Mountain Justice Spring Break 2010
Southwest Virginia
March 12 - 20, 2010
Register now at www.mjsb.org
Be part of the growing movement demanding justice for Appalachia!
Learn how...
March 12- 20, 2010: Mountain Justice Spring Break
posted February 4, 2010
 Our struggle for environmental justice in Appalachia has never been as publicized, analyzed, or urgent as RIGHT NOW! Not a moment too soon, your chance to plug in and make things happen is here! This March 12 - 20, Mountain Justice Spring Break will bring hundreds of young people face to face with the impacts of mountaintop removal and coal industry abuse - and give you the skills and knowledge you need to fight back! Through education, community service, speakers, hiking, music, poetry, direct action and more, you will learn from and stand with Appalachian communities in the struggle to maintain our land and culture.
...read more
January 28, 2010: National Coal Ash Day of Action
posted January 28, 2010
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing a new rule to regulate the disposal of toxic coal ash - the byproduct of burning coal for power. As expected, the coal industry is fighting to maintain the status quo on coal ash, backing a proposal that limits opportunities for public input and ensures coal ash is treated less responsibly than household trash.
We must generate thousands of emails and phone calls to the White House, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the US EPA and Congressional Offices telling them coal ash is hazardous and federal regulations are needed immediately. There is no more time for delay!
...read more
January 26, 2009: Student Activists Demand Alternative Energies on Campus
posted January 26, 2010
Burning Coal on Campus is Hazardous to Student Health and the Commonwealth
 LEXINGTON, Ky: Tuesday, an anonymous group of students from the University of Kentucky hung a banner from a parking structure near Rose Street to protest the university's use of coal power on campus. The banner, reading "COAL: A Tradition of Oppression. STUDENTS: Let's Change Our Legacy", included a reproduction of the familiar UK symbol, with a burning smokestack between the letters instead of the usual Memorial Hall steeple.
...read more
Tree sit stops blasting on Coal River Mountain!
posted January 24, 2010
 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
JANUARY 21, 2010
Contact: Kim Ellis - 304 854 7372
Email: news@climategroundzero.org
Note: www.climategroundzero.org and www.mountainjustice.org
"Coal River Mountain was the last mountain around here that hasn't been touched and they could've been using it for windmills... But Massey wants to get that coal. It seems like they just don't care about the populace. Just the land and their checkbook."
- Richard Bradford
MARFORK, W.Va.-Protestors associated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice halted blasting on Coal River Mountain today with a three-person tree-sit. David Aaron Smith, 23, Amber Nitchman, 19 and Eric Blevins, 28 are on platforms approximately 60 feet up two tulip poplar trees and one oak tree. They are located next to where Massey Energy is blasting to build an access road to the Brushy Fork Impoundment on its Bee Tree Strip Mine. Their banners state: "Save Coal River Mtn.," "EPA Stop the Blasting" and "Windmills Not Toxic Spills."
...read more
Journalists, United Mtn Defense volunteer arrested on unknown charges
posted January 20, 2010
On Wednesday, January 20th, TVA police pulled over United Mountain Defense (UMD) volunteer Matt Landon Jones and two journalists from the North Carolina based newspaper "The Appalachian Voice" for no apparent reason. They were on their way to a previously scheduled appointment to interview a local resident of Roane County who had been devastated by the TVA coal ash disaster. After detaining them and taking away their video cameras, the TVA police searched them and their vehicle and then arrested them on charges that have not been made clear. While on the phone with Jones, UMD volunteer Bonnie Swinford heard Jones asking the officer if he was being arrested, to which the officer answered "yes." When Jones then asked the officer what he was being arrested for, the officer replied, "I'll get back to you." At that point the phone connection was broken. They are now being processed at the Roane County jail and no information about charges is being shared with us at this time. This arrest follows a pattern of TVA police harassing UMD volunteers and members of the press who are trying to help victims of the TVA disaster and get their stories out. See videos of Police harassment below.
We need help with bail money. Please send checks marked "For January 20 arrest."
By mail:
United Mountain Defense
PO Box 20363
Knoxville, TN 37920
Or donate online at www.unitedmountaindefense.org by using the yellow paypal button on the right side of the home page.
January 22, 2010: Benefit Concert for 2 TN Activists Arrested Protecting Appalachian Mountains
posted January 14, 2010
Join Mountain Justice and United Mountain Defense for a fun night of music, dancing, slam poetry, raffles and fiery speeches about the destruction of mountaintop removal coal mining. An eclectic collection of bands will entertain us with rap performances by Loose Leaf, old timey mountain music with Catfish Mercury Load and dancing into the night with DJ Lauren Elysse spinning soul records and much more.
...read more
More recent events...
ANTI-MTR ACTIVISTS NEED YOUR HELP
Non-violent protestors are facing steep fines, court fees and jail time for the escalation in civil disobedience this past summer. Can you help support
the brave men and women who have put it all on the line to stop the crime of mountaintop removal?
Any amount you can give will help - $5, $20, $50 or as much as you can afford.
We need to raise more than $50,000 ASAP for the legal defense fund.
Or send a check payable to:
"Mountain Justice - Legal Defense"
PO Box 86, Naoma WV 25140
Can you help organize a fundraising event in you town? Can you provide legal assistance? Can your college, university or organization host speakers on MTR and provide
a big speaking honorarium? We have a fast-growing crew of speakers willing to go on the road to help raise money,
but we need more gigs and more speakers. Contact us if you can help.
THANK YOU!
“Voices
for Appalachia”
Written and Narrated by Hundreds
An Appalachia Portrait-Story Project
 In early March of 2008, The Portrait-Story Project came for the first time to the Southern Highlands of
North America. The results, now available for posterity have come to be known as "Voices for Appalachia - A Portrait-Story Project - Written and Narrated
by Hundreds." (voicesforappalachia.org)
These portraits indicate every community that The Portrait-Story Project bottom-liners had the privilege of co-generating content with during their nearly
two years of travels. Dozens of households embodied this "art-media-social phenomenon" by inviting these creatives amongst themselves, kin, neighbors and associates,
supplying them with bed, board and morale for their volunteer service and then asserting their narratives upon the original drawing of themselves. As awareness of The
Portrait-Story Project spread throughout Appalachia, it tended to keep manifesting, provided specific request or an explicit desire to participate, which happened by
word of mouth or e-mail, and hospitality upon arrival.
 On these Appalachian Portrait-Stories we have a panorama of expressions: snippets of everyday life, celebration of the land and culture and struggles for
empowerment or at least survival - as handwritten by those living it. In a few cases where an otherwise able participant stated their illiteracy, a relative by
blood or marital commitment volunteered to write their words for them and annotated so.
We are very proud to be able to present this body of over 500 Appalachian Portrait-Stories originals. If you have adequate interior wall space within
Appalachia to exhibit the bulk of this original art and handwriting at approximately eye level, and desire this precious, unique collection for your public
event, then contact United Mountain Defense; umdvolunteerhouse [at] yahoo.com or 865-689-2778.
 There
is a manmade ecological disaster of geologic proportions occurring
in the rolling mountains of the southern Appalachians; its
called mountain range -- or Mountain Top Removal (MTR) mining.
It is the ultimate in theft of a people's heritage -- the
destruction of watersheds -- and the annihilation of one of
the most diverse places on earth.
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.
|
