Maine EF!er stops a truck carrying a wind turbine, July 2010

On July 6, following the annual Earth First! Round River Rendezvous, about 50 protesters blockaded the access to a mega-wind project in the Maine North Woods, while others locked themselves to a truck carrying a massive turbine blade to the site.

The construction site was shut down for the entire morning, and the truck was blocked for several hours.

From the press release:

“At least fifty Earth First! activists blockaded … the access point to the Kibby Mountain wind project outside the town of Stratton, halting the construction of 22 industrial wind turbines on the delicate Alpine ecosystems of Maine’s western boundary mountains. The action comes just before the Land Use Regulation Commission’s (LURC) meeting July 7 to consider a proposal for a similar project on neighboring Sisk Mountain….

“TransCanada, the transnational corporation responsible for the devastating practice of tar sands oil extraction in Alberta, Canada, has already built 24 mammoth turbines on Kibby Mountain, and has begun construction of an additional 22 turbines, a process that includes significant road building and wide transmission line corridors. These projects are part of a trend that shifts from forest management to development in Maine, which threatens to permanently change the face of Maine’s North Woods, the largest undeveloped wilderness east of the Mississippi river.”

Offshore wind turbines

“These projects are a perfect example of how corporations and investors are taking advantage of the climate and energy crises to make profits while avoiding accountability,” said Meg Gilmartin of Maine Earth First! “We don’t view projects on this industrial scale as being the solution to our problems.”

“If we really want to look at how the North Woods can mitigate climate change, we should restore our forest and protect sensitive ecosystems, like those on Sisk and Kibby Mountain,” said Ryan Clark of Maine Earth First!

Critics of the project also note that it is intended to increase power capacity rather than fight global warming, as no fossil-fuel plants are being taken offline.

For more on why wind and solar power won’t solve our problems, see “‘Any Compromise in Defense of Civilization’? : Wind, Solar and the Great Climate Sellout.”

An electric tower topples

The contraction of the global economy caused U.S. infrastructure spending to decline by an estimated 4.3 percent in 2009, according to analysts from HIS Global Insight, in spite of the $48 billion given to the Department of Transportation as part of stimulus packages. Non-highway spending is expected to decrease by 10.2 percent. The only infrastructure sector that did not contract was the power sector.

State budget shortfalls are largely to blame for the effect, the report said. Infrastructure spending is projected to fall another 1.6 percent in 2010, with a growth of 2.4 percent in 2011 if the economy rebounds.

Hit ‘em while they’re down, and slow that rebound!

Root Force Logo

A couple of articles reminding us how our struggles can make a real difference for the big picture:

1. Check out this article analyzing some of the connections between the push for expanded liquefied natural gas infrastructure in the United States and the recent massacre of indigenous protesters in Peru. The writer points out how increased infrastructure in consuming (First World) countries places more pressure on Third World (producing) countries to expand their own extraction/transport infrastructure.

2. This article on the history of resistance to the Xalala Dam in Guatemala notes that “In November 2008, the government offered the project to private investors, but failed to receive a single bid. Investors reportedly shied away due to the community opposition and the global financial crisis.”

This is an example of how concerted, no compromise resistance can cause even international investors to back off. It’s also an important reminder of why we must keep working for the system’s collapse — because even the relatively minor hiccup that is the current depression has already had a real effect in providing extra breathing room to communities and ecologies worldwide.

banner at Jul 28 '08 DC I-69 protest

Hugh Farrell, who has been indicted on misdemeanor and felony charges of intimidation, improper use of property, and corrupt business influence for publicly organizing against the I-69 “NAFTA Superhighway”, has released an open letter to his supporters. In the letter he writes, among other things, about the significance of the fight against I-69:

“What the State really fears are collective dinners where many people can sit down together to begin, however awkwardly or painfully, making sense of a highway project that no layperson was ever meant to grasp. The State fears those moments when marginalized young people like me, from the cities or suburbs and seemingly disillusioned with everything, begin to break out of our imposed and self-imposed isolation. They fear it when we begin talking with people very different from ourselves, with farmers and others, about the different and similar ways I-69 will impact our lives.”

Hugh and his co-defendant Tiga face a maximum of 12 years in prison. Support is still needed, including funds, since less than a third of their total estimated legal costs of $30,000 has been raised so far. Please visit their support site at www.mostlyeverything.net.

Disclaimer: Opinions, statements or any information contained in this or any other communication from Root Force should not be taken as reflecting the beliefs of the defendants in any criminal or civil legal action, nor upon their guilt or innocence. Root Force posts, emails, and web site content reflect the perspective of Root Force only, unless explicitly noted.

Fuck Dams!

International Rivers has just published two good articles analyzing the recent massive push for new dams coming out of Chile and the Amazon. They make good reading for anyone wanting to follow these issues.

The city of Denver is planning either to widen I-70 through Denver from 6 to 10 lanes or to add a two-mile, 8-lane detour to the highway. The expansion would destroy more than 50 homes and workplaces, increase air pollution and gas consumption, and destroy more than 300 acres of wildlife habitat. As HCEF! notes, this would all occur in an area already plagued with dozens of major polluters including a coal plant and oil refinery.

“The I-70 expansion is part of the greater picture, one where poor people and communities of color are systemically oppressed by the state for the continued privilege of white people and the wealthy,” the HCEF! press release reads. “Infrastructure expansion doesn’t meet the needs of underserved communities and only furthers their destruction. The I-70 expansion is no different; a low income community of color would be disrupted and displaced to serve the needs of a capitalist white supremacy.”

To find out more about the I-70 Denver expansion plans, check out the Environmental Impact Statement. To get involved in the struggle, get in touch with HCEF!, which is listed on our Affiliates and Allies page.

On that note, we have also added our first Root Force Affiliate group in Colorado: Welcome to Animas Perdidas Root Force, of Durango!

HCEF banner 5-26-09

Astonishingly — but not surprisingly — the government is accusing the protesters of using tactics reminiscent of the 1980s internal conflict. Deploying racist imagery painting indigenous protesters as spear-wielding savages, President Alan Garcia has vowed a tough “response.”

Following the early-morning massacre, protesters took 38 police hostage at a pumping station for the national oil company, PetroPeru. A police raid to free the officers resulted in the deaths of nine of them. An Argentinian oil company, Pluspetrol, has halted oil pumping in one unit and will soon halt pumping in another due to the unrest.

The government has since issued an arrest warrant for indigenous leader Alberto Pizango (who was elected to represent the indigenous coalition by the leaders of 1,200 communities), charging him with “sedition.” Pizango has gone into hiding.

Please take action and urge the Peruvian government to halt the violence and repeal the controversial free trade laws that would open up indigenous land in the Amazon to increased development. Contact the US government and international agencies as well, and encourage them to place pressure on Peru. The Peruvian government is in a serious position of weakness right now and trying to cover it up with violence, and this is one of those rare cases where international pressure could deal a major setback to infrastructure expansion plans.

Read the full Root Force action alert on this issue here.

UPDATE (June 8 2009): Some of the stories linked above are in Spanish. Here’s an English link with the same info.

Background

Early this morning (June 5th), Peruvian police launched a violent attack on a nonviolent road blockade held by Amazonian indigenous protesters opposing 10 laws that would open up their territory to increased mineral, oil, gas and timber exploitation. Police opened fire with live ammunition, killing at least 28 people (see below).

Why Take Action?

The first reason to take action, of course, is simply out of solidarity with our fellow warriors in the struggle for a just and sustainable world. But why are we sending out this action alert as Root Force?

For nearly two months, thousands indigenous protesters have nearly paralyzed Peru’s Amazon region with blockades of critical transportation and mining infrastructure. They have sparked a national discourse over the limits to development and who owns nature, and have made it clear that they will not surrender any of their ancestral homelands.

At the heart of the issue are 10 laws passed by presidential decree that would greatly facilitate industrial exploitation of the Amazon. This is critical infrastructure, intended to supply new raw materials for the global market. This is one of those weak points of the system that we are always talking about.

The indigenous warriors fighting for their lives have pushed this issue into the global eye, and the Peruvian government has placed itself in a position of weakness by murdering unarmed protesters. Even before the recent killings, a congressional panel had already declared 2 of the laws unconstitutional, and only through procedural tricks has the president’s party been able to stall debate on repealing one of those laws.

This is one of those rare cases where sustained international pressure could tip the scales. If these laws are repealed, it will be a major setback for infrastructure expansion plans in a truly critical region of the hemisphere.

How to Take Action

You can email critical people in the Peruvian government through this page, provided by Amazon Watch.

You can also organize protests at Peruvian embassies or consulates, or take other actions that you think stand a good chance of making it back to the decision makers in Lima.

Make sure to express your outrage at the government’s strong arm tactics — even before the murders, the government had suspended civil liberties in 5 provinces and was calling indigenous people “terrorists” — and demand the repeal of the Free Trade laws and any law further opening the Amazon to mineral, oil, gas, timber, hydroelectric or agricultural exploitation.

In Solidarity,
Root Force

UPDATE (June 7 2009): Check here for more contact info for Peruvian decision makers and embassies/consulates and relevant US/UN contacts.

Some highlights (all emphasis ours):

The financial crisis began as turmoil in one small segment of the US mortgage market. Within months it had morphed into a global meltdown affecting almost everyone on earth.

“The speed at which these events unfolded was unprecedented,” said the World Economic Forum’s 2009 report on global risk. “It has demonstrated just how tightly interconnected globalisation has made the world and its systems.”

…

Network theory suggests that complex diversified systems can often bring greater stability. But only to a point. … In network theory, one key finding is that complex interconnected systems organise themselves around key nodes. If one of these is hit, the whole house of cards can collapse. This is one reason the damage done by the subprime crisis to major global investment banks had such a devastating impact. And while specialisation in global supply chains has brought significant efficiency gains, it has also brought vulnerability. Disruption to a key node in the supply chain can cause dramatic and unpredictable turbulence in the whole system.

…

In his book “The Black Swan”, which examines the impact of major unexpected events, Nassim Nicholas Taleb noted that the appearance of stability in complex systems can be illusory:

“Random insults to most parts of the network will not be consequential since they are likely to hit a poorly connected spot. But it also makes networks more vulnerable… Just consider what would happen if there is a problem with a major node.

“True, we have fewer failures,” he wrote. “But when they occur… I shiver at the thought…”

…

And beyond the immediate catastrophe, an overriding risk from both the financial crisis and any pandemic is that it causes a worldwide retreat from globalisation, with profound long-term consequences for the world economy.

In its 2007 report on global risks, the World Economic Forum imagined the consequences of a simultaneous pandemic and global liquidity crisis – a scenario that was purely speculative then but which now seems eerily prescient.

The result, it said, would be “a backlash against globalisation, which in turn compounds the hit on global demand.”

Healing the Earth

Rabble.ca

We talked about the Root Force analysis and strategy, how infrastructure projects are interconnected, how to oppose infrastruture in the climate of  “economic stimulus,” and more. Check it out!