Mountain Justice Protest Shuts Down Massey’s Office

Friday, July 8th, 2005 on the International Day of Action Against Climate Change, three activists with Mountain Justice, a grassroots campaign to stop Mountain Top Removal (MTR) coal mining, locked themselves to large papier mache mountains to block the front door to Massey Energy’s headquarters at the corner of 4th and Main in downtown Richmond. Long-time coalfields activist Larry Gibson and several other supporters joined in the blockade, demanding that Massey cancel plans to expand their MTR operations next to the Marsh Fork Elementary School in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia, where several students and teachers have gotten cancer as a result of ongoing exposure to Massey’s coal preparation plant, located 150 feet from the school.

Sue Frankel-Streit, one of the women who locked down, stated, “I wanted to do something in solidarity with all of the people who are protesting the G8 who are not going to allow leaders of the eight most powerful nations to make decisions about their future, and with people of the coalfields who aren’t going to allow Massey Coal to continue to destroy their mountains and culture.”

Several hundred people rallied outside Massey’s building following a rally and march from Monroe Park, where coalfields residents spoke about their experiences living near a blasting zone. Colorful flags, banners and giant puppets filled Franklin street as the crowd chanted “Hands off our mountains!” and other chants.

Massey has come under fire from environmental activists, the United Mine Workers of America and government regulators for their repeated violations of the Clean Water Act. “Just last week we traced another blackwater spill on the Tug Fork River to a Massey coal preparation plant in Pike County, Kentucky,” said Mountain Justice participant Dave Cooper, from Lexington Kentucky. “I’m sick and tired of Massey ruining our beautiful Kentucky mountains and streams.”

Long-time coalfields activist Larry Gibson and several other supporters joined in the blockade.
	Protestors pull large papier mache mountains with lock boxes inside of them--to block the front door to Massey Energy’s headquarters.
The demonstration was part of an international day of action against the root causes of climate change, coordinated with the protests against the G8 in Scotland, Columbia, and around the world.

RAISING THEIR VOICES
(with slide show & audio clips)

Protest targets Massey
300 demonstrators rallied against the coal company's practices in Appalachia

BY GREG EDWARDS AND PAIGE AKIN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS Jul 9, 2005

For a while, it appeared it might not turn out that way. About 20 protesters lay down on Fourth Street in front of Massey Energy Co.'s office with the intention of going to jail. Three of them stayed for two hours on the sidewalk with their arms bound together inside PVC piping to make it difficult to be hauled away.

But arrests for the planned civil disobedience were avoided when Massey sent two security guards to pick up a list of the demonstrators' demands.

Throughout the afternoon, people speaking for the demonstrators called on Massey officials to come to the street and talk over some 300 protesters' grievances concerning company mining practices.

Massey, which mines in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, is one of the nation's largest coal companies. It also is arguably the most controversial in central Appalachia and draws frequent criticism from environmentalists and from the United Mine Workers of America union.

"Blankenship, Blankenship, Blankenship," demonstrators chanted over and over. "Come on out, Don," they said, inviting Massey Chairman and CEO Don Blankenship to join them in the street.

After the Massey guards picked up the list of demands, protest leader Larry Gibson asked the energetic crowd of mostly young people to march back to Monroe Park, where the protest began.

Gibson lives on Cave Ford (thats Kayford!) Mountain, about 34 miles south of Charleston, W.Va. Massey, he said, has taken the mountain near his home down 900 feet. The company is mining around him and underneath him, leaving the place where he and his ancestors have lived for 220 years an island, he said.

Mountain-top removal is a type of strip mining in which the crown is removed to get at the coal bed beneath it. Sometimes hundreds of feet are clipped off.

The mining is a violent process involving dynamite.

Gibson said that the practice sank his well three years ago and that it has not been replaced despite his complaints to state regulators.

"It's very important we bring people's attention to what's happening," Gibson said. Protest is the only means of communication the group has after efforts to cor- respond with Massey failed, he said.

In a statement yesterday, Massey defended its environmental record. The company said it supports environmental stewardship and follows environmental regulations.

Massey said it respects the rights of people to express their concerns but said "a great deal of misinformation" has been spread about its coal-mining complex near an elementary school. That operation, by its Goals Coal Co. subsidiary, was singled out for more specific criticism yesterday.

No one got much work done at the Massey headquarters yesterday, spokeswoman Katharine Kenney said.

Massey workers watched from office windows and occasionally would try to talk with protesters. Some, including one man stationed on the roof, took photos of the crowd.

A police squad equipped with riot gear at Fourth and Franklin, four horse-mounted officers and several other officers in the vicinity were readying to move in on the thinning crowd when the protest was called off about 4.

The march to Massey headquarters began after a noontime rally at Monroe Park, near the Virginia Commonwealth University academic campus. Franklin Street was blocked off from 1 to 2 p.m. while protestors carrying banners and huge "G-8 puppets" marched to the Massey building. A few demonstrators on bikes led the way, circling police cruisers that were trying to direct traffic.

The march turned the corner at Fourth Street and settled in front of the Massey building. There protestors remained, chanting slogans, making speeches, dancing and beating drums until departing with what they considered a victory. By that time, the group had dwindled from 300 to about 100.

About 60 Richmond police officers spent most of the day working the protest. They got some help from Henrico County and VCU police. No arrests were made, and no one was injured.

Several "legal observers," working with the protesters, kept a close eye on the crowd and police, scribbling in tiny notebooks. "We're here to make sure the demonstrators' rights are respected," one observer said.

Staff writer Greg Edwards can be reached at (804) 649-6390 or gedwards@timesdispatch.com Staff writer Paige Akin can be reached at (804) 649-6671 or pakin@timesdispatch.com

Anti-coal protesters take fight to Richmond

Mountain Justice has sustained its campaign against mountaintop removal mining since May.

By Tim Thornton
381-1669
The Roanoke Times
Saturday, July 9, 2005

RICHMOND - Larry Gibson isn't a big man. He stands no more than 5-foot-5. The two hulking men in black suits who met Gibson at Massey Energy's door were easily big enough to fill the doorway and keep Gibson on the sidewalk.

The men accepted a list of demands from the protesters who filled Fourth Street on Friday, but it was clear that no one inside the Massey building was coming out and none of the protesters was going in. More than 250 protesters marched from Monroe Park to the energy company's office Friday afternoon, part of Mountain Justice's campaign against mountaintop removal mining
and other mining practices the group says damage the environment, put people living near the coal operations in danger and ultimately contribute to global warming.

Gibson has been fighting Massey for nearly two decades. His family farm near Dawes, W.Va., is surrounded by strip mines. But much of Friday's protest centered on a Massey operation near Sundial, W.Va.

There the company runs a strip mining operation near Marsh Fork Elementary School. A coal loading silo stands within 200 feet of the school. The state recently approved a second silo nearby.

While protesters say these cause health problems among students and teachers, they are particularly concerned about a dam that holds more than 2 billion gallons of coal sludge less than 400 yards from the school.

"Anything built by man is prone to failure," said Julia Bonds, grandmother of a former Marsh Fork Elementary student. "I think they're rolling the dice with people's lives, is what I think."

Massey officials declined the protesters' chanted invitation to come out on the street and talk. But the company did release a statement before the rally began.

"Massey Energy Company believes that there has been a great deal of misinformation disseminated with respect to current and proposed activities at its Goals preparation plant in West Virginia," the release said. "The Goals impoundment has been inspected by both federal and state regulatory agencies."

The site is run much like any other in the industry, according to the release.

The release also said the company conducts its operations in accordance with legal requirements and is committed "to the preservation of our land, air and water." Massey's statement also said the company respects people's rights to express concerns.

The march began with a rally in Monroe Park. The public address system was powered by Erin McKelvy's Mercedes station wagon. McKelvy, from Blacksburg, runs her car on vegetable oil - used grease she gets from local restaurants.

The crowd included coalfield residents, environmentalists, anarchists and Allen Johnson, who spoke for a recently formed group called Christians for the Mountains.

Johnson, from Frost, W.Va., quoted Genesis and Psalm 24 to tell the crowd that the earth is the Lord's and it is mankind's duty to protect God's creation.

"We believe the Scriptures, the theology, is clear," Johnson said.

Bicycles led the group from Monroe Park. They were followed by bearers of banners, a flag brigade and a band consisting mostly of drums and plastic buckets accompanied by whistles, a harmonica and a kazoo. An accordion was played with the group in the park but didn't make the march.

The protesters marched past the exclusive Commonwealth Club and the venerable Jefferson Hotel, chanting and handing out fliers explaining what they were marching against.

Jim Lytle stepped out of his office to have a cup of tea and to see what all the fuss was about. The protest didn't bother him.

"I think it's one of the avenues that have to be pursued," he said. "I mean, it's entertaining at least."

Tom Priano waited in his black Jaguar convertible as the groups passed.

"Any demonstration is good," he said.

This demonstration stretched long past its allotted time. Protesters drummed, danced, chanted and used a bullhorn to carry their message to the Massey employees at the open windows above the street. Some of the people in those windows photographed the crowd as did a videographer on the building's roof. Some protesters pointed cameras back at the people taking pictures of them.

Almost three hours after leaving Monroe Park, the crowd began its march back. There were no arrests, no violence and no meeting between protesters and Massey officials.

McKelvy, principal organizer of the Virginia portion of Mountain Justice, considered that a success.

The march ended back in Monroe Park, near the base of a statue dedicated to Joseph Bryan. The inscription on the base reads, "The character of the citizen is the strength of the state."

Lexington-Herald Leader
Posted on Sat, Jul. 09, 2005

Coal protesters march at Massey
200 CALL FOR CHANGE IN MINING TECHNIQUES

By Dionne Walker
ASSOCIATED PRESS

RICHMOND, Va. - Hoisting bed sheet flags and paper puppets, about 200 protesters marched to Massey Energy Co.'s headquarters yesterday, calling for a change in how coal is mined.

Led by the Mountain Justice campaign, it marked the latest showdown between the nation's fourth-largest coal mining company and environmentalists.

Mountain Justice is described by its participants as a non-violent campaign that calls for
the abolition of mountaintop removal mining in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

On June 17, about 175 Mountain Justice protesters staged a rally and march in downtown
Lexington. About 10 Kentuckians had been expected to take part in the protest yesterday in Richmond, said Stephanie Blessing, a Mountain Justice participant from Lexington.

At the heart of the conflict is mountaintop-removal mining. The process involves blasting rock and dirt from mountaintops to expose seams of coal underneath. The leftover dirt is then deposited in nearby valleys.

About 75 percent of Massey's coal mines are in West Virginia, said Katharine Kenny, vice president of investor relations. She estimated that 67 percent of U.S. coal is produced through surface mining methods, which she said are cleaner and safer than ever.

But environmentalists blame the techniques for the destruction of more than 1,000 miles of stream beds in West Virginia alone, and they say that noxious fumes from a coal operation are blackening the lungs of children at Marsh Fork Elementary in Sundial, W.Va.

"My grandson went to that school," said Julia Bonds of Coal River, W.Va., after giving a fiery speech against Massey. "I don't want to see babies poisoned."

Others remembered Jeremy Kyle Davidson, a toddler killed last August when a boulder crashed through his bedroom wall in Wise County, Va. The boulder broke free during nighttime construction of a strip mine access road; Massey Energy was not involved.

Jeff Winder, father of three from Nelson County, Va., was touched by the tragedy. He helped organize the protest and sang a song in honor of the boy.

"When I imagined a 600-pound boulder crashing through his bedroom as he slept, I had to do something," he said.

Starting near Virginia Commonwealth University, the protesters clanked, whistled and hooted down Franklin Street. Others fanned out along the sidewalks, distributing fliers on mountaintop removal to onlookers.

"I don't know how I feel one way or another," said Alice Tousignant as she scanned one of the fliers. "I'll definitely read up on it."

Herald-Leader staff writer Art Jester contributed to this article.

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