themselves. I mean we look ridiculous most of the time when we’re doing those things, and I think that’s okay and I think that we need to let our freak flag fly every once in awhile,” states Eugene Raging Granny, Linda Ague.
Ague became a member of the Raging Grannies in 2015, but she’s been rallying with the group since the chapter began in 2013. She participates because, as a mother and a retired teacher, she cares about issues such as climate change not because it will affect her, but because it will affect future generations. In addition, she states, “It feels good...doing anything, I think. It’s very easy when you get older-- I mean you do slow down and there are things you can’t do anymore. And it’s easy to say well, [I’ll] find my comfy chair and my remote and I’m good.”
This is not the first time Ague has taken an interest in social and political justice issues. Her political activism began in the 1960’s, and like most of the other grannies, it stemmed with worries about the Vietnam War. She took interest in various issues as they came, and states that the same determination is still present, “we were ready to put our lives on the line… big changes needed to happen, and I think now that’s still true.”
A lot of grannies became involved for similar reasons as Ague. When these women were young they had the time to be politically active, but they had to pause with concern for creating a family, maintaining jobs, and harnessing a stable environment, “So you sort of step back for a while-- do your other life. There’s a time when that life’s over, the next one is just as necessary. You’ve got to be aware of what’s going on, it’s necessary to vote, it’s necessary to talk about things, it’s important to people that are going to be in the front line,” she states. Now as most of them are retired, they once again have the same time and independence they carried in their youth.
The grannies may not be the most intimidating group of activists in Eugene, but they hope to be an inspiration to those who have the power to make the change. She states that, “What can easily happen is that sort of organizations with the greatest amount of white privilege get to be the loudest voices, and it was sort of how you give the biggest voice to the most disenfranchised,” and with this in mind, many of the grannies are willing to go to the lengths to act as that agent.
The grannies hold their rehearsals at the First United Methodist Church, in Eugene, which has become an unofficial headquarters for local climate change advocates. This is where Laurie Granger, the Eugene Grannies Coordinator, and partners Deb McGee and Patty Hine, co-founders of 350 Eugene, first met. Both chapters started around the same time, and they have worked together to build up their groups and support each other in protest of local climate change issues.
350 Eugene, a 350.org local affiliate, is an organization that does everything from legislative advocacy and local community outreach to training for civil disobediences and tactical actions to combat destruction directly. Last May, they organized an action in Anacortes, Wash. to protest against the two oil refineries, that sit on indigenous land, contributing to some of the largest amounts of greenhouse gas pollution in the Pacific Northwest. Along with forty other organizations, the group spent three days camped out on the railroad tracks to block the oil from being transported.
This group of protesters included the Seattle Raging Grannies, who chained themselves, and their rocking chairs, to the tracks for the first night of protests. Around sunset, the grannies were the first to be deployed onto the tracks.The decision to situate the grannies first emanated from the fact that the grannies need extra help in their old age, but also because the planning committee thought that having a group of elderly white women on the front lines would create less of a hassle from police.
None of the grannies were arrested, as there were no arrests the first night, but there were arrests of other protesters in the following two days after the grannies left. Anne Thureson, who was one of the five grannies who volunteered to sit on the tracks, said that they understood the risk they were taking. As retired women, with no one dependent on them any longer, they were prepared to get arrested for a cause that would affect those they care about. “We had pictures of our grandchildren around our necks, and basically making the appeal that we have to think about climate change destroying the planet for our children and our grandchildren,” she stated.
Raging Granny Linda Ague expressed that the Eugene Grannies have not had to face a situation where a risk as large as an arrest needed to be considered. However, lately, they have discussed the possibilities of these situations, especially under the circumstances the new election has brought. She states, “If there’s a granny group that stands in the front, certainly not leading, but can be a buffer between what they might think would be a dangerous situation. And we think people are less likely to club a granny than they would be to club the young people that might be behind what we’re organizing. And you know we’re prepared to think about that.”
Eugene is not quiet to activism. As a college town, there is a large movement of young protesters in the community, in addition to being a generally vocal liberal city. There is a likelihood that the grannies could serve as an advantage in these situations with the community’s younger activists.
Because climate change is a worldwide concern, the city of Eugene has made an effort to combat the issue locally. According to the Office of Sustainability, in 2014 Eugene passed the Eugene Climate Recovery Ordinance. This ordinance set many goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including ones that will be effective as far as 2100. Current internal actions taken by the city include creating more sustainable and efficient buildings, reducing fleet emissions, and upgrading streetlights to LED lights. These are outstanding progressions, however; environmental activists, such as The Raging Grannies and 350 Eugene, worry that these actions aren’t being carried out fast enough for the urgency the issue carries.
For now, the Raging Grannies Eugene, continue to sing, dance, and rehearse. They plan to take on issues as they come, attending the “Taxes for Peace, Not War” rally and “March for a Climate of Safety” rally in the coming month. The grannies thrive on humor, energy, and passion for change, but they do want to be taken seriously. Many of the grannies wear the slogan on their smocks: “What if our children find out we knew and did nothing?” This older generation of activists makes it clear that there is no age limit on the desire to make a change regarding the concerns of the future.