There is a changing in the consciousness of the people of the Appalachian Mountains afoot, a Pan-Appalachian awareness if you will. Since Mountain Justice Summer began over 24 people have been arrested defending out mountains in nonviolent acts of civil conscious. Mountain Justice Summer has broken across state lines. The people of Appalachia who are fighting for our mountains are beginning to think of themselves as belonging to these majestic mountains first, across state lines, across class lines, across political lines. The realization that we are indeed a mountain people has taken root and momentum that no one believed possible before exceeding even the expectations of the organizers of Mountain Justice Summer.

        First it began in West Virginia.
After a week long training camp 
Mountain Justice organizers began
by going door to door in the effected
communities listening to the concerns
of the effected coal fields and
forming local alliances with shoe
leather and by pure grassroots effort
Then MJS supported local community
members and organizations as they
engaged in the first act of civil
conscious to defend a local community
school located 150 feet from a toxic
coal silo and a few hundred feet from
a massive sediment dam, a predictable
tragedy waiting to happen. At a
rally on May 24, two Coal River 
Valley residents were arrested
when they were refused admittance
to present their demands at
the Goals operation.

      The two Coal River Valley residents insisted on presenting
demands of a nontoxic future to the Massey Corporation in a historic
 act of resistance to power and were almost immediately released.
 Following MJS participants with over 100 people attended a
 hearing where they demanded justice for the children of
Marsh Fork at a state sponsored hearing, not one person spoke
supporting Massey. Days following this on May 31, sixteen people
 were arrested, including an 82-year-old grandmother, while
delivering the same demands A West Virginia Television station
referred to Massey as a “terrorist” corporation on air! 

http://www.tnimc.org/media/all/display/3040

http://www.wvec.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8B1JK900.html

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=3538983

Then Mountain Justice Summer proceeded to Kentucky. We were generously hosted by the local community by a family whose daughter had been killed by an overweight coal truck whose driver was drugged up. First there was a FILM FEST – which over 200 people attended and donated money, was covered by the newspapers and a lively public discussion ensued. Then their was a RALLY in which over 175 people turned out and which the president of the Kentucky coal association Bill Caylor ate toxic coal sludge which made the front page of the Lexington news paper in a large full cover photo. There was great positive energy and high spirits and the march went smoothly. When confronted with 60 pro mountain top removal supporters who had been bused in by the company MJS folks 100% kept their commitment to nonviolence and refused to be provoked by coal company stooge taunts. Multiple banner drops went off flawlessly, and the amazing and unique atmosphere allowed interaction between speakers and the crowd lent itself to great networking. The street canvassing during the week was easier and more fun than people thought it would be, people listened and were interested and interesting. During the week the week there was a coal truck survey where MJS volunteers observed illegally overweight coal trucks stampede on to the public highways, and in general the week went off flawlessly.

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/7274/1/275

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/11926552.htm

http://www.tnimc.org/media/all/display/3129

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/11881244.htm

Then Mountain Justice Summer proceeded to South Western Virginia. After two days of down time MJS volunteers went into the community of Appalachia where last year a 3 year old boy was crushed while sleeping by 600 pound boulder which came off a mountain top removal project above their home in the middle of the night. The reception of the MJS volunteers by the community surpassed everyone’s expectations with over 80 percent of the people listened to expressing rage and anger at the criminal coal companies stealing their mountains and murdering their children. MJS volunteers split their time between the listening project and networking in Richmond Virginia where the Massey world headquarters is located for the July 8 international day of action.

http://www.agrnews.org/issues/298/localnews.html#1

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4489461

http://www.ohvec.org/links/news/archive/2005/fair_use/01_06.html

Now MJSers are mobilizing to return to West Virginia to Larry Gibson’s land which has been mined till the land which has been in his land for generations has gone from being the lowest point on a ridge to the highest to listen, learn and plan for the July 8^th international day of action. The West Virginia DEP has granted the permit for an additional toxic coal silo next to the existing one apparently not satisfied with the rate of sickness among the school children who attend Marsh Fork Elementary.

WHITESVILLE, WV Residents of Coal River Valley today expressed outrage 

overthe West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) 

approval of a second coal silo immediately adjacent to Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial.  The DEP also approved the permit renewal for a 2.8 billion-gallon sludge dam --a toxic waste storage lake-- 400 yards from school grounds.

On July 8th as the rulers of the eight most powerful nations meet in Scotland to decide our fates, communities around the world will take to the streets to fight back against the fossil fuels industry’s devastation of our Earth and its people. Mountain Justice Summer, in conjunction with Venezuelan communities fighting coal mines in their country, the people of Appalachia and folks from all across the east coast will descend on Richmond, VA to confront one of the most ruthless coal companies in the US, Massey Energy Co, which has been systematically destroying the mountains and people of Southern Appalachia through a form of mining called mountaintop removal (MTR). Indigenous people in Venezuela are rising up against large-scale coal development projects whose profits they know will not benefit their local community.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031783577958&path=!business&s=1045855934855

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050602161110114

Then in August MJS volunteers will assist in the defense of Tennessee’s mountains. The Tennessee Calendar is crowded into July through to August when officially Tennessee host MJS. A sample of the August schedule planned in Tennessee includes: Listening Projects (and mine tours) in Eagan Mtn, Rally in Elk Valley, Water testing, a Landslide Tour, Music for the Mountains Concert, a National Coal Rally, Nashville block, an Action at Vanderbilt University whose president is on board of Massey, TDEC rally, TVA/OSM Protest, Cakewalk/Bake-off/Dunk a Mountainhugger in Elk Valley, TN just to name a few events.

In addition to all of this MJS volunteers have provided ground support to Coalfield citizens arrested delivering demands to Massey headquarters

RICHMOND, VA—Concerned parents and other citizens of Coal River Valley, West Virginia, with support from Mountain Justice Summer participants, today delivered a list of demands to Massey Energy’s headquarters in Richmond, Virginia, insisting that Massey respond. Two were arrested for trespassing when they refused to leave the premises until Massey responded to their demands.

http://www.wvec.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8B1JK900.html

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031783577724

This is just a small sample of what Mountain Justice Summer has, is and will accomplish before this first summer is over. A consciousness of the Pan Appalachia scope, and indeed the international scope of the attack on our watersheds has risen among volunteers who have gone door to door in 4 different states affected by MJS. No longer do members of small coalfields communities feel alone in their struggle against Mountain Top Removal—MJS volunteers have literally gone door to door to tell them they are no longer alone in their struggle.

The call continues. Writers, photographers, science geeks, folks with cars (oh yes folks with cars especially!), writers, musicians, fishermen, hunters, teachers this is a call to you. The more people who get involved in this dynamic offensive against Mountain Top Removal this summer the more mountains we will be able to save. We also need folks with cell phones and climbing equipment. Goto our website at mountainjusticesummer.org and fill out an intake form. You will be contacted.

And yes, as always, we need money. Your donations are not tax deductible. Not one staff person will get a dime from your cash—but we need help with our legal expenses, for gas (send gas cards!), for copies and the Mountain Defenders—our regional papers we are putting out with information about Mountain Top Removal to assist our listening projects. We are documenting every dime that comes in and out on Microsoft excel and our books are open to MJS organizers anytime. If you can help us with cash, gas and supplies goto our website at mountainjusticesummer.org

We have a paypal and regular snail mail address there.

You can also view our ongoing somewhat complete lo-tek calendar of events on our webpage. If all you can do is give two days for your mountains and watersheds then plug in. If you are in Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky or any part of the Appalachia mountains your cultural and biological heritage is under attack. We are a mountain people! The attack on our mountains by corporate carbetbagging coal companies is across state boundaries! The destruction of highland watersheds is a crime against future generations who will need that water—you cannot drink coal.

Mobilize now and plug in! We can use as much time as you can donate. We are at the brink of turning the tide and one person, you, may be what we need to hit critical mass. Mountain Justice Summer is making history and needs you to be a part of it. But Mountain Justice Summer is not about making history, its about saving watersheds and mountains for the future. Help us make history by saving the future.

For the Mountains!

mountainjusticesummer.org

1000 years of resistance or why we fight


The other day I was at a hearing for a Florida based coal company. National Coal was demanding the right to turn a highland stream into an industrial drainage ditch. They were in the process of blowing the top off of a mountain and discovered that a stream was inconveniently in the way. When I call it an “industrial drainage ditch” I am not exaggerating. They take a stream which goes underground for part of the year and dig a new channel for it. That new channel is first layered with impacted clay, then a layer of artificial petroleum based fabric, then another layer of impacted clay, then a layer of rock on top of it. It forces the stream to remain above ground and in effect turns a life supporting highland stream into a drainage ditch for the coal companies toxic waste.

So I took the opportunity to go up and explain to the state agency in charge of such permits why it was such a horrible idea to allow highland watersheds to be destroyed. The officials recorded my comments so later they could take them and carefully ignore them. Afterward an angry man came up to me and began to berate me.

“Where are you from anyway!” he grumbled. “Those people (the Florida based coal company) own that mountain and if they want to level it its their own business not yers! It’s their mountain!” he said. He punctuated his argument by turning his back on me and leaving before I even had a chance to respond–so as I often do I internalized my response.

First, truly I appreciate the irony of being accused of being an outsider in the Appalachia mountains while testifying about a Florida based corporation. It becomes even more ironic when you realize that when my Scotch/Irish ancestors got off the boat generations ago they made a beeline straight for these mountains. My fathers family traces its background to around 6 generations in the same town of Knoxville Tennessee, nestled in the hills of the Appalachia mountains. I actually used to be ashamed of this as a kid, when pressed I would tell people that “they lacked enough ambition to go anywhere else.” But nowadays I realized it was a deep abiding love of the Appalachia Mountains that caused them to stay–a love that I share.

It becomes even more ironic in the face of my mothers great-great grandfather Patton, one of the original settlers of Asheville North Carolina, another town nestled in the heart of the Appalachia mountains. They even have a road named after him in the middle of town.

Then my thoughts turned to geology rather than genealogy. At one time all of the continents formed one mega-continent called Pangea. You can look at how all the continents on a globe would fit together like pieces of a puzzle and see what Pangea once looked like. And since the Appalachia mountain chain is one of the oldest in the world it ran through Pangea–and when Pangea broke up so did the Appalachia mountains. Where did the other half of the Appalachia mountains end up? Ireland and Scotland partially. And the Appalachia mountains are the only mountain chain in the world that contain the mineral Serpentine–a mineral found here in Southern Appalachia–and in the part of the chain in Scotland and Ireland as well.

When I first learned this I was stunned, because that’s where my family came from in Scotland and probably Ireland. For those of us who are Scotch/Irish our relationship with the Appalachian mountain chain goes back for literally a thousand years. The genetic history (as well as the cultural history) which pounds in the veins of the Scotch/Irish is inseperately interwoven into the Appalachian mountains. We belong to these mountains. The irony of being called an “outsider” for defending these mountains against a rapacious corporate carpetbagging coal company from Florida in the face of these facts is amazing when you think about it. Our people lived and loved in this mountain chain before there were corporations, before there were empires and indeed even before there was an English language.

But then I began wondering about the other half of his question–the “how dare I.” As an amateur history buff I know a little about the history of the Scotch/Irish people. I know how we fought the timber and coal companies as they invaded our mountains here in the North American segment of the Appalachia’s–but I know more. I know that one of the reasons my ancestors had to flee their mountains in Scotland and Ireland was the British empire was committing cultural and literal genocide in their attempts to separate and rob both the Scotch and Irish people of their land, and I know the Scotch and Irish fought for every inch that was stolen from them, and that many literally starved to death in Ireland before they would leave their mountains. I know that my ancestors fought to protect their mountains and forest and people from the colonialist British empire trying to steal their land and remodel them into British subjects. But my studies of the Irish and Scottish resistance and defense of their mountains goes further back–all the way to the Roman empire.

The Scots fought the Roman empire so successfully against their attempts to log and occupy their mountains that the Romans had to build a wall across their stolen land in Britain to keep the Scots from raiding and attacking them–much like the great wall of China. This wall was called Hadrian’s wall. The Scotch and Irish have fought invaders and those who have sought to destroy and steal their mountains all the way back to the Roman empire, over a thousand years of resistance–so is it any wonder that we would rise as a people to defend our mountains from these coal companies who now seek to rob and destroy them?

Every language in the world has a word for mountain people. We the people of the Southern Appalachia’s are a mountain people–it is part of our cultural identity. National Coal and its thieving brethren are not a mountain people, they are in the tradition of the British colonialist seeking to drive us off and steal our land and destroy our culture. National Coal and its destroying brethren are not a mountain people, they are in the tradition of the Roman empire which sought to drive us off and colonize our mountains. The only difference between these coal companies and the Roman and British empires is the previous colonialist only sought to enslave our people and steal our land–while these coal companies claim the right to literally destroy our mountains for all eternity–and have no doubt, mountain top removal is forever.

When you think about it its truly amazing. The Scotch/Irish after making the dangerous middle passage half starved where many of them died in transit hit the shores of our new world exhausted and poor–but did they stay and live on the coastal lands? No, they made a beeline trekking hundreds of miles by foot and horse to make it to these mountains which we later generations now call home. Did they know about Pangea and the mineral Serpentine? No, but somehow instinctively they knew that these mountains were home and that they belonged to these mountains–and that’s amazing.

And its even more amazing that these corporate coal colonialist are angry and surprised that we the Appalachia people are once again rising to defend our mountains and cultural heritage. The reality is we never stopped–we have fought for these mountains to which we belong for over a thousand years against these colonialist destroyers regardless of what they call themselves. Ours will not be the first generation to abandon the ramparts in defense of these majestic ancient mountains which are our ancestral home. Ours will not be the first to forget that our cultural heritage and even the blood in our veins are part of these hills, we will rise once again to resist, we will rise, we are rising. Future generations of Appalachians demand we rise, past generations demand we rise–and we are rising–we will resist. Its part of a thousand year old tradition, it is our history and will be our future. We belong to these mountains and any attempt at their destruction is an attempt at our destruction. We are a mountain people and will remain so, and if these coal companies are in need of a history lesson we will teach them what we have taught previous colonialist and indeed empires–you may claim a land, but that does not make it yours. We have fought for over a thousand years for these mountains and we will fight for another thousand. These mountains do not belong to us, we belong to them, and that is why we fight.


Resist!

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism
by Lawrence Britt
Spring 2003
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html

Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism.

The 14 characteristics are:
1) Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2) Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3) Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4) Supremacy of the Military
5) Rampant Sexism
6) Controlled Mass Media
7) Obsession with National Security
8) Religion and Government are Intertwined
9) Corporate Power is Protected
10) Labor Power is Suppressed
11) Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12) Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13) Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14) Fraudulent Elections

Bush is Osama's bitch,

It's a matter of PUBLIC RECORD

FROM THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE!
Eldest son George W. Bush made his first Middle East connection in the late 1970s with James Bath, a Texas businessmen who served as the North American representative for two rich Saudis (and Osama bin Laden relatives) - billionaire Salem bin Laden and banker and BCCI in-sider Khalid bin Mahfouz. Bath put $50,000 into Bush’s 1979 Arbusto oil partnership, probably using Bin Laden-Bin Mahfouz funds.
http://www.nhgazette.com/cgi-bin/NHGstore.cgi?user_action=detail&catalogno=NN_ba rreling_bushes


FROM FORBES:
Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi billionaire, spent the 1990s engaged in financial folly and funding what the U.S. government calls a front for Al-Qaeda. Now a new generation tries to escape the shadow.
http://www.forbes.com/global/2002/0318/047.html

FROM THE NATIONAL REVIEW!
Khalid bin Mahfouz (banker): Bin Mahfouz was the CEO of the National Commercial Bank (the first commercial bank in Saudi Arabia) until 1999 — when it was discovered in an audit that he had funneled around $100 million to his brother-in-law, Osama bin Laden. (Interesting historical fact: Bin Mahfouz paid over $200 million in fines in 1991 for misdeeds when he was COO of BCCI.)
http://www.nationalreview.com/mowbray/mowbray122002.asp


FROM WORLD HISTORY.COM!
Arbusto Energy (Arbusto Oil) was a petroleum and energy corporation formed in Midland, Texas, in 1977, by George W. Bush.
The name Arbusto is Spanish for "shrub", but the Bush family interpret it as "bush".
Investors in the company included Dorothy Bush, Lewis Lehrman, William Draper, Philip Uzielli and James R. Bath. At the time that Bath made an investment of $50,000 he was representing Salem bin Laden's interests in Texas. When Salem Bin Laden died in 1988, his interest in Arbusto (along with other Bin Laden Group assets) passed to Khalid bin Mahfouz.
http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/A/Arbusto-Energy.htm

FROM THE CBC!
George W. Bush starts up an oil company in Texas called Arbusto 78. Bath will invest money from Salem bin Laden and Khalid bin Mahfouz in this new company. Bill White is told by Bath that more than $1-million of the Saudis’ money was pumped into Bush’s venture.
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/conspiracytheories/saudi.html


The Wall Street Journal

Among George W.'s investors was James R. Bath, a Houston aircraft broker who had a flourishing aviation business with sheiks of the Saudi peninsula. Mr. Bath owned a piece of a Houston bank in which Mr. Pharaon, the BCCI front man, had been a controlling shareholder. Mr. Bath also invested money in the U.S. for Mr. bin-Mahfouz, the Saudi banker who would go on to become a leading shareholder in BCCI. According to Mr. Bath's personal financial statements, produced in unrelated litigation, Mr. Bath invested $50,000 with George W. Bush, becoming a 5% partner in Arbusto. Mr. Bush says he was aware Mr. Bath was representing Saudi investors but that at the time "had never heard of BCCI."
http://aor.cat4.net/nwo/harkenbush.php

Mountain Justice Summer is a call to action and a request for help from the people of the Appalachia mountains for help in saving our mountains, streams, and forest from greedy coal companies. But why are we asking for help? Frankly it's because we are losing. More than 1,000 miles of stream have been buried and destroyed and countless mountains and ridge tops have been blown up–gone for all eternity. Additionally, under the Bush administration laws have been altered to encourage and accelerate the destruction. The price of coal has doubled, and the destruction of our watersheds is accelerating and spreading out like cancer — not slowing down. Our state and federal agencies charged with protecting our environment are dealing out permits to these coal companies like crack dealers on the street corner — the coal is the crack — and the coal companies the addicts that will kill, destroy entire mountain ranges and bury streams in order to get their black fix.

We are losing. And our loss is not only for our own generation but for future generations as well. Where now there are barren, scraped, biologically dead toxic wastelands there used to be water-producing mountains. Water is going to matter more to the future generations more than coal; you cannot drink coal. The Pentagon has predicted than many of the future wars on our planet will not be fought over coal or oil but for water. The lack of clean drinking water is already a global problem for humanity. As our population increases it will only get worse. A mainstay of supermarket shelves across North America is water. The destruction of water-producing mountains is not only a crime of the present but is a very real attack on the future generations; you cannot drink coal.

We cannot afford to continue losing this struggle. A few already rich executives in coal companies are getting wealthier at the expense of us all. The acceleration of mountain top, side and ridge removal is a curse on the future and on present generations. We need your help. But what can you do?

We need help testing streams for their Ph (how acid they are). Many of our streams are as acidic as lemon juice and run bright green from the mine run off. We wish to test as many streams as possible this summer. We need help going door to door listening to folks who live in communities next to these mines. We need photographers and writers to come and document the damage being done and to spread the word. Silence and ignorance are the greatest weapon of these greedy corporate carpetbagging coal companies. We must show America and the world this crime of geologic proportions. We need artists to help us make signs and props for rallies and demonstrations which we will keep and use for years. We need cooks to prepare food, people to go through our towns before tours fliering and postering to increase turn out. We need musicians to learn and create and sing songs of our mountains and the annihilation of entire communities and watersheds. We need scouts with trucks to travel gravel back roads to ID mines and permit sites. We need help. Cooks, geologists, map makers, artist, musicians, drivers — we need you and your help for the summer.

But volunteer with open eyes. Mountain Justice Summer is modeled (loosely) on Mississippi and Redwood summers. In both campaigns the realities of the settings were made explicit to participants. The coal companies we are resisting have a long, bloody, violent history. Our mountains are being blown off with a terrifying amount of explosives. Coal trucks slam down our mountain roads at times forcing school buses off the road. A few months ago a 3 year old child in Appalachia was crushed in his home by a 600 pound boulder. Our forests are diverse and rugged with copperheads, rattlesnakes, yellow jackets and cliffs. electronic newsletter for updates. Fill out our and intake form, and we will contact you to answer your questions. Ask us a lot of questions. We want all the participants to be crystal clear about the on the ground situation. You will know everything we do — no secrets.

Additionally there will be training throughout the summer in safety, security culture, first aid, field survival skills–and at least two week long training camps. The organizers of Mountain Justice Summer are committed to your safety and preparation. There will be risk and the possibility of danger, but we will do everything we can to assure your safety, to provide training to add to your skills, and to communicate with you openly and clearly about the on the ground conditions.

Furthermore, autonomy (taking care of your own physical needs) is key to the summer. Organizers for MJS are securing housing and places to camp for you in the various states where the summer will be happening. We are hosting pizza benefits, spaghetti dinners, keg parties, music benefits, and are in general engaged in systematic grassroots fundraising. We are asking stores up and down our mountains for food donations. We have secured more 1,000 packets of seed and are growing food in over 35 locations now to feed our participants. That said, it is key that the campaign does not drain the resources of the local groups hosting us. Flat out we are poor people fighting multi-billion dollar corporations. Below is a food and gear list. Do fundraisers now, gather food now, get your supplies together now. We cannot support people who come completely unprepared, broke, and unequipped to our camps. We can and will help where we can, but you must prepare for yourself. Proper planning prevents poor performance. Low baggers will be asked to leave; autonomy is key.

Our effort is historical. Loss is unthinkable, for future generations will suffer. Redwood summer and Mississippi summer are in the history books. In the future history books will either report our success or mourn the eternal loss of 200 million year old mountains — the most biologically diverse mountains in the world turned into a toxic parking lot for the greed of an already obscenely wealthy few. Geologic history is already being carved and blown out of our mountains. We must turn the tide before it is to late. We cannot do this alone. We must have help. Not for our organizations, nor for ourselves, but for the mountains, watersheds, and forest which are a legacy for future generations.

If you commit you will get rained on this summer, chewed up by insects, be pretty poor, deal with frustration, and perhaps at times fear. But at the end of the summer your individual efforts combined with the community you will be working with will save mountains, streams, and forest. You will be working with a dedicated group doing meaningful work for the mountains. This we can promise.

Search your soul, ask questions, check out our website, and fill out an intake form. Then ask your guide questions when she contacts you. If after thoughtful reflection and questioning you commit to donating your summer to saving mountains, get ready. Together we are going to kick ass, blow the veil of lies and secrecy off this theft of geologic proportions. Together we are going to kick ass and make these greedy coal executives regret ever trying to steal our national legacy of clean water producing mountains — but only with your help.

For the Mountains
Mountain Justice Information Systems.
mountainjusticesummer.org



Mountain Justice Summer will be about autonomy. We are doing fundraising and gathering food but there is some critical and not so critical gear which will keep you more comfortable through the summer.

If you come, bring food, pack of some sort, sleeping bag, stove, water filter, rain gear (next section), tarps, rope, mess kit, personal medical supplies, money, compass, a phone card, boots, two handkerchiefs, Flashlights, a few candles, lighters, sewing kit etc. We will meet you half way but you need to come prepared.

RAIN GEAR

Oh yes you will be living under the stars in a rainforest at times during this summer. A little preparation can go along way to feeling snug and dry as torrential rains pound the forest floor around you. Two pair of cheap ass waterproof pants, and a military Pancho rain coat, a rain hat, and a dry tent. A small umbrella can be convenient in both the rain and in the hot sun.

Hint on packing: those white bags they give you at grocery stores are your friend. If you chamber your stuff off in different bags as you pack your stuff it will stay drier. Tie them off at the top.

BUGS

Ticks, chiggers, mosquitos — when we say our region is one of the most biologically diverse spots on earth we mean it! A $3 hat net is a good investment. Of all the bug juices pachouli actually is pretty effective at keeping ticks and mosquitos off.

FOOD

Fork, spoon, Knife--a small portable stove for your personal uses, iodine tabs are cheap but a water filter taste better. Bring a cheap ass container or two to carry personal liquids in.


BOOTS/SANDALS

Get some boots ASAP if you don't have them now and start breaking them in. I prefer high top boots cause I like the extra support sometimes — plus they can turn a snakebite. Many military stores sell high top jump boots that folks who jump out of airplanes wear. You can get a good pair for round $25 often. They have speed laces and are well balanced for rock hopping. A pair of sandals will be useful as well.

TENTS OR TARPS?

If you get a tent buy some cheap ass seam sealant and seal all the seams both inside and out. An expensive tent isn’t worth a cheap one with sealed seems. Then be real hard corp and seal the seams on your backpack. Then seal the seams on your rain pants...you get the picture seam seal everything. You can set up an effective shelter with just tarps and we have tarpologist that will be willing to show you how. A zen kelty tent on the other hand will hold two people, keep the insects off of you, stays really dry — and cost about $100 in campmor. Either way think about your shelter.

CASH

Its important that we put as little stress on the host groups resources as possible throughout the summer. We are doing fund-raising in several cities for MJS but you should fund-raise for yourself. Plan on bringing enough cash to feed yourself for every day you are at the camp. Some gas cash would be wise as well.

General stuff we need:

Pick-up trucks, GPS units, PH testing kits, gas money, vans, tarps, medics, field kitchens (a communal kitchen will be set up, but be autonomous), bulk foods, cell phones (oh yes — many of them work on ridge tops — bring your cell phone (though they do cause tumors), digital cameras, walkie talkies, scanners, CB radios, and you of course.

One thing we need people to do is document the damage being done. We need photographers, writers (ESPECIALLY writers), and artist in general. The most important thing we hope to accomplish this summer is make more people aware of the damage that is happening to our mountains. If you have even a basic skill with photography or can write, or sing — we need you.

We need science geeks. This is a call out to all science geeks as well. We need to test as many streams as possible for ph. Plus pre blast and pre mining biological inventory work.

More food*********************

Bulk foods we need list.

N.B. 5-gallon pickle buckets make great storage
devices for bulk foods, the lids can be used as
cutting boards, and they can also hold other stuff.

Non-perishables
Spaghetti
//Tea//Coffee//Rice//salt/sugar/tvp/beans//peanuts//popcorn//cooking//oil//cocoa powder//chocolate chips//carob//chips//molasses//cereal//granola//sea weed//Ramon
noodles//bread//mustard and ketchup//soy sauce//hot//sauce//honey//brown sugar//oatmeal//jelly//peanut//butter//black eyed peas//nutritional yeast//cornmeal

spices
curry//oregano//salt//ginger//red pepper//garlic//powder//basil//cinnamon

Perishables
Tofu//Carrots//Onions//apples//cornmeal//ww flour//white death flour//cabbage//corn//tomatoes//juices//greens Turnip, Kale, whatever you can get.

What you can do right now to fight MTR!

Mountainside Coal Company is trying to blow the top off of Eagan Mountain and claim that doing so won't pollute the waters of the state in violation of the Tennessee Water Quality Control Act. Stop them! Request a hearing today!

http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org/eaganpermit.htm

Additionally, contact Governor Bredesen and tell him to stop the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC) from giving permits to out-of-state coal companies like National Coal Company (from Florida) or to any coal company. Make him force TDEC to follow the law and its own regulations. The Tennessee Water Quality Control Act forbids issuing permits for activities that pollute the waters of the state. Mountain top removal blows up the mountains layer by layer, destroying everything that lives in them.

We need a new vocabulary for destruction and greed.

I feel the lack of two vocabularies. I feel the lack of words to describe the scope of destruction being done to our mountains in Tennessee my home. I also feel the lack of words to describe the people who would destroy a thousand year heritage of water for a few years boost in the profit margin. Pictures are a good way I suppose. But we need a new vocabulary for destruction and greed.

Recently I went and examined a massive landslide which occurred because of a past ridge top strip mine site that had been “reclaimed” according the Office of Surface Mining and reclamation (wreck creation) (OSM). It was in the Knoxville News Sentinel with a huge color photo on the front page taken from a plane a few days before and I wanted to see this megaslide from the ground

I grabbed some topographical maps–hopped in my decaying pick up truck, and went to the hills. As I drove up to High Point mountain where the slide was suppose to be on the NW face I began noticing other existing massive landslides from mining that were not in the paper from old mine sites. Ironically I even found two that were both visible with a sign saying “National Mine #4" in the foreground. National Coal Corporations Mine #4 is a strip mine that is slated for the other face of High Point Mountain. After interviewing several men on 4-wheelers and some guys target shooting with rifles I drove around a hillside past some methane wells and there it was.

Megaslide 1# was across the ridge from the gravel road I was on a hundred feet down from the ridge top. It was across the hollow on an opposing ridge. The highest point had blown out all the way down to the river, an elevation drop from around 2500 feet to around 1800 feet. The entire hillside had blown out like a sore bursting from the earth spewing black pus and rock out, and down, the landslide. Trees, rocks and mud all equally washed down the mountain in a tide of soil and what once was a rolling Tennessee hillside.

From my viewpoint across the ridge I calculated (guessed) where I needed to be–drove and parked my truck there, and went downhill. At the third contour (road) I headed east. I rounded the outer ridge of the slope and I was there. In the distance across the slide I could see the other end of the road I was on. I am pretty good with a wrist rocket (slingshot) and I am pretty sure I could not of hit the other slope. Between me and that road was a massive crater like pit. Deep enough from where I was standing to break bones if one took a bad fall. Steep enough at the top to kill you. It looked like it belonged on the Moon.

The scope and size of the sediment flow is almost impossible to describe...

I realized after finding it that we are going to have to come up with a new vocabulary to describe the level of damage being done to our water producing mountains by these rapacious coal companies and their complicit toadies in the state (TDEC) and federal (OSM) agencies.

The amount of soil blowing down the hillsides is not simple surface erosion. Tons of soil–and entire trees -are being swept from the tops of the cracking ridge tops down to the river and coves below. The megaslide I came to scout looked blasted. It was otherworldly the amount of damage to the earth. It was if the “reclamation” was a cancer that had finely burst from the skin of the earth. Coal and trees and shale and dirt flow wholesale down the hillside. At the top of the slide cracks 2 feet wide and dozens of feet long.

Megaslide was on a OSM and TDEC approved “reclaimed mine site”. Different species of grass and plants had been planted. The mine site was contoured–and it still blew out. The same agencies which have failed as evidenced by the multiple landslides in their approved reclaimed sites are now permitting new mining in the exact same area!

What caused megaslide is evident–you can hear it...water. At least 4 different sources of water were cutting through the shale and coal blended soil. An unstable substrate combined with water and really steep slopes creates landslides. Ridge tops may be cheap for coal companies to blast–its impossible to repair. TDEC and OSM are granting mining permits using the same regulations and engineering that is resulting in massive landslides in the same area that they are permitting.

I have witnessed environmental devastation in the past. I once spent three days seeing and smelling an old growth rainforest burn to the ground during the dry season in Africa. I have been in the center of a cut redwood whose outer edges at first made me think it was a small house. The ongoing destruction of the hills of Appalachia surpass even the burning of a rainforest in its destruction. Is surpassed thousand year old redwood groves being clearcut (murdered) by greedy corporations. It surpasses anything I have ever witnessed except one.

The only thing I have ever seen have nearly the impact on a landscape as having Tennessee Mountain ridges ripped apart is a volcano erupting into the sky. I once watched Picaya in Guatemala spew lava into the air for three days–only that comes close. And if I had my choice–I would rather have periodic volcanic eruptions in our mountains than these rapacious coal companies–volcanos would do less damage. Lava flow can actually enrich the soil and is a natural process. It does not poison the streams with selinium and acid, and a worse case volcano will only blow a hundred or so feet off a mountain.

The massive high walls from the past strip mining has entire long runs of ridges like Buffalo Mountain look like warts. The New River beneath all this has so much acid run off from the mining that it runs bright electric green. Bright green acidic ponds drain their mining poisons slowly into the streams. All of this is in the New River Watershed–an area that National Coal says “Has been mined minimally the last 100 years, but nothing like what we plan to do” www.nationalcoal.com

The beauty and promise of these green mountains and they struggle to survive the onslaught of greedy coal companies is almost painful to see. Though the hardwood forest never really grows back on the “reclaimed” mining sites there is border forest surrounding these areas where deer and other animals survive in a degraded habitat. Even electric green the streams and creeks that thread their way down into the hollows are beautiful. Amidst the terrible cris crossing of massive clear-cut and strip-mining a land of stunning beauty struggles to reassert itself into a natural balance.

Drive around on the ridge tops and you see what my friend Bob Bobson and I have dubbed “wedding cakes” in our new vocabulary of destruction. A high wall is a donut–the mountain is “donuted” is what some folks say. A “wedding cake” is where there are multiple high walls on a mountain. Driving one day scouting Bob and I saw a triple wedding cake–a mountain that been “donuted” on three levels. Green, then cliff, then green, then cliff again, then green, then another cliff, then green at the bottom. The value of a wedding cake to wildlife is dubious. Any child would have to climb three man made cliffs to get to the top of that mountain.

Yet TDEC and OSM are handing out permits like a crack dealer pushing from the street corner to the coal companies. Coal is crack to the energy companies–and our public agencies have become the pushers. TDEC is granting MORE permits in this devastated area. Fresh gravel is being spread on the ridges top roads in preparation and aid of the new mining. The price of coal has doubled and the coal companies are trembling in greed glee at the coming profits as they destroy the most biologically diverse places on the planet. Mountains that would produce water for thousands of years to the future are being sacrificed for the short term profits of a few executives in a few coal companies. Greed.

National Coal (nationalcoal.com), Massey, and all the other greedy coal companies do not care about the our future. They do not care that these mountains number one product is water–and they are destroying the mountains. They do not care that most people can see that water is going to be an issue for folks living on this planet soon–and that future, and even our–generation will regret the loss of those clean water sources. They do not care for the massive sediment choaking mountain streams killing fish. They do not care that tax payers ultimately are going to have to clean up after their messes. They simply do not care. What they do care for of course is profits. Left unchecked these coal companies fully intend to rip the ridges of Tennessee where ever they can get coal regardless of social, ecological or economic consequences. They fully intend to clear-cut Tennessee ridges, rip off her mountaintops, and destroy what is for the people of Tennessee a cultural mountain based heritage. They fully intend to–unless we stop them.

Mountain Justice Summer (mountainjusticesummer.org) is our defiance in the face of a greedy violent multi billion dollar industry that want to destroy our water producing mountains. Mountain Justice Summer is our call for others to come to the most some of the most biologically diverse mountains in the world to witness and fight for our remaining watersheds. Mountain Justice Summer is based on redwood and freedom summers in that we are asking for people all over the face of the globe to come to the oldest mountains in the world and say no more to their destruction. We need people to come from all over to work with us this summer before it is to late.

Additionally, Contact Governor Bredesen and tell him to stop the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC) from giving permits to out of state coal companies like National Coal Company (from Florida), or to any coal company. Make him force TDEC to follow the law and its own regulations. The Tennessee Water Quality Control Act forbids issuing permits for activities that pollute the waters of the state. Mountain top removal blows up the mountains layer by layer, destroying everything that lives in them.

Katuah Earth First!
Ministry of Mountain Propaganda Faction

Email: phil.bredesen@state.tn.us
Sure, give him a call!
Phone: 615.741.2001
Fax: 615.532.9711
Contact Phil & ask him to do his job.
Governor's Office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243-0001

TDEC Commissioner Betsy Child: Betsy.Child@state.tn.us

Dave Turner: Dave.Turner@state.tn.us
Don Owens: Don.Owens@state.tn.us
Bredesen: Phil.Bredesen@state.tn.us
Alan Leiserson: Alan.Leiserson@state.tn.us (TDEC's lawyer)

TDEC homepage
http://www.state.tn.us/environment/ask.tdec@state.tn.us
(888) 891-TDEC (8332)
401 Church Street
L & C Annex
1st Floor
Nashville, Tennessee 37243-0435
Governor’s office
Tennessee State Capital
\Nashville, TN 37243-001
615.742.2001

Check out Mountain Justice Summer-an effort to save our Mountains based on Rewood and Mississippi summers.

mountainjusticesummer.org

There is a lyrical revolution quietly taking place in our midst. But first a shout out to:

Davey D, Public Enemy, Zion-I, Mystic Kam,Dead Prez, The Conscious Daughters, Shorty and Da Lench Mob, DJ Shadow, Claytoven, The Coup,The Roots, Common, Living Legends, Blackalicious, Dilated Peoples, Michael Franti, Talib Kweli, Askari-X, Mos Def, KRS-One (double shout), Rage Against The Machine, Angie Stone, Erykah Badu, Outkast, The Impossebulls, Oaxerai Zearle, RUN DMC, Spearhead, and Paris to name a few.

There is a new voice for discontent in our time, it is called Hip Hop. Hip hop is not only the largest voice for social reform in our time, but has become it an of itself a revolutionary resistance movement of power and scope never before rivaled in history. There is a new movement afoot--and its very political. Hip Hop in many forms has a more radical and hard hitting analysis of the system that M.C’s spit (sing) at microphones every night than your average anarchist on the street. Nightly Hip Hop M.C.'s spit lyrics at the mike that openly call for revolution and resistance. Every night Hip Hop M.C's make radical calls for action that rivals and at times surpasses traditional radical groups willingness to speak the truth to the public. Calling George Bush out for the murderer that he is, war for the slaughter it is, and corporate governance for the slavery that it is.

Hip Hop is a very real threat to the corporate welfare state, and the corporate welfare state knows that real hip hop is a threat to the status quo. Real revolution. And Hip Hoppers face repression as a result. The corporate welfare state is targeting hip hop with the same sort of political repression that other movements have experienced in the past. Hip hop artist get grabbed in the cities and are targeted by the system as a revolutionary threat. Almost every major city has a branch of the organized crime unit dedicated as a "graffiti task force". Hip hop is a dress much like the zoot suit folks of ww2 and get profiled as a result. Hip Hoppers get profiled for wearing baggie clothes, base ball camps-can get you banned from clubs, and given your own special classification if you end up in prison "gang affiliated" meaning if your in Pelican bay or other fine slave prison in the jail industry you can end up in defacto solitary confinement cause of this. You can get arrested, harassed by the cops. Hip hop artist use pseudonyms like MC CONTEXT, etc not just for stylistic purposes--but like forest name the West Coast Earth First!ers adopt.

Hip Hop artist are very aware of the political nature of their movement and are moving in an organized fashion to achieve political goals. Hip hop artist are singing about the blood for oil based warfare happening today. Solid Earth blood for oil, Saul Williams sept 11 soundtrack. Hip hop artist are aware of the historical nature of the struggle and are voicing it to the people.

"Now around this time, Whites started callings us Negroes//That's Spanish for black object meaning we're not really people//but profit, and the triangle trade begins - they seize us//Queen Elizabeth sends the first slaves on a ship named Jesus// Stealin’ land from the indigenous natives// Gave them alcohol to keep the Red Man intoxicated//Whites claim they had to civilize these pagan animals//But up until 1848 there's documented cases//of whites bein’ the savage cannibals, eatin’ Indians//In 1992, it's Jeffery Dahmer// They slaughtered a whole race with guns// Drugs, priests and nuns// 1763, the first demonic tactic of biological warfare//As tokens of peace, Sir Jeffery Amherst// passed out clothing and blankets to the Indian community// Infested with small pox, knowin’ they had no immunity// Today it's AIDS, you best believe it's man made//‘Cause ain't a damn thing changed." Ras Kass

Like gangsta rappers, rage-filled people from the streets, totally unafraid of controversy and are engaging in a "Sonic Jihad" against a system they see as fundamentally bankrupt. Hip hop is worldwide broadcasting revolution to a movement larger than the environmental, peace and animal rights combined. And their message is getting through, to millions. People in Turkey listen to German hip hop. And in Germany people listen to Turkish hip hop. On the internet you can hear Czech. hip hop, polish hip hop, hip hop is worldwide and millions--that’s right--millions of people listen to hip hop. Tens of thousands of people attend hip hop shows. Hip Hop is a mass movement. A movement is afoot--a radical revolutionary movement that is blowing out into the streets because it is from the streets. Not rap--but hip hop.

Hip hop web sites are filled with links and essays of revolutionary import. The wobblies had the little red book--their song books of political discontent--we have http://guerillafunk.com/ .

What Would You Do?
I see a message from the government, like every day
I watch it, and listen, and call ‘em all suckas
They warnin’ me about Osama or whatever
Picture me buyin’ this scam I said never
Or any other word they think to demonize a country
Ain’t no terror threat unless approval ratings slumpin’
So I’ma say it for the record we the ones that planned it
Ain’t no other country took a part or had they hand in
And while Reichstag burns see the public buy it, I see the profilin’ see the media’s compliance
War is good for business see the vicious make a savior
Hope you understand the time brother cause it’s major
What would you do if you
knew all of the things we know
Would you stand up for truth
Or would you turn away too?
And then what if you saw
All of the things that’s wrong
Would you stand tall and strong?
Or would you turn and walk away... Paris

Yet during this time for many of the more traditional mass movements hip hop might well as not exist. I have been to countless Peace Movement demonstrations and actions where the organizers seem to think that the final statement in resistance music is acoustic folk music. Rallies where hip hop is often played as a grudging sideline--as if hip hop was not on the front line. This ignorance of the new movement hurts both Hip Hop and the more traditional radical movements such as Earth First!

Additionally, the corporations are tripping over themselves to provide the images of Hip Hop without its gritty revolutionarily substance to sell their products. Mae West once said that in America we use revolution to sell panty hose. On television we see fools in baggy pants and jewelry telling us to buy peanut butter. The same profit oriented media that destroyed the revolutionary edge of rock and roll is attempting to coop Hip Hop kulture in order to pre-package and sell themselves. On so called "hip-hop" radio stations they play this watered down Muzak form of gangster rap calling it "hip hip" in order to sell themselves. If the mass revolutionary movements fail to embrace Hip Hop and encourage its revolutionary messages then Hip Hop itself may lose if the corporations are successful in their campaign of cooption. This revolutionary tool will be used by corporations to sell pop tarts if revolutionaries fail to embrace this new voice of resistance.

On the other side of the wax (album), in the South there are hip-hop artist that draw 100-150 people if they stick their head in an event. Many of these artist are very sympathetic to any effort of resistance towards the corporate nation state. By not embracing and forming alliances with hip hop artist radicals are deny themselves the audiences which these artist bring with them. Though I appreciate traditional folk songs of resistance done by guitar--it's frustrating to leave a rally of 50 where all the music is exclusively folk--then to goto a show where 200 people come to listen to 1 hip hop artist tell them to revolt.

Karl Marx once wrote that the system will provide the means of its own destruction. If the traditional movements embrace political hip hop perhaps it will be the peanut butter on the prezel for the corporations that own our federal government. And as it tries to swallow us both it will choke to death on the message of revolution in the music paired with the acts of revolution of our movements.

CHORUS
I came to free Miss Liberty, from the bonds of slavery; From mock Democracy; from inequality; I want to feel no Iron Heel shall disgrace our peaceful shore; That all the world may do away with war- I love to dream the old, old dream, that tomorrow I will find Men of a kindred mind-who love their fellow kind. I long to make this plea, say not that it cannot be, I want to see the whole world free from the chains of slavery. I WANNA FREE MISS LIBERTY IWW Little Red Songbook.

Shout out to-- DE LA SOUL, Lauren Hill, Wyclef, Common, Kam, Afu-Ra, Black Eyed Peas, The Goats, Zion I (eye), Fluid Engineerz, Solid Earth, Deltron 30/30, Saul Williams (sept 12th), Micronots, Jurasic 5, Gil-Scott Herron (old school and whitey's on the moon), Ice Cube, E-Z E, Electromagnetic M.C.'s, (some, but not all), Speech, Me Phi Me (Na$hville dude, mostly out of print), Queen Latifah (mostly sexual politics, women's rights), Mr. lif, imperial elements, peas in a pod, proffits of rage, poor righteous teachers, b-ski, The Peoples army, Seeds of Wisdom, Aceyalone ('Ms Amerikkka'), Binary Star, Dilated Peoples, Beatnuts, Tony Touch, Scienz of Life, Sol Uprising Jahi (new west coast artist), Nas (some new tracks, specifically, 'doorags', 'my country', 'purple', Goodie Mob, Dungeon Family and the Beastie Boys.

And a double shout out to KFAR.ORG the hardest, pirate, underground, revolutionary pirate radio station in south Knoxville.

Last, if you wish to listen to the best hip hop shows in the world right now goto shoutcast.com and enter kfar in the search field. Friday and Saturday nights between 8-10 pm eastern time DJ John Conner broadcast his show anarchy, hip hop, and deep ecology. And on Saturday night from 10-12 is the elevation hip hop show by R@tchet. These two shows are considered the best available on the planet right now by all credible pirate underground katuah earth first! dj's.