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Tar Sands Blockade - 11 heroes are in jail
By Tar Sands Blockade
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Read this blog post on the originating site
Yesterday was one of our biggest actions yet when over 120 people rallied from across the Nacogdoches community to help shut down two Keystone XL construction sites for the day.
Our Mass Action resulted in 11 arrests with 4 people who locked themselves to KXL machinery and 3 others who climbed trees in the path of this toxic pipeline. Their combined bail is set at $132,250, and we need to raise $13,490 by Wednesday at 5:30 PM to get them out or the bail will increase. These brave blockaders are facing unprecedented and trumped up felony charges. Clearly, TransCanada is pushing hard for the escalated criminalization of civil disobedience and peaceful protest against its dangerous pipeline. We need to push back. And we need to do it fast.
Demonstrate your support for these 11 brave blockaders with a generous donation to their bail fund.
The focal point of the new tree blockade was 21-year-old Nacogdoches student Lizzy Alvarado. She took action to protect the land, water, and air of her community in solidarity with those who have already been bullied and intimidated by TransCanada. Lizzy and six other public advocates are being charged with two counts of trumped-up felony charges. Their real crime? Standing up to TransCanada and defending their community and water supply from some one of the most toxic substances on the planet.
Yesterday’s action was our twelfth in our sustained civil disobedience campaign, and it was an escalation in our movement to stop Keystone XL in both its size and how profoundly it deepened our roots in the greater East Texas community. Tar Sands Blockade’s campaign has emboldened local residents who were feeling much more isolated and unsupported previously to stand up against this multi-national corporate plunderer.
We know who the real criminals are. Its the multi-national corporations like TransCanada that barge into our community, scare our neighbors, and steal our land for their private profit and plans to poison our water without regard to those who happen to be in their way.
The effectiveness of our actions was met with serious, swift police repression. Our four friends who had locked themselves to the machinery sustained pepper spray and several were dragged across the pipeline easement before being taken to jail. Crowds of people, including many Nacogdoches locals, were indiscriminately pepper sprayed trying to defend the tree blockade from a dangerous cherry picker after belligerent TransCanada construction crews and police had threatened their lives throughout the day.
The survivors of this abuse include Jeanette, a 75-year-old Nacogdoches great-grandmother, who had just debuted the Nacogdoches Raging Grannies chapter in an inaugural concert at Lake Nacogdoches and Jordan Johnson, a 22-year-old Emory University Grad Student, who was born and bred in Nacogdoches.
Read more about a few of our 11 heroes:
- Lizzy, a 21 year old local third year cinematography major who wanted to defend her landowner friends from TransCanada’s bullying.
- Dakoda from Michigan who came to Texas after seeing the devastation the tar sands spill had on the Kalamazoo river that he played in as a kid.
- Lisa from Seattle who feels like these tactics are an important escalation for our climate justice movement.
- Eric from New York an environmental scientist who understands the urgency and mission of climate science took action after seeing the unfathomable impacts of Hurricane Sandy his home city.
This is one of those times when we ask everyone to dig deep into your heart and your pocket and contribute more than usual. We appreciate your ongoing support, and we recognize a contribution isn’t possible for everyone. If a contribution is within your means please consider a generous donation of $100, or even $10, because every little bit helps us reach our needed goal by Wednesday at 5:30PM.
TransCanada’s strategy is to use their deep pockets and corporate lawyers to intimidate, bankrupt, and bully us and everyone else who has ever stood up to them. We refuse to be intimidated, and we won’t stop until we stop this toxic pipeline! And we are growing.
Over the last week over 40 communities worldwide undertook solidarity actions with the Blockade to stand up to dirty energy extraction and call for climate justice now!
Tagged with: keystone xl, tar sands, keystone, blockade, arrests, bail, jail
