via fishandbicycles.com

The reports of King Coal’s demise appear to be exaggerated. At least for now.

After a year of fighting for coal export terminals proposals in Washington, coal companies are moving south into Oregon. Last week, it was announced that port officials at the Port of St. Helen’s, OR approved proposals to allow coal export terminals on the Oregon coast.

King Coal’s plan is to take the coal being mined from leases in Wyoming and Montana that are being opened up by the Obama’s Administration’s energy plan, transport it by rail to ports in the Pacific Northwest, and ship it overseas to Asian markets for big profits. There are already active efforts in the Washington port towns of Longview and Bellingham.

The Port of St. Helen’s agreements with Houston-based port logistics company Kinder Morgan and Australia-based coal company Ambre Energy would ship up to 38 million tons a year and is the first proposal to be approved in Oregon. It’s also reported that the ports in Coos Bay, OR are also in talks with unnamed coal companies about coal export terminal development.

Earlier in the year, Oregon’s Gov. John Kitzhaber had stated no coal would be exported through the state without an “open vigorous public debate.” It’s pretty clear that King Coal and the Oregon political establishment don’t want that at all.

For environmental and climate activists in the Pacific Northwest, I’ll remind them of the words of the late Judy Bonds — “Fight Harder.”

via movieposter.com

In the 1974 classic Roman Polanski neo-noir film Chinatown, private detective Jake Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson) discovers one of LA’s dirty secrets: Wealthy developers are legally stealing precious water from poor struggling farmers in California’s central valley to hydrate the posh homes of Beverly Hills and a rapidly growing Los Angeles. It’s a sordid tale of corrupt local politics, exploited natural resources, an earlier version of the 1% vs. the 99%, and seemingly the “future” of the city.

In a similar vein, despite growing green consciousness in southern California, the city of Los Angeles has another dirty secret, and it is called coal. Furthermore, the electricity that the residents of L.A. are using everyday from coal is being burned at the expense of struggling Native communities in the American Southwest.

Despite a resolution passed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council to get L.A. off of coal, the Los Angeles Water and Power Department (LAWPD) still purchases almost half of its power from coal plants in Arizona and Utah. The resolution has led to two coal plants being shut down, but the LAPWD is still heavily invested in utility companies like Southern California Edison.

And while California itself has very few coal plants and no coal mines, it keeps its homes air conditioned and lights on through plants hundreds of miles away spewing pollution into the airways and waterways of the Southwest. This addiction has a particularly harsh impact on communities in the Four Corners area of New Mexico and Arizona as the Navajo Generating Station is located on Navajo land. Furthermore, companies like St. Louis-based Peabody continue to mine coal reserves on the same land.

Stellar reporting by Altnet’s Josh Frank has highlighted this story and the struggle of Indigenous groups fighting to be heard on the impact of coal plants and mining on native land.

My community is heavily impacted by Salt River Project’s coal and water extraction activities. SRP has extensive ties to Peabody Energy’s massive mining operations and the Navajo Generating Station,” says Louise Benally of nearby Black Mesa. “Coal mining has destroyed thousands of archeological sites and our only water source has been seriously compromised. Their operations are causing widespread respiratory problems, lung diseases, and other health impacts on humans, the environment, and all living things.

Last month, protests erupted in Arizona around the Navajo Generating Station. 16 activists were arrested at the offices of corporate climate marauder and managing partner of the Navajo plant, the Salt River Project (SRP). SRP is also a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and sits on its board. ALEC is most known for aggressive legislative campaigns to undermine labor standards, climate science and civil liberties, as well as a driving force behind the racist Arizona law SB1070.

At the end of Chinatown, the wealthy developers won, covered up scandals both political and personal, and Gittes was told “forget about it Jake. It’s Chinatown.”

But the fight over LA’s future with dirty coal is far from over, and we won’t be forgetting about the struggles of people most impacted by it for quite some time.

Massachusetts militiamen surround strikers (via Wikipedia).

“One may live without bread, but not without roses…”

- Jean Richepin, 19^th century French Poet

One hundred years ago this week, 25,000 textile mill workers, many of them women and young girls, walked away from their looms and out of the Dickensian sweatshops of Lawrence, Massachusetts in protest of brutal working conditions and pay cuts. The “Bread & Roses” strike suddenly and unexpectedly thrust the horrible working conditions and massive economic gap of an earlier Gilded Age into the public eye.

Sound familiar?

Like today’s Occupy Wall Street movement, the Bread and Roses strike merged radical activism and worker militancy. Robert Forrant, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts, calls the strike “the first Occupy movement.”

Progressive Era radicals, in this case the Industrial Worker’s of the World (IWW), or Wobblies, raised the voices of the ninety-nine percent. Representing the unskilled and immigrant workers that mainstream unions and liberal politicians ignored and refused to help, the strike illuminated the plight of families and child labor as it has never been done before.

They pushed the envelope by utilizing direct action tactics such as pickets and a massive strike. In the case of Occupy, it was the call to action put out by AdBusters last summer that was embraced by direct action-istas, anarchists, and radicals across the world. In 1912, the IWW organized Lawrence’s mill workers to stage a multi-month strike in resistance to the American Woolen Company and other Yankee manufacturing bosses.

The strike was partially sparked by liberal workday reforms that hurt these workers and benefited the one percent. Similar to today, Obama-era legislation and (lack of) regulation continues to favor big banks and corporations over poor and working class people. Hence, today’s Occupy movements are made up of, or represent, large numbers of disaffected Americans who have lost their homes, their jobs, have no health care, or are poisoned by the fossil fuel industry.

The manufacturing bosses refused to negotiate with the “scourge of Southern Europe” and instead relied on military force and “divide and conquer” tactics. Without the benefit of MSNBC or YouTube, police and Massachusetts state militia brutalized strikers for months. Two workers were shot or bayoneted to death, while many others were clubbed and jailed. Before the strike, the one-percenters that owned Lawrence pitted ethnic groups against each other, as well as divisions in organized labor that favored skilled workers over unskilled workers.

Much like today’s Occupy Wall Street, the Bread and Roses strike drew a line in the sand between the wealthy “haves” and the “have nots” at the bottom of the socio-economic food chain. Also like Occupy Wall Street, the demands for bread and roses sparked a radical movement of movements fighting for a living wage, better working conditions, and dignity and respect.

Projection on Seattle Bank of America Branch. Photo by Marcus Donner/RAN

Last week, Rainforest Action Network’s guerrilla projections team rolled around Seattle raising the profile of coal exports in the Pacific Northwest.

Coal companies like Peabody Energy and Arch Coal are lobbying hard to build coal export terminals in Bellingham, WA and Longview, WA. And there are rumors that more such proposals will be popping up in other port towns up and down the Oregon and Washington coasts. The industry hopes to ship tens of millions of tons of coal through those terminals. The coal will be bound for power plants in overseas markets like China and India and will significantly contribute to global climate change. Furthermore, the mining and shipping of the coal will impact eco-systems and communities from Montana to the coast, and of course in Asia.

As we highlight the controversies around coal exports, we don’t want one of the worst culprits behind this potential environmental and human rights disaster to get away with anything.

That culprit is Bank of America.

The bank has been in the news a lot lately. It is the biggest forecloser of homes in the U.S. It pays its executives more in bonuses than it pays the government in taxes. It is rapidly downsizing its operations by laying off 30,000 employees and closing 600 branches. It is, at least partially, responsible for the economic disaster besieging the country right now.

Bank of America is also the money backing the ecological disaster unraveling before our very eyes — climate change. In short, Bank of America is the largest funder of coal in the U.S. And because BoA is the financier of both Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, it’s also one of the biggest funders of the great coal export build-out as well.

Earlier this week, RAN activists “bird-dogged” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan in New York while our projections team created controversy around coal exports in the northwest. Part of the projections work was a little artistry with Bank of America branch logos and the projections. Our goal was to connect Bank of America to the northwest coal exports.

Life is not going to get easier for Mr. Moynihan or Bank of America as long as they continue to finance the coal industry. Just a heads up, things are about to get interesting.

Projection by Seattle Space Needle, Photo Credit: Marcus Donner/RAN

Holy Coal Hard Truth, Batman!

This week, I’ve been riding around the streets of Seattle with a guerrilla projection team. We’ve been shining a massive Bat Signal-like light on iconic locations around town to get our message about coal exports out to Seattle’s citizens.

For almost a year now, one of the biggest environmental stories in the Pacific Northwest has been the coal industry’s attempts to establish a coal exporting foothold along the Washington and Oregon coasts. Companies like Peabody Energy (the biggest coal company in the world) and Arch Coal (the second largest coal company in the U.S.) want to ship that dirty black rock they’ve dug out of the ground in Wyoming and Montana to overseas markets for power generation.

Arch Coal and their Australian business partners Ambre Energy have applied for permits to build a coal export terminal on top of an old aluminum smelting plant along the Columbia River in Longview, WA.

Up north on Puget Sound near Bellingham, Peabody Energy has partnered with SSA Marine (the world’s largest port logistics company) to build an export terminal on Cherry Point.

Both of these projects would ship tens of millions of tons of coal a year, wreaking havoc on local ecosystems, local communities and the global climate.

The fight has thus far been waged in political, regulatory and legal arenas. And we’re winning. But Old King Coal is determined to reap profits from mining and power plants and isn’t giving up so easily.

So we are using more street and creative actions to elevate the profile of coal to folks in the Northwest. The Pacific Northwest has a long of history of environmental resistance and we’re turning up the heat.

via RAN Photo Credit: Marcus Donner

A revolt is in motion in many parts of the country. It’s crossing issues and bringing together unlikely allies to challenge corporations and politicians acting against the needs of their citizens. In November 1999, RAN joined a diverse and lively global justice movement, which included environmentalists, labor, students, people of faith and people from many walks of life, to shut down the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle.

via RAN Photo Credit: Marcus Donner

This week, again in Seattle, under the banner of “Welcome to the Port of Poverty and Pollution,” activists with RAN joined immigrant truck drivers, port communities impacted by economic and clean air issues, Teamsters, and faith leaders standing in solidarity in downtown Seattle at the annual Port Authorities convention.

Actions all week have been directed at the Port of Seattle and its leadership. The Port of Seattle is responsible for inadequate wages and poor working conditions. Environmentally, the port authority is responsible for air and water pollution up and down Puget Sound, impacting communities living near the Port and SeaTac Airport. The Port of Seattle consistently sides with corporations in these matters. Ironically, the tone of the convention has been portraying the Port of Seattle as an environmentally responsible engine for job creation.

Furthermore, many of the same corporations participating in the convention are actively building or promoting the construction of coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest. SSA Marine has sought permits to build one such facility in Bellingham, WA. Another convention participant is Burlington Northern, which ships coal from Montana to Washington’s ports.

RAN has formed a guerrilla projections team that has been traveling around Seattle after-hours, beaming images in solidarity with this week’s protests. Tomorrow, there will be a mass rally outside the convention.

Twelve years ago, we were part of an anti-corporate globalization movement fighting privatization and resource extraction abroad. Today we’re part of an anti-corporate movement fighting privatization, resource extraction, and climate change at home. We saw it earlier this year when thousands occupied the capitol building of Wisconsin over attacks against public sector unions. We saw it all summer as environmentalists marched, locked down, danced, scaled trees, went to prison and sat-in fighting Big Oil and Big Coal. We’re seeing it as community groups and labor are fighting against home foreclosures and tax dodging by the wealthiest companies on the planet.

A few weeks ago, labor, faith, student and many more joined with environmentalists to call on Obama to stop the Keystone XL pipeline by sitting in at the White House. Cities across the country are seeing coalitions form and fight back against local issues of “poverty and pollution” more and more. This convergence is what frightened the powers that be in 1999. Now we’re back again.

via Tar Sands Action

tipping point  (tɪpɪŋ point) — n  the crisis stage in a process, when a significant change takes place

This last week, I went to Washington D.C. and joined the Tar Sands Action, the biggest environmental mass action in a generation. Over a thousand were arrested calling on Obama to deny the permits for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would cut down the middle of America’s heartland from Alberta to oil refineries on the Texas coast. The pipeline will carry billions of gallons of oil extracted from Indigenous land in northern Alberta.

The Tar Sands Action is a “tipping point” for the climate movement that I’ve been calling a “Camp Casey” moment. If you remember, Camp Casey in 2005 was when anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, who’d lost a son in Iraq, began an encampment at Bush’s ranch in Crawford,TX. It was a “tipping point” in the war. It cracked Bush’s popular support for the war and led to political routes in 2006 and 2008, and the sacking of War Sec. Donald Rumsfeld. And it helped trigger a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq (at least for now.)

The sit-ins at the White House seem to have caused a major shift for the climate movement.

via TargetOfOpportunity.com

My arrest day (August 29th, the 6th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans, no less) included going to jail with climatologist James Hansen, a large interfaith contingent (Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist), leadership from non-profits like Greenpeace and 350.org, and lots of ordinary folks from many generations and many walks of life.

Through the two weeks of action, we saw youth, Appalachians, Indigenous leaders from all over North America, former Obama staffers and volunteers, anti-fracking activists, labor activists, Midwestern and Texan landowners, and environmental radicals sit-in on the White House sidewalk. Furthermore, it’s been organized by my close family of friends and comrades whom I always have a vested interest in seeing succeed.

Needless to say, it was a powerful two weeks.

In these situations, my mind often goes to the transformational power of direct action. And to be really honest, I was initially very skeptical about this action. But the tar sands action brought in many newcomers to the civil disobedience tactics (at least 2/3rds by the organizing group’s count.)

The arrest action itself was a short and sweet process, and not the harrowing experience I’ve gone through in harder actions. It didn’t entail climbing a dragline on a mine site or locking oneself to the gates of Exxonmobil, but it was still quite powerful for the first-time participants and mainstream environmentalists caught in a crisis of faith about Obama and climate change.

Some personal anecdotes on the power of this action:

• On Monday, I was arrested with some Canadian grandparents (from Alberta, to boot). As they took the grandmother away, her husband yelled “your grandchildren are proud of you today Mary!”
• Lots of staffers from the mainstream orgs like the 350.org, Energy Action and NRDC risked arrest. With some exceptions, traditional purveyors of breaking the law for a cause, like Earth First!, RAN and Greenpeace, did not play a central role, which I take as a good thing. Getting arrested is not always the goal, but this was an important experience for those folks and their organizations.
• And Keystone pipeline actions also spread organically all over the world. There were pickets and protests as far away as Cairo and Durban, South Africa. Activists followed Obama to Martha’s Vineyard and an Obama for America event in Minnesota. On September 26th, another sit-in is planned for the Canadian capital in Ottawa. The media exploded with news around this action, and social media continues to be even bigger. After over a year of organizing, our friends with Rising Tide chapters have been taking direct actions against Exxon’s tar sands megaloads in Idaho and Montana.

People from all over the continent have begun to not only experience direct action, but also a level of direct democracy. It’s not Seattle in 1999 or the IMF/World Bank protests in 2000 with affinity groups and spokes councils determining the course of the action or which intersections are to be held. But instead, its people voicing their outrage at this pipeline and Obama’s unwillingness to act for the good guys (us) on the climate issue. It’s beyond the ballot box or waiting for politicians to do something.

To me, people stepping out of their comfort zones and not doing what the police tell them until arrest is a radicalizing moment. People stepping out of the Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber two-party political system, organizing their dissent and taking care of each other while doing it, is a revolutionary act.

Those radicalizing and revolutionary moments are why I do this work.

All of this comes after a long spring and summer of fierce actions from the Dept. of the Interior in Washington D.C. to coal plants in Chicago to Tim DeChristopher’s trials and tribulations in Salt Lake City to the tar sands-loving Montana governor’s office to tree-sits on Coal River Mountain.

A wise friend of mine once said he prefers Democratic administrations in power not because he thinks the Democrats will do the right thing, but because it causes an upsurge in more radical, people-powered organizing in the U.S.

Well, dear friend, here we go. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Last week's blockade in Moscow, ID. Photo via Wild Idaho Rising Tide.

Bam! The fight against the tar sands is hot!

In the past week and a half, over 800 people have been arrested sitting-in at the White House in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline. And yesterday, Indigenous Canadians took action at the Canadian embassy in Washington D.C. More actions are planned everyday until Saturday and it’s beginning to spread around the world with solidarity actions in Cairo and Durban, South Africa.

And in Idaho, Wild Idaho Rising Tide has already taken multiple actions to block the tar sands “megaload” trucks bound for Alberta.

Last week, nine activists were arrested fighting the megaloads. More actions are planned. Sixty-seven more loads will be rolling and they need some help!

Oil companies like Exxon are transporting massive pieces of oil extraction equipment from South Korea to Portland, OR via ship, then sending them up the Snake and Columbia Rivers by barge to Lewiston, ID. The plan is to truck them to Alberta over Idaho and Montana’s scenic highways and byways. The megaloads have been fought in the legal and regulatory arenas in both states. Exxon has used every trick and loophole in the book to move that equipment. Now they are moving and Idaho’s residents are responding with non-violent direct action.

via Wild Idaho Rising Tide

Last night’s attempt at a blockade was foiled as Exxon is now paying the city police department and the Idaho State Police as their own personal security detail. From folks on the ground: “Last night the city of Moscow was a police-state, with close to 30 police officers lining a 3-block radius in downtown. We’ve been tipped off that Exxon put in a phone call to the City police department and is now paying the force’s overtime pay.”

Wild Idaho Rising Tide put out this call for support today:

via WIlid Idaho Rising Tide

“Keep up your creativity and resolve under pressure, dear comrades! Allies elsewhere, we are under escalating siege and need you by our sides, either physically or fiscally. Please come to Idaho or contribute your aid to our resistance of another 67 transports that build tar sands hell.“

Contact Wild Idaho Rising Tide at wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com or on Facebook.

They need support funds and people to help plan and carry out creative non-violent direct action. Please support however you can.

In a powerful example of cross-movement solidarity, a large delegation of Appalachians who have been fighting mountaintop removal coal mining participated in the sit-in. They joined a delegation of pipeline landowners from all along the pipeline route at the action:

Photo by Shadia Fayne Wood

In front row, from left to right: East Texas landowner David Daniel is joined by longtime RAN friends and allies Larry Gibson of Kayford Mountain, WV and Teri Blanton of Harlan, KY at the sit-in.

David has been leading the Stop the Pipeline tour that traveled from Texas up through Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska and east to Washington D.C.

via dnews.com

They spill, they drill, and we fight back with the only currency we have — our bodies, our minds and our fighting spirit.

Hundreds have been arrested sitting in at the White House this week. Meanwhile, Alberta’s Indigenous communities have been fighting Big Oil’s development of tar sands for quite some time, and today residents in Moscow, Idaho crossed a line of their own in solidarity with those Indigenous activists trying to protect their homes from the utter destruction that is tar sands extraction.

Last night in the wee hours of the morning, as the first “megaload” trucks were beginning to roll, four men and women with Wild Idaho Rising Tide sat down in front of the massive vehicles to stop their passage through the highways and byways of the Northern Rockies to Alberta.

A few weeks ago, after many legal and political battles Exxon announced they were re-routing their shipments through the Port of Pasco in Washington (down river from Lewiston, ID) and ship reduced size pieces of equipment. While it was seen as a victory for the long term community campaign against the oil giant, Exxon still is moving the reduced size hauls through Idaho.

Moscow resident Brett Haverstick said, “Big Oil intends to clear-cut and strip mine a place the size of Florida, and simultaneously destroy native communities and entire watersheds. I feel obligated to speak up and say this is wrong.”

This morning’s action is part of a larger campaign being waged in Idaho and Montana by communities and environmentalists to stop the passage of tar sands heavy haul trucks through their region.

Activists Arrested For Blocking “Megaload” on US 95

Citizens Stand In Solidarity with Canadian First Nations & Others In Opposition to Extraction of the Alberta Tar Sands and the Building of the Keystone XL Pipeline

Moscow, ID- Early Friday morning, six Moscow residents were arrested for sitting in the road and blocking US 95 to protest an Exxon/Imperial Oil “megaload” shipment destined for the Alberta Tar Sands. In an act of non-violent, civil-disobedience, men and women sat down in the crosswalk of the highway when the four-hundred-thousand pound, two-hundred foot long, twenty-four foot wide, and fourteen-foot tall oil-processing module entered the downtown area. In a showing of solidarity with the First Nations people of Canada, and the hundreds of people getting arrested in Washington, D.C., the individuals are calling for the Obama Administration to deny permits for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would stretch from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

“Not only are people calling the Alberta Tar Sands the most unsustainable and destructive project on the planet, but also an act of genocide against the people that live in the region, particularly those down-stream of the tailing ponds,” said Moscow resident Brett Haverstick. “Big Oil intends to clear-cut and strip mine a place the size of Florida, and simultaneously destroy native communities and entire watersheds. I feel obligated to speak up and say this is wrong.”

With the Obama Administration getting ready to make a decision on the Keystone XL Pipeline later this year, the individuals said they have been inspired by the hundreds of people getting arrested in Washington D.C. this past week in protest of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

“President Obama must deny permits for the Keystone XL Pipeline. Go ask the people of Montana or the people of Michigan if they want more oil pipelines built across their lands and waterways, said Moscow resident Greg Freistadt. “People are traveling from Nebraska all the way to Washington, D.C. and getting arrested this week because the pipeline threatens their drinking water and livelihoods. It’s time for communities to come together and oppose this.”

The possible construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline isn’t the only oil pipeline that concerns the activists. The Northern Gateway Pipeline is scheduled to be built west from Alberta, Canada to the Pacific Ocean so that crude oil can be shipped to China and India.

“The First Nations people unanimously oppose this pipeline across their lands,” said Moscow resident Vince Murray. “In addition, supertankers plying the pristine coastline of northern British Columbia would endanger one of the last unspoiled ocean ecosystems in the world.”

The individuals have also been extremely disappointed with their city and state elected officials.

“Megaloads are terrorizing our highways in the Northern Rockies, pipelines are spilling oil into some of our most precious rivers, and our governors and Congressional leaders will not come to our defense,” said Brett Haverstick. If leaders won’t lead, then it’s up to us to step forward.”

via Midwest Rising!

Yesterday, hundreds of folks attending the Midwest Rising! Convergence took to the streets of St. Louis to protest Bank of America and Peabody Coal. Fifteen community and climate activists were arrested.

The arrest action occurred in a downtown St. Louis intersection that connects Bank of America’s regional offices and Peabody’s world headquarters.

Peabody is the world’s largest coal company and mines states like Wyoming and Montana for coal bound for power plants in the U.S. and overseas markets. They are currently trying to build coal export terminals along the Washington coast to export coal to Asia.

Peabody has also recently taken a $61 million tax credit from the city of St. Louis. $2 million of that cash will be taken from St. Louis public schools.

Bank of America is the largest forecloser of homes in the nation and the largest financier of coal. Bank of America execs have taken over $35 million in bonuses and compensation even as the troubled financial institution took government bailouts.

Midwest Rising was a convergence for climate and economic justice that brought together a diverse coalition of groups fighting home foreclosures in cities like Chicago, St. Louis and Pittsburgh, communications workers on strike against Verizon Wireless, local labor organizers, Appalachian activists fighting mountaintop removal and climate justice activists from around the world.

In the morning, Midwest Rising activists also organized four decentralized actions at the corporate headquarters of Arch Coal and Monsanto, a Verizon Wireless store and the St. Louis Board of Education. By mid-morning, the Appalachian-Arch Coal contingent joined the striking communications workers at the Verizon store singing “solidarity forever” and telling the story of the new Battle of Blair Mountain.

Corporate America attempted to disrupt Midwest Rising as one company contacted the conference center trying to get the venue canceled, another pressured the transportation company to not deliver activists downtown in rented buses for Monday’s rally and they assembled a small army of police and private security to protect the Peabody and Bank of America buildings. There were also heavy police presences at Arch and Monsanto.

At one point a Rising Tide activist confronted a St. Louis police officer,who followed them into a coffee shop, and asked if he worked for “Peabody or the City of St. Louis. To which the officer replied “Peabody. And you. But they pay me more.”

Here’s the press advisory, post-action press release out soon:

Activists to March on Peabody, BofA in Unique Blend of Community, Climate Concerns

via Midwest Rising!

(St Louis, MO) — “Corporations need to respect both people and the earth,” says Chelsea Ritter-Soronen, a St. Louis resident. “No one should lose their home, their livelihood or, at worst, die from bad business practices, but that happens all the time. That’s why we’re demanding that Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal producer, and Bank of America, one of its financial partners, be better corporate citizens,” says Ritter-Soronen. “Simply put: greed kills, and we won’t stand by and let that happen.”

On Monday at noon, Ritter-Sorononen will join over a hundred activists from St. Louis and around the country to march through downtown St. Louis in a creative direct action to spotlight Peabody Energy and Bankof America’s records of environmental and human exploitation. The group, coming together under the heading of Midwest Rising, demands that:

1.  Peabody Energy return the $61 million in recent tax breaks to the city, especially $2 million from the St. Louis Public Schools system, so that money can fund education and other social services

2. Peabody Energy halt its plan to build an export terminal in Washington state for the export of coal to China. Coal is a dirty fuel that worsens global warming at home and abroad; 3. Bank of America stops financing for companies engaged in mountaintop removal coal mining and companies pursuing coal export infrastructure

4. Peabody Energy end coal extraction and switch completely to renewable, sustainable energy. Bank of America shift its investment dollars away from coal and toward clean, green renewable energy.

With high levels of unemployment, increasing environmental fragility, endless wars, tax breaks for corporations, bailouts for the banks and an erosion of the social safety net that knit communities together, people find a common bond in the social justice movement. “The great support for Midwest Rising shows that people want to heal and reclaim our values of peace, justice, health, environmentalism and prosperity for all of us,” says Johnathan McFarland, organizer with Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment. “We are united against the common opponent of corporate greed run amok.”

Also planned for Monday are five delegations to corporations and public offices in support of good jobs, peace, healthy food, good schools and a healthy environment. The delegations will be visiting Monsanto headquarters, Arch Coal headquarters, the St. Louis Board of Education, the office  of Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-3, MO) and a local Verizon office. Each visit represents a spoke in the wheel of social justice, from demanding that Arch Coal protect Blair Mountain in West Virginia from mountaintop removal to supporting the 45,000 workers who are currently on strike at Verizon to protect their workplace benefits.

At Arch Coal, the country’s second largest coal producer, citizens will ask the company to end the damaging practice of mountaintop removal for coal extraction; and, in the immediate future, spare the historic Blair Mountain from destruction. Peace activists will visit the district office of Russ Carnahan (D-3 MO), who is currently on a trip to Israel on an AIPAC-affiliated junket. Peace activists are seeking Carnhahan’s support for Palestinian rights and a just and peaceful resolution of the conflict for everyone involved. At the Board of Education, community members will demand that corporations, like Peabody Energy, give back the tax breaks that divert funds from local schools. In St. Louis, funding for schools is needed to restore librarians and parent support specialists. In support of the ongoing strike by Verizon workers, Midwest Rising activists will join a local picket to show support for protecting good jobs over greed. At Monsanto, activists will demand that the corporation label  ts genetically modified food and stop disabling indigenous ways of agriculture.

###

My friend scott crow (sic) has penned a new book about the community-based revolution that fomented in the neighborhoods of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 called Black Flags and Windmills.

via PM Press

When Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and devastated the region, New Orleans’ poorly maintained levees broke and flooded the city. The privileged few were able to flee the disaster while thousands more were left in flooded streets. As soon as the storm hit, scott traveled to New Orleans to rescue a friend who’d lost contact during the storm. Out of that rescue mission emerged the largest anarchist-inspired organization in recent U.S. history—Common Ground Relief Effort.

When the “state” collapsed and was unable to provide relief, scott, former Black Panther Malik Rahim, and others from the informal network of radicals and anarchists from around the world stepped in to provide solidarity for those impacted by the horrible storm and it’s after effects.

Common Ground established emergency food banks, medical clinics, free schools, they gutted mold-covered homes and advocated for residents even as the government (i.e the New Orleans PD, the Dept. of Homeland Security, the National Guard, etc.) tried to impede their efforts with violence and intimidation.

Black Flags and Windmills is very much a story about climate justice and how Common Ground responded to traditionally marginalized communities after a super-hurricane created by escalating climate change struck in a way that shook New Orleans to its core. Common Ground responded not by telling these people what they needed to do, but by knocking on doors and asking the community what they needed.

Black Flags and Windmills comes out this fall. In the meantime, check out the trailer for the book put together by PM Press.

‘Black Flags and Windmills’ TRAILER from Louisiana Lucy on Vimeo.

via Bridge the Gulf

There are all kinds of action camps planned this month that will be challenging the root causes of climate change— i.e. the fossil fuel industry—in the Midwest, Southeast and Pacific Northwest.

August is already sizzling with small groups of environmental and Indigenous rights minded people stepping up and putting their bodies on the line to protect those places most near and dear to their hearts.

Last Thursday, in New Orleans about 100 people rallied at BP’s Regional Command Center to protest the oil giant’s continued lack of accountability in cleaning up one of the worst corporate disasters in U.S. history- the Gulf Oil Spill. As the event’s call to action put it “The Oil is Still Here and so are We,” and Louisiana residents are mobilizing to fight back against the poisoning of the Gulf of Mexico by BP.

Three were arrested staging at sit-in at the front entrance of the office during the rally. Cherri Foytlin, a Louisiana resident, an oil worker’s wife, a mother of six and one of the arrested said “They’ve told us we can’t cross this line or we’ll be arrested. Well they crossed the line a long time ago when 11 men died and they sprayed poisons into our water and made cleanup workers sick. Now fishermen can’t put food on the table and people are still sick. We’ve had enough. It’s time for us to cross the line now.”

Last year, BP spilled billions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and has created an environmental and public health crisis throughout the Gulf States. For their part, the BP Support Network (aka the complicit politicians in both parties) seem to have the company’s back as the tax payers are footing the bill for any cleanup efforts and British Petroleum continues to operate in the Gulf.

via Alex Soto/Censored Media

Meanwhile in Northern Arizona, Native Americans are struggling to defend San Francisco Peaks, sacred to 13 area Native American Nations, from the Snowbowl Ski Resort. The Snowbowl Ski Resort is already destroying the sacred mountain with the clear cutting of grandmother trees, as a pipeline is put in to bring sewage water to the ski resort for snowmaking. Native American medicine men gather healing plants and conduct ceremonies on San Francisco Peaks. The healing herbs would be contaminated by sewage water snow.

Yesterday, six were arrested in Flagstaff in a march protesting the desecration of the San Francisco Peaks sacred sites and today another eight were arrested today while locking down to cement-filled barrels to stop work crews driving up to the peaks.

“As long as Arizona Snowbowl, the Obama Administration’s Forest Service and the City of Flagstaff continue this ecocide and cultural genocide, we will not stop,” said Klee Benally (Dine’), one of the arrested marchers. “We will pray, march, protest, and take whatever action is necessary to ensure that our basic human rights, dignity and environment are safeguarded.”

As environmental and climate activists wake up to the fact that D.C.’s politics of compromise have failed us and are not going to stop one clear cut or the release of another ounce of carbon, we’re seeing the increased use of direct action tactics. We’re seeing increase of people putting their bodies and freedoms on the line to stop greater environmental devastation.

As Ed Abbey said “At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earth movers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behavior.“

via UK Climate Camp

It’s going to be some hot business this summer, and we ain’t talkin about the triple digit heat wave hitting much of the country. There is a rebellious spirit sweeping the U.S.A. as people are fighting back against the fossil fuel industry from coast to coast.

We all know about the big tar sands to-do happening in Washington D.C. at the end of August, but did you know about the various grassroots action camps targeting coal, corporations and other issues in various parts of the country? These camps will be turning up the street heat on King Coal.

Midwest Rising! Convergence for Climate and Economic Justice, St. Louis, MO (Aug. 11-15): Rising Tide North America, Climate Action-St. Louis, a number of Midwestern economic justice and environmental justice groups have organized Midwest Rising!, a convergence of the climate and economic justice movements in the heart of King Coal’s backyard. Arch Coal, Patriot Coal and the world’s largest coal company, Peabody Energy, are headquartered there. And St. Louis is also an area hit hard by the foreclosure crisis, which has mobilized groups like Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) to launch campaigns against Wall Street’s big banks. We’re looking forward to this historic convergence and can’t wait to see what happens next.

Localize This! Action Camp, Vashon Island, WA (Aug 14-21): On beautiful Vashon Island, off the coast of Seattle, the Backbone Campaign is calling on trouble-makers from all over the Pacific Northwest to come together to build skills for our re-emerging anti-corporate movement. The camp will focus on trainings in the areas of campaigning, media skills,climbing and non-violent direct action. The Pacific Northwest coast is a region of growing importance in the national coal debate as coal exports are emerging as a vital issue in towns like Bellingham, WA and Longview, WA. RAN is fully engaged in the coal exports fight and will be at Localize This! giving trainings and issue briefings.

Reclaim Power Southeast Action Camp, Western NC (Aug 18-22): People working for justice, peace and a sustainable future in the Southeast are invited to join this long weekend of workshops, trainings, strategizing, and direct action. This camp merges folks from the peace, anti-nuclear, environmental justice and Earth First! movements in the Carolinas to share skills, share information, build community and put this awareness to ACTION. Mountaintop removal coal mining and coal burning power plants have long plagued communities in Appalachia and the southeast and Reclaim Power will continue to build campaigns against the coalistas.

Quit Coal Action Camp, Sandusky, OH (Sep 2-5): Greenpeace is sponsoring a Direct Action Training Camp for up to 80 activists to learn and share new skills and experiences so that we can all step up our game against extractive industries. Greenpeace activist James Brady has recently told us he really doesn’t like coal. This camp gives him the opportunity to show us all how to fight it. We hope Greenpeace films James’ workshops, but if not, he trains so much eventually you can probably see it in person. Plus James is pretty funny. (That’s funny ha ha, not funny looking.)

Grassroots direct action movements against the fossil fuel industry (particularly coal) are taking off. Last week, climate activist Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in prison for derailing an illegal land sale to the oil and gas industry. Since then the number of concerned people showing up to fight King Coal and Big Oil has increased tenfold (so we hear). This fight is on and there’s no going back.  See you at camp.

via Just Do It

This is better than Harry Potter.

Film maker Emily James has documented the emergence of a bold grassroots climate movement in the UK in her new film “Just Do It.” They are sick of waiting on politicians, lobbyists and international bodies to change the world and end climate change, so these folks are taking action themselves.

They have a simple message: Ordinary people can take action and fight these corporate and governmental behemoths that profit from mining and burning fossil fuels, and so can you. We need climate action (less talk, less clicktivism) now more than ever, and these British activists from Rising Tide, Plane Stupid, Climate Camp and elsewhere have led the way. They super-glue themselves to bank trading floors, blockade factories and attack coal power stations en-masse, all with “manners, courage and humor.”

“Just Do It” is trying to come to the US and has an online campaign to bring the film Stateside.

Check out what you can do to make it happen here.

via photos.dailycamera.com

It’s been a tough week for the climate movement as Tim DeChristopher, one of our strongest and most articulate voices, was sent to prison for two years.

But amidst the crappy news about Tim, deCarbonize Colorado and other groups in Boulder gave us a bit of an uplifting story. Last year, activists organized an occupation action at the Valmont coal plant in Boulder where five were arrested. Soon after their action, the Boulder City Council voted to close the Valmont plant by 2017. That wasn’t good enough for them, so  last weekend they turned out 150 folks who rode their bikes to the Valmont plant and then did a massive guerrilla gardening action on the plant’s property.

Here’s the reportback from one of the activists working to end coal in Colorado:

On Saturday, August 16 close to 150 Boulder residents took part in a creative and empowering direct action at the Valmont Coal Plant in support of energy localization and local food. After a community bike ride from downtown Boulder, folks of all ages planted sunflowers — known for their use in natural soil remediation projects — on a vacant lot at the gates of the Valmont Coal Plant. The activists were calling for the immediate shut-down of the Valmont Coal Plant, as well as urging the City of Boulder to cut its ties with Xcel Energy and to create a truly sustainable community built on local democracy, locally-generated energy and locally-produced food.

Folks gathered in downtown Boulder for a free breakfast (complete with French Toast!) provided by the local chapter of Food Not Bombs. The community bike ride, which included a large contingent of children and families, occupied major east-west thoroughfares as we made the 5 mile trek to the Valmont Coal Plant, located east of town. Small teams of bikers carefully managed traffic in the intersections to ensure the safe passage of everyone on the bike ride, as folks enjoyed chants, small talk and a beautiful summer day.

After roughly an hour of pedaling from downtown Boulder, we arrived at the Valmont Coal Plant in high spirits. Community members started to turn over soil to prepare the ground for planting, while others erected signs reading “Our Power Our Future Our Choice”, “Planting a Clean Future”, and “Coal Plant in Transition.” We then planted sunflowers at the gates of the coal plant, to begin the transition away from dirty fossil fuels in our community. Sunflowers are useful in the soil remediation process, as they are able to extract arsenic and other coal-plant pollutants, out of the soil. They are also an example of a natural, sustainable and community-scale solution to the problems associated with coal and other fossil fuels.

via photo.dailycamera.com

Thanks to much community involvement, Boulder is well on its way to cutting its ties with Xcel Energy, a Minnesota-based, monopoly utility company that generates 90% of its electricity from fossil fuels. A ballot measure passed by a large margin last November allowed the city to take the first steps toward creating a publicly-owned municipal utility. This November, voters will have the opportunity to establish a municipal utility. Such a change would enable democratic decision-making over the source of our electricity, dramatically expand locally-generated renewable energy and — in tandem with efforts to expand the production of local food — help create a thriving and sustainable local community.

Solidarity to Tim DeChristopher and all our Rocky Mountain comrades from Utah to Montana.

via RAN.org

How much are you willing to sacrifice to save a piece of the world?

Today a federal judge in Salt Lake City sentenced climate activist Tim DeChristopher to two years in prison and fined him $10,000. After a 45 minute statement to the court where he said that it’s not that he doesn’t respect law but that he “has higher respect for justice,” Dechristopher was taken immediately into custody by federal marshals. Typically, federal offenders are afforded three weeks to get their lives in order and say goodbye to their friends and family.

In 2008, as a parting gift to the oil and gas industry, the Bush Administration opened up tracts of land in the southern Utah wilderness for development. DeChristopher derailed the auction for that land by falsely bidding in the land sale. The land sale was later proven to be illegal and invalidated. But after an aggressive prosecution by the Obama Administration, in March, Dechristopher was found guilty on two felonies and faced sentencing today.

Since his action, DeChristopher has become one of the loudest voices for civil disobedience against the fossil fuel industry.

Solidarity rallies happened all over the country today in support of Tim. Members of the Salt Lake City community blockaded the entrances of the federal courthouse in response to the sentencing. We held a rally at the San Francisco federal building. Here are some pics:

SF city supervisor and mayoral cadidate John Avalos said he was "Honored to be here in support of Bidder 70."

via publicbroadcasting.net

Time flies.

It was a little over two and half years ago that our dear friend and comrade Tim DeChristopher went into a federal land auction and stopped an illegal sale of Utah wilderness to the oil and gas industry. He was subsequently charged with two felonies and, last February, was convicted of them.

Next week, he’s set to be sentenced by a federal judge.

In the past six months, Tim’s voice calling for civil disobedience and a peaceful uprising against corporate fossil fuel companies has become louder and louder. And it’s working. In collaboration with grassroots activists all over the continent, direct action for climate justice is spreading and growing.

• In April, Rising Tide North America and Peaceful Uprising organized a mass unpermitted march through the streets of Washington D.C. to the Dept. of Interior in the aftermath of Power Shift. Over 300 people occupied the  lobby in protest of the department’s rubber stamp of fossil projects. 21 were arrested.
• In June, 250 people marched 5 days through West Virginia to historic Blair Mountain. On the final day, 1000 marched to the top of the mountain calling for an end to mountaintop removal mining.
• Last week, in Montana, Earth First! and Northern Rockies Rising Tide occupied MT Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s offices in protest of his support of tar sands development in his state. Five were arrested after locking themselves together with PVC pipes fashioned into a mock oil pipeline.
• Yesterday, the RAMPS campaign in West Virginia began two tree-sits on Coal River Mountain to stop strip mining on the iconic mountain. So far, two have been arrested and two remain in the canopy.
• On Aug. 4, community members are calling for direct action at BP’s New Orleans offices in protest of the oil company’s continued lack of accountability for the devastating oil spill.
• On Aug. 12, Rising Tide North America and the environmental justice community is teaming up with economic justice and labor groups in St. Louis to fight corporations destroying jobs and homes with economic collapse and the climate with coal.
• At the end of August, thousands are converging and risking arrest over 15 days at the White House in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Next Tuesday, the group that Tim co-founded, Peaceful Uprising, is organizing actions at federal courthouses and federal buildings across the country in solidarity with the sentencing happening in Salt Lake City. The time for talk and compromise on vital issues like climate change and fossil fuel extraction is past. Now is the time to get involved, take risks and try to make a difference.

Here’s how you can plug in:

1.Solidarity Actions: We are calling on activists to demonstrate solidarity and show our rejection of a corrupt justice system, by staging actions at federal district courts around the nation. Help send the government a clear message of love and outrage: we will not be intimidated or deterred. Register here.

2. Letters to the Editor: Our goal is to flood the national press leading up to July 26th. You can use Peace Up’s letter to the editor template and their talking points as tools to buttress your own personal perspective when you express to your local media what the climate crisis and Tim’s prosecution mean to you. Reach out to publications, community radio, and any local networks and help us make this happen.

Real change will come from the bottom, not from Presidents or Kings, and not from silver bullet events that awaken the world with an “a-ha,” but from long hard work on the ground building a movement.

Mountaintop Removal Damage via RAMPS

I love the smell of direct action in the morning.

Last week, I was part of Earth First! and Northern Rockies Rising Tide taking over the governor of Montana’s offices in protest of tar sands development, and this morning, the RAMPS Campaign put a couple of tree-sitters up on Coal River Mountain to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.

The tree-sit has stopped Alpha Natural Resources strip mining operations on Coal River Mountain. Catherine-Ann MacDougal and Becks Kolins currently are sitting in trees 80 feet off the ground about 300 feet from active blasting operations.

Their banners read “STOP STRIP MINING” and “FOR JUDY BONDS.”

via americanswhotellthetruth.org

Judy Bonds was an Appalachian leader in the anti-mountaintop removal fight who died of cancer earlier this year.

Judy’s daughter, Lisa Henderson, said in support of the tree-sit, “I hope that today’s actions serve as a symbol that the struggle to live peacefully and pollution-free in the Coal River Valley did not end when my mother’s life did.  My mother and I often compared the fight to survive here on Coal River to the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.  I am sure that generations from now, our children will look back on this movement also and the actions of the people involved, and ask the question of their elders, ‘Whose side were you on?’”

————————————-

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 20th, 2011
Contact: Mathew Louis-Rosenberg, 304-924-1836

Activists Block Mining Operations on Coal River Mountain Call for end to strip mining in the Coal River Watershed

MARFORK, W.Va. – Two protesters associated with the RAMPS Campaign halted blasting on a portion of Alpha Natural Resources’ Bee Tree mountaintop removal mine on Coal River Mountain today by ascending two trees.  Catherine-Ann MacDougal, 24, and Becks Kolins, 21, are on platforms approximately 80 feet off the ground within 300 feet of active blasting on the mine.  The banners hanging from their platforms read “Stop Strip Mining” and “For Judy Bonds” in honor of strip mining activist Julia “Judy” Bonds of Packsville, W.Va. who died of cancer earlier this year.  The activists demand that Alpha Natural Resources stop strip mining on Coal River Mountain and that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection prohibit future strip mining in the Coal River Watershed.

“I feel, with the keen urgency of extinction, that Alpha Natural Resources cannot be allowed to tear apart Coal River Mountain and allow all those living below it to suffer for their profits. The Coal River watershed cannot tolerate any more damage. There is no way that I can begin to detail the comprehensive destruction that surface mining and mountaintop removal wreak on the forest ecosystem of the southern Appalachian mountains,” said Catherine-Ann MacDougal.

Coal River Mountain is the last major intact mountain in the watershed, which encompasses roughly 570,000 acres in the heart of the southern WV coalfields.  Nearly a quarter of total land area in the watershed is being mined or permitted to be mined in the future, including over 5,000 acres of Coal River Mountain.  As of January 2011, Marfork Coal Company, a subsidiary of Alpha, has destroyed about 75 acres of Coal River Mountain on the Bee Tree permit, the only active mountaintop removal permit on the mountain.  Activists say they are determined to prevent further strip-mining.

Elias Schewel, 27, and Junior Walk, 21, are supporting the sitters from the base of their trees.   Walk, who grew up in Eunice W.Va. at the foot of Coal River Mountain says that he was inspired to take action, in part, by his lifelong relationship with Judy Bonds.

“The last two families to be driven out of this holler we’re in today were Judy Bonds and my great uncle and they both died of lung cancer. Judy spoke often about how hard it was to leave, but black water spill after black water spill, the blasting dust clouds, and fears for the health of her family forced her out. Packsville is gone. We’re not just losing our clean air and clean water. We’re losing our communities, our history, and our culture.”

Judy Bonds’ fears of the health impacts from coal operations have been increasingly backed up by research from WVU.  A recent public health study found a correlation between residence in a mountaintop removal area and higher rates of birth defects, even accounting for other socio-economic factors(i).  Public health research has linked residence in coal-impacted regions to increased rates of cancer, kidney disease, and some chronic illnesses, confirming long-held community concerns.(ii)(iii)

“Those who are drinking tainted water, breathing coal dust, and watching the mountains fall around them don’t need a scientific study to tell them what’s wrong,” noted MacDougal. Fellow tree sitter Becks Kolins remembers their first visit to the home of a Coal River Valley resident last year.

“He showed me his yearbook and pointed out everyone that had gotten cancer. The only teachers that hadn’t gotten cancer had made a point of not drinking the water.”

Lisa Henderson, Judy Bonds’ daughter and Coal River Valley resident, sees this action as a continuation of her mother’s work.

“I hope that today’s actions serve as a symbol that the struggle to live peacefully and pollution-free in the Coal River Valley did not end when my mother’s life did.  My mother and I often compared the fight to survive here on Coal River to the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.  I am sure that generations from now, our children will look back on this movement also and the actions of the people involved, and ask the question of their elders, ‘Whose side were you on?’”

RAMPS (Radical Action for Mountain People’s Survival) is a non-violent direct action campaign based in southern West Virginia dedicated to ending all forms of strip-mining in Appalachia.  Ongoing updates about this action will be available at www.rampscampaign.org.

###

i M. Ahern, M. Hendryx, J. Conley, E. Fedorko, A. Ducatman, and K. Zullig, “The association between mountaintop mining and birth defects among live births in central Appalachia, 1996-2003” Environmental Research in press, 2011 ii N.P. Hitt, M. Hendryx, “Ecological integrity of streams related to human cancer mortality rates.” Ecohealth. 2010 Aug;7(1):91-104.
iii M. Ahern, M. Hendryx, ““Relations between Health Indicators and Residential Proximity to Coal Mining in West Virginia.” American Journal of Public Health, 2008.

via RAMPS

–

Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in The Departed.

“When you decide to be something, you can be it. That’s what they don’t tell you in the church. When I was your age they would say we can become cops, or criminals. Today, what I’m saying to you is this: when you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?”

-Frank Costello, The Departed

What is the difference? I mean really, does it matter which side of the law you’re on when the end result is dead people? It sometimes baffles me, the legitimacy society grants to one group of people who go out and kill people through environmental and labor abuses, while deeming another group “illegitimate” because they kill people while operating in black markets dealing in gambling and drugs.

Case in point, one of last week’s big news stories was the capture of reputed Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger, who eluded federal authorities for 16 years. Last week, the 81-year-old Bulger was found living somewhat openly in a Santa Monica apartment complex with his long-time partner Catherine Greig. Bulger ran various nefarious rackets in Boston for decades, is linked personally to at least 19 murders, and was also the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s character, Frank Costello, in Martin Scorcese’s 2006 crime drama, The Departed.

Whitey Bulger mug shot via newcriminologist.com

Then we turn to West Virginia, where this week’s news story has been the revelation that another criminal organization, Massey Energy, faked mining safety reports at the Upper Big Branch mine before the disaster. The company fabricated a set of reports to show mining inspectors while maintaining another set of reports showing actual hazards. The subsequent explosion that occurred on April 5, 2010 killed 29 miners (10 more people than Whitey Bulger is accused of killing.)

This revelation comes on top of the indictment a few months ago of Massey’s chief security officer, Hughie Elbert Stover, for obstructing federal investigators in the Upper Big Branch mining disaster. The FBI is also investigating Massey officials for criminal negligence and bribery of federal regulators.

The only different difference between Whitey’s Winter Hill Gang and Massey? Massey has a corporate charter and operated under full protection of the government, while Whitey had to hide all his business transactions from the FBI, the DEA, the IRS, etc., etc.

Don Blankenship photo via huffingtonpost.com

Massey’s former CEO and reputed mob boss Don Blankenship, an outspoken opponent of mining regulation and active GOP funder, did everything possible to avoid compliance and created a corporate culture to fight regulation at every turn. Blankenship flooded West Virginia’s political system with Massey dollars to manipulate state regulators. Blankenship owned West Virginia politicians like Joe Manchin. And he funded vacations to the French Riviera for himself and West Virginia State Supreme Court Justices to influence rulings on Massey related cases.

An independent investigation has revealed that West Virginia’s politicians were afraid of Massey’s strong arm-style tactics, and the company ignored safety regulations to increase profit.

Blankenship is an arch criminal responsible for the deaths of those 29 miners, the destruction of 500 mountains (plus many miles of forest and waterways) and harming local Appalachian communities with toxic waste, flyrock and refuse from mountaintop removal sites.

But what’s the difference between Blankenship and Whitey Bulger?

Society deems Bulger’s occupation as drug dealer, loanshark and contract killer as illegitimate while Blankenship’s status as a corporate CEO is legit regardless of how much misery he spread. As a result, Whitey Bulger is looking at life in prison and maybe even the death penalty, while Blankenship got a nice golden parachute.