1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:08,600 Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media, cool people who did cool stuff as 2 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:11,600 Speaker 1: their new jingle. I hope it's not. I hope I 3 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:14,640 Speaker 1: never do it again. I'm your rest, Margaret Kiljoy. This 4 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:17,239 Speaker 1: is part two of a two parter about the fight 5 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:21,360 Speaker 1: against the Mountain Valley pipeline. And as you've probably noticed, 6 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:23,840 Speaker 1: this is a different format than usual. Usually I talked 7 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:27,640 Speaker 1: to a guest, and this time I talked just to 8 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:30,160 Speaker 1: you into the microphone. Do you know what I did 9 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:33,040 Speaker 1: during the break between part one and part two? You 10 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:36,160 Speaker 1: had to wait two days, but I just recorded part 11 00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:38,880 Speaker 1: one and then stopped and went and refilled my water 12 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:41,319 Speaker 1: bottle and looked out the window at my dog that's 13 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: sleeping in the yard in the sun. His little chest 14 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:47,080 Speaker 1: moves up and down. It's very nice, it's very relaxing. 15 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 1: Highly recommend pets good for anxiety. I think there might 16 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: be anxiety sponges, though, because I think that our pets 17 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:59,520 Speaker 1: end up very anxious instead of us. But uh, he 18 00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 1: seems to I don't know. I'm telling you this. This 19 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:05,400 Speaker 1: is part two. I already said all that. Our producers, 20 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: well Sophie and Ian, and our audio engineers Rory Hi Rory, 21 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:14,440 Speaker 1: and our theme music was written for by unwoman, and 22 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:16,840 Speaker 1: we're talking about the fight to stop the Mountain Valley pipeline, 23 00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:20,600 Speaker 1: which well it lost, but we're going to talk about 24 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:24,240 Speaker 1: it that and how in some ways it actually accomplished 25 00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:27,280 Speaker 1: an awful lot because I think that it's cool people 26 00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: who did cool stuff. You probably noticed that. I'm just 27 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: going to go back to my script now. As soon 28 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:36,720 Speaker 1: as the construction started, the pollution started. While people claim 29 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:40,039 Speaker 1: that natural gas is the cleaner alternative to coal, West 30 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:43,880 Speaker 1: Virginia residents post photos of polluted creeks in their own yards. 31 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:48,919 Speaker 1: More CITs started popping up, often on private land. Often 32 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:52,840 Speaker 1: property owners themselves were resisting on their own property. Other 33 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,600 Speaker 1: times property owners were just kind of not telling protesters 34 00:01:56,640 --> 00:02:01,600 Speaker 1: to leave. Cynical accounts will accuse property owners of nimbiism 35 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: or of just fighting for property rights in some individualist way. 36 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:08,560 Speaker 1: But I suspect that for most of these people it 37 00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:11,680 Speaker 1: went way deeper than that. They were fighting for the 38 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:15,040 Speaker 1: little scraps of forest and stream and mountain that they 39 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: were personally caretaking and often had been for generations. Becky 40 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: Crabtree a grandmother, a high school teacher, and later a 41 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:27,919 Speaker 1: twenty twenty two Democratic House of delegates candidate in West 42 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 1: Virginia drove her own seventy one Pinto to block pipeline 43 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:35,840 Speaker 1: trenching on her own property and change herself to her 44 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: car in the summer of twenty eighteen, after she'd been 45 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: working within the system to fight the pipeline for years. 46 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: This is our home was painted across the car. She 47 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:50,800 Speaker 1: told Vice News quote, I can't just teach my students 48 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 1: about climate change and have them fill out a sentence 49 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: about fossil fuel energy and its negative impact. I know 50 00:02:57,560 --> 00:03:01,600 Speaker 1: what the impacts are. I have to live this. The 51 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:05,200 Speaker 1: cop who arrested her she'd taught him in third grade. 52 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:09,960 Speaker 1: This is a fight that is local, national, and international 53 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:14,960 Speaker 1: all at once. By the summer of twenty eighteen, people 54 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:19,280 Speaker 1: started locking themselves directly to construction equipment. If you ever 55 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:22,120 Speaker 1: want to get pedantic about something fun, that's what everyone 56 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 1: does for fun. Right, You come up with a new 57 00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:27,959 Speaker 1: topic to obsessively research every week. That's like normal, Right, 58 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:31,520 Speaker 1: I'm normal. Okay, you can spend your time learning about 59 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 1: lock boxes. Lock Boxes are basically things that you can 60 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:38,680 Speaker 1: lock yourself to in order to do nonviolent direct action. 61 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:44,080 Speaker 1: They make yourself harder to move. Usually, lock boxes are 62 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:46,920 Speaker 1: built around a steel pipe with a little length of 63 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,560 Speaker 1: rebar welded inside. You stick your arms into the pipe 64 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 1: and clip yourself into the rebar with a carabiner that 65 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:57,280 Speaker 1: has chained your wrist. These pipes can be embedded into 66 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: all sorts of things. A barrel full of cement is 67 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:05,040 Speaker 1: a classic example. All the different styles of devices have 68 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: their own cute names, like the black Bear, but there's 69 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: one name that cops have picked up on and use 70 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: as shorthand for every single lock box, probably because it 71 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:27,480 Speaker 1: sounds vaguely menacing, the sleeping dragon. Cops have to know 72 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: that not every lock box is a sleeping dragon. But 73 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 1: I sat in court as cops called every lock box 74 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:38,360 Speaker 1: a sleeping dragon. A sleeping dragon is real cool, though 75 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:41,440 Speaker 1: essentially it's a lock box buried in the ground and 76 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:45,360 Speaker 1: disguised like it's a pipe with rebar embedded into cement 77 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: and then buried into the ground. They're cool because they 78 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: can be built and set up any time, ready to 79 00:04:51,839 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 1: deploy almost undetectable. People absolutely use sleeping dragons as part 80 00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 1: of this fight, but not every damn lock pox is 81 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:05,839 Speaker 1: a sleeping dragon. In twenty eighteen, people started locking themselves 82 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:09,160 Speaker 1: to things Some people even started locking down inside the 83 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:13,160 Speaker 1: boreholes that were waiting for the pipes. Most of these 84 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:16,960 Speaker 1: lockdowns last in the hours, not in the days, but 85 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,919 Speaker 1: they can significantly inflate costs for the pipeline construction company, 86 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:24,599 Speaker 1: and of course by valuable time while people fight in 87 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:28,800 Speaker 1: the courts. There are also dramatic photo ops which I 88 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,560 Speaker 1: actually don't say cynically but earnestly. It's really important that 89 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:36,040 Speaker 1: people realize that grandmas and young hippies and punks are 90 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:40,359 Speaker 1: locking themselves to equipment. It's perfectly legal to set up 91 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:43,000 Speaker 1: a tree sit on your own property, of course, and 92 00:05:43,080 --> 00:05:46,720 Speaker 1: so many people did as much. The state, though, started 93 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:51,839 Speaker 1: serving injunctions against property owners to come on down from there. Basically, 94 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:55,719 Speaker 1: as far as I can tell, none of the actions 95 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:59,680 Speaker 1: were centrally planned and organized, merely that they were coordinated 96 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:03,200 Speaker 1: by disparate groups and people. I would quickly run out 97 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:07,160 Speaker 1: of space, well time space in my document that I'm 98 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:11,040 Speaker 1: writing the script in, but time and reading whatever. I 99 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:15,120 Speaker 1: would quickly run out of space time if I listed 100 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: every organization that had some hand in the campaign to 101 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:21,279 Speaker 1: stop the pipeline, and there are a ton of civil 102 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:25,240 Speaker 1: suits against protesters and organizations that are ongoing, so I 103 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:30,000 Speaker 1: probably wouldn't list these organizations anyway. Peter's Mountain saw the 104 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:33,359 Speaker 1: first flurry of activity, but soon a new site of 105 00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:39,560 Speaker 1: resistance popped up further into Virginia Poor Mountain, the Yellowfinch Sits. 106 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:45,560 Speaker 1: On September nineteenth, twenty eighteen, two sits went up fifty 107 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:48,720 Speaker 1: five and sixty feet in the air, this time still 108 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:52,240 Speaker 1: on a steep chunk of land. One sit was in 109 00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:55,080 Speaker 1: a chestnut oak. The other wasn't a pine until it 110 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:58,479 Speaker 1: too was moved to an oak. These sits were on 111 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:02,400 Speaker 1: private property, blocking the way of the pipeline. The owner 112 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:05,599 Speaker 1: never asked the protesters to leave, nor did the owner 113 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:09,440 Speaker 1: tell them to be there. These sits were supported by 114 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:13,679 Speaker 1: a large, diverse direct action camp on the ground. Most 115 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 1: anyone who was interested could come out simply by filling 116 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:20,600 Speaker 1: out an intake form. One of the major advantages of 117 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:24,480 Speaker 1: nonviolent direct action is that it's a sort of above 118 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:29,440 Speaker 1: ground criminality. One of the disadvantages of nonviolent direct action 119 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 1: is that at least three times in this script, I've 120 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:36,680 Speaker 1: accidentally written it as nonviolent direction action, where I just 121 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:39,920 Speaker 1: took the word direct and action and stuck them together. 122 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:42,560 Speaker 1: But you didn't need to know that. I didn't need 123 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:46,800 Speaker 1: to tell you that the supporters of the tree set 124 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:49,400 Speaker 1: not of my bad spelling. The supporters of the tree 125 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: st camping on private land weren't committing a crime. But 126 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:56,320 Speaker 1: many of the people involved in the direct action were 127 00:07:56,360 --> 00:08:00,360 Speaker 1: convicted of various offenses throughout the years. Yet, while the 128 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:03,360 Speaker 1: camps and movements had to maintain some level of security 129 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: and develop a security culture, they were still able to 130 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:09,040 Speaker 1: be open enough to bring new people into the movement. 131 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:11,400 Speaker 1: And that's like something I'll go on about all the time, 132 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:13,360 Speaker 1: is that we need to get better at bringing people 133 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:18,200 Speaker 1: into the movement. And I think that this above ground criminality, 134 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:21,120 Speaker 1: non violent direct action, it's a very effective way of 135 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:24,680 Speaker 1: doing it. This is one of the biggest advantages of 136 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:28,440 Speaker 1: this style of campaign. It's radical enough to genuinely threaten 137 00:08:28,480 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 1: the powers that be, yet approachable enough to build a 138 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:34,320 Speaker 1: large movement and help people begin to learn that they 139 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:39,080 Speaker 1: too can challenge power. There's no roster of how many 140 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:43,000 Speaker 1: people supported this movement because there was never any central organization. 141 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:46,720 Speaker 1: All I can say for anything like certain is that 142 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:49,440 Speaker 1: somewhere around one hundred and twenty five people were arrested 143 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:54,440 Speaker 1: in total, Over the course of the campaign, Soon the state, 144 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 1: getting desperate, started throwing terrorism charges around. The first tear 145 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:03,280 Speaker 1: charges were against people who locked themselves to an MVP 146 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:07,400 Speaker 1: helicopter while it was on the ground. The helicopter was 147 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:10,680 Speaker 1: being used to buzz and harass the sits, so people 148 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:15,160 Speaker 1: locked themselves to it. After those people caught terrorism charges. 149 00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:18,640 Speaker 1: Less than a week later, other supporters locked themselves to 150 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:22,280 Speaker 1: a welding sled. This is a welding sled as a 151 00:09:22,280 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: construction device without its own locomotion. It's like dragged around 152 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 1: by another vehicle. People kept getting this bogus joy riding 153 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,720 Speaker 1: felony charge for being attached to vehicles. So in this 154 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,000 Speaker 1: case because somehow it's like misappropriating the vehicle whatever. Anyway, 155 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:40,600 Speaker 1: it's bullshit. So in this case they attached to a 156 00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:44,439 Speaker 1: non vehicle, the welding sled with a banner that read 157 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:49,560 Speaker 1: MVP are the real terrorists. The people who locked themselves 158 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:55,160 Speaker 1: to a welding sled got terrorism charges too. The terrorism 159 00:09:55,240 --> 00:09:59,480 Speaker 1: charges didn't stick overall. The state didn't really get too 160 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:02,240 Speaker 1: many heavy charges to stick to anyone in this campaign, 161 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:07,480 Speaker 1: but they didn't expect their charges to stick. As best 162 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:10,920 Speaker 1: as I can tell, they overcharged protesters on purpose for 163 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:14,560 Speaker 1: a bunch of reasons. First, as I talked about in 164 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:17,760 Speaker 1: the court episode on it could Happen here, it seems 165 00:10:17,760 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 1: as though MVP's main tactic was to try to drag 166 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:24,040 Speaker 1: out court as long as possible to keep activists tied 167 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:28,280 Speaker 1: up with legal shit so they couldn't return to the woods. Second, 168 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:33,480 Speaker 1: they wanted to intimidate people, and third, by overcharging with 169 00:10:33,559 --> 00:10:38,040 Speaker 1: ridiculous felonies like kidnapping and joy riding, it becomes much 170 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:41,800 Speaker 1: easier to get people to plead a lesser charges. Yet, 171 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:45,000 Speaker 1: no one on the entire campaign, with over one hundred arrests, 172 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:48,840 Speaker 1: was ever found guilty of or pleaded guilty to a 173 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:53,800 Speaker 1: felony charge. It helped that the prosecution was often remarkably 174 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:58,959 Speaker 1: and humorously incompetent. In the summer of twenty nineteen, someone 175 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,560 Speaker 1: locked themselves to a sleeping dragon, an actual sleeping dragon, 176 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:06,160 Speaker 1: a lock box embedded into the ground. So there's a 177 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:08,520 Speaker 1: bunch of charges in Virginia that are really similar to 178 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:13,920 Speaker 1: each other, like obstruction of free passage and then trespass. 179 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:17,560 Speaker 1: The first obstruction of free passage is basically an anti 180 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:21,080 Speaker 1: picketing charge about blockading a business. The latter is for 181 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:26,040 Speaker 1: trespassing on private land. One activist was charged with obstruction 182 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:29,640 Speaker 1: of free passage. The prosecution filed to have it changed 183 00:11:29,679 --> 00:11:33,560 Speaker 1: to trespass, but the judge never ruled on that change. 184 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:37,560 Speaker 1: So the prosecution spent the entire trial building a case 185 00:11:37,679 --> 00:11:41,400 Speaker 1: for a charge that the defendant wasn't being charged with. 186 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:44,840 Speaker 1: And so the defense just kind of like tried not 187 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:46,719 Speaker 1: to laugh the whole time. They just like tried to 188 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:49,200 Speaker 1: keep a straight face while they watched this whole case 189 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:52,800 Speaker 1: be built for the wrong charge. And in the closing arguments, 190 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:56,600 Speaker 1: the defense were like, well, good job proving the charge 191 00:11:56,600 --> 00:12:01,400 Speaker 1: that this wasn't about, and the defendant was acquitted. But 192 00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:05,000 Speaker 1: if you want to be acquitted, you should consider one 193 00:12:05,040 --> 00:12:11,160 Speaker 1: of our most important sponsors. Hi, Margaret Kiljoy. Here, boy, 194 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:13,959 Speaker 1: the world sure is a mess right now. Huh. Seems 195 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:15,760 Speaker 1: like every day there are more and more reasons to 196 00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 1: get out into the streets and protest. That's why when 197 00:12:18,679 --> 00:12:22,040 Speaker 1: I get arrested, there's only one strategy. I trust, I 198 00:12:22,120 --> 00:12:24,960 Speaker 1: shut the fuck up. I say, I would like to 199 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:27,080 Speaker 1: remain silent, I would like to talk to my lawyer, 200 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:29,960 Speaker 1: and then I shut the fuck up. In the United States, 201 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:33,439 Speaker 1: of America. It's constitutionally protected and recommended by the National 202 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:39,680 Speaker 1: Lawyer's Guild. That's shut thch f u c k up. 203 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:47,199 Speaker 1: Once again, that's shut thch e f uck up. Because 204 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:49,720 Speaker 1: you can't talk yourself out of custody, but you can 205 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:51,319 Speaker 1: talk yourself into a conviction. 206 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:55,200 Speaker 2: Providing identification to law enforcement required in some states and situations, 207 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:58,200 Speaker 2: giving them an address expedient in most circumstances. Never discuss 208 00:12:58,200 --> 00:13:00,320 Speaker 2: the events leading to arrest with anyone except your lawyer, doctor, 209 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:03,040 Speaker 2: or therapist. Hosting pictures of protests and actions on social 210 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:05,720 Speaker 2: media may lead to complications. If you have already talked 211 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,319 Speaker 2: to cops or experienced confusion about talking to cops, call 212 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:10,520 Speaker 2: your attorney immediately, as these may be signs of more 213 00:13:10,559 --> 00:13:13,080 Speaker 2: serious legal problems. The concept of not talking to cops 214 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:14,760 Speaker 2: does not provide legal advice in the foregoing statements are 215 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:17,280 Speaker 2: for informational purposes only. If you have specific legal questions, 216 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:25,840 Speaker 2: consult an attorney, and we're back. 217 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:30,360 Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, as the fight raged in the Woods, 218 00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:34,320 Speaker 1: the Fourth District Court issued a stop work order to MVP. 219 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:38,000 Speaker 1: This court, the United States Court of Appeals for the 220 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:41,960 Speaker 1: Fourth District, is basically the Federal Appeals Court for much 221 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,280 Speaker 1: of the middle of the East Coast from DC down 222 00:13:44,320 --> 00:13:48,520 Speaker 1: to North Carolina, including West Virginia and Virginia, so work 223 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:53,080 Speaker 1: was stopped for a while. Throughout twenty twenty, not much 224 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:57,000 Speaker 1: work was done building the pipeline. COVID lockdowns and revoked 225 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:01,560 Speaker 1: permits kept the destruction paused. By March twenty twenty one, 226 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:04,640 Speaker 1: MVP got some of its permits back and tried to build, 227 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:07,760 Speaker 1: but famously they only managed to build eight miles of 228 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:11,920 Speaker 1: pipeline in all of twenty twenty one. By October they 229 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:15,800 Speaker 1: stopped for the winter. In twenty twenty one, the pipeline's 230 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,080 Speaker 1: water crossing permits were revoked as well, and the pipeline 231 00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:22,200 Speaker 1: crosses perhaps thousands of creeks and rivers, so this was 232 00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:25,320 Speaker 1: a pretty big deal. At the end of twenty twenty, 233 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:28,200 Speaker 1: the Yellowfinch Tree sits were served with an injunction and 234 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:32,480 Speaker 1: told they had to come down. They didn't. In late 235 00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:35,960 Speaker 1: March twenty twenty one, the two sitters, Ren an Acre 236 00:14:36,520 --> 00:14:41,640 Speaker 1: were evicted by Cranes. One of the sitters, Wren, describing 237 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:46,080 Speaker 1: their experience, said, after months of hanging out with just 238 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:48,880 Speaker 1: Acre and playing guitar and magic the gathering all day, 239 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:51,600 Speaker 1: with occasional visits from cops yelling up at us and 240 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:55,560 Speaker 1: stapling things on trees, or from pipeline survey crews. I 241 00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:58,560 Speaker 1: woke up one morning to about fifty cops in pipeline 242 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:01,400 Speaker 1: security forming a perimeter around the tree sits, mostly on 243 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:04,880 Speaker 1: the road below. They spent the first couple hours yelling 244 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 1: lies to us on a bullhorn about letting us go 245 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:10,960 Speaker 1: home that night and reducing our charges, etc. While they 246 00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:14,320 Speaker 1: brought in machinery to widen Yellowfinch Lane so that they 247 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:17,320 Speaker 1: could get a crane down it. They closed off the 248 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:21,280 Speaker 1: area to press, local supporters, etc. Allowing only people with 249 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:25,920 Speaker 1: addresses on the closed off streets through. By about midday, 250 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,120 Speaker 1: they had gotten a crane down Yellowfinch Lane, a one 251 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:32,720 Speaker 1: way dirt road, and started setting up to stabilize it 252 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:36,680 Speaker 1: and get cops on the little basket platform thing. They 253 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:39,000 Speaker 1: had to bring chainsaws up to clear their way through 254 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:41,080 Speaker 1: the canopy to get to the tree sits from the 255 00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:45,040 Speaker 1: road and their crane. Once they got to me, my tree, 256 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:47,560 Speaker 1: a chestnut oak, was closer to the road than acres. 257 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:51,320 Speaker 1: They found me locked to the tree. After trying pain 258 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:54,800 Speaker 1: compliance techniques, they thought I was grabbing something inside the 259 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 1: lock box rather than being clipped in. They had to 260 00:15:57,920 --> 00:15:59,840 Speaker 1: go back down in their crane and get an angle 261 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:03,400 Speaker 1: grinder and generator to power the ankle grinder with and 262 00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:06,760 Speaker 1: put it in their crane basket thing. I attached myself 263 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:09,360 Speaker 1: to every possible point of safety that I could while 264 00:16:09,400 --> 00:16:11,680 Speaker 1: they were away, since they were going to be using 265 00:16:11,720 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 1: an angle grinder near the ropes that kept me alive. 266 00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: It took them a while to grind through the lock 267 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,240 Speaker 1: box and unclip me, and then I went limp and 268 00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:23,200 Speaker 1: they had to carry me into the crane basket. By 269 00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:25,800 Speaker 1: the time I was down on the ground, almost twelve 270 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:28,880 Speaker 1: hours had passed, and it had also started to drizzle 271 00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:32,200 Speaker 1: rain the way it does in Appalachia temperate rainforest. And 272 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: all that. They carried me into the jail van by 273 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:37,600 Speaker 1: my wrists and ankles and took me away to the 274 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:41,120 Speaker 1: county jail. They came back for Acre the next day, 275 00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:43,920 Speaker 1: while I was denied bond at my arraignment and carted 276 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:48,640 Speaker 1: off to the regional jail. Ren and Acre, the two 277 00:16:48,680 --> 00:16:51,800 Speaker 1: sitters served the longest sentences of the campaign, with a 278 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:55,400 Speaker 1: judge deciding that in the interest of fairness, the sitters 279 00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:57,720 Speaker 1: would serve one day in jail for every day it 280 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:00,480 Speaker 1: could be proven they were in the trees, and they 281 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:03,440 Speaker 1: proved they were in the trees based on social media posts. 282 00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:07,800 Speaker 1: One sitter got around three months, the other around four months. 283 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:13,560 Speaker 1: Wren said about their time in the tree, quote, the 284 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:16,080 Speaker 1: part that I loved the most about Yellowfinch was the 285 00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:19,040 Speaker 1: ground support camp. It was what I first fell in 286 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:21,120 Speaker 1: love with when I arrived there for the first time, 287 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:23,760 Speaker 1: and that love was what inspired me to stay in 288 00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:26,560 Speaker 1: the tree through the winter. Once the ground Support Camp 289 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:30,439 Speaker 1: was evicted by injunction, of course I got frustrated with 290 00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:32,280 Speaker 1: it and with some of the people who lived there 291 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:35,040 Speaker 1: at times. But I loved that place because we got 292 00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:37,040 Speaker 1: to build it to be a better version of the 293 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:41,000 Speaker 1: world we live in now. Not perfect, but better than 294 00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:44,720 Speaker 1: what we've got. And most importantly, ours was a rotating 295 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:48,480 Speaker 1: community of almost entirely queer people. The vibes of the 296 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:51,680 Speaker 1: camp fluctuated as members came and went, but we all 297 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:53,800 Speaker 1: got to do whatever we felt like doing all day, 298 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:57,400 Speaker 1: and somehow that came together into everything getting done mostly 299 00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:01,160 Speaker 1: and us taking care of each other. My favorite part 300 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:03,600 Speaker 1: of the day was always in the evening, when We 301 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:05,919 Speaker 1: would all gather round the fire for dinner and to 302 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:08,520 Speaker 1: play music and talk about books. We were all passing 303 00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:10,840 Speaker 1: around to each other and what we had done that 304 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:14,119 Speaker 1: day or wanted to do the next day, or political 305 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:18,800 Speaker 1: theory or dreams literal and metaphorical. The other thing I 306 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:21,880 Speaker 1: loved about that place was the spirit of mutual aid 307 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:24,800 Speaker 1: that ran through it. Local people would bring us food 308 00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:27,200 Speaker 1: and other supplies and hang out for a few hours, 309 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:31,520 Speaker 1: telling us their stories. It was a place for building connections, 310 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:34,760 Speaker 1: including to the mountains around us, and for taking care 311 00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:38,280 Speaker 1: of each other. There was, at various times a garden, 312 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 1: a trampoline, a shed with all of our books, several 313 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:45,600 Speaker 1: iterations of shudders and compost piles, a drawbridge over the 314 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:49,080 Speaker 1: creek that ran down by the road, a group therapy circle, 315 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:53,760 Speaker 1: and various other hippie projects. We foraged and received gifts, 316 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:56,159 Speaker 1: and the tree sits opened up my mind to the 317 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,919 Speaker 1: way the world could be instead of the way the 318 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:03,639 Speaker 1: world is. And then one more quote from one of 319 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:07,000 Speaker 1: the sitters. On May eighth, twenty twenty one, one of 320 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:12,160 Speaker 1: the sitters wrote the following statement from jail, Hi, everyone, 321 00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:15,280 Speaker 1: you probably just saw my sentence in the paper. I 322 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:18,000 Speaker 1: want folks to know, regardless of how I've been charged, 323 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:22,160 Speaker 1: I stand behind my actions. I'll go day for day, 324 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:25,280 Speaker 1: tree for jail, any day of the week to stop 325 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:29,440 Speaker 1: the damn pipeline. I want people watching who may consider 326 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:33,280 Speaker 1: taking action against injustice to not be dissuaded by the law, 327 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:36,080 Speaker 1: to know the court is only there to protect the 328 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,879 Speaker 1: interests of the wealthy corporate elite, that by jailing people 329 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:42,800 Speaker 1: for protecting the land and water, they show us time 330 00:19:42,840 --> 00:19:45,880 Speaker 1: and time again how the judicial system is a right 331 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:49,240 Speaker 1: hand in colonialism and how it wears the blood of 332 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 1: innocent life left in its wake. Refugees from climate change 333 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:56,960 Speaker 1: are on the rise, Immigrants remain locked in cages, separated 334 00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:59,960 Speaker 1: from their families, dying at our border, and the jail 335 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:02,800 Speaker 1: are packed with people preyed upon by both the state 336 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:06,479 Speaker 1: and the prison industry, exploited for labor and cash and 337 00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:11,040 Speaker 1: tax cuts. Prison is modern slavery and should be abolished. 338 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:15,359 Speaker 1: To those reading this weighing the efficacy of their actions 339 00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:19,080 Speaker 1: planning for the next protest, never forget that you are 340 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:22,119 Speaker 1: standing for what is right. They may have me in 341 00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:24,919 Speaker 1: a concrete box, but the woods and nature is something 342 00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:28,000 Speaker 1: I hold with me always. I can still feel the 343 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,240 Speaker 1: coming bird song and blossoms of late spring like a 344 00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:34,960 Speaker 1: steady pulse. I can feel the soil and running water 345 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,480 Speaker 1: in my blood. To believe this world was given to 346 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:40,720 Speaker 1: us to do what we want to it. To build 347 00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:45,320 Speaker 1: monuments to our own ego is backwards and dangerous. We 348 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:48,040 Speaker 1: are only a small part of this place, and our 349 00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:51,480 Speaker 1: relationship with the land and air and water is critical. 350 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:55,440 Speaker 1: It is a fatal error to alienate and place ourselves 351 00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:59,160 Speaker 1: above all the crawling and swimming and flying and growing things. 352 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:04,159 Speaker 1: Earth comes first. Remember, show the world what you believe 353 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:08,400 Speaker 1: in land for its own autonomy, dirt for dirt's sake, 354 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:18,320 Speaker 1: and me, Margaret, I have to say ads for ads sake. No, no, well, 355 00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:29,920 Speaker 1: here's ads anyway. And we're back after work, slow into 356 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:32,720 Speaker 1: a crawl. In twenty twenty one, there was no work 357 00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,120 Speaker 1: done at all on the pipeline. In twenty twenty two, 358 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:38,879 Speaker 1: it was looking for good reason, like the incredible amount 359 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,480 Speaker 1: of work done by activists was paying off. But the 360 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:45,840 Speaker 1: thing is, while courts and activists and communities wanted to 361 00:21:45,880 --> 00:21:49,520 Speaker 1: stop this pipeline, the federal government and the fossil fuel 362 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:53,280 Speaker 1: industries really wanted it, and they were willing to do 363 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:58,040 Speaker 1: just about anything to make it happen. Before the current administration, 364 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:01,280 Speaker 1: it would be easy to say fossil fuel infrastructure is 365 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:05,240 Speaker 1: not the future of energy, and everybody knows it. A 366 00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:09,199 Speaker 1: number of minority shareholders in the project in MVP started 367 00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:12,679 Speaker 1: quietly distancing themselves from MVP as the years went on. 368 00:22:13,680 --> 00:22:16,520 Speaker 1: To quote the Virginia Mercury in an article from twenty 369 00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:21,080 Speaker 1: twenty three, quote, if there ever was a jackpot for MVP, 370 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:25,679 Speaker 1: it is gone by now. Today demand for methane gas 371 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:28,280 Speaker 1: is cooled in the face of cheap wind and solar, 372 00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:32,199 Speaker 1: while MVP's costs have ballooned to six point six billion 373 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:35,399 Speaker 1: from the initial projection of three point twenty five billion. 374 00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:40,679 Speaker 1: Analysts say MVP's competitive advantage is evaporated and its prospects 375 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:45,199 Speaker 1: for profitability look grim. End quote. The demand for the 376 00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:48,919 Speaker 1: methane gas the pipeline transports, they say, quote has always 377 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:53,720 Speaker 1: been hypothetical. If there's a direct villain in this story, 378 00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:57,480 Speaker 1: it would be former US Senator Joe Manchin, who is 379 00:22:57,520 --> 00:22:59,879 Speaker 1: infamous right now is the guy who called himself a 380 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,240 Speaker 1: Democrat but clearly wasn't a democrat, and like, look, I 381 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:06,560 Speaker 1: have no particular love for the Democratic Party, but Joe Manchin, 382 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:11,119 Speaker 1: who retired this year, simply wasn't one. Even he finally 383 00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:13,960 Speaker 1: acknowledged it formally leaving the party in twenty twenty four. 384 00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:18,040 Speaker 1: He is basically just like a fossil fuels guy, best 385 00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:20,600 Speaker 1: as I can figure. He used his position as a 386 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,960 Speaker 1: swing vote by being registered as a Democrat to force 387 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:26,880 Speaker 1: through legislation that directly prevents life on Earth from being 388 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:30,239 Speaker 1: able to continue into the future. And I hate how 389 00:23:30,320 --> 00:23:34,679 Speaker 1: hyperbolic that sounds, but it's true. Climate change is the 390 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,639 Speaker 1: single biggest issue in the world right now. Because it 391 00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:41,080 Speaker 1: is the issue that sits above every other single issue, 392 00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:44,120 Speaker 1: all life on Earth hangs in the balance, and Joe 393 00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:47,680 Speaker 1: Manson works tirelessly to make sure that the United States 394 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:52,280 Speaker 1: works against life on Earth. In twenty twenty two, he 395 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:55,800 Speaker 1: held climate change legislation hostage until it included large carve 396 00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:59,800 Speaker 1: outs for drilling in fossil fuels. He shot down provisions 397 00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:03,240 Speaker 1: life provide tax credits to people who buy Union made 398 00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:07,360 Speaker 1: electric cars, as far as I was told by activists 399 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:10,560 Speaker 1: on the ground. He also tried unsuccessfully to get the 400 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:15,600 Speaker 1: MVP written directly into that bill. Then, finally, in twenty 401 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:19,720 Speaker 1: twenty three, the Bastard pulled it off. In twenty twenty 402 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,959 Speaker 1: three's Fiscal Responsibility Act, which is about the debt ceiling. 403 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 1: He managed to get in a piece that says, quote, 404 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:31,800 Speaker 1: the Congress hereby finds and declares that the timely completion 405 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:35,480 Speaker 1: of construction and operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline is 406 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:41,119 Speaker 1: required in the national interest to quote West Virginia Metro 407 00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:45,240 Speaker 1: News quote. That section goes on to say that Congress 408 00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:49,760 Speaker 1: ratifies and approves all permits and other approvals required for 409 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:54,320 Speaker 1: construction and initial operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The 410 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: section specifies that the approvals should occur no later than 411 00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:01,000 Speaker 1: twenty one days after the passage of the bill. The 412 00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:03,000 Speaker 1: bill goes on to say that no court would have 413 00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:09,040 Speaker 1: jurisdiction to review the federal regulatory actions end quote. It 414 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:13,800 Speaker 1: was an essence Congress overriding the courts, shifting jurisdiction and 415 00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:17,840 Speaker 1: saying all the regulation and permits just don't matter, because 416 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:21,919 Speaker 1: we want this pipeline, this destructive pipeline clinging to an 417 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:27,359 Speaker 1: outmoded and wildly dangerous technology. At the beginning of these episodes, 418 00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:30,760 Speaker 1: I talked about how the fight against the pipeline it 419 00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:33,600 Speaker 1: was a process of disillusionment for many of the activists 420 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:36,840 Speaker 1: and people in the surrounding communities. But the fact that 421 00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,280 Speaker 1: they had fought the pipeline in the woods and the 422 00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,720 Speaker 1: courts and won. The fact that all that could be 423 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:46,320 Speaker 1: struck away simply by a Congress that says, yeah, but 424 00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:49,520 Speaker 1: we don't actually care, in a bill that wasn't even 425 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:54,960 Speaker 1: about the pipeline was perhaps the ultimate disillusionment. Because the 426 00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:58,560 Speaker 1: Fourth District kept finding the project to be illegal, that 427 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:03,440 Speaker 1: court's jurisdiction was revoked essentially, and the District of Columbia 428 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:07,280 Speaker 1: Court of Appeals was given jurisdiction over the pipeline, even 429 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:09,399 Speaker 1: though the DC Court of Appeals is a court of 430 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:14,639 Speaker 1: appeals wait for it DC. Things that happen in DC, 431 00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:19,960 Speaker 1: where famously the MVP does not run. I talked to 432 00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:23,159 Speaker 1: more on the ground activist than legal activists for this episode. 433 00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:25,560 Speaker 1: It's possible there is more I've yet to learn about 434 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:30,720 Speaker 1: what justification could be given for transferring this jurisdiction. Despite 435 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:35,000 Speaker 1: having its jurisdiction revoked, the Fourth Circuit Court attempted a 436 00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:38,920 Speaker 1: stop work order on the pipeline based on its previous rulings. 437 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,160 Speaker 1: The Supreme Court looked at that from the Fourth Circuit 438 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:46,440 Speaker 1: Court and vacated this stay. Basically, it was like no, 439 00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:50,480 Speaker 1: or you can ignore that, without even giving a justification 440 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,920 Speaker 1: for why they did that. It was a shadow docket, 441 00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:56,880 Speaker 1: which is roughly when the Supreme Court says something about 442 00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:01,040 Speaker 1: injunctions or stays without actually doing the whole like hearings 443 00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:06,320 Speaker 1: and oral arguments and final judgments and you know, judicial process. 444 00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,920 Speaker 1: So why was the MVP built despite only the rich 445 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:13,720 Speaker 1: and powerful wanting it? Well, because the rich and powerful 446 00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:18,320 Speaker 1: wanted it. To hell with democracy. After the highest levels 447 00:27:18,320 --> 00:27:21,560 Speaker 1: of power said fuck you were killing your mountains each shit, 448 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:26,119 Speaker 1: people refused to give up. They wanted it, seems to 449 00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:29,040 Speaker 1: go down fighting. Around fifty of the one hundred and 450 00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:32,240 Speaker 1: twenty five arrests during the campaign were all in the 451 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,440 Speaker 1: last year of the campaign, when it was no longer 452 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,000 Speaker 1: about delaying the pipeline so that the courts could fight 453 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:40,920 Speaker 1: it out, but instead about saying, don't fuck with the earth, 454 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,359 Speaker 1: you fox, we fucking live here. Maybe they wouldn't have 455 00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:47,000 Speaker 1: cussed so much. Maybe they would have who knows. Lots 456 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,399 Speaker 1: of different people were involved. The trials I went to 457 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,320 Speaker 1: were for three different actions that happened after the construction 458 00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:56,880 Speaker 1: resumed in twenty twenty three in twenty twenty four, including 459 00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,840 Speaker 1: two lockdowns on equipment and one person who crawled into 460 00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:02,560 Speaker 1: a length of pipe and remained there for almost two 461 00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:07,200 Speaker 1: days to stop construction. Other times there were a bunch 462 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:11,560 Speaker 1: of mass walk ons, where people would swarm construction sites 463 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:15,560 Speaker 1: and by their presence make work impossible. Sometimes those people 464 00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:18,800 Speaker 1: were arrested. Sometimes they managed to disappear into the woods. 465 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:22,000 Speaker 1: Sometimes the people who've managed to disappear into the woods 466 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:25,800 Speaker 1: were arrested later were followed out of the woods by drones. 467 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:31,639 Speaker 1: The very last action was a tripod at Yellowfinch. A 468 00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:34,440 Speaker 1: twenty foot aluminum tripod was set up in the middle 469 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,840 Speaker 1: of the road in the exact spot where a banner 470 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:41,040 Speaker 1: had read years earlier, Welcome to Yellowfinch. During the sits, 471 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,200 Speaker 1: an activist sat in a hammock up at the top 472 00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:49,200 Speaker 1: of the tripod while supporters rallied around the base. Tripods 473 00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:53,120 Speaker 1: and another non tree st aerial blockades are precarious things, 474 00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:55,840 Speaker 1: and it's important to keep eyes on them at all 475 00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:58,640 Speaker 1: times from the ground to keep the cops from doing 476 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:03,680 Speaker 1: anything outrageously dangers. When the cops came, they issued a 477 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,200 Speaker 1: trespassing order to get the rally to move down the 478 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:08,640 Speaker 1: road like the support people out of sight of what 479 00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:11,720 Speaker 1: they were doing. The cops told the sitter to come down. 480 00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:15,240 Speaker 1: The sitter said, basically, you'll have to come up and 481 00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 1: get me. So the cops brought a contraption. Police documents 482 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:24,200 Speaker 1: called it the Rook, and it was basically an armored 483 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:27,680 Speaker 1: skid steer like a forklift, with a little armored elevator 484 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:30,400 Speaker 1: thing on the front instead of a fork the kind 485 00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:33,400 Speaker 1: of weird military hardware cops are all getting these days. 486 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:37,240 Speaker 1: Cops went up on the Rook and pulled the sitter 487 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:40,880 Speaker 1: into it, taking their cafea and helmet, which were never returned. 488 00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,760 Speaker 1: Thanks to this flurry of action, the activists delayed the 489 00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:48,200 Speaker 1: project successfully for another half a year or so, but 490 00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:52,240 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four, the pipeline was finished and fracked 491 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 1: gas began to move. When I went down for the trials, 492 00:29:57,160 --> 00:29:59,520 Speaker 1: I watched some of the bravest people I've ever met 493 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:01,640 Speaker 1: standing in front of a judge and be told by 494 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:07,080 Speaker 1: a prosecutor that there was paradoxically something wrong with trying 495 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:10,880 Speaker 1: to save the world. After the trial, I asked people 496 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:13,880 Speaker 1: what lessons they learned, and I got some interesting answers. 497 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,240 Speaker 1: One person talked about how important the art from the 498 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:21,320 Speaker 1: movement will remain. Another person told me that you have 499 00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:23,920 Speaker 1: to invite people in, that you have to make it 500 00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:27,000 Speaker 1: easy for people to join. You can't just tell people 501 00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,760 Speaker 1: something is happening. You have to tell them that they're 502 00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:33,440 Speaker 1: welcome to come, that you'll drive them, that you'll sit 503 00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:37,680 Speaker 1: with them, that you'll buddy up with people. I got 504 00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:39,840 Speaker 1: told that you have to extend a little more trust 505 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,400 Speaker 1: to people than you're comfortable with. People implied that having 506 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,440 Speaker 1: an open camp with a simple onboarding process for new 507 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:51,240 Speaker 1: volunteers was a strength of this movement. Activist movements have 508 00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:54,880 Speaker 1: always been infiltrated by the state, and likely always will be. 509 00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:59,120 Speaker 1: Forced Defense movements in particular have a fairly major history 510 00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:01,959 Speaker 1: of infiltration from the eighties and nineties and early aughts. 511 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:05,120 Speaker 1: But as far as I can tell, and I asked around, 512 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:08,440 Speaker 1: no one is aware of any informant coming forward as 513 00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:11,440 Speaker 1: a state's witness in any trial. That doesn't mean there 514 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:14,320 Speaker 1: weren't informants, just that none of them felt it worth 515 00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:18,040 Speaker 1: blowing their own cover. The open movement did not cost 516 00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:22,520 Speaker 1: them any particular jail time or arrest, it seems, and 517 00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:24,800 Speaker 1: I also got told something i'd seen in the messaging 518 00:31:24,840 --> 00:31:29,080 Speaker 1: for the entire campaign on press releases and banners, that 519 00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:32,240 Speaker 1: people knew this campaign was about much more than land rights. 520 00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:36,280 Speaker 1: People knew that it wasn't nimbiism, that many, perhaps most 521 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:40,320 Speaker 1: of the people were fighting against capitalism and colonialism. People 522 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:42,560 Speaker 1: knew that getting this land back into the hands of 523 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:48,520 Speaker 1: indigenous stewardship was essential. Whenever I think about hard fought 524 00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:52,640 Speaker 1: activist campaigns that we quote unquote lost, I think back 525 00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:54,880 Speaker 1: to an essay written by one of my favorite authors, 526 00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:59,480 Speaker 1: the late David Graber. The essay is called The Shock 527 00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:02,560 Speaker 1: of Victory. I first read it when it came out 528 00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:06,479 Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven, and it fundamentally shifted something 529 00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,320 Speaker 1: in me. See. I came up in activism in the 530 00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,960 Speaker 1: alter globalization movement of the late nineties and early two thousands, 531 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,080 Speaker 1: when we tried to stop free trade agreements from stripping 532 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:21,360 Speaker 1: natural resources from developing nations. I got arrested a couple 533 00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:23,479 Speaker 1: of times during all of that, and I got punched 534 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,440 Speaker 1: by more than one cop along the way. I gathered 535 00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:29,280 Speaker 1: up all this experience and all this trauma, and I 536 00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:32,400 Speaker 1: wasn't sure what to do with it because I thought 537 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 1: we'd lost. Then here comes one of the greatest thinkers 538 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,800 Speaker 1: of the twenty first century, and he wrote this essay saying, basically, 539 00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:44,800 Speaker 1: anarchists and activists, we don't know when we've won. He 540 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:48,680 Speaker 1: uses two movements as examples, the anti nuclear movement of 541 00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:51,600 Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties and the alter globalization movement to the 542 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,720 Speaker 1: turn of the millennium. He says that activists often have 543 00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:58,440 Speaker 1: short term, medium term, and long term goals. A short 544 00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:02,040 Speaker 1: term goal might be stop the following nuclear power plant 545 00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 1: from being built. A medium term goal might be end 546 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:09,720 Speaker 1: the expansion of nuclear infrastructure. The long term goal might 547 00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:13,240 Speaker 1: be destroy the state and capitalism and living in egalitarian, 548 00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:18,680 Speaker 1: free society. Time after time, we lose our short term goals. 549 00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:22,440 Speaker 1: When people throw their queer shoulders to the wheel trying 550 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:26,240 Speaker 1: to stop a pipeline like the Mountain Valley, they often fail. 551 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:30,080 Speaker 1: The state just keeps raising the stakes, and raising the stakes, 552 00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:33,040 Speaker 1: and raising the stakes, pulling out all the stops to 553 00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:37,960 Speaker 1: crush the movement. In this case, they caused a constitutional crisis. 554 00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:40,640 Speaker 1: There's no particular reason Congress should have been able to 555 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,280 Speaker 1: overrule the courts and change jurisdiction and ignore all the 556 00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:47,600 Speaker 1: permitting procedures to make this happen. They will do anything 557 00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:52,960 Speaker 1: to win. The state absolutely refuses to lose face. But 558 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,640 Speaker 1: both of the movements that Graber discussed did win their 559 00:33:56,680 --> 00:34:00,440 Speaker 1: medium term goals. Nuclear Power when out of vote after 560 00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:04,400 Speaker 1: fierce opposition, even if the specific instruction of the specific 561 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:08,800 Speaker 1: plants that were opposed went through, and the Global Movement 562 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:12,399 Speaker 1: for Economic Justice did not stop the individual free trade 563 00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:15,919 Speaker 1: agreements that it opposed, but it did end the consensus 564 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:19,279 Speaker 1: that the neoliberal agenda was the best one. It ended 565 00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:23,400 Speaker 1: the proliferation of comparable deals. So we don't win our 566 00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:26,120 Speaker 1: long term goals yet, and we often lose our short 567 00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:28,919 Speaker 1: term goals though. I have been to forests that still 568 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:33,200 Speaker 1: exist because of comparable campaigns. But just by fighting like 569 00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:37,399 Speaker 1: fucking hell, we make the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure 570 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,640 Speaker 1: all the harder. I'm not so sure that the fight 571 00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:44,919 Speaker 1: against MVP lost. I suspect, in fact, it was part 572 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:49,040 Speaker 1: of a larger winning strategy. At the opening of that 573 00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:53,239 Speaker 1: essay by Graver, he says, quote odd though it may 574 00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:57,879 Speaker 1: seem the ruling classes live in fear of us, they 575 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:00,640 Speaker 1: appear to still be haunted by the possible ability that 576 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:04,399 Speaker 1: if average Americans really got wind of what they were 577 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:07,880 Speaker 1: up to, they might all end up hanging from trees. 578 00:35:08,719 --> 00:35:10,960 Speaker 1: I know it seems implausible, but it's hard to come 579 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:13,279 Speaker 1: up with any other explanation for the way that they 580 00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,320 Speaker 1: go into panic mode the moment there is any sign 581 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:23,560 Speaker 1: of mass mobilization and especially mass direct action end quote. 582 00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:27,480 Speaker 1: I think this helps explain that after the last criminal 583 00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:30,880 Speaker 1: trial in February, the people I talked to didn't sound 584 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:36,040 Speaker 1: or seem defeated. They were full of life. I am 585 00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:39,400 Speaker 1: sure that many of them were burned out, exhausted. The 586 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:42,400 Speaker 1: pipeline they'd all risked so much to fight was in operation, 587 00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:46,439 Speaker 1: but I didn't see anyone in despair. I didn't see 588 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:49,080 Speaker 1: a movement that was acting like it had lost, but 589 00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:51,880 Speaker 1: one that was proud, that had learned a lot, that 590 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:56,400 Speaker 1: was ready to inspire the next movement. That's particularly interesting 591 00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,560 Speaker 1: to note right now, because almost everyone I know is 592 00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:02,040 Speaker 1: struggled against despair in the face of the rise of 593 00:36:02,080 --> 00:36:07,080 Speaker 1: fascism and the rising temperatures. Maybe acting with agency, in 594 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,440 Speaker 1: acting in line with our values is the thing that 595 00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:12,880 Speaker 1: can keep us tethered in the storm. We are feeling 596 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:16,120 Speaker 1: the first winds of today, and maybe the way we 597 00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:19,480 Speaker 1: get ourselves tethered like that is to build community together 598 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:23,440 Speaker 1: wherever we are, to stop fighting about bullshit, to de 599 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,920 Speaker 1: escalate our conflicts, and seek mediation for the valid critiques 600 00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:29,919 Speaker 1: that we have of one another. Because, as Jamie Hale 601 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,680 Speaker 1: told me the other day, divide and conquer as a 602 00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:36,280 Speaker 1: tactic as old as time. We can be accepting and loving. 603 00:36:37,719 --> 00:36:40,799 Speaker 1: And that's the end of the episode about this thing. 604 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:44,960 Speaker 1: But there's still ongoing civil litigation basically, like all of 605 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,680 Speaker 1: the money that the company lost it's trying to recoup 606 00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:50,520 Speaker 1: by suing the shit out of everyone, and so all 607 00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:52,279 Speaker 1: of that is still going on. If you want to 608 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:55,840 Speaker 1: support activists and help them defend themselves against this litigation, 609 00:36:56,480 --> 00:36:59,400 Speaker 1: you can join me in donating into the Appalachian Legal 610 00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:02,840 Speaker 1: Defense Fund, which you can find at bit dot l Y. 611 00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:07,760 Speaker 1: That's b I T period l Y slash a p 612 00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:12,239 Speaker 1: P Legal Defense. That's a P P l E G 613 00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:16,959 Speaker 1: A L D E F E N s E. All right, 614 00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:21,279 Speaker 1: and that's the end of this episode. And yeah, I 615 00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:24,960 Speaker 1: have a Kickstarter. I already told you that we'll be 616 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:27,760 Speaker 1: back soon with more cool people who did cool stuff. 617 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:33,839 Speaker 1: Thanks everyone for being you. Let's outlive the Bastards. 618 00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:41,239 Speaker 3: Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is a production of 619 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:44,360 Speaker 3: cool Zone Media. For more podcasts and cool Zone Media, 620 00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:47,799 Speaker 3: visit our website coolzonemedia dot com or check us out 621 00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:51,040 Speaker 3: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 622 00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:52,520 Speaker 1: Get your podcasts.