Well, in the absence of other stuff, I’ll post another video. These exciting clips follow the story from a previous post about the No Coal action concluding the annual national Earth First! rendezvous, which took place here in Ohio.
This is the first of seven videos from the action. I honestly don’t know where they came from, but they’re on the internet, so why not. Enjoy, and hold onto your seat - you’re about to enter the building of American Municipal Power-Ohio, a utility trying to build a coal-fired power plant.
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Hm. I don’t like it. I like direct action, but only when it succeeds in opening up some channel of dialouge. This is just an angry mob screaming at people. This doesn’t do anything but piss some people off and make environmentalists look like a bunch of raving mad hippies. We need to use all the tricks in our bag, but we need to use them all wisely.
One thing this lacks is context.
This is actually the third action taken around this coal plant. The first was a house visit to the CEO by students, a fairly tame and cordial interaction. The second was a much more polite office occupation by students, where the company agree to grant a request for a meeting with their Board, an offer which was retracted a month later.
The goal then was real dialogue, and AMP backed out, so these folks felt it necessary to up the stakes.
Unfortunately the corporations that are destroying the world are not interested in dialogue, they are interested only in making profit. As Mattie pointed out AMP was the one that already broke off dialogue and negotiated in bad faith. Often times the only means we have to stop these psychopaths is to physically disrupt their work and cost them money until they must stop. They do not listen to reason, they only listen to their bottom line.
I support disruptive actions. They serve to shake up investors and other stakeholders. It’s also fun and empowering. Shaking up stakeholders in a coal plant for instance is productive towards getting these people to pull their support or money out of a project. I don’t fully agree with the tone of the this one though. I have issues with my own anger. Anger is natural and o.k. but it’s dangerous because it can eat you up. There’s a prayer that I like. “Lord help me not to hate the ones I must destroy.” We must destroy the coal industry. But we know this is imperative because we love ourselves and our communities and the life-giving systems of the earth not because we hate the CEOs of the coal industry. Easy as it is to fall into, we need to try not to hate these people. It’s amazing when we’re able to actually find some love for these folks. (not to say i personally have mastered this) The Dalai Llama was asked what he thought about President Bush and he said, “We’re like family.”
I love and support the AMP-Ohio EF! action. It disrupted operations and it scared the company. It took power back. Screaming profanities at the receptionist isn’t in my mind the best choice but i’ve been there and i’m not going to hate on someone for making that decision. huge thanks to all of y’all who stood on the frontlines to save my life!
solidarity and see y’all at the climateconvergence.org!
willie
Actions like this are a double edged sword. On one hand we want to build a broad climate justice movement and be nice and inclusive as possible. On the other hand, we can’t understand why hordes of people aren’t camped out around these fuckers’s houses 24-7. you want to be good organizers, but also want to be effective.