Mike Roselle, co-founder of RAN and Earth First!, now works in southern West Virginia with Climate Ground Zero campaigning against coal companies to end mountaintop removal. Last Thursday, he was released after two weeks in a West Virginia jail for sit-in at Massey’s HQ. Here’s his story:

How did they get in here?, Part One.
As the sun came up I was squatting in the brush looking down on our destination. It was snowy and cold, and we had hiked the two and a half miles up the holler and over a ridge, and now we could see the Marfork Coal Company headquarters below at the bottom of a tree covered slope that fell about a thousand feet before ending at the edge of a large parking lot. We saw two workers arrive, both female, and then two men, who all went inside the office to open it up as we had watched them do on earlier occasions. This time, however, as we readied to descend the slope, two of them reappeared in the parking lot with snow shovels and began clearing snow off the helicopter landing pad on the far side of the parking lot. They did this quickly, and after applying salt to the pavement, they hurried inside and all was quiet. Taking the lead, Tom went down carefully picking his way through the snow and underbrush. Joe and I sat down and slid on our asses, which was a quicker if less dignified and soon we were on the steps leading into the lobby of Marfork’s main office, a fortress protected by a bridge over the river, a guard shack and several layers of chain link and barbwire. More »

I often post details on various Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice actions happening in the Coal River Valley and other parts of West Virginia and Appalachia. It’s often a game of tit for tat as Massey is regularly destroying mountains and harming communities while our ragtag band of pro-mountain activists are shutting down those operations by putting their bodies on the line.

But, some of the more interesting aspects of this work are not playing out in the coalfields and on the mine sites, but in the courts. Massey’s harshest responses can come in the form of violence by it’s employees aimed at community activists, but also from the company itself in the form of restraining orders and civil lawsuits.

Last year, Massey attempted to bar not only activists arrested on their property from returning with temporary restraining orders (TRO), but also they continue to extend them to “associates” of the activists. In Massey’s lawyers estimation, this would bar potentially thousands from trespassing and thus hold them accountable in court.

Furthermore, they are leveling high dollar lawsuits against activists for loss of profits. The 5 person tree-sit team from Jan. has been sued for $75,000. In the past these suits have been called “SLAPP” suits, or “Strategic Litigation Against Public Particpation.” As activists have gotten more effective at slowing down the rate of destruction or pushing an issue onto the national stage, the corporations and the state respond by trying to limit their ability to organize effectively by bogging them down with financial and legal burdens.

Massey’s goals with this litigation is to cause the defendants to succumb to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and then abandon the campaign. It runs counter to the First Amendment which protects our freedom of speech. More »

You may remember that last June 23, dozens of activists, including myself, organized a daring action to shut down one of Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal sites in West Virginia. That day, fourteen brave activists entered Massey’s mountaintop removal site in Twilight, West Virginia. They risked their lives to shut down a massive, 20-story high earth-destroying piece of mining equipment known as a ‘dragline,’ and to protect the families whose lives are harmed every day for this destructive mining practice.

Read more about the dragline action.

The “Dragline 14″ needs your support! I need your support! Please donate!

Our subsequent legal costs have totaled over $23,000. Since last September, we have raised over half of it, but we still need to raise another $4,000 by early March.

I have donated to the Dragline 14 because I believe that sustaining the critical tradition of non-violent direct action is one of the only ways to ensure that we stop the destruction of eco-systems, the poisoning of communities and the contamination of precious drinking water from mountaintop removal. Together we must make a show of support for true heroes, and ensure that more follow in their footsteps.

Please donate to support the Dragline 14. More »

The legal system is loaded against people fighting King Coal in Appalachia. Over the past year, we’ve seen excessive “cash-only” bails for non-violent activists in jail and excessive fines once their legal matters are settled.

Now two of the three activists arrested last week at the Marfork Coal Company’s offices are fighting back against their excessive bails ($5000 for two and $7500 for the third activist, Mike Roselle).

These folks are putting their health and safety on the line in resisting big coal and the corrupt legal systems. Please donate to help Climate Ground Zero fight King Coal in southern West Virginia.

BEAVER, W.Va.—Tom Smyth, and Joe Hamsher, from Charleston, W.Va., began a hunger strike in jail today in protest of the absurdity of their $5,000, cash-only bonds compared to that of violent criminals. Smyth and Hamsher went to jail last Thursday when they chained themselves to office furniture in Massey’s Marfork Mining Co., office in response to mounting permit violations and the continued blasting on Coal River Mountain. They also presented a citizen’s arrest warrant to Marfork president Christopher Blanchard, on charges of attempting to injure by poison, malicious or unlawful assault or assault of a child near a school, and wanton endangerment. More »

Last week, Eric Blevins came down from a nine day tree-sit on Coal River Mountain. He then spent a couple of days in jail. While in jail, he wrote this letter to the Register-Herald in Beckley, WV and then dictated it over the phone to a support person at Climate Ground Zero.

This week, we commemorated the 50 year anniversary of the Greensboro sit-ins that were an integral part of the civil disobedience phase of the civil rights movement. Many of the students that participated in those sit-ins were trained at the Highlander School in Tennessee near Coal River Mountain tree-sitter Eric Blevin’s home.

As we ponder our next steps in the climate action and climate justice movements, we need to remember that this sort of large scale change requires sacrifice. With sacrifice, we need support. The civil rights activists risked their lives fighting segregation in the south. Many spent long periods of time in jail. During the Greensboro sit-ins, violence and harassment of protesters often escalated.

So far, the coal industry and their political allies, inside and out of Appalachia, are fighting the anti-mountaintop removal legally (both criminal and civil), often resulting in jail time and fines. There have also been threats and acts of violence directed at community members, organizers and activists in the coalfields. Eric and his fellow tree-sitters sat in 60 ft. trees for over a week while coal company employees harassed and abused them with constant noise, bright lights, tree shaking and threats of spraying them down with fire hoses. At the end of their tree-sit, Massey Energy has sued them for $75,000 and filed for a temporary restraining order in federal court.

To me, there are a number of obvious parallels to the Greensboro sit-ins and the Coal River tree-sits. Like our predecessors in the civil rights movement, the anti-mountaintop removal movement has drawn a line in the sand to end the “pervasive and irreversible impacts” of mountaintop removal and can’t give up.

Here’s Eric’s letter from a jail in southern West Virginia:

This is in response to the article in Saturday’s paper about Amber and I coming down from our tree sit and the letter about paid, outsider environmentalists who support the EPA, which I read while sitting in the Southern Regional Jail.

I am not an outsider. I am an Appalachian. Virginia-based Massey Energy is an outsider. The people who live in the mountains and work on the mine sites work harder, longer hours and make less money than those who work at Massey’s headquarters in Richmond. All the people here should control how the land around them is used and they should profit the most from it, not people in an office far away who aren’t as impacted by the decisions they make that destroy our mountains. More »

The nine day Coal River Mountain tree-sit that ended on Friday has entered a new phase. Mining giant Massey Energy has filed for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in federal court and sued five activists that were part of the action for $75,000 in damages. Ken Ward from the WV Gazette posted the order by Judge Irene Berger.

For the past year, Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice activists have utilized direct action tactics on Massey and other mining company property to stop the destruction of Appalachia’s mountains. Massey has frequently responded to actions in court seeking financial damages and with restraining orders. More »

After enduring over a week of ice and rain, mind-numbing noise abuse and harassment by Massey security, Eric and Amber came down today. The Climate Ground Zero tree sitters vowed that the fight to save Coal River Mountain and stop mountaintop removal is far from over.

More »

After almost a week of preventing blasting on Coal River Mountain, tree-sitters with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice still continue to prevent Massey’s blasting near the Bee Tree site. Massey security blasts air horns 24 hours a day, and bright lights at night, with hopes of forcing the sitters down. Despite the audio and psychological abuse, Eric Blevins and Amber Nitchman refuse to descend. Two men have been arrested in separate attempts at a re-supply (which included ear protection). Furthermore, Massey security operatives have been overheard on two-way radios threatening to blast the tree-sitters with high pressure fire hoses, which would almost certainly be lethal to Eric and Amber. More »

The fight over Coal River Mountain is escalating. Miners are using loud air horn like noises and bright lights to keep the tree-sitters up at all hours in hopes of bring them down. To counter this tactics, the tree-sitters have called the state police (which shut the noise down for a while) and now Climate Ground Zero has initiated a call in day on Massey’s HQ in Richmond Virginia. So far, hundreds have called in demanding the Massey stop their abuses.

Call Massey and Demand a Stop to Their Illegal Abuses

In response to Massey Energy’s harmful abuse of the Coal River Mountain tree sitters, call Massey’s international headquarters Monday, Jan. 25, starting at 9 a.m. and demand they immediately stop illegally using noisemakers to harass the tree sitters.

Can you call Massey?

Call Massey NOW and ask for
Baxter Phillips, President 1804-788-1807. If you can’t reach him, call the switch board at:
(804) 788-1800 -

After four days 60 ft up in the air, the treesitters, David Aaron Smith, 23, Amber Nitchman, 19 and Eric Blevins, 28, are still going strong. Massey’s sleep deprivation by air horn isn’t making things easy, and the sleet, fog, mist, and rain aren’t helping either – but every time that people have talked to them, they sound upbeat and steadfast. The sitters plan to endure the discomforts created by Massey security and the weather and hold out for as long as possible to defend Coal River Mountain.

Instead of permanently ending blasting on Coal River, Massey is trying to harass the sitters into leaving using the sound machine, hitting the platforms with a rope, cutting down nearby trees and constant flood lights. Some of the harassment has stopped, but the sound machine continues, possibly causing permanent hearing loss. We need to call Massey’s international headquarters Monday, Jan. 25, starting at 9 a.m. and demand they immediately stop illegally using noisemakers to harass the tree sitters. More »

The three tree sitters positioned near Massey’s Bee Tree Strip Mine on Coal River Mountain weathered their first night with Massey’s attempts to break them with bright lights and loud noises (those ear plugs come in pretty handy) and cold January weather with no problems at all. Sitting in barren oak trees and a poplar, Eric Blevins, 28, Amber Nitchman, 19, and David Aaron Smith, 23 have all stated that they intend to stay until the blasting ends.

Check out this brief video of the tree sit set up:

Yesterday, West Virginia police arrested two ground support and left the area. After their departure Massey began clearing trees around the tree sit making room for cherry picker to extract the sitters. For unknown reasons, the cherry picker left the premises. Too rough a terrain? Weather? The tree-sitters are currently not located on the permit, but close to it. Regulations do require that no blasting occur when individuals are 300 feet from the blast area. The trees’ location on Coal River Mountain directly impedes on Massey Energy’s attempt to build an access road to an impoundment where the toxic leftovers from coal processing (or, “slurry”) are being held back from the communities below. Their banners state: “EPA: Halt the Blasting”, “Windmills Not Toxic Spills”, and “Save Coal River Mountain.” More »