EXXON RELIES ON COPS TO UNLAWFULLY BUST UP A PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY

Unlawful Assembly? Exxon Mining? Not in Wisconsin?!?!

On Monday, July 7th, 29 people were unlawfully arrested in Forest County, Wisconsin, while taking part in an Earth First! protest against the proposed Wolf River Exxon/Rio Algom corporation metallic sulfide mine. In Crandon, where the majority of arrests took place, protesters were seized by Sheriff's Department, Crandon Police Department, and other law enforcement officials after just over 20 minutes of chanting, holding signs, and folksinging on the sidewalk - Our supposed crime? "Unlawful Assembly." At Mole Lake, some 20 miles south, a dozen folk were chased down by law enforcement, and in some cases were tackled to the ground - The offense here was supposedly "Criminal Trespass." Another group of protestors from Rhinelander arrived in Crandon only to find many of their friends in jail and the police indiscriminately arresting folks left and right. In all, some five dozen Sheriff's Department, City of Crandon, City of Rhinelander, Forest Service Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs), and other cops were involved in violently suppressing peaceful protests by 120 people in two Wisconsin communities.

Once in police handcuffs, things went from bad to worse. Folks were bused hundreds of miles to five different jails in five different counties; some were placed in solitary confinement; some were denied access to a telephone; some were denied clothing; some on hunger strike were denied water; all of us were denied the right to speak with our attorney. Our bail hearings did not come until Wednesday, two days after the arrests, and bond was set between $350 and $500 for every arrested protestor - Keep in mind that none of us was charged with anything more than a misdemeanor crime. In essence, we were all thrown in jail and abused because of our ecological beliefs - We were, and have been since, political prisoners, held for nothing more than exercising our first amendment rights.

We intend to fight the unlawful and unjust police action against us every step of the way. We are assembling a full legal defense team. We are bringing our case door to door to the people of Wisconsin and other states. We are responding to scores of calls each day from folks wanting to know how they can help. And we need your help:

EF! Needs You

  1. Cash - Legal, transportation, phone, printing, and related costs are mounting. We need money badly. Make checks payable to: "EF! July 7th Support Committee", c/o UW Greens, 731 State Street, Four Lakes Madison, Wisconsin 53703.

  2. Support Committee - We need you to formally sign on to our support committee. To sign on, please send us a letter indicating your formal support, and include any relevant contact information (organizational affiliations, address, phone, email). We will compile a full committee list on a weekly basis. We will update committee members regularily, and will use the committee list publicly to demonstrate community support.

  3. Support Statements - We need you to circulate "Statements of Support" among the general public. These statements are written in petition format and state

    "In defense of the 1st Amendment rights to Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Speech: We, the undersigned residents of Wisconsin, express our support for the 29 people wrongfully arrested on Monday, July 7th, 1997, in Forest County, Wisconsin, while peacefully protesting the proposed Wolf River Exxon/Rio Algom corp. sulfide mine."

    We started circulating these Statements of Support yesterday and already have 400 signatures from Wisconsin. We also have Support Statements ready for folks in other states (MN, IL, NY, etc). Our goal is to have 10,000 signatures on these statements by the end of August. If you can collect support signatures in your area, please call our office immediately and we will get a master copy of the Support Statement to you in the mail ASAP.

  4. Calls - We need you to keep the phones ringing off the hook in Madison and in Forest County. For the time being, there are three targets:

    Demand that all charges be dropped against the July 7th Defendents. Ask them why local enforcement is helping Exxon stamp out local protests.

  5. Letters - We need you to write letters to the editor of local publications. Here's a couple that are just waiting to print your letter:

    And remember, it's only Exxon and the other mining corporations that are our opposition - Whatever you might think of law enforcement officials and their actions, stick to the 1st Amendment and the mining issues, and we'll do well.

  6. July 28th - We need you to keep in mind that our pretrial hearing is coming up July 28th, and that we need this support now. If you are within the immediate region (WI, MN, MI, IL), we need you at our rally in Crandon on the 28th. If you are not within travelling distance, please make sure you make those calls, send those checks, write those letters, and so on, today.

  7. Meetings - The EF! July 7th Support Committee coordinators committee will be meeting twice weekly on Mondays and Wednesday on an ongoing business. To find out when and where the next meeting is, call our office in Madison at 608-262-9036.

Toxic Mining in the Great Lakes: Why You Need Us

The arrests in Crandon and Mole Lake took place following the 1997 Earth First! Round River Rendezvous. The Rendezvous came to Wisconsin amidst growing evidence of mining industry political manipulation. In the course of the last year, substantive evidence has emerged that Exxon and other extraction corporations have succesfully biased the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, influenced the Wisconsin State Legislature, dismantled such environmental watchdogs as the offices of the Public Intervenor and the Secretary of State, and interfered in the local politics of many Wisconsin townships, counties, and Indian communities. Additionally, the Exxon corporation has spent millions of dollars on a public relations blitzkrieg that has included television, print, and radio ads, as well as the formation of three front groups in Wisconsin, the most notorious of which is People for the West, a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of the mining corporations.

Why have Exxon, Rio Algom, RTZ, Kennecott, Inmet, Broken Bill Proprietaries, and other transnational mining corporations invested so much in subverting democracy in Wisconsin? Because, as always, there's a quick buck to be made - In the case of the mining industry, a quick five to ten billion bucks to be made. Mining corporations are crawling all over Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Ontario these days, hoping to extract from the deep rock of the Laurentian Shield, and other related geologic formations, a mineral wealth which for millenia has lain untouched beneath the surface - Copper, gold, uranium, zinc, lead, mercury, arsenic, chromium, and sulfides - Metallic sulfide ores.

The resistance to metallic sulfide mining in Wisconsin has been incredible. Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites have marched, written letters, voted, made telephone calls, signed petitions, and taken part in nonviolent blockades, all to stop the mining corporations from taking over. Wisconsinites are worried that the toxic sulfuric acid wastes produced by the proposed mines will contaminate our clean waters, as every metallic sulfide mine has done up to this point. Folks are worried that the mining process itself, with all the water it uses and expels, will result in a drying up of streams and ponds, and in net transfers of polluted water from one water table to another. People are concerned that secondary air pollution effects from the processing of the mining ore and from the coal burnt to power the mining operations, will further contribute to acid rain and mercury buildup in our pristine lakes. Townspeople fear that the mining industry will undermine our Northwoods economy by creating short term dependency and long term unemployment for local people. Wisconsin native american communities, Anishinabe, Menominee, Oneida, Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, first to feel the potential brunt of the toxic mining pollution, are fighting the transnationals tooth and nail in what many describe as a struggle of resistance against the final genocide: Destruction of traditional lands and waters. Labor unions are exercising their role as the muscles of popular will by passing anti-mining resolutions and organizing rank-and-file in opposition to the corporate takeover.

and what does this mean to folks outside of the Upper Midwest?

Consider that Lake Superior is home to 20% of the world's freshwater reserves. Consider that Wisconsin feeds the world with family-farm-produced dairy, soybeans, cranberries, ginseng, maple sugars, potatoes, grains, and more. Consider the Upper Midwest stands among the places where there is still hope for democracy, for sustainability, for social justice - The populist heritage of prairie fire and the traditional knowledge of First Nations peoples are under attack. If you would like more information on the anti-mining struggle in Wisconsin, please either contact us directly at 608-262-9036, or check out the EarthWINS webpages.

Thanks to you - In Solidarity - Ben Manski

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