Mountain Justice is a grassroots movement established in 2005 to raise worldwide awareness of mountaintop removal mining and its effects on the environment and peoples of Appalachia. The group seeks to encourage conservation, efficiency, solar and wind energy as alternatives to all forms of surface mining. It self-describes as "a regional Appalachian network committed to ending mountaintop removal". It seeks justice because the mountaintop removal (MTR) it opposes is a form of coal mining known as mountaintop removal mining which produces coal sludge toxic waste which is stored in a dam on the mountain and leaches into the groundwater, which poisons the environment, which defaces the top of the mountain, and which is not stopped due to political corruption. The group is non-hierarchical, and decisions are made using a consensus model of decision making. In 2008, the group shortened their name from Mountain Justice Summer to simply Mountain Justice to reflect the year round efforts of their activities.
Group details Location: Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia Mission Statement: Mountain Justice seeks to add to the growing anti-MTR citizens movement. Specifically Mountain Justice demands an abolition of MTR, steep slope strip mining and all other forms of surface mining for coal. We work to protect the cultural and natural heritage of the Appalachia coal fields. We work to contribute with grassroots organizing, public education, nonviolent civil disobedience and other forms of citizen action. Historically coal companies have engaged in violence and property destruction when faced with citizen opposition to their activities. Mountain Justice is committed to nonviolence and will not be engaged in property destruction. We work together to create diverse and sustainable economies in Appalachian regions traditionally dominated by the coal industry by supporting businesses, jobs and ways of living that are not environmentally or culturally destructive and are nourishing to the social and biological fabric of healthy communities.
Actions
June 7, 2005: First stockholders meeting of National Coal Corporation Disrupted On June 7, 2005, approximately 45 Mountain Justice activists, some in animal costumes, surprised the first-ever shareholders meeting of Knoxville-based National Coal Corporation with a marching band, chants, drumming and noise makers. Demonstrators demanded that National Coal stop mountaintop removal mining and distributed informational flyers to shareholders. The sheriff and National Coal Corporation responded by assaulting protesters with pain compliance, choke holds and arrested three on bogus felony charges.
June 30, 2005: West Virginia citizens occupy Massey headquarters On June 30, 2005, Concerned parents, grandparents and other citizens of Coal River Valley, West Virginia, with support from Mountain Justice participants, 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. The citizens demanded that Massey shut down its preparation plant, coal silo, 1,849-acre mountaintop removal coal mine and 2.8 billion-gallon coal sludge dam - a toxic waste storage facility — located feet from an elementary school, Marsh Fork Elementary, in Sundail, West Virginia.
Aug. 15, 2005: Earth First!/Mountain Justice blockade of Campbell County mountaintop removal site On August 15, 2005, Earth First! and Mountain Justice activists blockaded a road leading to National Coal's mountaintop removal coal mine in Campbell County, Tennessee. Activists stopped a car on the road, removed its tires, locked themselves to the vehicle, and erected a tripod with a person perched on top of it. National Coal workers arrived and threatened the protestors; one tried to ram the tripod with his car. Eleven people were arrested; the police treated the arrested activists very roughly, endangering their safety.
June 26, 2007: March & Street Theater at Dominion Headquarters On June 26, 2007, 35 people with the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and Mountain Justice marched in Richmond, VA, calling for Dominion Resources to abandon its plans for a Wise County Plant in southwest Virginia. The march began at Massey Energy's headquarters, where participants acted out a "baby shower" for newly mined coal. With "baby coal" placed in a coffin, the march moved to Dominion Resources' headquarters and a mock funeral was held for the coal, drawing a line between strip mining and coal-fired power plants.
Mar. 16, 2007: Sit-in at West Virginia Gov. Manchin's office On March 16, 2007, dozens of West Virginia community members - together with activists from Mountain Justice and Rising Tide North America - occupied the office of West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, in protest of the State Mine Board's approval of construction permits for a second coal silo near Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, West Virginia. Community activists demanded that the state move the school; state officials have failed to comply thus far. Eleven people were arrested at this action, and many were treated roughly by police.
Nov. 15, 2007: Rainforest Action Network day of action against coal finance On November 15, 2007, Rainforest Action Network activists - acting together with allies from Coal River Mountain Watch, Appalachian Voices, Rising Tide North America, Mountain Justice, Student Environmental Action Coalition, and Energy Justice Network - staged dozens of actions against Citibank and Bank of America branches in cities across the county, in protest of those two companies' refusal to stop funding new coal power plant development and coal mountaintop removal mining. In San Francisco, RAN activists attached caution tape - reading "Global Warming Crime Scene" - to dozens of Bank of America and Citibank ATMs, and held "cough-ins" in several branches. Similar ATM closure actions were held in New York City, Davis (CA), Los Angeles, Portland (OR), and St. Petersburg (FL), while protests against the two companies were held in numerous other cities.
March 6, 2008: Bluegrass at the Bank, Boone, NC On March 6, 2008, approximately two dozen Mountain Justice activists visited a Bank of America in Boone North Carolina to protest the bank's funding of mountaintop removal coal mining and coal-fired power plants.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
