Welcome to Appalachia Rising

The Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia by Kat Wallace (ToplessAmerica.org)

By Kevin Gosztola | Cross-posted at OpEdNews.com

What organizers are calling “an unprecedented gathering of Appalachian people and their allies in the movement to abolish all forms of surface mining” for coal, particularly mountaintop removal mining, will take place over the weekend. The organizers hope this weekend will be an opportunity to “build solidarity not only between Appalachians and their allies, but also between communities impacted by similar issues all over the nation.”

Saturday and Sunday will be about hearing from “Voices of the Mountains,” people who have felt the impact of surface mining in their communities and people who have engaged in activism to bring surface mining to a halt.

Attendees will hear stories from individuals like Matthew Sherman, a Blackfoot Indian of the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia and someone who has served as a Federal Native Americans Spiritual Advisor for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and an opponent of mountaintop removal mining. They will hear stories from leaders like Mickey McCoy, who will talk about experiencing a toxic coal sludge breach that occurred in Massey Energy’s Martin County sludge dam. And, they will hear stories from people like Vickie Terry, who lives in the Clearfork Valley in Tennessee and can look out from where she lives and see mountains being blasted in a ridge nearby.

Sessions will be dedicated to education on the issues and tactics that this growing movement to end surface mining employs and will employ in the future. Coal combustion waste (or coal ash), coal-fired power plants, natural gas hydrofracking, climate change, resource extraction, monoeconomies, slurry and sludge, post-mining land use, and, of course, surface mining will be discussed. Participants will also be introduced to the tactics of nonviolent direct action like civil disobedience, permitting/regulation, economic diversification, field work, lobbying, corporate campaigns, land reform, community organizing, telling the movement’s story through media, and using art to tell the story of Appalachia’s coalfields.

A “Day of Action” will take place on Monday, September 27^th. It will involve a rally at Freedom Plaza, a march to the White House, and then a protest to demand the Obama Administration make the abolition of mountaintop removal mining a national environmental policy. These are the events on the agenda, but there may be some nonviolent direct action as well.

Resident of Boone County, WV, Maria Gunnoe, who lives in a house that now sits below a mountaintop removal site and will be sharing her story with attendees, wrote an editorial that was published on Common Dreams.

Gunnoe writes:

“Coal speaks its truths in what it leaves behind for the people that sacrifice so much for the coal companies’ bottom line. The people get nothing in return but destroyed ancestral, historic lands and communities such as Blair, the battleground for today’s United Mine Workers Association. “We the people” get the poisoned water, the polluted land, the silica-laden air, the bad health, and the diminished hope of ever having a future. This is what we have to show for 200 years of mining coal. Where is the preached prosperity? We have no desire to bash coal. Coal speaks for itself.”

On the movement to end mountaintop removal, she declares:

“There are nearly 3.5 million pounds of explosives used EACH DAY in West Virginia alone. People throughout Appalachia couldn’t find the political support to stop the attack on our homeland and we began to organize. While our county, state and federal leaders turned a blind eye and deaf ear to us”We formed a movement. Appalachians have depended on our democracy (the American people) to help defend us as our politicians and regulatory agencies have not.”

Kari Fulton, a young D.C. resident who organizes around environmental justice issues, says of this event, “I’m really excited to see Appalachia Rising come,” to D.C. “Before it even started, we saw the street art they have posted everywhere.”

“A lot of people don’t know about mountaintop removal, and it would be good to see this end,” Fulton says. “This is one of those issues that we could see come to an end soon. Hope we continue to build solidarity.” She works for PowerVote.org, the latest campaign of the Energy Action Coalition, and hopes to hold leaders accountable by getting them to support a nationwide transition from coal and oil to clean and renewable energy like wind and solar.

I will be posting on this great event all weekend and on Monday before and after the “Day of Action” takes place. Stay tuned.

Supreme Court Divided Over Judicial Bias Case

The Supreme Court divided on familiar ideological grounds today when it confronted the question of whether a judge should recuse himself in a case where one of the parties spent millions of dollars supporting his election. This case out of West Virginia provides a stark example of why judges need scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal article previously posted on our blog had less detail, so we have posted this article in its place.

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Ashley Judd Rails Against Mountain Top Removal

During the I Love Mountains rally in Frankfort on Feb. 17, 2009, actor Ashley Judd took the podium to speak out against mountain top removal mining and in support of the Stream Saver Bill in this video.

(video courtesy of David Stephensen, Lexington Herald-Leader)

West Virginia Gubernatorial Debate 2 0f 4 Held in Bedroom Community – Protesters Greet Candidates

This debate was the second of four gubernatorial debates held in West Virginia last week between incumbent Governor Joe Manchin, Senator Russ Weeks, and Mountain Party candidate for Governor Jesse Johnson.

Blocked out of the first and only statewide network televised gubernatorial debate, the balloted third party candidate Jesse Johnson shakes a few leaves off that two-party tree in this one hour debate held in Hedgesville, West Virginia. This debate was hosted by WEPM, a news/sports/talk radio station in West Virginia.

As the only candidate opposing Mountain Top Removal (MTR), Johnson provided relief to the protesting environmentalists in the crowd, many of whom had come to voice their objections to “The Path”, a high-voltage power line that would carve a 10,000 acre line through private properties in order to accelerate delivery of coal-powered energy to the East Coast states. While “the Path” is a federally mandated program, many see the current Governor as complicit in the sacrifice of West Virginia for the use of energy corporations.

There are a couple of interesting points to observe in the radio station’s reporting of the debate on its website, the most important of which is the exclusion of the discussion of MTR. A recent poll indicated that most West Virginians are against MTR, as well they should be given the level of contaminants dumped into the headwaters by profit-driven coal companies and the ensuing air pollution created by the burning of the coal. Instead, the station reported that the retention of teachers was the major topic discussed, which, while provocative, was not the heated point of opposition during the debate.

Hedgesburg is about a 5 hour drive from the state capitol Charleston and it sits in the upper east panhandle. It was once a sleepy rural area but has become a booming bedroom community for Washington D.C. commuters, who are transient in their commitment to West Virginia and unaware of the rest of the state’s history. The state’s history with coal mining has effected its politics for generations. It was a state made up of company towns in which a culture of obedience and isolation made it difficult for people to organize. This foundation of corporate control still permeates and aggravates the already dire conditions in which many live in the mid and Southern sections of the state.

One might wonder why the debate was not held in a more populated area so that the theater that held four hundred might at least be a quarter filled. Then again, it might be all too evident.

Former Republican Challenges Coal-Energy Producers to Reform Strategies for Growth

Allan Tweddle, business entrepreneur, environmental activist, faced off with pro-coal energy representatives and academicians at the Coal Energy Industry Forum held at West Virginia University on October 15, 2008. His opening remarks demonstrate clearly his skepticism that his audience will be receptive to his findings or concerns. While he sits on the West Virginia Governor’s Public Energy Authority, he is critical of mountain top removal and its environmental degradation of the state.

Tweddle, who calls himself a “Recovering Republican”, points out that West Virginia will not be able to compete with other energy producers unless a switch to sustainable practices is made. The expense of silicone has dropped far enough that solar voltaics has become an energy solution within reach, making it more feasible to profitably build solar powered plants. In the meantime, coal-powered plants are becoming increasingly more expense to build and the resource of coal is finite. He shares how successfully other countries have adopted conversion enticements to its citizens; and cites that even South Africa, with one of the most polluting coal-burning power plant, is in the process of shifting its energy policy.

Jesse Johnson, Mountain Party candidate for Governor along with supporters attended the forum as well and offered a standing ovation to Tweddle after his presentation. In a state where coal is King, it will take many strong activists to switch this light bulb.

West Virginia Mountain Party Gubernatorial Candidate Shakes Up Two Party System

Special by Babette Hogan

updated version

The West Virginia Gubernatorial race is heating up – and it’s coal powered.

Jesse Johnson, the West Virginia Mountain Party’s candidate for Governor, matches up against the incumbent (d) Joe Manchin and (R)Senator Russ Weeks in this Public Broadcasting Debate.

Johnson is the only gubernatorial candidate of the three who is against the coal mining practice of Mountain Top Removal (MTR) and espouses a citizens’ extraction dividend, universal health care and free education, amongst other policies deemed unfriendly to big business. He was denied entry to the West Virginia Broadcast Assn., the first and most widely broadcast statewide debate, which pre-empted programming on three network channels. The WVBA defended their choice to exclude the third party candiate on the grounds that the Republican and Democrat were having a “private news event”. Published polls fail to indicate that the ballot qualified third party is even in the race, despite an overwhelming number of people being against MTR, according to a recent poll cited in the Charleston Gazette.

A discerning listener may notice that Johnson has to wait a rather long spell to be invited into the conversation between Governor Manchin, who is widely perceived as a “Dixiecrat” with several scandals floating around him, and pro-unborn life Weeks, who is willing to face up to Manchin, yet remains skeptical of progressive ideals. (Weeks likens Mountain Top Removal to an ” act of Mother Nature”, satisfied that eventually good things will come of MTR, like golf courses, shopping malls and developed communities.)

The first question asked of Johnson has nothing to do with policy, but reads, instead, like a third grade test of state emblems.

The host attempts a gotcha moment. “Could you name three people who you would appoint to Cabinet if you were actually to be elected Governor and why you would pick those people.” Johnson’s response, “I believe I probably could name three people, but if I’m not mistaken, you’re not supposed to be making those decision prior to the election and it’s against protocol and against the law in West Virginia.”

“Let me take another tack on that. Can you name three of the state cabinet posts?” Now, the video of this “debate” is not posted, only the audio, but if you could have seen it, as I had, you would have noticed how remarkably calm and polite Johnson remained in the face of his intelligence being insulted. Curtly after, the host reengages Weeks and Manchin in a policy question.

I was in the press conference room and the two local stations reporters mouths dropped with astonishishment when they heard the obvious bias of the reporter. However, this may not be entirely the host’s own prejudice. Manchin, as the self-appointed head of Public Broadcasting in West Virginia, does have some control.

Earlier in the day, while walking to a local breakfast diner past a park smattered with homeless people, I happened upon a church where a town car sat, a state trooper pacing outside. It was Sunday and service had started. I waited until the service and feast ended for the appearance of what I suspected would be Governor Manchin. Indeed, he did appear and when I approached him he set his face in a practiced friendly public performance smile. I asked him as he walked firmly to his polished coal black car, “Governor, what do you think about the recent report of vote switching in the early voting booths.” He marched sternly on with a grimacing smile, “You should go inside (the Church) and try some baklava.”

While I admit that addressing someone about politics after they have come out of Church might appear disrespectful, it wasn’t his church; he was just polticking. So, I ask again Governor, “Those machines that you bought when you were Secretary of State, doesn’t it concern you that they are apparently switching the vote?”

We had a chance to interview Manchin and Weeks after the debate, but both candidates refused. Manchin then cornered Johnson in one side of the room, keeping his back to us enforcing his view that MTR was essential. Weeks, wearing the soft silver new-born feet pin of a pro-lifer/anti-choicer, refused because of his concern that “environmentalists” misrepresent him.

Qualified Candidate Locked Out of WV Gubernatorial Debate

“If it is just Joe Manchin and Russ Weeks, then no one who is pro-choice, no one who is anti-mountaintop removal, and no who is truly pro-labor is being represented at that debate,” candidate Jesse Johnson of the Mountain Party said. He is looking for public support to help force the Broadcast Assn to include him in the upcoming debate. Johnson, who gained ballot access for the Mountain Party in 2004 in a gubernatorial campaign, is affiliated with the Green Party. He ran a campaign for President on the Green Party ticket earlier this year as a means of drawing attention to his state’s plight. His platform focuses on environment, energy alternatives and protection of the Constitution.

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Jesse Johnson Raises Symphony Hall – Puts A Call Out for Freedom

Polidoc will be releasing more videos this week. Until then, enjoy the soulful song candidate Jesse Johnson put out at the 2008 Green Party National Convention on July 12, 2008 at Chicago’s Symphony Hall.

Johnson moved into electoral activism after years of absence from his home state. He was appalled at the destruction of his native blue ridge mountains by profit driven coal companies. A former Republican, Johnson represents the Libertarian Greens; in the past, he was endorsed by Mike Gravel.

Johnson continues his electoral activism in West Virginia, where the Green Party’s affiliate, The Mountain Party, has nominated him to run for Governor. Johnsn is scheduled to be in two debates in October, when election season really heats up.