Another tree-sit up in fight against Mountain Valley Pipeline

cross-posted from Appalachians Against Pipelines

photo via Appalachians Against Pipelines

An update from the Yellow Finch tree sits on DAY 553 blockading the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline:

“After several weeks, MVP security has FINALLY noticed our newest addition to the Yellow Finch blockade … so we are proud to publicly announce our third tree sit! Come on down and check it out!

“MVP was here, using this fine spring weather to work on their sad excuse for erosion control, but so far, no progress on getting us out of here. ?

 

Ongoing Police Harassment of Pipeline Fighters in Appalachia

cross-posted from Appalachians Against Pipelines

via Appalachians Against Pipelines

UPDATE: “Cops DRESSED AS PIPELINE WORKERS violently arrested our friend at the Yellow Finch tree sits yesterday.

Disguised as an erosion control crew, undercover cops tackled this pipeline resister to the ground and hauled them off to jail on behalf of MVP. They were brutally dragged by their shoulders away from the sits. AND the state thugs never showed our friend a warrant before taking them into custody. Collusion between police and the multi billion dollar Mountain Valley Pipeline project is clearer than ever!

The pipeline fighter is still in jail and is being help without bail! This is an unusually harsh penalty that has been applied to pipeline resistance in Virginia again and again.

We know that the police and the courts are out to protect corporate interests, but we won’t let that scare us! FTP!!

Our friend has sustained some injuries, but they are in high spirits and will continue to fight!”

Original Post:“Despite MVP having their permit process delayed until at least early April, the collusion between the state and extractive industry goons is ramping up. For the past few days we have seen both uniformed and undercover cops riding with workers doing “erosion control” in an attempt to intimidate those taking a stand against corporate eco-terrorism in Appalachia.

Also, Global Security workers, headed in this area by Stephen Len McGary, potentially with undercover police have walked into camp off of their Limit Of Destruction, where land defenders have been holding space for 533 days, supporting the trees in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The state will use any excuse to escalate the situation and use force against us. We will not be deterred! We are here and encourage peoples to rise up, wherever they are at, against the violent colonial death machine. It is everywhere. It is bigger than this 42 inch, 300 mile, fracked gas pipeline. We exist now amid climate chaos thanks to the continued fierce resistance to colonization among indigenous peoples and resistance fighters worldwide. If you are reading this we are not far from you. There is struggle and action everywhere. Find them. Act.”

via Appalachians Against Pipelines

From Yellow Finch to Wet’suwet’en, NO PIPELINES, NO BORDERS, NO RCMP, NO SURRENDER!”

To donate to the ongoing resistance to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, go here.

To join the Appalachian Climate Action Camp on March 6th-15th, go here.

Elliston, VA: Pipeline Fighter Locks Onto Mountain Valley Pipeline Helicopter!

pic via Appalachians Against Pipelines.

cross-posted from Appalachians Against Pipelines

Yesterday, a pipeline fighter has locked themselves to a Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) helicopter near Elliston, VA. The banner on the helicopter reads “DOOM TO THE PIPELINE.”

The pipeline fighter taking action, going by Squirrel, stated: “I took action today in an attempt to slow the construction of this destructive pipeline project. If completed, the MVP will ship billions of cubic feet of natural gas to be burned every single day. This pipeline will inevitably leak, and many natural gas pipelines have exploded, killing people and wildlife.

“In times such as these, with the catastrophic effects of global warming accelerating at an alarming pace, it is imperative to act now. The planet is in crisis, and the ruling class would rather continue the genocidal and ecologically destructive projects of capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism, than address the largest existential threat in human history. It’s up to us to intervene — they won’t stop unless we make them stop. For a world and a future without exploitation, capitalism, and the destruction of the wild! No compromise!”

pic via Appalachians Against Pipelines

MVP uses helicopters for a few purposes, including surveillance and large scale hydroseeding. Hydroseeding is a process in which they drop proprietary pellets on the pipeline easement (and everywhere else they happen to hit within a mile or so) as part of their bogus, destructive attempt at “environmental remediation.” In 2018, MVP dropped “erosion control” pellets on Neal Laferriere’s organic farm Blackberry Botanicals in Summers County, WV, a quarter mile from the easement, hitting Neal’s children in the face and causing the family to lose their organic certification and livelihood. Hydroseeding has been proven worldwide to be incredibly damaging to native plant communities and long term ecosystem stability.

The action took place just down the road from the Yellow Finch tree sits, which have been preventing construction and defending some of the last remaining trees on the pipeline route for 398 days and counting!

DONATE to support Squirrel and the tree sits: bit.ly/supportmvpresistance

 

Three water protectors SHUT DOWN work at a Mountain Valley Pipeline site in West Virginia!

Cross-posted from Appalachians Against Pipelines

BREAKING!! Three water protectors have SHUT DOWN work at a Mountain Valley Pipeline site in Greenbrier County!

Two Indigenous women and one other water protector have locked down to 3 separate excavators. Banners at the site read, “VIOLENCE AGAINST MOTHER EARTH IS VIOLENCE AGAINST OUR SISTERS” and “AIN’T SCARED. STILL FIGHTIN.”

Cherri Foytlin, afro-Indigenous mother of 6 with Extinction Rebellion, explains: “A little under a year ago, while I was fighting to keep the Bayou Bridge Pipeline from crossing our land, I was attacked by someone who thought their threats and acts of violence would quiet my sensible demand for clean water for generations yet to come. I am here today to say: I will not fear cowardly men when it comes to protecting Unci Maka (our Grandmother Earth). As our planet boils, our children are caged, and our women are disappeared, we must accept that violence against the Earth is the same as violence used against our women and children. Therefore, in the name of all that is good, we have a moral obligation to halt the harm. This is why we cannot, and will not, stand down. Stop MVP!

Mama Julz, Ogala Lakota, land defender, water protector, and founder of Mothers Against Meth Alliance, stated: “Today I’m here to bring awareness to the issues of man camps and their connection with the drugs and sex trafficking that leads to missing and murdered Indigenous women. These issues are really important to me because I fight meth, not only in my territory but in a lot of Indigenous territories across Turtle Island. Any time you desecrate Mother Earth, raping Mother Earth, it’s raping our sisters, too. It’s all one big connection, and that’s why we have this rise in our missing and murdered Indigenous relatives.

“Man camps,” as Mama Julz is referring to, are housing complexes that provide accommodations for hundreds (often thousands) of temporary workers, commonly associated with the fossil fuel industry. They’re frequently seen in remote locations along pipeline construction routes and near oil and gas fields. In any small or rural community, a massive influx of transient men is a recipe for disaster. Man camps have a devastating impact on Indigenous communities in particular, where they contribute to a surge of substance abuse, sexual assault and other violent crimes, leading to a rise in the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women — a continuation of the lethal violence and abuse that European colonizers have imposed on Native women for hundreds of years.

DONATE to help cover legal costs and support ongoing resistance: bit.ly/SupportMVPResistance