Category: Front

Pipeline Fighters Sentenced to Jail Time for Tree-sits

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cross-posted from Appalachians Against the Pipeline
This week a Montgomery County judge sentenced the Yellow Finch treesitters to spend as many days in jail as they spent in the trees blocking the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Here is a message from Acre in Western Virginia Regional Jail after they were sentenced:
“Hi everyone. You probably just saw my sentence in the paper. I want folks to know regardless of how I’ve been charged, I stand behind my actions. I’ll go day for day tree for jail any day of the week to stop the damn pipeline.
I want people watching who may consider taking action against injustice to not be dissuaded by the law, to know the court is only there to protect the interests of wealthy corporate elite. That by jailing people for protecting the land and water, they show us time and time again how the judicial system is a right hand in colonialism and how it wears the blood of innocent life left in its wake.
Refugees from climate change are on the rise, immigrants remain locked in cages separated from their families dying at our border. And the jails are packed with people preyed upon by both the state and prison industry, exploited for labor and cash and tax cuts. Prison is modern slavery and should be abolished.
To those reading this weighing the efficacy of their actions, planning for the next protest: never forget you are standing for what is right! They may have me in a concrete box, but the woods and nature is something I hold with me always. I can still feel the coming birdsong and blossoms of late spring like a steady pulse. I can feel the soil and running water in my blood.
To believe this world was given to us to do what we want to it, to build monuments to our own ego, is backwards and dangerous. We are only a small part of this place and our relationship with the land and air and water is critical. It’s a fatal error to alienate and place ourselves above all the crawling and swimming and flying and growing things. Earth comes first remember? Show the world what you believe in.
Land for its own autonomy. Dirt for dirt’s sake.”
Donate to support continued resistance to the Mountain Valley Pipeline:
Join us! Email:
appalachiansagainstpipelines@protonmail.com

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Galveston, TX: Diane Wilson arrested calling for a stop of dredging of Matagorda Bay

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cross-posted from Hunger Strike to Stop the Dredging and Stop Oil Exports
Diane Wilson and allies begin Hunger Strike Lockdown at US Army Corps Office in Galveston to demand the USACE #StopTheDredging of the Matagorda Ship Channel!!!
Diane and allies are calling on the USACE to cancel plans to dredge the Matagorda Ship Channel and for President Biden to evoke authorization for the planned Matagorda Ship Channel Deepening Project. They are also joining the national chorus of voices calling for an end to oil exports.
Over the past month, 81 organizations sent a letter to @POTUS calling on him to revoke authorization for the project, 500+ individuals have signed a petition to Biden, 35 kayaktivists rallied for a flotilla in Lavaca bay, 40+ people across the globe have fasted in solidarity with Diane, and all the local fisherfolk have signed a petition in opposition to the project.
Diane and allies are calling on the USACE to cancel plans to dredge the Matagorda Ship Channel and for President Biden to evoke authorization for the planned Matagorda Ship Channel Deepening Project. They are also joining the national chorus of voices calling for an end to oil exports.
Diane has been dedicated to protecting her community from industrial pollution for decades. Last year she won a historic $50M Clean Water Act settlement against “serial offender” Formosa Plastics and has been working to deploy resources from the settlement to clean up the Bay and revitalize the area’s fisheries. She is currently working with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives to develop a multiracial fishing coop. But Max Midstream’s oil export dredging plan threatens to destroy the fragile ecosystems and sustainable economy Diane is working so hard to restore.
Today’s action comes after over a month of Diane’s hunger strike and silence from the USACE and POTUS. Over the past month, Diane and her supporters have called and emailed the Corps’ Galveston office countless times, asking for a meeting to discuss deep concerns over the planned dredging project. USACE has ignored these requests and has not yet offered to meet with Diane.
Today’s action emphasizes the urgency of Diane’s demand.
“There comes a time when the home needs defending and line needs drawing. Now is that time”
Diane and Ann Wright were later arrested and taken to the Galveston County jail.
You can listen to a recent interview with Diane here.

Water Protectors Blockade Enbridge Line 3 Man Camp During MMIWG2S Awareness Week

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cross-posted from Giniw Collective

May 6, 2021
(Backus, MN) This morning, 11 protectors locked to each other in front of both entrances to Enbridge’s Backus, MN, man camp location to stop destruction of the sacred and stand against the community harms fossil fuels bring. Missing or Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2-Spirit relatives is an epidemic throughout Indian Country. Many of the water protectors this morning are grandparents.
Thousands of out-of-state workers have poured into northern Minnesota, despite Enbridge’s promises to employ mostly in-state. It asserted 75% would be Minnesotans, the number of locals actually employed by the company sits at 33%.
The violence committed on our land becomes the violence committed on our people. A MMIW-sensitivity training session for workers here to destroy Indigenous land will never be enough. 3 Ojibwe nations are suing against approval of Enbridge’s Line 3 project. The Line 3 project should’ve never been approved and the unnecessary risks to local communities never experienced.
Alex Chatfield, a father and social worker from Massachusetts, said, “Together with other members of my Episcopal Church, I have been fighting to protect the Earth’s climate for my children and vulnerable people on the front lines of the climate emergency.”
Marla Marcum, a (co)Founder of the Climate Disobedience Center and a person of faith who lives on Cherokee lands in Knoxville’s, Tennessee, said, “I feel called to take this action in solidarity with the Indigenous leaders who defend the lands and waters that are most directly impacted by Line 3 and the communities who search for and mourn the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two spirit relatives taken from them by pipeline construction man camps like this one.”
Rachel Wyon, a mother and climate justice advocate from Massachusetts, said, “I answered the call to stand with Indigenous mothers and grandmothers here fighting to Stop Line 3, demanding respect for their sovereign treaties and telling the world to wake up and stop the destruction of our sacred Mother Earth by fossil fuel extraction — Resist Line 3 and Keep it in the Ground for all living beings and future generations.”
Melinda Tuhus, a climate activist and grandmother from New Haven Connecticut, said, “I came to fight line 3 in support of indigenous sovereignty and a livable planet for everyone.”
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Oregon:Community Members Stop Post-Fire Logging Operations in Protest on Hwy. 126

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photo via Cascadia Forest Defenders

For Immediate Release

Contacts:

Clover, Community Member, Cascadia Forest Defenders, 541-357-6531 cascadiaforestdefenders@protonmail.com

In midst of state-wide controversy around grievous mismanagement of hazard tree removal, community members put their bodies in the way to halt operation.

MCKENZIE BRIDGE, OR – Monday morning, community members occupied log decks along Highway 126, stopping active post-fire logging operations for an hour. The action comes amidst growing controversy over the Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) mismanagement of the hazard tree removal.

For months now, concerns have been mounting about ODOT falsely marking and over-logging healthy, living trees and standing dead trees that pose no public risk along the scenic route and across the state. Recently, during a Senate hearing those fears were confirmed by expert whistleblowers (source link). However, the excessive cutting has not been stopped, despite calls from prominent state Senators. Within the fire boundary along Highway 126, piles of timber including old growth can be seen, directly next to living trees marked with blue paint to be logged.

Troubled by the scene, four community members entered the site where a helicopter was yarding logs hoping to halt the work, in an act of nonviolent direct action. Two of them got on the already decked logs, while one person put themself in the mouth of the log loader. Waving at the helicopter that was actively moving a log, they attempted to catch the attention of the pilot in order to safely stop the yarding process. The helicopter stopped yarding and hovered, empty, for a period of time. However, supervisor Joel Zeni from Suulutaaq allowed the helicopter to continue working on the same site.

At this point, the loggers were unable to continue work. In response to the work pausing, employees from Mason, Bruce & Girard [MBG] told the community members that their actions caused thousands of dollars in profits lost for the logging corporation.

As two community members continued to occupy the log decks, two more followed to where the helicopter was then working. Despite this, Joel Zeni from Suulutaaq, Inc allowed the helicopter to continue yarding logs on the occupied worksite.

Clover, a community member, said:

“By labeling post-fire logging as ‘hazard tree removal,’ ODOT contractors are using the fires from last summer as an excuse to make record profits under the guise of community safety and at the expense of taxpayers. Now is the time for all of us to take a role in protecting what’s left by stopping this irresponsible and destructive logging.”

Jesse, a community member, said:

“We have nothing against the individual workers doing their jobs; we want ODOT, MBG and Suulutaaq, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to stop exploiting this disaster by ending all post-fire logging. We urge others to join us.”

Lane County sheriffs and state patrol were called to the scene. Once work had been stopped for an hour and the demands were made clear, the community members left the site peacefully.

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