It’s Getting Hot In Here

Last week, Eric Blevins came down from a nine day tree-sit on Coal River Mountain. He then spent a couple of days in jail. While in jail, he wrote this letter to the Register-Herald in Beckley, WV and then dictated it over the phone to a support person at Climate Ground Zero.

This week, we commemorated the 50 year anniversary of the Greensboro sit-ins that were an integral part of the civil disobedience phase of the civil rights movement.  Many of the students that participated in those sit-ins were trained at the Highlander School in Tennessee near Coal River Mountain tree-sitter Eric Blevin’s home.

As we ponder our next steps in the climate action and climate justice movements, we need to remember that this sort of large scale change requires sacrifice.  With sacrifice, we need support. The civil rights activists risked their lives fighting segregation in the south.  Many spent long periods of time in jail. During the Greensboro sit-ins, violence and harassment of protesters often escalated.

So far, the coal industry and their political allies, inside and out of Appalachia, are fighting the anti-mountaintop removal legally (both criminal and civil), often resulting in jail time and fines.  There have also been threats and acts of violence directed at community members, organizers and activists in the coalfields.  Eric and his fellow tree-sitters sat in 60 ft. trees for over a week while coal company employees harassed and abused them with constant noise, bright lights, tree shaking and threats of spraying them down with fire hoses.  At the end of their tree-sit, Massey Energy has sued them for $75,000 and filed for a temporary restraining order in federal court. Continue reading ‘Letter from a West Virginia Jail’

It’s getting serious.  They are bringing out their big guns.  King Coal is getting ready to throw their kitchen sink at the pesky anti-mountaintop removal movement.

The coal industry’s top lobbyist, IMHO, WV Gov. Joe Manchin, is scheduled to meet President Obama and Vice-President Biden with ten other governors on the issue of energy.

Geez, I wonder what sort of energy he’ll be advocating for?

Manchin has been a major obstacle in ending mountaintop removal (MTR) in West Virginia and rails publicly against Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency taking stronger action to regulate and ban the practice.   Continue reading ‘King Coal’s Top Lobbyist to Meet Obama’

As campaign escalates so do the legal battles

The nine day Coal River Mountain tree-sit that ended on Friday has entered a new phase. Mining giant Massey Energy has filed for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in federal court and sued five activists that were part of the action for $75,000 in damages. Ken Ward from the WV Gazette posted the opinion here.

For the past year, Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice activists have utilized direct action tactics on Massey and other mining company property to stop the destruction of Appalachia’s mountains. Massey has frequently responded to actions in court seeking financial damages and with restraining orders. Continue reading ‘Massey Sues Coal River Mountain Tree-Sitters in Federal Court’

“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience.“

Earlier today, one of my heroes crossed over to the other side.  Howard Zinn –radical historian, civil rights activist, anti-war activist, direct action activist, thinker, doer, fighter for justice and educator- passed away at 87.

I first read “A People’s History of the United States” early on and it changed my life.  It was an eye opener and a page turner.  As Matt Damon said in “Good Will Hunting” “If you want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn’s ‘People History of the United States.’ That book will knock you on your ass.“

It told the history of the downtrodden, the oppressed and regular people opposing illegitimate authority, not the government, the politicians or the wealthy.  It told me that history wasn’t about the Rockefellers or Kennedys, as the elite few would have us believe, but about those in struggle for justice, and often survival.

As an organizer within the climate justice and anti-coal movements, my worldview is shaped by Zinn’s work.  He told the stories of miners fighting to unionize and resist King Coal.  He told the stories of poor Appalachians fighting for economic justice and survival.  He told stories of bootlegged coal during the depression helping Pennsylvania coal miners make ends meet and Appalachian Aunt Molly Jackson taking 24 lbs of flour at gunpoint to feed her seven children.  He greatly influenced my politics and awareness of Appalachia.  When delving into the politics there, it’s essential you understand the history.  Without Zinn, I would have never had that. Continue reading ‘Howard Zinn, Presente!’

Lots of U.S. activists I know are targeted by ridiculous federal legislation like the Animal Enterprise Terror Act, are watched and infiltrated by Joint Terror Task Forces or watched by corporate private security keeping “tabs” on anti-corporate campaigns.  And while this targeting can have serious repercussions, it’s rare in recent U.S. history that you see activists targeted for assassination by anti-activist forces (although I do fear escalating violence in Appalachia around mountaintop removal.)  In the past few months, anti-mining activists in El Salvador and Chiapas have been threatened, attacked and assassinated by reactionary groups in their communities.

Dora Alicia Recinos Sorto, a Salvadoran anti-mining activist, was the third victim of such violence the Cabañas Region of El Salvador where communities are campaigning against Canadian mining company Pacific Rim. She was eight months pregnant and the shooting also wounded her two year old son.

Dora’ murder comes six days after the fatal shooting of Ramiro Rivera Gomez, Vice President of the Cabañas Environmental Committee, who had survived being shot eight times in August this year. In June, another environmental campaigner, Gustavo Marcelo Rivera Moreno, had been tortured and killed. Many other members of the community have received death threats, including youth workers and journalists for the local community radio station Radio Victoria, and the local priest Father Luis Quintanilla narrowly escaped an attempted kidnapping. Continue reading ‘Escalating Violence Against Anti-Mining Activists in Chiapas and El Salvador’

Quite the scene here in Houston this weekend.  Thousands of runners are converging here to run a 26 mile marathon sponsored by Chevron.  Over 200,000 spectators are expected to come out and watch the run.  Runners from Rainforest Action Network will be joining the race to promote human rights in Ecuador.

Chevron is responsible for billions of gallons of waste left in the Ecuadorian Amazon and refuses to clean up or pay reparations for the environmental disaster.

But yesterday at the marathon expo, Chevron Marathon Expo Director Steven Karpas confronted Team RAN as they set up their table to pass out educational information about Chevron’s role in the Ecuadorian Amazon.  After stating that Chevron was “freaking out” Karpas had Team RAN removed from the expo by Houston police and refunded their money for the table.

When asked for a reason for their ejection, Steven Karpas told the runners they were being removed for “protest activities.” The Rainforest Action Network team’s objective at the Expo was not to protest, disrupt the Expo or dampen other runners experience at this important race. The runners merely wanted to sit at their table and invite other runners to run with them for human rights.  Continue reading ‘Chevron “Freaking Out” about RAN in this Weekend’s Houston Marathon’

Last year, my good friend, comrade and mentor David Solnit penned an article called “Organizing to win.”  In it, he lists five lessons learned over years of organizing against corporate power, war and empire.  They are particularly relevant in the age of Obama since instead of flocking to a false political messiah, we need to build our own power.  These are important points that need to be stated over and over, particularly in the context of the climate justice movements.

1. Uproot the system

Climate change is not the only issue on the table when it comes to human activity putting too much carbon in the atmosphere.  We’re also dealing with a whole range of issues that includes oil wars in the Middle East, human right abuses in places like Indonesia, Nigeria and Ecuador, environmental injustice in Richmond, California, mountaintop removal in Appalachia, oil sands extraction in Canada, big banks financing polluters, carbon trading and the list goes on and on.  Furthermore, fossil fuel rich areas are often those most affected by poverty and unemployment.  In Appalachia, the coal-producing counties are the poorest.  In the Niger Delta, the majority of the population lives in poverty with no social services infrastructure and high rates on unemployment.  Why are oil and coal companies making billions from their “black gold” while the locals remain destitute?  This is not just an environmental issue, but an economic, social and justice issue as well.  Most of these problems are perpetuated by the corporate and political systems that allow them to continue to exist for the benefit of the wealthy elite. Continue reading ‘Organizing to Win Redux’

UPDATE: Everyone is out!

Iran is not the only place where government agencies are trying to (marginally) disrupt people advocating for change.

Today, the West Virginia State Police picked up four Climate Ground Zero activists at home in Rock Creek on some old charges from October.  Back during a peaceful march organized by seniors against mountaintop removal led by 81 year old Roland Micklem, two young activists –Gabe Schwartzman, 19, and David German, 18– were arrested for unfurling a banner on top of Walker CAT’s headquarters.  The charges are related to that banner drop.  Last month, the state police arrested Micklem over the same incident.

As a result of the Oct. banner hang, Walker CAT president Steve Walker equated the anti-MTR activists holding a banner on his propert with terrorist suicide bombers, that’s right, suicide bombers.  Beyond the insult to real victims of actual suicide bombers, Walker’s comment had only the intention of creating more tension in a West Virginia already marred by violence and intimidation.

Next month, Climate Ground Zero will have a three week winter action camp which will prepare 30-50 anti-MTR activists in the Coal River Valley to carry out civil disobedience actions.

Could these arrests be a pre-emptive arrest to disrupt Climate Ground Zero’s activities?

We’ve spent 2009 escalating the fight to end mountaintop removal.  The coal industry spent 2009 escalating their rhetoric (example above) to cast us as “extremists” and “terrorists,” and encouraging intimidation and violence in the coalfields.  Now West Virginia law enforcement is arresting activists and lead organizers in Rock Creek on “old” charges.

Continue reading ‘Four Anti-Mountaintop Removal Activists Arrested at Home’

Protest and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience at Chevron, California’s worst climate polluter, on first day of United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen

San Ramon, CA – As Chevron employees arrived to work early this morning, they were met by nearly 100 people who gathered in protest of Chevron’s global destruction of communities, the environment and the global climate.
Protestors interrupted business as usual at Chevron, by blocking the main entrance to the corporation’s headquarters, as well as two additional entrances for several hours. 31 people were eventually arrested.  By noon, most of those arrested were cited and released.

The protest and non-violent civil disobedience was organized by the Mobilization for Climate Justice West – a coalition representing more than 30 local social justice, environmental, labor, and human rights groups – today to coincide with the first day of the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Similar protests are taking place nationally and
globally.

As the largest and most polluting corporation in the state of California, Chevron was targeted locally for undermining efforts to combat global warming and expanding its operations into more environmentally destructive and polluting forms of crude oil like the Canadian tar sands. And, as the 3rd largest corporation in the U.S., Chevron is using its immense financial resources to influence federal environmental policy. In the first half of 2009, Chevron spent nearly $13 million lobbying the federal government, more than twice the amount it spent during the same period in 2008. Continue reading ‘Protest and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience at Chevron; 31 Arrested’

Robert Kennedy, Jr. calls for a stop to the blasting of Coal River Mountain and protection of nation’s clean energy resources, on first day of global climate talks in Copenhagen

Today over 300 coalfield residents and their allies rallied to stop the blasting of Coal River Mountain and to transition to a clean energy future at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.  Coal River Mountain, the site of a proposed wind farm if blasting can be halted, has become a line in the sand in the fight against mountaintop removal coal mining.

We listened to a couple of dozen inspirational speakers, many of whom were local people who have seen the damage of mountaintop removal coal mining firsthand. They talked about why it is so important to save Coal River Mountain, their communities and our country from the many problems associated with mountaintop removal and our addiction to coal. Continue reading ‘Hundreds Rally to Save Coal River Mountain Today’