Katuah Earth First! shuts down mining company headquarters
KEF! | 29.09.2004 01:48 | Ecology
At 12:15 AM on Monday, September 27th, a handful of men and women from Katuah Earth First! shut down an A & G Coal Mining Company office in Wise County, Virginia, USA. Locks were placed on all gates to the premises and front doors were chained and glued shut, with a sign reading, “We won’t stop until you do. See you in the mountains…Katuah Earth First!” This was done in order to prevent all trucks and operators from departing for a nearby mining site.
At 12:15 AM on Monday, September 27th, a handful of men and women from Katuah Earth First! shut down an A & G Coal Mining Company office in Wise County, Virginia. Locks were placed on all gates to the premises and front doors were chained and glued shut, with a sign reading, “We won’t stop until you do. See you in the mountains…Katuah Earth First!” This was done in order to prevent all trucks and operators from departing for a nearby mining site.
A&G is involved in mountain top removal, a mining process by which entire mountains are first clear cut, then detonated to pieces by millions of pounds of explosives. This process effectively destroys entire mountains, and results in the elimination of jobs, the filling of hundreds of miles of streambeds with debris, dangerous air pollution, and the destruction of local wildlife habitats.
Recently, a three-month old toddler named Jeremy Davidson was crushed to death in his bed by a boulder falling from one such mining site, which was operating outside the confines of its permit, in the town of Appalachia, VA. A&G paid only $15,000 in fines. Mountaintop removal is an assault upon the culture and livelihood of the Appalachian people. It results in the forced displacement of people who have inhabited these areas for hundreds of years, folks who now go to sleep at night wondering if rocks will fall on their homes, if their water is safe to drink, if their air is safe to breathe. As has occurred recently in West Virginia, due to mountaintop removal mining, mild rains can cause the loss of dozens of nearby homes.
Marches such as the one organized on Saturday, September 25th in Appalachia, VA, and direct actions such as these are part of a campaign to end this horrific rape of the Earth and its people in the name of profit. This is another chapter in the long history of labor and environmental struggles against the power of coal bosses over the land and people of Southern Appalachia.
We encourage others to take direct action against A&G, Massey, National Coal Corporation, and any other companies which profit from mountain top removal.
SOLIDARITY FROM APPALACHIA! WE WILL SHUT THEM DOWN!
A&G is involved in mountain top removal, a mining process by which entire mountains are first clear cut, then detonated to pieces by millions of pounds of explosives. This process effectively destroys entire mountains, and results in the elimination of jobs, the filling of hundreds of miles of streambeds with debris, dangerous air pollution, and the destruction of local wildlife habitats.
Recently, a three-month old toddler named Jeremy Davidson was crushed to death in his bed by a boulder falling from one such mining site, which was operating outside the confines of its permit, in the town of Appalachia, VA. A&G paid only $15,000 in fines. Mountaintop removal is an assault upon the culture and livelihood of the Appalachian people. It results in the forced displacement of people who have inhabited these areas for hundreds of years, folks who now go to sleep at night wondering if rocks will fall on their homes, if their water is safe to drink, if their air is safe to breathe. As has occurred recently in West Virginia, due to mountaintop removal mining, mild rains can cause the loss of dozens of nearby homes.
Marches such as the one organized on Saturday, September 25th in Appalachia, VA, and direct actions such as these are part of a campaign to end this horrific rape of the Earth and its people in the name of profit. This is another chapter in the long history of labor and environmental struggles against the power of coal bosses over the land and people of Southern Appalachia.
We encourage others to take direct action against A&G, Massey, National Coal Corporation, and any other companies which profit from mountain top removal.
SOLIDARITY FROM APPALACHIA! WE WILL SHUT THEM DOWN!
KEF!
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