Tag: Virginia

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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Appalachia: Pipeline Fighters Greet Mountain Valley Pipeline Reps With Demo

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cross-posted from Appalachians Against Pipelines

pic via Appalachians Against Pipelines

“Yesterday, on day 619 of the Yellow Finch tree sits blockading the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline — representatives of MVP met with representatives of the local soil and erosion control board on Yellow Finch Road.

Residents of the blockade greeted the meeting in the road with banners proclaiming, “STOP WORK” and “DOOM TO THE PIPELINE.” The DEQ representative showed little concern for the sediment accumulation that was pointed out by local representatives, and DEQ seemed overall frustrated by any requests made of MVP in the meeting.

MVP’s head of security Shithead Steve and his sidekick Willy were present to supervise the meeting and generally bring down environmental conditions wherever they go.”

Donate to support the tree sits at Yellow Finch and ongoing resistance to the Mountain Valley Pipeline: bit.ly/supportmvpresistance

pic via Appalachians Against Pipelines

pic via Appalachians Against Pipelines

Ongoing Police Harassment of Pipeline Fighters in Appalachia

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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!

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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