cross-posted from Rose Warfare
Rad new documentary out about the Atlanta Forest Defense campaign:
“STOP COP CITY is about the militant occupation of Atlanta’s South River Forest. For over a year, a coalition of militant anarchists, community organizers, and eco-activists have been resisting police and contractors to halt the deforestation of hundreds of acres of urban forest.”
Six people were arrested while protesting logging of Jackson Demonstration State Forest in Sacramento, where more than 50 reportedly rallied. (Roslyn Moore)
cross-posted from the Mendocino Voice
SACRAMENTO, CA, 8/31/22 — A coalition of Mendocino County activists and allies rallied in the state capital on Tuesday, where six were arrested after blocking the doors to the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) headquarters.
This was the culmination of a week of actions to “Save Jackson Forest,” which kicked off when Cal Fire announced that it would resume logging on open timber harvest plans (THPs) last week with some modifications to those plans, including a pause on cutting larger trees. The announcement came shortly after CNRA debuted a vision for tribal co-management of Mendocino County’s Jackson Demonstration State Forest, a 48,652-acre redwood forest and the site of Pomo ancestral lands. Michael Hunter, chair of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, said last week that the tribe was not consulted or notified ahead of time about the resumption of logging.
Over 50 people rallied in Sacramento on Tuesday afternoon to call for recognition of Pomo tribal sovereignty and for a pause on logging to return. Andy Wellspring, a member of the Coalition to Save Jackson State Forest, told The Mendocino Voice that no one from CNRA emerged to negotiate with activists on Tuesday.
In a phone conversation with The Voice, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said he was “optimistic” about future management for the forest and “proud of the level of engagement and collaboration” his office has had with Hunter thus far.
“Our interest is in partnerships with all tribes that have the Jackson Forest as ancestral lands, which obviously is numerous tribal governments and communities,” Crowfoot said. “And my understanding is that both in recent weeks and recent days, there has been a lot of interaction with the Coyote Valley tribe about modifications to the timber harvest.”
He also said he feels Cal Fire’s pause on additional THP development while updates to the management plan take place is “really important and meaningful” — but that he feels work should continue on the four THPs that had been paused for about eight months.
“We do have these [existing THPs] that were already approved, went through a public process, were already started, and that local businesses and workers have been counting on,” he said. “We do think it’s appropriate for the already approved, already underway THPs to be completed. And we look forward to really intense work to update the management plan so that future THPs reflect this more modern vision of the forest that takes into account, in a more robust way, ecological restoration and climate science and tribal collaboration.”
But activists understood that a pause would be in place for the duration of negotiations — and have emphasized this point with a refrain of “no more broken promises.” Those protesting in the “Save Jackson Forest” rallies hope for an eventual moratorium on logging in the forest.
Naomi Wagner was among those arrested on Tuesday. (photo submitted by Roslyn Moore)
“Crowfoot needs to keep his promise,” said Anna Marie Stenberg, one of the Mendocino County residents arrested. “He said logging operations would be paused while he was negotiating with the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians. Why is Cal Fire ending the pause?”
The six people arrested at CNRA headquarters were members of Redwood Nation Earth First! who sat in front of the door and linked arms for around two hours beginning at 1 p.m., Wellspring said. Larry Aguilera, Naomi Wagner, Tom Shaver, Stenberg, Marggie Chandler, and Polly Girvin were charged with misdemeanors — failure to disperse, failure to obey a lawful order, and blocking a public egress — and were let go from the police station after receiving citations, for which they’ll appear in court.
“Being a Native American, I can sympathize with the Pomos, because this is their land,” Aguilera, a member of the Miwok tribe who moved to Willits about five years ago, told The Voice. “Wherever I go, I like to acknowledge whose land I’m standing on. … I realize how important sacred sites are.”
A news release from the Coalition described those arrested as “movement elders”; Girvin, a longtime activist in our area, saw the action as an important model for future generations.
“I went to jail today for my great grandchildren Daniel, Courtney, Chloee and Cambree,” Girvin said. “They are members of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians and great grandchildren of Priscilla Hunter. I want them to remember that their auntie stood up for their future, so they can be out there in the forest gathering basket materials, gathering medicine, and learning about all the plants. I am a role model for Pomo youth, and that is why I took a stand today.”
At a Jackson Forest Advisory Group meeting earlier this month, State Forests Program Manager Kevin Conway told The Voice that Cal Fire hopes to host the first public comment period regarding the new management plan as soon as this winter. Crowfoot said he hopes the public will be involved in that development process.
“We’re hopeful that this effort to update the management plan really takes into account all of these perspectives,” he said. “We’re very much committed to really better understanding everyone’s perspective and concerns.”
Here’s our coverage on recent happenings around Jackson:
cross-posted from Wild Idaho Rising Tide
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 30, 2022
Media contact:
Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition
prdc@paradise-ridge-defense.org
Army Corps of Engineers Halts Highway 95 Construction near Moscow
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended its authorization of the U.S. Highway 95 Thorn Creek Road to Moscow rerouting project, in a letter sent to the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) dated August 29, 2022. Section 404 of the Clean Water Act requires an Army Corps permit for the realignment, because it would destroy wetlands along a six-mile stretch of Highway 95 proposed for expansion to four lanes, south of Moscow.
On March 9, 2021, the Corps granted ITD a Nationwide Permit 14 (NWP 14), a general, national permit for wetland impacts under the Clean Water Act, which applies to transportation projects that would destroy no more than a half-acre of wetlands at any one site. The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition (PRDC) hired two experienced wetland scientists to determine the accuracy of the wetland acreage that would be impacted by the easternmost E-2 alignment of U.S. 95 preferred by ITD. PRDC’s contracted scientists determined that ITD omitted wetlands that would be destroyed at Site 1 on the southern end of the E-2 route. Considering those wetlands, the E-2 alignment exceeds the half-acre limit of maximum wetland destruction. As a result, the overall project does not qualify for a Nationwide Permit 14.
The Corps has now suspended all ITD project construction for 60 days or longer, at Site 1 and all 13 wetland crossings along the E-2 alignment. In the attached letter to ITD, Kelly Urbanek, Regulatory Division Chief of the Army Corps in Boise, wrote, “It is unclear what type of Department of Army authorization will be required to construct ITD’s proposed (or any revised) highway improvement plan at Site 1. For example, if expected losses to aquatic resources at Site 1 exceed 0.5 acre and cannot be authorized under NWP 14, an individual permit may be required. …Effective immediately, you must stop all activities… This suspension will remain in effect until the authorization is reinstated, modified, or revoked.”
In response, PRDC board member David Hall said, “This decision by the Army Corps should encourage ITD and the Corps to compare alignments and choose the least environmentally damaging alternative for this new highway section. Public comments overwhelmingly support the central C-3 route and the stricter standards and public involvement of an individual, rather than a nationwide, Clean Water Act permit.”
Helen Yost of regional, climate activist collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide added, “Considering E-2’s higher elevation weather conditions, wildlife crossings, larger wetlands, and proximity to rare, native, Palouse Prairie remnants, the lower C-3 alignment is safer for drivers and healthier for the environment than E-2, and best utilizes current U.S. 95 infrastructure, as recommended by federal regulations.”
Spokesperson for the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club, Al Poplawsky, stated, “ITD knew they were building a highway on a house of cards. Environmental laws benefit all living things, including people, and not following them is ultimately damaging and counterproductive.”
Zachary Griefen of Bricklin and Newman, legal counsel for PRDC, noted that, “We are pleased that the Army Corps has acknowledged, as PRDC has argued all along, that ITD misrepresented the extent to which the proposed route will destroy wetlands. The Corps’ suspension of authorization for the project is a good first step toward reconsideration of this ill-conceived highway project.”
The Paradise Ridge Defense Coalition of Moscow, Idaho, is a non-profit, public interest organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Paradise Ridge and the native biodiversity of the Palouse region that surrounds Paradise Ridge. With a mission to ensure and enhance the public safety, environmental integrity, and natural aesthetics of Paradise Ridge and its environs, the coalition includes the Palouse Broadband of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness, the Palouse Group of the Sierra Club, Wild Idaho Rising Tide, and individual members.
flooding in Pakistan via NBC News
by Scott Parkin
“The ice age is coming, the sun’s zooming in
Engines stop running, the wheat is growing thin
A nuclear era, but I have no fear
’Cause London is drowning, I live by the river”
— London’s Calling, The Clash
Front man of The Clash, Joe Strummer, would have been 70 last week. Musician, anarchist, socialist, culture revolutionary and punk rock hero, Strummer’s politics were grounded in resistance to authority and conformity of the late 1970s and 1980s. The Clash’s music spoke to us about heightened Cold War tensions, Sandinistas in Central America, Washington’s Bullets all over the world, union busting, dismantling of social services and, generally, neo-liberalism in the UK being ushered in by Margaret Thatcher.
The band’s landmark 1979 single “London Calling” was a stark warning to the “doom of everyday life” under the Thatcherite regime. As 1980s austerity and cultural conservatism began to take root, Strummer and bassist Mick Jones saw an urgent need for an urgent call to ordinary Britons about what the future might hold. At the time, Strummer was living by Thames and feared potential flooding. Jones expanded the song to incorporate much more.
The song’s title came from the BBC’s radio broadcasts during the World War Two era to Nazi-occupied territory and the band wanted to convey the urgency of a news report. It included fears of a “nuclear error,” policy brutality (“We ain’t got no swing / Except for the ring of that truncheon thing”), banal social conformity (“London calling to the zombies of death”), casual drug use (We ain’t got no high / Except for that one with the yellowy eyes”) and, most presciently, early references to the climate crisis (“The ice age is coming, the sun’s zooming in Meltdown expected”).
The Clash’s “London Calling,” amongst others, warned of possible nuclear war, the rise of neo-liberalism (also known as privatization, austerity or simply the defunding of public services), an increasingly authoritative police state, apathy of the populace, and global warming.
Things Get Worse
Today’s crises only get more dire.
In less than three years, the Coronavirus pandemic has killed over 6.5 million people worldwide (including over a 1 million Americans). In the U.S., this is a result of privatized health care systems and overwhelmed medical workers and public institutions besieged by inept craven politicians and attacked by conspiracy theorists.
The new “Gilded Age” of this era has made class power insurmountable. Trump 2017 new tax cuts reduced the corporate tax burden from 35% to 21%. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) gave the top 1% $1.9 trillion over the next decade. Meanwhile student debt is $1.75 trillion and Biden’s recent debt relief is a drop in the bucket compared to the benefits from the TCJA. Furthermore, while Congress approves hundreds of billions for the Ukrainian war effort they continue to cut funding for COVID testing and other essential services.
We laugh and joke about a class war, but it’s alive right before our eyes.
Finally, the climate crisis has only worsened since Joe Strummer worried about London flooding in 1979.
In eastern Kentucky, thousands of families lost everything in recent floods. 39 people were killed. Access to clean water is still an issue for many and schools have struggled to recover. My hometown of Dallas, TX experienced the 2nd worst raining and flooding in record. 23 counties were declared state emergencies by Gov. Greg Abbott. At least one woman died in Mesquite, TX when flood waters swept away her car. In Jackson, MS, the Mayor urged residents to “get out now,” as record setting rains hit Mississippi’s Pearl River.
In Pakistan, the “apocalyptic” flooding their has killed over 1100, displaced millions and wiped out a million homes. The climate crisis is literally bringing about an end to the world.
The past 9 years (2013–2021) have been the hottest years on record. China’s current heatwave is the longest in recorded history. Meanwhile, Europe faces its worse drought in 500 years. This week, climate scientists reported that major sea rise from the melting of the Greenland icecap is now inevitable. Billions living in coastal areas can expect to suffer through on of the most intense impacts of the climate crisis.
Fire season is no less of an issue. In the past 20 years, we have watched wildfires burn across Russia, Europe, Indonesia, the Amazon Basin, North America and Australia. According to Global Forest Watch, fires are destroying an additional 7.4 million acres of tree cover loss than they did in 2001. Wildfires are not naturally occurring in tropical rainforest, but deforestation and climate change have led to fires in tropical forests.
Along with these crises, an immediate popular reaction to them has been rising populism on all sides of the political spectrum: 1.) the far right anti-elite xenophobic Trumpian politics deriding free trade deals that outsource jobs, trade wars with China and closing the borders.; 2.) the Sanders-led progressives and socialists wanting a redistribution of wealth through essential services like health care, education, basic income guarantees, job protections and much more through state led intervention and reform; 3.) worker, grassroots and community-led movements organizing workplaces as well as providing bottom up street resistance and mutual aid in the midst of these existential crises.
The Return of Corporate Liberalism
As the Ruling Class is seeing these “shocks” from these crises and responding popular movements, their grasp on the ability to get, Adam Smith said, “all for ourselves and nothing for other people” is weakening. At least, for the moment, these “shocks” are leading to a shift from the regularly scheduled program of austerity to a return to “corporate liberalism.”
During the 1960s, historian Gabriel Kolko defined corporate liberalism, with his groundbreaking work The Triumph of Conservatism, as the state protecting and advancing capitalist interests. Kolko disputed the popular notion of the liberal state is that it provides a check and balance to corporate interests. Instead he used the “Progressive Era” of the early 20th century to show that reform comes from the top to prevent radical change from below.
Kolko used meticulous research to show that the Gilded Age was not a period of monolithic corporate power, but an era where big business lost profit to cutthroat competition, radical labor, anti-business politics at state and local levels and a divided political system. During the so-called “Progressive Era,” corporate leaders concluded that the federal government had the power to regulate the economy and bring order to the chaos of the Gilded Age. They, then, colluded with high government officials to make this a reality.
Sound familiar?
Manchin’s Energy Bill
Case in point, the recent Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) negotiated for the past two years amongst Democrats and special interests is an example of the state advancing the interests of the capitalist class.
Climate movements have long advocated and agitated for action on the climate crisis. Over the past ten years, we’ve seen rising power in Indigenous, frontline and youth movements from Keystone XL to Standing Rock to the Green New Deal. But the rich and powerful won’t allow for grassroots and frontline movements to lead with solutions. Otherwise, there might be an equitable distribution of resources. Instead, Senate Democrats have crafted federal legislation that benefits business as usual.
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) within the IRA provides $27 billion in funding for accelerating clean energy technologies. Eligibility guidelines for the dispersal of the money are designed to benefit corporations and large non-profits (NGO). Grants are distributed on a “competitive basis,” therefore allowing corporations, NGOs and NGOs connected to corporations to have advantages in gaming the system. The GGRF will also fund “zero emission” technologies, thereby giving funds to false solutions like carbon capture and storage and biofuels.
Big Oil is invested heavily in the clean energy sector. If anything, they see the writing on the wall. BP, rebranded from British Petroleum to Beyond Petroleum, has significant investments in European solar power, rapid charging batteries and charging technology for electric vehicles. Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has billions invested in solar and electric vehicles. French oil giant Total aims to be a global leader in solar power. It has invested billions in the solar industry.
The IRA is also full of false solutions to climate change. We’ve been told for decades by the billionaires these are the fix for the climate crisis. They include nuclear, biofuels, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and, last, but never least, carbon markets. All of these pose a clear and present threat to communities.
The IRA aims to ramp up biofuels with an emphasis on aviation fuel. It includes tax credits for biofuel production and $500 million for the construction of infrastructure for dispensing biofuels. Biofuels with carbon capture can get financing. Exxon is heavily invested in advancing biofuels.
The IRA has billions benefiting uranium and nuclear technology. This includes tax credits for existing nuclear facilities and production of nuclear reactors. It also includes $700 million for the stockpiling of uranium and $150 million to maintain the Office of Nuclear Energy. The nuclear industry has a decades long history of poisoning and killing communities across nuclear energy. It’s inclusion in the IRA is a slap in the face to those communities that have long resisted it.
The IRA also includes financial incentives and tax credits for a continued build out for carbon capture and storage. It allows for tax breaks if the CCS removes more than 75% of emissions. It increases cost incentives for each metric ton of sequestered carbon placed into geologic formation. It includes financing to fossil fuel and agricultural industries for implementing CCS technologies. It should be noted that a third of all CCS technology worldwide is owned by Exxon.
Last, but not least, the IRA also secures a future for fossil fuels. It allows for the fast tracking of fossil fuel projects (particularly the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Manchin’s home state of West Virginia.) It opens up public land and water for fossil fuel extraction. It also creates a quid pro quo for wind and solar projects to be tied to oil and gas leasing. Finally, it frames energy production in terms of national security (what does that mean for pipeline fighters?)
The Inflation Reductions Act puts in place an energy future that is for, and by, the wealthiest entities on the planet. These are the same politicians and corporations that have added 100,000 new police to U.S. streets and put over $800 billion for military budgets.
It’s most surely the Triumph of Conservationism as it reduces any chaos created by economic and social forces that might upset the established order. If we’re lucky, it will reduce carbon emissions. But don’t bet on it.
False Solutions Be Damned.
Movements opposed to the wealthy elite’s “all for ourselves” mantra or the resulting human and climate disasters aren’t taking any of this lying down.
In response to Manchin’s new trough for the corporate pigs, U.S. climate movements are escalating on federal politicians. Last month, in the lead up to it, we saw dozens commit civil disobedience at the Congressional Baseball Game and congressional staffers sitting in at Majority Leader Schumer’s office calling for further climate action. Since the IRA was announced, actions have targeted the giveaways in the bill around fossil fuel leasing on public lands and waters and the fast tracking of fossil fuel projects. In New York at Schumer’s office and at Sen. Patty Murry’s offices in Seattle, protests and sit-ins happened over the past week with more to come.
On September 3rd, Appalachians are leading actions in Washington D.C. to stop the IRA’s fast tracking of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Escalation around the climate crisis is looking less cordial in other parts of the world. Climate fighters with Just Stop Oil smashed, vandalized and then glued themselves to gas pumps at three petrol stations in central London. A nice combination of sabotage and civil disobedience.
Across Vancouver BC, small groups damaged locks, smashed windows and left messages at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) branches. RBC continues to provide funding for the Coastal Gaslink pipeline crossing Wet’suwet’en territory.
More intensely, in Puerto Rico, large crowds have been gathering at LUMA’s offices demanding a cancellation of the energy company’s contracts managing the electrical grid. Mostly because they don’t manage it very well, make lots of money and have caused ongoing power outages across the island. The protests have been met with riot police and tear gas.
One Final Note
On a final note, iconoclastic film director Bob Rafelson passed away in July (I missed it until recently). He was best known for directing Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces and co-producing two of the most significant films of the 1970s era — Easy Rider and The Last Picture Show.
He was far from alone in edgy film-making. Rafelson’s generation of directors ushered in a new wave of film-making that offered a piercing critique of politics and society around them. It was a generation that included Robert Altman (M*A*S*H), Alan Pakula (All the President’s Men) and Mike Nichols (The Graduate). Their films portrayed characters that had drifted away from friends and family and are unable to make real connections. Authority is mindless, cold, and far away. Traditional heroes were violent and corrupt. The portrayal of institutions and politics at the time still rings true today.
Like Joe Strummer and the Clash, Rafelson questioned the status quo. A classic exchange between Dennis Hopper’s Billy and Jack Nicholson’s George Hanson in Easy Rider captured the moment then as it does today:
Billy: What the hell’s wrong with freedom, man? That’s what it’s all about.
George: Oh yeah, that’s right, that’s what it’s all about, all right. But talkin’ about it and bein’ it — that’s two different things. I mean, it’s real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. ‘Course, don’t ever tell anybody that they’re not free ’cause then they’re gonna get real busy killin’ and maimin’ to prove to you that they are. Oh yeah, they’re gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ‘em.