# 9 Anti-MTR Activists Being Held In West Virginia



## Matt Derrick (Jun 10, 2009)

Today, three different acts of civil disobedience confronted mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia, all under the banner of Mountain Justice. Six people locked themselves down to mining equipment on Kayford Mountain, bringing operations to a halt for hours. Two people kayaked out onto the Brushy Fork Coal Slurry Impoundment and proudly displayed a “No More Sludge” banner. (this is, by the way, the tallest dam in the western hemisphere, and it holds back 9 billion gallons of coal toxin concentrate. You see, to “clean” coal, they wash out the toxins and dump them in giant toxic lakes poised above towns, and then act surprised when they fail and destroy towns.) Then, this afternoon, people went out to Pettus, West Virginia and engaged in a symbolic line crossing, marching boldly off to arrest for trespassing. When this dam bursts, the coal sludge will be almost 20 feet high as far away as 28 miles down the road. Conservative estimates from Massey Coal themselves say that 998 people _at least_ will die if it the dam fails. Oh, did I mention they’re about to start blasting away Coal River Mountain as close as 100 feet away from the dam? So these people were all arrested, and they’ve been treated unprecedentedly harshly. 9 of them (include the line-crossers) are being held on 2000 cash bail… what this means is that they will not accept bond, they will not accept checks. They will only accept cash, for all 9 of these folks. So people are trying to raise bail. Please help. Jail sucks. Mountaintop removal sucks.














Original Article...


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## veggieguy12 (Jun 10, 2009)

Is it still a good idea to sacrifice oneself to the enemy?
If the answer wasn't already clearly a "No!", maybe this will teach the lesson (again)...


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## LovelyAcorns (Jun 10, 2009)

veggieguy12 said:


> Is it still a good idea to sacrifice oneself to the enemy?
> If the answer wasn't already clearly a "No!", maybe this will teach the lesson (again)...



Don't get your hopes up.


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## Angela (Jun 11, 2009)

veggieguy12 said:


> Is it still a good idea to sacrifice oneself to the enemy?
> If the answer wasn't already clearly a "No!", maybe this will teach the lesson (again)...



What lesson is it that you think this will teach veggieguy? I can tell you've probably never been in West Virginia or East Kentucky, seen Mt. top removal mining, or been down stream of these dams.


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## hassysmacker (Jun 11, 2009)

Angela said:


> What lesson is it that you think this will teach veggieguy? I can tell you've probably never been in West Virginia or East Kentucky, seen Mt. top removal mining, or been down stream of these dams.



Even though he hasnt responded yet, I'm willing to bet what veggieguy means by is it still worth it to sacrafice oneself to the enemy is that symbolic resistance that eventually just winds you up getting arrested and martyred by the movement may not be worth it, as opposed to non-symbolic tactical resistance that doesnt necessarily give a fuck what impact it makes symbolically as long as it makes an effective impact against what you are fighting against!


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## Angela (Jun 11, 2009)

hassysmacker said:


> Even though he hasnt responded yet, I'm willing to bet what veggieguy means by is it still worth it to sacrafice oneself to the enemy is that symbolic resistance that eventually just winds you up getting arrested and martyred by the movement may not be worth it, as opposed to non-symbolic tactical resistance that doesnt necessarily give a fuck what impact it makes symbolically as long as it makes an effective impact against what you are fighting against!



It may be way too early in the morning but it looks like we have a bit of drunk posting going on here. Try this again please. I think I sort of understand the gist of this post but there's definitely alot that I'm missing.


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## LovelyAcorns (Jun 11, 2009)

My turn to take a poorly worded stab at explaining!

I'm going to assume veggie and hassy were trying to point out the fact that they got themselves arrested for purely symbolic reasons. I mean, what did they accomplish? They got themselves arrested, created a need to raise thousands of dollars for their bail, and pretty much are only going to get coverage amongst groups already against mountain top removal. How does that affect Massey Coal? How did they actually expect it to affect them?

They basically just sacrificed themselves for the sake of sacrificing. If you have people willing to be arrested, why in the world would you go for a purely symbolic protest when there are plenty of ways to tactically resist?


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## veggieguy12 (Jun 11, 2009)

Angela, I'm surprised at how you (mis)took my initial post.
Tell me what book you're reading (or just read) and what you're taking from it; if the text is what I think it might be, perhaps it's your interpretation which will surprise me.

Q:


Angela said:


> What lesson is it that you think this will teach, veggieguy?


A:


hassysmacker said:


> ...symbolic resistance... just winds you up getting arrested and martyred...



There are effective and ineffective means. Brave souls employing ill-conceived devices are no better, and perhaps worse off, than cowards with the absolute best means to dispatch an enemy.



Angela said:


> I can tell you've probably never been in West Virginia or East Kentucky, seen Mt. top removal mining, or been down stream of these dams.



Oh, I have been to these locales, though I've only seen mountain devastation from photos & videos. But I've no doubt what the mountain would prefer, between lock-downs & banners & trespasses on one hand, or... some other acts, on the other hand.



LovelyAcorns said:


> ...they got themselves arrested for purely symbolic reasons. I mean, what did they accomplish?
> ...How does that affect Massey Coal?
> ...They basically just sacrificed themselves for the sake of sacrificing. If you have people willing to be arrested, why in the world would you go for a purely symbolic protest when there are plenty of ways to tactically resist?



To quote Brandt, "This is our concern, Dude." (because a Lebowski reference always helps close with a lil' levity)


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## soymilkshakes (Jun 11, 2009)

I'd say all action, symbolic or otherwise, has its place and value in rebellion. There's definitely dumber things to get arrested for.


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## Angela (Jun 11, 2009)

I definitely misinterpreted the intent of your original post, sorry for making you have to write all that out veggieguy.


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## hassysmacker (Jun 11, 2009)

Wow that was a total early morning post that made little sense due to its writing but had a message that was further fleshed out by other people due to my sleep deprivation at that time! Fuck waking up at 5:30 am!

And yes soymilkshakes: symbolic and direct confrontations/actions are both necessary to an effective resistance, but if you're going to get arrested, especially with a small scale of people you may as well go with something that has tangible effect on your enemy other than now having to raise legal money for you with the slight chance of opening up other peoples minds (though it my strong contention/belief that very very rarely are people convinced of things/new mental patterns/memes way beyond their current ethos/paradigm of thought, unless they've made a recent progression themselves and are on the precipice of that transformation already!).


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