Road Blockade Stops Logging In Elliott State Forest: Call For Action

[abbielives!]

Dear Friends, Supporters, and Comrades,

Today, a group of Cascadia Earth First!ers and Rising Tide members took action against the continued liquidation and destruction of Oregon's Elliott State Forest. Using sky pods, bipods, road blockades, overturned cargo vans, lock downs and many other beautiful installations, the road to Umpcoos Ridge timber sale has been occupied, held and reclaimed for the forest, the people and future generations.

For decades this forest near Coos Bay has been hammered, managed as if it was a piggy bank, smashed in an unsuccessful attempt to fund public schools.

Some of Oregon's (and the world's) last native forests, old growth, and future old growth forests are on the chopping block in the Elliott. A lawsuit has been filed against the current management plan for sanctioning the killing of endangered spotted owls. That lawsuit has been ignored. Community groups have resisted the extraction for years and have been ignored.

But the blockade stands, and WE CAN HOLD THE ROAD, but NOT WITHOUT YOUR HELP! Please take some time to protect your public land!

How to help:

Call These Folks!!!! Please! Public Support for the Blockade is Absolutely Necessary for its continuation! We need hundreds of calls ASAP to stop the sale and maintain the blockade

Secretary of State and Oregon Land Board member Kate Brown: (503) 986-1523
Coos District Forester Jim Young (541) 267-1741
Ask them to cancel the current timber sales (Umpcoos and Fishing Cougar) in the Elliottt State Forest! This area is important native forest land; it should be set aside as a biodiversity and carbon reserve for endangered species and climate change mitigation. Tell them you support the continuation of the blockade!

Second, JOIN US! Bring all you need to be self sufficient in the woods for as long as you plan to stay and come to the Elliott!
Directions:
Go West towards Reedsport on Highway 38
Turn Left on Loon Lake Road
Pass Camp Creek Road, take first right (unmarked)
After 100 feet on unmarked road you will see Cougar Pass Road sign
This road becomes 7000. Follow to site. Careful of multiple forks, stay on road more traveled.
The Free State is at mile marker 3 ½ on the 7000 road.

Third, if you can't come, please donate to the cause on our web site: www.ForestDefenseNow.org (but make sure you call the land board first, the success of this action depends on everyone showing support)

Check out our web site for full information www.ForestDefenseNow.org

Love and Rage,
Cascadia Summer http://portland.indymedia.org/img/link_small.gif homepage: http://www.forestdefensenow.org (http://www.forestdefensenow.org/)

mainstream news article: http://www.nrtoday.com/article/20090707/NEWS/907079992/1063/NEWS&ParentProfile=1055

[BobKKKindle$]

From the "mainstream news article":


protesters from Earth First! and Cascadia Rising Tide erected blockades and tree platforms early Monday morning, barring worker accessI don't think that communists or anyone who sees themselves as progressive should undermine the position of the working class by engaging in elitist (elitist, because this action was evidently not carried out with the support of the workers who were employed at the site, and was organized by a group, Earth First, which does not seek to liberate the working class from capitalist exploitation, or enhance man's ability to control the natural environment, but instead fetishizes nature) actions that undermine necessary industries (necessary, because logging is likely to exist in a post-capitalist society, given the usefulness of wood) and probably lead to workers losing pay. We don't stop workers from getting to factories and offices, and we shouldn't be blocking roads to logging sites, and setting up silly communes - communists are first and foremost part of the working class and recognize that the emancipation of that class can only come about as a result of its own struggles, as expressed in the concept of "self-emancipation", as distinct from emancipation from above, which is not really emancipation at all.

In short, this is a reactionary action, and I hope it fails.

[n0thing]

Is there any sensible opposition to this sort of logging? Like, an actual environmental risk, rather than just some more hippy crap.

[bricolage]

We don't stop workers from getting to factories and offices

Would you support a campaign to shut down an arms factory, Smash EDO for example? It would undoubtedly lead to workers losing jobs

[BobKKKindle$]

Would you support a campaign to shut down an arms factory, Smash EDO for example? It would undoubtedly lead to workers losing jobs

Firstly, an arms factory is entirely different from a logging site - the former serves to provide states with the tools they need to oppress workers within their own borders, and gain control of markets and resources through imperialist wars, whereas the latter poses no threat to the working class, and stopping logging has nothing to do with progressive politics. Secondly, of course communists should fight to close down arms factories, but it should be done in a way that is consistent with our support for working-class struggle and liberation. This means that activists should engage in dialogue with the workers who are employed at the factory, getting as many workers as possible involved in the action, and support strategies that will give more power to the working class and not result in jobs being lost, such as a factory occupation along the lines of what happened at Visteon in the UK at Enfield, where the workers, having occupied, decided to turn their factory - which had previously been part of Ford - into a factory producing a different product, using the existing equipment, although unfortunately they did not succeed in this endeavor.

The same principle is also applicable to an action I was involved in earlier this year, when myself and a large number of other students occupied our university over the invasion of Gaza - we knew that the action would disrupt workers who were in the university offices so the student branch of the SWP at my university (the SWP being my organization) made an effort to explain why we were taking action to the workers, and, because of the intervention of another SWP member who was not a student, got the support of a local trade union branch, whereas if we had not made that intervention, the action could have alienated the workers, and put us in a very difficult position as socialist if the workers had demanded that we withdraw, because the liberal participants did not operate from a class-based perspective. It is clear that the activists who decided to carry out this action against logging are not communists and do not orientate their struggles towards the working class because the statement posted above contains no suggestions as to what could be done to preserve jobs, no links between environmental degradation and capitalism, and no evidence that the participants had a connection with the logging workers - in fact, there is evidence that the action was taken in direct opposition to local workers, because the activists have set up a blockade to prevent workers from coming to the site. This elitist and anti-working-class approach is of course a common feature of environmentalist politics, and is not something any communist should support.

[Dooga Aetrus Blackrazor]

Is there any sensible opposition to this sort of logging? Like, an actual environmental risk, rather than just some more hippy crap.

The hippy "crap" are the arguments. Most hippies actually have arguments. I'm a supporter of logging as well. I think sustainability is important. It's a tough balance.

A lot of people think the "do whatever you want" approach to development will create its own solutions. However, that's the same kind of market dogmatism capitalist believe. Most industries are worth the environmental costs. However, it's a clear dilemma. If it's alright to throw something in the ocean once, because it's convenient, we can't apply that same rational universally. Kant has a sort of pragmatism. However, environmentalists are often supporters of Kantianism as a reason to do nothing.

If 500 logs will blow up the Earth, we can't stop logging. What we need are regulations. Environmentalists want progression to be sustainable or otherwise ignored, for the most part.

It's not individual people and loggers causing problems. It's the fact that every one of those individuals acts with the same disregard for the environment. Each person looks at themselves individually as insignificant. Yet that attitude is why we have many of the problems both environmental and otherwise in modern society, and it's difficult to rationally resolve the problem.

Environmentalists say we should stop doing non sustainable activities or make them sustainable. Loggers are cutting trees which provide oxygen in order to provide wood, a useful material. However, we should all be willing to pay increased wood costs in order to have sustainable forestry.

Now the obvious criticism is that someone who can't afford to feed their family shouldn't be expected to pay higher prices to make the environment sustainable. However, the truth of that is obvious. They are in that predicament because of capitalist exploitation. The elitist liberal ethics claim their immoral for buying cheap and environmentally inefficient products. In reality, it's those same liberal ideologies that force people into poverty.

Environmentalists are dealing with a legitimate problem in the wrong way. Honestly, though, I sympathize with their methods sometimes. Air quality is terrible. People are dieing of diseases all the time. Some sustainable forestry would be nice. If short-term workers are cost some wages, I'm not sure it's not worth the long-term gains.

[Lynx]

Unsustainable practices have to be opposed and stopped - before it's too late. What other premise is there?

Edit: I'd like to see forestry workers threaten to shut the industry down over environmental issues - but that is just too much to hope for. Making a living and feeding your family always comes first.