Action Reports – Page 15

story of direct action behind fracking ban in New York

Did Somebody Say Direct Action? What’s Missing from the Victory Narrative

We have heard a lot about what stopped the fracking boom in New York after Governor Cuomo banned it last week.

While some insist that faltering prices that did the gas boom in, others credit the seven-year legal battle with stopped the practice. The running narrative is that it’s a combination of grassroots political involvement—going to public hearings, submitting comments, and doing ecological studies. But there’s another element people aren’t talking about as much.

What we don’t hear about is the intense blossoming of direct action that has generated a network of several Earth First! groups who have been working diligently to shut down fracking operations and natural gas infrastructure for the last six years. This movement spans a gamut of tactics, from protests to blockades to other escapades. It has been upsetting business as usual, costing the corporations money and the politicians credit.

In short, it’s working.

EF! in the Mix

The Marcellus Shale Earth First! Network sprung into action soon after the first wells started getting tested, and rapidly assembled several groups around the Marcellus, including Hudson Valley EF! (HVEF!) and Finger Lakes EF! (FLEF!), which have been active in direct action struggles.

In May of this year, Hudson Valley Earth First! (HVEF!) disrupted the 9th annual Northeast Power and Gas Markets Conference in New York City, sending home the message that fracking would not be accepted in the state.

Other groups involved have been Susquehanna Valley EF!, Genessee Valley EF!, and Occupy WELL Street.

“This campaign has been going on for almost two years, but now it’s getting serious,” said April Rogers, a member of HVEF! “If trucks show up, we’ll be there to stop them!”

Indeed, two years before the disruption in NYC, HVEF! stopped construction on a compressor station in Minisink, NY, along the Millenium Pipeline.

EF! has been engaged in this movement since the Newswire has been in existence, protesting outside of public hearings, drawing a spotlight with outrageous actions, and growing the movement.

In Winter of last year, MSEF! went on an extensive tour of New York and Pennsylvania, spreading the good word about direct action against fracking after a crucial victory defending the Loyalsock State Forest from fracking in Pennsylvania.

As the collective put it at the time, “MSEF! is a creative and growing movement, and sharing our struggle with others around PA and NY made it clear that the campaign to defend the Loyalsock is one that will unite many people.”

Prior to halting fracking in the Loyalsock, MSEF! engaged in a prolonged campaign against the Tennessee Pipeline through a lockdown, two consecutive treesits, and a two-week road blockade matched with a nine-day treesit.

The MSEF! network also shut down fracking operations in the Tiadaghton State Forest earlier this year and blockaded fracking trucks in the Moshannon State Forest in 2012.

Despite tremendous resistance, fracking in Pennsylvania is still going on, and activists continue to work to shut it down.

The Infrastructure Fight Still Needs Support

While the EF! network has been holding action camps and engaging in a number of campaigns, perhaps the largest of the area’s anti-gas struggles has been the We Are Seneca Lake campaign.

In a three-week blockade this November, 19 people were arrested halting construction of Crestwood Midstream’s gas storage facility on Seneca Lake.

Just this month, more than 100 people attended a demonstration outside of the court where the arrested were being arraigned. That day, nine more people were arrested locking themselves to the gates of Crestwood’s facility.

This came after a peaceful blockade in March which saw the arrest of 12 activists. Three more were arrested at their trial in April.

In total, some 92 people have been arrested in the movement to halt the Crestwood facility—a rousing campaign that is ongoing and needs your support!

If the movement against gas transport and storage is still raging in New York, its visibility has thrown the spotlight on the controversial practice of fracking as well. Chesapeake EF! is involved in the ongoing campaign against fracking exports in the Maryland Cove Point facility, and other campaigns continue to build steam.

Movement Builders

The victory in New York is a key movement builder, because it helps us recognize the components that make them happen, and focus on the campaigns that need support with greater numbers and resources.

Direct action is just one piece of the larger puzzle to stop industrial exploitation and destruction of land and livelihood. And, with community rights movements, legal battles, and protest movements, it’s winning.

It is important to note that these actions have taken place not just in New York, but in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well. This is a bioregional struggle, and claiming success in New York is not the end. The movement to stop fracking won’t stop at legal battles; it relies on the vigilance of communities impacted by the unsafe practices, and it will continue to expand throughout the Marcellus Shale until all fracking operations are shut down once and for all.

No Compromise!

Maules Creek coal mine protests, down under

No “Coal for Christmas” as Whitehaven Coal Disruptions Continue in New South Wales

from Frontline Action

MAULES CREEK, 24 December 2014: A man has suspended himself from a rail bridge crossing the Namoi River blocking a coal train being loaded at Whitehaven Coal’s controversial Maules Creek mine from leaving the site. The train blocked at the Maules Creek mine is believed to be the first containment of coal from the site after a test train – twice disrupted by activists – left the site last week. The rail bridge also services Idemitsu Resource’s Boggabri Coal mine.

Ben Solity, a 31 year old logistics consultant, cited deep concerns about the impact the mine will have on water and the climate, saying, “Farmers need water to continue to put food on our tables – so why are companies like Whitehaven allowed to take it with preference over farmers? Farmer’s jobs are only going to get harder for them as the effects of climate change driven by coal takes hold. Why are our governments selling out our water and our climate for a quick buck when food security is at stake?”

Leard Forest Alliance spokesperson Phil Evans said, “Australians do not want coal for Christmas – and Whitehaven are trying to sneak it into their stockings whilst everyone is distracted. Just more slimy behaviour from this disgraced company – and project – that has seen Australians lose faith in mining approval processes in this country.”

“We need a stop to this farce immediately – stop work and then have a good long, hard look at how successive NSW governments, embroiled in mining related corruption, have allowed the Maules Creek mine approval to stick.”

Both Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek and Idemitsu’s Bogggabri mines have approval to expand into the critically endangered Leard State Forest this February – sparking this warning from the protest group.

“They have a battle on their hands if they think local farmers, traditional custodians and concerned citizens are going to allow this wholesale destruction. The forest, water, climate and culture are all too precious to lose – and we won’t take this lying down.”

The Leard Forest Alliance is a group made up of local farmers, prominent environmental groups with a treaty of protection with the Gomeroi traditional custodians of the area. Over 300 people have been arrested since the campaign began over 2 and half years ago.

UPDATE 09:00: Regular police have arrived – no Police Resuce yet. Ben remains in place.

UPDATE 14:30: Ben has just unfurled a banner reading “Whitehaven Coal – No Water – No Future”

UPDATE 16:15: Police Rescue have arrived on site.

UPDATE 16:35: Police Rescue are trying to get to Ben with a Cherry Picker supplied by Whitehaven Coal.

UPDATE 17:00: Ben says Police Rescue are taking apart the bridge to get to him!

UPDATE 18:30: Police Rescue have begun to cut off the now locked on Ben.

UPDATE 19:30: Ben has been arrested and taken to Narrabri Police Station after 13 hours.

Further Information:
Phil Evans, Leard Forest Alliance Spokesperson, 0490 064 139

Twitter updates @FLACCoal and #LeardBlockade

December 16th, 2014

Protest Halts First Coal Train from Maules Creek Mine

from Front Line Action on Coal

Newcastle, Australia 15 December: A peaceful blockade has halted the first train load of coal coming from the controversial Maules Creek coal mine on its way to Newcastle’s Kooragang Island coal export terminals this morning.

A group of 22 people met the train this morning. Eight people have occupied and stopped the train and are refusing to leave.

The train was stopped during the night and delayed for over 6 hours by a protestor who locked onto locomotives needed to push the coal over the Great Dividing Range. The 58 year-old protestor, Bruce, from Northern Rivers, has been arrested. Speaking about why he took action, Bruce said:

“Australia’s response to climate change is headed completely backwards. “If we can stop this new coal mine we set a precedent for the rest of Australia to stand up.”

Jonathan Moylan from Frontline Action on Coal said, “Over the last twelve months, hundreds of people have been arrested slowing down construction of the Maules Creek mine. The fate of our country, and people everywhere, depends on coal being left in the ground. In the absence of leadership from the industry or the Government to shut down coal exports and prevent dangerous climate change, ordinary people have taken extraordinary action to stop this mine.

“A growing number of people are standing up to the coal industry’s plans to ship increasing volumes of coal and fuel dangerous climate change. Doctors, people of faith, IPCC scientists and earlier this month, former Wallabies captain David Pocock, have all taken action to halt construction at Maules Creek. Even Malcolm Fraser last week tweeted about Maules Creek, referring to the coal sector as an ‘industry of a past age’.

Local Newcastle mother, Vanessa Wiebford said, “I want my daughter to have a future without the horror of extreme heat and fire, and uncertain water and food production. I am bitterly disappointed in Australia’s political leadership and their unthinking support for expanded coal exports at a time when we’re already seeing alarming signs of dangerous climate change.

“If they’re not going to act to prevent this, then all parents have a duty to risk arrest to try and stop it ourselves.

2014 is now expected to break the record as the hottest year in Australia’s history. Heatwave conditions were observed in many parts of the country during our hottest spring on record this year, and the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a return to El Nino conditions at a time when much of Queensland and parts of New South Wales are already drought declared.

The burning of coal exported from Australia is this country’s biggest single contribution to climate change, and production and export of coal increased in the last 12 months.

“With the international climate negotiations in Lima failing to deliver the scale of action needed, people around the world will next year have to take their future into their own hands like never before. Ordinary people are stepping up to do what it takes to stop the fossil fuel industry’s dangerous expansion plans,” said Moylan.

UPDATE 6:00 am: Coal train is stopped.

UPDATE 8:15 am: The five activists have been lower from atop the coal wagon by police.

UPDATE 9:00am: The coal train starts moving again after 3 hours at a stand still.

UPDATE 12:30pm: Four activists released after being processed at Waratah police station.

Media Enquiries

On the ground: Jonathan Moylan: 0431 289 766 | Vanessa Wiebford: 0409 021 976
Off-site: Charlie Wood: 0427 485 233
Photos Available at: http://bit.ly/13nps8U

FANG Shuts Down Spectra Energy after Sit-in at Senator’s Office, US

December 17th, 2014

The New England group Fighting Against Natural Gas has conducted two rousing actions in the last two days against greenwashing, fracking, and energy infrastructure.

December 17th, 2014

The New England group Fighting Against Natural Gas has conducted two rousing actions in the last two days against greenwashing, fracking, and energy infrastructure.

Here is the statement from FANG:

On Wednesday morning a group of New Englanders were arrested for occupying and shutting down the offices of Spectra Energy to protest the company’s plans to expand a network of fracked gas pipelines in the region.

The group deployed multiple banners demanding funders divest from Spectra Energy due to the impacts of the company’s projects to local communities and the climate, with one of them hanging from a 24 foot tripod and refusing to leave.

“As long as Spectra is committed to the business of devastating local health and the climate, we’re committed to disrupting their business.”

This action took place one day after a sit-in at Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s office. Another statement:

“A group of fifteen police officers just cleared the occupation of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s office. Peter Nightengale a professor of physics at URI was arrested.

Everyone – please don’t think of Senator Whitehouse as a “climate champion” anymore. At least until he stops supporting the Spectra pipeline and he stops having climate activists arrested.”

Nine arrested in Newcastle blocking Maules Creek train

14 Dec 2014

Nine people have been arrested after blockading the first train load of coal coming from the Maules Creek coal mine at Narrabri to Newcastle's Kooragang Island.

The train was stopped at Sandgate, near Newcastle, for more than three hours with police removing five people from on top of one of the carriages.

Earlier this morning a 58-year-old man was arrested after locking himself onto locomotives, at Willow Tree, south of Tamworth.

Jonathan Moylan from 'Frontline Action On Coal' said today's protest is the latest in a long line of action against the controversial Maules Creek mine.

"All the people who were occupying the rail line have been arrested," he said.

"So we imagine the train will continue, seriously delayed, from when it first left the Maules Creek mine."

Acting Inspector Mick Kelly said he is not against peaceful protests, but the nine protestors went too far.

"Police definitely support protesting but in a peaceful manner and certainly within the bounds of the law," he said.

"This protest here certainly put lives at risk with the train travelling.

"It put stress on the train drivers and as a result it held up over one hundred trains."

Police said the blockage prevented around 100 trains from getting through.

Acting Inspector Kelly said the protestors are facing a number of charges.

"They did not comply with any police verbal directions to get down and Police Rescue were summonsed and as a result they eventually came down off the train," he said.

"At the moment we are still looking at the charges, and investigations are continuing into that matter."

Hunting Badger: Police Offer £10,000 Reward After Bristol Anarchist Attacks

December 6th, 2014

by Steven Morris / The Guardian

It is the city of the subversive street artist Banksy, a centre for alternative lifestyles and underground politics. Even the directly elected independent mayor, George Ferguson, praises the anarchic spirit of Bristol.

But over the last four years the city and its environs have been targeted by radicals who have not been satisfied with non-violent expression and protest.

The police have revealed for the first time that they are linking more than 100 acts of vandalism against police stations, politicians, military bases, banks, multinational companies, car dealerships, railway lines, magistrates courts and churches believed to have been carried out by anarchists. They have put a £10,000 reward on the head of one suspected offender, a 27-year-old activist called Huw “Badger” Norfolk.

A permanent team of 10 detectives, working under the codename Operation Rhone, has been set up to try to trace the perpetrators and police have warned that it can only be a matter of time before somebody is seriously hurt or killed in one of the attacks. “I’m really surprised that nobody has been injured so far,” said DCI Andy Bevan, who is leading the search.

But Bristol’s long-established anarchist community is not taking the police operation lying down. The minorityresponsible for the violence has vowed to continue the attacks. Many of the vast majority not involved have hit back at what they see as attempts by the police to prop up the establishment, suppress radicalism and split the community. They are organising demonstrations against the police.

“The feeling is that they are using these attacks as an excuse for targeting anyone with alternative ideas. It’s not going to work,” said one anarchist, who asked not to be named. “It is a strong, solid community. That’s why the police can’t find the people they are after.”

Avon and Somerset police took the unusual step this week of naming Norfolk in connection with two incidents. One was a vandalism attack on the offices of the Bristol Post in August 2011 at the time of protests around Britain following the shooting of Mark Duggan in north London. Windows were smashed and paint splashed over the front of the building. The other was an arson attack on a phone mast in January 2013 that cut off television, radio and mobile phone signals to thousands of homes and businesses.

Norfolk is a well-known and largely popular figure within the UK anarchy scene. He was born in the leafy Bristol suburb of Westbury-on-Trym to David Norfolk and Gill Garrett.

The Cambridge-educated David Norfolk, 65, runs a consultancy advising the nuclear industry. Garrett, 64, is a retired lecturer and author of medical textbooks and a well-known local poet. Earlier this year she wrote a poem about waiting for her son’s birth and worrying that an early spring would precipitate his arrival: “Delay your debut until spring has truly come.”

Their daughter, who is two years older than Badger, followed a conventional career route, attending university and found finding work in health and social care.

In contrast, after leaving school Huw Norfolk moved from squat to squat, mainly in Bristol, but at one point was living in the nearby Forest of Dean. For a while he helped run anarchist book fairs in Bristol and helped out at a community kitchen. “He’s a gentle, lovely guy but committed to the cause,” said one friend.

At the time of the attack on the Bristol Post he was believed to be living in a squat on Park Row in the centre of Bristol but when police raided the premises looking for him he had gone. While on the run, he posted a defiant open letter on the anarchist website 325.nostate spelling out his world view and extolling the virtues of “proud lives of rebellion and compassion, reclamation and antagonism, poetry and fire”.

He said: “I am one of those who simply cannot and will not stomach the social, economic, moral, psychological, physical conditions not of our making that we are born into at this point of history. I have never sought to decorate the walls of my cell with exam certificates, job promotions, sports prizes, status symbols borrowed from the wealthy by our labour.

“I curse those who sell themselves so cheaply to buy such unimaginative dreams at the expense of a possibility of a freedom truly of their own making. Since an early age this unwillingness and refusal has put me in conflict, like countless others, with that reality. And our understanding is growing along with our fury.”

He signed off the 800-word letter: “Action replaces tears. For solidarity and self-organisation, Huw ‘Badger’ Norfolk – just another fugitive.”

Since then police have found no trace of Norfolk. They have linked him to the attack on the communications mast in January last year but now believe he may be lying low somewhere else in Britain – or could be abroad.

They have published details of his appearance, including distinctive tattoos, but said he was known to change his appearance and use other names.

Although the police have only identified the two incidents they want to speak to Norfolk about, there are many more that the police have not linked to him. By far the most spectacular was an arson attack on a new police firearms centre close to the Avon and Somerset’s force headquarters in August 2013, which caused £16m of damage.

The spectacular arson attack on a new police firearms centre in 2013
caused £16m of damage. Photograph: BBC

A group calling itself Angry Foxes Cell claimed on 325.nostate that it had carried out the attack. “We left it with flames licking high … It put smiles on our faces to realise how easy it was to enter their gun club and leave a fuck you signature right in the belly of the beast, with a curious fox as our only witness.”

The post claimed the attack was “also our way of marking two years that Bristol anarchist Badger has evaded capture” and added: “Stay free, keep fighting!”

There is no sign of the attacks stopping. Just before the Nato summit took place in Newport, south Wales, in September this year a group calling itself “Random Anarchists” set fire to an Air Cadet minibus in Bristol to highlight “the ways in which militarisation works its way into the fabric of daily life”.

The latest took place at the end of last month when five cars were torched in Long Ashton on the edge of the city. Four of the cars were parked on driveways and police said they could easily have put sleeping householders at risk.

On the 325.nostate site the attack was claimed by “FAI Torches in the Night/Earth Liberation Front”. It said two of the cars had been linked to a multinational power company and a provider of security equipment; the other three were high-end cars targeted to highlight the “green washing” charade of Bristol’s status as European green capital next year.

The police have stepped up their search for the attackers in recent months, angering many within Bristol’s non-violent alternative community. One activist, Al, an office worker in his 20s, who said his house was raided by an “army” of Operation Rhone officers, dismissed the police justification that they were trying to prevent anyone dying.

Arson attacks in Long Ashton last month destroyed five cars.
Photo from The Guardian

He argued that nobody had been hurt in the attacks – while people were dying in police custody all the time. “If the police want to prevent deaths, they should leave us alone and start arresting each other,” he told the Guardian.

Al said: “I think that the police’s actions are an attempt to make it look like they’re doing something. They care more about their image in the press than about the welfare of ordinary people. Their choice of who to target is also political and feels like harassment policing – making it clear that they know where we live and work, and that they can come into our homes and take what they want, whenever they like.

“This hasn’t worked – I knew already that police are here to keep the rich in power and keep us down. Since the raid, I also know that people in my community will stand by me and support me, whatever the police try to do. I hope that they stop harassing people, but if they do not then they should know that it will only make us more united, and more angry.”

Last month a group of about 20 anarchists turned up at the headquarters of Avon and Somerset police’s CID and special operations unit and made a nuisance of themselves as officers arrived for work.

A letter was published on websites including that of the Bristol Anarchist Federation and Bristol Defendant Solidarity, signed by more than a dozen groups accusing the police of resorting to “desperate” tactics to try to hunt down those behind the attacks.

It claimed the police had launched a “concerted effort to intimidate and divide us all,” adding: “A big part of their plan is to scare people into inaction and to create divisions between us. They hope to get us blaming each other for increased surveillance to the point where someone falls for their lies and starts talking to the bad guys.”

Bevan said he believed only a small group of anarchists was behind the attacks, arguing that if the group was a big one, someone would have broken ranks. He said the attacks were well planned and skilfully executed, suggesting the perpetrators were organised and intelligent.

He was keen to emphasise that the financial impact was just one element, claiming that as well as putting human lives at risk, some of the incidents had caused environmental damage.

Bevan insisted that the force was not trying to clamp down on Bristol’s counter-culture or harassing people with alternative lifestyles. “That’s a fantastic part of the city. Avon and Somerset police supports peaceful protest. These attacks are something quite different.”

Australia: Anti-Coal Lockdowns Continue

GUNNEDAH, 4 December 2014: Sustained protest against Whitehaven Coal’s controversial Maules Creek mine in the Leard State Forest continues this morning, as two men chained themselves to a concrete barrel at Whitehaven Coal’s Gunnedah coal handling and preparation plant. 31 year old Maules Creek farm-hand Adam Ryan and 37 year old, Sydney based father and corporate lawyer, Matthew Drake-Brockman have taken action to protest against what Drake-Brockman describes as the ‘lax approval processes’ that allowed the scandal-plagued mine to go ahead.

Mr Ryan, born in nearby Wee Waa, cited concerns about mining impacts on water and the subsequent effect on the local agricultural industry, saying “this mine is destroying the community that I have known my whole life. The time for standing by has passed, we have to stand up for our community.”

Mr Drake-Brockman was involved in a 2007 lawsuit against the then Planning Minister regarding planning approval processes, with the case focussing on the fact that the approval did not take into account the impacts of climate change.

Mr Drake-Brockman said, “The whole process between what goes on in parliament and what goes on in industry is not transparent – there is no way the public can know what’s going on. There is not a great deal of room for input from the public in this system – if there was we would already be moving away from coal and into renewable energy.”

Drake-Brockman continued, “It has become necessary that we all stand up and become citizen activists against the corrupt state government and Whitehaven Coal and to stand in solidarity with farmer’s, whose livelihood and health are under threat, and will only get worse with climate change.”

In the last week there have been 10 arrests including high profile former Wallabies captain, David Pocock, prominent local farmer, Rick Laird and IPCC contributing author, Prof. Colin Butler. The long running protest camp has seen thousands flock to protest the mine and over 290 arrests take place.

Leard Forest Alliance spokesperson, Phil Evans said, “Hundreds of Australians including doctors, professors, World War II veterans, sports players and young people have stood alongside local farmers and risked arrest to say that the Maules Creek project is wrong and should not go ahead. Surely, this sends a signal that something is broken with the way we decide on whether coal mines go ahead.”

“We need an immediate stop to work whilst there is a long, hard look at the planning approval process – so that ordinary Australians can have faith in their government’s independence from big coal and the big end of town.”

Whitehaven Coal’s share-price fell to new lows this week dipping to $1.07 on Tuesday.

UPDATE 12:30pm: Police have arrived on site.

UPDATE 4:30pm: Both men have been arrested and taken to Gunnedah police station to be charged.

Further Information:

Phil Evans

Leard Forest Alliance Spokesperson

0490 064 139

Pictures and footage for media use: https://www.mediafire.com/#ir1c4tq4oncu2

Twitter updates @FLACCoal and #LeardBlockade

from Front Line Action on Coal

Protests by Plane Stupid and Transition Heathrow in unity against aviation expansion

3/12/14

Early this morning protesters from Plane Stupid and Transition Heathrow scaled the Heathrow Park Inn Hotel and dropped banners saying “Any new runway would be Plane Stupid” and “Runner beans not runways” in order to show resistance to the Davies Commission’s consultation proposing a future runway at either Heathrow or Gatwick.

If Heathrow Airport’s proposal for a third runway went ahead, much of the village of Harmondsworth would be demolished, with the neighbouring villages of Sipson and Harlington also under threat. Over a million people living in London could be affected by long term noise and air pollution caused by this aggressive expansion. Heathrow are already exceeding EU air pollution limits, this is likely to increase not decrease with a new runway.

The Davies’ commission argues that an expanded aviation industry would still allow the possibility of the UK staying within its 2050 climate targets of an 80% reduction of CO2 (1), which is needed to prevent a climate catastrophe. This estimate relies on predicted technological change and the use of bio-fuels. Both are unproven and allow aviation to remain a special case, absolving the industry of any climate responsibility. We find this unacceptable.

Plane Stupid campaigner Charlie Smith said:

“The Davies Commission is a farce, it has not allowed for the possibility that the best option for the country and the planet is to avoid any further aviation expansion and seek investment in alternative means of transport. The Commission has prohibited a real debate about our transport future and as such encourages any future government to expand its aviation infrastructure thus sending us further along the road to climate chaos”

Claremont Road M11 road protests 20 years on – video & more

3rd Dec 2014

Paying tribute to Claremont Road, E11, the State of the Art, 20 years on. To all who were born, died and lived there. To those who fought to save it from roadbuilding madness. Back in 1994 quiet East London backstreet played host to one of the longest and most expensive, and certainly the most ecclectic and colourful evictions in British history.

Oil Train Blockades in the Pacific Northwest and the Transformative Power of Direct Action

December 1st, 2014

A protester sits atop the apex of a tripod blocking the tracks at the Global Partners oil terminal in Oregon.

Direct action can deeply transform participants in ways critical to mobilization and innovation in the climate movement

“One, two, three, lift!”

With that command, a group of about eight people from Portland Rising Tide and South Sound Rising Tide shouldered three heavy, 30-foot steel poles. Balancing the poles, they slowly walked down the railroad tracks leading to the Global Partners oil terminal about a mile away on the Columbia River, and 60 miles northeast of Portland, OR. Within minutes the poles were converted into a tripod and Sunny Glover was climbing up and assembling a platform some 25 feet from the ground. Individuals were dispatched to inform the port authorities, and those on the ground awaited word from the teams up and down the tracks in the event of an approaching train. No trains carrying Bakken oil would come through that day. The blockade lasted some nine hours into the night until the police dangerously cut the tripod legs one by one, a couple feet at a time, while Glover’s neck was still locked to one of the poles.

While the duration of the blockade was itself impressive, this action also contained something little acknowledged, but equally powerful: the ability of this kind of direct action to transform the participants themselves.

The massive nature of the climate crisis and the unwillingness of existing political leaders and institutions to act has created a cynicism and paralysis that often quiets us in the very moment when it is most critical that we act. It is not sufficient for direct action to target only those individuals and companies responsible for the crisis. These actions must also offer the possibility of a transformation that changes our sense of power, inspires others, and overcomes the cynicism at the heart of disengagement. We must also be the targets of our own actions.

The Global Partners blockade was part of a series of actions over the summer of 2014. It followed on the heels of a similar tripod blockade at the Everett rail yard several weeks earlier. In that instance, Seattle Rising Tide blocked an oil train in the rail yard for over eight hours. One person sat atop the apex of the tripod while four others were locked to the tripod’s legs. Earlier this year, Rising Tide, a network orienting to confronting the root causes of the climate crisis and promoting community-based solutions, also organized blockades at the Anacortes refinery in Washington, which receives oil trains, and at the Arc Logistics oil terminal in Portland, OR. In both actions individuals were arrested after blocking the train tracks with concrete-filled barrels that they had locked themselves to. In another event at Arc Logistics, five protesters blockaded the entrances to the terminal while a hundred supporters rallied nearby. In that case, the terminal operators preemptively shut the facility down after learning of the impending blockade. When all was said and done, a total of ten people were arrested in these five actions targeting the Everett rail yard, the Anacortes Refinery, Global Partners and the Arc Logistics oil terminal, which represent just a few of the 12 proposed or existing oil-by-rail facilities in the Pacific Northwest.

The surge in action during the summer of 2014 came in response to industry proposals that would move some 850,000 barrels per day via oil-by-rail to terminals and refineries in the Northwest. These projects have been developed in response to the fossil fuel boom occurring in North America, including in the Bakken shale field, and the broader increase in coal, oil, and gas export facilities. The enormous spike in oil rail traffic, increasing from 5,000 rail cars in 2006 to 400,000 rail cars by 2013, has lead to serious catastrophes throughout North America, including most significantly the explosions that killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec in July 2013. (Read the Journal’s Summer cover story “Highly Flammable,” for details.) Despite these disasters, politicians and existing regulatory agencies have offered only rhetorical concern while still enabling dangerous rail projects. As a result, citizens throughout the Northwest have begun to mobilize.

Despite the recent announcement of a US-China bilateral climate agreement, those of us concerned with the climate crisis have to confront a harsh reality: In the very moment where a rapid, just transition away from fossil fuels is needed, the opposite is occurring. A project of massive fossil fuel expansion, enabled by the same administration responsible for the recent climate agreement, threatens the slight and insufficient carbon dioxideemissions reductions made by the United States. This reality is readily transparent to the public, who correctly understand that existing institutions are not moving fast enough to address the climate crisis. It is often this dissonance, and the lack of forms of action that address it, that prevents action and causes many to divert their gaze from the impending disaster of climate change.

Protesters at the Global Partners oil terminal in Oregon.

That’s why actions that offer the possibility of a transformation are essential in climate organizing. Direct action presents new understandings of who we are, what kinds of power we have, and broadens our view of the avenues possible for social change. In this sense we should consider ourselves the targets of our own actions, alongside any other targets we might be aiming for.

On the tracks at the Global Partners oil terminal in Oregon, as in other places, this personal transformation was most definitely apparent. Not only did the blockade restrict access to the oil terminal and garner high profile media attention, it also created a new sense of being in participants, reversing the powerlessness we often feel when trying to access vertical power structures dominated by industry lobbyists and campaign contributions. For Glover, this kind of action “felt stronger… it upended that pyramid a little bit because we were doing something was impossible to ignore or dismiss entirely.” What is more, it “felt like it encouraged a deeper sense of connection… and brought people together more strongly.”

Key participants in these blockades, many new to this kind of direct action, described the empowering, joyful, liberating experience of the action on themselves. In taking action in the Everett train yard, Abby Brockway described how the experience was the “first time that I’ve ever really felt like I was acting on making a difference rather than experiencing the frustration of attending hearings, or writing letters, or meeting politicians, or voting.” Participation in the blockades changed who these protesters were and how they acted, not only during the blockade, but also, critically, after the action was over.

Over the last decade there has been an explosion of climate related direct action, and the climate crisis has become better accepted among the general public. “This blockadia movement…it’s not just this underground culture, it’s now people that are more mainstream,” Brockway says.

As more and more people experience these actions as either passive observers or active participants, something is starting to happen. A line is crossed in these actions from protesting only within the limits of what is legal, to doing what is right. From doing what we are allowed to do, to what we have a responsibility to do. From appealing to others to make changes for us, to discovering our own agency to create those changes. Such shifts constitute new ways of being, and participants are discovering entirely new horizons of what is possible and ways in which we can rearrange our relations to one another.

Direct actions that facilitate these personal experiences have the potential to create a climate movement that can strike at the root causes of the climate crisis while also opening doors to exciting personal transformation. As Glover reflected, “There had been this barrier created about how you’re expected to behave and the rules you’re expected to follow – while it was a little scary to transgress, having done so once opened up a whole new area of my life. It feels really freeing and exciting.”

Lockdown on Coal Super Digger at Maules Creek, Australia

MAULES CREEK, 30 November 2014, In an extraordinary show of solidarity 8 Canberrans have responded to a call for help from the Maules Creek community impacted by Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek mine in the Leard State Forest. The group have swarmed a ‘super digger’ operating in the Maules Creek project site and are joined by 5th generation Maules Creek farmer, Rick Laird and high profile former Wallabies Captain and Brumbies player, David Pocock.

The group of Canberrans are calling on the ACT Government to divest its shares in Whitehaven Coal given the ACT Government has taken taken a strong stance on tackling climate change.

Maules Creek farmers are struggling with the effects of drought exacerbated by climate change. Local farmers are facing a double blow on water, holding deep concerns about the impact of the new mine on underground aquifers and their access to irrigation water.

David Pocock said “I believe it’s time for direct action on climate change, standing together as ordinary Australians to take control of our shared future. It’s inspiring to join other Canberrans and Rick Laird in their call for the ACT Government to quit their investments in Whitehaven.”

Local farmer and long time vocal opponent of the mine Rick Laird said “I’m out here for the sake of my 5 children. The mine is about 4kms from the school they go to and I worry about their future and their health growing up next a coal mine that is always blasting and kicking up dust.”

The Leard Forest Alliance, comprising of local farmer groups and prominent environmental groups, are calling for immediate halt to construction work on the Maules Creek Mine whilst there is a full inquiry into how this scandal-plagued project was approved by NSW and federal governments.

Leard Forest Alliance spokesperson Phil Evans said, “This mine has been a rort from word go – and this is why prominent Australians, farmers and city folk are flocking to the area to oppose this symbol of corruption and climate disaster.”

There have been over 280 arrests since the establishment of the Leard Blockade camp in August 2012.

UPDATE 07:45AM: Local Police have arrived on site.

UPDATE 3:30PM: David Pocock and Rick Laird have been arrested after coming down from the machine and other activists are still occupying the machine.

UPDATE 6PM: The remaining activists have all been arrested and take to Narrabri police station

UPDATE:

Emma Pocock (David’s partner) and ANU Philosophy lecturer Bruin Christensen were arrested early in the day.
David Pocock and Rick Laird have been arrested by Narrabri Police and taken into custody after 10 hours occupying the ‘super digger’ in the Maules Creek mine.
Other Activists from Canberra Josh Creaser, Greg Oakes, Claudia Caton, Mishael J and Tim Boston were arrested after 12 hours occupying the ‘super digger’.
All 9 participants were charged with Enter Inclosed Lands, Remain on Enclosed Lands.
David Pocock, Rick Laird, Josh Creaser, Greg Oakes, Claudia Caton, Mishael J and Tim Boston were all also charged with Hinder to mine equipment

Further information:
Phil Evans
Leard Forest Alliance Spokesperson
Ph: 0490 064 139
David Pocock and Rick Laird available for comment on request.

Photos available from: mediafire.com/folder/pm6uzeefeetbp/External

Twitter updates: @FLACCoal and #LeardBlockade

from Front Line Action on Coal