WV Blockaders: Bail ’em out!

So our friends at Climate Ground Zero in WV have been busy. First they disrupted the Massey Energy shareholder’s meeting. They blockaded the entrance to Massey’s regional HQ with a tripod. Photos below the fold. Now two mountain defenders are in jail with an insanely high bail amount of $100,000 each and need our help to get that reduced so they don’t sit there rotting forever.

It takes literally two minutes. Just call 304-369-7360 and/or 304-369-7360 and leave a message for “Magistrate Snodgrass”, something like the following:

I am calling to express my outrage at the exorbitantly high bail Magistrate Snodgrass set for EmmaKate Martin and Benjamin Bryant. Their case numbers are 10-M-7-11-12-13-14 and 10-M-7-15-16-17-18. The 8th Amendment states “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”  Snodgrass is using bail as punishment, and it is certainly excessive.  He is doing a disservice to society by holding them behind bars until their hearing.  Please reduce their bail to a reasonable amount that reflects their four non-violent misdemeanor charges.

This is also out on Facebook, because the CGZ crew are freakin’ awesome at outreach. Hopefully with enough public pressure, Mr. Snodgrass will reduce their bail to something that the CGZ legal fund can manage. Click “Continue reading” for photos of these kids, their tripod and a promo for CGZ’s upcoming action camps.

NYC activists to RAN: “Wake Up! Quit Compromising!”

We got this in our inbox last night. Should’ve published it sooner, now NYC Indymedia beat us to it by a few hours. It’s still an awesome story! More people should be holding Big Green groups accountable for the steaming crock that is the FSC. RAN originally formed because other Big Green groups were compromising too often, and now they’ve become that which they’ve purported to stand against. This was a great creative direct communication, y’all. Keep up the good work.

Rainforest Action Network stars in “FSC and the City”

Activists Challenge Mainstream Environmental Organization’s Continued Support for Industrial Logging of Old-Growth Forests, Tell RAN “It’s Time for a Divorce” from FSC

by Anais Pagano, 5/16/10

At their 25th anniversary celebration in New York City’s West Village on April 29, a surprise awaited the mainstream environmental organization – the Rainforest Action Network (RAN). Their event was hosted by *Sex and the City *star Chris Noth, who played Mr. Big in both the long-running TV show and recent hit films. Just as Mr. Big was meeting and greeting in front of the gala to benefit RAN, a black car pulled up and out swaggered *another* Mr.Big and two striking-looking activists playing his charming costars, Samantha and Carrie.

Earth First! and the FBI: The Bombing of Judi Bari

We received this in our inbox and thought it was worth publishing. Particularly interesting is the $3+ billion incentive for the timber industry to discredit Judi. If you’re in the Bay Area this weekend, make sure to check out the JB commemoration events in Berkeley on Sunday and Oakland on Monday. Just found out, this is also on the Rag Blog.

WAR AGAINST THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT:
The Bombing of Judi Bari

by Penelope Rosemont

On the 24 of May, twenty years ago sensationalist headlines across the country announced the arrest of two leading environmentalists, Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney. Their car had been bombed-but it was they who were arrested, charged with their own bombing! The environmental activist movement and Earth First! in particular were branded as terrorist organizations, this incident fell just after the very successful EF! campaign to save the old growth Redwoods, labeled “Redwood Summer” that brought in young people from all over the country—- they sang, they sat down in the roads, and they 0filled the jails like the old time Wobbly organizers, like Civil Rights activists, like the Peace Movement. It looked like the Timber industry was in for big trouble. 

Richardson Grove Action Camp! May 28-30 at the Grove

This conflict has been brewing for over a year now. It involves widening the US 101 between thousand-plus year-old redwoods in southern Humboldt County to facilitate the movement of big trucks. Here’s the project’s official page, for updates etc. We got this action alert over the weekend from Jeff Muskrat, Grove organizer extraordinaire. If you’re anywhere near Humboldt, this could be an important campaign to plug into.

!RICHARDSON GROVE ACTION ALERT!

I’m forwarding this to all unopposed to Richardson grove direct action, trainers, FOREST DEFENDERS etc. Please forward far and wide to likewise interested humans. Will post also on independent media THIS EVENING with location to be announced:
(LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE IDEAS, EDITS, BUT THE URGENCY OF THE MATTER MAKES ME INCLINED TO POST IT ASAP)

THE ANCIENT REDWOODS IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY NEED YOUR HELP, AGAIN!
(AND JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THAT ANCIENT TREES IN STATE PARKS WERE PROTECTED…)      

EF! Journal Benefit Show!

Press Release Below:

Get Your Groove on and Support Local Activism at the Grassroots Groovin’ Celebration!

The second annual Grassroots Groovin’ celebration kicks off at the The Hut on May 29. The event features a diverse lineup of high-energy music acts and is the perfect opportunity to support local grassroots projects and campaigns working for social change and sustainability…

News Roundup 5/13

Skytruth estimates that, actually,  1.1 million gallons of oil per day are now spilling into the Gulf. The feds won’t reveal any actual information about the amount, because that would lead to cleanup costs billions of $ higher than the current estimate of less than $1 billion.

Tucson students walked out of school and occupied a state building downtown in protest of a new law canceling ethnic studies in all Arizona schools. Pictures here.

Here’s an update on Scott DeMuth, Minnesota’s favorite grand jury resister. Some friends of his are going on a roadshow this summer to raise money for his legal defense. Here’s their support site.

A bunch of badasses pulled off an awesome direct action at the Westin Hotel in SF:

Make sure you sleep with the right people if you’re going to this year’s Pride. More info here. This action brought to you by the Brass Liberation Orchestra.

Check out the Dark Mountain Project: primitivism gone mainstream in the UK. They’re having an “UnCivilisation Gathering” at the end of the month, tickets being £60 apiece payable by credit/debit/paypal online. Oh, the irony.

Over 33,000 mink, native to North America, have escaped from fur farms in Ireland. Now the Irish government is paying 3 full-time trappers over £1 million over five years to trap as many of them as possible and then shoot the captives with .22s. Of course, pine martens, stoat or hedgehogs will be inadvertently caught in the traps as well, but they’ll supposedly be released “unharmed”. Maybe this wouldn’t be a problem if Ireland hadn’t allowed fur farms in the first place. Northern Ireland doesn’t. More info here on Irish fur farms and those trying to shut ’em down.

And here’s an awesome new anti-mining site from the Philippines.

Shout-out for the Trans and Womyn’s Action Camp!

So the last TWAC was a big success and enjoyed by a whole lot of folks. It featured some awesome workshops.

That’s why there’s gonna be another one:

News Roundup 5/10

Containment Boom to defend Breton National Wildlife Refuge

NOAA maps admit that oil from Deepwater Horizon is accumulating onshore. Greenpeace found some at a place called Port Eads.

Here is a 9-day-old video offering a crisp, clean, universally comprehensible explanation of the spill. Keep in mind that by now the first “solution”, the robotic sub, didn’t really work. The second solution, the big dome, just recently failed, so now they’re planning a little “top hat” dome. Also, the stats have changed: 210,000 gallons per day are now gushing into the ocean, for a total of 3.5 million gallons so far. BP has now received federal approval to continuously pump chemical dispersants underwater, the ecological effects of which are completely unknown. Everyone seems clueless about what to do, with the next options including artificial islands, cutting the riser pipe (scary, because even more oil could then leak out), releasing water from the Louisiana levees, or a “junk shot”:

“The next tactic will be a junk shot,” Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told “Face the Nation” anchor Bob Schiffer on Sunday. “They’ll take a bunch of debris, shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that and under very high pressure shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak.”

Here’s the site for the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command, the network of state, corporate and federal agencies responsible for the spill.

The BBC has an interactive graphics page on the spill as well as some video of the cleanup efforts. They also say it’s far from the biggest spill ever. Just wait a few weeks.

Also from the BBC, Neanderthal genes have been confirmed to exist in modern Homo Sapiens. Dave Foreman postulated on this 20 years ago in his book Confessions of an Eco-Warrior.

Russia’s largest underground coal mine has exploded. About 60 people are still trapped inside.

Greenpeace reports that European motorists are using tar sands oil without knowing where it came from.

On May 15th, give your stuff away. Mike Morone is talking about free boxes on a massive scale. It’s something we all should be doing anyway, and maybe this day will help spread awareness.

In case you haven’t seen Kanellos yet, check it out. This dog gets around.

Check out EF! on YouTube! The slide show and puppet show from the Earth First! Roadshow are now online. Props to Diablo EF! for their cathartic car-smashing videos. And in case anyone was wondering, Earth First! is alive and well. We are adding a VIDEOS page to the newswire so everyone can easily watch this stuff.

Rising Tide UK blocks coal train (with hand-drawn pics!)

So this happened a couple of weeks ago. Seeing as we just got the newswire up and running, it’s worth re-posting here.

18 badasses were arrested for this action and are facing up to life in prison under an obscure law. Unlikely as that is, it’s more proof that some laws are designed explicitly to help out the railroad industry.

In case you were wondering what’s wrong with coal, our friends in the UK can explain it quite well.

Rising Tide UK and friends are kickin’ ass and takin’ names. Here’s a helpful map of all coal activity in the UK.

This is a blog from a community in Scotland that is fighting coal development in their community and looking into direct action as a means to that end.

And in case you need yet another reason to go overseas this summer, they’re having a massive gathering that may or may not end in some direct action.

Earth First! Summer Gathering, 4th – 9th Aug 2010, Derbyshire

(re-posted from EF! Action Reports)

What’s happening?
Over 80 workshops, discussions, planning, strategy and ‘where next’ sessions:

*Share and learn skills for kick-ass actions on land and water.
Small boat handling and blockading using kayaks / Blockading – tripods, lock-ons/ Fences / Climbing skills / Action reconnaissance / Security for Activists / Strategy and tactics / How to research corporations /

*Network current campaigns against ecological destruction
Open-cast mining / Genetic engineering / Agrofuels / Saving Iceland / Climate actions / Pipeline resistance in Rossport / Anti-nuclear / Airport expansion/ Tar Sands

*Think about eco-centric ethics and alternative ways of organising
Deep green ethics / Anarchist economics / Anarchist history / Radical Politics / Working without leaders/ Consensus decision-making

*Practical skills for ecological restoration and sustainable living.
Introduction to Ecology / Restoration ecology / Flora and Fauna identification / Vegan Cake making / Power from solar and wind / wild food / Squatting / Bike maintenance

As well as international campaigns round-up, networking and planning for future actions.

Cost and practical things
£20-30 according to what you can afford.
The gathering is in Derbyshire, the exact location will be announced the week before. More info on our website.

Find out more and join in!

Email us (summergathering@earthfirst.org.uk) if you can offer a workshop, want to help out with the gathering or if you would like posters and leaflets to distribute.